Chapter 193, exclusively published on Jinjiang Literature City: The Busy Peak Cold Season...
Lu Xuan ignored the points rewards and the spatial ring, his gaze immediately fixed on the 'holographic helmet'.
According to the product description, the holographic helmet is a convenient device for playing Star Alliance holographic games. It comes pre-installed with all the popular Star Alliance holographic games, and you can enter the holographic world and play freely by connecting with your mental energy.
Its advantages are its small size, portability, and ease of use when going out.
The downside is that the maximum online time is only 20 hours.
According to the audience, the Covenant also has a holographic game pod that looks somewhat like a medical pod. After being injected with a special nutrient solution, it provides players with the nutrients they need to survive for seven days.
If someone continuously provides additional nutrients, the time can be extended to one to three months.
If you want to stay online longer, you can purchase a more advanced gaming pod with a massage function to avoid problems such as muscle atrophy.
It is said that high-end gaming pods can stay online for three years without any problems.
It's theoretically possible to go even further, but no one in the Star Alliance has tried it yet, or perhaps someone has tried it but hasn't made it public.
However, Lu Xuan currently does not have a game pod or the ability to unlock and purchase game content, so he doesn't need to consider this too much for the time being.
Lu Xuan took out the holographic helmet and looked at it.
The helmet's color is very similar to the first aircraft I bought, with an overall silver-white color. The front has lenses similar to the holographic glasses used in training equipment, and its shape is somewhat like a motorcycle helmet, only with smoother lines and a more technological feel.
Lu Xuan weighed the helmet in his hand, not in a hurry to put it on, but instead asked the audience: "Holographic games require an internet connection to play, right? I can't connect to the Star Alliance, so isn't this helmet useless?"
[If you can't connect to the StarNet, you can still play offline games!]
[The streamer has a signal tower, right? He can connect to the local area network. If he buys a few more helmets and sells them to other players, he can lane against other players in this plane.]
Lu Xuan raised an eyebrow.
Playing games with people from this dimension?
Playing games isn't fun if there aren't enough players; getting enough players isn't an easy task.
Lu Xuan glanced at the comments and a thought struck him. He opened the store and searched for keywords, and sure enough, he found that the purchase permission for the holographic helmet had been unlocked.
The price isn't expensive; a regular holographic helmet costs only 10,000 points, while a more stylish custom version ranges from 20,000 to 100,000 points.
The helmet awarded as an achievement reward is the 50,000-point model.
Lu Xuan looked through all the different styles of holographic helmets and then searched for holographic game pods.
As expected, it is still locked and the price is unknown.
However, viewers mentioned in the live chat that the gaming pod costs ten to twenty times more than a holographic helmet, roughly between two hundred thousand and one million.
Furthermore, the energy consumed by the gaming pod and the price of the special nutrient solution are not cheap.
Overall, it's a high-end product that only the wealthy can afford; ordinary people in the Star Alliance still use holographic helmets.
After getting a general understanding, Lu Xuan put on the holographic helmet and used his mental power to access the holographic world.
Upon first entering the holographic world, a newcomer guide is provided, and Lu Xuan quickly grasped the general rules using the guide.
First of all, regardless of where they are on the planet, all users will enter the same community after entering the holographic world.
The community can accommodate hundreds of millions of people online at the same time, and therefore its scale is infinite.
If friends or relatives on different planets want to meet in the holographic world, they can be teleported there by providing their coordinates and paying a certain fee. The teleportation fee within the same planet is only 100 star coins.
Because Lu Xuan is not a member of the Star Alliance, the intelligent navigation system automatically changed his currency to points, meaning that teleportation would require ten points.
The price can vary several times depending on the distance to different planets, but even the most remote planet will only cost a maximum of 100 points to teleport to the central star system.
If you really can't bear to part with your points, you can directly arrange to meet up with the other person in a specific game.
Nevertheless, the existence of holographic communities still greatly facilitates long-distance communication.
If Lu Xuan were to sell holographic helmets in large quantities to people in this plane, they could easily communicate face-to-face in the holographic world no matter how far apart they were, which would be extremely convenient.
Lu Xuan murmured, "No wonder the helmet isn't called a gaming helmet, but a holographic helmet."
Because the holographic world isn't just for playing games; it can also be used for social interaction and entertainment.
Most of the Star Alliance's merchants have stores in the holographic world, but because Lu Xuan cannot connect to the Star Network, all the stores in the community are currently closed and appear empty.
In addition, all users who enter will automatically receive a free private lounge, a private space belonging to the user, where they can invite close friends and family to enter. Uninvited people cannot force their way in.
The initial lounge is only ten square meters and is completely empty; users need to fill it in themselves.
If you want to expand the area or renovate the interior, you can click on the renovation function to purchase the corresponding items.
The price per square meter increases by 1000 points, and the interior decoration includes wallpaper, furniture, and a projection screen, etc.
Wallpaper and standard tables and chairs are available for free; everything else is chargeable.
The prices aren't expensive; they're generally one-hundredth to one-tenth the price of the actual item, ranging from tens of points to thousands of points.
The projection screen can be used to watch movies, listen to music, watch the gameplay of players who are allowed to spectate in various games, and broadcast live matches of certain games.
Movies and music are copyrighted and require payment to watch. Player gameplay footage and match footage may be available for free or paid, depending on the specific circumstances.
In addition to normal house interiors, the lounge can be transformed into a natural environment similar to that in training equipment, as well as a space environment.
This type of decoration is relatively expensive; even those that aren't particularly realistic require thousands of points. Other decorations generally cost several thousand or even tens of thousands of points. The larger the lounge area, the more expensive it is.
Lu Xuan felt that the interior design of just the lounge alone would be enough to keep some people who like to dress up obsessed for a while.
With that in mind, Lu Xuan browsed around the home decoration store, tapping his fingers on the screen, and bought all the wallpapers and furniture that looked good in one go. Naturally, he also bought hundreds of different designs, easily spending hundreds of thousands of points.
Afterwards, I randomly picked a forest landscape and installed matching furniture and a projection screen before sitting down on the comfortable leather sofa and opening the game menu.
The games in Star Alliance are mainly divided into three categories.
Casual games, combat games, and brain-teasing puzzle games.
Casual games include farming games, board games, dress-up games, puzzle games, and racing games;
Combat games include battle royale games, MOBA games, space combat games, and RPG games that require leveling up, killing monsters (mutated plants and animals), and following the storyline.
Brain-teasing decoding games include maze games, paranormal games, escape room games, and more.
In short, the game genres are much richer than Lu Xuan had anticipated, being entirely combat-based.
By the time Lu Xuan had read through the introductions of the games that interested him, it was already close to midnight.
Lu Xuan, who had originally planned to choose one to play, thought about it and decided to give up the idea of playing the game immediately because it was so late.
After exiting the holographic world, I opened the system shop and spent over four million points to buy one hundred and fifty holographic helmets based on the number of people in the village.
If Star Alliance only had combat games rated R18 and above, Lu Xuan would probably only buy a hundred or so sets for the adults in the village.
Since there are casual games, children's games shouldn't be neglected either.
One hundred sets are the basic models with standard appearance, while the remaining dozens of sets are priced at medium and high levels, which the villagers can choose for themselves.
We'll get ten sets of the most expensive ones for our family, and others who prefer high-end items can also choose them.
·
The day after achieving this, the final peak of the extreme cold season began, with temperatures dropping to minus sixty degrees Celsius, a temperature that would last for ten days.
The villagers, wearing upgraded bio-suits, didn't find the minus ten degrees Celsius a problem.
More than temperature changes, the harvested grain today is their main concern.
The seeds used for the third batch of crops were all improved by Lu Xuan to have a higher yield. Therefore, even though a small portion of the crops were damaged in the beast attack and had to be replanted, the total yield this time still reached a new high of 500,000 jin.
Lu Xuan and the public supplies department each took 100,000 jin, and the rest belonged to the villagers.
Each household can receive 4,500 to 7,500 jin of produce depending on the area of their mu (unit of land area).
Including the previous harvest, the least affected family had saved up 8,000 catties of grain, while the most had saved up 12,000 catties.
During the rainy season, everyone gradually paid off a significant portion of their evolution fluid debt ahead of schedule, and this harvest should be enough to pay it off completely.
Yes, this only applies to households with few members.
Families like the Li and Zhang families, with large populations, have mountains of supplies, but the amount of grain harvested each time is limited. The cost of the evolution fluid cannot be settled with other resources, making it difficult to pay off the debt early.
Even if we use the large amount of meat we stockpile to exchange for more of the grain that was allocated to the public, we can only repay about 70% at most.
The remaining 30% can only be repaid next year.
Even so, Lu Xuan still managed to acquire over 300,000 jin of grain.
Including the 100,000 jin that originally belonged to him, 80% of this harvest went into his hands.
[Oh, so all the villagers' hard work just ended up benefiting the streamer?]
[No, no, no, to be precise, these food livestreamers also have to return them to the Covenant. The biggest winner is the Covenant!]
The Star Alliance will get the food, but they'll have to grow it and then sell it to us. So, the real winners are us!
Actually, the villagers didn't lose out; they just received the evolution fluid in advance.
However, Lu Xuan's recent gains are far more than that.
Yunlu Village was hit by a beast tide, so how could Huo Family Army, which was not far from them, possibly escape unscathed?
Afterwards, Lu Xuan contacted Huo Tiankuo and learned that Huo's army had also been attacked by a horde of beasts, on a much larger scale than usual, but not as exaggerated as the attack on Yunlu Village.
After the Huo family army harvested grain last time, in addition to exchanging ten vials of evolution fluid for public supplies, Huo Tiankuo and Lu Xuan also exchanged a lot of hypnotic grenades and matching gas masks in order to minimize casualties during the beast attack.
Throwing hypnotic grenades requires some throwing ability, but not much strength.
When the beast tide arrived, Huo's army and other able-bodied men joined forces. With their superior numbers and the fact that the beast tide was only about one-third the size of the one in Yunlu Village, the battle was finally over in less than two hours.
About a hundred people were injured, but none died, and the harvest was also very considerable, with nearly four million catties of meat obtained.
One million two hundred thousand catties of public supplies were left behind, and the rest were distributed according to regulations.
The elderly, women and children received more than 600 jin, the able-bodied men received more than 600 jin, and each of the personal guards received more than 1,200 jin!
After confirming that there would be no more beast attacks in the short term, Huo Tiankuo led his men to Yunlu Village and conducted a large-scale transaction with Lu Xuan.
He replaced all the hypnotic bullets with a new batch and also bought 30 vials of evolution fluid, almost emptying Lu Xuan's inventory.
Huo Tiankuo had already exchanged 15 items, exceeding the initial quota, but he was willing to "pay more," paying an extra 30% for the supplies, and even saying it was an advance payment for the next three months' worth.
Lu Xuan thought about it and agreed.
Three days ago, the ten doses of evolution fluid added five more ability users to the Huo family army: two with strength enhancement, one with speed enhancement, and one with fire and earth abilities.
After using up these 30 tubes, the Huo family army should be able to gain a dozen or so more superhumans.
In addition to the evolution fluid, Huo Tiankuo also purchased 100,000 jin of nutrient solution, salt, sugar, medicine and other strategic materials, as well as dozens of space rings and bracelets of different capacities, also in 100,000 jin portions.
The audience was quite surprised that Huo Tiankuo bought so much space.
Even if a 1,000-cubic-meter space isn't enough to hold their supplies, they don't need to buy so many at once. Will they be able to use them all?
Since you've finally managed to get so much meat all at once, why not stock up on it?
Lu Xuan said, "How do you know he bought it for his own use?"
Although Huo Tiankuo didn't say it explicitly, based on his speculation, the extra space was mostly what Huo Tiankuo planned to hand over to the imperial court after contacting the capital in the future.
Huo Tiankuo was, after all, a general. He couldn't possibly keep all the benefits for himself; otherwise, he would be waiting to be purged.
[Tsk, as expected of the wicked ancient feudal society; even those who received benefits had to hand over the lion's share.]
So, those in power can just sit back and reap the spoils of war earned by the Huo family army after all their hard work? They're really good at getting a bargain!
[Ahhh, I feel so sorry for Huo Tiankuo! Why bother paying taxes? You've already awakened your superpowers, why not just rise up in rebellion and become emperor yourself? You could keep all the benefits for yourself.]
[Huo Tiankuo enjoys such high prestige among the people; given his character, unless the ruler is a tyrant or a foolish one, it's unlikely he would rebel.]
[The Star Alliance is still better. Although new resources need to be handed over, the first person to discover them receives a significant percentage.]
[If it were Huo Tiankuo, and he kept too many, there's no guarantee that his superiors wouldn't take notice.]
[Actually, now that he possesses lightning-based superpowers, he's bound to be feared no matter what he does.]
The audience then engaged in a heated discussion on this point, referencing other ancient-themed live streams they had watched, and various ideas about power struggles and intrigues emerged.
Lu Xuan: "..." This isn't a political intrigue livestream, understand?
Lu Xuan didn't care what situation Huo Tiankuo would face in the future, or what his relationship with the new court would be like after the catastrophe.
All he needed to know was that Huo Tiankuo could provide him with a million catties of meat at once.
As a trading partner, that alone is enough.
This is only part of the large-scale transactions.
With so much meat suddenly coming in, how could the disaster victims not spend it?
It's perfectly normal to switch from a regular biosuit to an upgraded one, or to grit your teeth and buy one with a smaller space.
Because there's so much meat, many disaster victims don't even want the smallest 5-cubic-meter space.
Most people bought 10 cubic meters of space, while the soldiers mainly bought 50 cubic meters, and a small number of young men also gritted their teeth and chose to buy 50 cubic meters.
One-third of the people in the entire camp bought space.
The others who didn't buy it either couldn't bear to part with it, or they were with other families, and naturally, one space is enough for a family.
The space and bio-suits obtained from the blind boxes were far from enough to meet the demand of the disaster victims, so Lu Xuan bought several hundred more from the system store at the original price to satisfy their needs.
With a total investment of less than five million yuan, they obtained 700,000 jin of meat.
With so many people buying, Huo Tiankuo didn't intentionally limit the number of people who could have a space.
The disaster victims weren't stupid; they had plenty of money, and each of them bought a few sleeping pills for self-defense, so outsiders couldn't easily do anything to them.
Lu Xuan bought back the 1.7 million catties of meat given to him by Huo Jiajun and the 400,000 catties of grain obtained from the village, making a profit of 520 million yuan.
·
After a new batch of grain was planted, the village once again set up a new round of processing work.
We have to process it; there's just too much meat, it takes up too much space.
Because of the sheer quantity, even processing half of it requires a significant amount of manpower and time.
The Lu family was particularly bad at this.
At first, Lu Qing and Lu Chen were unaware that Lu Xuan had already recycled and processed most of the meat.
Lu Qing also remarked, "Five million catties of meat, it might take a month to process it all."
Lu Chen shook his head and sighed, pretending to be mature, "There's so much meat, and there are only four of us. Even if we eat meat every day from now on, we still won't be able to finish it all."
Lu Xuan smiled and said, "There isn't that much meat. I've already given most of it to the immortals."
"Huh?" Lu Qing and Lei Yan looked surprised. "Don't immortals eat nutrient solutions? Do they need meat too?"
Lu Xuan said, "Immortals eat nutrient solutions because there is little meat available in the immortal realm. Besides, if I don't trade meat to them, how can I conjure up so many useful treasures?"
The family members suddenly realized.
That's true.
Lu Xuan couldn't create things out of thin air, so the more good things he brought out, the more resources he would provide to the gods.
Lu Xuan usually doesn't emphasize this point, so they almost forgot about such an important one.
This explains why Lu Xuan's Space X Bracelet, despite not increasing in size, could still hold all the resources he acquired.
It turns out that the lion's share was given to the gods!
"So, all those five million catties, all that meat, is gone?" Lu Chen, who had just been pretending, couldn't help but cover his chest with his small hand, looking utterly shocked.
Lu Xuan chuckled. "Is five million catties a lot? Compared to the treasure I desire most, this amount of supplies is far from enough."
"What!?" Lu Qing and her husband were shocked again.
What extraordinary treasure could Lu Xuan possibly want that so much meat couldn't buy?
Lu Chen became increasingly unsteady as he listened, and said tremblingly, "Then will our family still be able to eat meat in the future?"
Surely, while everyone else is eating meat to their heart's content, their family has to cut back on food and clothing? No way, right?
Lei Yan thought of his share of over 60,000 jin still in his hands, and was about to speak to comfort him when he heard Lu Xuan say with a smile, "Don't worry, you won't go hungry. I didn't give it all away; I left some."
Lu Chen looked nervous: "A little? How much is that? Is it enough?"
Lu Xuan said leisurely, "Five hundred thousand catties."
Most of them are beef, which is not usually available, and there are also some venison, longhorn sheep, and so on.
The Lu family: "!!!" Didn't we leave behind a lot?
Lu Chen patted his chest and breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, there was enough meat to eat.
With the issue of eating meat resolved, the topic returned to its original point.
Lu Qing: "500,000 jin is still not a small amount, and it will probably take quite a long time to process."
Lei Yan: "We definitely need to keep more fresh meat; we can't process it all. Ah Xuan, how much are you planning to process? How many people do we need to hire?"
Lu Xuan: "Let's process 100,000 jin first, and as for the hired help... let's have 200 people."
To save time, the others mainly rendered lard, salted it to make simple cured meat, and then made meatballs.
But he was unwilling to compromise.
In addition to the common processed products mentioned above, we plan to make ham, braised meat, cured meat, dried meat, jerky, meat floss, minced meat sauce, and meat paste—we don't intend to miss any of the products that can be made.
With more complex processing steps, the time required will naturally increase exponentially.
The only way to improve efficiency is to increase manpower.
Two hundred people, ten days should be enough.
...
Other families in the village also hired a lot of helpers, and in the end, the whole village hired a total of 500 helpers.
With so many people and so much meat, the processing shed couldn't hold it all, so everyone simply started working outside in a flurry of activity.
Fortunately, the snow stopped completely after the beast tide, and there won't be any more snow afterward. Everyone is wearing upgraded bio-suits and isn't afraid of the cold.
More than a dozen large meat grinders and hundreds of iron pots newly made by Lu Xuan using his metal-type superpower were set up on the open ground outside the village. Inside, some were boiling large amounts of lard, while others were frying pots full of various meatballs. The scene looked indescribably spectacular.
With the help of the machine, Lu Xuan, who had not yet fully recovered from his exhaustion, did not use his wind-based abilities to help grind the meat as he used to. Instead, he sat aside and encouraged the production of the insufficient spices.
While the helpers were busy, the villagers were not idle either.
They don't mess with the meat, they mess with the fur.
The beast tide left them with more than 20,000 intact hides and damaged but barely usable hides.
Lu Xuan took 10,000 cards, while the others received anywhere from 40 to 300 cards.
With so much leather, I can make a lot of things.
For example, Su Ying made several huge wool rugs, one for the living room and one for her and Xiong Mao's room. The soft and pure white rugs looked incredibly luxurious.
Xiong Dabao's room also has one, but it's made of gray rabbit fur.
The white one turned black in less than two days; it's such a waste.
Seeing Su Ying's actions, many other women were inspired to follow suit, and in no time, the interior decoration of many homes became more upscale.
Besides wool rugs, they also make scarves, shawls, capes, and more from fox and rabbit fur.
Deer hide is mainly used to make boots, and cowhide is used to make bags. Each item is made in more than one piece, and in more than one style. The specific style is designed using a garment-making machine.
The women even specially selected the highest quality and softest parts of the processed leather to make a batch of premium items, intending to keep them as family heirlooms or as betrothal gifts when someone in the family gets married.
Once the fur products were finished, many people couldn't wait to put them on.
With the help of the garment-making machine, these clothes and items would not look crude even by modern standards, and for a time the entire Yunlu Village was filled with wealth.
Looking at the younger generation in her family, all dressed in new leather boots and carrying exquisite leather bags, Miao Jinfeng couldn't help but sigh to Li Tie, "I used to think that the beast tide would bring us great disaster, but now it seems that it is clearly bringing us wealth."
Millions of kilograms of meat and at least dozens of extra leather goods for each household—isn't that a huge fortune?
Li Tie was touching the new carpets that the workers had made when he glanced at Miao Jinfeng and deliberately said, "Then why don't you pray to God to send us another batch?"
Miao Jinfeng's expression changed drastically, and she immediately changed her tune: "What do you mean, another batch! Bah, don't talk nonsense!"
This time they resolved the issue without any injuries, but who can guarantee that an accident won't happen every time?
One such experience is terrifying enough; another one and she'd be scared half to death.
Li Tie chuckled and said, "Don't worry, there shouldn't be any more."
During the past few days, Lu Xuan and Li Jing went out to patrol every day to check on the movements of wild animals, and the night watchmen also observed the situation at night.
After several days, it has been basically confirmed that the Red Moon and the Beast Attack have completely disappeared.
After confirming that there were no more large herds of animals in the wild, the hunting team immediately resumed winter fishing and notified the Huo family army as well.
In order to make up for the losses, he worked from early morning to late at night for five consecutive days, and almost made up for the profits that should have been earned in the previous month.
However, for the helpers who had finally finished processing most of the meat, the extra fish was a bittersweet experience.
The peak of the extreme cold, which should have meant staying put, passed quickly amidst everyone's tireless work day and night.
When the helpers finally finished processing all the meat and fish, the darkness that had lasted for more than a month finally dissipated, and beams of light pierced the pitch-black night sky, illuminating the earth once again.
The long polar night has finally ended.
-----------------------
Author's note: Hunting and consuming wild animals is illegal in real life. The story only requires plot purposes; please do not imitate it!
——
Special thanks to today: Changyushan threw a landmine.
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