Ye Miao didn't react much after hearing that it was a locust plague mode, because as the members said, the thing her territory was least afraid of now was competing for inventory.
After years of hard work, she now has money and food. Even if all her staff stay in the territory and eat the food they have in stock for 15 days, it is no pressure for her.
However, if this inventory consumption pattern happens again, the small territory will probably be greatly reduced again.
The first day of the locust mode passed quietly. The territory was peaceful, but outside the territory, no grass would grow wherever the locusts passed.
Some players who are used to playing with their friends still want to go out and kill monsters even though they know there is a locust plague outside. So they deliberately take a long detour to fight monsters in places where the locusts have not yet spread.
But the locust attack only takes a moment. Many people were still killing monsters and picking up drops normally the previous second, and the next second they heard the buzzing of groups of insects flying over. Then, in the blink of an eye, the swarm of insects flew over their heads, covering the sky and the sun. Some of the ones flying lower would hit people, causing minor damage.
If you're holding food at this point, you're in trouble. In real life, locusts generally only eat crops and plants, but in the game, they'll eat anything. It doesn't matter if you're holding a stir-fry or a burger on your phone at the time; the locusts will disappear without a trace once they pass.
So by evening, the players who had originally hoped to play outside had largely given up. Everyone returned to their territory dejected, their spirits sour, and sat around the campfire, cursing the system for its inhumanity.
Inside the red brick house, Huang Meng and a few friends ordered hot pot takeout. Everyone gathered around the table to eat. Huang Meng listened to the rumors outside and sighed, "Oh my god, it's a good thing we all came to Overnight Rich City yesterday. Otherwise, catching up with this new model would have been tough!"
"Yes," Hu Yu sighed and nodded. "Our food reserves have always been low. If everyone in the territory were to maintain this model, everyone would only be able to eat half a steamed bun per day."
Why “again”? Because they’ve experienced it before.
Look at now, everyone is eating hotpot together, with vegetables, meat and sesame sauce, how cool!
As the night deepened, the members of the territory fell asleep one after another. Outside the territory, various monsters also returned home, leaving only swarms of locusts still howling between heaven and earth.
As midnight neared, the remaining leaves in the suburbs were eaten away, and the locusts, unable to find food, began to rampage. The territories surrounding farmland and green spaces were quickly discovered, and the locusts immediately swarmed over them.
"Boom."
“Bang—”
In the peaceful town, the member on duty at the gate of the territory was awakened by the noise. He stood up, rubbed his eyes, and looked outside. He soon realized that the noise just now came from two locusts.
They must have hit the territory's protective shield during flight, causing minimal damage to the shield, but killing themselves. Their bodies fell to the ground, leaving a little sticky liquid on the shield.
The member on duty took the situation lightly, yawned, and leaned back, intending to continue sleeping. However, before he could lean against the doorframe, a clear buzzing sound was heard several meters away.
If you listened closely, the sound was like a mosquito buzzing close to your ear. But because there were so many of them, it sounded at first like the soundtrack of a swarm of fighter jets approaching in a movie. The officer on duty looked up, bewildered, but it was too dark to see anything. Aside from the sound approaching, everything seemed normal.
until--
"Bang."
“Boom.”
“Snap—”
Five or six locusts hit the protective shield one after another. Every time one hit it, the health value of the protective shield would be reduced by 1.
The member on duty finally realized the seriousness of the problem and hurriedly ran to the lord's residence. However, before he arrived, the locust swarm had already enveloped the territory. If you look from the outside, the originally light blue protective shield now looks like a huge semicircle woven by locusts, and there are jumping numbers in all directions indicating the decrease in health: -1.
In just a few seconds, the protective shield with a total health value of 10,000 was defeated, the barrier stone was shattered, and countless locusts that were originally clinging to the shield swarmed into the territory in an instant.
"Ah—" The member on duty fell to the ground in fear, desperately protecting his head and face. Some of the rampaging insects bumped into him, making him scream in fear.
But he soon discovered that these bugs didn't seem to actually attack him. Otherwise, according to the speed at which they broke through the protective shield, he would be killed in just a few seconds.
He then became a little bolder and tentatively raised his head, spreading his fingers that were covering his face a little apart so he could look out through gaps between his fingers.
This sight made him even more certain that the locusts were indeed not very interested in him. They were basically rushing towards the flowers, trees, and... farmlands in his territory.
When he discovered that his farmland had been completely covered by locusts, he was suddenly filled with despair. As a small town, their supply situation was still okay, but if the farmland was completely destroyed and everyone had to rely on stored food to survive, there might be problems.
"The locusts are coming! Get up! Everyone, get up!!!" He used his hands and feet to get up from the ground, shouting hysterically. The members who were originally sleeping soundly were awakened and rushed out of the door one after another, watching the locusts everywhere and unable to do anything.
Ye Miao was also awakened by the staff on duty in the middle of the night. When the staff ran out to check on the situation, the neighbors had already left the house and everyone was looking around.
Ye Miao subconsciously looked over with them, and saw that the ion turrets around the territory kept flashing white and purple light balls, and star-like flames bloomed in the light balls, which meant that the target had been hit.
It was just too far away, and she couldn't see the target for a long time. She frowned and asked the member who called her, "What's attacking the territory?"
The person who had called her was also stunned by the flickering lights all around him. Only after hearing her question did he come back to his senses and said hurriedly, "It's locusts... locusts are attacking our territory!"
"How could it be?!" Ye Miao was stunned.
The previous wave of insect swarms had also attacked the territory, but that had started early in the morning. And now, the locusts hadn't caused any damage to the territory all day, so why did they suddenly go crazy in the middle of the night?
Chu Cheng, who lived next door to her, also came out at this time and happened to hear the two conversations. He stared at the ball of light outside and pondered for a moment: "I don't know if the turret can withstand it. I'll go gather some members to prepare for defense."
"Let's go!" Ye Miao said solemnly. Lately, she'd always felt a little awkward when she saw Chu Cheng, mostly because of her own inner emotions. But now, she couldn't care less. While announcing the call for the team members, she walked with Chu Cheng towards the border of the territory.
About fifteen minutes later, many high-level players had gathered at the border of the territory. They were concentrating on watching the locusts that kept attacking from outside. Most of them would be killed by the ion turrets, and only a few would rush into the barrier and crash into it and die.
If that were all, it wouldn't seem very dangerous.
——Although Ye Miao thought so, he did not dare to take it lightly.
Everyone was anxiously guarding from midnight to dawn. After seven or eight hours, the health of the territory barrier had dropped by more than 1,000, leaving more than 8,000 to be fought slowly.
Ye Miao was finally relieved this time, because according to the system settings, the barrier stone can be repaired with money, and it can be repaired once every 24 hours. In other words, as long as the blood volume is not reset to zero within 24 hours, it can be restored to full in one second.
Based on the current condition, he would only lose about three to four thousand HP in 24 hours, so there is no need to worry at all.
Ye Miao announced the disbandment of the team on the spot, asked everyone to go have breakfast, and also symbolically distributed some "defense subsidies", 100 gold coins per person.
Then she went to the market and bought an egg-filled pancake, which she ate while repairing the barrier stone. After the barrier stone was repaired, she opened the map and took a look. She was surprised to find that in just one night, the territory of T City had been reduced by nearly a quarter!
But that shouldn't be the case. From what I observed throughout yesterday, the locusts were simply numerous, but they posed minimal damage to the players. Even if the defenses of the smaller territories weren't strong enough, the barrier would be easily breached, and theoretically, they wouldn't be wiped out. How could so many territories disappear?
Ye Miao was confused, but after about half an hour, he got the answer.
Half an hour later, the first wave of applications to join the territory came in. These applications were submitted in the form of a team, with a total of 872 people. It was obvious that they were a group of people from a small village who came with their families.
Ye Miao took advantage of the fact that his territory was about to be expanded again and there was plenty of space. He just pressed a button to pass through, and then went to the gate in person to find their lord.
After finding them, Ye Miao got straight to the point, questioning why they had abandoned their territory. The former lord sighed, "It couldn't be helped. Last night, our territory was breached in a matter of seconds. Now that our territory has lost the protection of the barrier stone, any enemy attack could kill us. Furthermore, the locusts that invaded our territory are devouring farmland and trees without restraint, leaving nothing alive in their wake."
"The food reserves in our territory can barely last for fifteen days, even with the harvest from the farmland. But now that the farmland has harvested nothing, we definitely can't hold on. It's better to find another place as soon as possible so that everyone can have a better life."
Ye Miao suddenly realized.
Indeed, for a small territory, the barrier stone is a very important protection. Without the barrier stone, whether it is monsters or attacks from other territories, it will become difficult to resist.
This trait is well known to everyone. In other words, once a territory loses its barrier protection, it becomes more vulnerable to attacks from other territories. This lord's decision to abandon his territory and join others is actually a wise one.
The other territories that "disappeared" on the first night were most likely due to the same reason.
The locusts that failed to break into her territory after a whole night of hard fighting could be a disaster for her small territory.
By the evening, Ye Miao realized that his idea might have been naive. The locust plague might not only be a disaster for the "small territory".
At five o'clock in the evening, Hua Yao from Wuxia City in S City screamed in the lord communication group: "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! The locusts have broken through the protection shield of my territory. What should I do? Ahhhhhh!!!"
The group was immediately shocked by the news, and countless people began to speak out. As they chatted, they realized that Wuxia City wasn't the only city whose protective shield had been breached that day. Several cities had already collapsed that morning, but they were currently busy dealing with the insect plague and hadn't had time to speak in the group.
Seeing the records in the group being refreshed faster and faster, Ye Miao was afraid of delaying the important work, so he simply chatted with Hua Yao privately: "Yaoyao, what is the level of the defense turrets in your territory now?"
[Hua Yao] is a lightning turret.
The Lightning Turret was only one level lower than the Ion Turret. Seeing this, Ye Miao told her directly: "Upgrade the Ion Turret! Make the Ion Turret's attack range completely cover the border of the territory! That way, even if the locusts come, they won't be able to get in. You can then slowly clear out the locusts in the territory, and everything will be fine!"
Hua Yao was skeptical: "Will this work?"
"It will definitely work, trust me! That's how I defended it last night. The shield only lost a little over a thousand HP overnight. Now everything is normal in the territory, trust me!"
[Hua Yao] Holy crap, I'm going right now! You're my savior! I'm going to upgrade the turret right now!
[Ye Miao] Be sure to pay attention to the range! If there are areas that are not covered, add some coverage and don't leave any gaps!
[Hua Yao] Great, great! I'm so grateful for you! I went there! The locusts are so fucking disgusting!!!
There was no other news after this one, which shows that Hua Yao was busy.
At eight o'clock in the evening, Ye Miao received Hua Yao's message again, and he was very excited.
[Hua Yao] Ahhhh Miaomiao, you're my savior! The ion turret really works! After I built it, there are basically no new locusts attacking! I've directly issued a bounty notice for those already in the territory. Killing locusts will drop the ingredient [Fresh Locusts]. I'm asking everyone to use this as a voucher. Each fresh locust is worth 1 gold coin, but I won't take these locusts. You can still sell them!
"Not bad." Ye Miao praised sincerely, thinking that Hua Yao was quite good at encouraging everyone.
But the other lords in the group may not be as lucky as Hua Yao.
Ye Miao wasn't the only city-level lord who owned an Ion Turrets, so she wasn't the only one who shared this strategy. However, just because someone provided a strategy didn't mean everyone had the money to upgrade the Ion Turrets.
Some lords were working very hard, upgrading their territory levels crazily, and never had enough money; others focused on combat effectiveness, but relying on the outstanding combat effectiveness of their own members, they felt that they did not need to worry about attacks from outsiders, and therefore ignored the importance of fortifications, and at the moment they were unable to upgrade them all at once.
So, at 11:00 PM that evening, the first city-level lord to give up appeared in the group: "We definitely can't hold on for another fifteen days... Is there any big boss who can take us in? We're willing to hand over all the weapons and gold in our warehouse."
Seeing this news, some people inevitably advised them: "Why not wait and see? Just hold on as long as you can! You must still have some food stored anyway, so there's no need to give up so quickly."
But the lord, already tormented by the constant locust plague, had lost his will to fight. He replied dejectedly, "It's pointless. If we can't upgrade our turrets, the locusts will be endless. The members of our territory can't even leave the house. If we go out to buy food, the locusts will attract us before we even have time to pack it. At this rate, even if we have food stored, we'll all starve to death."
There was a silence in the group.
In the end times, the destruction of territories is a very common thing, but the destruction of city-level territories is another concept. Every lord felt a sense of compassion when he saw his words.
At 23:30, An Ruoying privately chatted with Ye Miao: "Miao Miao... Is it normal outside your territory?"
Ye Miao? What do you mean by normal? Are you talking about whether the locusts have left? No, they're still desperately rushing in.
[An Ruoying] No, I'm asking if there are any refugees gathering outside your territory...
【Ye Miao】???
[An Ruoying] I haven't seen many locusts here. The territory's defenses are just lightning turrets, which is enough to keep them out. But since this morning, there have been people outside my territory. At first, everyone was just applying to join, and I accepted everyone I could. But now there are not many vacancies in the territory, so I can't let anyone in, so they are staying outside...
[An Ruoying] There must be at least a few thousand people. Some territory members have gone out and said some people are already trying to beg. I'm worried that if this continues, it will develop into a robbery. What should I do?!
Ye Miao was dumbfounded. It wasn't hard to understand why An Ruoying said there weren't many locusts there. It was probably because she was too close to the snow-capped mountains, and the weather was cold, which wasn't suitable for locusts to survive. Many locusts froze to death on the road, so of course there were fewer of them.
But there are so many people gathered outside...
Ye Miao couldn't think of any good solution, so he could only suggest: "If you can expand your territory, then expand it. Everyone has nowhere to go now, so they will definitely flock to the big territory. If they can't find a place to stay, they will have no choice but to stay like this..."
[An Ruoying] QAQIsn’t this situation the case outside Miaomiao Territory?
[Ye Miao] Not yet...
——But it happened after just one night.
The next morning, as soon as Ye Miao opened his eyes, he found that the territory application panel had reached the upper limit. He glanced outside while eating breakfast and saw that there were indeed many people outside. Some were sleeping on the ground, while others were staring into the territory with eager eyes. The situation was miserable.
Looking at the map of City T again, the territory on the map had shrunk by nearly a third. Never before had a mode caused such a drastic reduction in territory, not even the sandstorms that tested both resources and humanity were so brutal.
And this situation obviously did not only happen in T City. While eating, Ye Miao looked at the lords' group and saw that the lords from various maps were saying that many small territories had been destroyed, and a large number of homeless players were looking for new territories, but their power was limited and it was impossible for them to accept everyone.
The whole world seemed to be in chaos.
Ye Miao sighed silently, and a figure flashed in his peripheral vision. He looked up and saw Chu Cheng sitting opposite him.
He placed his freshly bought breakfast on the small table and said with a wry smile, "The last time I saw this kind of chaos was when the apocalypse first arrived. Many people were displaced, without food or money, and could only huddle together to survive. But the outside world is not only harsh, but also full of monsters. No one knows how long they can survive."
"...Yeah." Ye Miao agreed with a little guilt, because she had not come to this world when the end of the world just came.
Chu Cheng sighed: "What do you think?"
"It's hard to say." Ye Miao sighed and shook his head. "Maybe this mode is just difficult, but it's also possible that the system is forcibly switching to a new stage - destroying small territories and eliminating large territories that are not strong enough. After this, only the strong ones can remain."
She paused and continued, "I want to expand the territory as much as possible and take in more people. Do you think that's sensible?"
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