At nightfall, the town becomes rich overnight.
After thinking it over, Ye Miao knocked on Chu Cheng's door again. Seeing Chu Cheng, she said apologetically, "Sorry to bother you. Would it be convenient for you to go out with me again?"
"Now?" Chu Cheng couldn't help but be surprised. His eyes drifted towards the territory gate. "That monster outside..."
"I know." Ye Miao nodded. "I'm worried the mechanics might be different during the day and at night, so I thought it would be best to go and see for myself."
While this setting doesn't appear frequently in this game, it's not uncommon. Natural phenomena like high temperatures, low temperatures, and soil erosion all appear to be consistent throughout the day, making sense. But beyond that, they've already seen frost giants that only attack at night, and insect swarms that attack frantically during the day and reproduce silently at night.
As for the current sandstorm mode, although it is not exactly the same as the version Ye Miao played before, she has never seen such a strong monster, but in the previous version she had played, the monsters would burrow into the ground at night.
The game's hidden mechanic is that above the barrier's protective shield lies a magical shield, and beneath it lies a "magic foundation," the height of which matches the distance from the ground to the shield's highest point. If the player doesn't fill the tunnel at night, monsters can bypass the foundation and directly invade the territory.
If the current Cthulhu tentacles are like this, then they must respond quickly.
Chu Cheng didn't know any of this, but thinking back to the last incident with the insect nest, he could understand Ye Miao's concerns. He nodded and said, "I'll go get the equipment."
He originally came to open the door empty-handed, and then turned back after he finished speaking. Not long after, he came out again with a backpack on his back and a bow in his hand.
The two of them went out together. After experiencing the thrill of being chased by tentacles in the morning, they became more vigilant and experienced. From the first second they stepped out of the territory gate, they pricked up their ears and watched every movement closely.
However, at night, when everything was very quiet and any sound would become more obvious, they never encountered anything unusual, and the tentacles that came and went like the wind during the day did not appear at all.
About fifteen minutes later, the two men reached the circular area where the dust had cleared. The massive cylinder, formed by the tangled web of countless tentacles, still stood there, its movements and suckers still visible, but it showed no sign of attacking.
Chu Cheng pondered, "It seems it has a 'sleep mode' and won't attack passing players at night?"
"It seems so." Ye Miao pondered for a moment, "Then let's try attacking it? I remember that it doesn't lose blood when you shoot arrows at it during the day. If it can lose blood during sleep at night, we can find a way to defeat it."
"Okay." Chu Cheng nodded, then took off the longbow on his back, put the arrow on it and took aim.
Ye Miao held his breath and stared at the tentacle monster.
Regardless of whether this thing loses blood in its sleep, it is impossible for the two of them to kill it. If Chu Cheng shoots an arrow and wakes it up, they will have to run away immediately.
About three seconds later, Chu Cheng took a deep breath and let go. The feather arrow, wrapped in a gust of wind, streaked across the night sky and pierced the skin of the tentacle, making a barely audible sound.
But the monster before him showed no reaction. Although it hadn't awakened, it also showed no signs of losing any health. The feather arrow that had pierced its tentacles also quickly disappeared. All around was quiet, as if nothing had happened.
"It seems that this is a monster that cannot be eliminated." Ye Miao sighed, feeling helpless.
Chu Cheng said slowly, "You can also check whether the wild monsters and crops that appear nearby are normal. At night, the tentacle monsters are sleeping soundly and won't be awakened. It's actually a good time for players to kill monsters and collect."
"That's right." Ye Miao nodded, "Then let's walk around."
The two men then turned and left, gradually moving away from the tentacles and heading to places like rice fields and fruit trees to check the situation.
However, after going around in a circle, not a single monster was seen. As for the rice, shrubs, and fruit trees, they were all affected by the wind and sand and withered.
Seeing this, Ye Miao sighed: "It seems that the game is deliberately forcing the territory to consume its inventory."
Chu Cheng frowned: "Do we have enough supplies for fifteen days?"
"Enough." Ye Miao said firmly, and Chu Cheng breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good."
There was no danger on the way back to the territory. After returning, they each went home. Ye Miao went into the bedroom and lay on the bed, but he was not sleepy at all.
Perhaps because she was involved in the legal team and overthrowing slavery, the word "moral sense" kept appearing before her eyes. She thought carefully about the situation she was currently experiencing and felt a chill in her heart.
The idea of sacrificing territory members for money is tempting many lords. If even when monsters are in "sleep mode" at night, there are still no resources to collect, the reality of not being able to make ends meet will only encourage everyone to take that step.
Taking that step means that the lord can easily make money, and at the same time there will be one less mouth to feed in the territory consuming supplies.
This is terrible.
However, there is one point that Ye Miao hasn’t figured out.
If this mode simply aimed to drive the territories into deficit and thus tempt their lords to corruption, the same mechanics could be used during the day and night, eliminating the need for monsters to hibernate at night. She felt like there must be some hidden setting, but she couldn't think of one at the moment.
The next morning, the Little Red Riding Hood settlement was in a state of gloom.
This Buddhist territory isn't well-stocked, and compared to the eclectic array of delicacies enjoyed in larger territories, their meals are nothing but simple "plain fare." But the atmosphere has always been friendly, so every morning players enjoy sitting together for lunch and discussing who will fight monsters and gather together. These team divisions are often flexible, and everyone enjoys switching teammates frequently, using socializing to spice up their monotonous lives.
If territories like the Get Rich Town are pursuing "rebuilding civilization", then small territories like the Little Red Riding Hood Settlement belong to the category of "being content with primitive style". Their lifestyle may not be much different from that of primitive people hunting mammoths in groups millions of years ago.
But even so, the members weren't truly "primitives." Seeing that the breakfast items sold at the grocery store had suddenly been downgraded from steamed buns, fried dough sticks, tofu pudding, and soy milk to just steamed cornbread, everyone felt a surge of unease.
So, although everyone still sat around the campfire and ate breakfast together, no one chatted. At the same time, countless glances were exchanged, and Lord Chen Siwen, sitting among them, could feel it even without looking up.
The silence lasted for an unknown amount of time before one of the older members finally spoke up: "Siwen, give me something to say."
His voice almost immediately attracted everyone's attention, and everyone looked at him and the lord with bated breath.
"Our territory isn't strong, and everyone knows that. If we can't hold out this time, no one will blame you." He spoke earnestly, then sighed, "Let me be clear, everyone: if we continue to be frugal like we are today, how many days will our stored food last? Can we survive this situation?"
Chen Siwen lowered her head and took off a piece of steamed bread, but she had no appetite to put it in her mouth.
The entire territory was so quiet that only the crackling of the campfire could be heard. After a long moment, Chen Siwen mustered up the courage and whispered, "Five days."
"Five days?!" The members were in an uproar. "Only five days? That doesn't mean... that doesn't mean it will be over soon!"
Chen Siwen took a deep breath with difficulty: "Besides that, there is still some money in the warehouse. If we can go to other territories to exchange for food, we can last a few more days. But now..." She closed her eyes tiredly.
In fact, she didn't need to finish her words. Everyone shuddered as they thought of the several members who died when they went out yesterday.
"What should we do... Are we really going to starve to death like this?" someone said in horror.
Some people panicked and started to offer random suggestions: "Is there any way to contact the nearby large territories? They have many high-level players, maybe they can defeat that monster..."
Chen Siwen didn't respond, her thin lips turned pale.
She had actually thought of this idea yesterday. Although she didn't directly seek help from the major territories, she consulted with two familiar smaller territories. It turned out that a high-level player in one of the territories had already attempted to attack the monster, but the player was quickly killed, and the skills he used had caused no damage at all, proving that the monster was untouchable.
But she couldn't bear to tell the members the result, as she didn't want to shatter their last bit of hope.
After a long while, Chen Siwen slowly said, "I'll think about it... There are still five days left. I won't give up on saving myself until the last moment. I hope everyone else won't give up either."
Then she stood up from the campfire and walked towards the residential area without saying a word. She was so desperate that she inexplicably wanted to laugh.
Ha... She said she would never give up on saving herself, but what could she do? No food, no food.
She had even thought yesterday that if there was no other way, she would go out and sacrifice herself, at least to exchange for some money to keep everyone going for a few more days. But the current situation was that even if she really did that, no one would be able to use the money to buy food, and the gold coins piled in the warehouse were not edible.
Chen Siwen numbly walked into the red brick house and sat dejectedly in the living room. For a long time, she felt like every nerve and every brain cell in her body was busy searching for a solution, thinking so hard that her head ached, but she still couldn't think of a solution.
With nothing she could do, the feeling of despair grew stronger, as if there was a voice arrogantly shouting in her ear, telling her over and over again: You are waiting to die, you can only wait to die!
Everyone in your territory can only wait for death!
Chen Siwen was so depressed that she had difficulty breathing and gasped for breath.
"Beep, beep, beep--" The message alert sound suddenly rang. Chen Siwen was stunned for a moment before she realized what the sound was. She reached out and touched the button woodenly.
The message that popped up was from another lord:
[An Ruoying] Hello, I am An Ruoying, the lord of Tiaodeng Town, very close to you.
The current new mode seems to be unfriendly to small territories, so I would like to ask, do you have enough supplies? If not, I can provide some food reserves appropriately.
"!!!" Chen Siwen was so surprised that she covered her mouth, her heartbeat accelerated for a while, then she forced herself to steady her breathing and replied calmly: Thank you very much, we really don't have enough supplies... but we can't go out in this mode, there is no way to get them!
[An Ruoying] No, this mode is very safe at night. Although there are no monsters to spawn and no crops to gather, it seems that players can move around freely, so I can send someone to deliver supplies to you.
[An Ruoying] This isn't something I discovered! The Lord of the town that got rich overnight told me about it. He's the Lord of the Pure Land!
Chen Siwen was completely stunned. "So that's how it is? It's actually safe at night? That ruthless killer out there actually sleeps at night?!"
She was so shocked that her thoughts were in a mess. She stood there with her mouth open for a long time before continuing to ask: "Then... then, may I ask, what will we have to pay to receive these supplies? For example, do you need anything? Or do we need our members to join Tiaodeng Town?"
In Chen Siwen's view, this was natural. In the apocalypse, supplies were life, and no one would give them away for free.
However, An Ruoying said, "No, no, you're overthinking it. You can first compile a list of needs for me, and use the supplies first. Everyone's lives are the most important thing. As for the things I need—I will send you these supplies at a fixed price based on market value, and you will return them to me later."
Chen Siwen read the message in amazement, and before she could express her gratitude, the next one came.
An Ruoying said politely, "Of course, if you want to join my territory, I welcome that, and we can discuss it later. It all depends on your wishes. I have absolutely no such intention in providing supplies."
Chen Siwen was shocked.
After the end of the world, although the territory she established was relatively peaceful, she also heard many stories of brutality from the outside world, many of which were about the exploitation of members by large territories and even slavery.
Therefore, Chen Siwen no longer believed in the nonsense that "human nature is good." In her eyes, only her own little home was good. The famous "Pure Land" was an unattainable utopia, and everything else was evil.
Now it seems that she was narrow-minded!
In Tianju Village, Zhou Xian spent a day counting the stored food, and concluded that even if there were three or four similar cycles, a total of 45-60 days, not to mention 15 days, the members of his territory would have enough food and clothing.
In comparison, the stock of gold coins appears precarious.
But what Zhou Xian wants most is gold coins. Without gold coins, he cannot upgrade the town, recruit more members, and continue to develop.
So early this morning, Zhou Xian distributed lottery cards to the E-level and F-level members of the territory, a total of 232 cards.
The last time the members of Tianju Village saw a lottery card like this was when the "Pure Land" merchant team was out doing business and recruiting new members. Back then, the grand prize was direct admission to Pure Land, and the remaining prizes, while not huge, were enough to make everyone happy.
But today, all the members who got the lottery cards looked pale.
Because out of those 232 cards, 220 are green and the remaining 12 are red.
When these cards were distributed, Zhou Xian gathered all 232 E-level and F-level members around the territory campfire, and had core members keep a close eye on them.
Zhou Xian stood on a high place and told everyone leisurely: "For the development of the territory, those who draw red cards will be sacrificed; those who claim that they did not get the card or lost the card will also be sacrificed."
"Now, scratch the card."
After a brief commotion, the crowd fell strangely into an utter silence. Everyone trembled and silently lowered their heads to scratch their cards. Soon, one man broke down: "No..."
Everyone looked over and saw the man struggling in the crowd, trying to escape, causing the members around him to step back and make a large area.
"No, I'm not going! I'm not going!" the man panicked. Zhou Xian looked down at him and gestured. Two core members rushed through the crowd, holding him down and dragging him out without explanation.
The man struggled mightily, shouting hysterically: "I won't go! I won't go! Let me go! Please—"
For several minutes, only his shouting could be heard in the territory. The other members watched silently. The high-level players did not bother to stand up for him, and the E- and F-level members seemed numb, staring at him silently.
Until he was pushed out of the territory, although he stood firm and was about to run back immediately, huge tentacles instantly emerged from the sand and dust, accurately circled him and pulled him away.
"Ah——" The scream was distanced within two seconds, and then suddenly stopped, leaving only the echo that continued for a while.
On one side of the crowd, a senior soldier raised his voice and shouted, "Come here, this way! Line up, everyone's card must be checked!"
The members who were circled in the middle came back to their senses and moved slowly, but there was no other movement for a while. Obviously everyone knew the results of the lottery in their hands, but the people who got the red cards did not react much. I don’t know whether they were scared or numbly accepted their fate.
Time passed little by little, and one member after another walked out of the area circled by the campfire, and most of them were safe.
Two or three more were dragged out one after another. They seemed to come to their senses the moment they were caught, and began a new round of screaming and begging for mercy.
Later on, someone finally panicked. A male assassin in his forties suddenly picked up the darts in his hand and stabbed the player in front of him repeatedly, while reaching out to grab the other player's draw card.
"What are you doing!!!" The woman in front was frightened. Fortunately, no damage could be caused within the territory, and the darts only caused very slight pain. The woman dodged immediately in panic, and other players also dodged.
Several core members nearby reacted quickly, rushed forward immediately, grabbed the man and dragged him out.
"Let me go! Let me go!" the man shouted in despair.
Zhou Xian looked at him coldly, then turned around and said in the same leisurely tone, "Drawing green is safe, drawing red is a sacrifice. No flexibility, absolutely fair."
The crowd had indeed grown numb. After scratching the lottery, those who drew green cards were simply celebrating their luck, no longer caring about the lives of others. Now that Zhou Xian had emphasized this rule, their joy intensified, even fostering an indescribable, paradoxical pleasure.
The crowd slowly advanced for about three minutes. A woman in her early thirties was grabbed by the wrist by a core member. Her previously numb eyes were instantly filled with fear. "No... No..."
She struggled and backed away, trying to argue: "My daughter! My daughter is only four years old... My husband is dead, I can't go as a sacrifice!"
She wasn't lying, because her four-year-old daughter was right next to her, crying out in fear: "Stop pulling my mom! Let go!"
The woman struggled again. The desire to protect her child made her very strong. She actually broke free, hugged the child tightly and tried to escape.
Zhou Xian, standing there, frowned. "Even though it's said to be absolutely inflexible and fair, it's hard for mother and child to be separated. I understand."
The woman shuddered slightly and looked up at him in disbelief. Before gratitude could even emerge in her eyes, Zhou Xian suddenly changed the subject: "If you don't want to go by yourself, you can take the child with you."
“No…” The panic in the woman’s eyes resurfaced, even more than before, and her eyes became empty. “No, no…”
Zhou Xian stopped looking at her. Several core members understood and stepped forward again, mercilessly pulling her away. The child cried loudly, still clinging to his mother, but this time the mother let go, then tore the child's hand apart with her own hands, and staggered towards the door.
On the third day of the sandstorm mode, Tianju Village upgraded to a town. Although there was no public notification of the territory upgrade, Ye Miao and An Ruoying noticed it one after another and couldn't help but gossip:
[An Ruoying] Damn it, damn it, damn it, why did this Tianju Village upgrade now instead of earlier or later?
[An Ruoying] Although there may not be a problem, it may be that we just caught up, but I am scared when I think about this broken model now!
[Ye Miao] Me too... Sacrificing one member earns around 10,000 gold coins. Upgrading a territory from a village to a town costs 300,000. Will Zhou Xian really...
[An Ruoying] Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Damn it! Is there any way to find out?! If he really did this, no matter what happened to Rose Village, I will kill him!
At the same time, some old members of Tianju Village who had previously joined the town of getting rich overnight received messages from old friends one after another.
The message didn't mention anything else, it just went around looking for someone to help. It said there was a four-year-old girl whose parents had both died. Everyone felt that the environment in Tianju Village was not suitable for a child to survive alone. If other members were to adopt her and take care of her, it would be difficult for everyone. They wanted to ask if there was anyone in Jingtu who had the spare time.
Fang Siyu and Song Feifei heard about this incident during lunch. They had no impression of this child or her parents, but they still couldn't help but feel sympathy for them.
After all, she was only four years old. In a place like Tianju Village, it was difficult for two energetic young people like her to survive, let alone a child like this.
Fang Siyu silently ate the peanuts in her Kung Pao Chicken, clearly struggling. Song Feifei, also struggling, looked at her several times and broke the silence: "Do you also feel that you don't have the energy to control it, but you also feel guilty if you don't?"
"Yeah." Fang Siyu sighed heavily, "If I hadn't heard about it at all, it would have been over. But now that I've heard about it, how hard is it to watch someone die without helping?"
Song Feifei nodded: "Just now... I had a flash of inspiration and came up with an idea. Would you like to hear it?"
Fang Siyu's eyes lit up: "What? Tell me!"
Song Feifei: "Look, most of the people who heard about this are from Tianju Village, but I think we can cast a wider net. We can go to the reception hall to post an announcement, explain the situation clearly, and then play the victim to find her adoptive parents. What do you think?"
The author has something to say:
I'll give out red envelopes to 50 random comments on this chapter.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
