Chapter 194: Exclusively published on Jinjiang Literature City, featuring the midnight sun and holographic games...
When the warm sunshine reappeared in the sky, unprecedented cheers erupted in Yunlu Village.
"The sun is out!"
"I can finally see the sun again. I thought I would have to live in darkness forever."
"The sun, which I haven't seen for over a month, looks so familiar and comforting!"
"If the sun doesn't come out soon, my bones will feel like they're going to melt."
Not only were the women moved to tears, but even the men, including Zhang Chengming, couldn't help but open their arms wide, their faces full of gratitude, as they looked at the sun overhead.
While the sunlight in the holographic mode was so realistic that it could be mistaken for real sunlight, the villagers still knew from the outset that it was fake, so they inevitably felt a little disappointed.
There were indeed a few days of so-called bright light during the polar night, but it was just a dim, gloomy light, not as bright as the light brought by the blood moon.
Now that they had finally seen the real sun, everyone was both excited and moved, and many people hugged each other and jumped for joy.
[Hmm...it seems like the villagers are all a bit mentally unstable because of the polar night.]
[It's only been a little over a month, is it really that exaggerated?]
[It's not an exaggeration. Many people in ancient times and the Star Alliance did enjoy staying home, but this wasn't the case in prehistoric times. After more than a month without seeing the sun, how could they not feel restless?]
I thought everything was fine after seeing the villagers using holographic equipment to sunbathe.
[Fake is fake after all. Can the feeling of virtually eating food in a live stream every day be the same as actually eating it in real life?]
[It's definitely different! I won a fruit set and some mutated cabbage in a lucky draw. I just made a simple hand-torn cabbage dish, and it was so much tastier than what I ate in the live stream!]
【？？？】
[Get out of here, you lucky bastard!!! (Impotent rage image)]
Lu Xuan would hold raffles every few days, giving away tens of thousands of kilograms of supplies. Many viewers received prizes, but even more didn't.
Of the billions of people, less than one in a thousand have actually won the lottery.
You can imagine how unlucky someone is if they've tried so many times and still haven't won. And yet, someone still brags about winning a prize at a time like this. Who are you going to criticize?
While the audience was cursing and 'fighting' amongst themselves, the villagers had already brought out their own reclining chairs and rocking chairs and set them up in front of their own courtyards to sit on.
After that, I did nothing but sunbathe.
I'll dry it in the sun for a while on one side, then flip it over, dry it on the other side, and dry it on the other side, determined to make up for the losses of more than a month.
By the time the audience came to their senses, the entire street was filled with people sunbathing.
Some people were so comfortable that they started snoring.
Audience: ...
The women were embarrassed to lie down outside, so they would put up a gauze curtain on the sunny side of the living room or bedroom that would not obstruct their sunbathing but would also cover their bodies before lying down to bask in the sunlight.
Of course, while enjoying the sunshine, everyone didn't forget their business.
The sun is out, so the blackout curtains in the greenhouse are no longer needed.
The able-bodied men quickly removed all the shade cloths, allowing the new crop to bask in the sun, while the women took out their clothes and bedding to shake and pat them.
By the time all the greenhouses were reopened to the public, it was already evening.
The sun was still high in the sky, the sky was blue, the clouds were white, and the bright clear sky looked almost no different from that morning.
"Is this the midnight sun?" Because Lu Xuan had warned them beforehand, this time no one seemed too shocked.
But it's still very strange.
After all, who has ever seen the sun still high in the sky at dusk? It's unbelievable.
Even more unbelievable was, "Does it really not get dark at night?" Li Tuo asked with a face full of curiosity.
Chen Rong then asked, "Is there sunshine at night too?"
Lu Xuan said calmly, "You'll see for yourselves when you stay up until midnight."
Believe it or not, that's exactly what they planned to do, and they actually did it.
More than one person in the village had similar thoughts and actions; more than half of the villagers stayed up until almost midnight.
It wasn't that I didn't want to stay awake, it's that I just couldn't hold on any longer and fell asleep halfway through.
Those who stayed up until midnight actually saw the sun still shining brightly at midnight.
The only difference was that its position had changed from high above to near the horizon. Golden rays of light filled the entire horizon, reflecting off the azure sky and creating a breathtaking scene that was hard to look away from.
"It's so beautiful!" Lu Qing, who was still feeling sleepy, perked up instantly when she saw the beautiful scenery in front of her.
Lei Yan exclaimed in amazement, "The scenery at night is even more beautiful than during the day!"
The couple stood by the window and admired the view for almost half an hour, until Lu Qing was so sleepy that she couldn't keep her eyes open again before preparing to go to sleep.
But after lying down, I found that the room was still lit.
The two looked at each other in bewilderment. Lei Yan got up to draw the curtains, only to find that during the polar night, it was always dark outside regardless of whether the curtains were drawn or not, so the curtains they were using were not blackout curtains.
Even with the curtains drawn, the room was still too bright to sleep.
"..."
Left with no other option, Lei Yan had to replace the original curtains with blackout fabric that had been taken down from the greenhouse during the day.
The room was finally restored to its proper darkness.
When Lei Yan returned to her side and lay down, Lu Qing couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"We used to find the polar night annoying, but now it seems the polar day is probably no better."
Lei Yan wholeheartedly agreed; who could argue otherwise?
The lack of sunlight is torturous, but the fact that the sun never sets doesn't seem like a good thing either.
For example, when they wake up the next day and open the curtains, they have no idea whether it is day or night without checking the time on their communicator.
The person on night watch felt even stranger.
It's supposed to be a night watch, but there's no 'night' here.
Fortunately, since the incident during the swarm attack, the watchmen dared not let their guard down. It was good that it was daylight, at least any unexpected events could be spotted at a glance.
...
The villagers were quite excited about the midnight sun for a few days. After that, as the scorching sun shone day and night, the outside temperature began to rise sharply at a rate of more than ten degrees per day.
In just a few days, the thick snow that had piled up on the wasteland around the village began to melt rapidly, and the village, which had been almost completely hidden, reappeared on the wasteland. The ground was wet everywhere, and every step was muddy.
Fortunately, the snowmelt evaporated quickly enough to prevent the village from being flooded, but it did make travel somewhat inconvenient.
It's nothing. After the beast tide, everyone was exhausted from working hard to process meat for more than ten days. During the polar day, there were no beast attacks, so everyone decided to take a good rest while there were no other chain disasters.
As for what to do during his rest time, Wu Yang, who had been waiting for a long time, couldn't wait to take out half of his family's savings and marry Li Yue.
The Li family was also very generous. The high-quality agate stones they dug up in the underground cave were divided into three parts by Li Tie: one part was kept for Miao Jinfeng, one part was given to Wu Yinyin, and the other part was given to Li Yue as a dowry.
In addition, the gold and silver he brought back in Yangshan County, the grain, meat products, and newly made fur products stored at home, the two sets of high-end four-piece bedding sets that Li Tie specially went to Lu Xuan to exchange, and the betrothal gifts from the market price were all put into the newly bought exquisitely designed space bracelet, and were given to Li Yue along with the bracelet as part of her dowry.
In ancient times, weddings were held at dusk.
On their wedding day, the sky was a clear, deep blue, and the horizon was ablaze with rosy clouds—a truly breathtaking sight.
Chen Rong was incredibly envious and couldn't help but whisper to Ji Xiuling, "If I had known the scenery during the polar day was this beautiful, I would have gotten married there too."
Getting married to the one you love on such a day would be a beautiful memory, even when you're old.
Holding her child, Ji Xiuling said helplessly, "Even if it weren't us who were getting married today, you could still see the beautiful scenery, so it wouldn't make any difference."
Chen Rong poked his daughter's fair cheek and muttered, "How can they be the same?"
Then, watching Li Yue, dressed in a bright red wedding robe, being sent back to the bridal chamber after the wedding ceremony, a brilliant idea popped into his head.
It's not feasible to have another wedding ceremony, but after drinking Wu Yang's wedding wine, he can take his wife to consummate the marriage again, which would be just as wonderful!
Ji Xiuling, who had just gotten home and put her child to sleep, was then tackled to the ground by Chen Rong: "..."
·
After the Wu family finished their celebration, Lu Xuan took out the holographic helmet he had bought long ago and explained how to use it.
The villagers were immediately intrigued when they heard that wearing the helmet would allow them to play many interesting games.
To maximize the game's fun and increase the number of players, Lu Xuan didn't price the holographic helmet high.
A basic helmet requires only 100 jin of mutated food or 200 jin of meat or fish, or other supplies.
Mid-to-high-end customized version: 300 catties of mutated grain/500 catties of meat or fish; top-of-the-line version: 500 catties of grain/800 catties of meat or fish.
The villagers, whose pockets were now bulging, generously distributed all of the more than one hundred helmets he had bought.
Even the six top-of-the-line models that remained after being distributed to family members were taken by Xiong Mao and his wife, Chen Rong, and Wu Yang.
Unlike the training equipment, which can only be used for individual or team training, the villagers, following Lu Xuan's instructions, put on helmets and entered the holographic world, all appearing in the same community.
The villagers had all used the training equipment before and weren't particularly surprised by the holographic world, but the experience of having hundreds of people gathered together all at once was incredible.
Lu Xuan then told them that each person had a private lounge, and that they could decorate the lounge as they pleased, as well as the types of games they could play, and so on.
Everyone listened with astonishment.
Many married women do not have a private space at home.
Now, suddenly having a private lounge in the holographic world that belongs only to her, a lounge that her own man cannot enter without her permission, fills her with an indescribable sense of wonder.
Lu Xuan said, "You might need points to decorate the lounge and play games. If you need them, you can ask me for them."
Zhang Chengming asked, "How do I redeem the points?"
Lu Xuan: "One pound of mutated grain can be exchanged for 100 points, and other meats can be exchanged for 30-100 points per pound depending on taste."
The crowd seemed to understand but not quite, "These points don't sound expensive."
However, despite saying that, people were still a little hesitant about spending resources in a holographic world that was different from the real world, and no one immediately went to Lu Xuan to exchange for points.
Lu Xuan didn't care.
If you don't spend money now, you'll eventually have to.
When playing games, spending money is inevitable; it's impossible for all the hundred-plus people in the village not to spend money.
Lu Xuan first transferred one million points to each of the other three people in his family.
Lu Qing was startled after receiving the notification: "Why are you giving us so much?"
If each of the three people receives a million, that adds up to 30,000 jin of grain.
Lu Xuan said, "It's not much. We can save it and spend it slowly. If we don't use all the points when renovating the lounge, we can use them when playing games. We can play without spending points, but we'll have more fun if we spend them."
After the three of them had decorated their lounge to their liking, Lu Xuan let them choose the games that interested them.
As expected, Lu Qing preferred casual games, farm games, and dress-up games, which suited her taste perfectly.
Lei Yan and Lu Chen were more interested in racing and maze games.
As for combat games, perhaps due to the lingering trauma of the recent beast attack, all three seemed somewhat reluctant to participate.
Fortunately, after contacting Zhang Chengming and others, Lu Xuan confirmed that many young adults were still interested in combat games, so at least he didn't have to worry that he would only be able to play single-player games.
By the way, all games have a character customization system, and it's completely free.
How many modern gamers are addicted to character creation and can't extricate themselves? How much more so would ancient people, who were experiencing this magical thing for the first time?
Especially for women, they may not show it on a daily basis, but they will definitely have some dissatisfaction with themselves in private.
With the character customization system, you can change your appearance however you like.
Everyone was engrossed in creating a face and figure that was even more beautiful than their current one, and some, like Su Ying, were so confident in their appearance that they wanted to create an identical face.
Some players were so engrossed in the game that they didn't even get to actually enter the game on the first day.
Men shouldn't assume that women don't care about appearance; a third of them also can't stop sculpting faces.
Some people want to sculpt a more handsome appearance for themselves, while others feel they are too thin and want to sculpt a tall and strong body, especially with eight-pack abs being an absolute must.
After discovering that the system featured the physiques of European and American bodybuilding coaches, some people tentatively created one for themselves and found that they actually had a voluptuous figure. While secretly marveling at the amazing results, they quietly returned to their normal physique.
Once you're in the game, you'll run into other people, and it's too embarrassing for them to see you. It's better to just play with it privately when no one's around, cough.
Lu Xuan wasn't very interested in these things. He simply created a random, unfamiliar body with the same physique as his current one and started playing a mecha combat game.
Just as he was engrossed in the game, the game system reminded him: there was external contact, do you want to temporarily disconnect from the game?
Lu Xuan raised an eyebrow. Weren't we all in the holographic world? Where did this external contact come from? Could it be that Huo Tiankuo has arrived?
Only after taking off the helmet did I realize that it was Lu Chen.
Lu Xuan asked in surprise, "Why did you back out?"
How could a child who was experiencing a holographic game for the first time have such strong self-control?
Unexpectedly, Lu Chen looked indignant and said, "The intelligent system forcibly kicked me out, saying it was some kind of anti-addiction measure for minors."
Lu Xuan: "?"
Does Star Alliance also have an anti-addiction mode for minors?
The viewers who had been sharing Lu Xuan's first-person perspective were stunned for a moment, then belatedly realized what this was about, and while trying not to laugh, they explained the Star Alliance's anti-addiction system to Lu Xuan.
The Star Alliance provides comprehensive protection for minors in all aspects, including the holographic world, which is most likely to be addictive.
According to the Star Alliance Holographic Law, minors under the age of 15 can only stay in the holographic world for a maximum of three hours per day, while those aged 15-20 can stay for a maximum of six hours.
An hour and a half had passed since they entered the holographic world, which was exactly the time when Lu Chen was being guarded against.
Lu Xuan rubbed Lu Chen's head and said gloatingly, "This is a rule set by the gods. Children can only play for a maximum of one and a half hours a day. Let's continue tomorrow. Don't you have classes? You should have quit anyway."
Lu Chen: "!!!"
How can they be the same? QAQ!
He'll attend classes, but he also wants to play games!
Zhang Dafu, Mei Cheng, Xiong Dabao, and other kids who were also forced to leave quickly came to the door. Then a group of children gathered together indignantly, feeling that the gods were discriminating against them, which was too unfair!
Adults have so many things to do and don't have that much time to play games. Adults are the ones who should be the ones prevented from becoming addicted!
The games should be left for them to play!
But the real tragedy wasn't that these kids were just powerless and furious, but that a group of seventeen or eighteen-year-olds led by Li Tuo.
Even though they were already of marriageable age in ancient times, Ye Jing had even given birth to a child not long ago, and Xu Wenze and Wei Qiaoqiao were also a couple, they were both blocked by the anti-addiction system.
Although three hours is not a short time, others can play for as long as they want, but they are treated as minors. It's too shameful!
But no matter how humiliating it was, there was nothing that could be done. No matter how powerful Lu Xuan was, he couldn't challenge the Star Alliance's technology.
In the end, the few could only console themselves.
Ye Jing thought to herself that she also had to take care of her son, so she couldn't possibly play every day anyway;
Xu Wenze felt that he still had to prepare lessons and teach the children, so three hours of playtime a day was enough. Playing too much would prevent him from setting a good example for the children, which was fine.
Unable to console himself, Li Tuo, feeling depressed, could only frequently bother Li Jing, who was engrossed in raising chickens and ducks in a farm game.
Li Jing: "..." You really are my younger brother.
As people get more and more into the game, some can't resist spending money on in-game purchases.
At first, the villagers really didn't expect to spend money on a game. How could they not understand the principle that playing games can lead to the loss of ambition?
However, the farm game allows you to spend money to speed up crop growth, which is equivalent to experiencing the effects of wood-based and time-based superpowers.
Those who have long coveted these two superpowers could hardly resist.
For those who play racing games, do you want some cool racing cars?
Playing mech games, with high-performance custom mechs and high-energy weapons that can wipe out the enemy team with a single shot—who would play that for free?
Needless to say, women playing dress-up games have to spend points to buy all the limited-edition clothes and jewelry.
There's also a ranking system for character outfits in the game.
If one person spends money to get on the list, the others will be unable to resist.
In particular, purchasing premium outfits will be announced throughout the entire game, allowing the spender to show off.
The women, enjoying this treatment for the first time, were overjoyed by the praise in the game's announcement.
It's just points, right? I'll just top up.
Anyway, we have so much meat at home that we can't possibly eat it all, and we can't stockpile nutritional supplements, salt, and sugar indefinitely. The extra meat is just sitting there anyway, so what's wrong with exchanging it for some points to make something fun?
At first, those who spent money on in-game purchases were relatively restrained, only spending twenty or thirty kilograms of meat to exchange for a thousand or eight hundred points.
Later I found that I didn't have enough points, so I recharged them.
The points increased from 1,800 to 2,000, 3,000 to 5,000, and kept increasing.
Lu Xuan: "..." Sure enough, women's money has always been the easiest to earn throughout history.
Viewers in the live stream also sighed, saying that the Star Alliance had really done a terrible thing, corrupting the pure and simple ancient people.
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Author's Note: Today's thank-you list:
Reader "小琳儿cy" added 50 units of nutrient solution to the water.
Reader "Azhan" added 10 units of nutrient solution to the water.
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