The Little Life of a Big Landlord

Chapter 5 Energy Crisis

"There are so many items! Tree of Life? World Tree? Tree of Wisdom? These three tree species seem like they're from an online game! But the prices are so cheap!"

With a touch of curiosity, Yang Ming clicked on the "Tree of Life Seed" option. The screen immediately changed, displaying an explanation of the Tree of Life with accompanying pictures. Yang Ming read it carefully and finally understood why the Tree of Life Seed only cost 25 gold coins. It turned out that the Tree of Life Seed was a green energy ball. When planting it, it didn't need to be buried in the soil; it simply needed to be attached to a tree. This green energy ball would then transform the attached tree into a sapling of the Tree of Life. However, the time required for this sapling to grow into a mature tree was measured in tens of thousands of years. In an environment rich in spiritual energy, the Tree of Life Seed needed 100,000 years to fully mature. If the growing environment was harsh, the time required would increase exponentially. Furthermore, the function of the Tree of Life was very simple: to purify and modify the environment. However, the ability to modify the environment was only possessed by a mature Tree of Life. Generally, only planets with harsh environments would purchase Tree of Life Seeds. Of course, most people would directly purchase fully mature Trees of Life, but those were much more expensive.

Looking at the description of the Tree of Life, Yang Ming couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. This Tree of Life wasn't as miraculous as the legends suggested; it was just a green plant that could purify the environment.

Yang Ming returned to the menu and clicked on the "World Tree Species" option. The screen then switched to display descriptions and pictures of the world tree species.

The description of the World Tree is similar to that of the Tree of Life. The form of the World Tree is also similar to that of the Tree of Life, both being a mass of green energy. However, the color of the Tree of Life is slightly darker than that of the World Tree. The World Tree also needs to be attached to a large tree, and then the large tree is transformed into a seedling of the World Tree. The time it takes for the seedling to grow into a large tree is much longer than that of the Tree of Life, measured in millions of years. It does not have any harsh requirements on the environment. After the World Tree matures, it will create a spatial gate that can communicate with any planet where a World Tree grows.

"This World Tree does have a bit of a mystical feel to it, but it takes too long to grow..." Yang Ming said, feeling deflated after reading the description of the World Tree species.

Yang Ming returned to the menu and clicked on the "Smart Tree Species" option. The screen then switched to displaying a description and pictures of the Smart Tree Species.

"Cough cough cough..." Unlike the descriptions of the Tree of Life and the Tree of World, this Tree of Wisdom did not have a picture of a seed, but rather a picture of a fruit. When Yang Ming saw the picture of the fruit of wisdom, he almost choked on his own saliva. What kind of fruit of wisdom was this? It was clearly an apple!

"This is the Fruit of Wisdom? Eating it can develop intelligence?" Yang Ming looked at the description of the Fruit of Wisdom in the description of the Tree of Wisdom, his face full of disbelief. He had eaten countless apples since he was a child, but his intelligence hadn't increased at all. Were all the creatures on other planets mentally challenged? Did eating apples have to show its effects?

In the end, Yang Ming decided to get one of each of the three tree species. After all, it wasn't much money, and he wanted to see what they were like.

Yang Ming returned to the menu and clicked on the serial numbers of the three tree species in turn. Finally, at the bottom of the purchase menu, he clicked the "Purchase" button. Next to the "Purchase" button were two other buttons, namely "Satisfied" and "Dissatisfied," which seemed to be a survey of consumers' satisfaction with the products.

Yang Ming had just clicked the "Buy" button, but the three tree seeds he had imagined didn't appear. Instead, a dialog box popped up: "Insufficient energy to support the teleportation function. Please recharge this product as soon as possible." Below that was an "OK" button.

"Damn! If it hadn't reminded me, I would have completely forgotten..." Yang Ming closed the purchase system in frustration and returned to the main interface.

"It seems like solar energy is fine, but I don't know where the 'energy interface' is?" Yang Ming searched carefully on the main interface, but couldn't find where the energy storage was displayed.

"Name, gender, age, identity... crops, spiritual energy concentration, time compression limit..." Yang Ming searched through the personal information form one by one. "Wait, why is there still nothing here for 'crops'?" Yang Ming tried to concentrate his mind on 'crops' and silently recited to open it.

No response?

The screen didn't change at all. Yang Ming then tried clicking the "None" option next to "Plant Crops". Suddenly, the screen went dark and a dialog box popped up: "Your energy is insufficient. The system has selected the most simplified state. If you want to experience the full functionality of this product, please recharge it as soon as possible."

Below is an energy bar, but the energy status displayed on the bar is blank, with only 0.5% remaining. There is also a note: "When the energy is exhausted, the system will automatically shut down, absorb energy from the universe's travels, and it will take 1000 years to restart (during this period it will be in an unclaimed state, and to ensure the system is not damaged, it will absorb energy in the safest mode). Currently, the energy can support the system to operate normally for 30 days."

Next to the energy bar, there is another button: Use a shortcut to display the energy status in the personal information section on the main interface.

Yang Ming quickly nodded in agreement, saying that he would have to check his energy status more often in the future, otherwise he would definitely get scammed.

"30 more days? Otherwise, I'll have to wait 1000 years..." Yang Ming broke out in a cold sweat. If he hadn't opened the purchase option today and knew that his energy was insufficient, he would have been reduced to his original form in 30 days.

Yang Ming quickly exited the farm space. The curtains in the rented room were still drawn, so the room was relatively dark. Yang Ming pulled back the curtains and stretched his hand out the window. Sunlight shone on the ring, and Yang Ming's mind returned to the farm space.

The energy status options on the display screen have changed, but the change is extremely subtle. Only a "charging" label has appeared behind the energy bar, while the energy data remains unchanged.

"No way, at this rate, how long will it take to charge? After 30 days, it still has to be shut down..." Yang Ming was getting anxious. "If all else fails, I'll have to resort to electricity... I don't even know how to absorb it. This damn ring is impossible to take off once it's on. If I get electrocuted, it would be such a waste... Nuclear energy? I don't want my son to become a deformed person..."

Yang Ming was already thinking about where to get electricity. He certainly didn't dare use the AC power at home. Who knew how many kilowatt-hours of electricity it would take to fully charge this broken ring? Just thinking about how it could support the teleportation function in the system, he knew it would require a lot of energy. If it absorbed the electricity little by little, that would be fine. But what if it absorbed it all in an instant, leaving no chance to regret it? Wouldn't he have to pay the electricity bill into his next life?

beep...

Just then, Yang Ming's old cell phone, which was on the bed, rang. It was a text message notification.

Yang Ming opened his phone and scrolled through his text messages. He saw a weather forecast: "Thunderstorms expected throughout S City tonight? July 22, 2010… Wait a minute? The weather's been great today… Of course, a red sky at dawn, a red sky at dusk… Wait, thunderstorms?"

Yang Ming suddenly chuckled. Thunderstorms and lightning—isn't that pure, natural energy? He'd heard it was all-natural, pollution-free, and free…

But once you have an energy source, how to collect that energy becomes another problem. You can't just go looking for a chance to get struck by lightning, can you? What if you accidentally strike someone and kill them? Wouldn't that mean the whole world is doomed?

"What should I do? There's a small hill on the outskirts of the city. Maybe I should install a lightning rod and run an electric wire through it... That hill is bare and it's easy for it to be struck by lightning, but where am I supposed to hide in that bare place?" Yang Ming thought to himself.

Finally, Yang Ming came up with a solution: buy a large plastic bucket, preferably transparent, place it at the foot of the mountain, put a lightning rod on the mountaintop, run a lightning rod down to the ring, connect one end of the lightning rod to the plastic bucket, and let the ring absorb the lightning.

This is already the safest method.

Having made his plans, Yang Ming didn't linger. He quickly put on his clothes and began to prepare. Today, he not only needed to sell vegetables, but also buy a large plastic bucket, an electric wire (the thicker the better), and a lightning rod. Although he could make one himself with a piece of metal, it was obviously not as good as the one he bought in terms of conductivity.

Without hesitation, Yang Ming got dressed and went out. He first ate breakfast at a small restaurant outside, having two fried dough sticks and a bowl of soy milk, which filled his stomach. Then he wandered around a nearby hardware store. After spending the whole morning there, he finally bought all the necessary equipment: a large plastic bucket as tall as a person, made of glass and completely transparent, large enough for an adult to crawl inside without any problem, which cost him a good 500 yuan; about 300 meters of electrical wire, the type hexagonal, which is what most people use. It wasn't that Yang Ming didn't want to buy thicker wire, but his wallet wouldn't allow it. Just these 300 meters of hexagonal wire cost him 3000 yuan, and that was after they gave him a discount and rounded down. The lightning rod didn't cost much, only 150 yuan.

After this round of shopping, Yang Ming's wallet was empty again.

After a quick lunch, Yang Ming borrowed Aunt Zheng's tricycle to go to the market to sell tomatoes. This time, Yang Ming planned to sell more, ideally 3000 kilograms out of the 3280 kilograms in the warehouse, keeping only 280 kilograms for seeds. After all, tonight's events could be life-threatening, and having more money would ensure his parents had some living expenses in case he died.

Loaded with a truckload of tomatoes, Yang Ming returned to the same vegetable market he had visited the day before. After paying the management fee, he found an empty stall. The peak shopping period for vegetables had long passed, but the aroma of Yang Ming's tomatoes was very tempting. The tomatoes sold out in less than half an hour.

And so, Yang Ming made several more trips until it gradually got dark, dark clouds appeared in the sky, and it looked like it was about to rain. Only then did he pack up and go home. He had a good show to watch that night.

What he didn't know was that because the tomatoes he sold were of such high quality and at such a high price, his business was booming, and a "tomato legend" had already spread throughout the market.

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