More and more citizens appeared at the sight of the chaos, some directly beating up those responsible. How could they do this!?
Ironically, even when they were weak from the hunger and the heat, they had a burst of energy in order to vent. Whether they were venting the anger due to the fire, or whether they were venting the anger for their situations, no one knew.
On the other hand, some saw that it was hopeless and immediately ran to the other end of the indoor forests to pull out what they could. Even if it was dangerous, and the loot was very little, they had no choice.
The rest focused on the tragedy in front of them: The blazing fire.
The community worked together to at least save a small area. No matter how small, a patch of forest was a patch of forest! Although it would recover eventually, that’d take weeks! Would they still be alive by then!?
However, no matter how desperately they wanted to stop the fire, what could they do in the end?
They didn’t even have water to stop the fire, nor could they bury it fast enough. Not to mention, they saw how a team had focused on foraging what they could, so some people who had been trying to stop the fire abandoned their tasks to get what they could instead.
In the end, everyone could only watch in tears as their remaining source of food inside the walls burned to crisp.
…
With the food sources inside the walls gone, people soon had no choice but to go outside to forage.
However, they had no chance to do so because night had arrived and the beast mob found them again. They had to focus on defending their home, despite their groaning stomachs, dried throats, and weakened limbs.
They had to use all their energy not to become food, barely managing to defend while they were mobbed and eaten by monsters even weaker than they were.
At the same time, this also presented with an opportunity for them to gain food in the form of monster meat and their blood.
Shinho, the head guard, saw this and he knew something had to be done. "Allow some inside!" he yelled, making the people gape at him. They were all covered with blood and grime, and they did not need their head guard delirious in hunger!
"It’s food!" he yelled, as if reminding them of the meat in front of them. "As long as we mob it and kill it together, it is fine!"
The people were enlightened a bit. They naturally do eat the meat of the monsters even before. However, at night, they would be too focused on their own survival.
What was the point of hunting for food if one was already in the monster’s stomach?
Further, during the heat wave, the monsters would also tend to take the carcasses of their dead in order to feed on them.
The theory was that humans were not that attractive because of their lack of meat and energy at this time, and they preferred their own kind—albeit dead, in order not to spend any energy.
This was why monsters still attacked territories even during the Extreme Heat seasons—it was not just to collect the ’easy meat’ as per their instincts, but also to use the humans to kill their own kind, because infighting used too much energy and was too risky in the survival point of view.
The monsters were not sentient, but they still had their survival instincts developed through generations of evolution.
It also made it very difficult for humans to take advantage of this avenue for sustenance.
Hence, leading a few manageable ones inside the walls and mobbing those beasts was the smartest move. It might cause damage to their homes, but it was better than the alternative!
Shinho led a team to handle a monster that had entered, immediately causing havoc. People screamed and hid in their homes.
A little boy ended up in the monster’s path of rampage. Shinho cursed and raised his weapon against it, pushing the boy aside.
CLANK!
His sword and its teeth collided. The monster was actually a few levels weaker than he was, but the physique differences were more pronounced now that he was weakened by hunger.
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