Chapter 195, exclusively published on Jinjiang Literature City: Let's go to the beach!
While the villagers were dazzled by the colorful holographic world and holographic game enthusiasts, Huo Tiankuo made a special visit.
The recent rapid rise in temperature has caused the ice on the frozen lake to melt quickly, making winter fishing impossible.
While it would be convenient to skip the ice-breaking step and continue fishing directly from the lake, they already have no shortage of supplies or fish, so there's no need to exhaust the resources.
Huo Tiankuo came to Yunlu Village partly to personally thank Lu Xuan for helping the camp build ten acres of mushroom houses, which provided them with another stable source of income.
On the other hand, Yunlu Village has fallen into complete silence since the five hundred helpers returned to camp after processing meat and fish for the village for more than ten days.
They stopped looking for help, and they no longer went to hot springs or went hunting.
Calling the village chief or Lu Xuan often required several attempts before someone answered, and the call would be cut off after only a few words.
The strange phenomenon aroused Huo Tiankuo's suspicions, and he even wondered if Yunlu Village was too wealthy and had been robbed by someone without his knowledge.
But thinking about Lu Xuan, who could wipe out tens of thousands of beasts, he felt that there was no one in the world who could plunder him, and that he was probably overthinking it.
When Huo Tiankuo finally arrived at the Lu family home and met Lu Xuan in person, he learned that the village's quietness was actually because everyone was busy playing games.
Huo Tiankuo: "..."
Huo Tiankuo was not interested in these things at first.
In his view, games, like gambling dens, easily corrupt people's hearts.
Lu Xuan said, "Holographic games include combat games. The general can have his personal guards play only combat games as a form of real combat training."
Huo Tiankuo: "..." I'm a little tempted.
He had always coveted the holographic training equipment in Yunlu Village, and only after confirming that combat games could indeed play a similar role did he buy a batch of helmets to take back with him.
Then, it spiraled out of control.
The guards really only play combat games.
However, there are even more ways to spend money in combat games, and the soldiers themselves are willing to ask Lu Xuan to "recharge" their accounts, which Huo Tiankuo can't control.
After learning about the existence of the holographic helmet from the soldiers, the disaster victims went to Yunlu Village to buy the helmets with the fish they had caught during the winter fishing season, making it even more difficult for Huo Tiankuo to stop them.
In just three days, the number of players in this world has increased from a little over a hundred to nearly two thousand.
Because of the short time frame, the novelty of each game hadn't worn off yet, so everyone played a relatively concentrated range of games, with at least two or three hundred players in each genre.
With more people, a competitive spirit also emerges.
The disaster victims don't have enough resources to match the wealthy people of Yunlu Village, so let's change our strategy: if we don't have enough supplies, we'll make up for it with time! Let's grind it out!
The disaster victims worked tirelessly, the villagers spent money on in-game purchases, and the two sides were locked in a life-and-death struggle in a holographic world, oblivious to the passage of time.
·
The Li family.
"Are you going to eat or not, Li Tuo? Come down here!" After calling for a long time without seeing anyone come down, Miao Jinfeng came to Li Tuo's room and knocked on the holographic helmet.
A moment later, Li Tuo followed Miao Jinfeng downstairs, still complaining, "Why is it time to eat again so soon? What a hassle."
Miao Jinfeng rolled her eyes at him and said irritably, "You find eating troublesome, but don't you find living troublesome?"
She turned to Li Tie and complained, "Look at him, he's been getting more and more outrageous these past few days. Yesterday I got up in the middle of the night and passed by his room, and I found that he wasn't even sleeping, he was still playing!"
She admitted that holographic games are quite fun.
Farming games and card games are both quite fun.
But everything should be done in moderation. It's too much to play to the point of neglecting sleep and meals and not even planning to live a proper life.
Li Jing and Wu Yinyin, equally engrossed in the game, quietly shrank back to minimize their presence.
Because there are no anti-addiction measures in place, they play for even longer than Li Tuo every day, but they still log off early when it's time for meals, so it doesn't interfere with their sleep at night.
Li Tuo doesn't sleep because he's single, but they aren't.
Li Tie said while eating, "The hunting team has been resting lately, so playing games is just a way to relax. It's not a big deal."
Miao Jinfeng gave her a look that said, "You're too naive."
"He not only plays games, but he also spends a lot of points in the game."
Li Kangbao, who was at the bottom of the family and could only play for an hour and a half a day, said quietly while eating, "Grandma, you've been singing a lot while you're working these past few days. I remember Brother Lu Xuan said that listening to songs also costs points."
Miao Jinfeng, who had recently become addicted to listening to music, blushed and said, "Listening to music only costs a few points, how can it compare to playing games? Stop talking so much."
Li Tie looked up at Li Tuo and asked, "Did you spend a lot of points in the game?"
Li Tuo blinked. "There probably aren't many."
He actually only asked Lu Xuan to recharge him with three to five hundred points each time, which was just a few kilograms of grain or a dozen kilograms of meat. At first, he would remember it, but later he didn't pay much attention.
He wasn't really sure how much it cost in total.
Reminded by his mother, Li Tuo carefully calculated with his fingers, and then... his expression gradually turned horrified, he felt guilty, and cold sweat broke out.
Li Tie noticed the change in his expression, his eyelids twitched, and he asked with a stern face, "How much did you spend! Did you spend all the fish and meat that were recently allocated to you?"
“How is that possible!” Li Tuo blurted out, “It only cost a third of it.”
Upon hearing this, not only did Li Tie and Miao Jinfeng's expressions change, but even the youngest, Li Kangbao, couldn't help but widen his eyes after doing a quick calculation.
Wow!
Li Tie roared, "One-third?! You spent thousands of kilograms of resources just to play a game?!"
The grain allocated to the family was not distributed because it was used to pay off debts and buy a house.
However, most of the more than 30 tons of meat obtained from the beast tide, as well as the fish that Xuehua had caught during her previous winter fishing trips, were distributed among the three children, including Li Yue.
Li Tuo's portion of fish and meat totaled over 20,000 jin, and he used up a third of it, which is six or seven thousand jin!?
Even if you ate meat at every meal, it would be enough for at least two years, but it was all gone in just four or five days?
Miao Jinfeng was also heartbroken and pointed at Li Tuo's nose, scolding, "You spendthrift son who doesn't know the value of money! Even if our family is very wealthy, we shouldn't squander it like this! Are you trying to drive us crazy?!"
She only knew that Li Tuo had spent a lot of money in the game, but she didn't know it was this much.
Li Jing and Wu Yinyin were both a little frightened.
I don't understand how Li Tuo could spend so much money on a game.
Unlike Miao Jinfeng, Li Tie didn't scold his son. Instead, he grabbed a weapon from his spatial storage to beat him up.
Startled, Li Tuo shouted, "I haven't used up all my points! There are still over 100,000 points left in my account!"
He only recharged a little bit more because he found it too troublesome to recharge every few minutes while playing.
Li Tie laughed angrily, "You still spent 200,000 of the remaining 100,000 or so? Do you think that's a small amount?"
He is one of the few who isn't very interested in games.
The village has plenty of greenhouses and livestock sheds, so there's no need to create a farm in the game.
The greatest pleasure of entering the holographic world is listening to divine music with his wife, just like he does, to avoid feeling restless and unable to sleep like during the polar night.
Buying a song only costs one point, and a pound of supplies can be exchanged for 100 points, which is enough for him to listen to for a long time.
Even if he occasionally watches animal documentaries that have been released for copyright, an hour-long documentary only costs ten points, and he can watch them repeatedly. In five days, he didn't even spend five hundred points in total.
The father scrimps and saves, while the son squanders money like crazy. That brat is asking for it and deserves a beating!
Li Tie chased Li Tuo around the house several times, hitting him repeatedly without any politeness. He only stopped when he was panting heavily. Then, as if remembering something, he turned around and glared at his eldest son and his wife.
"You guys don't spend money like that, do you?"
Li Jing and Wu Yinyin's skin tightened, and they quickly shook their heads, "Of course not."
Li Jing has been playing farm games these past few days. Since he is a wood-type ability user, he can activate an ability mode in the game, which allows him to accelerate crop growth without spending money.
Wu Yinyin spent a lot of money playing dress-up games, but it wasn't as extravagant as Li Tuo's.
Besides, in addition to the small family fortune she shared with Li Jing, she also had the supplies her father and brother had given her, so she was much more confident than Li Tuo.
Li Tie snorted, "It's best if there isn't one. You still have children to raise, and you're the eldest in your family, so you can't lead the way in doing whatever you want."
After saying that, he became increasingly annoyed with Li Tuo and scolded him for a while, even sternly warning him: "If you continue to squander your money, your mother will keep all your supplies from now on, and you won't get any!"
Li Tuo was naturally unwilling.
A man can't go out without some supplies in his pocket, so he quickly promised not to spend money recklessly in the future. Then, fearing that his parents would continue to scold him, he hurriedly finished his meal and quickly slipped upstairs.
Miao Jinfeng said angrily, "He's definitely going to play games again. I don't think the anti-addiction measures can stop him at all."
It's said that those under 20 can only play for three hours, but that only means they can't play the game; it doesn't affect their ability to stay in the lounge and watch others play.
You can still spend points if you stay in the lounge.
Miao Jinfeng felt that things couldn't continue like this, and suggested to Li Tie, "We still need to find him something to do, so that he won't have time to play games."
Li Tie was exhausted and thirsty from disciplining his son. He picked up his water glass and gulped down a cup before saying helplessly, "The reason everyone in the village has been playing games lately is because they were exhausted a while ago and wanted to rest. Besides, we don't lack anything now, so what could possibly happen?"
Miao Jinfeng's heart skipped a beat: "Then let's find him a wife as soon as possible! With a wife keeping an eye on him, he won't dare to squander resources."
Wu Yinyin thought to herself, "That's not necessarily true."
If his sister-in-law becomes as obsessed with dressing up as the other women in the village, the couple might end up spending even more money together.
This is not an exaggeration; it's not just the men in the village who are addicted to games these days.
Among their families, only Li Tuo spends a lot of money on in-game purchases; it's not necessarily the case for other families.
For example, she knew that Su Ying alone spent no less than three thousand kilograms of resources to buy all kinds of beautiful clothes and jewelry accessories in the dress-up game.
However, her husband Xiong Mao indulged her every whim and didn't mind her spending money. On the contrary, he would rather not spend any money himself than let Su Ying buy whatever she wanted.
Other families are different.
I didn’t realize anything while I was spending the money, but after I finished the game and checked the accounts, I found that thousands of kilograms of supplies were gone!
Now look what's happened! The people who spent the money immediately started blaming each other for spending so much.
Some of them have explosive tempers and have already fought several times.
But complaining and blaming are one thing, but it's too late to stop them from spending money on in-game purchases...
Once the door is opened, it can never be closed again. At most, they can only stipulate how much each person can spend. Once that's exceeded, no more spending is allowed. Just hold back.
But overall, married people don't spend as much as single men like Li Tuo who only have one person to feed and no family to worry about.
Older people don't spend as much as younger people.
Even so, the village elders still had many complaints about it.
“Recently, several of my younger family members have been wearing holographic helmets from morning till night and don’t want to take them off. They are completely mesmerized.”
“I used to say that people with superpowers eat too much, and that they would not agree to eat a nutritional supplement. But now, they play games so much that they think eating is a waste of time, and they just use a nutritional supplement. Don’t they feel ashamed of their own words?”
“I heard that Li Tuo spent several thousand kilograms of resources playing a game. That’s outrageous. I have to keep a close eye on my son. If I’m not careful, he’ll squander the whole family’s wealth.”
"Isn't there any way to deal with these young people who don't know their place?"
"Exactly! If this continues, people will be ruined."
"Why don't we ask Lu Xuan?"
Lu Xuan, who was also addicted to games and casually spent millions of points in the game: "..."
The viewers in the live stream burst into laughter: [Haha, they've even given these ancient people internet addiction! The streamer is truly sinful!]
Faced with the expectations of the village chief, Grandpa Zhang, and even carpenter Ye and other elders, Lu Xuan simply said, "Confiscate their helmets, or cut off their internet access."
Grandpa Zhang exclaimed, "Ah! Can the internet be cut off to just one person?"
Lu Xuan said, "No, if the internet is cut off, no one can play."
Li Tie and the others: "..."
That's probably not going to work.
Although they complained that the younger generation in their family were too addicted to games, they themselves also needed to go online from time to time to listen to music and play games, so they couldn't be without internet.
The group exchanged glances and said, "Let's just confiscate the helmets!"
"We can set a limit on how long they can play each day, and confiscate their helmets if they exceed that time, then give them back the next day."
"That's good. Without the helmets, they can't spend points in the game anymore if they want to play."
"That's right, it won't interfere with important business."
"Then let's do it this way."
...
With the powerful weapon of 'confiscating helmets,' the bad habit of young people in the village playing games day and night has finally been curbed.
Zhang Chengming and the others were initially a little annoyed, but after calming down, they realized that they had indeed gone a bit too far recently, so they stopped complaining and refocused their attention on the important matter at hand.
The midnight sun continues, but the snow has completely melted, and greenery has reappeared in the barren wilderness and on the mountains.
It's already late March, the time when wild vegetables are growing like crazy in spring. In fact, due to the abnormal weather caused by the disaster, it's already a bit late.
Having finally found traces of wild vegetables, the long-dormant gathering team regrouped. Except for Lu Qing and Ke Wei, who were not physically able, the others were in high spirits and began their first harvest of the new year.
The hunting party members went along to provide protection, help pick wild vegetables, or gather more firewood to take home.
In short, when you're busy, you won't be thinking about playing games all day.
There are many kinds of wild vegetables in spring, and it is the time when they are most tender and delicious.
Shepherd's purse, dandelion, purslane, bracken, toon, elm seeds, locust flowers, lamb's quarters... there are so many delicious foods, you can't even count them all.
The collection team took a casual stroll around the hills and two hilltops with greenhouses built on them. When they returned, each person had several large baskets of wild vegetables in their space.
Before the disaster, the villagers of Yunlu Village picked wild vegetables simply to add a dish to their meals; it's impossible to say they particularly liked them.
But nowadays, because every household has too much meat stored up, they eat a lot of meat and fish at every meal, and eight out of ten people get a sore throat from eating too much meat. Wild vegetables have arrived at just the right time.
Whether it's dandelion, which can be eaten directly with dipping sauce after being cleaned, or other wild vegetables that need to be blanched to remove bitterness and then used in cold dishes or soups, they are all perfect for cooling down and refreshing the palate.
The Lu family.
Because of Lu Qing's physical limitations, her family did not receive a share of wild vegetables from the gathering team.
But it doesn't matter, exchanging supplies for public supplies is the same.
Stir-fried bracken, cold purslane salad, scrambled eggs with toon sprouts, shepherd's purse and tofu soup, locust flower and egg pancakes, and elm seed steamed buns—every dish or staple food is quickly devoured as soon as it's served.
Not only did Lu Xuan and his three companions love to eat, but the viewers in the live stream also missed dishes made with wild vegetables after being away for several months. They didn't mind the vegetables being plain at all and ate with great relish.
After eating so many delicacies, wild vegetables taste so good once in a while!
I used to think wild vegetables were a bit bitter and not very tasty, but now I realize that the bitterness is just right.
[Actually, wild vegetables in spring are much more tender than those in summer and autumn, and the bitterness is not obvious. Anyway, I really like them, and I strongly request the streamer to give away some wild vegetables.]
Lu Xuan selectively ignored this requirement.
Wild vegetables are called wild vegetables because they grow wildly in the wild.
Things that grow wildly naturally don't produce high yields.
They don't even have enough to eat themselves, why would they want to win a prize?
After the meal, not a single wild vegetable was left, but the meat, vegetables, and fish that were served every day were barely touched.
Lei Yan sighed, "I never thought I'd leave meat uneaten at a meal."
Lu Qing and Lu Chen also had mixed feelings.
Before the disaster, my family rarely ate meat, maybe a few times a year. When we did get to eat it, it would be devoured in no time.
Their lives have really improved, and they've become arrogant, no longer even caring about meat.
Lu Xuan looked at the meat dishes on the table and thought for a moment, then said, "Since we're tired of eating meat, it's time to change things up."
Lu Qing and the others all looked at him. "What kind of flavor do you want to try?"
Isn't today's wild vegetables a change of pace?
Lu Xuan said, "Wild vegetables are delicious, but they are too bland and don't provide enough nutrition. We still need to eat some meat."
With his round belly protruding, Lu Chen looked at the meat dishes on the table with a troubled expression. "But, brother, I really don't want to eat meat anymore."
Lu Xuan said, "If we're not eating meat, we'll have seafood. Haven't we almost finished the seafood I brought back last time? The weather has been getting warmer lately, so how about we all go for a walk on the beach? What do you all think?"
Let's go to the beach!?
Lu Qing and Lei Yan's eyes lit up at the same time.
Lu Qing clapped her hands excitedly: "Great idea! I've wanted to go ever since you came back last time. This time, let's go as a family, and I want to bring back some delicious seafood myself!"
Lei Yan then said, "Isn't it a bit inappropriate for just our family to go? Why don't we ask the other villagers as well? They should also be very interested in going to the beach."
Lu Qing nodded in agreement, "Indeed, Yin Yin, A Yue, and Su Ying also yearn for the ocean. We should ask them about it."
Lu Xuan had no objection to this.
In a sense, this can also be considered a spring outing, and it is indeed more interesting when there are more people on a spring outing.
As expected, the inquiry revealed that almost everyone in the village wanted to go along.
But the crops in the greenhouse need to be cared for, and the village can't be completely empty. What if something unexpected happens?
After discussion among the village chief and the villagers, about twenty able-bodied young men were selected, while the elderly and women stayed behind to enjoy themselves at the beach. Then, another group of people would come back to take over.
The villagers were extremely enthusiastic about going to the beach and didn't want to wait even a moment. The next morning, more than a hundred people took two hover buses and RVs to the beach.
-----------------------
Author's Note: Special thanks to: [kissing emoji]
Changyushan threw a grenade
The adorable little burdock threw a landmine.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com