[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Senior, how are things on your end? A disaster hit over here. Locusts are sweeping through. They're vicious.]
Junior Schoolmate's message interrupted Ye Fei's thoughts and calculations.
[Me: Over here, it's some kind of creature that's supposedly part wolf, part fox. It's called an Uncertain Beast. It appears at uncertain times, in uncertain places, with uncertain strength and attack methods.]
Ye Fei sent a reply, briefly describing the situation on his end.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Is there any definite information?]
Dazed by all those uncertainties, Junior Schoolmate felt he could use something definite right now.
[Me: There are rewards, but they're random, and you have to encounter and kill one first. Every player on Snow Mountain heard the Midnight Wolf Howl, so they're probably all over the place.]
After sending the message, Ye Fei sat down in the yard. He might as well keep cultivating.
Although his combat power had only risen to 5, nowhere near those who had started close to 10 or even above it, every step of his growth was the result of his own hard work. He wanted to become stronger.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Nothing really is certain, huh? At least ours is clearly marked: we could be attacked by locusts at any time. That's all it says. But I figure locusts don't eat people, or my stone house, right?]
After complaining about all the extra uncertainties on Ye Fei's side, Junior Schoolmate brought up his own concerns.
His house was made of stone. As long as he stayed close to home and hid inside when locusts appeared, there didn't seem to be much danger.
[Me: Locusts, grassland... what happens when there's no grass left on the grassland?]
Ye Fei thought it over. Grassland and locusts made perfect sense together.
Locusts ate grass. Once the grass was gone, the herbivores would have nothing to eat.
When they were hungry, even herbivores could be terrifying.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Could those sheep actually eat people? Still, it's not just sheep. If the bigger animals run out of food and come over to wreck things, that could get pretty nasty too.]
Thinking of the flocks of sheep that had little combat power but dropped meat, bones, lamb chops, wool, and occasionally beast horns, he felt they probably wouldn't be much of a problem.
Because, as far as he was concerned, sheep were really weak!
Weak, with plentiful drops. They were practically free gifts!
If he hadn't needed to mine coal for quests now and then, he might have spent all his time eyeing the nearby flocks, working hard to fleece them.
But thinking sheep were weak didn't stop him from recognizing what a grassland without plants would be like.
[Me: Never mind how much damage they can do. At the most basic level, they'll look for food when they're hungry. If there's no grassland left near your house and they leave, where will you hunt?]
Ye Fei approached the problem from another angle, giving him something to think about.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: !!! I get it. Senior, if you can't beat them, stay home. If you need anything, tell me first. I don't have much, but I can still lend you some for now. I'm going to figure out how to protect the grassland around here. Those adorable little sheep absolutely cannot wander off!]
Beast attacks hadn't worried him, but the suggestion that the flocks on the grassland might leave had immediately scared him.
He told Ye Fei to contact him if he needed anything, then went silent.
He was probably looking into how to deal with the locusts.
"Did I stumble onto the right answer?"
Ye Fei had only casually offered a few suggestions and angles to consider. He hadn't expected to actually scare him.
With a somewhat helpless smile, he sat on the ground, the two little ones tucked into his pockets, and peacefully resumed cultivating.
Even if one of those uncertain creatures attacked, he would receive a notification immediately while he was in the yard.
Besides, he couldn't stop cultivating. At a time like this, he needed to work harder than ever.
"Yip~"
Little Fox poked out of the pocket, resting its little head on the edge and tilting it as it looked around.
It knew its human was cultivating again. Little White Tiger had explained tribulation to it: after cultivating for a while, you could undergo a tribulation, and afterward, you would grow a little stronger.
It didn't know how to cultivate itself, but it would behave and avoid disturbing its human while he cultivated.
The night passed quietly. Occasionally, wolf howls sounded outside, but they were all very far away.
At daybreak, Ye Fei opened his eyes and stood up.
"Another new day. We're having cabbage and meatball soup this morning."
Ye Fei placed the two little bundles, neither of whom had rested all night, on his shoulders. After sweeping away the snow, he pulled up a mature cabbage and carried it back into the house.
The meatballs were made of beef. He had saved all the good meat.
He had previously bought a kitchenware set from the shop.
A cutting board, a kitchen knife, a spatula, a ladle... even a washbasin, a peeler, mixing bowls, and everything else were included.
So he no longer simply stewed meat every day. He had tried making meatballs, meat patties, minced meat, meat strips, and meat crumbles.
But this was his first time cooking vegetables. His few cabbages were so precious that he couldn't bear to eat them before they were fully grown.
A few days earlier, he had obtained more seeds. A dozen or so potato plants, two eggplants, and three chili plants had all only just sprouted.
The meatballs were already partly prepared. He cut the cabbage in half and used only one half to stew a pot of beef meatballs.
It contained only beef meatballs, a little salt, and half a cabbage.
[Cabbage and Beef Meatball Soup (green): Grants the 'Basic Nutrition' effect upon consumption. Stamina recovery rate +5%. Duration: 3 hours.]
After serving up the meat, vegetables, and broth, Ye Fei saw the effect.
However, his stamina had always recovered fairly quickly after being depleted. Unless he was in a prolonged battle, an effect like this was rarely useful.
"Rrrow..."
Little White Tiger lowered its head and ate a piece of cabbage from its bowl. After chewing for a while, it widened its eyes in grievance and gave Ye Fei a pitiful look.
Was it eating grass?
It didn't taste bad, but could it please not eat this?
"It's only a few bites now and then. Go on, eat."
Looking into Little White Tiger's big, pleading eyes, Ye Fei patted its head and told it to finish what was in its bowl.
"Yip~"
Little Fox rolled its eyes at Little White Tiger, then happily lowered its head and kept eating.
It wasn't particularly fond of these grassy things either, but their human had always been reluctant to eat them. He must have considered them especially good food, right?
So even if it didn't like eating them, it was better not to say anything. After all, this was their human's way of showing he cared.
It could just treat them as an occasional special snack. There wasn't much of it anyway.
Before you continue