Cave Refuge-Chapter 204 - 203 The Impending Food Crisis_1

As the temperature continued to rise, the Spirit Energy in the air was becoming more abundant. With the constant increase in the concentration of Spirit Energy in the air, the number of Martial Artists who had reached the Inner Breath Realm also increased.

With the constant increase in the number of Martial Artists, the consumption of food increased steadily as well.

Previously, due to the scarcity of Martial Artists, along with their freedom to move about in the high temperatures, most underground Refuge Centers that had Martial Artists would provide them with three full meals a day without restrictions.

Their goal was to make the Martial Artists go to the surface to look for usable resources. Although the temperature was gradually rising when the survivors were moving underground, bringing a lot of supplies with them.

However, the space in the Refuge Centers was limited after all, and not all aspects could be thought of during the move. Also, as the concentration of Spirit Energy in the air constantly increased, the crafters started to make remarkable progress. Many skilled craftsmen, with only rudimentary tools, were able to produce items that used to require precision instruments.

In this situation, going to the surface to gather resources became a crucial task.

Because order still existed, the items needed by each Refuge Center, and their location on the surface, were almost always clear. Therefore, the Martial Artists who went to the surface to gather resources did not need to rack their brains to find them, they only needed to exit from the closest Refuge Center, withstand the blistering heat, and quickly bring the resources back.

Perhaps in some special Refuge Centers, high-temperature protective suits were available, this work could be accomplished by ordinary survivors. But in most Refuge Centers, there were no such outfits, so the Martial Artists had to do it themselves.

At this time, what evaluated the strength of Martial Artists was not their actual fighting capability, but rather, how long they could stay active in the outside world.

To apply the martial arts system of the old master Jin, the Martial Artists of today were focusing on improving their Inner Strength, and few went back to learn practical combat moves.

After all, according to the level of cultivation of the Martial Artists, instead of spending a lot of time practicing highly difficult moves, it was simpler to combat directly with firearms.

Reality is not a game; there won’t be situations where one cannot use firearms after becoming a Martial Artist.

It is said that guns are fast outside of seven steps, and both fast and accurate within seven steps; the lethality of a Martial Artist and an ordinary person using a firearm is the same. But after becoming a Martial Artist, you will have a faster draw speed and a higher shooting accuracy.

So, most Martial Artists are now only practicing Inner Strength and not martial arts moves, or to be more precise, most Martial Artists are practicing gun combat skills.

In the beginning, Martial Artists were a mystified presence, existing only in a few Refuge Centers. However, as the concentration of Spirit Energy in the air rose continuously, the number of Martial Artists in some Refuge Centers also increased steadily.

And along with the rapid increase in the number of Martial Artists, the food reserves in the Refuge Centers were continuously declining.

We are not in the apocalypse now, so we can’t just rob food from other shelters because we have a sufficient amount of Martial Artists.

Some people actually had this idea and even put it into practice. Three to five Martial Artists in the Inner Breath Realm could quickly occupy a Refuge Center.

But order still exists now, and the subway network connects most of the Refuge Centers in Pengcheng.

Martial Artists robbing Refuge Centers is akin to robbing bankss. Unless they take refuge in uninhabited mountains like before the disaster, away from the Refuge Centers connected to the subway network, members of the special forces team would soon capture them.

After all, when Officials capture people, it’s not like in film and television, where only the protagonist and a few side characters are dispatched. Once such a serious crime as robbery occurs, Officials will dispatch several times the amount of Martial Artists to make an example.

So after all, since Martial Artists can’t be dispatched to grab resources from other Refuge Centers and there can’t be a ’clear-out’ of Martial Artists in the Inner Breath Realm.

In the end, there was only one option left, the method most often used by beasts in the jungle, that is, to drive away the surplus Martial Artists and let them find their own way in other Refuge Centers.

Fortunately, it’s still the early days, and only a few shelters have Martial Artists. So as long as one reaches the Inner Breath Realm, it’s easy to find Shelters that will accept them and provide them with food.

But with the ever-increasing concentration of Spirit Energy in the air, the number of Martial Artists is also continuously increasing, now, they are like college students in the past.

At first, as long as you graduate smoothly, countless places want you. But as the number of college graduates grows, their identity becomes less valuable.

Although the current number of Martial Artists to survivors is still above one to ten thousand, to ensure normal training, a Martial Artist eating a full meal is equivalent to the amount of food consumed by dozens of survivors.

It seems a bit exaggerated, but this is the actual situation. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

The previous statement about eating several large bowls of rice is true. Although it seems incredible in this era, if only coarse grain is eaten and there is no intake of fat (meat), the speed of digestion of the food in the stomach is very fast.

There wasn’t a problem before the disaster, after all, who wouldn’t add some oil when cooking.

But it’s different now. Although the Officials can guarantee that the survivors can eat at least two meals a day, the quality of the food is questionable.

Right now, what most ordinary survivors eat is mushrooms, and their staple food is a paste made by grinding a mixture of various grains and many plant stems and roots into powder and then boiling it with water.

No need to mention the paste-like staple food, the fact that you don’t choke while eating it shows that the Officials have done a good job. The bowl of mushroom soup that comes with each meal is a natural seasoning.

Because the Officials distribute resources according to the number of registered survivors in each Refuge Center, and when the distribution standards were set, there were very few Martial Artists.

So the distribution standard was set according to the number of survivors. But as the number of Martial Artists grows, the Officials know that if they don’t limit consumption, there may be a food crisis.

The Officials simply no longer consider the situation of Martial Artists. If the Refuge Centers want to raise Martial Artists, then they need to reduce the rations of the survivors in their Refuge Centers and give it to the Martial Artists.

Through this method, the Officials did not increase their consumption of food due to the increase in Martial Artists, and also diverted the potential conflicts between the Martial Artists and the Officials due to food issues.

Under this situation, when Martial Artists complain about not eating well or not having enough to eat, they can only go to the Refuge Center they belong to, so they wouldn’t unite and directly pressure the Officials.

And those Refuge Centers with Martial Artists can only find their own ways to supply food to them. If they don’t do a good job, these Martial Artists can switch to other Refuge Centers.

But no matter which Refuge Center the Martial Artists go to, as long as that Refuge Center is connected by the subway network, it is under the control of the Officials.