Survival of the Nation: My luck was a tiny bit worse.

"real."

Seeing that he didn't believe her, Ou Yun was about to pick a piece and put it in his mouth—but Chen Hao finally stopped him.

"...So it's mint flavored?"

Chen Hao may have compromised, but he was actually out of options.

Ou Yun hummed in agreement, "It does look a bit like it."

So Chen Hao began to record: "New type of sweet plant...with a cooling sensation..."

He wrote a few lines, then looked up at Ou Yun.

The man was making cuts on the branches of a bush with a short knife, as if preparing to collect more sap.

Chen Hao was taken aback. "Big brother, you're just planning to eat like this?"

"What? Didn't you say it wasn't poisonous?"

"Not being poisonous doesn't mean it can be consumed in large quantities—"

"A little dirt won't make you sick."

"..."

Ou used a knife to make a cut.

Sure enough, clear liquid flowed out in streams, which he quickly caught in the Farmer's Three Fists bottle and threw into his spatial ring.

Seeing that Chen Hao still looked like he wanted to say something but hesitated, Ou Yun waved his hand.

"How can you know if something from a forbidden area is good or not without testing it with your mouth? Besides, haven't you already tested it..."

"What if the test is wrong?"

"If the detection fails, it means your tool is inadequate."

"..." Chen Hao sighed, rubbing his forehead.

Ou Yun had already guessed this would happen when Leng Du said he wanted Chen Hao to come out—

He continued to comfort him, "What haven't I eaten? The mutated wild boar, mutated bear, mutated lion, and even the roasted meat of that Abyss Bone Demon in this forbidden area—which one wasn't first tasted by me?"

But Chen Hao didn't think so: "You'd be sick of eating mutated lion meat—" Carnivorous meat just doesn't taste good, especially from a top predator like this, a mutated one at that. Its meat is just awful.

"That doesn't count."

Europe is in the wrong, yet it is still arrogant.

"Didn't the meat end up being eaten by Nanbei? They ate it with great relish, which means the meat was just misplaced. It was still a very delicious piece of meat, just not for us."

"..."

Chen Hao paused for a moment, then silently added a line to his notebook:

Note: There may be unknown mutations in the older brother's digestive system, which require further observation.

European Express: ...

*

The two continued deeper into the bushes.

The further you go in, the more diverse the vegetation becomes.

Besides the toothpaste-smelling bushes they had just seen, several other plants appeared that the two of them had never seen before.

There is a short herbaceous plant with round leaves covered with fine silvery-white hairs.

Chen Hao observed the leaves with a magnifying glass for a while, and then tested the sap on the leaves with test strips.

I asked my older brother to try it, and he said it tasted like ibuprofen.

"...?"

What does ibuprofen taste like?

Chen Hao was genuinely taken aback—although he couldn't recall it immediately, he still remembered that ibuprofen was a pain reliever.

Just then, he got a cut on his arm, so he picked a few pieces, crushed them, and applied them directly to his skin.

Damn, this stuff actually has an analgesic effect! Chen Hao clearly felt the pain lessen.

Ou Yun immediately exclaimed, "That's great!"

Is this a natural pain reliever?

Chen Hao's eyes seemed to light up with excitement, "If this can be mass-produced, we won't have to tough it out when treating wounds in the future—"

"By the way, can you make painkillers by throwing this stuff into a furnace?"

"Well……"

"Well……"

"Probably not..."

"That seems to be true..."

*

After walking a few steps, another crooked, withered tree appeared ahead.

A crooked vine twined around the tree trunk, bearing clusters of small, thumb-sized red berries that shimmered slightly in the sunlight, looking rather adorable.

Without saying a word, Ou Yun picked one and popped it into his mouth.

Chen Hao, who had just reached out to stop him: ...

Forget it.

"...Brother, how's the taste—"

Before he could finish speaking, he saw Ou Yun's face instantly contort into a grotesque shape.

Chen Hao said "Oh," and added, "It's sour."

"Wait, wait a minute..."

Ou Yun finally understood and slowly came to his senses.

"But the aftertaste seems... to be sweet."

"And after eating it, my mouth felt really refreshed...like after drinking lemon water."

Chen Hao picked a few and tested them with a reagent.

"The fruit acid content is extremely high, but the pH value is not low..."

Upon hearing this, Ou Yun exclaimed, "Isn't this similar to mouthwash?"

Chen Hao thought to himself, "No problem." — Wait a minute, are they out looking for daily necessities?

"We don't have that technology yet... but it could at least be used as a teeth cleaner?"

I'm not going to argue with you anymore.

Ou Yun had already picked more than half a basketful, and even uprooted the entire vine and stuffed it into his spatial ring.

Chen Hao was startled. "Big brother, why are you pulling it up by the roots?"

"Take it back and plant it."

Ou Yun's face beamed with a hearty, harvest-like smile. "Don't we still have some empty space in our experimental field? Let's plant it and let it climb on its own. Then we'll have an endless supply of fruit!"

Anyway, planting a mutant plant is the same as planting one—and this mutant plant sprouted roots and seedlings in half a day, and we still don't know what it is.

This thing is readily available, how great is that!

Chen Hao still looked worried. "But... vines grow incredibly fast. What if we can't control them—"

Ou Yun said that would be even better, "We have more people and more allies, so it'll be divided up quickly."

"..."

Chen Hao thought to himself, "That makes sense. Anyway, that's how we got here the whole way..."

So the two of them wandered around in the bushes for almost two more hours.

This trip was very fruitful.

Besides the sweet shrub, ibuprofen grass, and mouthwash vines, they also discovered an insect-repelling, mugwort-like variant—

"I was wondering why there weren't any mosquitoes."

Chen Hao looked on with a sense of novelty, "There are no mosquitoes in this place with lots of water, grass, and soil. So this is what grows here."

Ou Yun was even happier than him, "Keeping it directly in the toilet makes squatting much more comfortable."

And a broad-leaved plant whose leaves can be used as natural fabrics—

Ou Yun didn't even know what it was, but Chen Hao had sharp eyes and spotted it immediately, muttering to himself: "No wonder it's a forbidden area, there's even this kind of plant! Look what I found, bro! We can make our own clothes now! Although they might not be as nice as what we're wearing now, at least we'll have clothes to wear! Blah blah blah..."

And a deep-rooted grass with a particularly well-developed root system that is suitable for soil stabilization.

All of this made everyone extremely happy.

Chen Hao's notebook was filled with more than a dozen pages of dense writing, and Ou Yun's spatial ring was filled with various specimens—leaves, fruits, roots, seeds, and so on.

Of course, besides these research-related items, there are also those that can be eaten directly or used as seasonings—

"For junglers, the most important thing is to eat. How can you have the energy to fight if you're not well-fed?"

"Big brother is right!"