[Vegetable Prince: I’ll take a chicken too! My wife is pregnant and needs some nutrition! We’ve finished all the frozen meat in the fridge—if I don’t buy some now, we’ll only have rice and pickled vegetables for dinner!]

[Chicken King: Live ones are 150 per jin, dead ones are 50 per jin. How many do you want?]

[Spring Blooming (Has Vegetables): Why did you raise the price so much?]

[Chicken King: Too much? If I delay selling them even one more day, the risk increases. I’d double the price if I could! Do you know how much I’ve lost lately? I’m almost bankrupt!]

[Old Li the Grain Seller: Wealth that has fur doesn’t count. Give me two live ones. I’ll come find you later.]

[Vegetable Prince: I’ll take two as well. I’ll stew them for my wife over the next few days!]

After browsing for a while and receiving plenty of bad news, Ji He got up to prepare a meal.

The red beans had finished soaking—she planned to make red bean paste buns today.

She put the beans in a pot to cook and then began kneading the dough again.

Once the dough was ready, she placed it in her space to rise slowly. Then, she took out the remaining radishes, yardlong beans, chili peppers, cucumbers, and turnips from her space.

There was a pickle jar in the kitchen that had been sitting empty. Since she had time now, she decided to make a batch of pickled vegetables.

At this point, she had nearly used up all her stored vegetables.

These were the last ones she had deliberately saved.

After some thought, Ji He kept five large white radishes and put them back into her space. The rest, she washed thoroughly.

Following the principle of conserving water, she didn’t waste the water used for washing vegetables. She collected it—just in case she needed it later, even to flush the toilet.

Looking at the cleaned vegetables, she figured that even if she put them all into the pickle jar, filling it up would be a challenge.

As she washed the vegetables, bugs kept flying around her, irritating her to no end.

With the rising temperature, humans were struggling, but the insects were thriving like it was paradise, becoming bolder than ever.

Ji He placed the washed vegetables in her space to dry.

She was worried that flies might land on them and lay eggs—then they’d be inedible.

While waiting, she kept herself busy by planting lotus roots in the lake inside her space.

There weren’t many lotus roots, so she followed the instructions she had downloaded from the internet and planted them in the shallow parts of the water.

With her space’s unique properties, sprouting shouldn’t be a problem.

Once she was done, the vegetables had dried enough, so she took out coarse salt and began salting them.

The coarse salt was something she had taken from the supermarket—before, she had only stockpiled fine salt.

While the vegetables were pickling, Ji He started making the red bean paste buns.

She had two pots going—one steaming the buns, the other cooking porridge.

Unknowingly, she had kept busy until past 11 AM.

Just as the last batch of buns and porridge was ready, she went to boil more water—only to find that the gas had stopped working!

It had cut off suddenly, without any warning. No matter how many times she tried, the stove wouldn’t light.

Her heart sank as she sat down and pulled out her phone.

People were already talking about it in the community group chat.

[Director Xu: The gas pipeline has ruptured. Supply is temporarily unavailable. We’ll notify everyone as soon as it’s repaired.]

[Coco’s Mom: We were already without electricity, and now there’s no gas?! How are we supposed to cook? Adults can endure hunger, but kids who are still growing can’t!]

[Two-Kid Household: Exactly! Without gas, we can’t even boil water! Are we supposed to drink it raw?!]

[Ginseng: The supermarket prices for vegetables and meat are outrageous! How are ordinary people supposed to survive? Who can afford such prices? What are we supposed to do—eat rice with pickles every day?! @Director Xu, do something about this!]

[Coco’s Mom: It’s not just expensive, they’re even rationing it! 500 yuan isn’t enough to buy a single jin of vegetables! Are they insane?!]

[Director Xu: This is only temporary. Everyone, please try to endure. Instant noodles and sausages are still reasonably priced for now.]

[Coco’s Mom: Those are junk food! They have no nutrition! How can kids eat that?!]

Director Xu kept responding patiently in the chat.

But she had no real solution. Even if she wanted fresh vegetables, she’d have to fight for them at the supermarket too.

She couldn’t fix anything just by talking.

This area was on the outskirts of the city, with severely aging infrastructure. The fact that things had held up this long was practically a miracle!

With the hot weather, problems were cropping up everywhere. On top of that, people were spreading rumors at supermarkets, and the government didn’t have enough manpower to handle everything. Repairs had to prioritize the most densely populated areas in the city center first.

Ji He read through the messages but didn’t find any solutions. She simply collected her water back into her space.

Fortunately, she had been diligently cooking ahead of time. Even with the gas cut off, she wouldn’t run out of food immediately.

But before she could even feel relieved, she realized—the water had stopped too.

Ji He: “……”

Even though she had stored drinking water, why did she suddenly feel so anxious?

No water, no electricity, no gas—on top of the food shortage.

How could things not spiral into chaos?

She didn’t even need to check the group chat—she already knew it was in complete upheaval!

By now, people had adjusted their routines, becoming nocturnal. A lot of them were still awake.

Before Ji He could think of a plan—

A familiar system notification sounded in her ears.

[Hello, Xiangtian Reborrowing 50 Billion, your support game is about to begin. Please prepare yourself!]

[3, 2, 1—]

The voice came so suddenly that Ji He only had time to grab a mask and put it on before her vision went black.

In an instant, she was transported away by the game.

When she opened her eyes again, she was standing outside a small forest.

The temperature around her was comfortable—not too hot or cold. Compared to M Star, it was far more pleasant. Ji He instinctively let out a sigh of relief.

This feeling was so nice—she didn’t want to leave!

Looking around, she saw a dense black forest a few meters ahead. Even in broad daylight, it looked ominous and impenetrable.

Around her, people were dressed in shorts and T-shirts, and some were even shirtless.

“Ugh, what’s that smell?! Doesn’t anyone here know how to shower?”

Before Ji He could continue observing, an exaggeratedly delicate female voice rang out beside her.

Instinctively, Ji He turned her head.

The speaker was a round-faced girl in a white dress, frowning in disgust as she looked at Ji He.

When she saw Ji He turn to face her, she rolled her eyes dramatically.

Ji He: “……”

Seriously? That’s over the top.

She had literally put on fresh clothes this morning—what smell?

Just as the girl was about to say more, the system’s notification sounded again.