Chapter 472: Human Ingenuity
They might not need so many daily necessities themselves, but they could always sell them to others!
Food was the hard currency of this world. The daily work at most settlements consisted of digging for food, and whatever they couldn’t eat would be stored.
The smaller groups were like mobile department stores, constantly traveling to sell those daily necessities in exchange for food.
Tang Mo found these little department stores fascinating. They were incredibly well-stocked, not just with things the groups had dug up themselves, but also with goods they’d traded for at one settlement to sell at the next. This was how all sorts of new and interesting items were circulated.
Once established, most settlements wouldn’t relocate easily. They would only shift their position slightly after they had completely exhausted the resources underground.
As a Spirit Attribute superpower user, Tang Mo knew full well that the spiritual power required to maintain a Protective Shield while moving was completely different from what was needed to sustain a stationary one.
Spiritual power was so precious now; most settlements couldn’t bear to waste it.
After all, Spiritual Ability Users were now just valuable “tools.”
People online had even given them a nickname: “Walking Shelters.” In any settlement, Spiritual Ability Users ate the best food and did the least work. All they had to do was live like kings and channel energy into the Protective Shield each day.
That’s right—even in the Ice Age, the internet still existed, though Tang Mo felt that the so-called internet of today was a far cry from what it used to be.
As someone with a higher education, Tang Mo was well aware that the internet required a great deal of external infrastructure to exist.
After the world had become what it was, with no one left to perform maintenance, things like signal towers and network cables could no longer possibly function.
Yet, the ID Watches were working just fine. Everyone could use them to get the latest news and speak their minds freely.
This gave people an enormous sense of psychological comfort.
In the beginning of the Ice Age, the forums had been filled with wails of despair and cries for help.
Now, however, people were much calmer. They were mostly sharing survival tips, exchanging knowledge, and some had even started various kinds of livestreams.
Of course, unlike at Tang Mo’s own base, the demand for spiritual power in the outside world still far outstripped the supply.
After all, while Tang Mo’s base also had many people, it was home to the entirety of Wuxi Village—all of whom were the most talented Spirit Attribute Superpower Users. They had enough people to rotate shifts, allowing for ample time to rest, recover, and even continue their training. On top of that, Tang Mo had left them an inexhaustible supply of Spirit Attribute Crystal Stones and abnormal treasures.
But in the outside world, Spiritual Ability Users were not only few in number, but they also weren’t nearly as powerful.
To give these Spirit Attribute Superpower Users enough time to rest and prevent them from overexerting themselves, humanity had come up with other solutions.
Digging tunnels underground, for instance.
This idea was inspired by the burrowing animals—rodents and the like—that dug into the earth to survive.
Indeed, everyone knew that if you dug deep enough into the wind-proof soil, you could create a natural shelter. Although the temperature inside these burrows was still very cold, it wasn’t so dangerously low that you would freeze to death after just a short while.
Besides, since the beginning of the Ice Age, people’s resistance to the cold had been steadily increasing. Generally, they wouldn’t die so easily. Even if someone was frozen to the point of passing out, as long as everyone worked together to rub them down, they could be “revived.”
Therefore, any settlement with enough food to go around would consider building underground shelters.
Of course, the ones doing the manual labor were, for the most part, Strength Superpower Users.
It wasn’t easy being one of the brawny ones; there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Of course, some smaller settlements that couldn’t afford to dig their own shelters had two options.
One was to use food to hire Strength Superpower Users from elsewhere to help them dig a smaller shelter.
The other was to pay a small amount of food to rent a spot in someone else’s shelter.
With underground shelters, Spiritual Ability Users could be given some breathing room and time to recover.
Many people found that after living underground for a long time, their health actually improved, and they felt that the air outside wasn’t as cold anymore.
As a result, some people came to believe that the natural environment could strengthen a person’s physical constitution. In order to become stronger, many chose to live in the underground shelters permanently, refusing to enter the Protective Shields.
Tang Mo spent a long time in these various settlement shelters, finding every new detail fascinating.
‘No wonder when I returned to my own settlement this time, I found that the number of people inside the Protective Shield hadn’t increased, but had actually gone down.’
With fewer people, the space became less crowded, making it more comfortable for everyone.
Another, more obvious change was that the small, family-unit settlements that had once huddled just outside the large Protective Shield had all moved away.
‘It makes sense, really. Before, they felt they couldn’t survive on their own, so they stayed close, hoping to benefit from my resources.’
‘Now that they’ve realized they won’t starve to death as long as they’re resourceful, they have no reason to stay.’
After all, the food she provided was only distributed to those who had paid the “entrance fee” to be inside the Protective Shield, not to outsiders.
Tang Mo’s return this time was so brief that she had to say her goodbyes before she even had a chance to properly look around the base.
In reality, even the people who stayed inside the Protective Shield didn’t rely on Tang Mo to feed them around the clock. They also went out during the day to dig for food—after all, they had time on their hands.
As for how those without Spiritual Abilities managed to get out and about, they naturally had their own methods.
Many Spiritual Ability Users didn’t want to act as stationary “tents” to earn rent. They felt that kind of work tied them down and was boring, so they started other ventures.
Being a stationary tent was boring, but they could serve as vehicles! That way, they could move around freely.
The process was simple: they would post on the forums, announcing their schedule, route, and fees. Then, each day, they would go to the various immobile settlements to pick people up and transport them all to a place suitable for digging.
In the evening, they would take everyone back home. It was a business that required no start-up capital.
It was worth noting that the fare collection methods were quite interesting. Some Spiritual Ability Users had a fixed, clearly stated price.
Others made an agreement with their passengers to take a cut—one-half or one-third—of that day’s haul. Of course, if nothing was found, the fare was waived.
Depending on their own skill, luck, and level of confidence, passengers could choose the payment method that suited them best.
People would go mad if they stayed in a confined space all the time. With the opportunity to get out and earn some food, most people’s lives became much more vibrant.
The ancestors were right: labor is incredibly important for the human spirit. It doesn’t just mean material gain; it’s one of the ways we realize our own value.
It gives people a sense of purpose, allowing them to find fulfillment and joy.