Famine 205: Innate Talent

While the farm’s new worlds were booming, there was one place facing a stern challenge.

That was none other than the farm’s largest mineral supplier: Hephaestus Castle.

The manpower-intensive approach to developing new worlds required a huge supply of [Rotating Black Hole Crystals]; the castle’s stable output directly determined the pace at which new worlds could be opened.

But the problem was, Hephaestus Castle’s entrances and exits were notoriously unpredictable, appearing and vanishing without warning. It could be connected to the network that morning, and by afternoon—gone.

Ask about it, and the answer was: the castle had “gone wandering.” No one knew where it had vanished to.

Such rumors were rather obscure. Many players who traveled there in admiration found themselves baffled, crowding around and asking the way, only to be met by Maid Naya’s polite smile:

“Miss Alice has gone out for a stroll. Please come again another day.”

Most crucially, this wasn’t even an excuse…

Just a few months back, someone had indeed spotted the pink-Lolita-clad chainsaw girl, along with a tailed-suit-wearing youth, gleefully sliding down the waterless slides of an abandoned amusement park.

—No exaggeration, they had truly gone “out for a stroll.”

Initially, as a partner, Si Zhiyan worried: with this girl out playing every day, wouldn’t things fall apart?

But after watching for a while, he realized: every day, the castle kept its appointed delivery time with the mine, perfectly maintaining its connection with the farm, never missing a single shipment…

This castle, named for the god of craftsmen, and its lord Miss Alice, showed not a bit of slack when it came to business—showing off considerable technology and competence.
Each day, deliveries arrived on time, with never a default.

Moreover, after several months, the farm’s gem inspectors had yet to detect a single defective crystal—they were eyed with suspicion by their own supervisor more than once, complaining their innocence.

Soon it became routine—heads down, toss and sort, days so smooth they almost found themselves hoping for just one flaw—

I don’t believe it. With so much volume, not even a single defective piece?

—Well, there really weren’t any.

Si Zhiyan was almost moved.

Anyone who’d ever been the client knew just how precious such reliability was.

In the end, he let it go.

Si Zhiyan placed the report on his desk, shaking his head with a smile. “That noble lady seems utterly willful, but she’s got her house in order. She’s no simple character.”

Bian Xu, having been playing with Sol the dog, looked up with a rather complicated expression.

Si Zhiyan: “…What’s wrong?”

Bian Xu covered his face. “Oh… nothing. There’s just… a bit of history there.”

………
……

With the city’s dazzling progress, everyone at the farm was happy. But if there was anyone happiest of all…

It was undoubtedly Hephaestus Castle’s lord, Miss Alice.

Miss Alice was positively over the moon!

“I haven’t gone shopping in ages! The coffee shop owner is a cute big sister! So many desserts! Wow! Tiramisu jars!”

Alice clung to Yu Yao’s hand, eyes darting everywhere with excitement, laughing and exclaiming with unrestrained joy. Others cast strange looks, but she didn’t care a bit.

“This is so much more fun than the post-apocalyptic wasteland!”

In her breathtaking, gemstone-studded dress, she dragged a helpless Yu Yao through the city’s streets and alleys.

“Food! I heard there’s more food! Where is it? In some alley?”

At first Alice was a bit lost. She’d heard all the snack stalls here were hidden, some only appearing at certain hours… Did she really have to search street by street? Too slow! The city was so large, and she didn’t exactly have friends here.

But very soon, Miss Alice found her first “friend.”

On the whiteboard in the central plaza, a mysterious person would occasionally come by, jotting down the locations of all kinds of stalls!

With this guide, Alice hit her mark every time, spending days on end exploring a new alley or haunt, gleefully satisfied.

She was quite suspicious, and her curiosity was killing her. So, full of zest, she put together a pretty little box, filling it with glittering gems worth tens of thousands of points altogether.

She clipped a pink note to the lid:

[Thank you for the information! ~ Here’s your reward :D]

[Let’s be friends, okay?]

She chose one of the mysterious hooded person’s usual midnight hours and left the box on the whiteboard.

Alice and Yu Yao crouched in the bushes nearby, spying through the leaves, waiting for the mysterious person to take the bait.

But as they waited, the shrubs before them suddenly exploded in a burst of wild growth!
With a flurry of thorned vines, dense undergrowth smacked them both squarely in the face.

At first, Alice laughed—such a simple trick might fool ordinary players, but how could it trap her?

Yet as soon as they tangled, Alice realized—
The shrub’s ferocity was something else.

Even she and Yu Yao had to break out their chainsaws and face it in earnest.

When, battered, they finally broke free, they hurried to the plaza.
The little box was nowhere to be seen. On the whiteboard a new message had appeared:

[Thank you, I accept.]
[We are already friends.]

[Have fun :)]

A smiley face, and below that, a new address for a grilled cold noodle stall.

“Ahhh—!! Too sneaky!! I can’t believe I lost!!”

Miss Alice’s howl echoed through the night…

“Drat! Yu Yao, come with me! Here is the plan, next time we must catch—”

Half a block away on a rooftop, Bian Xu looked up and snickered.
He bent his head again to examine the treasures: wow, those were generous—gems of excellent quality!

He’d pick one the right size to craft Mr. Si a new fountain pen, to set into the barrel. It was sure to look beautiful…

…

Meanwhile, Alice, her disappointment redirected into appetite, charged the grilled noodle stand and began to gorge herself.

Soon, a stack of five or six paper bowls piled up in front of her.

Sour and sweet tomato-soaked grilled noodles, fragrant noodles rolled around sausage, some folded with melted cheese and spicy ramen, burning hot but irresistible…

Every kind was delicious! Every kind divine!

Needs sausage! Enoki mushrooms! And spicy sticks… Hm? Spicy sticks? Since when do grilled noodles come with that? Whatever, might as well try!

Yu Yao, holding her ornate princess hat, could only laugh and sigh, “You’re already eating the seventh variety of grilled noodles, my lady.”

Alice hummed in delight, “It’s a good thing to make an interesting new friend, isn’t it? Can’t I celebrate with more food?”

Yu Yao said with resignation, “If you eat too much of this commoner food, you’ll regret it come morning.”

“What nonsense? I’m not a real noble lady, after all.”

Alice lowered her sparkling lash-studded eyelids, biting the noodle skewer, her voice dropping to a calm monotone:

“You know that better than anyone… don’t you, Brother Yu?”

It was only when Alice didn’t put on that bright, girlish affectation that her tone became gentle, as ordinary as any young woman’s.
You could clearly hear—her teenage years were long behind her.

“…”
Yu Yao fell silent.

After a long pause, Alice laughed: “Oh, what nonsense am I saying.”

Her tone turned sprightly again: “No gloomy talk when we’re having so much fun!”

“Come on, let’s go! Next stall! I want spicy hotpot next!…”

………
……

Facts would prove that Alice and her castle were more dependable than anyone imagined.

Though always out playing, ever at wits’ end with Bian Xu, Alice not only fulfilled her contract with perfect punctuality and quality but even brought unexpected surprises.

A few months later, Yu Yao knocked on the farm master’s door, smiling as he told Si Zhiyan:

Following Si Zhiyan’s manual, and adding some of his own research, he had unlocked second-level forging for both [Blue Crystal] and [Red Crystal].

Soon, the newly forged crystals were laid out on Si Zhiyan’s desk:

[Red Crystal]
[First-level forging unlocked: Attack Power +10%]
[Second-level forging unlocked: Attack Power +20%; if attached to a weapon, adds an extra 10% fire damage.]

[Blue Crystal]
[First-level forging unlocked: Spell Skill Potency +10%]
[Second-level forging unlocked: Spell Skill Potency +15%; if attached to armor, adds an extra 15% flexible defense.]

With secondary forging, each raw stone’s benefits doubled, and new buff attributes were added!
A leap in quality, plain and simple!

Playing every day, yet never failing in her duties?!

Si Zhiyan couldn’t help but be deeply impressed.

Those two crystals alone were enough to make every craftsman at the farm bow to Alice in awe.

Truly, there were some in this world so gifted no one could question it.

Of course, Si Zhiyan enjoyed the best part—he’d barely given it any thought, just handed over the papers, and months later, Alice and Yu Yao had solved the technical bottleneck themselves.

A godlike teammate—what more could one ask for!
Si Zhiyan immediately signed a mass processing contract.

As usual, payment would be made with raw stones.

Currently, daily red and blue crystal output at the farm was considerable: 130 of each per day; as long as black hole crystal production went unhindered, Alice could promise 30 tier-two red and 30 tier-two blue crystals per day.

As for farm pricing…
Si Zhiyan, without hesitation, quintupled the price: 50,000 points each.

With top-level players earning a fortune by helping conquer worlds, these would sell themselves—no point being modest about it.

When the red and blue crystals had first appeared, the whole farm had been thrown into an uproar—people camped out at the exchange, mass queues, all-night rushes… the works.
Now, with the player base many times larger, the coming crowds would surely dwarf anything before.

This time, Si Zhiyan spread the word early, notifying every sector to make preparations.

Fortunately, Li Cui’e had had the foresight, when the world was first being converted, to apply for new exchange branches in Fantasy Flower Fields.

Initially built just for some secure deposit boxes, since construction had begun, it was only right to make it worthwhile.

The new exchange branches took growth into account, not just adding more, but expanding their size manyfold, with enough capacity for dozens of times more players.

The result was a true, formal trading hall.

Good. That ought to cover it! Si Zhiyan wiped his brow.

The news was released: in two days, every main exchange would be selling tier-two gems.