Chapter 591: Depriving It of Its Soil for Survival

Chapter 591: Depriving It of the Soil for Survival

That loud voice was like an arrow piercing the clouds; at its command, the bewildered and wooden faces suddenly found their backbone, one after another flaring up with righteous indignation.

“Right! How can that be?!”

“Who’s going to arrange our shifts?!”

“Exactly!”

Besides those red-faced and thick-necked with excitement, there were also those with tears and snot. An old man leaning on a cane tottered up to Jie Yan and pleaded.

“Sir… you’re not from here, you don’t understand. Without the farm owner, we’ll starve to death.”

Jie Yan was dumbfounded too.

“Uh… did that farm owner teach you how to farm?”

He had seen that farm owner.

Standing on the stairs like a fool, showing off, being manipulated like a puppet by that Luo Qian.

No matter how he thought about it, that guy didn’t seem like someone with that kind of skill!

A few old men exchanged glances, then looked at him humbly.

“No need for anyone to teach us such rough work.”

“But sir, we only know how to farm…”

“The master does take a share… but not much. What’s left is enough for our family. Working for him also covers the rent. If we go out to the wasteland, that’s the real end. You don’t know what the mutants call us—they call us two-legged livestock!”

“Exactly! Out there is the wasteland… Without the master to look after us, would you look after us?”

Just as the old man’s words fell, a servant from the manor nearby shouted anxiously.

“We don’t need you to look after us! The young lady is still alive… She is the new owner of the farm!”

Realizing his slip, the old man quickly corrected himself and shouted with feigned loyalty.

“That’s right! Give us back… the young lady!”

The shouts rose and fell at the entrance.

The farm owner’s private soldiers stood silently in the distance, neither joining them nor coming to help the Alliance’s people.

That was their superior’s order.

Regardless of whether last night’s nightmare was the Torch Church’s doing, those who had experienced it once had no desire to feel that sensation of being led by the neck again.

That power was so strong it defied reason.

When sinking into that indescribable dream, a melody seemed to float in the mind, and then one’s body no longer belonged to oneself.

Let alone eating people.

Even if the Alliance ordered them to eat shit, they would only lie on the ground and swallow it with a blissful expression, only to retch in disgust after waking up.

After all, wasn’t that mental interference device now in the hands of those guys?

Thinking conspiratorially, perhaps they had already been brainwashed, but since the brainwashing wasn’t over, they just didn’t know it.

Some officers indeed thought so.

And precisely because of this, they dared not step forward to claim the position of farm owner, nor dared to ask about the young lady in the manor.

Whatever the Alliance told them to do, they did—whether moving corpses out or maintaining order—but they absolutely would not do anything extra.

Watching the agitated crowd, Jie Yan was stunned, his mouth open, unable to speak for a long time.

He wanted to help them.

No particular reason.

He wouldn’t look at things from a manager’s perspective; he just thought they looked pitiful, and he himself had no worries about food or clothing—one piece of his gear cost more than all their rags combined.

To put it another way, did a level-30 big shot need a reason to show off in a newbie village? The realization of self-worth was itself a need.

Yet he really didn’t know how to help.

That Zhao Tiangan was already dead.

The survivors here could have discussed together how to proceed, and no matter which path they ultimately took, they could take responsibility for their choices like adults.

But they refused, preferring to dump all responsibility onto an eight-year-old child who was still sulking and quarreling with her friends.

In reality, at her age, she hadn’t even finished elementary school.

Did they think that as long as someone took charge, everything would automatically get better?

Did they think that by offering responsibility and power to an imagined omnipotent god, pies would fall from the sky?

What kind of idealism was this…

“No, this is your settlement…” Jie Yan said, half laughing, half crying.

“Have you never thought… of managing it yourselves?”

That complaint was drowned in the roaring noise.

Standing at the door, he didn’t notice a pair of eyes mixed in the crowd, coldly observing all this.

That person seemed to have anticipated it, a faint, barely perceptible sneer on their face.

As if watching a clown trying to teach a goat to sing, that smile was full of mockery…

…

The annex of Pinecone Farm.

The players, having found an empty room, were holding an operations meeting, chattering away as they exchanged intelligence freshly scraped from the official website.

The administrator gave them only one hint—

The large number of “pathogens” in Pinecone Farm posed a threat to the Torch Church’s plans.

Especially since they might have learned through informants in the farm that the Alliance was developing antidotes and vaccines.

To thwart the Alliance’s plans and retrieve the experimental data not taken last night, the Torch Church was highly likely planning the next wave of attacks on this settlement!

As for intelligence on settings like the Sanctuary, the Forerunners, the Apostles, the Executioners, and so on, everyone learned them from the setting collection updated on the official website.

According to Fang Chang’s speculation, it was probably the result of interrogating the Executioner and Apostle they caught last night aboard the Steel Heart.

But Fang Chang didn’t expect that he had actually guessed right.

That Sanctuary really was a program running in virtual space.

And not only that.

This thing was even more impressive than ordinary virtual spaces—it was a distributed computing network formed by countless brains implanted with bionic chips interconnected!

Ye Shi stroked his chin and thought for a moment, then suddenly realized.

“Holy shit… I get it.”

Feng Kuang glanced at him.

"What do you know now?"

"Simply put, this thing is like Voldemort's Horcrux! It can store a part of consciousness in someone else's brain!"

Hearing this metaphor, Luoyu nearly choked on his own spit.

"Pfft... your imagination is wild enough."

"But now that you put it that way, I get it," Old Bai said, stroking his chin. "So, there might be hundreds of those Horcruxes hidden in the settlement... Holy crap?"

Finally realizing the gravity of the situation, his face shifted slightly.

Damn.

This is like opening the whole map!

Fang Chang, equally solemn, slowly nodded.

"Theoretically, any NPC here could become Luo Qian's eyes... but thankfully, only when he enters a trance state can Luo Qian personally interfere with those pawns' actions; otherwise, the influence is just a mental conversation or a twitch of the eyelids."

The group fell silent.

Even so, this cheat was ridiculously overpowered.

"...The problem now is, we don't know where the monsters will spawn. If there's another hidden tunnel in this settlement, we might have to fight a street battle with the mutants here."

Just as Fang Chang was feeling stumped, the voice of Old Jieyan suddenly came through the public channel of the comms.

"Have you guys come to a conclusion yet?"

Fang Chang casually replied.

"Still discussing, not that fast... What's up?"

The comms channel was noisy, with faint, chaotic shouts in the background.

Jieyan said, sounding overwhelmed.

"The survivors of this settlement have blocked the manor gate... I feel like if we don't do something soon, we'll end up in a conflict with the survivors here first."

Hearing this, Ye Shi was stunned.

"Blocked the gate? What's going on?"

Clearly, he wasn't the only one confused; the others also looked bewildered.

Knowing this wasn't something that could be explained in a few words, Jieyan simply sent the live video without explaining.

Watching the agitated crowd in the footage, the players were all taken aback.

"...Damn."

"Are these people crazy?"

Ye Shi scratched the back of his head in bewilderment.

"I don't get it... What exactly do they want?"

The master is dead...

Isn't that a good thing?

Fang Chang, however, remained calm, as if he had anticipated this situation. Seeing Ye Shi's confusion, he said succinctly.

"This is actually easy to understand. Think about it—if you were a serf and the landlord died, what would be your first thought?"

Ye Shi immediately replied.

"Definitely divide the land!"

Not surprised by Ye Shi's answer, Fang Chang smiled and said.

"You're a 21st-century youth, so of course you'd think that way. But the people here aren't like that; they never felt the land beneath their feet was theirs. So, for various reasons, they'll try to create a new farm owner, so they can keep doing their old jobs."

Ye Shi was dumbfounded for a long time, unable to understand why, after the original farm owner died, they had to create a new one.

Couldn't the land grow crops without a farm owner?

"...This is too absurd."

Looking at the bewildered Ye Shi, Fang Chang smiled and said.

"There's nothing absurd about it. Look at it from another angle—if Singularity City was still fine 150 years ago, would you have been willing to go out and pioneer the wasteland?"

Not sure why Fang Chang asked this, but Ye Shi still tried to follow his lead and imagine within the game's context.

Pioneering the wasteland...

If he didn't have a second life, he probably wouldn't dare.

But Fang Chang didn't wait for him to wrestle with the final answer; almost as soon as Ye Shi opened his mouth, he continued.

"Most residents of Singularity City lived well under the care of the Construction Committee, but that was in the final years of its lifespan, and supplies couldn't always be abundant. So the authorities promised to cut rations for ordinary residents and provide some help to those who ventured out to pioneer."

"You're an idealistic young man, thinking it's better to take a risk than starve, so you risk your life heading into the wasteland wilderness. With a hoe and shovel, you dig the first well in ground as hard as steel, till the first field, build the first house, and the next year, you trade surplus grain for seeds, fertilizer, and livestock..."

"So far, things are going smoothly, and then a group of wandering wastelanders shows up at your doorstep, begging for shelter."

"Whether you're attracted to their labor or moved by sympathy, you generously nod and let them settle not far from you. After all, you can't farm all that fertile land even if you work yourself to death, and more people mean more safety. You know the wasteland environment is worsening day by day, and no matter how capable you are, you're just one person with two hands, unable to wield three guns."

"Later, a crisis erupts in Singularity City; mutants replace old humans as the new masters, and more refugees flood to your place. You want to help them, but you can't just give away the hard-earned supplies you've stockpiled. So you come up with a compromise—you lend them food, seeds, and tools, and in return, they pay you back with next year's harvest or newly reclaimed land. That way, both sides benefit."

Ye Shi scratched his head.

"What's wrong with that?"

Seeing Ye Shi's utter confusion, Fang Chang smiled and said.

"There's nothing wrong with it. The plantation economy was actually relatively progressive in the early Wasteland Era; it encouraged large settlements to expand outward, whereas most settlements in the Construction Committee era were reluctant to invite trouble, thanks to the all-purpose 'black box' of the Production Department."

"Some small plantations, though technically immature, took in surplus survivors that settlements couldn't accommodate and, to some extent, curbed the emergence of raiders."

"Without those plantations, after the Singularity City crisis, this place might have become a raider kingdom, and it wouldn't just be mutants eating people—the situation would be even worse than it is now."

Having said that, Fang Chang suddenly shifted his tone.

"But the problem is, a century and a half has passed, and the locals are still running this society, which has actually developed into a settlement, like a farm."

"The farm owner carefully manages the little power he has, hoping to use mortal wisdom to do what even gods can't, arranging every detail meticulously like his ancestors. His greatest dream in life is probably to occupy all the surrounding settlements. As for developing industry, that's beyond his imagination—or rather, beyond any noble's imagination. At the very least, you'd need a place like Boulder City, with a bunch of insatiable nobles to support."

Ye Shi asked, puzzled.

"But there are many officers here too... like Luo Feihui, who wanted to use our power to rise. Isn't he considered a noble?"

Fang Chang shook his head.

"He and Yang He, who escaped from this farm, are just borrowing part of the farm owner's delegated authority. Essentially, they're just powerful servants."

Pausing, he continued.

"However, this isn't just the farm owner's problem. You can see that the local survivors are very careful not to take on any extra responsibility."

"They cling to the idea of 'less trouble is better,' enduring whatever happens, burying their heads in the sand so the tall ones can take the hit, while sticking their butts up to grab a seat when dawn comes."

"The mutants keep calling two-legged livestock, baring their teeth to eat people; the Church doesn't treat them as human either, slaughtering tens of thousands without a second thought. Maybe you, deep down, look down on them too, just sympathizing from a modern perspective... But who treats them the least like humans? Isn't it the Church and the mutants? Isn't it themselves?"

"Haven't you noticed? This is a mutual effort. No one put a rope around their necks because it's not needed at all. This situation is completely different from Boulder City. So don't expect a few words to remind them they're human. This four-wheel drive doesn't even have a gas pedal. First, teach them to read, then give them a copy of 'How Boulder City Was Built' to read—at least they'll be able to shout a few slogans."

Luoyu interjected.

"Isn't it called 'Bol the Awakener'?"

Fang Chang coughed.

"I forgot..."

Awkward.

His girlfriend was the editor of that book, after all.

Staring blankly at Fang Chang, Ye Shi's throat bobbed as he wanted to say something but swallowed it back.

He thought of Little Sheep.

That little girl, at the very last moment, wasn't thinking about saving herself, and even willingly let that young lady eat her.

And she never considered whether her self-sacrifice was truly good for that Yin Yin.

Eating people...

Even if she didn't go mad, it would be a lifelong psychological scar.

Even Old Na, who'd shove anything into her mouth and yell that it didn't matter since it was just a game, never dared to taste what human flesh was like.

Let alone the flesh of a close friend...

In the end, she had never seen herself as a human from start to finish, even though she was clever and sharp, nothing like a child.

For a moment, Ye Shi suddenly felt that while the Torch Church's methods were extreme, they weren't entirely without reason.

These people weren't driven mad by the Naguo.

They were never normal to begin with.

Yet the absurdity lay in the fact that this farm was one of the more normal settlements on this wasteland, with far more deranged places beyond count.

"...No wonder the Enlightenment Society wants to end the world."

Watching Ye Shi muttering to himself, Old Bai slapped him on the shoulder.

"Alright, don't listen to Fang Chang's nonsense. That guy, thrown back into the Prosperous Era, would probably be a shareholder of the Enlightenment Society. Listen to his rambling and you'll end up in a ditch."

Fang Chang retorted indignantly.

"That's slander. No matter what, I'd never do anything that extreme."

"Hard to say. You smart types, who knows what you're scheming all day," Old Bai chuckled, patting Ye Shi's shoulder. "Go talk to that Yin Yin. Get her to cooperate with us."

"Huh?" Ye Shi froze, blurting out, "What can a little brat like her do?"

Luo Yu winked at him mischievously.

"Can't you teach her? Isn't it true you like them young?"

Hearing this, Ye Shi jumped like a rabbit with its tail stepped on, glaring at the grinning Luo Yu.

"Piss off! I, I damn well... like them a bit older."

Kuang Feng rubbed his chin.

"Got it, no wonder..."

Ye Shi's face turned red with anger.

"What the hell do you mean 'no wonder'!"

The room filled with a cheerful atmosphere, dispelling the heaviness from moments before.

Fang Chang, sitting nearby, coughed and looked at Ye Shi, who was eager to argue.

"Seriously, I think Old Bai has a point. If we don't help that little girl, these people here will probably force her into being the farm owner."

In fact, that was exactly what those officers thought.

Apart from the now-dead Luo Feihui, the others preferred to support that little girl as the master here rather than take the role themselves.

That way, they could indirectly control the farm without risking messing things up and getting into trouble, nor fighting to the death over an unenviable position.

After all, the situation was still unclear; the war between the Torch Church and the Alliance had just begun, and anything could happen.

Ye Shi muttered.

"You're worrying too much. Inheriting such a huge fortune, maybe she's secretly thrilled."

Fang Chang shot him a glance.

"And then screw everything up, only to be made a scapegoat and butchered by those people?"

Ye Shi couldn't help saying.

"So what do you expect a child to do? And didn't you say yourself that those people are beyond saving?"

Fang Chang shook his head.

"I never said they were beyond saving. It's the Torch that thinks they are. I'm just saying that 'awakening' isn't something that falls from the sky. It's not one person's responsibility, but everyone has an inescapable duty."

"That child is the same. She could of course accept the power and responsibility handed to her by those slaves, but the price would be becoming a puppet of those servants. After all, being a farm owner isn't easy, and she doesn't have her father's skills, does she?"

"Of course, she has another choice now: give back the power and responsibility her father took from everyone in this settlement, and trade an active withdrawal for a dignified end. That way, she can still keep some property."

Old Bai frowned hesitantly.

"Isn't that too heavy for her? Alisa is almost an adult... but she's only eight."

Fang Chang shrugged.

"This is already the easiest path. She just needs to nod, say a few formal words with us, and she'll get a decent ending. But if she refuses our help, what she'll face next is the heaviest part."

Ye Shi looked at him, puzzled.

"What do you mean?"

"This is a holy war against the Torch faith, so the battlefield won't be limited to what we can see... I only just thought of it. The Holy Domain isn't as impenetrable as we imagined. It can hide in anyone's mind, but it can't hide in everyone's mind. Those people are the majority on this land. If you were the manager, what would you do?"

Fang Chang didn't answer his confusion directly but instead asked him this question.

Ye Shi pondered for a long time, about to say he didn't know, but suddenly his heart stirred. He thought of the Naguo and almost instinctively blurted out.

"Just make the soil unfit for the Torch to survive..."

The Naguo wouldn't kill anyone.

But it would make the soil no longer suitable for old humans to live in.

That was the foundation of the Torch Church's entire plan, like the "neutron sterilization" of the Enlightenment Society.

And similarly, the reason the Torch Church and their plan could be implemented here was precisely because this soil existed for those filths to breed and survive.

So just make this place no longer suitable for them to live.

The Alliance allowed surrounding survivors to decide their own fate, but only if they didn't mess around on their own turf and harm others.

But now, this was clearly no longer just a local problem.

The Alliance's Steel Heart had sailed here, which was the most direct proof.

Looking at the now-sharp Ye Shi, Fang Chang nodded approvingly.

"Exactly. By uniting the majority on this land, the Torch and its Naguo will lose their soil for survival. To achieve this, the manager will almost certainly distribute the lands originally belonging to the farm owners to those serfs and reestablish order in this area."

After the disaster last night, all settlements on this land must face a single-choice question—

The Church, or the Alliance.

This war has already begun.