Lunch Crisis

This village had originally been a well-known Impoverished Village in Baisha Province.

They said poor mountains and harsh waters bred troublesome people, but Liang Xing had paved the way with money and found every one of them exceptionally kind.

The Impoverished Village was not large, with fewer than a hundred residents in total, most of them elderly, weak, women, or children.

Through Zhang Long and Zhao Hu, Liang Xing contacted people with enough authority and rented the entire village at full price. The nearby farmland and woods were essentially thrown in for free, though they could only be used for this shoot.

Both sides agreed that Liang Xing would rent the entire village to film the reality show Autumn Outing.

Once filming ended, he had to ensure the original residents still had homes to return to and repair the road leading out of the village.

There were quite a few other conditions as well, all proposed by Liang Xing himself.

In truth, every condition revolved around the development plan for the Impoverished Village. He planned to see how things went after the show ended before deciding what to do.

The main issue was that he did not know how accepting people would be of a world where projections overlaid reality.

Autumn Outing was not merely meant to promote the Digital World. It was also a test of whether the related technology could be repurposed.

For now, it seemed that everyone was accepting the Digital World rather well.

"There's a well here! There are cooking utensils inside the house too."

After Liang Xing announced the rules of the game, A Lie and Qian Lai led their respective teams off in different directions.

Elecmon still guarded the house containing the Digital Egg, so A Lie and Qian Lai naturally looked for suitable rooms nearby.

Perhaps A Lie was simply luckier?

He quickly found a suitable room.

"There's rice here, and vegetables too. Uncle A Lie, can you cook?"

After checking the kitchen, Qi Tian found rice and greens and hurriedly called out to A Lie.

They had all brought snacks, but even without counting breakfast, they still had four meals over the next two days. Their snacks definitely would not be enough.

Even Qi Tian had not expected Star Uncle to refuse to provide meals!

"Don't worry! I've lived alone ever since graduation. This is my specialty!"

A Lie looked smugly at Qian Lai, figuring that a rich second-generation kid like him probably did not know how to cook.

"Is that really something to be proud of?" Qian Lai truly could not understand A Lie's thought process and shook his head with a laugh.

"Uncle A Lie, Uncle Qian is hinting that you don't have a girlfriend~"

Ning Jing passed by with Koromon, who was chasing after Qi Tian, and casually dealt another blow.

"Cough, cough, cough—Go on, get out of here! What does a fifth grader like you know?" A Lie's laughter came to an abrupt stop as he pretended to be angry and tried to scare Ning Jing.

But after what had happened in the car, the children had already gotten a rough idea of A Lie and Qian Lai's personalities. They were not afraid of him at all.

"Uncle Qian, there's a hole in the fence over there."

Liu Jie, a first-year middle school boy and one of Qian Lai's team members, ran over with his Digital Monster on his head.

His Digital Monster was a fluffy, round yellow ball with a horn growing from its head, its fur especially bright.

"Horned Beast seemed to have spotted Goblinmon, but I didn't dare chase after them."

Horned Beast on his head bounced as well and added, "There are five Goblinmon!"

"Fix the fence first. We'll assist Elecmon with the defense."

The fence itself was not much of an obstacle, but the noise from it being damaged could serve as an alarm, so some quick repairs were still necessary.

"Xing-ge, there's something I need to ask! If we repair the fence and move things around, that should be fine, right?"

Qian Lai did not believe such a remote place could have buildings this good. They were probably projections too.

He knew just how realistic the Flying Cameras' simulations could be, so it was necessary to ask in advance.

"Don't worry! Move whatever you want. I'll take care of it." Liang Xing stayed outside the filming crew's range and replied with complete confidence.

Strictly speaking, ever since Liang Xing welcomed everyone to the Digital World, aside from the people who had come together, everything else they saw was a Holographic Projection.

However, most of those projections merely overlaid a layer onto real objects. At their core, similar physical objects truly existed as a foundation.

Qian Lai had indeed guessed correctly, but he had also underestimated the Holographic Projection Liang Xing had come up with.

The impact real humans had on the Digital World was absolutely reflected in real time!

"Fine! Then I'm relieved." Qian Lai prepared to go repair the fence, but A Lie caught up with him.

"You go find food first! I'll take Tiantian and the others to fix the fence."

A Lie was not some selfless saint. The rice and vegetables Qi Tian's group had found were not plentiful to begin with, and they could not possibly feed both teams.

But he could not bear to watch Qian Lai's group go hungry either.

"I brought self-heating hot pot." Qian Lai tilted his head and looked A Lie over. The children traveling with him clearly knew about it too.

Though it was still not enough for four people, at least they did not need to worry about lunch today.

"Damn—you really thought this through!"

There was a word he could not say aloud, but A Lie had to admit that Qian Lai had come far better prepared.

"You're worried about him? Worry about yourselves first! Do you even know how to start a fire? Don't let my nephew go hungry!"

Liang Xing shouted from afar, then slurped up a mouthful of deluxe instant noodles.

The props team had already prepared lunch: a huge pot of beef, with a bowl of instant noodles for everyone.

If there were not enough noodles, they could eat meat. There was plenty of meat to go around.

Liang Xing ate with particular enjoyment while waiting to see how A Lie would solve the lunch problem.

"Xing-ge! I don't smoke, so where am I supposed to get fire? Help us out!"

A Lie could no longer spare attention for helping repair the fence. Feeding everyone was the priority.

"Hehe~ Go look. There are lighters prepared in some of the rooms."

If he said he would not help, then he would not help.

Liang Xing could let the children come over and mooch a meal, but anything else was out of the question!

'I'm dying, what kind of autumn outing is this? Isn't this survival training?'

'Tiantian, you fool! How could you end up on A Lie's team?'

The livestream viewers were delighted by the spectacle. While eating takeout, they happily watched A Lie run around in a panic.

Meanwhile, Qian Lai arrived at his destination with his large backpack on his back.

It was clear that the fence had been violently dismantled, most likely due to Goblinmon's recent intrusion.

"Xiao Jie, take the younger kids and look around nearby for wooden boards."

Qian Lai set down his backpack and took out self-heating hot pot, self-heating rice, and disposable bowls and chopsticks.

After rummaging around for a while, he pulled a toolbox out of his backpack.

Hammers, nails—everything was there.

While the children gathered wooden boards, Qian Lai fetched water from a nearby well. The spring water was crystal clear... Wait.

"Hey, handsome! This water's clean, right?"

After looking around and seeing only the filming crew following him, Qian Lai could only ask him.

"Rest assured, sir. The local residents drink from this well too. The water is clean."

"Thanks!"

Only then did Qian Lai relax. He took a pot from his backpack and prepared to boil water.

Since they could use local resources, there was no need to waste bottled water.

"Have you eaten? Come have some with us."

By the time Liu Jie and the other two returned carrying wooden boards, Qian Lai had begun pouring water. The self-heating hot pot and self-heating rice were easy to prepare, and the children would return to a hot meal.

"No, no, thanks. We'll wait until the shift change."

"Alright then. Thanks for your hard work." Qian Lai did not press them.

Danger was approaching, and there was not much food to spare. He had only asked out of courtesy anyway.

That was simply how social etiquette worked.

Thanks to Gale Rain Drifting Away and Tianhan Ma for the monthly passes! Thanks to 20190109201548070 for the tip! Thank you for your support!