Famine 140: Open Ground

“Are you insane?!”
“How dare you! Such desecration! You have no manners!!”
Each step the bald man took left a trail of furious curses in his wake.

The little bloodfolk was beside himself with rage. “What unbearable insolence!”

The bald man paid them no mind, charging straight at Si Zhiyan.

Even Si Zhiyan was startled by his audacity.

The bald man struck down all obstacles in his way, and, meeting all hopes, slid dramatically to a stop right at Si Zhiyan’s feet.

With some embarrassment, Si Zhiyan precisely selected—one after another—the fifteen successful participants.

The bald man landed right at number fifteen.

Soon, all the sleep pods were filled to capacity.
Grinning with satisfaction, the bald man drifted into sleep.

“Well, that concludes our first session.” Si Zhiyan smiled. “The sleep experience will last four hours. After four hours, I’ll wake our guests.”

“The next session will be tomorrow evening at eight. I hope you’ll all come again.”

A great wave of disappointment swept the crowd.

There were so many first-stage bloodfolk; those stuck at the back got no share at all.
Some who had stood too far away realized too late and could only sigh bitterly at their own slow wits.

Look at Havana, Xia Ke, that bald man at the front!
How had they reacted so quickly?

Of course it was free—so naturally, there would be a line!

Unwilling to leave, the crowd lingered, many asking Si Zhiyan: those who finish at midnight, couldn’t they swap in for a nap?
Si Zhiyan politely refused, explaining, “The sleep pods need downtime between uses—they can’t run endlessly.”

He spent quite some time soothing the crowd until, at last, the bloodfolk dispersed.

As they left, many clenched their fists in anticipation, wondering how early tomorrow they’d need to arrive to get a spot in the pods.

At midnight, Si Zhiyan woke each guest one by one. There weren’t many new entertainments in the Nest, so a fair crowd gathered to watch.

Every participant awoke from a restful sleep—yawning, relaxed, glowing with satisfaction and longing for more.

All the old bloodstains on their bodies were gone.

“That was incredible. Really incredible,” the bald man kept rambling. “So comfortable—forget the abyss, since the apocalypse I’ve never slept so well.”

Xia Ke lounged contentedly, stretching out her arms and admiring her smooth, pale skin.

Suddenly, from afar, came an excited bark: “Woof!”

It was HACK, wagging his tail, leaping up and down beside Havana.

Havana gasped softly, “Hey, my ribs…”

Everyone looked over.

In utter amazement, Havana lowered his head to look at his chest. Muscles now rippled clearly beneath smooth skin, rising and falling gently with his breath—no blood in sight.

He looked healthy, strong—even his once-distorted spine, compressed by his caved chest, seemed straighter than before.

Just the previous night, he had been in the most painful, chest-collapsing phase of assimilation. From that point, his ribcage was supposed to swell rapidly, inflating until the bones burst through flesh, leaving him in agony.

“Did my assimilation process… reverse? No, it didn’t—I can still feel my connection to [Friend] nearly unchanged…”
Havana suddenly lifted his head, delighted, exclaiming,

“That’s right! I’m healed!”

“This thing, it can cure our wounds—even our mutations!”

At once, the crowd erupted, a buzz of heat and excitement.

This time, not only the first-stage bloodfolk, but all bloodfolk, had their eyes turn red.

Not everyone longed for the combat strength brought by tentacles.

Although Havana still retained some mutations, and only one joint had been truly healed…

To be human—who wouldn’t want to be human again?

Even just a little more like a person.

Someone shouted, “Boss, can we book in advance for tomorrow night? I’ll pay any price!”
“I’ll pay three thousand points!”
“Pfft—not enough! Boss, I’ll pay eight thousand!”

Si Zhiyan only smiled and shook his head.
Of course he would not take advance reservations—the best publicity came from a bustling crowd, everyone feeling they had a chance, all coming to witness and vie for a place.

“See you all tomorrow at eight.”

The bloodfolk groaned in disappointment.

In truth, Si Zhiyan was well aware that the flower field’s healing effect wasn’t especially dramatic. Havana’s chest had healed fully because his assimilation was relatively shallow; it was, more or less, like fixing a simple skeletal deformity. Xia Ke’s wrist, the bald man’s scalp—where the mutations ran deeper—showed no such dramatic improvement.

That was the true miracle of the flower field: as long as you still bled, the flowers would sing, quietly healing you—transcending even the assimilation mechanism, untouched by any curse.

But, if you had already grown used to your state, the flowers could do little more than offer you ease and relief.
After all,

Yet, even relief to this degree was enough to set people’s hearts ablaze. Many bloodfolk lingered, wheedling and pleading; Si Zhiyan, patient and unhurried, refused them all in turn.

It dragged on for quite some time.

Until the small hours,

Si Zhiyan glanced outside, walked back into the house, and dropped the curtain.

There were no doors in the Nest’s buildings; curtains were added later by players themselves—mostly special materials exchanged from the main god’s space, both breathable and soundproof.

Havana was still awake, gazing at his chest in a mirror, while HACK lay beside him, nudging him gently with his nose.

When Si Zhiyan entered, Havana greeted him, both shy and grateful. Fidgeting with his hands, he indicated the corner, calling out softly, “HACK.”

HACK leapt up, scurried into the corner, and nosed out the softest, fluffiest mat, tail wagging, to bring it to Si Zhiyan.

Any spot suited a phantom projection, but Si Zhiyan—

with his small bottle of glowing liquid—helped everyone sleep, then gave HACK a pat.

“This dog has spirit.”

“That’s right,” Havana patted HACK’s neck. “He’s from my family’s old dog—a black-backed German shepherd mutt. I bottle-fed him when he was this small. Grew up guarding the house—smart as can be. Saved my life more than once.”

Ye Xianqing grinned, “HACK’s a hero for the whole team. Remember that time the twisted security guard attacked at the CBD? It was late, our sentry vanished in an instant. No one noticed, but thanks to HACK sounding the alarm, we all survived.”

Havana beamed, rubbing HACK with pride. “He barely sleeps—patrols a dozen times every night.”

“No matter how rough things get, if I have a bite to eat, he gets one too.”

Yan Cheng added, “You treat him well, and he knows it.”

HACK barked happily, trotted a circle around Havana, and then licked Si Zhiyan’s palm with a warm, eager tongue.

Havana’s eyes were sincere and gentle. “HACK’s a good dog. Except for family, he’s really not friendly with outsiders.”

“Sir, he likes you.”

Maybe he knows I helped his master, Si Zhiyan thought, smiling as he stroked HACK’s sleek fur.

They chatted a bit more, stretched, and soon fell into a deep, restful sleep.

It seemed tomorrow’s demonstration would be more than enough.

…………
……

The next morning,

Si Zhiyan and the others were woken by the sound of weeping.

Meeting Yan Cheng’s gaze, Si Zhiyan hurriedly lifted the curtain, finding crowds packed tightly around the clearing outside.

When they appeared, the throng parted to allow them through.

At the far end, on the open ground, Havana knelt, head to the earth, sobbing and shaking.

—In his arms, a small black form, soaked in blood.

It was HACK.

Almost every bone in his body seemed broken, emaciated joints twitching, his head twisted unnaturally to one side, trembling in agony.

“Out of the way! I’m a doctor!” Ye Xianqing dashed forward, portable medical kit already open, preparing a row of instruments at his side. “Havana, let me take HACK. Careful—avoid secondary injury.”

Si Zhiyan’s white mist moved in, gently cradling HACK.

“Ugh… grr…”

Even while being held, HACK’s throat contracted with pain, struggling to lift his head, as if to bark, but only spraying forth bloody foam. His eyes remained fixed, unblinking, on a certain spot.

Si Zhiyan quickly turned in that direction, following HACK’s gaze.

—The center of the empty ground.

There was nothing there now but a scattering of torn fabric.

Overnight, all fifteen sleep pods had vanished.

During the night, someone had come and stolen them away—using some special, high-level enchanted tool—while no one inside noticed, except for the ever-watchful HACK.

And before HACK could raise the alarm, they had…