Chapter 27: Famine Has Struck

“Grumble.”

“Grumble.”

It wasn’t just Ge Jiao who felt this way.
Spreading out from her and her sister as the center, everyone who had heard the conversation just now had their stomachs protesting.

For a moment, all the merfolk around the resurrection point maintained the same posture—bending over, frowning, clutching their stomachs.

“What are you standing around for? Go find something to eat!” someone shouted, and everyone woke up as if from a dream.

With a ‘boom’, the fish that had just been crowding around the resurrection point scattered.
One by one, with green eyes, they stared at the seaweed by the roadside, the fruits in the forest, and all sorts of plants that looked edible.

Some players even set their sights on the small fish swimming by.

The small fish, which had been leisurely floating in the water, seemed to sense danger.
The spines on their bodies bristled and shot out, turning themselves into densely packed, spiky balls, looking exceptionally prickly to the mouth.

Seeing this, the player could only give up on this tempting idea with resentment and turn to the forest to find edible plants.

Just as a disorderly, chaotic, and barbaric player riot was about to erupt, and the peaceful sea was about to experience the first show of force from the players, the so-called Fourth Calamity—

At this moment, the situation was brought under control by a Sea Realm version of Shennong.

The player named [Contemporary Foodie] was the first to stand up, calming the players who were somewhat agitated due to hunger—at this time, some players had already committed suicide to return to the resurrection point, attempting to refresh their hunger sensation, but it was useless.

“Everyone, follow me. I have tried most of the plants in Sea Realm and know some edible fruits,” she said, taking out the food temporarily stored in her backpack and distributing it to everyone.

Then, a magical scene like a primary school spring outing appeared—

A merman led the way in front, distributing a few packets of small snacks from time to time, just like a teacher taking students on an outing.
And another large group of merfolk, having received food, followed obediently behind her, going wherever she pointed.

“This is edible. Although it’s a bit sour, the flesh is very thick,” the female merman with an apple-shaped face pointed to a certain blocky fruit hanging on a tree.

The players next to her swarmed up.
Each person took a piece, and the spot was picked clean.

Hua Yibing also led his companions and mixed into the team.

Seeing that Sykes wasn’t moving, he even helped him grab a fruit and forcibly stuffed it into his hand.

“Hurry up and eat. Aren’t you hungry?”

Sykes subconsciously took the brown fruit and chewed it in his mouth, saying nothing.

But Hua Yibing was already used to it.

‘Scott has been in this state ever since the famine broke out. Could he have starved until he’s become foolish?’ Huahua worried.

As he thought this, he took a bite of the fruit in his hand.

‘Whoa, you know what, it’s actually pretty good.’

The skin of the fruit was dark brown and looked extremely unremarkable, but the flesh inside was pink, looking tender and very appealing.

Its taste was also quite good.
The juice was clear and sweet with a hint of sourness, like some kind of perfectly matched drink, sliding from the throat all the way down to the stomach, directly moisturizing his hungry spleen and stomach.

Its flesh was also very thick, just as the player who was written as [Contemporary Foodie] but read as [Contemporary Shennong] had described.

One bite could be chewed in the mouth for a long time, surprisingly giving a sense of fullness.

“Sob sob sob, delicious. Contemporary Foodie, right? When I log off, I’ll definitely go to the cloud site to give you a like, coin, and favorite combo!” Hua Yibing mumbled indistinctly, then took another big bite.

Sykes, on the other hand, had no particular feelings—in his youth, out of curiosity about the structure and function of plants, he had experimented with almost all the nearby plants, including stuffing them into his mouth to taste them.
He had also contributed quite a few edible snacks to his classmates because of this.
This fruit called Gegegan was one of them.

He was now thinking about another problem: how to resolve this sudden incident.

As for why the players suddenly felt hungry, he knew a little about the reason—

The players were now a collection of consciousness bodies, not real flesh and blood.
Logically, they shouldn’t feel hungry.

But a person’s consciousness body is just that magical.
When they don’t think they will be hungry, they will be unaware.
But when they realize that they haven’t eaten and should be “hungry,” all their will will convey a message—you should be “hungry,” you are very “hungry” now.

It’s like hypnotizing a person’s will.
Their body is clearly next to a warm stove, but you tell them, “You are now naked in a cold storage, about to freeze to death.”

When their will believes this sentence, they will really feel cold.
If the hypnosis lasts for too long, they might even “freeze to death” in a warm room.

This famine incident was the same.

When the young girl named Ge Feifei asked, “Do we need to eat?”, the people around her who heard it… then, the feeling of hunger spread like a plague.

The difficulty in solving this problem lies in how to make the players realize that they are already full and…

Otherwise, with the amount of plants stored in the domain, it would be absolutely insufficient for these consciousness bodies that would never feel full.

[Ella, how much is left at home?]

[Master, there are still about thirty bottles left.]

Sykes nodded.
[That’s enough. Dilute them a hundred times, put them in bottles, and distribute them to the players. Label them as Satiety Potions.]

[Under what pretext should they be distributed?]

[Game bug maintenance compensation,] Sykes had been in the player team for a long time and had also learned some player-specific terminology.

Ella’s efficiency was extremely impressive, especially after Sykes had granted her a large portion of the domain’s authority.

Ten minutes later, every player received the same system notification.

[Dear players, there was a bug in the official design regarding the hunger value. We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused. The hunger value algorithm has now been added. Players can choose to eat according to their own hunger value.]

[As compensation, we are now distributing a random skill gift pack ×1 (with a chance to get a super rare skill), Satiety Potion ×10, and Reputation Points ×1000. Thank you for your contribution to the better development of the game.]

When they saw the first half of the sentence, there were still voices of dissatisfaction in the crowd.
“What, it’s actually an official bug? They just tormented us like this?”

But when they saw the second half, all the complaints disappeared.

As far as the eye could see, every merman’s eyes were shining, repeatedly looking at the official compensation reward—a skill gift pack!
With a chance to get a super rare skill!

‘Not tormenting at all! Not tormenting at all! I hope this kind of experience happens a few more times!’

‘It would be best if they could compensate with a skill gift pack every time!’

‘Doesn’t this reward crush 99% of the stingy officials on the market? XXX, get out here and apologize!’

Next was the exciting gift pack opening session.
Most people got ordinary skills, but it was better than nothing.
If used well, it could still be used in battle.

Only a few people’s gift packs glowed with golden light.

One was [Contemporary Foodie], who, as a leader, had perfectly appeased the possible riot.
This made people wonder if the officials were rigging it.
Another was Ge Feifei, who had first seen through the BUG and inadvertently triggered this famine incident.

Old Li also finished opening his gift pack, only getting a short-burst ordinary skill, 《Magic Engraving—Exhaustion》.
This skill could triple a certain attribute for a short period of time, such as defense or attack, but after the duration, that attribute would be forcibly reduced to 0 for a day.

He looked at this skill and pondered for a moment.
He didn’t feel any sense of loss, but instead looked very satisfied.

“This skill, if used well, is definitely a god-tier skill!”
As a player who had gone through countless games, Old Li judged this way.
“Any burst skill that ignores stats and increases attributes is definitely a trump card in the later stages.”

“Our personal panels have also changed, eh?” Hua Yibing discovered something.

Old Li also looked at his panel and found that another value had been added next to his health, with a stomach icon next to it.

Old Li: “This should be the hunger value the system mentioned?”

Yan Shuangwen looked at his own.
The value displayed on it was 41.

With a hint of curiosity, he took out the Satiety Potion distributed by the system from his backpack.
It was a small bottle with a long, thin neck, only about half a palm’s size.

‘Can this really fill you up?’ Yan Shuangwen was a little puzzled.

[Name: Satiety Potion]

[Function: Restore Hunger Value +100, restore a small amount of magic power.]

[Note: Don’t wait until your hunger value reaches zero to drink me. You wouldn’t want to know what that tastes like.]

He twisted open the cap and drank it down.

The potion didn’t seem to have any taste.
As the potion flowed into his stomach, Yan Shuangwen felt his entire abdomen warm up.
That warmth flowed from his stomach to his limbs and bones, and he inexplicably felt his body become a bit more powerful.

Looking at the hunger value progress bar again, it had been refilled to 100.

“This feels quite convenient.”
As a researcher who pursued efficiency, he undoubtedly liked this one-step meal method.

It was a pity this was in a game.
If only there were such a convenient potion in reality, he wouldn’t need to waste time coming out to eat when he was at a bottleneck, and could solve it with one potion.

But Hua Yibing completely disagreed with his view.
“Eating is eating! You have to eat things. What kind of eating is drinking a potion!”

He insisted that eating was the greatest respect for the stomach, and argued endlessly with his roommate on his own.

Sykes looked at the few of them bickering, and breathed a slight sigh of relief—as a merman with strong physical strength, he hadn’t had any need for food for hundreds of years.
So he had forgotten that humans needed to eat, and it had almost caused a big mess.

[Ella? What are you doing?]

After relaxing, the merman remembered his long-silent butler.

[Master, Ella is putting the Satiety Potions on the shelves of the exchange post. Oh, and also seeds for various edible plants.]

Ella’s voice still had no discernible fluctuations, but unexpectedly, Sykes sensed a faint excitement in it.

[With the demand for food, these players will be more active in doing quests.]

Even, it added an extra sentence, [I hope Master can make some more magic recovery potions to replenish the stock.]

The merman: “…”

‘So what exactly has Ella been learning in the human world?’