“Wow! So, my health points are actually this high—22 in total. No wonder I used to eat three bowls at a time. Now, even eating just one bowl a day, I don’t feel very hungry.”
For normal people, basic attributes outside of space are usually around 10–20, so 22 is indeed quite high.
“I recently realized that I’ve become stronger. I thought it was just an illusion, but it turns out it’s real,” another student from the sports department shared enthusiastically in the group, showing his stats.
With comparisons to classmates and online friends’ data, everyone naturally knew roughly where their own attributes stood. Unfortunately, the ranking system hadn’t been released yet, otherwise everyone could see their overall strength more clearly.
The era of famine was a human tragedy, but it didn’t shut all windows. The meteor shower that day significantly boosted everyone’s basic attributes based on their own conditions, giving humanity a spark of hope.
Tang Mo flipped through her stats, which clearly read:
ID: Tang Mo
Health Points: 13
Strength: 12
Agility: 16
Spirit: 32
Space: 0
Overall, Strength: 73
Health and strength were still weak. Tang Mo gave a wry smile—after all this time of training, these two stats had only increased slightly compared to her previous life. The cost-effectiveness of her instant noodles had been far too low.
However, her agility had increased significantly compared to her previous life, likely due to her regular training and daily running, which helped develop well-proportioned muscles.
Her spirit had been 27 in her last life, already higher than the average person. This time it was 32, showing that her daily training was paying off. Seeing this, Tang Mo felt somewhat satisfied.
A space attribute of 0 was normal. Space was innate, and rare spatial treasures were extremely difficult to obtain—it was something you were born with.
Having her jade pendant was basically like having a space attribute. Tang Mo was very satisfied with it and didn’t envy those with spatial abilities. After all, spatial ability users generally had lower other attributes and improving them was difficult, resulting in low overall strength.
Yet, in a team, they were like national treasures. Tang Mo didn’t have to worry about her own safety.
After checking her stats, Tang Mo chose to hide them on her ID watch. If she didn’t, others could check her attributes through the watch’s query function.
Ordinary people’s overall strength usually ranged from 50–60. Tang Mo didn’t want to stand out; keeping a low profile and surviving until the end was her principle this life.
Tang Mo had already eaten all the food she kept by her bed and was now moving on to the supplies in her cupboard. Of course, she rarely ate in the dormitory and never opened her cupboard in front of her two roommates. So, Li Lanlan and Song Qing subconsciously assumed Tang Mo’s leftover supplies were roughly the same as theirs.
Since they were well-prepared, and girls generally had small appetites, even one meal could barely sustain them. So, over the past month, most of their large bags of supplies were still untouched.
Other students, especially the boys, weren’t so lucky. At first, hunger could be tolerated, but consistently not getting enough food made people increasingly irritable. Eventually, those with higher strength would use violence to force weaker classmates to hand over their food.
Normally, prestigious schools wouldn’t see such violent bullying, but during extraordinary times, when people couldn’t even fill their stomachs, there was no energy left to maintain surface-level peace or etiquette.
The survival rule of the strong preying on the weak began to emerge here.
Such incidents started happening repeatedly. Everyone in school became uneasy, and when collecting food, they went in groups, afraid someone would snatch theirs.
“I never thought our school had people so morally depraved,” Song Qing, usually a good girl, expressed rare anger. She couldn’t accept such events from the bottom of her heart.
“Yes, isn’t this just letting those who lost their food starve?” Li Lanlan nodded in agreement, her face full of anger.
Tang Mo remembered that in her previous life, she had been angrier than anyone at this time—but now her mindset had changed.
Someone would always end up starving, but no one wanted it to be themselves. Perhaps this was human nature.
Tang Mo took a bun in her hand and bit into it. Previously overlooked food was now being fought over. And this was just the beginning; who knew what challenges lay ahead?
Multiple fights finally caught the school’s attention. Everyone was trapped on campus, and legal authority was too weak to intervene.
The school didn’t have many leaders—just a few administrators and student leaders totaling around thirty. They couldn’t enforce order by force. In the end, self-restraint was all they could rely on.
But everyone understood: prevention was better than control. Since all these problems arose from hunger, solving the issue was the top priority.
But the school’s food supply was limited. How could they resolve it?
After much discussion, Anyang came up with an idea.
T University’s campus was large, with mountains, rivers, and excellent landscaping. It was considered one of the most beautiful campuses. During the height of prosperity, many citizens visited on holidays as a tourist spot.
To maintain ecological balance and scenic beauty, the school had released rabbits and wild chickens in the back mountain. Since the mountains were natural rather than artificial, the numbers of rabbits and chickens were considerable.
The back mountain was a tourist spot in T City. The principal had gone to great lengths to include it within the school boundaries. Normally, students didn’t go there often.
On the east side of the back mountain was a long artificial lake built for scenic beauty, filled with koi fish, crossed by a small bridge connecting two elegant pavilions.
Anyang’s plan was to organize students to catch rabbits and wild chickens on the mountain, and fish from the lake.
Actually, the idea to hunt the rabbits and wild chickens had been around for a while, but the mountain was too large. Just twenty students couldn’t manage it, so it was abandoned.
Now, given the desperate situation, keeping students occupied was the only solution.
Once proposed, everyone agreed.
“To prevent laziness, let’s only give food to those who follow the arrangements. Those who don’t go up the mountain won’t get anything,” someone suggested.
“Agreed. And the captured rabbits should be turned in—they belong to the school. Those who catch them can get some food as a reward. Everyone hasn’t had vegetables in a month; even a small portion of rabbit soup per person will help,” another added.
Everyone discussed details quickly and finalized the plan.
“Alright, it’s settled. This will start tomorrow. Anyang, Tang Lianwei, coordinate this,” the school leaders decided.
…
“What? Catch rabbits?”
That night, students exploded in the group chat after seeing the school’s Youth League announcement.
“I haven’t eaten meat in over a month! If we catch a rabbit, I’ll roast it on the spot. It’ll be so delicious,” Li Lanlan imagined, drooling.
“Wake up. Even if you catch a rabbit, it has to be turned in. If you don’t and someone reports you, you won’t have food for a week,” Song Qing said decisively while reading.
“Ah…” Li Lanlan slumped, disappointed.
“It’s okay! Turning in rabbits to exchange for more food is good too!” Optimistic people find happiness easily.
Most students in the school thought like Li Lanlan. Idling in the dormitory while hungry was frustrating. Now at least they had something to do.
While everyone was excited, Tang Mo felt uneasy.
In her previous life, the spirit mushroom appeared more than a month after heading up the mountain. The official explanation was that rare treasures appeared two months into the apocalypse, which was two and a half months after the famine began. But…
She was still worried.
All plants were dead now. The mountain was practically barren except for rocks. The mushroom’s location was somewhat hidden, but “one in ten thousand” incidents could still happen.
Her return to the school this time was largely because of that mushroom. What if it appeared early and someone else took it? That would break her heart.
Although people now didn’t know what a rare treasure was, it was still a mushroom—anyone who saw it wouldn’t let it go.
After thinking it through, she realized she couldn’t be passive—she needed to do something.