On the sixteenth day after the high temperature began, Ye Miao opened the window for ventilation in the morning and felt cooler as expected.
"There's no need to rain today!" She patted the heads of the alienated earthworms, and the earthworms rubbed her fingers happily, obviously very satisfied with the fact that they no longer had to punch in for work.
Ye Miao was thinking: The high temperature is over, what is the new mode now?
She had originally been most worried about the back-to-back highs and lows, but now it looked like the lows weren't the issue. But there were bound to be new changes. If she couldn't see them within the territory, she'd have to look outside.
She then went out with her backpack, but she was not in a hurry to figure out the new situation immediately. She just went to the small market to eat as usual.
After several days of unremitting efforts, the small market was divided into two parts from the original chaotic area.
One part is the neat little houses she built. Each one has the same specifications, only the color is different. It looks very beautiful with colorful lights.
The other part of the market was still full of people setting up their own stalls. While at first glance, it looked much the same as before, the reduction in the number of stalls significantly reduced the level of chaos. Furthermore, each person had more space, making the market much less crowded. Overall, everything was in line with Ye Miao's expectations.
Inside and outside the territory, the patrol teams led by Xiaomei and XiaoA have been operating well. So far, they have protected territory members three or four times. Not only have they saved people from robbers, they have also helped fight wild monsters, and they have not fallen behind in leveling up themselves.
Seeing this was feasible, Ye Miao planned to continue this practice. Once her territory had more members, she could open blind boxes to further increase the number of patrol members. After all, judging by this situation, reselling blind boxes wasn't difficult. Many players needed help, but they didn't always have the time to go to T City to find a traveling merchant.
While making some calculations in his mind, Ye Miao casually walked into a store and ordered a hand-pulled pancake with an egg and soy milk, intending to finish the meal quickly so that he could go out and see what was going on outside.
When she was almost done eating, Chu Cheng came into the store. When he saw her, his expression relaxed: "So you're here."
"You're looking for me? Is there something?" Ye Miao turned to look at him. Chu Cheng smiled, pulled out a chair, and sat down in front of her: "I'm planning to start a small business, and I wanted to ask if you're interested."
Ye Miao was startled: "Are you going to make me a shareholder?"
"No, it's the customer." Chu Cheng said calmly, "We have a three-meal-a-day delivery service, guaranteed purple quality, and at least one meal a day is gold, with a combination of meat, vegetables, and dessert. You don't have to worry about what to eat for each meal."
Ye Miao: “…”
She has discovered that as the small market upgrades, the ideas of many players have also begun to upgrade, and the takeaway business is booming, but she didn't expect Chu Cheng to have the same idea.
She thought about it and asked seriously, "What if I want to eat something specific for a meal?"
Chu Cheng understood: "If it's something I can do, I'll accept the order. If I can't do it, you can go somewhere else to eat, and my service here will be postponed."
"Not bad, very reasonable." Ye Miao nodded. "What's the price?"
Chu Cheng: "Seven-day meal plan, 21 meals in total, 3,000 gold coins."
3,000 gold coins for seven days wasn't cheap, but the guaranteed purple quality and a golden meal every day... Ye Miao, already well-funded, was tempted.
She thought carefully for a moment, then opened her backpack and readily paid for seven days. Chu Cheng had no intention of staying longer and was about to leave after finishing his business. However, Ye Miao asked curiously, "Why do you do this? Why not just set up a stall?"
"Setting up a stall takes too much time. I still want to go out and kill monsters." Chu Cheng said calmly, "Besides, there are too many customers to serve at the stall, and it's hard to guarantee the quality. I'm now an invitation-only service, and only provide services to customers I think are qualified. This can avoid a lot of risks."
"Is that so?" Ye Miao nodded slowly, thinking to herself: Wow, it's an invitation-only system, and high-end restaurants have appeared in her territory!
She calculated again: one person for seven days earns 3,000, which is about 12,000 a month. Five people earn 60,000, and ten people earn 120,000.
The taxes in her territory are calculated based on income. Although the percentage is low, regardless of the cost and profit, Chu Cheng is about to become a major taxpayer!
Ye Miao was in a good mood when he found out that he not only had food to eat but could also collect more taxes.
Chu Cheng walked out of the restaurant and looked at the rising sun, feeling equally good.
But not far away, near the gate to the territory, Fang Yuming was in a bad mood. A long time ago, he had mentioned Ye Miao to his mother. This doctor mother, who was sometimes too rational, had no filter for her son at all. After a complicated expression for a long time, she almost told him directly: You don't seem to be a good match.
So from then on, Fang Yuming began to level up day and night, striving to make himself able to fight side by side with Ye Miao. In today's world, being able to "fight side by side" almost means "being well matched".
After unremitting efforts, he defeated almost all the monsters in T City, and he finally reached level 90 as he wished, becoming a real master.
But there seems to be no progress with Ye Miao.
Or perhaps it couldn't be called "no progress" either. Seriously speaking, they could now "fight side by side." When they went out in a group, he was no longer the one led by the boss. He could now fully cooperate with Ye Miao, but that was all.
Apart from teaming up to kill monsters, they had no other relationship. Although everyone was happy when they were killing monsters together, he didn't want teammates!
Fang Yuming was in distress and walked silently in the woods. As he walked, he suddenly heard a scream: "Help!!!"
Several people roared simultaneously, their voices cracking with fear. Fang Yuming's mind was suddenly drawn back to where the sound was coming from. He subconsciously determined the direction of the sound and headed towards the direction of the screams.
He ran from the orchard to the edge of the wheat field and saw a very long tail rising from the wheat field, which was obviously the location of the monster.
Fang Yuming pulled out the dart without thinking and stepped forward to fight.
After three darts landed, he finally saw that the creature in the field was a Long-Tailed Mountain Monster. The Long-Tailed Mountain Monster was a dark green creature with a coat of short fur. Its features were strange and jagged, with scarlet eyes and a mouth full of fangs. It usually walked on all fours, but was capable of briefly standing upright. Combined with its high agility and attack power, its sudden appearance was truly terrifying.
But as the name suggests, the [Long-tailed Mountain Monster] usually appears on the mountain and does not need to walk down the mountain, and is unlikely to actively attack players.
Fang Yuming took about three minutes to dispatch the Long-Tailed Mountain Monster. Several gathering players huddled together, trembling, until the monster's corpse disappeared and its equipment dropped. Only then did they breathe a sigh of relief, still apprehensive. "Thank you, thank you!" Everyone thanked Fang Yuming.
Fang Yuming asked in confusion, "What did you do? How did you provoke the mountain monster?"
"No, no!" The foragers shook their heads in horror. "We were just picking rice here, and it suddenly pounced on us! It was terrifying!"
"Hasn't anyone gone up the mountain before?" Fang Yuming asked.
The gathering players looked at each other and shook their heads. "No, we're all poor at combat. We knew there were monsters on that mountain over there, but we wouldn't go over there. And... even if someone went over there and provoked a monster, most monsters have a pursuit range. How could they chase us all the way here?"
"Indeed." Fang Yuming frowned.
Most monsters in the game have a set pursuit range, typically a few dozen or a hundred meters. Players can easily outrun them by running far enough. However, the distance from the Long Tail Mountain Monster's mountain to this rice paddy is two or three kilometers. Unless a player is actively pulling the monster along, it's impossible to lure it that far.
But if the player deliberately pulls the monster down and doesn't kill it, what's the point? This thing can't be kept, so who would keep such a thing in the house?
Before Fang Yuming could figure it out, a new scream came from the other direction: "What the hell is this!"
Fang Yuming held his breath and followed the sound back to the orchard. This time, the attackers didn't need his help; it was Zhang Tingting's combat team, but the constant swooping of bat monsters from mid-air still gave Fang Yuming a boost of energy.
Generally speaking, bat monsters only lurk in dark places such as caves. They occasionally go out in the evening or late at night and will not come out to attack people in the middle of the day.
Two consecutive incidents were enough to make Fang Yuming realize that it was the system that was causing trouble. He immediately seized the opportunity and sent a message to Ye Miao: Ye Miao, I don’t feel something is right, the monsters are going crazy.
By the small lake not far away, Ye Miao had just killed a group of mad bison with his bare hands. After receiving the message, he sighed and replied: I have also discovered that many monsters have appeared in places where they should not be, and are attacking players wantonly. It is very strange. I want to think about what to do.
[Fang Yuming] Although the monsters are out of control, their levels haven't increased significantly. Combat players can generally handle it, but gathering players will have a harder time. If you want to hire someone to protect gathering players, I'll sign up.
Ye Miao saw this reply and thought about it along with Fang Yuming's thoughts. Without rushing to make a decision, she told him, "Okay, thank you. I'll think about it."
For the next half day, the collecting players suffered terribly.
According to the game setting of "Fantasy World", the collection process is not necessarily safe. Being attacked by passing monsters is possible, but the probability is not high. In addition, the monsters' haunts are generally regular. Over time, players have figured out the safe areas, and the risk of being attacked by monsters becomes smaller and smaller.
But today, almost all players who went out to collect encountered monsters. Some were lucky enough to encounter nearby combat players or patrol teams and were saved, but the unlucky ones were defeated and died.
When returning to the territory at night, Ye Miao chatted with the players. About a dozen members had died in the past few days, almost all of them were gathering players.
The dog system has nothing to do with humans!
Ye Miao was furious, but she couldn't vent her anger at the system, so she could only think of a solution. Fang Yuming wanted to help, and she had initially considered hiring high-level players, but that was expensive, and with the territory now overpopulated, it would tire the high-level players to death, making it unfeasible.
After careful consideration, Ye Miao walked into the reception hall and made an announcement: "Due to the sudden increase in the number of monsters and their increasingly violent temperaments, to protect the safety of the territory members, it is recommended that the gathering teams and combat teams go out together. Captains can first go to the reception hall to register the number of team members and the approximate time of departure."
"As a token of gratitude, the territory will provide free potions to the combat teams that participate in protecting the gathering players. Each person can choose one bottle of the following: Intermediate Blood Replenishing Potion, Intermediate Mana Potion, Intermediate Stamina Potion, or Recovery Potion per day."
As soon as the message was sent out, veteran members like Zhang Tingting and Xin Lu immediately responded: "The territory's continued healthy development is inseparable from the gathering players. Besides, it's just a companionship and protection, and it won't interfere with monster hunting. Even if there are no rewards, we have to participate. Let's go and register!"
The new member, who didn't have much affection for the territory yet, also enthusiastically said, "There's free potions, and I can make some friends. This mission's worth it! I'll go sign up!"
In less than a quarter of an hour, Ye Miao received numerous registration messages. Using the system panel, she matched the information based on the time and number of participants submitted by both parties, then sent the results. This was extremely efficient. This should significantly reduce the risk of the collection team being attacked.
Not long after, Zhu Yihua also came over and said to Ye Miao, "I can provide you with some intermediate-level potions for free. It's not much, but it should be enough for a few days."
"No, no, I'll buy it from you!" Ye Miao said.
The territory had been established for so long, and Zhu Yihua had been providing her with potions at very low prices, so she had accumulated quite a lot without realizing it. The previous destruction of the Fearless Village had also allowed her to plunder a lot of inventory, so now she dared to offer rewards to combat players in a high-profile manner.
But Zhu Yihua was willing to help, and despite Ye Miao's refusal, she still gave Ye Miao a discount of almost half the price on top of the previous low price. She also told Ye Miao that she knew several small pharmacists in the territory, and that they could give priority to supplying medicine to the territory, and any surplus could be sold elsewhere.
Ye Miao expressed his deep gratitude and sighed inwardly: This is the majesty of an industry leader!
Things were basically coming together, and Ye Miao felt that he had done nothing but provide a platform for everyone to connect. However, outside of the town of overnight wealth, the situation in other territories was different.
In Sweet Orange Village, almost all players figured out the situation on the first day of the mode change. While the gathering players were naturally complaining bitterly, the combat players were excited, each one making plans loudly.
——The monsters are going crazy and appearing more frequently, and it is obviously easier for them to kill monsters!
——In the past, everyone had to spend a lot of effort to find monsters, or even compete with others for monsters. Now, as long as you go out, you don’t have to worry about not having monsters to fight, and you can get a lot of drops without much effort!
Furthermore, according to the Sweet Orange Village grading system, foragers faced danger and reduced harvests, and their next rating would inevitably be lowered. Many combat players who had previously been at the bottom were eager to try, planning to work hard on monster farming, hoping to surpass the foragers in the next rating round and achieve a leap in their lives.
After all, in the Sweet Orange Village, a higher rating meant more resources, and everyone was eager to reach S-rank! As for how the foragers were supposed to survive in such a precarious situation, what did it really matter?
In Hongfeng Village, Zhang Xiaoli waited for Xie Liang for several days but he didn't come back. The expectation in her heart turned into disappointment bit by bit.
Finally, when the mode switched, not only did she not wait for anyone, but even the message she sent fell on deaf ears. Zhang Xiaoli finally realized that Xie Liang would probably not come back.
But if he didn't come back, what would she do? The Red Maple Village's operating model didn't leave any resources for small players; all equipment had to be surrendered upon returning to the village. Xie Liang had previously taken the equipment and hadn't returned it, and now he'd vanished without explanation. If the village discovered her, she would be left with a huge debt.
Debts—Zhang Xiaoli knew without further ado that she definitely didn't have the ability to pay them off. The Red Maple Village model simply wanted its members to be unable to pay off their debts, forcing them to become slaves.
Not only that, she also discovered that some subtle changes had been taking place in the Red Maple Village recently. Simply put, it was becoming more and more brutal.
Before, everyone in the territory was only facing the collapse of order in the end times, but now the collapse of order is lasting longer and longer, and the ugly side of human nature is gradually exposed. The territories of the lords began to expand, and they began to tentatively do things that they dared not do before.
——About three days ago, Zhang Xiaoli heard that some members who really couldn't survive were forced by the territory to sign a "contract of sale", and from then on lost all their rights and freedoms. It is said that they are worse off than the NPCs that the lord got from the blind box, and they will become punching bags when the lord Wei Hua is in a bad mood.
Blind box NPCs will not be used as punching bags.
Because although blind box NPCs look no different from humans, they actually lack emotions and do not understand fear and sadness, so it is meaningless to take out anger on them. But players, as living humans, have rich emotions that can respond to such maliciousness.
Zhang Xiaoli had no doubt that if she didn't find another way out, she would eventually end up like that. It could even be said that if Wei Hua tasted the sweetness of this, most of the lower-class members of the territory would be unable to escape the same fate. After all, for those in power, enslaving their own kind for pleasure was a very satisfying experience.
The more Zhang Xiaoli thought about it, the more frightened she became. Finally, she decided to escape before the territory found out about Xie Liang's situation.
Zhang Xiaoli made up her mind and left immediately! To avoid being hunted, she didn't dare take anything. She only had some simple food and a few dozen gold coins in her backpack and walked out the door.
After dodging monsters for several miles, Zhang Xiaoli finally dared to press the "Exit Territory" button. The moment she pressed the button, she nervously glanced back, then began to console herself: "We're already far away, and I have nothing on me. It's not worth their pursuit!"
After barely calming herself down, Zhang Xiaoli fell into a new level of confusion.
She had gotten out, but where to go next? All her former friends and family had dispersed, leaving her with few acquaintances in the apocalypse. She had a good relationship with Zhang Jianjun and Zheng Minhui, who had previously spent time together in Red Maple Village, but Xie Liang had been careless a while ago and had offended Zheng Minhui.
Zhang Xiaoli thought about it and decided to go to T City first. There were too many monsters in the wild recently, and T City should be relatively safe. If she could get there alive, she should be able to hide for a while.
The next day, Ye Miao did not go far. He killed monsters near the territory for a while and took a look at the situation of various gathering teams and combat teams. He soon found that the solution he came up with on the spur of the moment was quite effective.
By noon, when they returned, the combat team had had a blast killing monsters. The gathering team was filled with gratitude, sharing some of the dropped fortresses from their backpacks with the combat players: "Thank you so much, it's been fun working together! Take this!"
The combat players quickly declined: "Don't be polite, don't be polite. We're still getting the territory rewards! Besides, you haven't delayed us at all, so why are you being polite?"
All in all, it was a happy occasion.
As the lord, Ye Miao was of course very satisfied with this. If everyone cooperated well, they could deal with the current crisis without delaying the collection of supplies, which would not affect future development.
At the lake not far away, Sun Chen's collecting team was teaming up with Zhang Tingting's combat team. Now Zhang Tingting was leading the team to compete with the cattle a few dozen meters away, while Sun Chen was leading everyone to transplant lotus leaves and lotus flowers by the lake, carefully putting each one into the backpack.
These lotus flowers had grown during a period of high temperatures a while ago. He had accidentally discovered that they could be transplanted to high-grade farmland. Once successfully transplanted, the high-grade farmland would automatically transform into a lotus pond, facilitating the growth of the lotus. After five days of planting, they would form lotus pods, which sold well in the territory.
"What a shame, there are so few high-level farmlands," Sun Chen lamented. Compared to primary and intermediate farmlands, which had specific crop types, high-level farmlands, which could be used to grow anything, were far more practical.
An Yan, hearing this, offered an idea: "What do you think? Is it possible for us to pool our money and buy some farmland ourselves? That way, we can use our own money and buy it when we need it, without having to trouble the boss to find traveling merchants all the time. It's really troublesome. We can also renegotiate the profit sharing with the boss and pay rent for the land. That way, neither side will suffer any loss!"
"I've thought about that, too." Sun Chen sighed. "It's mainly because it's hard to find traveling merchants. I'll just have to wait and see if I can come across one someday. Sigh...if I could really come across one, I'd be willing to spend all my belongings to buy high-quality farmland. From now on, I can just farm and never leave the house!"
As he spoke, he was mentally sketching out a grand blueprint of becoming a large farmer.
"Shoot thousands of arrows at once!" Zhang Tingting shouted, and the arrows she shot out exploded into several small arrows, which, with the effect of venom, pierced towards the madly charging herd of cattle.
Although the cattle appeared in groups, their levels were not high. Once poisoned, they quickly became low on health and died immediately after being killed by the combat players.
Sun Chen, who was envisioning a grand blueprint, was inspired by this kind of fighting power. After the cattle were beaten, he stood up and went over to them: "Zhang Tingting, do you want to discuss something with me?"
"Hmm?" Zhang Tingting turned around. "What's the matter? Tell me."
Sun Chen: "I'll pay 1,000 gold coins to hire your entire team for a day, okay?"
Zhang Tingting was startled: "What are you doing?"
"Protect us to go to T City. I want to buy things from traveling merchants, but I'm afraid I'll be killed by monsters before I even see the merchants." Sun Chen did not hide it.
"I see..." Zhang Tingting expressed her understanding, but looking at her own five-person team and then at Sun Chen's gathering team of twenty or thirty people, she felt conflicted. "It's like this... It's not that I don't want to help, but you have more people and we have fewer. If we're near the territory, the monsters we encounter are all familiar and there's no one we can't defeat, so we can handle it easily. But if you go to T City, the journey is so long, and it's hard to say what you'll encounter. If you run into a small boss head-on, it's hard for the five of us to protect so many people, and we might even be wiped out..."
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