Famine 50: The Mist
by Cristae[Day 35 / 6:30 AM / Farm Owner’s Cabin / Current Farm Fullness: 51%]
The next day, dawn did not come.
Si Zhiyan opened the door and discovered the world outside had turned into a vast expanse of white. The thick mist refused to dissipate, dense moisture condensed in every corner of the air, shutting out the sky. Beads of water gathered into rivulets, trickling slowly down the walls.
Service Players stepped out of their tents, wandering in confusion, trying to comprehend this world.
At the entrance to the residential cluster, the couplets painted in black ink on red paper were soaked by the mist, every character smudged into an inky blur, dripping in winding trails. It looked like ink, or perhaps blood—it sent chills down one’s spine.
Three steps away, you could not recognize a face.
Tang Qinghuai, holding his anxiety in check, immediately broke through the rift, intent on checking the situation of his mother, Zhong Manwen, and the Bone Ferry.
The instant the rift opened, cries of battle tore through the air. Zhong Manwen’s face was lost in the fog—she seemed to be dealing urgently with something, and distant shouts and screams echoed from afar.
Tang Qinghuai shuddered in alarm. “Mom?! Mom! What’s happening over there?!”
Zhong Manwen jerked her head up, a smear of blood still on her face.
“Leave!” she cried sharply. “Get out of this accursed fog, hurry! It—”
Sssst… chhkkk…
The rift in the air flickered and then abruptly snapped shut.
[Ding! Current farm… sssst… module… not fully loaded… dimensional rift temporarily unavailable.]
[Please be patient or resolve the module loading issue.]
[Not fully… sssst… no qualification…]
The system prompts echoed in Si Zhiyan’s mind.
Not fully what? No qualification for what?
Frowning, Si Zhiyan rubbed his temples.
The effects of the incomplete module were starting to spread. Back in the Xanadu world, even with an incomplete module, the dimensional rift was usable.
Was it the influence of this world?
No matter what, he had to find “terrain bait” immediately—otherwise, the farm would be almost paralyzed.
Tang Qinghuai sat in a daze, while Lin Qiushui hurried over to comfort him. “Don’t worry, it shouldn’t be too serious.”
“In the Hunger Game, every time the world transitions, players’ positions are shuffled, randomly dispersed in the new world. But those holding a shared charm, or those all under the same roof, can stay together and transmit as a group.”
“So as long as there’s nothing wrong with Commander Nie’s Bone Ferry, everyone will stick together. With the chosen one Commander Nie, and Sha Tong’s Volunteers, there might be brief chaos, but nothing irreparable should happen.”
“Compared to Commander Nie’s side, we ought to be more worried about ourselves.”
Lin Qiushui’s face was as pale as the mist as she gazed toward the farm’s great wall.
“What’s out there… in the deep mist?”
Si Zhiyan climbed to the top of the farm’s wall.
For the first time, from this unlikely vantage, he finally saw the world’s true shape.
In the fog’s haze, black trunks interwove in dense, tangled layers, stabbing into the earth, their branches thrusting straight toward the sky.
Within the patchwork light, the entire limited field of vision was covered with endless dead timber, spreading out over the broad plain like the bodies of guards standing in death.
Each tree was pitch-black, hard as iron, frozen stiff—remnants of what once lived.
Beyond the farm was a forest.
A forest that had already died.
From deep within the mist, a strange sound could be faintly heard.
Rustle… rustle…
Rustle… rustle…
It came fast, urgent, slicing between the tree-trunks. Before Si Zhiyan could even identify it, the sound had already reached his side.
Rustle…
As though something was brushing right past his ear.
[Alert! Alert!]
[Intruder detected!]
Suddenly, the farm’s alarm blared.
A chill shot up his spine.
Standing atop the wall, Si Zhiyan could see clearly: nothing was there, not a soul in sight.
Where was the intruder?
[Ding! Activate farm energy defense?]
“Activate,” Si Zhiyan commanded without hesitation.
Screeech!
[Ta-da-da-dum~]
A cheerful song played, just as on the first day when the centipede-men were corralled within the farm’s boundary.
On that day, once the music ended, the centipede-men shrieked as they melted away.
Normally, anything destroyed leaves a corpse.
But this time, Si Zhiyan waited and nothing happened at all. The rustling sound had simply vanished.
[Ding!]
In the peaceful quiet of the farm, the system’s chirpy prompt sent a different kind of chill through him.
[Foreign invader eliminated. Farm lawnmower energy remaining: 80%.]
The second day, dawn did not come. (And maybe the update won’t, either.)
Sorry, just half a chapter today—I kneel in apology.
Wrote half, then parents’ friends came by, and I was dragged out for dinner… the elders insisted I toast with them, and I caved and had two beers…
And now I’m all fuzzy and spinning…
Who would have thought two beers could put me out of action; I never would’ve guessed either…
Came home and typed in a daze, what came out was keyboard mash, so I deleted it in tears. So sorry—I’ll make up the word count tomorrow… (faints)