Chapter 58: Gaining Experience Just by Drinking Soup!
Lu Feng was an adult, so he naturally understood what the twin sisters meant. They must have taken him for a lech, thinking they had to sacrifice themselves for each other?
Was he that kind of person?
Watching the sisters eagerly rushing to undo their clothes, Lu Feng immediately said awkwardly, "Stop for a moment, I didn't mean that. I bought you so you could work, not for this."
Hearing these words, Cheng Yaoyao and Cheng Sisi instinctively froze, staring blankly at Lu Feng.
Lu Feng then handed the battery-powered rice cooker technology materials to Cheng Yaoyao. "Take a look at this. You majored in electrical engineering—can you complete the missing parts of this technology?"
Cheng Yaoyao looked at the technical data in utter astonishment and asked instinctively, "Sir, did you buy me really just for this reason?"
She had heard the rumors about why this man was buying her back at the Shidong Alliance. But in the apocalypse, she simply could not believe that was the whole truth. Therefore, she had mentally prepared herself; as long as it kept her younger sister safe, she was willing to let him do whatever he wanted with her.
Yet the current situation left her completely at a loss.
Lu Feng handed the documents over to Cheng Yaoyao and added, "As long as you can completely restore this technology, I will take care of you and your sister from now on."
With that, Lu Feng couldn't help glancing down at the clothes the sisters had unfastened, before instructing, "Put your clothes back on properly, and then study the documents!"
The sisters did indeed have wonderful figures, quite well-endowed. Having their clothes parted like that right in front of him was certainly quite a pleasant view.
He wouldn't deny that he enjoyed admiring such beauty—after all, he wasn't a saint immune to temptation.
However, doing anything more would feel deeply unfair to Yang Qingxue. After all, he truly could not let down such a dedicated girlfriend.
Hearing Lu Feng's words, Cheng Yaoyao and Cheng Sisi hurriedly adjusted their clothes.
When they had braced themselves for the worst moments ago, they hadn't felt much, but now, recalling their own actions, their lovely faces burned with a deep blush.
Eager to distract herself, Cheng Yaoyao quickly grabbed the technical documents. After scanning through a few pages, she eagerly looked up at Lu Feng. "Sir, this is the HRB version of the electromagnetic rice cooker technology. This technology has been out for a long time, and there are several improved versions already. This should be one of them."
Lu Feng nodded. Hearing this, he knew the young woman was a true professional. He pressed on, "Then can you restore it completely?"
Cheng Yaoyao immediately replied, "Give me some time. With these as reference, it shouldn't be too difficult!"
"Alright, I'll leave this in your capable hands then. From now on, this place will be your home," Lu Feng said, turning around to leave the data archive room and heading downstairs.
After Lu Feng departed, Cheng Yaoyao and Cheng Sisi instinctively looked around their surroundings.
The warehouse was very spacious. In the apocalyptic world, this was definitely a wonderful place to live, since not every corner of the outside world was safe.
Cheng Sisi still felt a trace of anxiety. "Sister, did he really only want you to restore those documents?"
Cheng Yaoyao shook her head without answering. Instead, she began studying the technical materials with utmost seriousness. Regardless of anything else, her first priority was to accomplish the task the master had assigned her.
If the other party truly only had this purpose in mind, then she had proven her own worth.
In the apocalypse, the scariest thing was having no utility whatsoever.
And if his intentions were different? What could they possibly do about it anyway? They couldn't do a thing!
Downstairs, when Lu Feng returned to the vault, Lin Jiao and her three companions had already built a fire. Inside a pot of boiling water, they were dropping in the spine bones of a striped ox.
The cooking method was extremely crude.
From Lu Feng's perspective, boiling ox bones in plain water and stewing them with chopped striped ox meat in a single pot would yield a very bland flavor, perhaps even a strange, unappealing taste that was hard to swallow.
For people in the apocalypse, simply filling their stomachs might constitute a grand feast.
After all, they were accustomed to consuming nutrient paste made from cockroaches.
However, as someone accustomed to the culinary delicacies of the real world, Lu Feng found this entirely unacceptable.
Thus, with a single thought, he exited the game, returned to his apartment, and began rumaging through his belongings.
Western ginseng, goji berries, astragalus... He fished out several standard household medicinal herbs commonly used for stews.
In the past, he would often brew and drink such herbal soups himself. Otherwise, his body could never have endured the heavy labor at the factory over long periods.
Besides, boiling a large pot himself cost very little, whereas ordering a decent bowl of stewed soup at a restaurant would cost over twenty yuan for just two tiny pieces of meat—what a rip-off.
Having gathered the herbs, Lu Feng returned to the game with another thought.
Seeing that Lin Jiao and the others had already covered the pot to let it simmer, he stepped forward, lifted the lid once more, and tossed the western ginseng, goji berries, and other herbs right into the broth.
Lin Jiao and the three others instantly had their attention drawn to him.
Naturally, the four of them recognized these herbs; after all, they had all consumed such things before the apocalypse.
Yet after the collapse of civilization, who still bothered with such refinements? Survival itself was a constant struggle, and their most basic demands were merely to fill their bellies and stay alive.
As for gourmet food or simple luxuries, those seemed light-years away from their reality.
Now, their boss had suddenly produced these ingredients, and as the enticing aroma of the brewing soup began to diffuse, the four of them experienced a bizarre sensation.
This feeling of enjoyment seemed to instantly transport them back to the pre-apocalyptic era.
In the real world, stewing beef took about an hour and a half, so the meat of the mutant striped ox in the wasteland naturally required much more time. It was almost completely dark outside by the time the striped ox beef was finally done.
Lin Jiao was the first to lift the pot lid, ladling out a bowl for herself to taste.
That exquisite flavor made her entire face bloom with satisfaction as she murmured, "This is amazing! After the boss added those herbs, the soup has taken on an entirely new level of enjoyment."
As she spoke, she didn't forget to ladle out another bowl and hand it to Lu Feng.
Lu Feng immediately utilized the game's scanning function to check the information regarding this bowl of soup:
[This is a broth brewed from striped ox spine bones. The broth contains the concentrated essence of the striped ox spine bones and has the effect of increasing physical constitution upon consumption!]
Seeing this note, Lu Feng immediately grew intrigued, raised the bowl to his lips, and took a sip.
Even with the medicinal herbs he had added, the broth still retained a slightly strange flavor inherent to the striped ox meat itself, which was difficult to completely eliminate.
Yet the moment he swallowed a large gulp of the soup, he was pleasantly surprised to feel a warm current flowing through his body, immediately followed by a system notification:
[Congratulations! You have gained 20 experience points!]
Because he possessed character attributes, the constitution-boosting effect of the striped ox spine bone essence had clearly been converted into experience points.
Moreover, a single large gulp of this soup was equivalent to killing four zombies.
In other words, if an ordinary person, assuming they were at Level 1, needed 100 experience points to reach Level 2, they would only need to drink five large mouthfuls of the striped ox spine bone broth.
Therefore, this was a genuine pathway for apocalyptic survivors to enhance their physical constitution!
However, for the vast majority of survivors, achieving this was extremely difficult. People with the physical prowess and combat skills of Lin Jiao and her companions were exceedingly rare.
After all, most ordinary people had no way of slaying mutant beasts like the striped ox.
If Lin Jiao's group hadn't possessed laser rifles and external assistance, slaying that striped ox would have proven immensely difficult for them as well.
Otherwise, the four of them wouldn't have been cornered in that department store by four slaughter hounds for so long.
Since eating and drinking could grant experience points, Lu Feng wasn't going to let such an opportunity slip by. He immediately began devouring the food and soup in large mouthfuls.
[Congratulations! You have gained 20 experience points!]
...
[Congratulations! You have gained 20 experience points!]
With every single gulp of soup, that comforting warm current surged through his body.
After finishing an entire bowl, he had racked up a total of 140 experience points.
This yielded more experience than slaying a mutant slaughter hound.
That was simply absurd.
No wonder Lin Jiao and the others had been so excited upon encountering the striped ox.
This striped ox must have been a special monster within the game mechanics; encountering it would likely spark fierce competition among players.
Lu Feng promptly stepped forward, ladled out another bowl, and resumed feasting. A large pot of soup like this would probably allow him to drink his way straight to a level-up.
The notifications popped up once again:
[Congratulations! You have gained 15 experience points!]
...
[Congratulations! You have gained 15 experience points!]
...
[Congratulations! You have gained 13 experience points!]
Clearly, Lu Feng realized he had been overly optimistic in thinking he could drink his way to a level-up indefinitely.
By the second bowl of broth, the effects had visibly weakened, and the warm current generated within his body had noticeably diminished.
He ladled out a third bowl and continued drinking.
[Congratulations! You have gained 9 experience points!]
...
[Congratulations! You have gained 7 experience points!]
...
After continuously drinking six bowls, Lu Feng let out a resounding burp, utterly unable to hold another drop. As the very last swallow went down, he received his final experience notification:
[Congratulations! You have gained 1 experience point!]
Having consumed six bowls in succession, the striped ox spine bone soup had essentially lost its potency for him.
In other words, there was a strict diminishing return; the effects weakened progressively rather than lasting indefinitely.
Lu Feng checked his character's experience stats: 5947/6400.
Along the journey back and forth to the Shidong Alliance, he had slain quite a few zombies, bringing his baseline experience to 5240. These six bowls of broth had boosted his total by over 700 experience points.
If an ordinary person were to consume this much, they could likely leap straight from Level 1 to Level 4. Calculated in terms of stamina, agility, and strength stats, it would easily add around 1.5 points to their overall attributes.
Naturally, ordinary people lacked a digitized status window, so they wouldn't calculate it quite this way.
Even so, the enhancement was undeniably formidable.
This also reminded him of the two remaining blocks of striped ox spine bones resting safely in his inventory backpack. Those materials only needed to be soaked in liquor for three hours, and the results would be even better, bringing immense health benefits to his mother.
He could also take some out to steep in liquor for Yang Qingxue to drink, and even share a portion with his cousin!