Chapter Nine: Finding Stability

“Hahaha, this feels incredible! Why didn't I ever think of this before?”
On the northern edge of the Black Forest, a humanoid creature dressed as a fisherman burst out laughing with excitement.
Mo Fangyuan had never felt so exhilarated.
Watching those monsters flail helplessly, unable to touch him, filled Mo Fangyuan with satisfaction.
“I hook!”
His casting skills grew more proficient with each attempt, his aim growing ever more accurate.
Within ten paces, he never missed his mark.
“There’s no secret to it—just practice!”
Gradually, the number of monsters drawn by Mo Fangyuan’s scent to the forest’s edge dwindled as they were slain one after another.
The colored segments on his experience bar steadily filled up the dull, elongated meter.
Though he hadn’t leveled up after all this time, he remained in high spirits.
Among the loot dropped by these monsters, Mo Fangyuan discovered potatoes!
No need to check—these were certainly dropped by zombies.
He wasn’t sure what zombies dropped in this world, but in the game, their loot included iron, rotten flesh, carrots, and potatoes.
Potatoes were a godsend, their advantages overwhelming those of wheat.
A mature potato plant typically yielded two or three potatoes, which could be used as both seeds and food. Baked potatoes restored two and a half hunger bars, and sometimes a poisonous potato would drop—useful for brewing potions.
In contrast, a mature wheat plant usually dropped two seeds and a single wheat; three wheat made a loaf of bread, which restored three hunger points.
A simple comparison made the superior crop clear.
With Mo Fangyuan’s help, the people of the Block Kingdom were slowly emerging from famine. If they switched to planting potatoes now, the kingdom might break free of hunger altogether, stabilize, and even have the capacity to take in nearby villages.
Never underestimate a single grain—having enough to eat marks a crucial stage in the development of civilization. It signals the dawn of a new era, when people, freed from hunger, can pursue other trades and drive society forward.
Joyfully decapitating the zombie he’d just hooked out of the Black Forest, Mo Fangyuan picked up his stool, ready to return to the kingdom.
Of course, this didn’t mean he wouldn’t be back.
He’d already decided to come once every day, spending each morning at this task; he was certain the monsters would be delighted.
“Your Majesty, is this… a potato?”
The old village chief’s face, furrowed like a twisted rope, grew even more wrinkled, as if he’d encountered something miraculous. Clearly, he understood the significance.
Obtaining potatoes in the game seemed simple enough, but in reality, players typically found them in villages or in ancient chests.
According to this world’s rules, though, chests never contained food, eliminating that option.
The best remaining chance for new crops came from human settlements, but villages here didn’t appear out of thin air—they split off from existing communities and required research and development.
Most villages were thus quite similar, with few cultivating any unusual crops.
“Yes, this is a potato!”
Mo Fangyuan answered resolutely. Though the potato looked different, after so many years eating them, he knew it was the real thing.
“Ah, this…”
“This… this means the kingdom’s prosperity is within reach! Long live His Majesty’s wisdom!”
Once he was certain it was truly a potato, the old village chief was overwhelmed with emotion.
A high-yield, filling crop was of immeasurable value to the kingdom and its people.
It was no less significant than hybrid rice.
Mo Fangyuan didn’t notice the change in the chief’s form of address, nor would he have realized its importance.
“Village chief, this is vital. Please manage it carefully—do everything you can to make potatoes the main crop within three weeks!”
“Rest assured, Your Majesty, I will see it done at any cost. Not a single tuber will be lost! I swear it by the sun!”
The old chief made a solemn vow to the sun.
“That seems a bit excessive…”
In the blink of an eye, the day raced by.
That evening, Mo Fangyuan finally filled his experience bar and reached a new level.
[Strength +1]
He noticed that with each new level, his abilities grew ever more impressive.
Level 5—in most games and novels about leveling up, this was just the beginning, a mere bump in the road.
Here, for Mo Fangyuan, it felt more like scaling Mount Everest.
At level 4, killing monsters at least nudged the experience bar upward, giving him hope.
But now, at level 5, slaying a creature seemed to make no dent at all—like a drop in the ocean.
“No matter what challenges arise, never give up—face everything with a smile… Let’s go!”
The first time he spoke these words was at sunset, and they had since become his motto.
Even trolls had become his idols.
A week passed; Mo Fangyuan gradually adapted to life in the Block Kingdom. When idle, he hunted monsters and explored the terrain—his days passing contentedly enough.
He came to appreciate just how desperate people were for food.
Once they saw the potato yields, their enthusiasm soared. If potatoes didn’t need time to grow, their wheat fields would have become potato fields overnight.
After a week, aside from the seed potatoes and what people consumed, the granary finally had a reserve beyond just dust.
Mo Fangyuan began to consider merging with other villages to boost the population.
Two days prior, a pair of refugees arrived in the Block Kingdom, claiming their own village had been destroyed by unknown skeleton monsters.
These skeletons rode spiders, bore strange skull banners, and wielded either swords or bows.
The nearby villages were powerless to resist and were massacred.
The two refugees survived only because they’d been fishing on the lake at the time.
They said they came from the north, and indeed there were villages near the Block Kingdom, though the northern settlements were fewer due to a desert in the central plains. These northern villages were all relatively close by.

If they truly came from the north, then these skeleton monsters couldn’t have been far from the Block Kingdom.
Armed, spider-mounted, bearing swords and bows, carrying banners—all signs pointed to an organized group of monsters.
While he didn’t know the nature of this group, the “Monster Compendium” described that only a “King” could rally such forces—a monster leader with intelligence, unique powers, and strange knowledge, able to command monsters according to their strength.
Ordinary monsters could become “Kings,” but the conditions were unknown.
With the kingdom’s current strength, facing a northern monster “King” was all but impossible.
No sooner had Mo Fangyuan relaxed than his nerves tensed once more.
The pressure was enormous.
His desire to level up intensified dramatically.
…
“Ding!”
[Health +2]
“Yes! I leveled up…”
In one week, Mo Fangyuan had only taken two days’ rest; the rest of his time was spent ceaselessly fighting monsters and leveling up.
At last, after seven and a half days, he’d reached level 6—a truly auspicious number!
A warm current surged through his body, filling him with strength.
Even so, the pressure he felt was extraordinary.
Beneath the earth, shadowy dungeons and red-eyed zombies lurked, ever watchful; to the north, unknown monster forces gathered; to the south, the Black Forest threatened a monster horde by night.
Perhaps he was worrying too much, but as king, he had to prepare for the worst—for behind him stood the lives of over a hundred clansmen.
“This power is still too meager. When will it truly become an asset?”
The potential of the people was as deep as the sea, and the strength of the collective was limitless—a truth proven time and again.
But with only a hundred-odd people, how could they fight against the “forces of darkness”?
“Dawn will come… it must…”
Resolving himself, Mo Fangyuan set his mind to merging nearby villages, expanding the population and strengthening the collective.
But first, the granary must be well stocked, the fields lit with torches to at least twenty percent coverage, and the village guards trained to hold their own against two foes at once—all of which would take time.
The map was dotted with icons marking houses—signs of villages, each a fragile spark wavering in the stormy darkness…