The news of Tumo's success was a spark dropped into a dried-up pond.
Overnight, every corner of Newborn Town caught fire.
It began with whispers.
Then came heavy breathing that could no longer be suppressed behind closed doors and windows.
Finally, when the next morning's light pierced the horizon, all of Newborn Town erupted.
Before the sun had fully risen, a villager who would normally still have been sleeping charged out of his home.
With a rust-covered hoe over his shoulder, he ran toward the wasteland, his eyes bloodshot.
One, two, ten, a hundred.
People poured out of the residential district, merging into a frenzied torrent.
Land-clearing teams, hunting teams, gathering teams.
They spontaneously formed groups of every size, racing against the clock to earn merit points.
"John, you do the digging. I'm stronger, so I'll move the rocks!"
"Lina, take a few women into the woods to gather fruit. We men will set traps. We'll split the merit points evenly when we get back!"
Shouts, clashing tools, and running footsteps mingled into a symphony of sweat and toil.
The invisible wall that had once divided the settlers from the villagers of Graymist Village vanished.
The settlers, skilled at labor, took the initiative to approach Graymist Village's hunters.
"Let's work together! You protect us and hunt for extra merit points while we clear the land. We'll split the points fifty-fifty."
"No, sixty-forty! Clearing land is harder. You get sixty!"
For the first time, a sincere expression appeared on the old hunter's dark face.
They began to cooperate.
They began to argue over shared interests, then reach agreements.
Their disputes were no longer about who owned the water sources, but how to divide the merit points.
On Newborn Town's wall, Barrett looked down at the bustling scene of labor below. His