Famine 206: The Wall

On the day the Phase Two Crystal Stones went on sale

A little after six in the morning, an employee of a trading house arrived for work.
Today was his turn to open up. With a breakfast roll from the cafeteria clenched between his teeth, he yawned as he fumbled with his keys, groggily ambling forward.

As he walked on, he suddenly bumped headlong—thud—into a wall.

“Ouch!” the wall complained indignantly.

Stunned for a moment, the trading house employee realized he’d actually walked into a player’s back.

Now fully awake, he lifted his eyes—and was shocked at the sight before him.

A sea of people, teeming and dense—all of them players!

Heads jostling, a vast, heaving crowd so thick there wasn’t even room to stand.

And this spot was still at least two streets away from the trading house!

The employee stood stupefied for two seconds, then snapped fully to his senses. He took a deep breath, slapped his cheeks, wolfed down the rest of his breakfast in a few bites, cast a Buff on himself, rolled up his sleeves, and began to push his way through the throng.

……

Second by second, time slipped by—but nothing could quash the players’ fervor.

At the trading house entrance, packed as tight as sardines, the players surged and shouted in waves:

“Are there any Phase Two Red Crystals left?”
“Any Blue Crystals still available?”
“Just auction everything! I’m willing to offer 100,000 points!”
“Phase One crystals are fine too! Just sell me one! Take my money, I’m begging you!”

“By the way, it’s office hours already—how come no one’s inside the trading house yet?”
“Why isn’t the line moving at all?”
……

Meanwhile, two streets away, the trading house employees muttered among themselves: “……”
That’s true. It’s odd—why isn’t anyone in the trading house yet?

The employee who was supposed to open up was completely frantic now, shoving for all he was worth, waving the great door key and shouting at the top of his lungs, “How clever! Guess for yourself why the line isn’t moving!”

“Let me through! Let me in!” @ Infinite Good Stories, exclusively on Jinjiang Literature City

“I have the key! If I don’t get in, who’s going to open the doors for you?!”

“……”

……

Aside from that, countless caster-class players, drowned in the sea of blue crystal buyers, were pounding the ground and wailing—

“Save some blue crystals for us! Please, just a little!!”

“Just because of some defense buff, you’re snatching them all up! Casters’ lives matter too! I’m talking to you! What is a beast-monk doing with a caster’s blue crystal?!”

In front of one particularly unlucky caster, the indicted monk whistled, unmoving.

Are you kidding, that’s a 15% defense increase!
Why would anyone give that up?

In the end, it was a trading house employee accompanied by a mining hound partner who, unable to watch any longer, got his supervisor’s approval for a pass, and took off on the spot in a No Fly Zone…
Waving his tentacles, he picked up the unluckiest of the opening crew and his colleagues one by one, ferrying them into the trading house…

Finally, with tremendous effort, they managed to start business at the appointed time as scheduled.

“……”

Witnessing it all, Si Zhiyan silently covered his face.
Ah, a population explosion has its downsides.

Standing beside Si Zhiyan, Li Cuilan remarked, “Truly a spectacle.”

After all this time, Si Zhiyan’s most capable community manager had long since set her heart on the farm, treating it as her lifelong pursuit.

Li Cuilan smiled and said, “With minerals of such value, there’s no fear they won’t sell. Over in the big city, they’re developing rapidly. The high labor costs have balanced out quite a bit overnight.”

“Actually, we could go a step further. Why not change our sales model and switch to auctions—hold three rounds each day and sell to the highest bidder? That way, in the first few days, the price could reach the hundreds of thousands in points. For combat gear, that might not be worth it, but for wealthy merchants, having something valuable to enhance their reputation is necessary…”

Before she could finish, Si Zhiyan interrupted her. “No.”

Si Zhiyan’s voice was calm, but as he rarely interrupted others, cold sweat broke out on Li Cuilan’s forehead. She instantly fell silent and stood up to apologize: “Sorry.”

Si Zhiyan let it go, smiling as he waved his hand, pouring her a cup of tea. “It’s fine—please sit.”

“I’m grateful for your dedication to the public interest.”

“But I run this farm not to provide luxuries for the privileged.”

Li Cuilan was silent for a while, then bowed deeply.

She drank the tea with a bowed head, then turned and sat upright facing Si Zhiyan.

Leaning back in his chair, Si Zhiyan lifted his lashes. “Are you satisfied with this answer?”

Li Cuilan drew a deep breath and, with sincere emotion and a slight tremor, replied, “…I’m deeply grateful.”

Si Zhiyan smiled.

He saw at a glance that Li Cuilan was being deliberate.
But that didn’t matter to him; he was generous in this regard.

As the owner of the farm, Si Zhiyan wielded authority over everything and was the backbone for nearly a million players.

Because he was so even-tempered, many failed to recognize this fact. But Li Cuilan could not afford to be among them.

—If he so wished, Si Zhiyan could become a dictator at any time.

The reason he allowed Li Cuilan to hold power in his stead was because he had more important matters, and because he could see that she shared his ideals.

Perhaps it was because she herself had suffered hunger, had been driven from place to place. This woman worked with passionate resolve, striving to give back.
To achieve that, she had tried many things.

Those policies that left other settlement leaders simultaneously laughing and sighing—they were all devised by Li Cuilan:
Assisting new arrivals, assigning special positions in the administration; keeping an eye on relations among different groups within the settlement, holding regular activities and promoting community spirit…

Si Zhiyan never mentioned it, but he saw it all.

Li Cuilan was not a saint in the traditional sense; quite the opposite, after a lifetime in practical business, she was a genuine doer. She calculated every budget with precision, submitting each to Si Zhiyan for approval before implementation. Based on the farm’s economic situation, he would approve or reject projects; if rejected, she never raised objections.

She judged people astutely, knowing that, for all his gentle appearance, no one could alter Si Zhiyan’s decisions. Knowing when to advance and retreat, she kept her relationship with him on good terms.

Yet even Li Cuilan, seeing the true scope of Si Zhiyan’s power… could not entirely dispel her unease.

This, perhaps, is humanity’s weakness:
In darkness, we dream of paradise; yet upon reaching paradise, we are wracked with unease, tossing and turning at night.
Afraid that it’s all no more than an illusion, that a cause into which we’ve poured our lives is only a passing indulgence for the mighty… Ready to vanish the instant they blink.

Si Zhiyan merely smiled, pouring her another cup of tea.

With the farm expanding at breakneck speed in this time of upheaval, no one could predict what lay ahead.
He did not wish to devote too much energy to community management, so he sought capable people to take charge. And capable people, naturally, would have plans of their own.

One can never truly see into another’s heart; no one’s a worm in his stomach. Having misgivings is perfectly normal.
Putting their worries to rest was part of Si Zhiyan’s duty, too.
@ Infinite Good Stories, exclusively on Jinjiang Literature City
Therefore, not only did Si Zhiyan refuse to change, but he even posted a few new rules on the bulletin board:

Within one year, if a buyer regretted their purchase of crystal stones, they could sell them back to the trading house at the rental depreciation price. The trading house would then resell those crystals the next day at the original price.
Any equipment forged using farm-sourced crystal stones could not be sold for more than twice the cost of raw materials.
Private reselling and price speculation were strictly forbidden.
Even more strictly forbidden were scalpers who queued or traded on behalf of others.

If anyone wished to challenge the power of these S-class game rules—let them try.

A little chaos in the lines was inconsequential.

You could line up early, and so could others.

If crowding became an ordeal, Si Zhiyan could promote a lottery system: register daily for several thousand spots, choose by random drawing. Those selected would earn the right to purchase a crystal stone—non-transferable.

Regardless of the method, Si Zhiyan hoped that most players whose strength met the threshold would have an equal opportunity to participate.
As long as you were willing to pay a fair price and put forth the effort, you’d have a chance to buy crystals from the farm.

Take them into battle; let them help you return alive.

…Rather than being bought up at prices far beyond their worth, hoarded by absentee bosses and merchants as mere emblems of status and wealth.

Moreover, Si Zhiyan was well aware that with time, things would ease up.

The mine’s output wouldn’t stay as it was now, and the supply of Phase Two forging stones would likewise grow.

He was already negotiating to purchase Phase Two forging technology from Hephaestus Fortress and disseminate it among the farm’s artisans.
By then, the scarcity of Phase Two stones would ease dramatically. Like today’s Phase One crystals, their supply would no longer seem so absurdly tight.

Only, Alice might not agree.

The legendary Artisans’ settlement, guardian of a monopoly at another level entirely…

Before going to negotiate, Si Zhiyan convened several meetings, devising multiple strategies with his team. Their possible bargaining chips included crystals, points, provisions… and a few things they would resort to only if necessary.

—But to his surprise, the negotiations went more smoothly than expected.

When Si Zhiyan sat in Hephaestus Fortress and proposed, “I’d like to purchase your technology,” Alice, sitting across from him, agreed at once: “Of course! No problem.”

Opposite him, the young lady sat surrounded by layers of intricate, beautiful lace gowns and crystal jewelry, swinging her feet and beaming at him.

She held a cup of full-sugar brown sugar pearl milk tea, a petite side table at her elbow stacked with all manner of ornate, sugary pastries.

“Because I really like Mr. Si, so any request from Mr. Si is perfectly fine with me!” @ Infinite Good Stories, exclusively on Jinjiang Literature City

“Besides, we can’t possibly handle so many orders! Lately people have been asking every day—Naya is about to go crazy.”

Alice’s forthrightness left Si Zhiyan half exasperated, half amused.

It seemed that, to Alice, treasures worth a fortune and monopoly technologies… all of it mattered less than her own carefree indulgence in food and drink.

He thought back to her earlier dogged argument for eating the cursed licorice candy… Perhaps this “unimportant” thing included even her own life.

“But—I do have one condition!”

Alice straightened, clearing her throat.

“Mr. Si, please help me find a place… somewhere with lots of people, where everyone can have a really, really good time!”