“Wow! Mo Mo, you’re an angel, a fairy, the cutest person in the whole world!” Seeing the food in Tang Mo’s hands, Li Lanlan was ecstatic—she had thought she would go hungry all day.
“Tonight, when I swipe my meal card, I’ll treat you to your favorite braised beef noodles and even add a braised egg!” Li Lanlan jumped out of bed two steps at a time, grabbed the breakfast, and started eating immediately.
Song Qing’s eyes also sparkled with a smile. “I’ll buy your favorite mango milk tea. No dieting today.”
Tang Mo smiled in response, thinking to herself: the wish is sweet, but she wondered whether the cafeteria would actually be open tonight.
Tang Mo still had over a hundred yuan on her meal card. If she remembered correctly, that card had only been usable for two or three days before it became useless. The days when one could eat whatever and however much they wanted were gone forever.
Because all three of them had eaten breakfast, they weren’t hungry at all at noon and were busy scrolling through their phones, catching up on the endless stream of news. Tang Mo, meanwhile, kept an eye on the news while also channeling her mental energy.
Apart from the space attribute, a person’s other attributes—life, strength, speed, and mental power—can all be increased through training, though very slowly.
Besides constant training, fighting or consuming special treasures can also increase attribute points—and both methods are much faster than simple training.
But combat is often dangerous, and rare treasures are extremely hard to find. These weren’t things Tang Mo could do at the moment. Training, though slow, was merely a matter of spending time, which she had plenty of while trapped at school.
“Mo Mo, Xiao Qing, you two check the group messages!” Li Lanlan shouted loudly.
Because so much had happened today, the student group chat had been blowing up nonstop. Tang Mo had simply set the group to “Do Not Disturb.”
Clicking into the latest message, they saw the school’s official announcement:
**School Youth League Committee:** This morning, the school surroundings were shrouded in fog. To ensure the safety of teachers and students, please avoid approaching the area until further notice. Additionally, the school cafeteria will be open tonight from 5 to 8 p.m. Please arrive on time.
“I knew it, the cafeteria can’t stay closed forever,” Li Lanlan breathed a sigh of relief.
The school truly had its hands tied. Higher-ups had explicitly ordered that no one approach the mist. But if the administration forbade students from leaving campus while food supplies were uncertain, it could cause major unrest.
Even if there was food, it couldn’t be delivered to campus. If they fed students without replenishing the stores, the cafeteria’s stock would run out in less than a month. The school was caught between a rock and a hard place.
That evening, at the designated time, Tang Mo and her roommates arrived at the cafeteria.
“Hmm… there aren’t that many people. Are they not hungry?” Li Lanlan looked around. The number of people was about the same as usual—no huge crowds as she had imagined.
“The cafeteria’s closed, but the supermarkets are open. People won’t starve themselves,” Song Qing replied calmly.
“Supermarkets…” Li Lanlan paused. “I forgot! Even if the cafeteria is closed, there are still supermarkets, and our dorm has plenty of food. We could never go hungry. I really am an idiot.”
Tang Mo wandered around the cafeteria and noticed that today the food was much less than usual, and much of it was leftovers from breakfast.
Luckily, the braised beef noodles were still great—Tang Mo was happy. These days, she was easily satisfied.
When the three finished eating and went to buy milk tea, they found the supermarket doors tightly closed with a note:
**“Sorry, all food items are sold out. The supermarket is temporarily closed.”**
T University had three supermarkets, all fairly large. After checking all three, Tang Mo and her friends found the same situation everywhere.
The items on the shelves were limited, while the real stock was in the warehouses behind each store. The school hadn’t stopped students from buying because everyone knew that hoarding was what gave people the most sense of security. Stopping students from buying would have caused more chaos.
Once the shelves were emptied, the supermarkets closed and didn’t restock, leaving a reserve of essential supplies for emergencies.
Spending a day in the dorm didn’t reveal much, but now Song Qing and the others realized the gravity of the situation. The supermarkets weren’t empty because of one missed lunch—the true reason was the massive crop failures.
Everyone could also smell that the leftover breakfast in the cafeteria wasn’t fresh. It didn’t seem like it had been left out just one day, but rather two or three. Students noticed, so they ignored the food.
“It looks like the school will have to take action soon,” Tang Mo murmured.
Li Lanlan and Song Qing also realized the seriousness of the situation, their faces darkening.
Back in the dorm, the three organized their remaining food, grateful for last night’s purchases. The hoarding power of nearly a thousand students was terrifying—those quick enough to see the news in the morning rushed to the supermarkets. Only a few managed to grab supplies, making Tang Mo and her friends extremely lucky.
Li Lanlan, accustomed to snacking after meals, didn’t dare touch her treats, clutching the two bags tightly.
“Before things return to normal, I have to ration these,” she said.
Return to normal? That day might never come.
Tang Mo trained her mental body, letting it roam her physical body while downloading videos. She could train her mental power, but in the early stages, it wasn’t very useful. She also needed to train other attributes so that if an emergency occurred, she wouldn’t have a good knife but no skill to defend herself.
She downloaded countless videos on fitness, knife techniques, and self-defense. People with high mental power had better memory and learning ability. Even if she couldn’t become a martial arts master, she could at least learn enough to protect herself. Tang Mo wasn’t greedy.
Earlier in the day, students in the chat group were still panicking and complaining. Now, they were discussing the future.
**Wu Yi (Biology):** Tonight’s dinner is ridiculous. Lunch was skipped, and now they’re serving leftovers from breakfast. Amazing.
**Zhao Jian (Civil Engineering):** Be grateful. Later on, you might not even get leftovers. If the fog doesn’t lift, we don’t know how long the school’s supplies will last.
**An Yang (Social Sciences):** Just wait for official news. Things are unclear, so ration what you have.
An Yang, the class monitor and a key figure in the school, had great leadership skills. In Tang Mo’s previous life, he was one of the main organizers when students coordinated efforts. His decision-making and organizational abilities were not to be underestimated.
**Li Qian (Foreign Languages):** Fine. I was planning to lose weight anyway, so this is perfect.
The topic of dieting got the girls chatting and joking, brightening the group’s mood.
At 8 p.m., the national news officially announced:
> “Testing shows all farmland has been contaminated and is no longer suitable for crops. The state has activated contingency plans and will distribute reserved grain. All restaurants, supermarkets, and stores selling food are now nationalized; compensation measures will follow. Reports from embassies indicate this situation is global. Humanity has officially entered the era of great famine! > Additionally, fog has appeared in multiple locations worldwide. Tests show the fog is extremely harmful to humans. Citizens are strongly advised to avoid it to protect their lives.”
The news repeated five times. Viewers sat in stunned silence. Even those holding onto hope realized it: the era of great famine was real. Humanity was facing its greatest disaster.
The once noisy group chat went silent. Everyone was speechless, unsure what to say.
They were trapped in the fog. If entering the era of great famine was already tragic, being trapped inside and unable to escape made things worse. There seemed to be no way out.