The locusts did not disappear as expected, and Ye Miao was dumbfounded.

The lords' group was also in an uproar, and everyone was caught off guard by the unexpected situation.

[T City, Tiaodeng City, Lord An Ruoying] Why are there still locusts here? Is this my fault?

[J City·Good Morning City·Lord·Guo Li] I have it here too. Damn it, what’s going on?

[Z City·Moss City·Lord·Ma Ou] This can't go on. If we continue like this, we'll all die!!!

Ye Miao stared at the panel, took a deep breath, and was stunned for a few minutes. He first sent a message to Da Zhuang, "Ask Lao Shuai to print more cards. The draw will go on as usual today."

Then he opened the dialog box with Chu Cheng: "The locust plague is not over yet, the relief station must continue to distribute food. Thank you for your hard work!"

Chu Cheng was walking to the relief station. He saw the message, smiled, and replied, "You're welcome. Treat me to dinner some other day."

[Ye Miao] No problem!!! Three meals in a row!!! You pick the location!!!

In fact, according to her recent thoughts, if possible, she would like to treat Chu Cheng to dinner every day!

The message prompt jumped again, and Ye Miao clicked it and saw that someone in the group of lords who had been silent for a long time finally spoke again.

The person who spoke wasn't in the small group that later invited Ye Miao to join, which clearly showed that he disapproved of accepting large numbers of disaster victims. This time, the message he sent was even more gloating: "It's the 16th day, and the locust plague isn't over yet. Can't some of those madcap people wake up now? Listen to my advice, friends. If you don't work for yourself, you will be punished by heaven and earth! Stop trying to be rich. The territory's food reserves can't be wasted like this! Besides, opportunities come to those who are prepared. Those disaster victims didn't actively join the larger territory earlier, and now they're in this situation. It's their own fault!"

Ye Miao rolled his eyes, closed the group chat and stopped looking at it.

At the same time, after a brief collapse, the group that was established later started talking about establishing the "United Nations".

Only then did she realize that the people who supported the establishment of such an organization largely overlapped with those who were willing to help the victims this time.

We've been discussing this on and off for the past few days, and last night we settled on a preliminary name for the organization: the "Big Cities Alliance." It's a simple name, but it's still impressive.

At this point, everyone has started talking about the specific positions needed in the organization and the basic rules.

Ye Miao took a look and found that perhaps because this group itself had screened the lords, the people participating in the discussion were quite pragmatic and did not talk about anything empty and pretentious. The positions mentioned were basically useful.

For example, those responsible for trade, peace negotiations, humanitarian aid... every position can at least sound like what this kind of organization should be responsible for.

During the conversation, someone mentioned: "Do we need a leader?"

[E City·Electronic Pet City·Lord·Liu Mosi] The term "leader" is a bit feudal. Wouldn't it be more modern to change it to "secretary-general"?

[Z City · Sweet Zongzi City · Lord · Li Weiwei] That makes sense, that makes sense. So, is anyone running for the Big City Alliance Secretary-General election? If you have any thoughts on who would be suitable, feel free to share!

[T City·Tiaodeng City·Lord·An Ruoying] I recommend Ye Miao, hehe.

[Z City·Sweet Zongzi City·Lord·Li Weiwei] Don’t be too nepotistic...it’s all about ability!

[T City, Tiaodeng City, Lord An Ruoying] She's incredibly powerful! Within T City, her territory is renowned as the "Pure Land." If I weren't the Lord, I'd want to join her!

[S City·Wuxia City·Lord·Hua Yao] I agree, hehe, Ye Miao is indeed capable.

[Z City·Moss City·Lord·Ma Ou] I think that the person who first proposed to accept the disaster victims this time has great love and is suitable to be the head of such an organization.

[T City·Tiaodeng City·Lord·An Ruoying]…That was still Ye Miao.

[Z City·Moss City·Lord·Ma Ou]?

[City Z, Sweet Zongzi City, Lord Li Weiwei] If that's the case, then I think the lord who previously openly and wantonly annexed smaller territories, and who reportedly overthrew a slavery-owning territory, could compete! She was the one who first proposed establishing this organization!

[S City, Wuxia City, Lord, Hua Yao] If I were to say this is also Ye Miao, would you think I'm joking...

[Z City·Sweet Zongzi City·Lord·Li Weiwei]?

At this point in the conversation, there's a bit of awkwardness and a bit of a stagnation.

Ye Miao watched the conversation go on without saying a word. Faced with this kind of problem, she decided to just go with the flow. If they let her take the lead, she had no objection. But if they left her alone, she would just have some free time.

After another busy day, Ye Miao finally checked the group chat again, which was before bedtime. This time, she discovered there were five candidates for the position of "Secretary-General." Besides her initial nomination, there were two other nominees, and the other two had signed up on their own.

In addition, the lords in the group tagged her many times, asking her whether she agreed to run for election, meaning that if she herself had no intention, then no one would force her.

Ye Miao replied calmly: "I can run for election. Thank you for your trust."

Half an hour later, voting began. The voting period was set to three days, but since there were only more than 50 people in the group, the results could actually be seen that evening.

Among the five people, Ye Miao's vote count was the first to break through 10 votes, reaching 17 before going to bed. The other two nominees also had more than 10 votes, so the two who registered themselves were a bit underwhelming.

Ye Miao didn't waste too much emotion on this and simply turned off the lights and went to sleep. She knew in her heart that although everyone had been talking about this matter, the locust plague was not over yet, so this problem could only be put aside and there was no rush.

Over the past five days, the territory's population has steadily increased by another 5,000, and its area has further expanded. Meanwhile, the number of territories has been rapidly decreasing.

In this regard, Ye Miao speculated that it was because the locust plague did not end as expected, which completely destroyed the mentality of some territories that were already struggling to hold on, and they had no choice but to give up the struggle and announce their disbandment.

The locust plague continued until the 23rd day. At 8:00 AM, a "ding dong" sound suddenly echoed from the sky. Then, a graceful female voice echoed, and a pop-up window appeared, displaying the same message: "After 23 days of unremitting efforts, the number of city-level territories in Country C has been reduced to 80, and the total number of territories is now below 100. Congratulations to all surviving territories and players. Starting tomorrow at midnight, we will activate the free-for-all mode."

“…” Everyone was silent for a while during the announcement.

The use of "unremitting efforts" is brilliant! Is it referring to everyone's unremitting efforts to survive to this day, or is it referring to the system's unremitting efforts to reduce the number of players? This is very vague!

The beautiful female voice continued, her words flowing like poetry: "Next, the map will be fully opened, and the random disaster mode that occurs every 15 days will officially end. The world will return to its normal four seasons, each lasting one month."

"Please continue to work together, stockpile resources, strive to survive, and continue to develop and expand your territory."

"I wish you all a happy game."

The further the system spoke, the clearer and brighter its tone became. Everyone listening to this voice fell into a trance and couldn't recover for a long time.

Disaster mode... is over?

What will happen next as the four seasons return to normal?

Even though each season is only one month long, it's still much better than before. Furthermore, the harvesting time for crops, wild animals, and plants in the game has been significantly shortened, so adjusting the season switch to one month seems quite scientific.

But before everyone could cheer, a new prompt sounded.

This time, it was a male voice, noticeably less emotional than the previous female voice. Like a low-level AI, it mechanically announced something new: "Congratulations to all surviving lords for completing the hidden quest [Riding Together]. Next, the system will issue you the hidden quest reward."

"The distribution rules are: for every new member who joins the territory in the past 23 days, 1,000 gold coins will be distributed."

"What the hell?!" Guo Li, the resource-scarce lord of J City, jumped up. "I think I took in 4,000 people? I made 4 million? I'm rich!!!"

In T City, An Ruoying covered her mouth in shock: "Over eight million?!"

Ye Miao was stunned again when he saw the reward prompt that popped up.

She started accepting members on the third day of the locust plague mode, 1,000 per day. Including those who applied to join in the first two days, she has accepted more than 20,000 people in the past 23 days.

Twenty, more than twenty million... ?

Ye Miao was overwhelmed by this huge sum of money. Although he was happy, he couldn't help but wonder if the system was secretly doing something again?

In fact, the system was indeed causing trouble, but it didn't affect Ye Miao.

In the early stages of the locust plague, the lords split into factions due to differing opinions on accepting victims. This division reinforced the respective views of each side, and for the next ten days, few switched sides. Lords willing to accept victims were forced to limit the number of lords they accepted based on their own strength, but those unwilling to accept, some of whom, out of spite, retaliated by stopping new members from joining.

Therefore, after the system issued this wave of rewards, the wealth gap between territories suddenly widened. Territories that received rewards could use this money to aggressively recruit personnel and upgrade for a long time to come, thus entering a virtuous cycle. Those without these rewards were undoubtedly left further and further behind.

Once the power gap widens, everyone truly begins to differentiate between "big countries" and "small countries." With the map now fully open, it's inevitable that large territories will annex smaller ones, and the formation of alliances and rivalries between territories will truly begin.

Ye Miao could only be thankful that the party that got the reward was the one that seemed to be more kind. Even if their ambitions would slowly expand, the war could be delayed.

Another good thing is that the "Big City Alliance" has already taken shape. When the locust plague ends and the free mode is fully opened, the lords will definitely promote this matter without any prior agreement. The establishment of the alliance can also prolong peace as much as possible.

"It turns out that the end of the apocalypse game is really the end of the apocalypse." Ye Miao pondered and sighed with a smile.

Now the things she was worried about were no longer "very apocalyptic", but instead had a kind of... breath of human civilization that everyone was familiar with.