The townsfolk greeting him surprised Ye Feng.
Did every resident of Maple Leaf Town possess a fragment of a spatial rift? That was utterly preposterous.
"Mr. Ye, please wait a moment. I'll have the townsfolk fetch theirs," Elder Li said with a smile, then turned to speak with the villagers.
Before long, Elder Li and a group of villagers returned, each holding one or two objects emitting a pale white glow.
"Mr. Ye, please take a look. Are these the same as the one you have?"
"Explorer, please look!"
Elder Li and the townsfolk presented their items to Ye Feng, creating a dazzling spectacle.
"This... this is truly a spatial rift fragment..."
After examining several villagers' possessions, Ye Feng couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
"So, this thing is called a spatial rift fragment?"
"I've lived this long, and this is the first time I've heard of such a thing," Elder Li said, enlightened.
"How did you all obtain so many spatial rift fragments?" Ye Feng asked, looking at Elder Li and the villagers with astonishment.
"That's a long story... I'm starting to forget..." Elder Li gazed in a certain direction, a frown on his face as if trying hard to recall. "About 30 years ago, a great catastrophe befell the world..."
"...Treasure chests would occasionally fall from the sky. Wooden chests contained basic necessities... Bronze chests contained..."
"One day, a golden treasure chest actually fell into Maple Leaf Town."
"Elder Li and the townsfolk happily opened it, only to find these small, glowing objects inside, not even a single loaf of bread..."
"So, the townsfolk each took one of these little glowing things back. When we ran out of firewood, they served as a meager light source at night..."
Having finished speaking, Elder Li placed the spatial rift fragment in his hand into Ye Feng's. Several other villagers followed suit.
Ye Feng hesitated for a moment but did not refuse, as the items were indeed very important to him.
"One... two... three... so many!"
Ye Feng roughly counted; the spatial rift fragments from Elder Li and the townsfolk numbered over thirty.
...
The next day,
Around noon,
At the road leading into Maple Leaf Town where Ye Feng had entered previously,
"Mr. Ye, are you sure you won't stay a few more days?" Elder Li looked at Ye Feng with regret and reluctance.
Behind Elder Li stood all the old and young residents of Maple Leaf Town, over a thousand people, all looking at Ye Feng with similar expressions.
"No, we've rested enough and need to continue our journey," Ye Feng gently shook his head.
"Mr. Ye, we are truly sorry!"
"You saved our Maple Leaf Town... We owe you such immense gratitude, and yet we not only failed to repay you properly..."
"We even... took your belongings!"
Elder Li's wrinkled face flushed red with embarrassment.
As he spoke, he glanced at the large bag of golden-yellow granules in his hand.
It was the high-yield corn seeds Ye Feng had given him, perfectly suited for planting in the relatively dry Maple Leaf Town.
"Oh, it's nothing, don't worry about it. I must be going," Ye Feng was not particularly concerned.
The bag of high-yield corn seeds had refreshed in the [Shop] that day, and he had bought them on impulse to give to the townsfolk of Maple Leaf Town.
Subsequently, Ye Feng and Xiao Xiao walked off in one direction, continuing their journey towards the City of Despair.
Elder Li and the thousand-plus residents of Maple Leaf Town watched Ye Feng leave until his figure completely disappeared from their sight.
"The explorer is such a good person!"
"Indeed, it's a shame we couldn't repay him properly!"
"Yes..."
"Uncle Li, what should we do next in our Green God Town, oh no, Maple Leaf Town?"
"Maple Leaf Town?"
"The explorer's name is Ye Feng. How about we change the town's name to Ye Feng Town first?"
"Good!"
"Good!"
"Good!"
...
Meanwhile,
Ye Feng and Xiao Xiao, tired from walking, rested in a patch of shade.
Lying on the green grass, Ye Feng hummed a tune, clearly in good spirits.
Looking at the [Available Points: 690] on his personal information panel, Ye Feng quickly brought up the shop.
"System, upgrade the shop!"
"Ding~"
After a crisp beeping sound, the available points on his personal information panel became 490, and the system's [Shop Lv1] upgraded to [Shop Lv2].
"Lv2 shop refreshes 7 items daily, with a 50% chance of hot food and increased probability of rare items appearing."
"Upgrading the shop to the next level requires 400 available points!"
The system's mechanical voice followed closely.
"When the [Shop] was not upgraded, it refreshed 5 items daily, only offering room-temperature food."
"At Lv1, it refreshed 6 items daily, with a chance of hot food."
"Upgraded to Lv2, the number of daily refreshes increased by one, and the probability of hot food is now 50%."
"It seems the higher the [Shop] level, the more items are refreshed and the more functions are added."
"I wonder if there will be things like popsicles later on."
Honestly, Ye Feng was looking forward to frozen foods, as aside from the initial drastic temperature drop, the climate here had always been hot.
Immediately, Ye Feng took out the 39 spatial rift fragments given to him by the townsfolk of Maple Leaf Town.
Including the one from the goblin lair and the one he previously possessed, he had a total of 41.
"System, start expanding the spatial warehouse, add 1 cubic meter."
Ye Feng quickly made his decision.
As his supplies increased, his spatial warehouse had become somewhat cramped.
"Ding~"
Another crisp beep sounded. Ye Feng's spatial warehouse expanded from 2 cubic meters to 3 cubic meters, and his available points became 290.
His fragments also decreased from 41 to 21.
"Whoosh~"
Ye Feng let out a breath and did not continue expanding his spatial warehouse.
He wanted to save the points to increase his [Strength] and [Agility]. In the past few days, he had added 20 points to both his strength and agility, experiencing no pain and quickly adapting to the increased attributes.
Therefore, Ye Feng intended to save his available points to further increase his [Strength] and [Agility] until he approached his limit.
"Big Brother, quickly look at the [World Channel]! There's another strange broadcast message about you!"
At this moment, Xiao Xiao's surprised voice rang out.
"It's not just the [World Channel]! The [Regional Chat Channel] has it too," Xiao Xiao added after a pause.
"Hmm? A strange broadcast?"
"What's going on?"
Ye Feng opened the [World Channel] with some confusion.
At the very top of the [World Channel], a scrolling message appeared.
"Zhang San missed 3 nuclear bombs. The World Channel has unlocked the image function. Each person can send one image per day, which cannot be accumulated. Survival coins can be used to increase the number of images sent!"
"What the heck is this?"
Ye Feng was quite vexed.
Last time, he had missed out on purchasing the aircraft carrier with nuclear power that had refreshed in the [Shop], and a strange broadcast message had appeared then too.
...