October 9, the first day after the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays had ended, at seven in the morning, in the main bedroom of house number 505 in the Xingfuli District.
Zhang Yanhang, who had been sound asleep in bed, suddenly shuddered as if struck by an epiphany and opened his eyes in an instant, "Is it time already? I have to admit, Multiple Choice is indeed more effective than an alarm clock, even a vague option can enforce this level of compulsion."
After waking up, Zhang Yanhang yawned and then glanced at the time on his phone, "I’ve only slept for an hour? It’s just seven in the morning now, and I remember that my class should start at eight, which means I have another hour, which should be enough time for breakfast."
"Since I’m awake now, the next thing to do is to go buy breakfast." Zhang Yanhang had fallen asleep without taking off his Equipment, so now that he had woken up, he didn’t need to get dressed again; he could just head out in what he was already wearing.
As for whether lying in bed with his Equipment on would dirty the sheets and quilt? There was no need to worry about that. Thanks to the Energy Shield, all the dust and dirt were filtered out, so he was impeccably clean, whether it was the soles of his shoes or any other part of him, maintaining a spotless Status.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Zhang Yanhang could stop bathing now that there was no dust. Despite the absence of dust, his body would still naturally produce some secretions, such as various oils and sweat. Therefore, even with the Technique Immunity, Zhang Yanhang would still need to bathe.
However, with future increases in strength, inefficient and time-consuming cleaning activities like bathing will inevitably become obsolete.
"There’s only an hour’s time, and delivery would take at least half an hour, probably not enough time. So it’s better to eat out."
Zhang Yanhang stood by the bed, stretched lazily, and then started to head out. Although the school was very close to his home—only a few minutes’ run away—he also needed a fair amount of time to eat.
Having just returned from the Ashen World an hour ago, Zhang Yanhang didn’t particularly crave anything specific for breakfast. Thus, he simply had a pot of deep-fried dough sticks and a pot of radish-filled buns, washing them down with two two-liter bottles of soda.
Perhaps it was because he had ordered an entire pot, but he consumed several jin of dough sticks, as well as more than twenty radish buns, costing him almost one hundred yuan on these alone.
Normally, Zhang Yanhang couldn’t possibly eat so much, but he was now starving after having not eaten for five days. It was a kind of revenge consumption; he was determined to make up for the last five days’ worth of breakfasts all at once.
When Zhang Yanhang had initially asked for a whole pot of dough sticks, and then proceeded to clean out the vendor’s already-made stash of dough sticks and buns, the vendor thought that Zhang Yanhang—clad in his standard police Equipment—was a security officer from some private security company picking up breakfast for his colleagues.
But then, Zhang Yanhang ate a whole pot of dough sticks in front of him, ordered another pot of radish buns, and ate all of those as well.
The vendor was almost popping his eyes out in astonishment, exclaiming that he had encountered a major customer. He immediately gave Zhang Yanhang a discount, asking him to come again.
Since the taste of the vendor’s dough sticks and radish buns were quite good, and the vendor generously gave a discount, Zhang Yanhang decided to continue supporting his business and asked the vendor to fry up two more pots of dough sticks and radish buns—spending almost another one hundred yuan.
After the two pots were fried, Zhang Yanhang directly stored them in his Waist Bag, which had a space where the concept of time did not apply—whatever was put inside would come out exactly the same.
Thus, the unique property of the Waist Bag’s space was especially suitable for preserving food. After getting these two pots, Zhang Yanhang wouldn’t need to step out for breakfast for several days, making his home life even more comfortable.
The vendor was surprised at Zhang Yanhang’s appetite because, even after the Spiritual Qi Recovery, it was still rare to see someone eat so much—after reaching the Second Tier of Cultivation, one could naturally acquire the Grain avoidance ability and no longer need to eat.
Therefore, only First Tier cultivators would need to eat, and ordinary First Tier cultivators would actually eat less because of the cultivation of the Heaven and Earth Creation Technique. Therefore, stuffing so much food normally implied that the eater was a First Tier Awakened with a related Superpower.
Speaking of Fasting, that unavoidably brings us to another matter. According to the news that Zhang Yanhang had seen, the Empire seemed to have been pushing urbanization vigorously, aiming to liberate most of the rural population, which accounted for a quarter of the Imperial People, before the whole nation adopted Fasting. The idea was to transform them into a more efficient workforce suitable for the new era of universal cultivation and to develop industries related to Spiritual Energy.
In fact, the ’Imperial Citizen (Awakened) City Life Minimum Guarantee Special Subsidy’ received by Awakeners like Zhang Yanhang was also part of the Empire’s push for urbanization.
Since the amount received for social benefits was related to the local average salary, if an Awakener chose to stay in rural or mountainous regions after their awakening, they would receive very little.
On the other hand, if an Awakener chose to settle in a big city, their social benefits would naturally increase due to the higher average salary there.
Of course, this aspect wasn’t the most important in the grand scheme of things. The paramount issue was the emancipation of the rural population. The Empire aimed to liberate the rural population because once Fasting became universal, agricultural produce was bound to see a surplus in supply, which would disrupt the balance of supply and demand. The most update n0vels are published on NoveI★Fire.net
Therefore, if no adjustments were made now, later adjustments would be too late. Delayed transformation would force farmers to watch as their fields became bountiful but completely unsellable, or if sold, dramatically undervalued. This would severely affect the Empire’s progress in building a comprehensively prosperous society.
Some might argue that even in the age of universal Fasting, people would still eat. However, at best, only a small portion would insist on eating, while the majority would definitely abandon this inefficient form of nutritional intake.