A certain American comic book's secondary profession master

Chapter 5 Picking Up

Inside the botanical garden, Li Wei meticulously recorded the descriptions of each plant as shown by the yellow dots on the mini-map.

Groundroot grass, um, this kind of grassland is called Lulan.

Wow, so the Demon Emperor Grass is actually a rose, belonging to the same family and genus as the rose.

Swiftthistle...isn't that aloe vera?

Photinia, oh, this grass is called broom photinia, it's quite pretty, but it doesn't look like the icon in the game at all.

Here's the herb *Dieda grass*. Oh, this is called *Ageratum patulum*, it's quite easy to recognize.

Royal Blood Grass, oh, this is called Prunella vulgaris, it sounds familiar.
This is called *Selaginella tamariscina*, but isn't that the opposite of *Prunella vulgaris*?

Wild steel flower, also known as St. John's wort, is a familiar name.

Plague Flower… They even have this stuff. It’s called… Archer’s Cloakhead Fungus? Also known as Devil’s Finger? Turns out it’s a fungus, quite rare… This isn’t good news.

Tears of Arthas... That's ridiculous too, it's belladonna, right? The fruit looks a bit like a small eggplant, will eating it cause madness?
Khadgar's beard... I'm numb to it. Vetiver, huh? It's pretty ordinary.

Mountain sage...sage, they actually go quite well together.

Wild grapevines... *mi* is quite difficult to pronounce. Oh, this is America, they're speaking English, so it's alright.

Black lotus... Oh, are you sure this isn't a purple lotus? Wait, what is this? Li Wei stared at it, then froze.

Black lotus?

This was the highest-level herb that caused bloodshed in the first version of the game.

Known in reality as the underground orchid, it lives its entire life underground, even flowering underground, which is unique in the plant kingdom. It is an extremely endangered plant species, with fewer than 50 underground orchids left in the wild—because they are hidden underground, they are very difficult to find.

Looking at the unusual plants displayed in the glass case, Li Wei's eyes revealed an intense longing.

There's nothing else to it, I just want it.

Unfortunately, he can only dream about it; at least for that one flower in the botanical garden, he'll probably never get it.

Fortunately, he also obtained the real-world origin of this "black lotus"—Australia.

Looks like I'll be spending a lot of time in Australia from now on.

After all, according to the description, this plant is extremely precious and rare, and it is probably impossible to purchase it through conventional channels. Li Wei will have to find and collect it himself.

As for the fact that this magical plant called the Underground Orchid is buried deep underground and difficult to find, Li Wei is not worried at all. After all, he is a man with a cheat code, and the mini-map will directly mark its location.

Silently memorizing this "black lotus" that looked very much like a purple lotus, Li Wei continued his search in the botanical garden.

And they quickly found the real "purple lotus", a plant in reality called passionflower.

Purple lotus—passionflower…wait, isn't this passion fruit? It's just that alchemy requires flowers, not fruit.

It just feels weird.

However, Li Wei didn't care about any of that. He would just buy some more and try it out slowly. If it didn't work, he would search and compare again.

After strolling around the botanical garden twice, much like any other tourist, and confirming that no new plant indications were found on the mini-map, he finally followed the other visitors out of the venue.

However, after leaving the botanical garden, Li Wei did not rush home, but instead drove towards the seaside.

Today in the botanical garden, he found most of the herbs needed for early-stage alchemy.

However, one very important herb is still missing—thorn algae.

A type of algae herb that only lives in the sea. The herbs I found in the botanical garden today were mostly terrestrial plants; there was no information about aquatic plants—no, no, there was no information about algae.

So, since it was still early, he decided to head to the beach to try his luck.

After all, in the game, thorn algae is a relatively common plant in shallow sea areas.

Correspondingly, based on Li Wei's previous deductions about those "herbs," there should be quite a few of these plants in reality.

In fact, Li Wei's prediction was correct. Driving along the coastline, with the sea breeze blowing, he quickly found the yellow dot representing thorny algae on the small map in his mind, and it was very close to the shore.

Standing on the shore, looking at the "thorny grass" that was no more than ten meters away from the coastline, Li Wei hesitated.

Want to go for a swim?
As Li Wei gazed at the sea in deep thought, an unidentified object drifted slowly with the ocean current to a spot not far from him.

Using the last rays of the setting sun, he could clearly see what had floated in front of him.

Li Wei silently lit a candle for himself...

Should I blame my bad luck, or is it because of the simple and honest nature of New Yorkers?

He was just taking a "stroll" on the beach, how did he end up picking up a corpse?
If it were one of those voluptuous corpses found outside bars or entertainment venues late at night, that would be one thing, but the one I found was a floating corpse.

What should he do now? Looking at the empty surroundings, Li Wei hesitated.

If this were in the country, he would definitely call the police without hesitation.

But right now he's in America, and it's the damn America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

According to the conventions of movies and TV dramas, this situation often indicates trouble.

So, should I just leave by myself?

However, just as Li Wei was holding his phone, hesitating whether to leave or call the police, the "floating corpse" moved.

Li Wei was so startled he almost jumped up, thinking it was a zombie coming back to life.

"Help me..." Just then, a weak whisper came from the "floating corpse".

At this moment, Li Wei also got a clear look at the other person's face.

Holy crap, isn't that Uncle Punishment?
So this world isn't just the Marvel movie universe, but also those TV series?

Although she looked younger than in the series, and appeared somewhat pale and puffy from being soaked in seawater.

But he is indeed the Punisher, Frank Castle, without a doubt.

But how did this killer from Marvel end up in such a miserable state?

Wait a minute, it's only 2003. Frank now shouldn't be the infamous killer he'll become later.

So, I encountered the moment when Uncle Fa had just suffered a terrible misfortune?
Seeing that no one was around, Li Wei gritted his teeth, helped Frank up, and carried him to the passenger seat of his sports car.

Although Uncle Punishment was quite heavy, Li Wei's body was in good shape, young and strong, so it wasn't too difficult for him to carry him.

I found a towel in the car and wiped him down, then wrapped him in my coat to pretend he was asleep, and drove towards my home.

Fortunately, Li Wei's home is in the suburbs, and he lives in a detached house.

So they didn't attract anyone's attention along the way and successfully brought Uncle Fa into their home.

After bringing Uncle Fa home, Li Wei quickly found the bottle of basic healing potion he had made earlier and began to treat the other man's wounds.

Damn, the chapter title has been censored.
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(End of this chapter)