Chapter 120: The Fat Sheep

If they truly had no other options, that would be one thing. But now, they had both money and supplies, and had even managed to secure a territory as their base. There was really no need to keep forcing themselves to eat such unpalatable food.

Looking at everyone’s gloomy faces, she sighed softly.

“I’ll go ask, but don’t get your hopes up too much.” After all, while this was technically a territory, its conditions were plain for all to see. Even if they couldn’t buy any decent food, it wouldn’t be surprising.

As Yun Li walked away, one of the caravan members also let out a sigh.

“Sigh, if only we’d bought more food back when we were at the second territory.”

But someone quickly replied, “Who could have known? Didn’t we already bring plenty of food when we set out?”

It was true—they had brought plenty of food at the start. But when they passed through a territory struck by both locusts and drought, they decisively traded away most of their supplies.

That was also why they’d made such a huge profit this trip.

In a territory hit by two natural disasters at once, food prices soared sky-high—anything edible could fetch a fortune.

For example, the flatbread they were eating now would only cost two or three copper coins back in their own town, but in that disaster-stricken territory, a single piece was snatched up for seven or eight, even over ten silver coins!

And that’s not even counting the other food they had—bread, roast meat, dried fruit… They’d only spent a few dozen silver coins on food before setting out, but before they’d even sold any other goods, just the food alone had already earned them dozens of gold coins!

“Let me ask you: if a loaf of bread could sell for twenty-five silver coins, would you keep it for yourself or sell it?”

“Of course I’d sell it! …Well, I’m just saying. With money, you can buy anything you want to eat, right?”

Whenever they wanted a good meal, they could have one. But opportunities like this to make a killing were once in a lifetime—they couldn’t let it slip by.

The fact that they’d managed to hold onto some flatbread for themselves was already pretty impressive.

Besides, if they hadn’t made such a big profit, they wouldn’t have been able to afford that dagger. Before this trip, all their possessions combined weren’t even worth ten gold coins.

Still, while making money was great, it also put them in danger. If it hadn’t been for their clever and decisive leader, who knows what kind of trouble they’d be in now.

“Actually, it’s my fault. If I hadn’t let something slip, everyone wouldn’t be so on edge…” One of them spoke up guiltily as the topic came up.

In fact, they’d visited two territories on this trip—one recently hit by disaster, and the other a normal one.

They’d made a fortune in the first, and when they reached the second, they started trading as usual.

They sold off all their goods, then used the gold coins they’d earned to buy up local specialties and other items at low prices.

Maybe it was because this was their first time doing such big business and they lacked experience, but they completely forgot to keep a low profile, so their activities were noticed by quite a few people.

Within just two days of arriving, someone came snooping around. Caught off guard, one of them accidentally let something slip.

Not only did he reveal that they’d made a lot of money, but also that their caravan only had a dozen or so people, with less than ten fighters.

Rich, and with little fighting power—a caravan like that was a “fat sheep” in the eyes of some.

The person fishing for information was skilled, but the one who let it slip wasn’t stupid either.

As soon as he realized what he’d done, he immediately reported it to their leader, Yun Li, who decisively ordered everyone to stop all trading and leave with their goods that very night.

Of course, the one who let it slip was responsible—if not for him, they could have stayed a few more days and stocked up on more supplies.

But no one really blamed him. After all, while he was at fault, everyone shared some of the blame.

It wasn’t just him who’d been too conspicuous. This experience had taught them a valuable lesson—as long as they didn’t repeat the same mistake, it would be fine.

“Forget it, what’s done is done… Let’s think about what we’ll do if Sister Yun can’t buy any food.”

…

While the caravan members were anxiously hoping Yun Li could buy some food, she had already found Su You near the farmland.

By now, all six new plots had been built. With the fields ready, Su You was preparing to plant the second batch of crops.

Of these, wheat and rice both had a ten-day growth cycle, while corn and potatoes took seven and five days, respectively.

According to her plan, she would use Fields 5 and 6 for wheat. After planting all ten packets of wheat seeds, only two packets remained.

Field 7 was for rice; after using five packets, only one was left.

Field 8 would be split in half—one side for potatoes, the other for corn, using two packets of each and leaving one packet of each remaining. Although this wouldn’t trigger Harmony I, there was no helping it—she only had three packets of potato and corn seeds each, but it took four packets to fill a field.

As for Fields 9 and 10, Su You decided to plant cotton in both.

Red grass was important too, but its growth cycle was too long—seven days. Plus, basic healing potions made from it were rather weak. With the debuff of potion resistance, you couldn’t use them indefinitely, so while it was necessary to keep some in reserve, there was no need to stockpile too much.

The batch of red grass planted a few days ago alongside berries and cotton would yield about 30–40 plants, which was plenty.

After planting all the seeds, Su You checked on the first four fields.

Fields 1 and 2 had red berries, which had already been harvested once yesterday afternoon.

There were eight berry bushes in total across the two fields, and each bush could yield 30–50 berries.

(End of this chapter)"

"121. Double Calamity

After harvesting the berries yesterday, Su You got an exact figure from Dolly—these eight berry bushes yielded about three and a half stacks of berries in total.

Note, the “three and a half stacks” here doesn’t refer to the backpack stacking limit, but the warehouse stacking limit. In other words, yesterday’s batch of berries amounted to a full 350 berries.

Normally, the yield wouldn’t be this high, but thanks to the Harmony I buff, this harvest turned out pretty well.

Even if you don’t use them for cooking and just eat them directly, with each berry restoring 6 hunger points, those 350 berries add up to over 2,000 hunger points… So, right now, there’s really no shortage of food in the territory.

As a die-hard infrastructure and farming fanatic, Su You would never let herself starve to death—that would be way too embarrassing.

As for the cotton and red grass planted in Fields 3 and 4, thanks to Dolly’s careful tending, they’re growing nicely too.

Although it’s the first time planting them, so the illustrated guide hasn’t been unlocked and there’s no growth countdown, Su You estimates from experience that the cotton should be ready to harvest around noon tomorrow, while the red grass will take a bit longer, but should be ready by the morning after.

And the day after tomorrow will be the ninth day in the digitized world—just in time to harvest before the dark creatures attack… You could say, everything is going according to plan.

As long as nothing unexpected happens, Su You is 99% confident she can handle the dark creatures’ assault smoothly.

But life is unpredictable. While nothing went wrong with the dark creatures, another matter brought to light some information that gave Su You quite a shock.

……

Just as Su You finished planting a patch of wheat, she heard Yun Li calling her. She paused her work and turned to look at Yun Li.

“Lord Su, do you have any food for sale here?” After making her request, Yun Li briefly explained what had happened to their caravan, leaving out some details about the caravan itself. But now, Su You basically understood what had happened on their journey.

“We do have food. The tavern is selling some right now, though it’s mostly berry and meat dishes, so the selection is a bit limited. If you don’t mind, Captain Yun, you can go take a look.”

As for the issue of the tavern not having an NPC to handle payments… Originally, Dolly was supposed to temporarily fill in as the tavern NPC, but she’s busy with the tailor shop and has a lot on her plate, so to avoid wasting her time, the tavern is still running without an NPC manager.

But that’s not a problem—Yun Li just needs to buy what she wants and pay Su You directly.

Su You wasn’t worried about Yun Li trying to dine and dash. She didn’t know exactly how much the caravan had made, but since they could fork over a dozen gold coins without batting an eye, they surely wouldn’t haggle over a few silver coins for food.

Besides, this was Su You’s territory—they wouldn’t risk “wandering the forest” again just to save a bit on food.

“I don’t mind! Anything’s better than gnawing on dry biscuits.” Yun Li’s eyes lit up at the mention of meat and berries.

Since they were right by the fields, she could see the berry bushes growing in Fields 1 and 2, and recognized them as a tasty variety. Even without meat, buying some berries as a treat would be nice, but now that there was meat too, that was even better.

After learning that the tavern had food, Yun Li said a quick word to Su You and got ready to head over. But just as she was about to leave, Su You called out to her.

“Wait a moment, Captain Yun. I have a few questions I’d like to ask.”

“Of course, Lord Su.” Although Yun Li was eager to buy food, she patiently stopped when she heard Su You’s request.

“It’s like this—just now, I heard you mention that the first territory you visited had just experienced two calamities? Could you tell me exactly which two?” When Su You heard “double calamity” earlier, her heart skipped a beat.

Because double calamities don’t just happen in system territories—player-built territories can encounter them too. The odds are low, but Su You wanted to know the details.

“Locust plague and drought,” Yun Li answered without hesitation, since it wasn’t sensitive information.

But after she spoke, she could clearly see Lord Su’s brows knit tightly together.

“Do you remember roughly how far that territory is from here… from Sunset Territory?” Normally, during calamities, the Sunset Continent is divided into many regions. Territories in the same region either experience exactly the same calamities, or ones of opposite nature.

If Sunset Territory and that double calamity territory are in the same region, then after this month’s mild season ends, there’s a high chance Sunset Territory will also face a double calamity.

The possible calamities here include locust plague, drought, flood, acid rain, and a special event called ‘Forest Revel.’

Of these, flood and acid rain are the opposites of drought—one means no water, the others mean water is “abundant,” sometimes excessively so.

As for the locust plague, its counterpart is Forest Revel—a bizarre state where the entire forest enters a… very strange condition.

In short, Su You really hoped her territory wasn’t in the same region as that double calamity territory. But even if they were…

“It’s hard to estimate the distance, but from the second territory to here, it took us about—?”

Hearing Yun Li’s answer, Su You nearly blacked out on the spot.

So… they really are in the same region!

Even though measuring by travel time isn’t precise, if even a journey of ten days or half a month (without rest) is still within the same region, the answer is obvious.

Not to mention, Yun Li’s group must have traveled with breaks, not non-stop… so the distance is even shorter.

“Lord Su, are you… alright?” Maybe Su You’s frustration was too obvious, but Yun Li couldn’t help asking softly, a little confused.

Su You forced a smile, not wanting to talk, but seeing Yun Li’s concern, she pulled herself together and shook her head.

“I’m fine. Go ahead and buy your food, Captain Yun.”

Yun Li: “…Alright.”

Although Su You really didn’t look “fine” at all, Yun Li didn’t press further.

(End of chapter)"

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