Insomniac Player

The Devouring Summer ended without celebration.

Seventy-two hours after the first locust struck Damien’s balcony, a blue window appeared above every surviving field on Earth-69.

➤[Global Event Concluded.]

➤[Active Agricultural Production Preserved: 43.61%.]

➤[Minimum Survival Requirement: 30.00%.]

➤[Result: Success.]

➤[Failure Penalty cancelled.]

Success was an accurate word. It was not a kind one.

The after-action report confirmed the event’s strange mercy. Ordinary locusts were all Level 1 and harmless to people; they attacked only crops and other greenery. The Level 30 Swarm Conductors directed them, while each Level 50 Locust Queen produced and organized new clouds. Most human casualties came from panic, transport accidents, fires, and battles against Neva, not from the insects themselves.

More than half of the world’s active crops had disappeared. Entire farming cities had become brown rectangles visible from the sky. Livestock-feed reserves were placed under government control. Meat, milk, and cooking-oil prices rose before the final swarm died. Agricultural Classes received priority access to transport, mana wells, and every field that could still support another planting.

Only two regions escaped with more than sixty percent of their production.

Region 21 preserved 68.24 percent.

Region 7 preserved 66.91 percent.

The next closest region preserved barely fifty-eight percent. Seventeen regions finished below twenty. Four had lost almost every open field and survived only because neighboring governments agreed to share reserves.

News feeds showed what the percentages meant. A farming capital in Region 103 had covered its streets with grain before the patch; citizens now swept empty husks from doorways. Region 56 converted three sports arenas into hydroponic farms. In Region 188, thousands of Agricultural Players stood in lines outside Class Towers, hoping for growth abilities that could shorten a season into weeks.

The worldwide channel had spent three days blaming governments, guilds, the System, and occasionally birds. When the event ended, the arguments became quieter. Hunger was more convincing than opinion.

Imran and Rahul lived in Region 7. Imran had divided its military into mobile agricultural defense units before the patch began. Rahul’s guild purchased pesticide, protected transport routes, and opened private warehouses to the public. They had argued through most of the operation and produced the second-best result in the world.

Region 21 placed first because Damien had understood the riddle, Doctor Smoke had proved ordinary pesticide worked, and Jeremy Choo had already distributed food across thirty-one protected storage sites.

The media simplified all of that into three names.

Imran appeared in uniform before a wall of casualty maps and refused every question about personal credit.

"The farmers remained in the fields," he told the interviewer. "The transport workers kept moving after the sky turned black. Interview them."

Rahul attended his interview wearing a cream coat that looked professionally incompatible with famine relief.

"Did your guild save Region 7?" the reporter asked.

"We assisted," Rahul replied.

"Your relief network moved forty million tonnes of supplies."

"Then we assisted with excellent logistics."

Damien declined eleven interview requests.

On the twelfth, Elias Rowe personally asked him to provide one statement before rumors turned him into either a prophet or a grain-hoarding villain.

Damien stood outside a government distribution center while cameras floated around him.

"How did you predict the event?" a reporter asked.

"A dungeon gave me a riddle."

"Why did you purchase corn?"

"Because the riddle mentioned hunger."

"Are reports that you earned hundreds of millions of Gold accurate?"

Jeremy had prepared a careful answer covering unrealized asset value, controlled pricing, and emergency distribution.

Damien looked at the camera.

"Probably."

The interview ended shortly afterward.

His short appearance was replayed more often than Imran’s entire briefing. Commentators debated whether "probably" meant Damien did not understand his own wealth or simply disliked the interviewer. Both interpretations were correct.

At Saint Mary’s Orphanage, Sister Agnes sent him a photograph of children unloading bags marked with Jeremy’s distribution seal. The locusts had eaten the orphanage garden and every tree along the outer wall. They had not missed a meal.

Damien kept that photograph and deleted the interviews.

John watched it from the penthouse and declared it Damien’s finest performance.

Jeremy was less impressed.

"Our average realized selling price is currently seven-point-eight times the acquisition price," the Stock Agent reported. "After preserving strategic reserves, paying distribution costs, and retaining the storage properties, projected combined value remains approximately five hundred and fifty million Gold."

"Profit?" John asked, although he had asked the same question six times.

"Approximately four hundred and fifty million above the original capital."

John leaned back with the satisfaction of a man who had gambled nearly everything on a poem and survived.

Damien looked at the world report instead.

Region governments had begun trading food without normal tariffs. Refugees were leaving districts where the final crop percentage had fallen below ten. Guilds guarded seed convoys. Arguments had already begun over which regions reacted too slowly and which merchants had profited too much.

The world had survived the patch.

It had not returned to normal.

Elias addressed Region 21 from the Secretariat steps. He announced six months of food-price controls, free seed distribution, and temporary housing for displaced farm workers. The measures were popular until he explained they would require higher Gate taxes and delayed government salaries.

The Prime Minister did not hide the cost.

"Survival created a debt," he said. "We will pay it together rather than sending the bill to those who lost everything."

Doctor Smoke approved of the speech. Rahul called the suit unfortunate. Imran asked for the implementation schedule.

A private System summary appeared before Damien.

➤[The Devouring Summer contribution calculated.]

➤[Golden Locust Queen eliminated.]

➤[Artificial swarm network destroyed.]

➤[Regional agricultural preservation contribution confirmed.]

➤[Level adjustment completed.]

➤[Current Level: 37.]

➤[Available Stat Points: 51.]

He dismissed the window without spending anything.

At sunset, the final organized swarm over Region 21 lost its Conductor and scattered. Pesticide aircraft crossed the remaining fields one last time. The Global Event channel closed. Emergency interviews replaced live battle feeds, and restoration notices replaced survival warnings.

Doctor Smoke sent a photograph of an empty pesticide bottle standing on a dead Locust Queen.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Doctor Smoke: Humanity remains alive because someone read the label.

Hamari: (replies with an edited crown above the bottle)

Grace: Could the bottle be challenged to a duel?

Daria: (sends the final regional report)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

John opened two expensive drinks and passed one to Damien.

"To being rich," he said.

Damien looked over Viremont. New leaves would take months. New crops would take longer. But the roads moved, the lights remained on, and the food centers stayed open.

"To thirty percent," he said.

The locust crisis was over.

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