Going up the steep mountain road, turning a few turns, and passing through two passes, I suddenly see a flat land close to the top of the mountain.

This piece of land is not large, but the layout is very special - ordinary towns have houses inside and fields outside, but here it is the other way around, with houses outside and fields inside. The houses are densely packed, one next to the other, and the scale is not large. Alfin can't help but think of her life when she had just graduated from university and lived in a shared house in Tongzhou when she was working hard in Beibiao.

At that time, she woke up in the morning to wash and then went out, and went home at night to wash and then went to bed. She was busy pursuing hope every day, and finally gave up and returned to her hometown to live a stable life of 9 to 5.

But compared to the people in Raccoon Town, she felt that she must have been happy at the beginning - although it was hard work, she was at least safe; although she was hungry sometimes, she was generally well-fed; although she failed in the end, at least she was able to watch to hope.

And these residents of Raccoon Town... From their faces, Alfion could not see happiness; in their eyes, she could not find hope.

Although they are still alive, they are only "alive". Living like this is not much better than the walking dead.

Alphin sighed secretly, and asked the militiamen who led the way, "Do you rely on this field to live on?"

"Of course not, there is hunting and gathering," the militiaman replied, "but this field is indeed our lifeblood. Now the whole world is probably the only field that has not been polluted and can still produce clean food. No With this food, we have already gone crazy."

His tone was peaceful, not the slightest sadness or pain, just a hopeless pallor.

These words were too heavy, but Alfion didn't know how to answer them. Prett, who took off his helmet, hurriedly took over the conversation and asked, "It's the first time I've seen a field built in the middle of a house. Why is that?"

"In order to resist pollution," the militiamen replied, "In the beginning, Raccoon Town was the same as other towns, with fields outside and houses inside. Later, the pollution became more and more serious, so we had to turn around, the houses were outside, the fields were inside, and houses were used to resist more or less. Some pollution... Haven't you been to some nearby towns and villages? If you have been, you will find that it is basically like this."

"When we first came to this world, we once went to Yanan Town," Pret said. "According to the records of ancient books, there should be very powerful scholars there who can resist pollution."

"That was a long, long time ago. Your books are very old." The militiaman sighed, "You really shouldn't come, this world has no hope at all. If you come here, you won't get any benefit, but only dangerous."

While they were talking, they had already walked into the town. The militiamen brought a few people into the house, went around the corridor several times, passed a dozen large and small houses, and finally came to a room that smelled slightly bloody. , in front of the house that looked unusually neat.

"Village Chief, someone from other worlds is looking for you." He shouted into the room.

There was a coughing sound from inside the room, and then an old man staggered over with the help of two young people.

Their faces were painted with strange symbols mixed with blood, and some magic was faintly revealed on the symbols, and their hands were dirty and covered with mud.

"Outside guests... welcome, please come in and sit."

There are not many things in the house, so it looks quite spacious. Through the door leading to the inner room, everyone noticed that there are obvious traces of the magic circle on the floor of the inner room. There are some piles of dirt in the center of the magic circle. s things.

The village chief noticed everyone's eyes, smiled, and said, "Don't be surprised, that is the soil. Our main work every day is to hold magical rituals to purify the soil and replenish the loss of farmland."

Everyone suddenly realized that farming will definitely lose the fertility of the soil, and in the process of irrigation, some soil will also be lost. The so-called "soil erosion" is happening everywhere. In order to avoid soil erosion leading to the abandonment of this lifeline field, it is necessary to continuously replenish the soil. However, almost all of the soil in this world has been polluted, so the only way to get the desired clean soil is by constantly performing rituals to purify the soil.

Probably really poor, the village chief did not ask the two young people to pour tea or serve food, but asked straight to the point: "You came to this world, what do you want?"

He didn't doubt the self-introductions of the transmigrants at all - just by looking at their temperament, he knew that they were completely different from the people in this world. It's like the same two people, one poor and the other prosperous, even if they wear the same clothes, when they stand together, people can tell the difference at a glance.

"We originally wanted to develop something in this world," said Alfion. "It seems that it is difficult now."

"Pioneering?" The village chief laughed. "If pollution hadn't spread on a large scale a few hundred years ago, if you said that, we would have drawn our swords immediately."

Alphin also smiled: "If it wasn't for seeing you like this, I wouldn't dare to tell the truth."

The so-called "exploitation" means aggression and conquest. If it is not that the people of this world have completely lost hope for the future, how could they possibly take such an attempt lightly?

People who are about to die, of course, don't care about anything.

"What about now?" the village chief asked. "Seeing what this world looks like, do you still want to develop?"

Alphin was silent for a moment, his eyes lit up: "Of course!"

"How to open up?" asked the village chief.

"On the way here, we killed a giant vine monster," said Alfion, "and a few times with a guy who could sneak into our dreams - it suffered and ran away. I said 'I'll be back', but never showed up."

What she said seemed to have nothing to do with the village chief's problem, but there was a sudden gleam in the village chief's eyes.

"This kind of thing is not something that can be believed casually," he said.

Alphin took out the remains of "Giant Vine Willy", a gray-green dead branch.

The old village chief suddenly burst out with amazing agility, took the dead branch, first looked at it carefully for a while, then put it to his nose and smelled it for a long time, and finally showed a completely different smile from before.

Not a polite, pale smile, but a genuinely hopeful, happy smile.