Train Survival: You're really trying to survive!

Chapter 184 Snow Shovel and Snake Soup

Song Mingyu made great progress, which improved the atmosphere in the team.

With the team now more confident—Sophia's cooking alleviating elemental erosion and Song Mingyu's research mitigating elemental bacteria—the difficulty of this world had decreased significantly. Now, the greatest threat to them was only silver-level monsters.

However, this is a matter of hard power, and it's difficult to solve in the short term. The safest approach Su Li could think of was to avoid it.

It's not like a game where you can't progress through the story if you can't beat the gatekeeper boss.

For soldiers, survival is the most important thing!

Running away is shameful, but it's useful, brothers.

However, how you run it requires a lot of skill.

The world is covered with snow at least 20 centimeters deep. If a person walks on it, one step is enough to make them slip and fall, and all sorts of things hidden under the snow will be in serious trouble.

This is what Zurich and Ivan do.

Over the past few nights, Su Li has crafted some single-person skis. On the snow, for short distances, Su Li and her group can definitely unleash their magic energy faster, but magic energy isn't unlimited. Song Mingyu's magic energy recovery skill is essentially a stationary fountain, useless when escaping.

Su Li had a wild idea: to have Song Mingyu set up a magical source on the sled. However, this skill summons a passage to an energy sea, and all the magical sources are actually gushing seawater. This passage is fixed in space; even if the sled moves, the passage remains in place.

So Zurich had no choice but to make skis, which would at least save effort and speed for long-distance travel.

Ivan, on the other hand, spent several nights making a huge snow shovel.

Zuli and Ivan came to the front of the vehicle. Ivan waved his hand, and a 6-meter-wide, 2-meter-high metal snow shovel appeared in front of him.

The snow shovel fell onto the track with a loud thud.

"Okay, brother-in-law, give me a hand and install this on the front of the train."

"Okay~"

With a wave of his hand, Su Li unleashed a burst of fiery magical energy, melting the snow in front of the car.

Then Zurich and Ivan each took one side and lifted the huge snow shovel.

This thing is made of iron-clad wood, and its overall weight is not heavy for superhumans like Zuli.

Two people lifted it to the right height and then placed it on the train, the snow shovel fitting perfectly with some of the designs on the old-fashioned locomotive.

Ivan took out the remaining parts and went to the back to install them one by one, finally securing the snow shovel to the front of the vehicle.

The snow shovel is V-shaped when viewed from the front and has an arc-shaped slope when viewed from the side.

After the train starts moving, the snow will be shoveled up and slide off the smooth slope on both sides.

Unlike before, when the speed increased, the resulting resistance was enormous and it also stirred up a lot of snow, obstructing visibility.

"Alright, that solves the speed problem too."

Ivan looked at his work with great pride.

Su Li looked around and tried pulling on the snow shovel. It was very secure. She couldn't help but say to her younger brother, "Your skills are pretty good."

"Haha, actually it's because my strength has increased, my power control is more convenient, and my eyesight is much better than before," Ivan said modestly.

Powerful, freely controllable strength, and the ability to discern differences at a glance—these were the hallmarks of a master craftsman back on Earth. But now, almost everyone who advances to the Black Iron level possesses these qualities, which explains why Su Li and his companions have progressed so rapidly in their secondary professions.

After installing the snow shovels, the two returned to the train.

Still frozen by the sprayed disinfectant, the two entered the duty room.

Inside the duty room, Song Mingyu was nowhere to be seen; as usual, she was still in her dormitory, busy with her experiments.

On the magic stove, Sophia's face was stern as she continuously stirred the pot with a spoon.

Su Li wanted to greet him, but sensing that the atmosphere was a bit off, she kept quiet.

The spoon shimmered with iridescent light, something Zurich had never seen before.

As Sofia continued to stir, a unique umami aroma filled the air.

Ivan took a sniff, and yes, it smelled like the snake meat they ate every day.

Su Li glanced at the cutting board, which contained scraps of meat and bones, each type of bone bearing a unique color representing one of the five elements. Next to it were five small bowls, each containing a portion of snake meat.

There was also chicken, pork, and ham. Based on Zurich's long experience of eating snake soup, Sofia was using snake bones to make the broth.

These three were all changed by Sofia these past few days.

Ivan picked up the manual and sent a message to Su Li: "[Didn't see those Iron-grade monster pork and chicken that my sister exchanged for yesterday?]"

[It's probably because those meats have inherent properties that make them difficult to prepare. Look at the blending techniques your sister is making; she's definitely trying to harmonize the five elements.]

After a while, it seemed that the harmony was complete, and Sofia revealed a faint smile.

"You're back? Dinner won't be ready for a while." Sophia glanced at Su Li and the others indifferently, her hands busy.

"Then we'll wait a bit. Watching you cook is a pleasure in itself."

"You're so glib." Sophia gave Su Li a reproachful glare.

Then she took out the ginger shreds she had prepared beforehand, which had been boiled in salt water and then soaked for two days and two nights to remove the spiciness of ginger.

She learned all of this from the experienced mentors in Qi Guohui's team.

Add shredded ginger, shredded chicken, wood ear fungus, mushrooms, shredded abalone, and dried tangerine peel to the soup in a certain proportion and cook over high heat.

Finally, Sofia began to thicken and stir the sauce little by little, following the secret recipe.

As Sofia stirred, the umami aroma in the air intensified, and five-colored radiance began to appear in the pot. These radiances merged, rotated, and eventually dissipated.

Seeing this, Sophia sighed, "The skill level is still not high enough; the magical energy in the ingredients is being wasted."

Sofia turned off the heat and began plating.

The plate had just been placed on the table when the door opened, and Song Mingyu, with her messy hair, shuffled in like a zombie.

"What's wrong with you again?" Su Li couldn't help but draw out her words.

"The lab blew up." Song Mingyu scratched his head sheepishly. "It's going to be a huge hassle to clean up. Could you guys help me out later?"

Sofia shook her head. "I need to organize my notes from this session."

Ivan shook his head as well, "The crops are ready to be harvested, I have to gather them, and then replant them."

Su Li looked around and realized she was the only one who was relatively free. "Alright, I'll help you later. Let's enjoy the food first."

Sofia handed out snake soup to everyone, and then took out some dishes that had been prepared earlier from the stove.

Su Li looked at the table full of dishes and said with some surprise, "Sophia, these don't seem to be the secret recipes, do they?"

“That’s right. They’re all ordinary dishes,” Sofia confirmed.

Ivan looked worried. "But if we don't eat the secret food, our cultivation speed will slow down."

"It's alright. Take a look at my newly researched secret recipe." Sophia smiled proudly.

Zuli picked up the dish that Sofia had just made and examined it.

Sofia's Secret Five-Snake Soup

After consuming it, practicing with it will enhance all attributes.

For players with attribute points below 50, every 10 servings will increase Strength, Agility, Constitution, Spirit, Perception, and Magic Power by 2 points, up to a maximum of 50 points. This effect can only be applied 5 times.

Su Li gasped, "Wow, that's impressive."

Su Li and the others ate a lot of secret food at each meal to comprehensively improve their cultivation speed in all six dimensions.

Black iron-grade food, three meals a day, can provide the full bonus to the main and secondary attributes depending on the cultivation method, while the remaining four attributes will increase randomly.

I eat six secret dishes at every meal, and I don't even have room for other dishes to improve the taste.

But now, this bowl of snake soup is even more effective than the previous six secret foods combined. Not only does it provide a delicious treat on an empty stomach, increasing happiness, but the energy conflict and loss between the secret foods also make the cultivation more effective.

Su Li immediately launched into a shower of compliments: "Sophia, forever a goddess!"

Even a rather aloof lady like Sofia blushed at the praise, feeling that her hard work over the past few months had finally paid off.