Re-enter the Game：Village Carnival 5

Wen Nannan squatted down and carefully observed a stalk of rice in front of her.

On the swaying stalk, the locusts on the top layer were eating the ones below.

The large yellow-green insects chewed quickly with their jagged mandibles, completely oblivious to the fact that they were eating their own kind.

But the next moment, the locust that had finished eating its companion suddenly stopped moving.

Just when Wen Nannan thought it was full, the locust's abdominal egg-laying apparatus fell off without warning. The green skin wriggled, and then two smaller locusts squeezed out from the middle.

If they were asexually reproducing by eating their own kind, their speed would only increase.

…

Evening.

The town leader convened a town meeting about the locust plague. All the townspeople were gathered there.

They sat in a circle on the ground, with a large bonfire lit in the middle of the crowd.

From time to time, there were buzzing sounds of locusts in the air, but for some unknown reason, not a single locust was seen around the meeting.

The locusts were breeding too fast. The air, which had originally smelled of earth, was now filled with the stench of locusts.

The buzzing sounds were everywhere, making people inexplicably anxious.

The town leader looked serious. The wrinkles on his face were clearly visible in the firelight.

"The locust plague has seriously affected the rice fields. We may not have any grain left for the winter in Fuguo Town."

As soon as the words left his mouth, there was an uproar.

"Why did the locust plague happen suddenly? These insects seem to have appeared out of thin air!"

"It's been since those outsiders arrived that our town has been plagued by misfortunes."

"Get rid of those outsiders!"

"…"

The townspeople's voices were chaotic, filled with panic and bewilderment, but their goal was clear.

They wanted to stand together against the outside forces!

Although they had witnessed the rice fields crawling with locusts earlier that morning, hearing the town leader officially announce that there would be no grain for the winter still sent the townspeople into a panic, like patients who had been given a death sentence by their doctor.

Everyone's resentment was aroused by these curses, and directed at the nine players.

Wen Nannan shrunk her neck, hiding in the crowd, afraid to speak.

Until…

"You bunch of idiots, it's not our fault you have a locust plague. You're incredibly stupid."

Xu Fang's eyes narrowed. She had already disliked these townspeople. Since arriving here, she has been teaching according to the system's assigned identity.

The children here were mischievous, and the other day, when they were supposed to be weeding during the busy farming season, they simply skipped school.

Xu Fang and the other few players, in order to avoid revealing their identities, had patiently tried to persuade the children to return to school, but they were dragged to the fields to help with the weeding.

She spent almost every day teaching and dealing with naughty students. If not for the outbreak of the locust plague today, Xu Fang wouldn't even have known about this crisis, and she hadn't even managed to store many supplies.

Hearing Xu Fang's words, Aunt Zhang's face turned pale with anger, and she glared at Xu Fang.

"If it wasn't for you outsiders, our Fuguo Town would never have experienced a natural disaster. The locust plague decades ago was also because a group of travelers came from outside the town."

She suddenly raised her voice, looking at the town leader with resentment.

"We shouldn't have let those outsiders in!"

Her words were echoed by the remaining townsfolk.

Wen Nannan's eyes flickered, and she was suddenly lost in thought as she recalled Aunt Zhang's words.

Decades ago, Fuguo Town had also experienced a locust plague, also because of a group of outsiders, and a famine ensued.

But could a game really be this realistic? For one frame of scenery, it even went back decades.

Wen Nannan felt a thought flash through her mind. Just when she was about to grasp it, it was suddenly interrupted by a voice.

"Everyone, stop arguing. The most important thing now is to get rid of those locusts."

It was Li An, his face filled with righteous indignation.

"The locusts won't just eat the rice. When they finish that field, they'll eat the rest of the grain in the town."

Duh.

Everyone knows that.

A hint of mockery crossed Wen Nannan's eyes as she slowly shifted her gaze to another spot.

Because Li An had interrupted her thoughts, even though Wen Nannan knew he was trying to stabilize the situation, she still didn't like him.

In the middle of the crowd, Li An continued to express his opinions with passion and zeal.

After a few words, he successfully shifted the townsfolk's attention from driving them out of Fuguo Town to exterminating the locusts.

The townsfolk, from seventy-year-old grandfathers and grandmothers to five- or six-year-old children, all picked up their tools and joined the fight to exterminate the locusts.

After a day and a night of hard work, the countless wriggling locusts in the rice field had been turned into lifeless corpses by the angry townsfolk.

The yellow-green corpses piled up like a small mountain, leaving only a few locusts flapping their wings occasionally in the air.

But the rice field was destroyed.

The land could no longer be called a rice field. The bare earth was devoid of any plants, not even a single leaf of the weeds that the townsfolk had so hated just a few days ago.