Translator: SumTLMan

Back in the territory, the sun still hung high above.

It won"t be long until noon and almost time to have lunch.

At this time…

Tang Yu is a mess.

A battle suit made of high-grade demonized beast fur has a deep claw mark at his waist. This mark was left by a demonized beast which snuck up from behind and clawed him.

This scratch was so deep that it almost tore through the battle suit. Even No. 2 could barely save him in time.

At that time, there were simply too many demonized beasts and No. 1 could only hold back a part of the large group. The rest had rushed up to him.

During that scene, every pair of demon beast eye all stared ferociously at Tang Yu. He felt that these terrifying glares were no less intimidating than what one would experience during a demon wave.

The crystal ore source stone was hastily loaded into the backpack. When he had finally decided to retreat. The basic battle puppets which acted as miners had long been dismantled into many broken parts.

"Phew, that was too dangerous…"

Tang Yu frowned. The number of demonized beasts had far exceeded his expectations. His guess in mind of the reason is this might have something to do with that giant tree with transparent branches and leaves.

When he finally left, the demonized beasts didn"t follow up the chase and bite him in the back. Instead, these demonized beasts had all returned under the giant tree.

"Well… The source crystal mining operation has to be shelved for the time being. There are more demonized beasts hidden under that giant tree than expected. I"m afraid if they all rushed up at the same time, even No. 1 and No. 2 will be unable to hold them back during a battle."

But he was still satisfied with the results.

Looking at the three s.p.a.ce backpacks in hand, Tang Yu"s eyes sparkled.

These crystal ore source stone more or less contained source crystal. He didn"t need to personally extract the source crystal from the source stone but had gone straight to the storage room in the castle and began dumping it.

Crash…

All of the source stone was dumped out from the backpacks, and the small storeroom was immediately filled to capacity.

The detection of the source crystal value in the system panel was continuously skyrocketing.

596.

2,635.

6,963.

11,596.

"18,351.9!!"

Tang Yu took a deep breath and thought: I"m rich!

How much source crystal did w.a.n.g Tai acc.u.mulate in over a month? It was only over five thousand, making him really too poor! Perhaps this is the reason why the shelter was destroyed under his rule. Being poor left him unable to face the demonized beasts any longer!

Even if w.a.n.g Tai had a lot of source crystals, it was of no use to him. He had no way of taking advantage of the source crystals!

Everyone knows the value of source crystals, and the government officials have long publicized the news relating to demonized beasts possibly producing them. However, ordinary people can only use this resource as a jewel.

Tang Yu estimates that the small to medium-sized shelters couldn"t utilize the source crystals… Perhaps only the large-sized shelters can develop some methods of using the source crystal through research, which may only end up being a relatively rough way of utilizing it. Most of the official source crystal collection will have been spent more on research rather than production.

However, he is different. He can summon followers, refresh and buy from the market, and construct buildings within his territory with this source crystal acting as currency…

Not only did he harvest a large number of source crystals. But his body was now filled with a large amount of spirit power, which seemed to be on the verge of overflowing.

In the latter stage of the mining operation, Tang Yu"s body even felt a sense of rejection from the oncoming spirit power. This probably meant that he could no longer swallow any more spirit power after he had gotten his fill.

For the first time, he discovered there were actually limits to spirit power absorption. After cultivating this wave of spirit power, Tang Yu believes he can raise himself at least one more level.

While Tang Yu was daydreaming, the castle"s notification system rang.

This notification system is equivalent to a doorbell but in a much more advanced form. The system has the ability to identify and transmit information and doesn"t need any additional operation, making it very convenient to use. So far he still hasn"t understood how the notification system even operates.

Soon Tang Yu sees Chen Haiping with a worried expression.

"Leader, if our population continues expanding like this, we may end up not having enough food to feed the survivors."

Although Chen Haiping was a.s.signed to the patrol post, he was mostly doing clerical work these days. There was really no corresponding talent in the territory, so he could only make Chen Haiping do this type of work.

The number of people in the territory isn"t very large. But this population size has kept Chen Haiping very busy. Although swamped with work, he still properly arranged the records and statistics of the survivors.

Earlier this morning, when he compared the remaining food and the daily consumption of food with the rate of population growth, he immediately couldn"t sit still!

He noticed that as long as the population continues growing like this, the shelter"s surplus food will not last for long!

"How much food is still remaining? How long will it last?" Tang Yu directly asked.

Chen Haiping replied with a wry smile: "According to the current population, we can last for a little over half a month. But every day, the population in our shelter is growing. In this way, I"m afraid it may not even last for another ten days."

"What"s more, the supplies which can be found in the resort have all been thoroughly explored. As for the outside world, there is only Captain Roger"s exploration team going to the outside every day. The quant.i.ty of food brought back each time isn"t much and far less than our daily consumption."

Chen Haiping didn"t say anything about the abundant food prepared for the survivors by Leader Tang. Not only did the survivors have enough to eat, but there was also meat and vegetables included in their diet. Even if it was a far cry from life before the doomsday, compared to living conditions in other shelters, this arrangement was enviable.

He didn"t think this way of operating was bad, but this is only under the premise there was enough food to go around. Once the food stores are completely exhausted. Even Chen Haiping isn"t sure whether the whole shelter will immediately collapse all at once.

"What was the former shelter"s food source?"

Chen Haiping thought for a moment and said: "In the past, the food source mainly relied on searches and exploration conducted outside. But this was at the time when the doomsday had just started. Every time the shelter went out in search of food. They would come back with a strong harvest. But now, with many of the surrounding areas having been thoroughly searched, Captain Roger can no longer get as much food during his explorations."

"Captain Roger has also hunted and brought back many demonized beasts corpses, but these demonized beasts aren"t like wild animals. Most of the meat is inedible, and it"s difficult to distinguish which parts of the demonized beasts are edible or which parts are poisonous. So, the hunting of demonized beasts for food isn"t a feasible option."

He breathed a sigh and continued: "Originally, w.a.n.g Tai had prepared enough food and ordered the survivors to grow hardy crops with short growth cycles in the valley. I remember sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn and so on being planted. But most of those crops have been trampled on and destroyed by the demonized beasts. Not only that, much of the food which was originally stored in the resort was also destroyed by the demonized beasts. This resulted in our present lack of surplus food stores."

"At this time, we will have to plant crops. Even if it"s too late in the season, we have to find a way to significantly cut down our food consumption, otherwise…"

Chen Haiping looked rather upset.

If he had realized there was a food crisis earlier, he might"ve been able to solve this problem. Now, he is racking his brains in order to find a way to solve it, but he can"t think of any solution.

After hearing this, Tang Yu wasn"t worried.

The two major problems that plagued shelters during the doomsday are nothing more than food and security.

He didn"t pay attention to the food in the shelter because he didn"t worry about it. It was simply impossible to run out of food anyway.

The difference lies in the method used in order to attain the food.

Will he tell Roger to take a s.p.a.ce backpack and go out looking for food? This sounds too troublesome.

Purchasing the food resource bundles at the market? This is too expensive! His own source crystal has recently been spent and earned again, how can he use it in such a manner? He hasn"t even had the chance to enjoy himself, let alone using his hard-earned source crystals to provide for the other survivors. This is a bit too much to ask of him!

He thought about it, then his eyes suddenly lit up as he said: "Who says it"s too late to grow crops! I"m sure it isn"t too late at all, and there will definitely be a b.u.mper harvest!"