Chapter 92: Bounty Card

Dolly quickly pointed back in the direction she’d just come from and said, “I just wanted to let you know, my lady, that the red berry bushes have fully grown. It shouldn’t be long before they start bearing fruit.”

These red berry bushes had been planted on the third night. Normally, it would take 72 hours—exactly three days—for them to mature, but thanks to “Harmony I,” it only took about 67 hours.

By her calculations, they should be fully grown by this afternoon.

But Su You had been too busy to check on them, so she hadn’t realized. Dolly only discovered the bushes were ready after dinner, when she went to check on the crops’ growth.

The fact that the red berry bushes had matured was great news.

When Su You first established the territory, she’d deliberately chosen a spot with water, berry bushes, and fiber plants. But after so many days of gathering, the wild berries and fiber nearby had long since been picked clean.

It was only because there were few people and plenty of meat that food was never in short supply. That’s why Dolly usually focused on gathering fiber, only picking a few red berries if she happened to see them. Otherwise, she was afraid they’d go bad before they could eat them all, which would be a waste.

Because they hadn’t been actively collecting berries, there were now almost none left in the territory—in fact, you could say there were none at all.

The only ones left were those already cooked into meals.

As a result, everyone’s daily diet was basically meat, meat, and more meat… While meat was tasty and filling, and eating it exclusively didn’t cause any negative buffs, going without any other flavors for so long was still a bit much.

…No wonder Dolly was so happy. She was probably sick of eating meat these past few days, and the thought of having berries soon—even if they hadn’t actually ripened yet—was enough to make her cheerful.

The berry bushes maturing didn’t just mean they’d have something else to eat and more variety in their recipes; it also meant they now had a stable food source.

This food source didn’t require them to go out and risk anything—they could just harvest it within the territory, and it would keep producing over time.

Unlike red grass, berries and fiber plants could be harvested repeatedly, just like fruit trees. In theory, as long as the bushes stayed healthy and well-nourished, they could keep producing fruit indefinitely.

In this data-driven world, that theory was directly realized.

As long as they were watered regularly and cared for, the berry bushes would never die, and berries could be harvested endlessly.

The first batch of berries would appear 24 hours after the bushes matured, and after that, a new batch could be picked every three to five days.

One plot of farmland could support four berry bushes, and each harvest would be enough to fill at least a fifth of a level-one warehouse.

So even if the territory ran out of meat, they could survive on berries alone.

“By tomorrow evening, we should be able to harvest the first batch of berries,” Su You estimated. Dolly immediately nodded in understanding.

“Mm-hmm! I’ll go pick them then!” Dolly nodded, indicating she’d said all she needed to.

After that, Su You followed Lake to the bounty board. When she saw the new tasks posted there, something clicked in her mind… If she remembered right, there was now a new type of task called a “System Quest,” wasn’t there?

And these system quests unlocked once the territory reached intermediate camp status… She’d been thinking about this just yesterday—how could she have forgotten today!?

…It must be because of that debuff.

Su You didn’t hesitate to blame it on the fatigue debuff. Otherwise, under normal circumstances, she’d never have forgotten—especially something she’d just been thinking about the day before.

After shifting the blame, Su You explained to Lake that she’d be handling this particular quest herself, so he didn’t need to worry about it.

Since the quest involved the system, some kind of protocol seemed to kick in. Though Su You’s explanation was a bit odd, Lake didn’t ask any more questions.

“All right, then I’ll leave you to it, my lady.” With that, Lake left without asking anything further or sticking around to check out the system quest.

Su You wasn’t surprised by his reaction and immediately began reviewing the quests.

Currently, there were three system quests on the bounty board. Of these, two were untimed, and one was a timed quest.

【Prosperity and Flourishing】 (Completed)

Issuer: Unknown

Objective: Raise territory prosperity to 50 (53/50)

Reward: Bounty Card, territory reputation, money

Restrictions: None

Failure Penalty: None

【Stop the Darkness】 (Accepted)

Issuer: Unknown

Objective: Successfully repel the attack of dark creatures (0/1)

Reward: Random building card, territory reputation, money

Restrictions: None

Failure Penalty: Unknown

【Develop the Territory】 (Accepted)

Issuer: Unknown

Objective: Upgrade the territory to a large camp (0/1)

Reward: Unknown, territory reputation

Restrictions: Time limit 120 hours (Time remaining: 98 hours 14 minutes 21 seconds)

Failure Penalty: Territory prosperity -10, territory reputation -10, potential value decrease

……

After reading through the three quests, Su You came to the following conclusions—