"Boss, there are about 30 more seeds, which will take about half a day."
Noisy's message appeared in the chat window. Chen Yu frowned slightly and pondered for a moment.
"Half a day is fine, I can wait, but... can you guys stop harvesting these flame fruits? Of course, I will still pay you the corresponding compensation."
"Huh?"
Noisy looked around at the other team members with confusion.
"Hiss, could it be that our harvesting is affecting the ecological balance?" Reyer exclaimed, his eyes wide. "We're like locusts passing through, harvesting all the resources here. Could this be damaging the ecosystem? Maybe that's what the boss is considering?"
The other team members nodded. Noisy scratched his head, looking at the bare spots where the fruits had been picked.
"It really seems like it. It seems the boss's understanding is far beyond ours. We're thinking about how to collect as many resources as possible, while the boss is already considering ecological balance."
Solemn admiration welled up in everyone's eyes.
"I take back what I said disrespectfully about Boss Chen Yu before." Even Ivy said solemnly, "Boss Chen Yu is a person with true ideals. I was being small-minded."
"Then maybe we shouldn't take the money either."
Reyer glanced around. "Let's support the boss's work and send him the coordinates of this area. How he handles it will be up to him. We earned nearly twenty million from 60 fruits. We've earned enough. People shouldn't be too greedy."
"Agreed."
Reyer's words were instantly echoed by the others.
"Since you all agree, I'll tell Boss Chen Yu." Noisy looked up at everyone. Reyer grinned. "Tell him, you're the leader of our team. Sister Ivy, can you take me to the location you just found? I'll go and ripen them."
"Okay."
Ivy and Reyer walked away side by side, chatting and laughing. Noisy quickly replied to Chen Yu.
"Boss, we don't need compensation for the remaining 30 flame fruits. Our adventurer team just discussed it, and we are willing to support your vision of protecting the ecosystem."
"[Coordinates]"
"These are the coordinates for the Pure Fire Molten Cave. We won't pick the fruits."
Noisy, who sent the message, was all smiles. He didn't know that Chen Yu, leaning back in his chair, was dumbfounded.
Protecting the ecosystem?!
Chen Yu scratched his head for a long time before he finally understood.
A misunderstanding.
Noisy and his team must have misunderstood Chen Yu's intentions. Chen Yu had asked them not to pick the fruits because he could get a higher multiplier with his greedy crit.
He wanted to maximize his profits.
Unexpectedly, they misunderstood it as him wanting to protect the ecological balance.
"In terms of mindset, I'm not as good as them," Chen Yu sighed softly, feeling a bit more respect for this small adventurer team.
Although Chen Yu's original intention was not to protect the ecosystem, Noisy's message did serve as a wake-up call.
Since entering the cave, these survivors had been relentlessly scavenging for resources. They cut down trees wherever they found them, mined ore wherever they found it, and didn't even leave sand or soil untouched, excavating as much as possible. Over time, would this really have an impact on the cave's ecosystem?
Resources would eventually be depleted.
"Hey, don't think about those strange things." Seeing Chen Yu lost in thought, the little demon raised its hand and pulled him out of his reverie. "There are plenty of resources in the cave. Your excavation won't affect the ecosystem. The limit on resource gathering in the spatial dimension also prevents such situations. Don't worry about these things."
"Is that so?" Chen Yu asked, dubious.
"The resources in the cave are far more abundant than you think," the little demon pouted. "But this adventurer team you're trading with is indeed quite good. With your personality, you won't treat them unfairly, will you?"
"Of course!"
Chen Yu smiled, nodding noncommittally.
"It's what I should do."
Half an hour later—
"Leader, tell Boss Chen Yu that I've finished ripening them, and the fruits have already grown." Reyer's face was filled with a smile, but behind that smile was a hint of exhaustion.
Before Reyer could finish speaking, she saw Noisy sitting on the ground in a daze, tears streaming from his eyes.
Big Bear, standing behind him, clenched his fists.
Even the usually stoic Zeku had his hand on Noisy's shoulder, as if offering comfort.
"What's wrong?" Reyer and Ivy looked at them with deep confusion. "Did Boss Chen Yu cancel our trade?"
Before Reyer's words fell, a gleaming chest in the distance caught her eye.
"This... is this perfect-grade equipment?"
Reyer ran over quickly, looking at the equipment in the chest.
"God, these are all perfect-grade equipment, and they're Bronze-grade perfect-grade equipment. These items sell for millions. Noisy, are you trying to go broke?"
"You... take a look at the boxes next to them?"
Noisy mumbled. Reyer looked at the boxes beside them.
"Silver-grade, gold-grade... Noisy..." Reyer looked up in disbelief. Big Bear pursed his lips and gestured towards the box of gold coins. "And these gold coins, one gold coin can be exchanged for 100,000 resource points. There are a total of five million gold coins here."
Gulp.
Both Reyer and Ivy couldn't help but swallow. Big Bear spoke again.
"All this equipment and gold coins were given to us by Boss Chen Yu. The equipment is enough to supply us with perfect-grade sets from Black Iron to Gold grade. The boss also told us to develop well and expressed hope that we can have a broader future."
"All given by Boss Chen Yu?"
Reyer was full of disbelief. She hurried to Noisy's side. The chat page projected by her wristband hadn't closed yet, and it displayed Chen Yu's last message.
"I hope we can meet in the cave someday."
The chat box indeed showed Chen Yu's message. As Reyer looked further up, her pupils involuntarily contracted violently.
"Leader, we..."
"We've finally made it," Noisy slowly looked up, his reddened eyes meeting Reyer and Ivy. "We... have finally seen the end of our hardships, haven't we?"
With trembling lips and reddened eyes.
For a moment, the few people gathered around Noisy, whether it was Ivy, Big Bear, or even Zeku, their eyes were also slightly reddened.
After so long adventuring, people had come and gone.
At their peak, their adventurer team had dozens of people, but in the end, only a few remained. How much hardship had they endured, how many difficulties had they encountered in the middle?
Perilous explorations, repeated failures.
Finally—
They had welcomed their, harvest day!