CHAPTER 306: CHAPTER 306: "VOID REFUGEES

[Would you like to learn the Great Wilderness Heart Method?]

Jiang Yuan entered his own untouchable miscellaneous shop space, closed the door, and just opened the book when the system prompt popped up.

Clicking "yes," the progress bar completed in seconds, and the book in his hand scattered into starlight and disappeared.

He couldn’t help but give himself a thumbs up for his cleverness, and decided that whenever the system rewarded him with a cultivation technique, he would first have Little Bai learn it so that it could be distributed to everyone in the courtyard, and then he would study it himself to consume it up.

It’s like indirectly exploiting the system to benefit his family!

[Great Wilderness Heart Method learned, Poison Resistance +100; Willpower +100, Passive Skills can increase experience through effective resistance to poison or illusion temptations.]

"The system is definitely focused on making a farming game..." Jiang Yuan slightly raised an eyebrow after checking the passive skills.

Isn’t this interconnected mechanism where you get what you need after a while just like waiting for players to trigger story segments in a game?

But there’s no denying the system is impressive, integrating the real world, so many real people and events into the framework, whether it’s triggering side quests or granting rewards based on involved situations being ’precisely targeted,’ which is the biggest assurance of his swift establishment and self-protection ability in the Otherworld.

Moreover, as long as the Great Wilderness Heart Method can effectively fend off poison attacks, it can be upgraded, meaning even standing still in a new realm, it could slowly level up, right?

His passive poison resistance skill now at a certain level means entering Spiders Valley is no problem at all!

No time to waste, he must focus on completing orders and then quickly venture into the new realm to explore, fight monsters, and level up, having only gathered three Yu Hu warriors so far; he must fill all six slots before the Wo Hu Temple journey...

[You have a new order, please check it!]

[Charitable order: 100 portions of long grain rice; 20 portions of tomatoes; 10 portions of mutton. The order is valid for eight hours; charitable orders yield no traded Gold Coins, but there is a guaranteed drop of rare materials]

"Huh? It’s this order again!" Jiang Yuan clicked to view the order details, finding it very odd.

Ever since the Floating Market upgraded to receive more orders, he noticed a charitable order requiring long grain rice, tomatoes, and mutton appeared every ten days or so, with even the quantities unchanged.

At first, he didn’t find it strange, but with a few familiar orders interspersed, he began to suspect the system might be manipulating the orders.

But what if it’s not manipulation?

The phrase "Void Refugees" frequently flashed in Jiang Yuan’s mind since Hu Zhile personally shared her and her younger sister’s turbulent experiences, especially feeling the similarity after watching "Wandering Earth."

People hiding on world fragments, wandering in the void like Hu Zhile and her sister must be numerous, isn’t the Riverfront Village dungeon a perfect example?

If these charitable orders genuinely supply "Void Refugees," seeing the data-fied food made him uneasy.

The parents of Hu Zhile and her sister did not hesitate to abandon their biological children when faced with choices;

In various disaster works, human nature can’t withstand tests.

Moreover, being stranded in the void, without food or renewable resources, how desperate must life be for those on fragments? Can the food, vegetables, and meat provided truly fill every survivor’s stomach?

"If the food and livestock I have worked hard to harvest are distributed to the refugees through the system’s charitable orders, it’s certainly a good thing. But I hope, if the quantity is insufficient, I will work harder to provide more, and there mustn’t be any law of the jungle or survival of the fittest!"

Jiang Yuan stared at the orders yet to be completed, placing the required items in the inventory, but not immediately submitting the task as usual, stating solemnly: "I don’t want the food I provide to become a tool used by a few to control and enslave others, just like the Riverfront Village back then, which was disgusting!"

The system has no customer service or intelligent conversation function, so aside from speaking to himself, he had no other way.

After clicking to submit the order, receiving two special materials and less than three thousand Faith Value, Jiang Yuan reiterated his viewpoint while completing other "suspicious" orders and hurriedly proceeded to refresh the realm to upgrade his passive skill level.

On a cracked piece of land floating in the void, a white sun appeared and disappeared amid the sweeping wind and gray fog.

"Heaven and Earth, all celestial gods, Sun Star Monarch, whichever Immortal willing, please have mercy and save the good people." An aging priest prostrated on the altar silently praying.

Amid the howling wind, seven or eight young men stood with sharp blades, coldly staring at the altar;

Closer to the altar sat three burly men, the strongest and most domineering among the village’s survivors, who ate and drank their fill during the first divine rice blessing and seized the food scavenged by every household, completing their initial capital accumulation.

Resisters were killed, beaten, repeatedly suppressed, ultimately in this fragment returned to savage state, fist-sized violent acts rapidly redrawing the survivors’ social structure.

Currently, only the old priest can obtain food through prayer, with her grandson being her only vulnerability.

Controlling the food supply means controlling everyone’s lifeline, the crux lying in completely controlling the old shaman through her grandson.

After some time of coercion and temptation, leveraging the initial capital accumulated, the three burly men soon found young henchmen willing to serve them. Thus, all food, vegetables, and meat obtained through prayer concentrated, and as tyrants, they indulged in feasts;

The excess food was used to appease the henchmen, keeping them half-full, energetic enough to work yet not bold enough to oppose;

As for the rest, the old, the young, the sick, the weak, the cowardly, fearing villagers became their slaves, maintaining barely enough to avoid starvation daily. Women became "privileged resources" for the upper echelon; men bore heavy burdens, constructing comfortable living environments for the three "kings."

The small survivor village, surrounded by mountains, began large-scale construction projects, transforming from pre-disaster harmony and prosperity to post-disaster lifelessness to the current despairing oppressive state in an extremely short time.

No one knows how long, as night never fell, they had long lost the most primitive way to measure time.

"Sun Star Monarch, please have mercy and save us!" The aged priest looked up at the white sun, filled with sorrow in her old cloudy eyes.

One of the burly men tilted on a chair back, a twig in his mouth, grinning: "Li Shuiwang, you better learn well from your grandma how to be a qualified priest.

See, she’s so old and tired always praying for the gods to sustain our village, it’s not sustainable, if something happens to her, and if you can’t pray to the gods, we’d all starve because of you."

"I will learn well." Li Shuiwang stood under the altar with a sullen face, his gaze occasionally drifting over the pile of patches layered into a giant bundle.

From experience, he knew his grandmother would soon successfully pray for piles of fragrant rice, sweet and sour red fruits, and a whole ten pounds of mutton!

The divine gifts to the priest would fall on the bundle, taken away by the three kings, not even a sip of broth for himself, nor his grandmother. But what could he do?