After thinking it over for a long time, Tang Mo decided to play it safe. She would go up the mountain in the dark tonight to confirm whether the Spiritual Power Mushroom had truly not appeared.
At 9:30 PM, Tang Mo had finished all her training for the day. After running a few laps and doing some stretches, she sat on the nearby steps, took a steamer of soup dumplings out of her Space, and started to eat.
She had bought these from a shop before, and they were still steaming hot when she took them out of her Space, smelling absolutely divine.
Tang Mo practically devoured them one by one, finishing the entire steamer of dumplings in three minutes.
'These dumplings are so good.'
Tang Mo was so overwhelmed with happiness as she ate that her eyes even started to redden. These were tears of joy.
The white wrappers were soft and fluffy, and the savory meat juices inside were delicious. With one bite, her taste buds were flooded with the taste of pure bliss.
'I want another steamer...'
'No, I can't.'
Tang Mo shook her head. Due to the limited size of her Space, she had only stored about twenty steamers of these dumplings. Once they were gone, they were gone for good.
As a frugal girl living in an age of famine, she couldn't bear to part with them.
For the past month, to conserve her supplies, she had mostly been eating things she had stored in her dorm, bought from the school supermarket. She had barely touched the reserves in her Space, only indulging in some of the pre-cooked food stored there when she couldn't stand the cravings anymore, just to get a taste of happiness.
After packing up her things, Tang Mo took out a flashlight and headed up the mountain.
The mushroom was located behind a large boulder in a hidden corner halfway up the mountain. It was impossible to find without moving the rock.
All abnormal treasures grew in such concealed places, making them difficult for people to discover.
In her past life, Tang Mo had been so dizzy from hunger that she wondered if there might be some moss under the rock, which was the only reason she had thought to expend the effort to move it.
Thanks to her increased agility attribute, Tang Mo climbed up without much effort. She found the boulder and moved it aside, but just as she expected, there was nothing underneath.
'Looks like the two-month rumor was true.' Tang Mo, somewhat disappointed, moved the boulder back. She didn't know the exact day the mushroom would appear, so from now on, she would have to come and check every day.
After returning the boulder to its original position, Tang Mo was about to head down the mountain when she suddenly seemed to remember something and turned back to look at the rock.
Because it had been moved twice, there were some obvious scrape marks on the ground near the boulder.
She knew there were two conditions for an abnormal treasure to appear. The first was a place with dense Spiritual Energy, and the mist-shrouded school mountainside was indeed a good spot for that.
The second condition was concealment, a place difficult for people to find.
Both conditions were indispensable.
Looking at the marks on the ground, Tang Mo broke out in a cold sweat.
'I moved this boulder right after I got to the school. Since I moved it, this place isn't considered hidden anymore. Would an abnormal treasure with such high requirements for its appearance still choose to grow here?'
The more Tang Mo thought about it, the more her heart sank. Because she hadn't been careful enough, she was about to lose this abnormal treasure that should have been hers.
'This is an abnormal treasure! That's 5 Spirit Points!'
Her heart ached so badly it felt like it would break. A bitter taste filled her mouth, and the lingering, fragrant flavor of the soup dumplings vanished, leaving only bitterness behind.
After standing there stunned for a moment, Tang Mo still wasn't ready to give up.
'I definitely won't be able to sleep if I go back now. I might as well look around a bit more. What if there's a surprise?'
With this thought in mind, Tang Mo began searching the mountainside.
The night was pitch-black past 10 o'clock. The slightly elevated mountainside was barren of grass and trees, making it feel even more desolate. A cold wind blew against Tang Mo, raising a layer of goosebumps on her skin.
Pulling her jacket tighter with one hand and holding the flashlight with the other, Tang Mo refused to give up and continued to wander around the mountain.
Suddenly, Tang Mo saw a boulder. She stopped and approached it.
If there was one thing the mountain had in abundance, it was rocks.
But this boulder was special—special because it looked identical to the one where Tang Mo had found the abnormal treasure before!
'How could there be such a coincidence in this world?' Tang Mo suppressed her excitement and moved closer to the boulder.
'Should I move it and take a look?'
'But what if I make the same mistake again?'
Tang Mo was torn. Lost in thought, she wasn't paying attention to her footing and stepped on a loose pebble. She stumbled forward, crashing into the boulder and knocking it back slightly.
"Ouch!" Tang Mo rubbed her reddened elbow. Seeing that the boulder had already been moved from its original position, she was no longer conflicted.
'It's already been moved anyway.' She decided to just go for it, sticking the flashlight in her mouth and using both hands to push the boulder forward.
After she had completely moved the boulder aside, Tang Mo finally saw what was behind it.
A fist-sized mushroom stood there like a small umbrella, surrounded by a faint purple glow that was especially clear in the night.
'This is it! No doubt about it!'
Overjoyed, Tang Mo spat out the flashlight, crouched on the ground, and used a small trowel to carefully dig up the Spiritual Power Mushroom.
Tang Mo carefully held the mushroom in her hands, examining it closely. The joy of recovering what she thought was lost made her hands tremble slightly.
She aimed her watch at the mushroom and activated the appraisal function.
A blue light shone on the mushroom in Tang Mo's hand.
[Spiritual Power Mushroom:
Attribute: Provides 5 Spirit Points
Usage: Consume orally]
Tang Mo had only intended to try it out casually, but she discovered that the watch's appraisal function was already usable.
This was only because she was familiar with the watch's various functions. If it had been anyone else, even if the appraisal function was available, they wouldn't have known what it was for before the officials announced its purpose.
The launch of the appraisal function meant that the officials' two-month timeline was just a stalling tactic. In reality, they had known about the existence of abnormal treasures a month into the apocalypse, even before the watches were distributed.
As for why they hadn't announced it to the public sooner?
'Naturally, so they could get a head start and claim them first.'
Understanding this, Tang Mo couldn't help but feel a sense of relief. If she hadn't come to check ahead of time today and hadn't circled the mountainside several times, she really would have missed out on this abnormal treasure.
Extremely satisfied with her performance, Tang Mo carefully stored the abnormal treasure in her Space, picked up the flashlight from the ground, wiped off the dirt, and headed down the mountain.
'As a celebration, I'll reward myself with another steamer of dumplings.'
After returning to her dorm, Tang Mo quickly changed her clothes and washed up. She also took out the mushroom and gave it a rinse before getting into bed and drawing the curtains.
She had never consumed an abnormal treasure in her past life, but that didn't mean she was going in blind.
Sitting cross-legged on her bed in a meditative posture, Tang Mo took the mushroom from her Space again and began to eat it, bite by bite.
The mushroom had a pleasant texture. It was tender when she bit into it, a soft sensation on the tip of her tongue.
It wasn't a large mushroom; Tang Mo finished it in just a few bites. Then, she calmed her mind and carefully focused on the sensations within her body.
Sure enough, Tang Mo discovered that her spiritual power had increased.
The spiritual power existed in what later-generation experts would name the "sea of consciousness."
It appeared as a silver orb of light, and Tang Mo could freely manipulate it to travel through her body, performing functions of strengthening and recovery.
Tang Mo had even heard that Lin Yu, a god-like master ranked fourth on the leaderboards, was an expert who specialized in spiritual power. His spiritual power could even be projected externally as a tangible force for attacks.
Unfortunately, by the time Tang Mo died, her spiritual power had only reached 52. The god-like master's spiritual power was rumored to be over a hundred. The ability to solidify it was far too distant a goal for her.
After consuming the mushroom, Tang Mo clearly felt the silver orb of light grow a little larger and its color become a bit richer.
Although the change wasn't huge, for someone like Tang Mo, who manipulated it to circulate through her body dozens of times a day, the difference was still noticeable.
Tang Mo suppressed her delight and controlled the orb of light to circulate through her body three more times, carefully feeling the difference from before.
'It seems like my fatigue recovers faster now,' Tang Mo concluded.
She checked her attribute values on her watch again.
ID: Tang Mo
Life Value: 13
Strength Value: 12
Agility: 16
Spiritual Power: 37
Space: 0
Overall Strength: 78
Tang Mo was thrilled. 'My efforts weren't in vain! Hard work really does pay off.'
'All that bread, instant noodles, and compressed biscuits I ate finally paid off, too.'
'I definitely deserved that reward of dumplings tonight.'
Closing the watch interface, the exhausted Tang Mo finally lay down and slept peacefully.
She had now completed half of the most important task she had set for herself upon returning to school. A great weight was lifted from her shoulders, and with less pressure on her mind, she quickly drifted off to sleep.
「The next day」
All the remaining students gathered on the athletic field. There weren't many lecturers and professors, so naturally, they wouldn't be participating in the mountain expedition.
"Does it feel like there are fewer people left?" Song Qing said, pushing up his glasses.
"It's because they couldn't stand the hunger. A lot of people couldn't take it and snuck away. Who knows if they even made it out of the school. That girl Xiao Xiao from the dorm next to ours left with her luggage the night before last. She's been out of contact ever since."
Li Lanlan had an outgoing personality and was on good terms with all the girls, so she was a great source of gossip and inside information.
Areas trapped by the mist were areas the government had temporarily abandoned. They usually went online to read the news, so they knew that relief rations were being distributed outside. Although food was still tight out there, it was much better than the one steamed bun per meal they got at school.
Besides, at times like this, many people missed their families even more. Although the authorities ordered everyone not to go near the mist, what if it was harmless?
Hardship always makes people more willing to take a gamble.
Tang Mo glanced around. Besides the roughly 50 school employees, there should have been about 700 students on the field.
But now the numbers were clearly much lower; there looked to be only a little over 500 people.
If you didn't show up for work, you didn't get to eat. Right now, everyone's food supply depended entirely on the school. No one was in the mood to challenge the school and cut off their own rations.