The scarcity of food mostly stems from a lack of farming knowledge.
Everyone knows that plants need watering, so they must be planted next to a water source. After that...
One only needs to wait for time, wait for them to ripen.
This is the default rule for all players, scientists, and research institutes.
As for bones, bone meal, and the like.
In Galen Yu's eyes, fertilizer is everywhere; it is a drop obtained from killing Skeletons.
Yet, many players have never even seen it once.
Skeletons! They are one of the most difficult monsters to deal with!
It's already hard enough just to avoid them, so how could anyone kill them and pick up their bone drops?
Even if someone accidentally picked one up, no one would think of placing it on a crafting table and then associating the processed bone meal with farming.
The two seem completely unrelated.
Using bone meal to ripen food is beyond everyone's cognition—it's no different from magic!
After finishing planting the potatoes, Galen Yu did not stop his actions.
The three oak saplings planted earlier were still growing; he casually threw the remaining bone meal onto them.
As the green light appeared again, the saplings suddenly grew into full trees.
Following the food security, he successfully produced trees from trees, taking the first step toward wood freedom!
"Wood can be accelerated too?"
"Trees grow apples. This is bad; now Galen Yu doesn't have to worry about food!"
"Who the hell said he had no food and would definitely die tonight?"
"Wasting our signboards! Stick Nation player, screw you!"
"Stupid Soren Park, stupid Stick Nation!"
"I actually believed your nonsense!"
Having believed Soren Park's deduction, the Freedom Nation audience was collectively furious.
If the food problem is solved, how can they compete for first place given Nine Provinces' monster-killing efficiency?
They wasted an expensive signboard for nothing!
At the Black House, the blonde old man's face was grim.
It was precisely because he believed Soren Park's deduction that he had hastily sent out the tip. Who could have expected such a sudden turn of events!
"From today, cut off all financial subsidies for Stick Nation, and add an additional 5% tariff on Stick Nation products!"
The value of a signboard cannot be measured in money; it could potentially provide information to turn the tide at a critical moment!
Something must be done to appease the citizens' anger.
When the news spread, even the Stick Nation audience couldn't help but start cursing.
"Cutting subsidies and adding taxes!"
"Life was already hard enough; won't adding taxes make it even harder?"
"It's all Soren Park's fault! He has no brains to be making deductions about the situation!"
"Because of you, we have to pay an extra 5% in tariffs!"
"How much more money are we going to lose? You moron, Soren Park!"
Stick Nation's land area is small, and they lack many resources, needing to purchase them from outside.
Increasing tariffs is equivalent to cutting their lifeline, affecting everyone's lives directly!
"Magic?!"
Seeing the food with his own eyes, Soren Park had the same reaction as the audience.
However, seeing Freedom Nation's ranking steadily rising, he soon realized some of the situation outside.
He immediately explained.
"This isn't my fault! Who could have known he had such a skill?"
"Listen to me, Galen Yu is definitely not a gaming novice; he must have participated in the block civilization and obtained skills!"
The reason he concluded it was a skill rather than a mechanism was based on his own deduction.
If it were a mechanism, it would require using items from the block world. Clearly...
There was nothing similar on the sky island for him to use!
Otherwise, the saplings wouldn't have waited until now to be ripened.
The only possible source was killing Skeletons and Zombies. They had already investigated the drops of Zombies thoroughly.
Food, rotten flesh, heads, iron.
Aside from those, it was impossible for any other items to drop!
Since the number of Skeletons killed was small, Soren Park was indeed unclear about the specific drops, but he knew one thing.
Only a dozen or so Skeletons had been killed in total. Even if they dropped something every time, Galen Yu could only have used the items a dozen times.
Through the glass, he saw very clearly that those green lights had appeared at least thirty times!
That was three times more than the number of Skeletons; the numbers didn't add up at all!
Therefore, he concluded that Galen Yu must possess a ripening skill for farming!
"If you want to blame someone, blame Nine Provinces for their secrecy being too good, hiding such a person!"
Soren Park stated definitively.
At the Research Institute, Headmaster Quill nodded.
"That makes some sense."
"Does our Nine Provinces really hide such a master?"
For people like Kira Oakmoor, Mark, Jett, and others, obtaining new abilities is a very common thing.
If Galen Yu had entered the block world before, the 'magic' could be explained.
Fries said curiously.
"There is no record of Galen Yu in any player files, nor any similar experience."
"To put it another way, he did not join the game after the arena appeared."
It is very simple for a national power to investigate a person. Carefully reviewing Galen Yu's information...
An amazing guess suddenly occurred to Fries.
If he didn't join after the arena appeared, is it possible he entered the block world before the arena appeared?
That is what's commonly known as...
A Beta Tester!
Trembling all over, Fries was startled by his own guess.
If that were really the case, it would be too terrifying!
Just as he was about to tell Headmaster Quill his guess, a massive sound suddenly rang out.
In front of the entire audience, a bolt of thunder pierced through the firmament, lighting up the dark night, and struck the stone house with unerring precision.
"Is it... that monster!?"
...
Pumpkin Island.
Mark had already used up his last pumpkin pie.
Aside from the food he brought with him, in order to maintain his ranking, he had even cut down half of the sugar cane on the island to make three extra pumpkin pies.
But as his hunger bar gradually reached the bottom, he realized something was wrong.
"The signboard clearly said that the Nine Provinces player would die soon due to food shortage. What's going on now?!"
Most of the night had passed!
They were almost starving to death, yet looking back at the rankings...
[First Place: Nine Provinces, Zombie kills * 1013, Skeleton kills * 160, Special Monster kills * 36]
[Second Place: Freedom Nation, Zombie kills * 143, Skeleton kills * 12, Special Monster kills * 5]
[Second Place: Samurai Nation, Zombie kills * 51, Skeleton kills * 6]
The number of Zombies had just broken a thousand!
This is "dying soon"?
"If this continues, I'll die before Galen Yu!"
Retreating to the room, Mark's palms were dripping with blood.
Except for the gold sword he was reluctant to use easily, the durability of his other weapons was completely depleted; many Zombies were killed purely with his fists.
Mark's current state was extremely poor!
Beside him, Jett was not faring any better. Three arrows were embedded deep in his muscles, making him look like a porcupine.
"How on earth are those guys using items? Do they want us to go to our deaths?"
Hiding in the room, Jett cursed loudly.
He had almost been killed by Skeleton arrows!
"It's hard to imagine why Nine Provinces can kill a thousand Zombies. Won't the block world sanction him?"
As wretched as the two were, they had only killed a hundred or so Zombies after all this time. It was hard to imagine Nine Provinces having such exaggerated data.
Boom!
A violent thunderclapped, lighting up the entire horizon.
Whether they were sleeping or hiding, all the players were startled awake.
Mark saw an announcement like this.
[REMINDER! Nine Provinces player Galen Yu has killed over a thousand Zombies!]
[Triggered a new monster type: Creeper!]
[The storm arrives, and thunder rolls!]
[The Creeper has absorbed the power of lightning and completed its evolution!]
[The Charged Creeper will possess even greater destructive power than a normal Creeper. Please handle with care!]