Soon, a crisis arose.
Throughout the starry expanse, in every settlement, including the original Blue Star, something terrifying happened.
Famine threatened to break out.
It was a crisis people had long since forgotten.
Plants began dying in vast numbers for no apparent reason.
Food was no longer a given, and plants no longer served uncomplainingly as producers.
People were facing famine.
The word "famine" had already become an ancient concept.
It had only appeared briefly in the irradiated Miken Land.
But after the region recovered a little, it had disappeared.
The greatest threat in irradiated Miken had always been mysterious monsters, not famine.
Even after the radiation, food remained abundant there. After all, nature had blessed the place.
In short, fears of famine emerged just like that.
People faced the danger of going hungry.
Ironically, electronic information networks still functioned normally.
Aside from problems with food production, supplies of other industrial products, water, electricity, and gas were unaffected.
Someone might ask, since there was water and electricity, why couldn't they synthesize organic matter?
Good question. Don't ask it again.
Because the laws governing the synthesis of organic matter had been disrupted.
This was White Ball's method: direct interference with the laws of space and time.
The natural law that converted carbon dioxide + water + energy into organic matter had vanished.
Or rather, it hadn't vanished; the threshold had risen considerably, and efficiency had plummeted compared with before.
Plants could barely sustain themselves, let alone accumulate enough nutrients to supply other life.
That was cruel.
If people continued eating plants as before, the plants would no longer be able to reproduce and would eventually go extinct.
Famine was a truly terrifying thing.
Once people grew hungry enough, they would commit all manner of atrocities. No moral code could restrain them.