Chapter Eighteen

“This is two groups of animals…” Half an hour later, everyone opened the farm surveillance.

According to the footage, between 1:00 and 3:30 a.m., two groups of animals wandered around the farm. The first group was the old visitor—the pikas—which were eating wheat inside the prepared baskets. At 2:10 a.m., a heavy panting suddenly came through the video. Immediately, a pack of short-forelimbed, shoulder-high native dogs appeared on the farm and mercilessly pounced on the pikas.

The pikas fled toward the center of the farmland.

“Hyenas!”

At the first sight of the “native dogs,” Zhao Zhishun immediately recognized the breed.

Hyenas are one of the common pack animals in the Uninhabited Zone. They have fierce temperaments and ugly appearances, surviving by eating carrion and antelopes. Now that winter has come, food in the Uninhabited Zone has become scarce, so these hyenas obviously tracked the pikas by their footprints for hunting.

Over the next half hour, everyone watched a raw display of survival of the fittest. The pikas had no chance of fighting back against the hyenas, and twenty Mu of farmland were heavily damaged by them.

After watching the video, everyone was silent. This was the harshest survival law in the Uninhabited Zone.

Liu Wensheng rubbed his forehead. “We need to come up with some protective measures.” They had thought only the pikas were ravaging the farm, but it was clear now that pikas were at the very bottom of the food chain. They weren’t afraid of danger, but they couldn’t guarantee the farm wouldn’t be ravaged a second time.

Qin Yun opened the system interface.

The farm’s fields, wheat seeds, Basic Irrigation Machine… the system offered a wide range of goods. After some consideration, he focused on the Basic Irrigation Machine. It was five meters long and two meters wide, a self-propelled sprinkler-type device that, being a system product, could perform automatic irrigation.

After thinking it over, Qin Yun looked at Liu Wensheng. “We could stockpile some irrigation machines…”

The Basic Irrigation Machine made loud noises and sprayed water like a waterfall while operating. Qin Yun’s idea was simple: switch daytime watering to nighttime. The loud noise of the irrigation machines could act as a deterrent.

“Not bad at all.”

Liu Wensheng thought seriously. The farm had some strange DEBUFFs, but irrigation machines were system devices and wouldn’t cause any DEBUFF.

Liu Wensheng reported Qin Yun’s idea to Longxia. After study, the Longxia Team decided to buy three Basic Irrigation Machines.

That night, four irrigation machines “patrolled” along the farm’s perimeter. The machines could be set to either watering or non-watering mode. From the tower at Huangtuyao Village, it looked like four large robots circling the farm.

Over the following week, except for two fearless pikas, the farm did not encounter any rabbit groups or hyenas.

“Very clever!” Liu Wensheng praised Qin Yun generously. Though Qin Yun appeared mild, he was steady and principled; their cooperation during this period went smoothly.

Qin Yun smiled. He was clear about his own role: a diligent farm worker.

In this relaxed atmosphere, on November 29th, Baisheng Agricultural took away the last batch of wheat.

As soon as Baisheng left, Qin Yun opened the system interface.

Host Name: Qin Yun.

Current task: Establish a wheat factory.

Task requirements: Own an independent flour brand, purchase three fully automatic wheat production machines, and one wheat factory construction card.

Price for fully automatic wheat production machine: 2 million each.

Wheat factory construction card: 10 million.

Qin Yun read carefully and bought directly.

“Congratulations, Host obtained [Fully Automatic Wheat Production Machine] X3, [Wheat Factory Construction Card] X1.”

The 【Wheat Factory】 was a palm-sized grass hut card. Liu Wensheng had decision rights over non-critical buildings. After discussion with Qin Yun, they finally chose to place the factory fifty meters south of the farm—convenient for wheat transport and water supply.

Qin Yun picked the location and clicked to use.

The surrounding land trembled, and a huge yellow earth building appeared before them. The yellow earth building covered twenty Mu, with a giant mushroom-shaped roof and round walls piled with yellow earth. The walls had doors and windows, resembling a rural house from the 1960s or ’70s.

“Quite stylish.” Liu Wensheng pushed open the small door, recalling memories of his time working in the countryside.

The factory interior was empty; the ground was smooth yellow earth processed by the system. Liu Wensheng crouched and touched it—there was no earthy texture.

The factory space was huge. After watching for a moment, Qin Yun used the [Fully Automatic Wheat Production Machine].

Wheat processing roughly involved cleaning, moistening, bran beating, grinding, and sifting. With industrial development, modern wheat processing was relatively simple.

Qin Yun had expected to see an integrated modern machine with a sifter, bran machine, grinder, and so forth, but was stunned by the scene before him.

Before him appeared a ‘balloon’ twenty meters long and wide and five meters high. To its left was a huge flexible pipe that went through the wall to the outside. On the other side were two complicated waterway-like machines leading finally to two giant silver and gold barrels.

Qin Yun checked the instructions.

Usage process: The factory feeds wheat into the pipe—wheat is centrally processed, with bran turned into fine feed (silver barrel), and the remaining substance ground into flour (gold barrel).

The wheat processor had a complete system energy source and required no electricity. It could produce 5 tons of flour per hour. When the system energy was exhausted, the Host needed to replace the system energy stone.

Qin Yun decisively searched for energy stones.

Name: System Energy Stone. (Special equipment power source)

Price: 2 million each.

…

“Buy!”

Seeing the energy stone’s description, Liu Wensheng immediately decided. As a Special Military Zone Commander, he realized the energy stone was like the ‘oil’ of some other dimension.

System items were absolutely safe within the farm’s scope.

Qin Yun didn’t hesitate and bought immediately.

“Host’s current level is too low; purchase permission denied.” The system mercilessly reminded.

Qin Yun and Liu Wensheng: …So unfair.

This was their first reaction after reading the system message.

According to the wheat processor introduction, one energy stone could last for 10,000 hours continuously. The two briefly calculated and decided to put aside the energy stone issue for now.

A single wheat processing machine occupies about 500 square meters, and the wheat factory’s maximum capacity is 20 machines.

After reading the equipment introduction, the two took out the hundred jin of wheat they had saved earlier and tentatively put it into the processing machine—

“Detection complete. Host lacks full production qualification and has no production permission.”

They immediately recalled the wheat factory’s first requirement: a complete independent brand.

Qin Yun followed the procedure to register the factory. With the cooperation of the Longxia Team, the Fengshan Flour Factory was successfully registered early the next morning. In addition, he also obtained approval for farmland infrastructure, allowing him to build freely within the farm’s area.

“Congratulations, Host has completed the task: Establish a wheat factory. Mission Reward: …”

At the moment Qin Yun received the flour factory license, the system updated again.

Qin Yun opened the system interface.

Current task: Establish a wheat factory. (Completed)

Mission Reward: Unlock farmland area limit (increased to 5,000 Mu), Random Seeds X2.

System Points: 4.2 million.

…

Farmland price is 1,000 per acre. After seeing this, Qin Yun immediately purchased [Farm Farmland] X3,000.

System balance refreshed: 1.2 million.

It was now 9 a.m. With Liu Wensheng’s signal, Qin Yun clicked on the Random Seeds.

[Random Seeds] were two circular spinning wheels.

Half a minute later, the wheels stopped.

“Congratulations, Host obtained Random Seed: Mutated Potato. Price: 3,000 per acre.

Congratulations, Host obtained Random Seed: Golden Corn. Price: 3,000 per acre.”

…

Qin Yun saw the system interface and breathed a big sigh of relief.

In his previous life, he had drawn random seeds once. The seed’s name was [Cream Strawberry].

[ Cream Strawberry ] had a growth period of 30 days, tasting sweet and soothing. It was the best strawberry he had ever eaten. But in the middle of a food crisis, strawberries were tasty but not filling at all. After planting an acre of strawberries, he hesitated and decided to plant the entire field with wheat instead.

The system’s [Potato] and [Corn] had relatively high unit prices, but corn was one of the three major staple foods in Shui Lan, and potatoes could fill the stomach during hard times. He was very satisfied with this lottery result.

“Not bad!” Liu Wensheng was equally pleased. Like Qin Yun, he was also a practical person.

Liu Wensheng looked for a moment and asked, “Is there really a food crisis?”

Qin Yun had reported before that when he first bound to the system, he had seen a scene: In February 3028, heavy rains broke out in Mali’s Ha’erma region. The heavy rain spread from Mali to the whole world. By July 3028, global land acidification caused a food crisis…

Qin Yun nodded seriously. He had been closely following Mali’s news recently. As the time approached, he grew more and more anxious.

Seeing Qin Yun’s seriousness, Liu Wensheng solemnly promised, “The country has been working hard all along.”

Since Qin Yun reported the food crisis, Longxia had been closely monitoring news from Mali. Following a precautionary principle, Longxia presented the 【Ocean Environment Protection Initiative】 at a joint meeting and published reports on the global ecological impact of the marine food crisis, urging all countries to increase food reserves.

But the international situation was complex. Mali Ha’erma was a globally notorious heavy pollution emission zone, and sudden rectification would certainly affect many national interests. Moreover, with global development now, a food crisis seemed unlikely.

Longxia’s strength was limited but they continued to do their best.

After chatting for a while, the two prepared to head to the farmland. But after taking just two steps, Qin Yun suddenly stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Liu Wensheng asked curiously.

“The system updated…” Qin Yun shared the system interface.

Host Name: Qin Yun.

Current Task: Operate the wheat factory and achieve factory Starlight Points 1 million+.

Mission Reward: [Sprouting Tree of Hope].

…

System Task was concise and to the point.

Qin Yun, Liu Wensheng: ???