CHAPTER 404: 304, TECHNOLOGY AND HARD WORK

Eastern City.

In the restaurant industry of this newly built city, Xia’s Fast Food Restaurant is the most numerous among the dining establishments.

Interestingly, the Great Xia People living in Eastern City do not have any particular preferences; noodle shops, burger joints, and Xia’s Fast Food Restaurant are all options they consider.

The Shapudian People in the city noticeably prefer dining at Xia’s Fast Food Restaurant.

The least popular fast-food restaurant among the Shapudian People is, surprisingly, the burger joint.

This phenomenon might be related to the burger’s origin in the Western Hemisphere.

After the Age of Calamity arrived, the Shapudian People fully turned towards Eastern Great Xia, and cultural symbols representing the Western Hemisphere are now seen as outdated in Shapudian.

This is a very interesting psychological phenomenon.

So when Zhao Xiaoying brought Gaba Muda into a Xia’s Fast Food Restaurant, most of the people they saw were the local dark-skinned individuals.

Both of them appeared as Great Xia People, so they received plenty of attention.

Although Long legged Sister had put on an "ugly makeup," reducing her beauty by three grades, she still appeared above average compared to ordinary women.

The Shapudian men in the restaurant all kept a respectful distance upon seeing her.

Local men naturally dare not aspire to beauties from Great Xia.

However, Gaba Muda, disguised as a Great Xia male, received completely different treatment.

Many Shapudian women frequently observed him.

Gaba Muda keenly noticed this difference and said in a low voice, "Great Xia males seem very popular here, while the females are totally different, your Canglan People’s way of pairing is really strange."

Zhao Xiaoying placed two plates of dishes onto a tray and asked, "Mr. Zhang Da, what is it like on your side?"

Gaba Muda replied, "We look for our other half during the New Year’s gathering through the attraction of ’Iron Spirit.’"

Zhao Xiaoying felt her horizons widen as well.

She already knew that the so-called "Iron Spirit" is something unique to the Iron Fist Race.

According to the Canglan People, it can be understood as a peculiar kind of subconscious.

The subconscious of Iron Fist People has a certain independence and can provide guidance to them.

Here is an example.

If an Iron Fist Person falls into an illusion technique, they might not be aware of it, but the Iron Spirit can send out warnings.

Soon.

Both of them gathered three dishes each, completed the payment, and found a table to sit down.

Due to the scarcity of resources, this fast-food restaurant only offered a limited selection of dishes—thirteen types of dishes and three soups in total.

There were only two meat dishes; one was spicy diced chicken, and the other was grilled insect pupae.

The price of the former was very high, far exceeding other dishes.

The latter was relatively cheap, with a plate costing only 10 Xia Yuan, so many people chose it.

Gaba Muda fiddled with the insect pupae using chopsticks, feeling intrigued: "What is this?"

Zhao Xiaoying explained: "This is a herbivorous insect pupae cultivated by the Southern Insect Research Institute of Great Xia, which takes at most half a month from hatching to becoming pupae and is considered a high-quality protein source."

The so-called "Southern Insect Research Institute" was originally proposed by Yang Fan, focused on researching insects in tropical regions.

The research conducted by this institute primarily targets the military field.

Because Yang Fan once studied a Blue Worm with superpower traits and created a paint with invisibility effects.

The institute hoped to emulate Mr. Ghost and contribute to Great Xia’s defense efforts.

Unexpectedly, they inadvertently cultivated a national-level food item—the Southern Worm.

This bug is extremely easy to raise, and its meat feed ratio is astonishingly high.

For example, the meat feed ratio for raising chickens is about 2:1, meaning a chicken needs approximately 2 kg of feed to gain 1 kg in weight.

Whereas a Southern Worm consumes 1 kg of feed grass and can produce 0.7 kg of insect pupae.

Moreover, the production of feed grass is also very high, making the Southern Worm a key food product promoted in Great Xia, where numerous Southern Worm breeding bases were established nationwide.

Due to dietary culture, many Great Xia People are reluctant to accept insect pupae, so food processing factories roasted the insect pupae and ground them into powder, mixed with other ingredients, and made them into protein pills named "Southern Pill."

In just two months, Southern Pill was fully launched on the business communication platforms across Great Xia.

Priced moderately at only 15 Xia Yuan per pound, and with decent taste, its sales were excellent.

Shapudian People have a high acceptance of insect pupae, so the fast-food restaurant directly displays them.

Zhao Xiaoying explained the story behind the Southern Worm in its entirety.

Finally, she added: "Last year, Great Xia conducted a comprehensive assessment of the domestic children’s health, concluding that one-tenth of children exhibited malnutrition.

"Since the mass cultivation of Southern Worms began and related insect flesh products were on the market, Great Xia offered additional subsidies to families with children, greatly improving domestic children’s nutrition.

"So far, the proportion of malnourished children has dropped to less than three out of ten thousand."

Gaba Muda couldn’t help but nod: "In terms of solving the food problem, you Great Xia People have done an outstanding job, much better than us Iron Fist People."

He still remembered that when the extreme heat calamity struck, crops almost completely failed, and several peers around him starved to death, let alone younger children.

Zhao Xiaoying mentioned another matter: "Mr. Ghost heard about this and specially gifted the Southern Worm cultivators with an extremely precious supernatural item to help them awaken their superpower."