Chapter 81: There Are Flowers in This World

Rhodes: "Enhancement takes time. Since I’ve taken your order, I won’t accept any others for now."

By saying this, Lily sent them a clear signal: for the time being, weapon enhancements were their exclusive privilege. Furthermore, the higher the equipment Level, the more materials and time it required to upgrade.

Soon, twenty pieces of equipment were delivered. Lily had to provide all the enhancement materials for them herself. Looking at the gear, Lily patted her chest to soothe the sudden sting of loss. She had always operated on a strict ’incoming only’ policy; any investment she made usually guaranteed an exponential return. This was a first.

However, she gazed at the miniature island in her hand and knew the investment was worth it.

The Sky Garden was exceptionally rare, an absolute anomaly even among other special vehicles. After all, no matter how unique other transports were, they still stayed in the ocean. This one floated directly in the air.

Lily temporarily restored the Sky Garden to its original state. A small island capable of floating in midair materialized before her. Since it was only a Level 1 vehicle, it was not particularly large. Its surface area was roughly the same size as Shelly had been back in the beginning, barely big enough for one person to lie down on.

Standing atop the Sky Garden, Lily looked down and noticed traces of disturbed soil. She crouched and dug through the turned dirt with her hands. Soon, she unearthed several chopped potato chunks. The spots where sprouts had emerged were completely withered and dead.

Lily instantly recognized the potato chunks; they had come from her own planting zone. She quickly inspected the surrounding area and discovered signs that someone had tried to plant things here multiple times, only to fail in the end. She had no idea where those people had gotten their seeds, but as of now, they had all lost their vitality and become incapable of germinating. This was definitely no coincidence.

The Sky Garden was absolutely not as simple as she had thought.

With this in mind, Lily went over to her planting zone, used a shovel to dig up a newly sprouted baby cabbage, and transplanted it onto the Sky Garden. The very next moment, the crisp, juicy cabbage began to wither at a visible rate. It eventually degraded into a pile of dead leaves. The Sky Garden had absorbed all of its nutrients.

"No wonder."

Witnessing this, Lily finally understood why Mr. Vaughn had been so willing to sell her the Sky Garden. Despite obviously being a resource-type vehicle, it was actually a massive money pit.

Then there were the upgrade conditions. For the Sky Garden to level up, it needed to be stationed at a high altitude and planted with an abundance of flora, preferably flowers. It upgraded by absorbing Energy from those blooms.

"But right now, there aren’t any flower seeds at all. Would mint work?"

Even though the Earth Spirit Pearl had already merged with Shelly, she still wanted to see if it could alter the soil on the Sky Garden. She merely tested it out by letting the Sky Garden touch the ground. To her surprise, the Earth Spirit Pearl actually began altering the island’s soil, albeit at a terribly slow pace.

While waiting for the Earth Spirit Pearl to modify the Sky Garden, Lily walked over to the beehive.

Ever since she brought the swarm here, she no longer had to waste Crystal Cores on artificial pollination. Furthermore, the unique properties of the hive caused the bees to reproduce rapidly and produce honey at an astonishing rate. The honey was of premium quality, providing her with at least three bottles every single day.

Today, however, she was not here for honey.

"Bee King, are you there?" Lily called out in front of the hive.

Bees constantly buzzed past her. None of them attacked her, but naturally, none paid her any mind either. A moment later, a golden bee, significantly larger than the rest, flew out and hovered in front of her.

"What do you need from me?"

"I want to know, are there flowers in this world?" Lily asked.

Since arriving in this world, Survivors had acquired all sorts of items. They had found grain, vegetables, fruits, and even herbal seeds in abundance. Yet, there was one glaring omission: flower seeds. Originally, she had not cared much about this. After all, flowers offered no practical value beyond aesthetics. For Survivors hovering on the line between life and death every day, flowers were worthless, and planting them was a guaranteed loss.

"Naturally, there are. But it is not the season for them to bloom. Once the scorching weather passes, the flowers will revive."

Hearing the Bee King’s explanation, Lily realized that this made perfect sense. Immediately after, another realization struck her. The current weather was not an anomaly. It was simply a normal season in this world, much like the four seasons back on Azurea.

"Then do you know how long this extreme heat outside will last?" Lily continued.

"I’m not sure. A month, perhaps several. Every year around this time, the ocean creatures become extremely irritable."

Lily pressed on, "Aside from the heat, are there other extreme weather conditions?"

"Yes. Scorching heat, bitter cold, dense fog, torrential rain..."

According to the Bee King, this world was plagued by various disasters at all times. Peaceful days were exceedingly brief. The initial novice protection period they experienced upon arrival was actually a rare stretch of tranquility for this realm.

Lily had assumed that everything they were enduring was orchestrated by the System to test the Survivors. She never expected that the world’s weather was naturally this brutal. The System had merely dropped them here.

A wave of despair washed over her at the thought. It seemed there would be no easy days ahead. However, knowing early was far better than finding out too late. The sooner she knew, the sooner she could prepare.

Having gathered enough information from the Bee King, Lily turned and walked back.

When she returned to where the Sky Garden was stationed, the scene before her left her stunned. A column of water descended from the sky, landing squarely on the Sky Garden that was still undergoing the Earth Spirit Pearl’s modification. Like a giant sponge, the Sky Garden continuously absorbed the water into its core without spilling a single drop.

That was not all. Several thick roots surged from the ground below, piercing deeply into the underside of the Sky Garden. Surges of green Energy flowed up through the roots, injecting directly into the floating island.

The Sky Garden’s physical size did not change much, but Lily knew that a transformation far more profound than mere expansion was taking place within it.