CHAPTER 70: LIFE IS LIKE A PLAY, IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE ACTING

The six coconut trees took up all the space of the six 1-cubic meter fields. Jing Shu had intended to plant some strawberries or whatever around them, but there simply was no room left. Jing Shu looked forward to their fruiting every day, but who would have expected that the trees would shoot up to 25 meters tall without producing any fruit.

Fortunately, in the Magic Cube Space, each 1-cubic meter field could be extended in all directions for crops to grow, but it could not be used for storage. Jing Shu’s Spiritual Body was obstructed outside the field, akin to a blind spot on a game map that could not be seen or touched.

Jing Shu had been longing for coconut milk, yet she had never managed to get it right. Meanwhile, she had harvested corn several times and planned to ’suddenly remember’ that she had collected some corn a few months ago, intending to use it for a live food show. Then she would drag out bags of corn from the basement, and making corn juice would be excellent.

Life’s like a play; it all depends on the acting.

Perhaps due to the high energy expenditure from killing, Jing Shu ate especially large nighttime snacks. She had recently slaughtered a bunch of fish from the villa’s pond, preparing grilled fish, fried fish, and boiling fish.

After finishing off a pot of green pepper and white jade boiling fish fillets tonight, she thought it would be wasteful to throw away such good broth. So she added shrimp paste, beef balls, beef rolls, and such, and had a hotpot meal... SLURP! Truly delicious.

While eating, Jing Shu also made a battle summary to learn from her mistakes and strive to do better.

Concerned about the many knife-wielding robbers today, she refrained from getting close and didn’t give them any time to react. She used a massive boulder to kill them in one strike. While satisfying, it shattered one of her conical boulders, and shaping those was no easy task.

A seven to eight-meter range is too tight for boulders to be effective. If I’m that close next time, I could control ten or more repeating crossbows from the space to fire simultaneously. For distances above fifteen meters, I’ll use boulders. And if I’m in danger but can’t reveal the secret of the space, I’ll resort to a gun.

After practicing in the Magic Cube Space for two hours, Jing Shu had made significant progress, becoming extremely proficient. Especially today, when an unexpected adrenaline rush got her excited, she entered a state of intense focus while practicing with the Magic Cube.

In a few months at most, I will upgrade to a 6th-level Magic Cube Space! When one becomes proficient with the Magic Cube, there’s a sensation akin to being ready to give birth. As the books say, even if you don’t know how to kiss, when it actually happens, you’ll naturally know what to do; it’s all human instinct.

「The next day at 4 a.m.」

Fully armed Jing Shu, carrying a broken iron rod, along with her fat chicken, a female frog, over a hundred little frogs, their containers, and ropes, escorted Mrs. Jing to work.

The construction of the Artificial Sun began in Wu City yesterday, absorbing countless amounts of electricity and other resources. Thousands of workers were recruited, and it was said that a company-sized military unit was stationed for security.

From that day on, the salaries of all state-run enterprises in Wu City were halved, paid in rice, flour, water, and even vegetables. This policy was to be implemented in all enterprises a month later, until the sunlight was restored.

This aroused envy, jealousy, and hatred among many people, causing dissatisfaction to spread.

Mr. Jing drove while Mrs. Jing cracked apricot kernels. Jing Shu sat in the back scrolling through posts, with the fat chicken quietly sitting at her feet, looking up at its owner pitifully. Every time it dared to defecate in the car, it got a good beating, causing the poor thing, with its quick bowels, to always hold it in.

Just like in her previous life, yesterday, a group named the ’Sky Covering Party,’ with over a hundred members armed with machetes and axes, robbed hundreds of households in Huasheng District. They slashed whoever they saw and looted whatever grains they found. Some unimaginably evil individuals even killed pregnant women. They operated in groups of ten, breaking into homes to kill and loot before retreating swiftly.

With so few survivors to provide clues, and with the absence of surveillance cameras, these criminals scattered after their heinous acts, significantly impeding the police’s efforts.

The most critical aspect was this organized, premeditated large-scale massacre. Starting from five o’clock yesterday afternoon, the police had received hundreds of false reports, among which were several real massacres. These severely disrupted the police’s visibility and effectively delayed their response time.

That person finally appeared again. Who would have thought that just one person could lead the whole country into an era of chaotic slaughter? Perhaps he was merely exploiting human nature?

In the following days, all sorts of bizarre organizations proclaiming the apocalypse sprung up across the country. It wouldn’t take long before the police, government, and laws would collapse as well.

Those who sought revenge against society, those who always wanted to kill but never dared, and those who had robbed before would become completely unrestrained.

In a society that still has order, such things ideally shouldn’t happen.

Jing Shu learned of the triple conspiracy much later, after everybody else already knew about it.

Broadly speaking, America was unhappy with Huaxia. America was plagued by daily gunfights, sci-fi and robbery films, and an unstable society with one president succeeding another. Their popular protests were so vast they could have lined the Great Wall. Yet, everyone kept praising how great Huaxia was. So, they wondered: Why was Huaxia so stable and trouble-free?

Why, when America’s mortality rate reached 10%, was Huaxia’s only 5%? No, something had to be done about it.

They bribed many people and even recruited that mastermind, a Huaxia person, a young man who graduated from Yale University and became their spy, stealing Huaxia’s information.

This month, he found many ’like-minded’ individuals disgruntled with society and drew up a detailed plan. He recruited many who had past offenses and those seeking thrills.

He planned to set an example for everyone, to commit a big crime like robbery or murder to set the pace: Look, we did it, and nothing happened. Why don’t you make a move?

This completely ignited the long-suppressed darkness in people’s hearts, making them act without any qualms in the future. Rumors spread online, causing panic and dragging more people into overthrowing the social system.

And so, there was this dark half-year that obliterated humanity’s conscience. Maybe it would have erupted without that person anyway.

Jing Shu sighed. Even though I’ve lived through it once and know so much, I can’t change anything. What that person manipulated was the human heart. All I can do is protect my own family and survive in the even more difficult conditions of the apocalypse.

Mrs. Jing immediately got busy when she arrived at her workplace, while Jing Shu led the frogs through one greenhouse after another to catch insects. Minister Niu arrived in the morning with two busloads of leaders and their families.

It looked a bit like they had come for tourism; otherwise, why bring family members? Before Jing Shu could understand the situation, Minister Niu spoke first.

"Thank you for the support of all the families. Today, we brought everyone to see the vegetables in the Development Zone. In fifteen days, we will provide these vegetables to all official staff members of Wu City’s institutions. Please be assured that all these vegetables were grown by us."

"Oh, and did you see these frogs that eat insects? This is a pest control project contracted out by the Development Zone. If you need them, you can buy a couple of frogs to keep at home. Ever since I got one, I haven’t seen a single insect."