The question was, where did they conjure this food from?
This was a point Long Ming simply couldn’t wrap his head around.
The strangest part was that back when the great catastrophe struck and no one could survive, it was City Lord Qian Luo who stepped forward. He promised everyone that he would ensure they all had enough to eat and would make it through.
And he actually did it. He had somehow procured a massive amount of supplies and successfully established Mountain City Mountain. It was because of this that the citizens so revered the City Lord.
Similar incidents also occurred in Star Tower City and Sin Abyss City. The manner and timing of these two Sanctuary Cities’ founding were identical to Mountain City Mountain’s.
As for the other scattered Sanctuary Cities, the fundamental reason they were so weak and unable to develop was that they simply couldn’t produce enough supplies.
The grain they produced wasn’t even enough to feed themselves. Every year, they had to work for the three major cities and spend money to buy supplies just to scrape by.
"Long Ming?"
Seeing Long Ming spacing out, Cloud Fish called to him.
"What’s wrong?"
Long Ming snapped out of it.
"Nothing, I just saw you were spacing out."
"It’s nothing. Is the procurement negotiation not done yet?"
"Sister Qi is haggling with Manager Gou. The prices have gone up a lot recently."
Cloud Fish said to Long Ming with a smile.
"Oh."
Long Ming nodded.
Just then, Xiaoqi and Manager Gou finally reached an agreement. She smiled and said,
"It’s settled then. Twenty Mountain Coins per kilogram of rice. That price is final."
"No problem. How much do you need?"
"One hundred tons."
Xiaoqi said to Manager Gou.
"Done. But I’ll need to see your procurement authorization. Of course, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but the regulations are very strict right now."
Manager Gou replied with a smile.
"Here."
Xiaoqi took out an authorization letter stamped with the seal of the Mountain City Mountain’s City Lord’s Mansion.
Seeing the document Xiaoqi produced, Long Ming asked Cloud Fish in surprise.
"Are the controls this strict now?"
"That’s right. And we’re procuring for the guild. This authorization letter is from President Luoxue. We wouldn’t be able to buy anything otherwise."
Cloud Fish explained to Long Ming in a low voice.
"I see."
Hearing this, Long Ming nodded slightly.
After verifying the authenticity of the authorization letter, Manager Gou said with a broad smile,
"No problem at all. I’ll arrange for a truck to deliver it for you."
"Oh, by the way, could you please put a few bags in my trunk for me?"
Xiaoqi said to Manager Gou.
"Not a problem."
Manager Gou replied with a chuckle.
「Over an hour later.」
After watching the last of the procured grain get loaded, Xiaoqi led Long Ming back to the car.
She started the car and asked Long Ming,
"Long Ming, you probably haven’t bought any supplies yet, have you?"
"I haven’t."
Long Ming replied, shaking his head slightly.
"Then how about we give you two of the bags of rice in the trunk?"
"Is that okay? That doesn’t seem right."
"What’s not right about it? You don’t think I’m using the guild’s money to do you a personal favor, do you?"
Xiaoqi replied with a grin.
"Haha, no, of course not."
"Don’t worry, we paid for these with our own money."
"Then how much is it? I’ll transfer you the money."
"No need. You’ve helped us so much, how could we take your money?"
"Alright then."
Long Ming didn’t insist on being polite any longer.
"We’ll give you a ride home."
Xiaoqi said to Long Ming with a cheerful smile.
"Okay."
Long Ming nodded.
....
「Over an hour later.」
Johnny and Long Ming returned to the rental apartment, each carrying a bag of rice.
"I’ll put it here for you."
Johnny set the bag of rice down by the wall.
"Okay. Let me get you a glass of water."
Long Ming said to Johnny.
"No need. The others are waiting for me downstairs. We have to hurry back and report in."
"Alright, then I won’t keep you."
"Bye."
Johnny waved and left.
Watching Johnny’s retreating figure, Long Ming sighed. For some reason, he had a nagging feeling that a storm was brewing.
He closed the door, walked into his bedroom, and sat down in front of his computer.
Long Ming opened his browser and did a search on Mountain City Mountain’s new controls, as well as the reactions from the other two cities.
After all, Mountain City Mountain’s current course of action was a bit like shooting itself in the foot.
The results of his search made Long Ming suck in a sharp breath.
Star Tower City and Sin Abyss City had also announced resource controls yesterday, and their policies were identical to those of Mountain City Mountain.
’He was starting to suspect the three cities were working together on this.’
But Long Ming quickly dismissed the idea. After all, the friction between the three cities was significant; it was highly unlikely they would cooperate.
However, if all three cities were doing the same thing, the negative impact would be greatly reduced.
After all, if one city did this, people could get angry, even try to move. But if all three cities were doing it? Who could you complain to? And where else was there to go?
In fact, the comments online were exactly as Long Ming had guessed—countless netizens were posting angry and helpless complaints.
"I’m starting to suspect the three major cities are colluding to exploit us."
"Yeah, this is basically leaving us no way to survive!"
"So what can you do? We can’t fight back at all."
"We were already dirt poor and the economy was terrible, and now they’re restricting power. The factories are all about to go bust. I’ve already lost my job."
"The only place to make money now is in Civilization Paradise."
"Exactly!"
...
As Long Ming read these comments, his expression grew more solemn. ’It looks like more and more players will be flooding into the game.’
...
「The next morning.」
Long Ming was on the floor, doing one push-up after another, beads of sweat dripping from his forehead.
BUZZ~
The screen of his nearby phone suddenly lit up.
Long Ming turned his head to glance at the screen and saw that Xiaoqi had tagged @everyone in the group chat.
Curious, he opened the chat app and saw that Xiaoqi had posted an announcement.
"Congratulations to President Luoxue for successfully completing the observatory mission."
"Congratulations, President!"
"Hooray!"
...
Everyone posted excited messages.
Long Ming was shocked to see this. ’Luoxue didn’t even take a break, she chose to run the observatory dungeon again right away.’
"Badass!"
Long Ming also sent a message in the group.
’Her physical constitution must be incredible. Otherwise, even with a game pod, few people could withstand running a dungeon at such high intensity.’
Seeing Long Ming pop up in the chat, Tang Ye and the others quickly chimed in.
"Bro, when are you gonna take us on a mission?"
"Yeah!"
...
The others asked enthusiastically.
"Uh, I’m not skilled enough to lead anyone. Last time was just a fluke. Gotta go."
After typing that, Long Ming closed the chat app.
Just then, his phone suddenly rang.
Long Ming glanced at it and saw it was a call from Xiaopang, so he answered.
"What’s up?"
"Boss, those guys have pushed the potion price down to 7,900. Should we follow suit and buy some?"
Xiaopang asked with a chuckle.
"Don’t do anything. Wait for me to get online."
A cold glint flashed in Long Ming’s eyes as he spoke to Xiaopang in a low, serious voice.
"Okay."
Xiaopang quickly agreed.
Long Ming then hung up, walked to his bed, picked up his helmet, and logged into the game.
When he opened his eyes, he was already in Starry City.
Xiaopang immediately came scurrying over and asked with a grin,
"Boss, what’s the plan?"
"Let me take a look first."
Long Ming opened the marketplace and searched the potions category.
Just as he’d expected, the price had been suppressed to around 7,900. That group of people had listed a thousand potions at a price of 8,000.
This caused many solo players, who were in a hurry to sell off their stock for cash to buy real-world supplies, to list their potions at cheaper prices. The price was still dropping rapidly.
"Whoa, those guys just listed another thousand potions, and the price is only 7,500! They’re still driving it down."
Xiaopang said to Long Ming.
"Let them."
Long Ming stared at the marketplace interface, his eyes growing colder.