Chapter 77: Healthy Game (Autumn Recommendation Tickets Please Please Please Please)

When Fang Yue was out in the wild before, it was always nighttime, and he had no time to look at scenery, so naturally he had no particular feelings about it.

Now that he calmed his mind, he realized the scenery outside the village was a hundred times better than any internet-famous scenic spot.

But this good mood didn't last long before Fang Yue looked up at the sun in distress.

The weather was too hot.

Even the wind blowing over was scorching hot.

The long dragon of a procession marched forward mightily, and soon arrived at the first destination.

It was a boundless field of emerald-green rice, rippling with the wind.

"Halt! Group 1, Squads 1 through 6, all stay here and take charge of the field's security."

"Yes!"

Six squads immediately stepped out from the procession, scattering like seasoned workers, each choosing a direction to patrol.

As for the farming villagers, they came out one after another, taking out the large buckets of water they had brought, irrigating, pest-controlling, and doing other farming work.

The big green water vat that Fang Yue had been curious about was also carefully carried down by several burly men from the Guard Team and set flat on the ground.

"That's the thing called Growth Liquid, which speeds up the growth cycle of crops. Normal rice matures once a year, but if you pour Growth Liquid on it, it can mature twelve times a year — that is, one harvest per month."

Seeing Fang Yue staring curiously at the water vat, Lin Ling explained casually.

"That powerful? Then if you used it on herbs and the like, couldn't you harvest a whole field of medicinal plants?"

Lin Ling shook her head.

"It's not the same. The Growth Liquid is specially formulated for our kind of rice, so it's ineffective on herbs — even harmful. And the production cost of Growth Liquid isn't low either; the village is basically making it at a loss for the farmers. But there's no helping it — compared to profit, stable food supply is more important."

Well, it seemed Growth Liquid wasn't that amazing after all, but whoever invented this stuff must be the father of rice in the game.

Fang Yue noticed that two players had also gone down to the fields with the NPCs to farm — they must have taken quests and worked their way into the village's system.

Since basically everyone wasn't doing this for the first time, the work assignments in the field were orderly and finished quickly.

Leaving the field area and continuing along the road, the bloated procession was suddenly trimmed down considerably.

It was clear the village's focus was still on food; other industries only received ordinary attention.

Most importantly, walking this far from the village raised the danger level quite a bit, so even fewer people were willing to take the risk.

So when the procession reached the herb-gathering area, only a sparse four people left the group — Xiao Hu was among them.

Lin Ling had originally wanted to leave only one six-person squad, but after Fang Yue said something, she pulled strings to leave one more squad.

Two squads, twelve people, were enough to cover the herb-gathering area.

It was called the herb-gathering area, but in fact it was very large; gathering good medicinal herbs took a lot of effort.

After that, the procession passed through areas one after another, dropping off villagers along the way.

By the time they reached the final Hunting Zone, only six squads were left, along with Fang Yue and Lin Ling, the two Captains.

"Ye Ge! Cover me!"

Jing Yan hurriedly sent a message — he wanted to get the same treatment as Xiao Hu.

But unfortunately, for the final manpower, Fang Yue's word carried no weight.

Lin Ling had four squads stay at the Hunting Zone, then she and Fang Yue each led one squad.

The two squads left behind seemed to be elites, all with horses.

"Everything I should teach you, I've taught. The rest you figure out yourself. Now you take your men this way, and I'll go that way. Actually, these divided resource zones are all distributed around our village — the routes are just a bit winding. Just follow this route, and before you complete the loop and return, you'll definitely run into me. We'll use that to confirm each other's situation and safety."

Saying so, Lin Ling also took out a map, pointing at the route to help Fang Yue understand.

The map was very crude, only marking Gu Yue Cun's location, the general terrain around it, and the landmarks of each zone.

Fang Yue studied it for a while, and only by combining Lin Ling's explanation with his own sense of position did he connect the map's route with reality.

The so-called patrol route was basically just a big circle around Gu Yue Cun — it only seemed complicated because the path was winding and had to pass through certain resource zones.

With everything clear in his mind, Fang Yue led the team forward, but was stopped by Lin Ling.

"Ride his horse. Without a horse your mobility is insufficient — if something happens and you can't get there in time, you're done for."

Lin Ling was referring to the squad leader in Fang Yue's team.

That young man, called Xiao Hou, had an ordinary appearance with a square-shaped head. He had two or three years of experience on the Patrol Team — a real old hand.

Alright, once I get back I definitely have to learn to ride a horse!

With no choice, Fang Yue rode the same horse as Xiao Hou, and they galloped off.

Lin Ling shook her head and led the others down another patrol route.

After parting with Lin Ling, Fang Yue was extremely tense, afraid a monster might ambush them at any moment.

But after he smoothly completed half the patrol and met up with Lin Ling again,

Fang Yue realized he had been overthinking.

The chance of monsters appearing during the day really was much smaller.

The whole way could be said to be calm and uneventful, not even the slightest hitch.

"Don't let your guard down."

Lin Ling gave an instruction, then led her squad to continue patrolling.

Fang Yue didn't idle either — he led his team to patrol as well.

After patrolling about six rounds like this, sure enough, nothing happened.

Fang Yue relaxed.

Monsters didn't not appear during the day — they just disliked daytime more.

This was also the source of the saying among the Guard Team that day shifts were safer than night shifts.

But in reality, even though the probability was small, if you really ran into one, life and death were still hard to predict.

Thinking of this, Fang Yue practiced his Blade Technique on horseback, but the effect was minimal.

But when they passed through the gathering area, some players saw this scene and couldn't help but buzz with discussion.

"As expected of Ye Ge! Even while on patrol, he never forgets to diligently cultivate!"

"Dammit! So this is the gap between me and Ye Ge? He's practicing martial arts while I'm farming. The day he takes off, I'm afraid I'll just be starting out and joining the Patrol Team!"

"Excuse me, Ye Ge, where can I find your book 'Time Management'? I want to learn it!"

These words of flattery made Fang Yue blush a little.

Because practicing Blade Technique on horseback hadn't raised any of his stats — at most he'd just gotten a bit more familiar with the moves.

The patrol went on like this, and time passed minute by minute.

Just as Fang Yue thought the afternoon was about to pass, a system notification suddenly popped up.

"System notification: The player's body feels hungry. Please log off in time to eat."

"System notification: Moderate gaming benefits the brain; excessive gaming harms the body. Arrange your time reasonably and enjoy a healthy life."

Huh?

Does this lousy game even have an anti-addiction feature?

That said, Fang Yue couldn't feel any hunger, because in the game, when he and Lin Ling had hurried to the village entrance, they'd already bought some barley cakes from a roadside stall and eaten them. Right now, he was completely full.

Besides, they were out in the wild right now… log off?

The third update will be at nine in the evening.

(End of chapter)