40: Chapter 40: All Six Boxes of Vegetables Planted! A Shocking Story Explodes from the Radio.

After all the tests were completed, Lu Chen drove the Polaris back to the previous ice rock bunker location.

The scale of the Polaris was no longer what it used to be, but until the radioactive isotope markers were removed, keeping a low profile remained the primary rule.

He parked the vehicle steadily and set the engine to idle.

Under the management of the steam hub, the boiler operated at extremely low energy consumption.

The hot water circulating in the heating pipes spread a constant temperature of twenty degrees evenly to every corner of the hundred-plus square meter space.

Lu Chen stood up from the driver's seat and stretched.

The continuous upgrades and tests had drained a lot of his energy.

However, the satisfaction of maxing out the system actually made his mental state much better.

Lu Chen walked to the living quarters in the middle section and glanced at the two newly generated metal-framed bunks.

The upper bunk was high enough from the ceiling that it wouldn't feel cramped.

The lower bunk was wide enough for an adult male to lie on his side.

The bed surface was a metal mesh covered with a thin layer of insulation padding.

It couldn't be called comfortable, but in the wasteland, it was already considered luxury.

"The top bunk is mine, you sleep on the bottom," Lu Chen said to Lin Wan without turning his head.

"Alright, City Lord," Lin Wan's voice came from the starboard planting area.

Lu Chen walked over; the planting area had been completely refreshed.

The six Simple Soilless Cultivation Boxes had been rearranged by Lin Wan according to some logic only she understood.

Winter wheat seeds had already been planted in the two boxes on the left.

She had used her fingers to carve neat sowing furrows into the nutrient substrate, with the spacing of each furrow being identical.

The two boxes in the middle were planted with sweet potato and carrot seeds, respectively.

She had used tweezers to steadily cut the seed potatoes into small pieces with bud points and buried them evenly in the substrate.

In one box on the right were the roots of the original second-crop cabbage, which were sprouting new leaves.

She had left the last box empty.

"What do you plan to plant in that box?" Lu Chen pointed at the empty box.

"City Lord, I want to save it for potatoes." Lin Wan squatted in front of the cultivation box, her hands covered in the grayish-brown powder of the nutrient substrate.

"Potatoes have the highest yield and provide the most calories of all crops."

She brushed the powder off her hands and looked up.

"Under the right conditions, one seed potato can produce five to eight times its weight in fruit. Once all six boxes are operational, the food produced each month will be enough for both of us to eat until we're stuffed."

"Give me specific numbers." Lu Chen leaned against the partition wall, crossing his arms.

"Two boxes of winter wheat, calculated at one harvest every 40 days, can yield half a catty of flour per harvest. One box of sweet potatoes, one harvest every 60 days, yields three to four catties. One box of carrots, one harvest every 45 days, yields just over two catties."

Lin Wan counted on her fingers, her calculations getting faster.

"One box of potatoes, one harvest every 55 days, yields four to five catties. One box of cabbage, one harvest every 72 hours."

She stopped her movements and gave a definitive answer.

"In other words, in two months, our food source will no longer rely entirely on hunting. Between the output of the planting area and the stored meat in the cold storage, eating for a year won't be a problem at all."

"A year," Lu Chen repeated the word.

When he first transmigrated, he was still worrying about his next meal; a time unit like a year was practically a fairy tale.

Now, his Botanist was telling him personally that they could eat peacefully for an entire year in this mobile fortress.

"But City Lord, I have a request." Lin Wan looked up at him, her gaze timid, hiding a hint of expectation.

"Speak."

"I want to wait until the Constant Temperature Hydroponic Botanical Garden is unlocked before planting those three watermelon seeds and five strawberry seeds from the grade a seed vault."

Her fingers rubbed the mud-stained tweezers.

"The temperature control precision of the simple cultivation boxes isn't high enough. These seeds are too precious; if something goes wrong..."

"Agreed." Lu Chen nodded without hesitation.

"Save them until the best equipment is unlocked. You know better than I do how to handle them."

Lin Wan nodded vigorously and turned back to continue tinkering with her cultivation boxes.

Lu Chen stood in the planting area for a while, watching the greenery growing quietly under the UV lights.

Then he turned and walked back to the cockpit, sat down, poured a glass of warm water, and drank it slowly.

The cabin was very quiet.

The low hum of the boiler was constant; listening to it for a long time was actually reassuring.

The sound of hot water flowing in the heating pipes was faint yet warm.

Occasionally, he could hear Lin Wan in the planting area whispering technical terms like sowing density.

This was a rare moment of peace.

In this dog-eat-dog wasteland, amidst the countdown of the radiation markers, and under the shadow of the Snow Shard Gang.

A man and a woman, in an upgraded iron box.

One was studying how to kill things more efficiently.

The other was studying how to grow things more efficiently.

Lu Chen finished his water and put the aluminum cup back in its place.

He cast his gaze toward the old military hand-cranked radio on the right side of the dashboard.

This radio had been sitting there all along.

Since it was turned off during the Extreme Cold Ice Storm, it had never been turned on again.

Lu Chen reached out and twisted the power knob.

Crackling static from the radio waves echoed in the cabin.

He adjusted the frequency, skipping over the blanks and noise.

Most channels received nothing.

After the ice storm, there weren't many entities left on the Pale Shoals that could still transmit radio signals.

Lu Chen slowly turned the knob.

On a certain frequency, a clear but intermittent human voice came through.

"...Repeating, Black Rock City-State Public Affairs, officially announcing..."

Lu Chen's fingers stopped.

Black Rock City-State.

A city-state-level large Mobile City; according to the original owner's memories, its influence was primarily in the Rustwind Wasteland, but it also had a presence in the Pale Shoals.

The place where Lin Wan used to live.