Seeing the barrage of field care prompts, Shen Xingyan, along with his little skeletons, began another round of intense work without hesitation.
Judging by the Star Source's mood, Shen Xingyan no longer hoped to rest today and sighed with some regret: "Looks like I'll have to work hard!"
However, the subsequent events seemed to confirm his words, making him regret that he had jinxed the situation.
Because the growth progress of all crops had increased by 20% in such a short period, the frequency of field care prompts from the Star Source became extremely high, far exceeding the previous level and significantly surpassing Shen Xingyan's calculations.
"Damn it... this intense? This is just bullying my current capabilities. Just you wait until I have an army of ten thousand skeletons, we'll see what you can do to me then!" he complained.
Although Shen Xingyan understood that the dream of a ten-thousand-skeleton army, unless something unexpected happened, would only come true in twenty-seven years, he still allowed himself to daydream, painting alluring prospects in his imagination.
At this moment, Shen Xingyan was not yet aware of the seriousness of the problem and even had the energy for such fantasies.
However, his self-reassurance did not last long—the speed at which the Star Source prompts appeared quickly brought him back to reality. The prompts were appearing so frequently that it seriously surpassed anything Shen Xingyan had faced before. He had to focus all his attention on the work, increasing his pace to the maximum possible level.
Fortunately, thanks to the recent wheat harvest, his professional level had increased by three tiers at once, which led to an increase of three points in all his attributes in the Star Source world. With his current stats, working at full power, he was more than twice as efficient as before, and his work capacity was roughly equivalent to two and a half little skeletons.
No wonder other high-level farmers could manage all their fields alone.
However, despite all his efforts, the results were not entirely satisfactory.
The frequency of the care prompts not only didn't decrease, but it even seemed to have increased.
Although Shen Xingyan and the skeletons were trying their best to complete all the tasks, they couldn't keep up with the speed at which new prompts were appearing.
This time, the Star Source prompts seemed to be taking revenge on Shen Xingyan for its previous humiliations, mercilessly issuing tasks as if it had decided to concentrate all possible tasks into a single time frame.
They were given no moment's rest, and for the first time, Shen Xingyan saw what was called a "double prompt!"
Shen Xingyan had studied this topic before and knew that a "double prompt" was a harbinger of "task stagnation," a warning signal from the Star Source. If these tasks were not handled in time, a "triple prompt" would appear.
The appearance of a "triple prompt" meant that farmers had very little time left!
If such prompts were left unattended for too long, the Star Source would issue a verdict of "task stagnation," which was followed by a punishment—an inevitable reduction in yield!
For most farmers, this was a common occurrence, nothing to be surprised by.
But Shen Xingyan, whose little skeletons worked around the clock, had never faced such a situation since his professional awakening.
To his astonishment, two Star Source prompt icons were hovering simultaneously over his field.
This not only shocked Shen Xingyan but also caused all the little skeletons to fall into a state of stupor—they didn't know which prompt to take care of first and seemed to have frozen in place.
Looking at the bewildered skeletons, Shen Xingyan quickly understood the gap in his previous instructions.
"I just told them to work according to the Star Source prompts, but I didn't explain what to do if two prompts appeared at the same time. It's like a car that only knows how to go straight, and now it's being asked to choose between two turns—it would just stop."
Realizing this, he quickly rushed to change his instructions:
"Wangcai, new work directive: from now on, handle the prompts in the order they appear. Pass this on to the others."
After Shen Xingyan corrected his instructions, Wangcai, who had just been in a state of confusion, snapped out of it.
Surprisingly, he barely moved, and all the little skeletons had already returned to their normal work.
Shen Xingyan was already used to this behavior from Wangcai, attributing it to some special method of communication between the skeletons.
Looking at the skeletons who had returned to work, Shen Xingyan thought with relief: "It's a good thing I was here and prevented chaos. If a situation like this had happened in my absence, the first punishment from the Star Source might have already befallen us!"
After this reflection, Shen Xingyan looked at the two prompts hanging overhead and felt a sense of unease. Ever since he began farming, with the help of the little skeletons, he had never faced such a threat.
Feeling a surge of irritation, he resolutely gave the order to Wangcai:
"Wangcai, tell everyone: with the exception of the acre of wheat, we are temporarily suspending effective farming methods on all other plots. Work at full capacity!"
Wangcai, in his straw hat, seemed to sense his master's anger. He slightly shook his skull, and all the other skeletons appeared to receive a strengthening effect—their movements noticeably accelerated.
This phenomenon earned a nod of approval from Shen Xingyan. Special times call for special measures, and even in farming, one couldn't adhere to the rules too strictly.
When he lowered his head to continue working, a shocking sight appeared before his eyes: the number "-1" had popped up above the skulls of all the skeletons.
His eyes widened in surprise, bewilderment, and disbelief—he couldn't believe what was happening!
"How is it that all the skeletons, including Wangcai, suddenly lost a single point of health?" This question echoed in his mind.
Although Shen Xingyan had never encountered this before, he immediately recognized the "-1" numbers—it was a notification from the Star Source of a health loss.
An alarming thought arose in his mind:
"This is a disaster! The little skeletons only have ten health points each. If this continues, all the skeletons I've summoned over the past two weeks will simply vanish! What's the point of talking about a ten-thousand-skeleton army if it will be hard enough to maintain the current state of affairs?"