At 4 PM, it was time for the first daily water distribution.
A long queue had formed in front of the water tanks.
Another water tank hit bottom; even with the faucet turned to the maximum, it only dripped.
A single drop fell, instantly disappearing into the concrete ground.
Out of three 200-liter water tanks, only the last one remained.
“Today’s ration is 200 milliliters per person,” Raymond, a member of the Logistics Group, shouted while holding a mineral water bottle.
No one said a word.
But outside the queue, Professor X, sitting in his wheelchair in the distance, could feel the emotions of panic and despair surge by an order of magnitude.
Since people learned they were trapped in this camp, many, including Professor X, had put in unimaginable effort to make them believe that hope still existed.
But to drag them from hope back to despair, it only took a 50% reduction in the daily drinking water quota.
Professor X felt slightly weary; he closed his eyes and sighed softly.
Hawkeye, standing beside him, remained silent, merely watching the crowd as if none of it concerned him.
The woman at the front of the line held a four- or five-year-old child.
The child’s face was pressed against the mother’s shoulder, and his lips were covered in dry, peeling white skin.
Raymond handed her a small half-bottle of mineral water.
She said thank you, left the queue to sit on a nearby bench, and brought the bottle to the child’s lips.
The child took a sip, his brow immediately furrowing into a knot, and a cry squeezed out of his throat.
“Mom, it’s so bitter…”
Raymond, who was not far away, frowned upon hearing this.
He quickly unscrewed the bottle meant for the next person and tilted his head back to take a taste.
However, he spat it out as soon as it entered his mouth.
“Pfft!! Bah, bah, bah!! Fuck, what is this?!”
It actually was bitter!!
Seeing this reaction, the people in line instantly exploded.
“What’s going on? It’s really bitter??”
“Isn’t this the last barrel?!”
“Was there a problem with this water from the start, or did your Logistics Group fail in its storage responsibilities?!”
Captain America stepped forward helplessly, pressing his hands down: “Everyone, don’t get excited yet—”
“Captain America, we have always believed in you and Avengers,” a member of the Scout Team finally couldn’t take it anymore, clutching the empty bottle in his hand.
“But can you tell us exactly how much longer we have to endure this kind of life?!”
His voice was trembling.
“Yeah, are we really not just waiting to die!!”
Someone echoed.
The camp was already in chaos.
Professor X, sitting in his wheelchair, let out a long sigh, pressed his hand lightly to his temple, and lowered his eyes.
In the next instant, the agitation that had already begun to burn in the crowd was gently pressed down as if by a hand.
The people’s anger was wiped away; they no longer shouted or wept, and the atmosphere gradually grew quiet.
But the water problem was not solved.
Professor X could feel that the people’s emotions had been compressed to the limit, like a tightened spring that could snap at any moment.
Moreover, several hostile glares from the crowd were already directed at him.
Few of those who knew what he was doing were willing to have their emotions controlled at will by others. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Captain America’s voice remained as steady as ever, carrying a firmness that could stabilize the situation: “Everyone, listen to me. We must have hope. Currently, I have…”
Just then—
“Guys!!!”
A shout pulled everyone’s attention away.
A figure was jogging toward the water tanks, clutching a pile of things.
It was Alan Baker from the Security Team.
“What’s wrong?” Captain America began, then suddenly remembered something more important.
“Wait, where is Steve? And… what is that in your arms?”
Captain America felt that the pile of things Alan was holding… looked a bit familiar?
“It’s bread.” Alan carefully placed the items in his arms onto the empty table in front of the water tanks.
Hearing the word “bread,” the people’s interest was piqued, and they crowded closer.
“…Bread??”
“Isn’t this a pixel-style model? Alan, are you joking?”
“Of course not, this is genuine bread. Steve made it.” As Alan spoke, he picked one up and handed it to Jimmy, who was closest to him.
“Give it a taste.”
Jimmy took the bread, suddenly recalling the experience from earlier that day: “Steve, is he that Cube Man wearing armor?”
He had slammed his head into that armor during the day, and his forehead was still swollen.
Alan nodded and distributed the bread to several people around him.
The people who received the bread discussed it animatedly, wondering what on earth it was, but no one dared to take a bite until Jimmy, the youngest and most reckless, took the first mouthful.
“Wow, it’s delicious!!”
Jimmy’s eyes lit up as he mumbled, swallowing the entire loaf of bread in a few gulps.
Seeing this, the others who had received bread looked at each other and no longer hesitated, putting the strangely shaped bread into their mouths.
Professor X observed with curiosity from the side; a few seconds later, intense joy and satisfaction exploded within the crowd!
“This… this is real bread!! It smells so good!!”
“Even before the virus outbreak, I never ate bread this delicious…”
“(Munch munch munch) Say, this little thing called bread, (munch munch munch) who figured it out hundreds of years ago?”
Captain America, Hawkeye, and Professor X all looked toward the distance in unison.
That Cube Man was currently hiding next to a tent, crouching down.
It was a bit eerie, a bit sneaky, and a bit cute.
“Guys, it’s not over yet. There’s another thing I don’t know how to explain to you… everyone, follow me.” As Alan spoke, he walked toward the southwest side of the camp.
Curiously, the people followed him, rounding the back of the apartment building to a green belt in a corner of the camp where people rarely went.
A “building” four or five stories high suddenly burst into everyone’s field of vision.
Except for Alan, no one knew when it had appeared.
Looking closely, it wasn’t a building at all, but four layers of dirt, each layer planted thick with wheat.
The people stood there stunned, their mouths agape.
In the sunset, the four full layers of wheat shone with a golden light.
It was so holy.
…
Tonight, the camp felt like it was having a festival; the atmosphere was incredibly lively.
Although people didn’t dare to sing loudly for fear of attracting zombies, they lit a temporary bonfire to celebrate the resolution of the food shortage.
A few hours ago, he had 77 bones in his backpack.
Bones can be turned into Bone Meal, and when Bone Meal is used on grass, it produces more grass.
Breaking the grass can drop wheat seeds.
Then, Bone Meal can be used to quickly mature the crops.
Once the wheat is ripe, it can be made into bread.
All you need are bones and dirt to eat your fill.
This is the magic of Minecraft, a perfect cycle.
Steve made 30 loaves of bread before running out of Bone Meal.
Moreover, the time flow in this dimension is different from the Overworld; a day is much longer than in the Overworld, but the perceived time for wheat to mature seems about the same.
According to the calculation of the Villagers here, it seems to be about 20 ‘minutes’?
So after four hours, with his speed, the previous 10m x 20m farmland had turned into a full four-story wheat farm.
Now, the camp could produce over 30 loaves of bread every 20 minutes.
For humans, this bread was not only soft, sweet, and delicious, but one loaf could serve as an entire meal, almost completely solving the camp’s food shortage.
Not only that, but the water source problem was also solved along the way…
Because in order to plant the wheat, Steve had casually created Infinite Water.
The so-called Infinite Water is created in Minecraft by pouring a bucket of water into any two opposite corners of a 2×2 space.
The water in these 4 blocks will then become inexhaustible…
However, this effect only worked if Steve personally drew the water with a bucket.
For others, it was just 4 cubic meters of water—finite.
In short, the two super-problems that had plagued everyone in the camp were suddenly and mysteriously solved because of Steve’s arrival.
But… what then?
Captain America sat on the bench in front of the green belt, staring blankly at the Cube Man surrounded by the crowd.
Suddenly, a figure blocked his view.
It was Hawkeye.
Hawkeye handed over a cup of hot coffee and sat down beside Captain America.
Captain America smiled and took a sip of the coffee.
The long-lost bitterness and mellow aroma flooded his tongue and throat.
They had scavenged plenty of high-quality coffee earlier, but because drinking coffee accelerates the kidneys’ drainage of water, leading to fluid loss and making one thirsty sooner, few people would waste water resources on brewing coffee.
Since the outbreak of virus x, it had been a long time since they had enjoyed such a luxury.
Hawkeye leaned back casually against the bench: “What are you thinking about, old man?”
“Tell me, this square-head easily solved the big problems that plagued us…” Captain America stared at Steve in the distance through the rising steam of the coffee.
“Could there be some massive conspiracy waiting behind this?”
“Like what?”
“Like… he’s actually a type of Infected we haven’t seen before?”
Hawkeye glanced at him: “Since that incident, you’ve become more and more anxious, Captain.”
Captain America fell silent for a moment, then sighed helplessly: “…Fine, you’re right. At least for now, this guy’s arrival has brought only benefits and no harm. There’s no need to be overly anxious about things without evidence.”
“Yeah.” Hawkeye looked up at the night sky.
“Instead of worrying about him, better to worry about when the next Zombie Tide is coming.”
No moon or stars could be seen in the night sky; it was pitch black.
No one knew that the next Zombie Tide was now less than 56 hours away.