The woman's shout brought Lind outside.
He opened the door and saw two undead, panting for breath, and the things they were carrying.
Ironthorn vines, like gourd vines, were strung with a bunch of thimble-sized tubers, somewhat like potatoes, covered in thick, black mud.
He'd just been saying they had no food, and in the blink of an eye, the undead had brought him a surprise. They really were his own little Travel Frogs.
The other undead must be working hard too.
"Well done, undead. With your help, Star Dragon Outpost will have more confidence in getting through the winter."
As Lind spoke, the smell of the meat broth wafted over to them.
The female undead twitched her nose and kept her eyes fixed on him.
"Don't worry, I'll have someone estimate the weight and give you your reward right away," he said, assuming she wanted to be paid immediately.
A soldier had already come over, but they definitely wouldn't weigh the vines. They would only calculate the weight of the tubers.
This wasn't a job for the Star Dragon Outpost NPCs. The undead needed to sort it out themselves.
Land Gold wasn't so easy to get.
... Growl.
The stomach rumble was very abrupt.
Lind: "..."
A moment of silence.
"Would you like a bowl of meat broth?" he offered.
"Can we?" This time it wasn't the female undead who answered, but the male undead beside her.
"Of course. You're part of Star Dragon Outpost too," Lind said with a smile. "I've said it before: Star Dragon Outpost welcomes undead who want to save the world and will provide all the help I can offer!"
The male undead quickly said, "Lord, I'm Ace M, and I'm willing to burn myself for Star Dragon Outpost, to save the world, even if it means throwing myself into the fire! Thank you for your generosity!"
The female undead gave her companion a puzzled look, asking with her eyes: Didn't you say not to eat anything from strangers? Why are you being so proactive?
Ace M returned a look: That's right, it's just like you think. We really succeeded.
The female undead's eyes widened: So, you really want to taste the meat broth, right? And you won't feel guilty about eating it, no matter how much?
Ace M smiled: Yeah. This must be an important part of the quest chain. The farming part, which I like the most, is finally here.
Lind watched the two undead exchanging glances and subtle signals with their eyes, and couldn't help but wonder: Shouldn't they be able to private message each other? Why are they communicating this way?
"I'm Romantic Glutton," the female undead finally said, snapping out of it after confirming her companion's thoughts. "Thank you very much, I..."
Growl.
Her stomach had learned to jump the gun.
"Romantic Glutton, Ace M," Lind nodded. "Pleased to meet you both."
The weighed and measured the recovered grain, and it came out to just over 10 pounds. Lind promptly paid them Land Gold.
This little bit of food wasn't important in itself, but if the undead could continue to bring back food, the survival pressure on Star Dragon Outpost would be greatly reduced.
Sure enough, treating undead players like Travel Frogs was more realistic than treating them like puppets who would obediently do tasks.
They always bring surprises.
Ace M and Romantic Glutton followed Lind into the hut.
He and Romantic Glutton had gone to the Carrion Eater's Nest with the idea of just trying it out, but they hadn't expected to actually find mutated grain.
They were grateful for the "Eagle Eye" ability that all players had, which allowed them to distinguish which things were edible.
Inside the hut, the aroma of meat swirled.
The soldier who managed the weapon shop, the veteran who managed the recycling point, and the always wide-eyed, mysterious old nun, among others, were sitting around... It seemed this game really would keep the NPCs alive, rather than just having them disappear when players looked away.
For most players, the only buildings in Star Dragon Outpost that were open to the public were the small, shabby houses built by the guys obsessed with white stockings, which they used to log in and log out.
No one could enter the NPCs' houses.
"We actually stumbled upon NPCs eating!" Ace M was even more confident about the quest chain. This kind of "performance" clearly meant there was an important plot point.
"Old Peter, give them some meat broth," Lind instructed.
Hearing this, Old Peter started to tremble his ladle.
Romantic Glutton, whose stomach had been rumbling like crazy with hunger, turned green with envy. The vibe of a school lunch lady was hitting them hard, and the two couldn't help but complain in their hearts that the game developers' sense of humor was way too twisted.
Luckily, there were still two pieces of meat left in his bowl.
Ace M wasn't in a hurry to eat. He just glanced at the broth, confirmed there were no special buffs, and took the initiative to start a conversation: "Lord, that grain, we brought it back from the Carrion Eater's Nest."
"Slurp, slurp--"
"The Disaster Shadow area, it's well-suited for growing certain plants..."
"Sliiiide, slurp slurp--"
"I think..."
"Gulp, slurp--"
Ace M stopped helplessly, turned, and looked at Romantic Glutton, who had buried her entire face in her bowl and was seriously devouring the broth.
He really didn't understand. What delicious food couldn't she get in the real world? Even if she was too lazy to go out, she could just order takeout and satisfy her cravings.
But the food at Star Dragon Outpost was very bland. He'd tasted it earlier, and it was just a little salt, that's all.
The meat was tough and sour, the kind of thing you'd rather starve than eat.
Romantic Glutton noticed him looking, put down her licked-clean bowl, and gave him a thumbs-up.
Her eyes conveyed the signal: You think it's great too, right?
She'd become almost obsessed with dieting. Her job required her to maintain her weight, and she gained weight very easily, which meant that she didn't even dare to add dressing to her salads.
She didn't dare drink water at night when she was hungry, because she'd be bloated the next day.
Meat broth with just a little salt wasn't good? Being able to eat meat broth in big gulps without worrying about gaining weight was a wonderful thing!
Ace M suddenly realized that he might have had a misunderstanding with Romantic Glutton's earlier eye contact. Could it be that she really just came in to eat?
"Can I have another bowl?" Romantic Glutton said with a grin, handing over her bowl.
Trembling Ladle Chef Old Peter was back online.
Ace M forced himself to ignore her devouring appearance and said, "Lord, maybe we can try planting our own crops to solve the food shortage problem."
Collecting grain and using it to exchange for gold coins was important to other players, but to Ace M, who was passionate about "farming," he only wanted officially supported farming. He wanted them to open the farming section as soon as possible.
"It's difficult to grow edible crops on this land," Lind said.
If they could really grow their own food, he certainly wouldn't refuse.
The reality was that crops buried in the ground wouldn't survive. Mutated grain wasn't inedible, but finding it in the Disaster Shadow and digging it up meant the sacrifices were far worse than the rewards.
"I have a question," Ace M asked. "I saw that the soil in the vegetable garden has sprouts. Were the potatoes sprouted before they were planted, or did they sprout after being planted in the ground?"
"After they sprouted," Lind replied.
"That means there must be something wrong with the soil," Ace M said, getting a little excited. "Lord, if I could grow food without soil... uh..."
He stopped abruptly, because the game felt so real that he'd subconsciously forgotten it was a game, and games didn't follow the same logic as the real world.
But Lind instantly understood what Ace M was thinking.
Hydroponics.
A big idea, but it would be hard to pull off.
But if they really succeeded, maybe they could actually eat food that was uncursed and unpolluted.
He wasn't worried about excessive consumption leading to mutation. "The dose makes the poison." You'd have to eat mutated grain for decades before you'd have a chance to mutate, but before that, you'd probably starve to death first.
"Oh? You have a way?" Lind asked, feigning surprise.
"Do you have any beans?" Ace M wanted to test the rules of this game world first.
"Yes."
"If we can actually grow bean sprouts from the beans, that will show that hydroponics is feasible," Ace M didn't mind the NPCs hearing what he was saying. The technology was too complicated for NPCs to copy.
He figured the NPCs wouldn't understand anyway, and these words were really meant for Romantic Glutton.
But noticing that all the NPCs were looking at him, he subconsciously lowered his voice.
The game was too realistic. Being watched made him feel a lot of pressure.
If it actually worked, he'd have to search for information offline.
And in this medieval apocalyptic setting, hydroponics technology would have to be developed from scratch.
"There's no plastic, either. We'd have to refine it from scratch. Do we have to find oil? I suddenly miss the crafting table from Minecraft." That was just a sigh; he wasn't sure how far the game could support things.
And this was a magical world; using purely scientific methods to play would lose its charm.
Hydroponics was just a guess, a newly born idea.
Ace M then voiced his second thought, which was also his original plan: "Lord, perhaps we could try planting mutated grain seeds in the Disaster Shadow area. The Carrion Eater's Nest would be a good farmland."
Lind raised an eyebrow. "That's a good idea! Then Ace M, Romantic Glutton..."
"Huh?" Romantic Glutton, who was busy eating, heard her name called and looked up, puzzled. "Present!"
"Go and gather information about mutated seeds. Solve the problem of the territory's food shortage. If you can solve this problem, perhaps you can rent a plot of land to cultivate. And in the future, we can also buy back the grain you grow."
Ace M's eyes lit up. "We will definitely achieve it!"
The farming system is about to be unlocked!