Chapter 93: Advance Preparations
This news made Moira Lynch cancel her evening plans.
’Oh well. If I can’t spend it, I can’t spend it. My own safety is what matters most. Besides, it’s not like I’m short on supplies.’
Besides, Moira Lynch did a quick search online and found that while money was still usable, it was only accepted at government-run supermarkets.
Although private business owners hadn’t said so explicitly, they had mostly resorted to bartering.
However, the supermarkets imposed daily spending limits on everyone, not allowing a single cent over the quota. As a result, she couldn’t have spent much even if she had gone out.
So, Moira Lynch shifted her focus back to her physical training.
She had pretty much finished organizing the supplies in her storage space. Now, her days were spent training and her nights were spent meditating, with breaks only for meals.
Seeing her routine, Shane Rhodes and the other two quickly followed suit.
Since they started meditating, it felt like they had gained an extra half-day’s worth of time, naturally allowing them to get more done.
What’s more, they discovered that meditation was as restorative as sleep—if not more so—and it also seemed to subtly improve their learning speed.
The group’s schedules were packed every day, and they weren’t the only ones. All the players in the neighborhood had started training as well.
While the rounds of the game they’d experienced so far hadn’t been life-threatening, they were certainly a test of physical endurance.
Besides, just because it wasn’t dangerous now didn’t mean it wouldn’t be in the future.
So, all it took was one message from Shane Rhodes in the neighborhood player group chat, and everyone else quietly got to work.
One day, Moira Lynch came downstairs and saw Hugh Finch performing a divination for Kai York. "You will be shrouded in light for the entire day..."
Ignoring the two of them, she went straight to the kitchen. She did a quick mental calculation; it had been some time since the last game.
She didn’t know when the next game would start, but that wasn’t going to stop her from preparing for it now.
Seeing Moira pull out a mountain of ingredients, Kai York asked, confused, "Moira, why’d you take out so much? We can’t possibly eat all that in one sitting."
The weather was so hot now that food spoiled incredibly quickly, even in the fridge.
People now preferred to cook less rather than more; any leftovers would be completely spoiled by the next meal.
Even vacuum-sealed rice had to be eaten immediately after opening, or it would get infested with tiny bugs.
Moira Lynch’s hands never stopped moving. "The next game could start at any time," she said without looking up. "We need to get food ready in advance."
’You need a full stomach to have the strength for the battlefield.’
Her words were a wake-up call for Shane Rhodes and the other two. It had been half a month since the last game. Given its usual bullshit pattern, the next one was probably just around the corner.
They recalled the last game, where they’d been so hungry they were reduced to chewing on roots. Things had only started looking up after they ran into Moira Lynch.
As for Hugh Finch, his divination skills had seen him through. He’d run into some trouble along the way, but things had gone relatively smoothly for him—not as well as for Moira Lynch, but certainly better than for most other players.
All in all, Shane Rhodes and Kai York had had it really rough.
The one-square-meter Space Button Shane Rhodes had given her was a little small, but it was more than enough to store food.
Shane Rhodes and the other two also took out their own ingredients and asked Moira Lynch to help prepare them into packed meals—not for free, of course.
Moira Lynch found the kitchen pot too small; it was impossible to cook a large amount of food in it at once.
So, the task naturally fell to Shane Rhodes, Kai York, and Hugh Finch.
When they saw Moira Lynch haul a massive iron wok out of the basement, the three of them got a very bad feeling.
Kai York stood in the villa’s backyard, looking up at the sun, then over at Hugh Finch. "Your prediction was spot on," he said slowly.
’Isn’t this what you’d call being "shrouded in light"?’
Before coming outside, the three of them had spent a good half hour studying how to build an earthen stove, making sure to memorize every single step.
As for why they studied indoors, the reason was simple: the tablet couldn’t handle the heat, but thanks to the Chimefin scales they wore, they could.
Still, Moira Lynch couldn’t bear to watch them work under the blazing sun, so she gave them a single pearl from her Pearl Sunscreen Cream.
Despite the pearl’s small size, it was more than enough for all three of them.
By afternoon, the earthen stove was finally complete. Who would have thought that the hardest part of the entire process would be mixing the mud?
The weather was so hot that the water evaporated with incredible speed. The mud they mixed would start drying out almost as soon as they began working with it. It took them until the afternoon just to solve this problem.
Once the stove was ready, Moira Lynch started cooking. The firewood they had collected earlier was finally being put to use.
The other three weren’t idle, either. They had a clear division of labor: prepping, washing, and chopping vegetables.
Talents had big appetites. Plus, the first game had lasted three days, the next one seven, and the last one a full ten days. Who knew how long the upcoming game would be?
The space inside the Space Buttons belonging to Shane Rhodes and the others was limited, so they only had one request: they just needed a large quantity of filling food.
Although Moira Lynch’s storage space was huge, players weren’t always grouped together. In the last game, for instance, Shane Rhodes and Kai York never even ran into Hugh Finch.
This time, Moira Lynch didn’t bother with individual containers. Reusable ones would have to be washed, disposable ones would pollute the environment, and just using plastic bags wasn’t safe.
So, this time, she just used large stainless steel basins to hold everything.
As for rice, Moira Lynch prepared what she estimated to be a two-week supply. If they ran out early, they’d just have to find another way.
A basin of stir-fried vegetables, a basin of stewed meat whose broth could be mixed with the rice, and a whole bucket of large steamed buns.
It took the group a full day and night to get all this ready, mainly because the meat stew required such a long cooking time.
The rich aroma of meat wafted around the house all day long.
Fortunately, no one in the neighborhood was short on food. Otherwise, who knew how many people a scent like that would have drawn to their door.
They each stored their food in their Space Buttons, a wave of security washing over them. Finally, they wouldn’t have to worry about going hungry!
Moira Lynch also packed stainless steel bowls and cutlery.
’How embarrassing would it be to get ready to eat during the game, only to realize you have no bowls or cutlery? You can’t just eat with your hands.’
’You could manage rice with your hands, but what about the meat? All the good stuff is in the broth.’
The Space Button was a magical thing; food came out in the exact same state it went in.
So even if the game didn’t start for a few more days, they didn’t need to worry about their food spoiling.
Dinner that night was stewed beef hoof.
A single hoof was thicker than an adult’s thigh; it was obviously not a species from Caelus.
There were four of them in total, which Kai York had bought from other players at a high price.