The Food Problem

When Tang Yu returned to the domain, the sun was still high in the sky.

 He hadn't been out for long. He had come back in time to have a piping hot lunch.

 At this time…

 Tang Yu was in a rather sorry state.

 He wore a fighting uniform made from high-level demonized beast hide, but there was now a deep scratch on his waist. This had been created when he had carelessly allowed a demonized beast to get close and claw at him.

 This scratch was so deep that it had nearly broken through the fighting uniform. Number Two had almost failed to save its master.

 There had simply been too many demonized beasts. Number One had only managed to hold down a group, while the rest had continued to charge his way.

 All he had been able to see was a savage demonized beast. Tang Yu felt like he was in the middle of a demon flood.

 He had hastily packed crystalline ore into his backpack, and by the time he had finally retreated, the basic warrior automatons he had used as miners had been utterly dismantled.

 "Too dangerous…"

 Tang Yu frowned. The number of demonized beasts was truly surprising. He speculated that the reason was that giant tree with its translucent leaves.

 As he left, those demonized beasts had withdrawn to the base of the tree rather than continuing their pursuit.

 "But… I'll have to put the crystal vein to the side for now. There are probably even more demonized beasts under that giant tree. If they all charge up, even Number One and Number Two might not be able to hold."

 He was satisfied nonetheless.

 He looked at the three spatial backpacks with fervent eyes.

 This crystalline ore contained some amount of Origin Crystals, and he didn't need to extract the Origin Crystals from them. He took the spatial backpacks straight to a storage room in the castle.

 Whoosh!

 The ore was poured out, almost instantly filling up the rather small storage room.

 The number of Origin Crystals detected on the system menu crazily soared.

 596.

 2,635.

 6,963.

 11,596.

 "18,351.9!!"

 Tang Yu took in a deep breath. He was rich!

 How many Origin Crystals had Wang Tai accumulated over a month? Around five thousand. That was poverty levels! Perhaps that was why his shelter had been wiped out. Not even the demonized beasts could stand to see it!

 And even if Wang Tai had Origin Crystals, he didn't have any way of using them!

 Everyone knew that Origin Crystals were valuable, and the government had announced long ago that Origin Crystals could form in the bodies of demonized beasts. But for ordinary people, they were little better than jewels that could be placed on rings.

 Tang Yu would venture to guess that neither middling nor small shelters could use Origin Crystals. It was probably only the large shelters that could research and develop methods of using Origin Crystals, though their methods were probably rather crude. The majority of the Origin Crystals the government collected were probably wasted on research.

 But he was different! He could pay crystals to summon followers, pay crystals to refresh the market, pay crystals to construct buildings…

 Not only had he gained a large number of Origin Crystals, his body was brimming with Soul Energy, almost beyond the maximum of what he could take.

 After that mining trip, Tang Yu's body was even rejecting Soul Energy. This was akin to being so full after eating that one couldn't swallow anymore.

 For the first time, he discovered that there was a limit to absorbing Soul Energy. Once he refined this Soul Energy, Tang Yu was confident that he could rise to a new level.

 ...

 As Tang Yu was daydreaming, the castle's sensor system sounded off.

 This thing was similar to a doorbell, though it was much more advanced. It could identify people and transmit messages, and it didn't require any sort of operation, making it very easy to use—so easy that he didn't even know where this identification system was installed.

 Tang Yu quickly saw Chen Haiping's rather glum face.

 "Chief, if our population continues to rise like this, we'll run out of food."

 Though Chen Haiping had been assigned to the patrol team, over the last few days, he had been doing the work of a civil official. This was purely because the domain lacked the appropriate talents and could only work with what it had.

 The domain didn't have that many people, and though Chen Haiping was hard-pressed, he still managed to do the job of taking a census of the survivors well.

 This morning, he had compared the remaining amount of food, the amount of food consumed every day, and the population growth rate, upon which he instantly couldn't stay still!

 If the population continued to grow, the shelter's remaining food wouldn't be able to last for long!

 "We're running out of food? How long will it last?" Tang Yu asked.

 Chen Haiping bitterly smiled as he replied, "Based on our current population, we can probably go half a month, but the population of the shelter is increasing every day. If this continues, it will last ten days at most.

 "In addition, we've already scoured the vacation villa for resources. As for outside of it, we have Captain Roger's team going out searching every day, but the amount of food they bring back isn't much, far less than what we consume."

 Chen Haiping had not said everything. Chief Tang was giving far too much food to the survivors. Not only was he worried about filling their stomachs, but he was also providing them meat and vegetables. While it was far inferior to life before the apocalypse, it would be enough to draw the envy of those living in other shelters.

 He didn't think this was bad, but that was under the prerequisite of abundant food. Once the food ran out, Chen Haiping wondered if the shelter would immediately fall apart.

 "How did the previous shelter get its food?"

 Chen Haiping thought it over. "In the past, most of the food was found by searching outside. However, the apocalypse had just happened at the time, so each time a team went out, it could come back with a rather decent harvest. But now, the surrounding regions have been stripped bare, so each time Captain Roger goes out, he doesn't get much.

 "Captain Roger has also hunted quite a few demonized beasts and brought them back, but demonized beasts aren't like wild beasts. The majority of the meat on their bodies can't be eaten. And it's hard to tell which parts of the demonized beast are edible and which are poisonous, so hunting demonized beasts for food also isn't plausible."

 He took a breath before continuing. "Originally, Wang Tai had prepared an adequate amount of food, and he was also planning to order people to plant hardy crops with short growth cycles in the valley. I recall that he wanted to plant sweet potatoes, potatoes, and rice. But those crops were destroyed by the demonized beasts, and besides that, much of the food stockpiled in the vacation villa was also spoiled by the demonized beasts, leading to our current shortage.

 "If we plant crops again, it will probably be too late, even if we start rationing the food…"

 He appeared very frustrated.

 If he had been able to notice the food problem earlier, he might have been able to find a solution, But now, though he racked his brain for ideas, he couldn't find one.

 Tang Yu wasn't that worried after hearing it all.

 The two biggest problems vexing shelters in the apocalypse were undoubtedly safety and food.

 He had not paid attention to the shelter's food problem before not because he wasn't worried, but because running out of food was impossible.

 The difference was in the method he used to get food.

 Having Roger go out with a spatial backpack to find food? That seemed like a hassle.

 Buying food resource packs from the market? Too expensive! He was scrimpy with every single Origin Crystal he had, and he couldn't use it on something like this. It was doable just for his personal enjoyment, but it was impossible to feed all the survivors this way.

 After some thought, he suddenly brightened. "Who said that it's too late to start farming? There's definitely still time, and we can even have a rich harvest!"