The whole nation is trying to survive on the cable car; I'm choosing one of three options at ea

He walked to the planting platform and squatted down.

The blood ginseng has been growing quietly for several days. Its crimson stems and leaves gleam slightly under the light, its roots grip the soil tightly, and its leaves are slightly unfurled, looking much more vibrant than when it was first planted. Unlike ordinary plants that are merely "alive," it seems to be breathing, sensing its surroundings, and adapting to this small, enclosed space.

Su Mu picked up the mineral water bottle, unscrewed the cap, and poured a small amount of egg liquid into the soil near the roots of the blood ginseng.

The dark golden liquid vanished the moment it touched the soil.

It didn't seep in, it disappeared... It was as if something had actively absorbed it from beneath the soil, swallowed it whole, leaving not even a trace of moisture. The blood ginseng's leaves trembled violently, and then the entire plant seemed to come alive. The stem swayed slightly, and the veins on the leaves began to become clearer, slowly radiating a faint, almost imperceptible golden halo from the vermilion red.

It is absorbing.

Su Mu was astonished to see the golden halos spreading from the leaves to the stem, and from the stem to the roots. It was as if a golden thread was running through its body, carrying the energy of the egg liquid to every corner little by little.

Even more astonishingly, the surface of the blood ginseng... those lines that were originally just dark red... are now showing even brighter golden spots.

Su Mu even had the illusion that the plant was "happy." Its leaves were slightly open and tilted towards him, as if expressing some kind of dependence and satisfaction.

Can you understand me?

The leaves of the blood ginseng trembled again.

Su Mu stared at it for a few seconds, then shook his head. Impossible, it's just a plant.

But he couldn't help but make a mental note of it... This thing has a kind of sentience. At least some kind of rudimentary stress response.

"Since you can eat egg liquid, you should be able to go to a bar too?" Su Mu pondered for a moment and decided to conduct an experiment. He took out a small knife and very carefully cut off a small section from the thinnest root at the very edge of the blood ginseng... about the length of a fingernail, even thinner than the root he had soaked in water last time.

The blood ginseng plant trembled slightly, and a drop of crimson sap seeped from the cut, glowing faintly under the light. Then, above the severed root, a thin membrane began to slowly and almost imperceptibly form, as if the wound was healing.

Su Mu picked up the small piece of root and examined it in his palm. It was dark red with fine lines on the surface, and the sap oozing from the broken end emitted an extremely sweet aroma, more delicate than the smell of egg liquid, but also longer-lasting.

He first took a small cup, poured in some mineral water, put the roots in to soak, and then turned around to start brewing wine.

He has two recipes... a medicinal wine recipe and an egg-based recipe. The medicinal wine recipe requires grains, herbs, and time; the egg-based recipe is simpler, requiring only a base liquor and egg liquid.

Su Mu opened his backpack and took out two bottles of liquor... scavenged from a military base, never used. He poured out half a bottle, mixed in the egg liquid, stirred well, and then sealed it. The system indicated that the medicinal liquor made from the egg liquid would take three hours to complete.

He took out the water from the cup where he had soaked the blood ginseng roots and poured it, roots and all, into the other bottle. It takes an hour to make medicinal wine from blood ginseng. Su Mu placed the two bottles side-by-side in the corner of the cable car and then wrote the time on the bottles with a marker.

"Drink the one infused with blood ginseng one hour later, and the one infused with egg liquid three hours later," he muttered to himself. "Compare them, and then decide what to do with the remaining egg liquid."

He recalled the cup of root-infused water he had just drunk... After drinking it, his body felt slightly warm, as if a gentle fire had been flowing through him for a moment. Although it wasn't enough to cause a qualitative change, he did feel a trace of energy coursing through his veins.

"If I soak the entire blood ginseng in water, it might actually boost my attributes even further." He glanced at the quietly growing plant on the planting table and shook his head. "But eating the whole thing would be too wasteful, since it can still continue to grow."

Su Mu withdrew his gaze, deciding to wait until both bottles of medicinal wine were brewed before deciding on the specific usage of the egg liquid. The priority would definitely be to soak the blood ginseng in the medicinal wine, as it only required an hour.

After finishing these tasks, his gaze swept over the pile of materials stacked in the corner of the cable car.

Eighteen ancient coins lay gleaming in the corner. High-grade nutrients and mutated beast bones were stuffed into the supply box. There were also miscellaneous scales, teeth, venom glands, and some scrap materials he couldn't even name. These things took up a lot of space, but every time he opened the trade channel to sell them, he found that no one would buy them. And he himself had no idea what these materials were used for.

"Taking up space." Su Mu frowned. He was about to repack these things and pack them even tighter when a cold, mechanical voice suddenly echoed throughout the cable car.

Instead of the sporadic system notifications of before, this was a formal, metallic-sounding regional announcement.

[World Announcement: Trading System Update]

The "World Exchange" is now open.

[Currently connected worlds: World Seven, World Sixteen, World Eighteen.]

Su Mu's fingers paused.

These three numbers felt like needles piercing his brain simultaneously... the Seventh World, the Sixteenth World, and the Eighteenth World. Bai Liuxi had said that the organization Great Wind was composed of survivors from these three worlds. In other words, the backend connected to this exchange was Great Wind's sphere of influence.

Bai Liuxi and her group are dead. More than two thousand people, all sacrificed. But their world still exists, the trading platform still exists.

Su Mu suppressed the inexplicable feeling in his heart and continued listening.

[Announcement: Regional merger completed]

[Current number of cables: 100 (Full list: 462, 477, 489, 495, 503, 512, 524, ... 536, 548, 557, 563, 574, 586, 591, 605, 618, 622...1004]]

[Current total population in the region: 24124.]

Su Mu's pupils contracted slightly as he looked at the number.

One hundred cables meant one hundred thousand people. Now, only twenty-four thousand remain, less than a quarter of them have survived.

He walked to the window and looked out. The cables in the distance remained unchanged... The gray steel cables appeared and disappeared in the clouds, with endless carriages stretching before and behind. The red and white iron boxes hung on a line that seemed to have no end, like beads strung on a thread.

"A hundred cables are combined into one, just to bring living people together." Su Mu's gaze fell out the window. "With more people, there's more competition. And with more competition..."

Before he could finish speaking, the third announcement rang out.