The previous two announcements in the Star Source world about record wheat harvests and the tempting privileges as a reward finally awakened the impatience of the high-level farmers. Seized by envy, they immediately took action.
Even the acclaimed veterans of farming began to experiment one after another with growing wheat on a one-mu plot, trying to understand what was so special about this Tier 1 agricultural crop that had led to such a generous reward for breaking a record!
It's worth noting that they had set records in the Star Source world before, but unlike wheat with its long growth cycle, they had only achieved success with fast-growing crops. The rewards were usually high-quality farming tools with no durability limits, potions to accelerate plant growth, or small, additional plots of land. Valuable items never appeared as rewards, not to mention privileges—they hadn't even seen such a thing.
Comparing the content of the two announcements, they found a common thread and assumed that wheat possessed some special properties they weren't aware of, or that someone had found a vulnerability in the system that led to such a result! But whatever the reason, they decided to try, because the reward was simply too tempting.
To guarantee a high wheat yield, they had been inseparable from their crops for the last two days, showing exceptional diligence.
Such prolonged work was possible because at their level, the time spent in the Star Source world was no longer limited to the standard 12 hours. The twelve-hour limit, in essence, was a protective measure for novices. A person who had just awakened a profession had a weak mental strength to begin with, and even someone with maximum attributes like Shen Xingyan was only slightly stronger than others. Under such conditions, spending excessive time in the Star Source world could easily cause irreparable damage to a novice's already fragile psyche.
Knowledge of such consequences for novices came thanks to a rich heir. This young man, having just awakened his profession, relied on his parents' wealth to immediately acquire a privilege to extend his stay time from the Star Source store. After two days of continuous work in the Star Source world, when his consciousness returned to reality, he immediately passed out. When he was finally rescued, it was discovered that his mental strength, which had been only 8 points to begin with, had dropped by 3 points, and this reduction was irreversible.
This incident made people realize the true purpose of the limit.
When a professional reached level 20, the Star Source world would automatically lift this restriction. After all, past level 20, even if a professional didn't invest additional points into mental strength, the attribute would naturally increase with their level. A mental strength of over twenty points already provided enough stability to remove the limits.
Although a user would still be logged out by the system if their mental strength was exhausted without special privileges like the rich heir's, theoretically, as long as their mental strength wasn't depleted, they could stay there indefinitely.
However, theory remained theory, and in practice, it was difficult to achieve due to inherent human limitations. When the expenditure of mental strength reached a certain threshold, the effectiveness of potions for its recovery gradually decreased.
This was exactly the situation the high-level farmers were in. Over a little more than two days, considering the accelerated growth of plants thanks to their advanced professional skills, they had actually been tending to their wheat for almost four days. But after such a long period without sleep or rest, their mental strength was at its end.
They had reached a state where no auxiliary means were helping anymore—neither food nor potions for mental strength recovery had any significant effect. Even if they could restore their mental strength through special methods, the rate of its subsequent expenditure would increase even more—the limitations of human capabilities were particularly apparent at this moment.
Now they desperately needed sleep to restore their mental and physical strength, but how could they accept that? The experiment was already almost halfway through, and if they didn't continue now, wouldn't all their efforts be for nothing? At that moment, they began to look for any way to hold out a little longer, as the longer they lasted, the greater their chances of breaking the record.
However, reality turned out to be extremely harsh. Some of them, continuing to work, almost completely exhausted their physical and mental strength. Without the possibility of recovery, the Star Source world took forced measures and expelled them.
At the moment of their expulsion, they couldn't help but sigh: "What kind of people are they, who were able to break the record with a wheat crop that has a 10-day growth cycle? What level must these farmers be?!"
Similar situations were happening all over the Star Source world. Those who had been expelled from the system no longer harbored any illusions about breaking the wheat yield record. After all, even with their experience as high-level farmers, they understood that at the current level of work, achieving a record harvest was almost impossible.
The only chance was to quickly restore their mental strength after exiting the Star Source world, so they could immediately return to their cultivation space and prevent a "stagnation of tasks." Only that way could they hope to break the record.
However, no one had been able to do it so far—after all, just over a hundred years had passed since the explosion of Primordial energy, and there had been too little time for humanity to develop.
That's why they were bewildered: who was it that managed to accomplish this impossible feat? They desperately wanted to know who these people or this organization were.
…..
"I just couldn't hold on, after all. I used to think there was some kind of loophole in the wheat, but that was presumptuous of me. Ah, I've gotten old, so old," the modestly dressed old man sighed, shaking his head as he logged out of the Star Source world.
"What's the reason? Why didn't any loophole appear in my wheat? How did those people discover it? Damn it!" The middle-aged man in luxurious clothes, also at the limit of his strength, continued to curse his wheat.
"Even with my stats fully invested in mental strength, I can only hold out for a maximum of two days. The only result will be that the wheat yield will increase to a relatively high level, but I can hardly expect it to fully ripen. I'll try it and see what the final harvest is," the elderly man with an imperturbable face, sensing his mental strength was depleting, shook his head slightly after a rough calculation, not holding out much hope for the final outcome.