At this moment, lots of questions filled Jiao Lizhi's head, but she had no way to get the answers. Feeling that it was a waste of time to dwell on matters without solutions, she decided to push the thoughts to the back of her mind.
She opened the space's settings tab and saw that she could enable the auto-harvest, auto-process, and auto-storage functions for the farmland. There was also an irrigation system setting. Since she didn't want to waste the farmland, she set everything to automatic.
At the current level, crops would mature once a month due to the different time flow with the outside world and could be hastened using more energy.
The grain yield would be 5 kilograms per square meter on average, though different crops would have varying yields. The byproducts from processing the grains would be turned into fertilizer and absorbed by the black soil.
As for the processed grains, such as corn kernels, they would be stored in the granary. The granary was a cylindrical silo with a diameter of 30 meters and a height of 50 meters, capable of storing around 31 tons of grain.
After checking the farmland, she examined the house. She was taken aback when she saw the detailed information.
The first floor had expanded to 250 square meters, with the addition of a foyer. The second floor had expanded to 220 square meters, now featuring a balcony.
Aside from the larger space and the new foyer and balcony, everything else remained the same. Her house was still as empty as before.
After inspecting her house, she opened the energy source panel. This time, she was surprised to find that her space could convert the zombie virus into energy and absorb it.
Rubbing her chin, she recalled the black blood and rotten flesh on her dirty clothes. Since those contained zombie viruses, they must have been converted into energy.
No wonder her clothes had holes and food stains left behind but no black blood or rotten flesh of zombies. Reaching this conclusion, everything that had happened before finally made sense.
She continued reading the information and sighed. She had hoped her space could become her energy source and help her level up faster.
Unfortunately, she needed crystal cores to sustain the space instead. Every day, one crystal core was required to cover the energy consumption.
While it wasn't what she had hoped for, it actually made more sense, considering the farmland and pond water contain energy. Therefore, it is normal to obtain more energy from the crystal cores.
If the energy wasn't replenished, the space would eventually run out of energy and might even collapse or shut down.
To expand her space, she needed 100 crystal cores and she had to break through to level two. The upgrade requirements limited how fast her space could progress as it's not easy for her to break through.
After learning more about her space, she checked the crystal cores stored in the drawer of the master bedroom.
With the crystal cores given by Jin Xuyan, she should have 29 level-one transparent cores and one level-three transparent core. As for elemental crystal cores, she only had one level-two metal-type core.
But right now, there are only 28 level-one, one level-three, and one level-two metal-type crystal cores. Based on this, her space must have automatically absorbed a core daily, saving her the hassle of manually recharging the space's energy.
While she was checking her space, the soldiers had finished preparing dinner. They made a pot of sausage and rice, a pot of mushroom soup, and used another pot of water to boil drinking water.
When the food was ready, Zhang Yuan looked at Xiao Qi and said, "Xiao Qi, go call the Captain and the others to eat."
"Okay!"
Xiao Qi went to find their captain and saw him lying on the ground with his eyes closed. Squatting beside him, he said, "Captain, dinner is ready."
The moment he heard this, Jin Xuyan opened his eyes and sat up. Rubbing his eyes, he replied hoarsely, "Mhmm."
"Captain, do you want to call your fiancée, or should I go call her?" Xiao Qi asked.
"I will call her," Jin Xuyan replied.
Xiao Qi nodded and went to gather his brothers for dinner. As for Pei Yijun and his team, they had their own supplies and ate separately.
After a moment, Jin Xuyan stood up and went to find Jiao Lizhi. His body had fully healed after nearly two hours of rest, but the energy consumed to repair himself left him famished.
The area behind the metal wall wasn't large, so he spotted her at a glance. As he walked over, he noticed she was lost in thought, staring at the red moon in a daze.
Squatting beside her, he reached out to hold her hands and asked softly, "Ah Zhi, what are you thinking about?"
Feeling the warmth of his palms covering her hands, Jiao Lizhi's mind returned from her space. She blinked and turned her head.
Seeing Jin Xuyan's gentle gaze, her heart skipped a beat. She cleared her throat and said, "I wasn't thinking about anything."
Hearing this, Jin Xuyan let out a low chuckle before teasing, "So, my Ah Zhi was just daydreaming."
Jiao Lizhi wanted to correct his use of my Ah Zhi, but before she could speak, he added, "Let's go eat. Dinner is ready."
As soon as he said that, her stomach let out a loud growl of protest. Covering her stomach, she smiled in embarrassment.
Jin Xuyan chuckled and pulled her up. With his broad palm covering her delicate wrist, they walked toward the bonfire.
When the soldiers saw them arrive, they glanced at their hands but said nothing. Xiao Qi filled two bowls of rice and two cups of mushroom soup for them.
Handing Jiao Lizhi her portion, he said, "Sister-in-law, here is your food. If it's not enough, you can get more."
"Thank you," Jiao Lizhi replied, accepting the food.