Performing a class change ceremony in a safe zone had a few advantages. First of all, the safe zones didn’t have limits on the number of Professionals they could produce. As long as you could make it to the safe zone, you could become a Professional. Secondly, each class change statue had a bank of one thousand Experience Fragments that people could borrow to pay for their class change ceremony. The new soldiers would be unable to enter any of the other buildings or buy new skills until they repaid their debt to the statue.
Yuan Jianzhe didn’t know that people could create villages and thought that the only way to become a Professional was in the safe zone that the gods had gifted to Cloud City. Of course, he didn’t believe that this was the only safe zone. He figured that most cities had one. After all, god didn’t mention Cloud City but spoke more generally about all mankind.
As the army entered the safe zone, Yuan Jianzhe arranged for the soldiers who had just experienced a tragic battle to perform class change ceremonies. Each soldier that did so breathed a little more life into Cloud City.
Four hundred Professionals were created in this first wave, and all of them were affiliated with the army.
After they depleted each statue’s stored Experience Fragments, Xiao Cheng spoke to Yuan Jianzhe, “Commander, I think we shouldn’t allow civilians to become Professionals for the time being. We only have around ten thousand soldiers while there are at least a hundred thousand civilians, maybe more. If they were to all riot, we wouldn’t be able to maintain control over the situation.”
“What do you mean?” Yuan Jianzhe asked, wrinkling his brow.
“I mean that we should secure these four statues and only let people in the army become Professionals. After everyone in the army is a Professional, then we can allow small groups of civilians to become Professionals on the condition that they join the army. In this way, we’ll be able to maintain control over the city.”
“I’ll leave it to you, but the Experience Fragments gained by the soldiers must be used collectively by the army. We need Experience Fragments to buy food from the Grocery to ensure the survival of the populace and to transfer more soldiers.”
Xiao Cheng immediately began to execute his plan. The soldiers who had just performed class change ceremonies left the safe zone to go hunt monsters, while those that didn’t stayed behind to ensure civilians couldn’t get close to the class change statues. Once the first wave of soldiers collected enough Experience Fragments to pay off their debt, the next wave immediately performed their class change ceremonies.
After all of the other’s left, Cheng Yang exited the village from the north gate.
Even after travelling a kilometer, Cheng Yang didn’t encounter any monsters. This was normal since this area was designated as inside the village. Although the second ring of walls hadn’t been built yet, it would encompass this area when it did.
More eerily, the forest that had occupied the area before was gone. All of the trees had completely disappeared as if they had never existed in the first place. The only thing left was a field of meter high grass.
Once he left the territory area of influence, things got more difficult.
It was the fourth day of the apocalypse and the trees that had sprouted on the first day were now four to five meters tall and growing directly out of the old road. People wouldn’t be able to easily traverse it, nor would they be able to see into the distance.
Fortunately, Cheng Yang’s hearing had reached a level where nothing normal within forty of fifty meters would be able to go unnoticed.
On the way, Cheng Yang rarely encountered monsters on their own. Cheng Yang wasn’t surprised because he knew that the rate at which monsters spawned randomly would decrease to zero by the end of the week. No one knew why god had arranged for this to happen. Some theorized that it was to give ordinary people a better chance to survive. Others thought that it was so that Professionals wouldn’t be able to get stronger on their own. After all, it was easy to kill a single monster on your own, but to kill a horde alone was quite difficult.
This didn’t mean that the actual spawn rate had decreased. It was just that monster would now spawn directly inside of hordes. This meant that hordes would grow much faster than in the first few days.
For example, Cheng Yang had just discovered a horde of monsters with no less than fifty individuals.
Cheng Yang had only come out to explore, so stopping to kill such a large horde would be troublesome. He would rather face five hundred monsters in twenty hordes than a single horde of fifty.
However, after catching a glimpse of the item laying on the ground in the center of the horde Cheng Yang was unwilling to leave.
When Chéng Yáng exited the Instance Dungeon he ran into Liú Hào and Niú Bīng’s group.
“Tch, lucky as always.” Chéng Yáng clicked his tongue when he saw that they had five new pieces of equipment.
What can I say?” Liú Hào playfully shrugged, “Guess my luck from gacha games works here too. A shame I only got one piece of Black Iron Equipment, Lǐ Wànshān’s group got two.”
“Only one? I managed to pick up three.” Since Liú Hào was being so arrogant, Chéng Yáng felt the need to brag as well to put him in his place.
“Nice, nice, you got three…” Liú Hào casually answered before freezing in surprise. “Wait, three? And they’re all Black Iron? There weren’t even any runs left though…”
Chéng Yáng enjoyed watching Liú Hào freak out, it was one of the few interesting things that he could watch during the apocalypse and it reminded him of his peaceful life.
“It’s simple really, since I ran the Hard Difficulty the drops were better. It was also the first clear so I got something really good.”
After saying that, Chéng Yáng handed Liú Hào the Skill Inheritance Crystal. After Liú Hào read its system pane, he passed it to Niú Bīng, who then passed it to Páng Shān.
“Pretty nice Yángzǐ! This is why you’re the boss!” Liú Hào didn’t appreciate the value as much as Chéng Yáng had, but he wasn’t blind. He could tell that it was extremely valuable. “Have I ever said how thankful I am to have a man like you as my good friend?”
“Not nearly enough.” Chéng Yáng beamed while rubbing his nose.
“Ummm, how do I learn this?” Páng Shān didn’t know Chéng Yáng well and was quite hesitant to speak with him since he held a high status now.
“Ah, that’s right.” Chéng Yáng realized that he’d never explained the Skill system to them, “When you level up you’ll be able to learn a new skill. When that happens just go to the Class Statue and pay two hundred Soul Fragments and you’ll learn the Skill.”
“So much…” Páng Shān grimaced while thinking about the cost.
“Don’t worry about the cost babe, we’ll get the others in my team to pitch in. They’re the ones who will benefit after all.” Niú Bīng said.
“That’s a good idea.” Liú Hào nodded vigorously. “Actually maybe we should be stuffing our Clerics with Soul Fragments so they level up faster.”
“Of course, why didn’t I think of that?” Niú Bīng seemed excited at the prospect of using his position as team leader to spoil his girlfriend. “We could also do the Soul Fragment sharing strategy that Yángzǐ told us about.”
“Actually I wanted to talk to you guys about that.” Chéng Yáng cut in, “Yesterday I was able to unlock eight times cultivation speed and I want to share it with you. How many Soul Fragments can you collect in a day?”
“Uhhh, fifty? Maybe sixty?” Niú Bīng replied. “If you count the Instance Dungeon we can get close to eighty.”
Chéng Yáng nodded. This was within his expectations.
BLOCKER – rewrite so that it fits with updated leveling timelines
“I have a proposal.” Cheng Yang said. “Right now we’re at an advantage because we were able to become Professionals so quickly, but Phoenix Village has a fatal flaw. There are just too few Professionals. If we don’t want to be destroyed by outside forces in the future, we need to make sure we keep our current advantage. Right now, I have over one thousand Experience Fragments, and as long as you have that many, you can unlock eight times training speed. I plan to use eight times training speed every day, but there is a way for you to do that as well. I can lend you my thousand Experience Fragments after finishing my four hours of training for the day. After finishing your training, you can pass the Experience Fragments to another team Captain and then finally return them to me. In this way, you’ll be able to level up in just ten days. Of course, it will require you to consume three hundred and twenty Experience Fragments every day, but if you can clear the instance dungeon once a day, it should be fine.”
Yu Kai and the others were all smiles. They had all tried out four times training speed and were excited to see just how good eight times training speed would be.
“Yoko, that is a really good idea, especially since Experience Fragments are best used for training. If we used them to buy things instead, it would be quite wasteful. After all, no amount of items would be better than leveling up. It’s just that… this won’t negatively affect your training will it?” Liu Hau asked.
“Don’t worry, it won’t affect me in the slightest because when you gift Experience Fragments, you don’t lose any and it will come back to me every night anyway. This method for increasing people’s strength will be widely used in the future. The only downside of using this method is that if someone refuses to gift the Experience Fragments to the next, there is no way of getting them back. Even if you were to kill them, their Experience Fragments would just disappear.”
Although they didn’t say anything, all of them understood that by doing this, Cheng Yang was demonstrating his absolute trust in them.
BLOCKER – content from next chapter
When they finished talking, Chéng Yáng talked his friends with letting Yú Kǎi know about the new plan and went to find Lǐ Wànshān.
Cheng Yang immediately explained his plan to Old Lee, who was naturally grateful. He understood that he was different from Yu Kai and the others since Cheng Yang hadn’t known him long. Cheng Yang’s act of trust moved Old Lee greatly.
Cheng Yang glanced at his Experience Fragments and found that he had over one thousand six hundred. After finishing his training last night, he only had 1,100 points but clearing the Hard Difficulty Blood Soaked Church alone actually had such great results!
After that Cheng Yang traded one thousand Experience Fragments to Lau Hui since he was the only one of the five team Captains that hadn’t finished training for the day.
After the trade, Cheng Yang went over to the five class change statues to start some new research. When they had performed several class change ceremonies this morning, they had nearly bottomed out the territory’s Experience Fragment reserves. After hunting outside and clearing the instance dungeon three times 1300 Experience Fragments were collected, of which, 60 were funneled into the salaries of his officials.
Cheng Yang selected the research option for each statue that increased Mana. When the research finished, all of the primary classes would gain a Mana boost of 24%. Mana would always be the limiting factor for people of how big of a monster horde a group could fight. This was especially true for Phoenix Village which didn’t have an Alchemy Tower yet.
Standard Grade research would take ten hours to complete, which meant it would be dark before the new research would be finished. Now Phoenix Village was close to broke again, now that 900 Experience Fragments had been used for research.
When he finished, Cheng Yang looked at the sky and estimated that it was around 10:00. With Lau Hui’s team training in the Meditation Halls, that only left four teams of soldiers under his command.
Cheng Yang felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see Old Lee. He hesitated for a moment before asking, “Lord, do you think we have enough power to reach Cloud City yet?”
Cheng Yang could understand how Old Lee felt and thought about the issue for a while. “I think it’s possible, yes, if we were willing to make sacrifices. Of course, there would be no guarantee that we would find your family before having to turn back. I think that today we should continue our operations in Huimin. They are people we can save, and once we collect enough wood, we can build the Alchemy Tower and unlock the ability to buy potions. Once we have potions supplementing our Priests, we should be able to reach Cloud City safely. Of course, that only my guess. I’ll go alone to scout of the path to Cloud City to see if we can go any earlier.”
Old Lee nodded. He couldn’t find any way he could argue with Cheng Yang’s plan. He was well aware that he couldn’t risk his team’s lives for his selfish desires.
Later, Cheng Yang pulled Liu Hau to the side and handed him the boots he had found. Liu Hau was very satisfied with the gift since it would further increase his speed advantage.
The Normal Difficulty for the Blood Soaked Cathedral could still be used one more time today, but Cheng Yang had no intention to let anyone in. If he sent in an inexperienced team, they would just die, and he needed Yu Kai to go to Huimin. The only other team Captain that could enter the instance dungeon was Lau Hui, but he was in the middle of training. They had already cleared the instance dungeon three times today, so there wasn’t a huge loss anyway.
According to Cheng Yang’s arrangement, both his and Yu Kai’s team would go to Huimin with the primary goal of rescuing people and gathering wood as a secondary goal. Since Cheng Yang was going to be doing something else today, Zhao Chuan would be leading his team, which is why he needed Yu Kai to be present.
The remaining two teams would be sent to the peripheries of the territory to find and exterminate large monster hordes. This was an unquestionably vital job since the monster hordes would combine over time growing larger and large like a snowball rolling down a hill until they were big enough to decimate Phoenix Village.
Cheng Yang clearly remembered that in his past life, there was a territory destroyed right before he died. They hadn’t been able to prevent the formation of large hordes when the village was created and after half a year a horde, which numbered in the millions, completely devoured the territory. Although millions of monsters are scary, the truly dangerous aspect of large hordes was their ability to nurture elite monsters. The leader of the horde that destroyed the territory was an Elite Pinnacle-Grade Mature monster. If not for that monster, they may have been able to survive.
In Cheng Yang’s past life, even after half a year, humanity hadn’t been able to fully understand the mechanics of monster evolution, however, they were able to figure out a few key points. Monsters, like humans, would be very weak when they first spawned. As time passed, monsters would grow stronger at a pace somewhere in between a human at two times and four times training speed. Also, once twenty or so monster gathered together, one of them would be designated as the leader of the group. The leader of a group would have a boost in their growth speed and gain the Elite title. When beast hordes combined, both leaders would keep their current growth rates, but one would be designated as the true leader and have an even higher growth rate. As hordes grew bigger, more and more Elites would appear in their ranks and the leader would be of an even higher level. Humanity didn’t know whether strong monsters encouraged hordes merging or if they only appeared after a merge but regardless when a large horde was encountered, it would always be dangerous.
Cheng Yang didn’t care why this phenomenon happened but was determined not to let a large horde form near the station. The incident in his previous served as a strong reminder of what would happen if one did.
“Commander, this isn’t going to work! In a few minutes at most, those monsters will be able to advance to the point that they reach us. When they do, they’ll rip our soldiers apart!” A staff officer in a military uniform pleaded.
BLOCKER – stuff from the last chapter to be sorted. I like the tone shift of jumping right into it
At the same time, the fighting in Cloud City had reached its climax.
The military had rested in the city overnight, and when they noticed the glimmer of light in the center of the city, they were able to learn about the safe zone from some of the rescued citizens.
At the beginning of the apocalypse, everyone in the military had heard the announcement from that so-called god, but no one had understood it. After learning about the safe zone, the garrison executive had a suspicion that the secrets of evolution were hidden there.
Right now the safe zone was surrounded by over ten thousand monsters. The light curtain covered several square kilometers, and monsters were irresistibly drawn to it. Monsters would gather from kilometers around, even ignoring humans as they rushed towards the safe zone, which is why so many were now surrounding it.
The army’s troops assembled about a kilometer from the safe zone, watching the massive horde of monsters in horror. No one knew how scary monsters were better than them. A healthy monster could survive even a direct hit from an RPG. If they wanted to kill all the monsters around the safe zone, it would take nearly all of their remaining ammunition.
Unfortunately, there was no way to avoid this fight. They needed to reach that safe zone in order to survive.
At nine in the morning on the third day of the apocalypse, Military Garrison Commander Yuan Jianzhe sent out the official order to attack the monster horde. The sounds of war echoed throughout the entirety of Cloud City. Even the people staying in Phoenix Village thirty kilometers away could faintly hear explosions in the distance. This was partly because no other noises were concealing it, but also highlighted just how fierce the fighting was.
The army took the initiative to launch a massive barrage of explosive weaponry at the monster before conducting a charge towards the safe zone. Under the intense gunfire, hundreds of monsters were mown down. As long as they could make it inside the light curtain, they could kill the monsters from the other side.
The monsters were determined not to let the humans through. Even when the monsters in front were turned into meat paste, the ones behind them immediately rushed forwards, not leaving a single gap. Unlike humans who would collapse after a single shot, monsters would keep charging even after being hit by a dozen.
BLOCKER
Commander Yuan Jianzhe scrunched his brow. This was the most difficult battle he had ever experienced. There were just too many monsters, and their guns couldn’t effectively stop their charge.
“Just keep shooting.” the Commander said calmly, “Don’t try and save bullets, just shoot. We need to enter that safe zone. I have a feeling that humanity’s salvation is right inside that curtain.” Lit by explosions and gun flares, the forty-year-old man’s face showed a profound dignity that didn’t fit in such a brutal battle.
“This… in that case…” The staff officer hesitated to pass down the command.
“Why are you hesitating? From the start of the earthquake until now, our supplies have been cut in half, if we don’t win this battle now I’m afraid we will never live with dignity again. Without weapons, do you think we have the qualifications to fight those monsters?” The Commander turned away from his subordinate to face the monster hoard.
“I understand.” The staff officer sighed. “I’ll pass down the command.”
A few moments after the staff officer left the command center, the already loud gunfire became more intense.
The advantage of the mounted machine guns was obvious in this fight. Where they aimed, not a single monster survived.
After half an hour the majority of the monsters were dead, their corpses outlining their slow progress towards the army. If Cheng Yang were to see this, he would be filled with dismay. Monsters killed by normal people didn’t drop Experience Fragments. All of these resources were totally wasted!
However, at this time, Commander Yuan Jianzhe and the other high ranking officers didn’t seem very cheerful, rather they had a more somber look. They could see a group of lanky monsters with elongated arms tipped with sharp blades standing near the back of the horde. Although their numbers were only two hundred or so, they were crafty and didn’t mindlessly charge at the soldiers.
Yuan Jianzhe had been observing those monsters carefully throughout the battle. Those monsters, the Adze, were more powerful than ordinary monsters and were too fast for the soldiers to properly aim at. What was most troublesome was their ability to dart through gaps in their defensive line and kill soldiers before escaping.
“Gather a few groups of snipers to deal with the fast ones. Each group of ten snipers will focus on a single one of those monsters. They won’t be able to dodge every bullet.” Yuan Jianzhe issued an order.
The army quickly organized thirty of their best snipers into three teams. Situated on some of the taller ruins, these teams would even be capable of killing Standard Grade monsters.
After years of training, these snipers were completely in sync. They all fired at nearly the same time and used armor-piercing bullets capable of causing significant damage. Ten people firing at once created a cage that the Adze were unable to escape from.
After thirty seconds, there were seven or eight Adze as they tried to run past the defensive line. Seeing this, the other Adze entered a rage. After a burst of shrill howling the remaining Adze all charged at once.
To the Adze, a distance of two hundred meters only took ten seconds to cover, which gave the army a lot of pressure.
“Block them off with a wall of bullets!” Yuan Jianzhe roared pulling out his own rifle to add to the barrage.
The army found that their attacks were trivial, even if they managed to hit one of the Adze, they wouldn’t slow down for even an instant.
The Adze at the very front were killed by the snipers, but there were just too few of them so they couldn’t play a big role.
Watching the Adze draw closer, the mounted machine gun teams switched targets. Even though it was nearly impossible for a single mounted machine gun to hit an Adze, the interwoven streams of bullets made it impossible for them to avoid getting hit. The majority of the Adze that were killed during their charge fell to a mounted machine gun.
When the Adze reached the armies defensive line, they started a slaughter in their frenzied state.
Blood flowed like water and severed limbs flew through the air like leaves.
The soldiers had never felt so weak as they did now. Their resistance against the Adze was negligible.
In a short amount of time, the rampaging Adze had killed hundreds of soldiers, including some military officials. Soon after the remainder of the monster horde broke through the defensive line as well.
Commander Yuan Jianzhe, under the guard of several soldiers, quickly evacuated the area. Watching the scene of the soldiers being massacred, he wore a cold frown. “Destroy those monsters at all costs. Do whatever it takes.”
The other executives could hear Yuan Jianzhe’s voice trembling. They could guess how reluctant he was to give that order. It was inevitable they would kill hundreds of their own soldiers in fulfilling it, something no general would want to see.
They didn’t have any other options. If the commander had hesitated to make that decision, then the only outcome would be the total destruction of the army and the residents of Cloud City dying with them.
Grenades exploded at the feet of monsters, killing the humans next to them. Soldiers fired into the mass of bodies with tears in their eyes, unable to know if their bullets hit a monster or a comrade they had trained with for years.
The snipers were able to play a crucial role now. With the Adze entangled with the army and the monster horde, it only took three of them to land a lethal hit. If any other monster entered their sights, they would quickly fire a shot, killing them instantly.
When the last monster fell to the ground, the battlefield was too horrible to look at.
Of the original twenty thousand soldiers, less than ten thousand remained. They had paid a heavy price in this battle. Not only that but they were left with only a third of their supplied left, a sixth of what they had on the first day. If there was another large battle, the army would be totally annihilated.
Yuan Jianzhe stoically stared at the bodies for half a minute. He then raised his right hand into a sharp military salute. “Comrades, you can rest in peace now. We will protect Cloud City in your stead.”
Having said that, Yuan Jianzhe walked towards the curtain of light.
The rest of the soldiers began to clean up the battlefield. They didn’t want to leave their comrades’ corpses to rot among the ruins. After all, they had no way of knowing when they would meet a similar fate.
When Yuan Jianzhe entered the curtain of light, a surge of information entered his mind. In an instant, he understood the use of everything within the safe zone.
He nearly fell over from the shock, such a drastic change was difficult for a person who was almost fifty to accept.
“What kind of world is this?” He muttered, looking up into the sky with dazed eyes.
“Commander, it seems like this is going to be our world now.” A staff officer that had entered at the same time said. “This catastrophe is probably happening all around the world. In the face of this disaster, mankind will either be reborn or be turned to ash.”
“You’re right, Xiao Chen.” Yuan Jianzhe said, his previous calm and dignified aura returning. “As long as this disaster doesn’t destroy us, we will be reborn even greater than before.”
“I will gladly follow you, Commander, as you help the entirety of Cloud City be reborn.”
“Good. We did all we could in such a fucked up world. Right now we can’t worry about the rest of the country, we can only try our best to save the rest of Cloud City. I only hope we aren’t too late.”
Saying this, Yuan Jianzhe walked over to the Warrior class change statue and placed his palm on the foot. His body was then enveloped in a ray of light.
The requirements to unlock the next level of Difficulty after Normal for a Beginner Instance Dungeon was to clear Normal Difficulty five times, and have cleared all three runs on the same day. Chéng Yáng had already completed the former the day before, so all that was left, was a single successful run.
He put together three groups, using most of the same people as yesterday, except that this time, Zhào Chuān would lead a group, and act as the boss slayer for it. He also made sure that the extra Knights and Rangers from yesterday’s groups were replaced. That way, one he unlocked extra runs, someone would be able to complete them.
Chéng Yáng sent the three groups into the Blood Soaked Cathedral, then waited.
Once the first group, Yú Kǎi’s, exited the Instance Dungeon, Chéng Yáng walked over to portal and walked a full circle around it. When he did, the portal changed colors, becoming red. This indicated that he’d selected the Hard Difficulty. Chéng Yáng walked through, and found himself staring down the usual gate guardsmen: two Low-Grade Lesser Mephits
The Blood Soaked Cathedral, like most Instance Dungeons, was separated into four Difficulty levels: Normal, Hard, Nightmare, and Hell.
The difference between Normal and Hard was pretty small. The mini-bosses were promoted to the Elite Low-Grade level and the boss became Standard-Grade. The number of monsters would also increase by about half and there would be a few more mini-bosses. For an Instance Dungeon like the Blood Soaked Cathedral where a strategy to cheese the boss existed, this was almost the same as no change at all. The only real issue was that the boss had 8 Movement Speed, so it was too dangerous for a Low-Grade Apprentice to attempt.
Nightmare Difficulty was much the same in that it simply increased the number of monsters and their level. The normal mobs would become Standard-Grade, the mini-bosses were Elite Standard-Grades, and the boss would be a High-Grade. The major difference between Hard and Nightmare Difficulty was that you could bring ten people into the latter. As such, in his previous life, it wasn’t particularly difficult for large factions to beat Nightmare Difficulty Beginner Instance Dungeons in the month leading up to his death.
He had never heard of someone beating a Beginner Instance Dungeon on Hell Difficulty. Even though you were allowed to bring in twenty five Players. Hell Difficulty represented a qualitative change to the Instance Dungeon. The mini-boss’s would replace the mobs and were themselves replaced by the boss. This would mean having to face an Elite version of the boss from the Nightmare Difficulty, all while being swarmed by hundreds of High-Grade mini-bosses. No one had even seen one of the bosses on Hell Difficulty, but everyone knew it had to be a truly fearsome existence.
The benefits for clearing the Hard Difficulty Blood Soaked Cathedral were ample. Not only would the number of Normal Difficulty runs increase to five, bringing the benefits of more equipment and Soul Fragments, there would be a reward on par with the Cleric Idol for obtaining the first clear!
Since the danger wouldn’t increase much compared to Normal Difficulty, Chéng Yáng planned to run the Hard Difficulty on his own. As a High-Grade Apprentice, what did he have to fear?
As expected, Chéng Yáng was able to leisurely claim the first clear. Even though the mini-bosses were slightly stronger, Chéng Yáng was still faster than them by a significant margin. The boss was even easier since it couldn’t display its increase in strength in the slightest.
Chéng Yáng dropped down from the tree and pocketed the ring that the boss dropped, without checking its properties then rushed over to the end chest. When he opened it, he found a large crystal the size of two fists put together: Skill Inheritance Crystal!
Angelic Inspiration After killing the Demon Duke Bathin, Arch Priest Roswald Ashton was infected with demonic energy and on the brink of death. After watching a Throne deal a fatal blow to Bathin, he created a skill in a fit of inspiration. Using the last of his life force, he sealed that skill in crystal so that it could be passed on to future generations. ————————————————————————————— Class Requirements: Cleric Learning Cost: 200 Soul Fragments Effect: Fill a person with divine inspiration for ten minutes, increasing their Attack Damage and Ability Power by 10%
Duration: 10 min
Cost: 20 Mana
Targets: ⌊Ability Power / 5⌋
Cooldown: 60 sec
Advanced Skill
“Ahahahaha!” Chéng Yáng laughed wildly after checking the system pane, ” It’s really Angelic Inspiration!”
Chéng Yáng couldn’t hide his excitement. Angelic Inspiration was an Advanced Skill! How many groups in his previous life had access to such a thing? It wasn’t many, and now he had one! Moreover, it was an Advanced Skill for a Hidden Class! It’s usefulness was obvious! The Angelic Inspiration skill was powerful enough to put Priests that had learned it in an entirely different class from those that hadn’t.
Only three groups were known to have possessed this kill in Chéng Yáng’s past life. The first was a Settlement in the vicinity of the New York Safe Zone, who had gotten it as the first clear reward just like he had. The other two had only obtained it after clearing the Blood Soaked Cathedral dozens of times. Chéng Yáng smirked, those Yankees would cry if they learned they such a treasure stolen by him.
Of course, there were simpler ways to obtain the Angelic Inspiration skill. The Skill Scroll would drop from from the Normal Difficulty end chest of the Blood Soaked Cathedral and was a fairly common drop in the Hard Difficulty, at least compared to the Skill Inheritance Crystal.
Chéng Yáng didn’t know what the first clear reward was for Nightmare Difficulty, but he yearned for the day he would be able to obtain it. The unlock conditions for Nightmare difficulty were five Hard Difficulty clears and clearing it three times in one day, and fifty Normal Difficulty clears. It wouldn’t be too difficult to fulfill those conditions once some of the Phoenix Village Citizens reached the Standard-Grade Apprentice level, but until, Chéng Yáng himself reached the Pinnacle-Grade Apprentice level, he didn’t dare to try his luck.
General information about high level Difficulties and strategy guides for low level ones were easy to find, but strategy guides for Nightmare Difficulty clears were kept strictly confidential. As such, Chéng Yáng wasn’t sure if the cheesing strategy for the boss would still work.
After confirming that the Hard Difficulty first clear reward was the same, Chéng Yáng checked the three pieces of equipment he had found. His luck had remained pretty bad, so despite there being six mini-bosses this time instead of four, he only got three pieces of equipment. Thankfully, they were all Black Iron quality.
Guibert’s Boots (Boots) A pair of boots weaved from the feathers of an Oodra for a cowardly merchant. ————————————————————————————— Class Requirements: None Effects: +4 Movement Speed
Durability: 50
Black Iron
Standard Battlemage Helmet (Hat) A helmet mass produced by the Nubines Citadel for its famed battlemage infantry. ————————————————————————————— Class Requirements: Mage Effects: +20 Mana, +1 Attack Resistance, +1 Magic Resistance
Durability: 50
Black Iron
Rotten Band (Ring) Once a powerful artifact, this ring made from a holy tree has been nearly destroyed by demonic energy. ————————————————————————————— Class Requirements: None Effects: +1 Attack Damage, +1 Ability Power, +1 Attack Speed, +1 Movement Speed
Durability: 50
Black Iron
Although one of the pieces overlapped with his existing equipment, overall he’d gained a total of ten Attribute points. Compared to the Green Bronze set he’d used in his previous life, his current equipment was far superior.
The best item was the ring. Unlike other items, jewelry like rings, necklaces, bracelets, and various facial jewelry like earrings had no limits on the number that can be equipped. The ring he’d picked up today could be used for the rest of his life, unless he’d gotten so many Purple Silver rings that he physically couldn’t fit more on his fingers.
The leaders of large factions often ended up looking like rappers or punk rock enthusiasts since they were covered in piercings and gaudy jewelry. Unfortunately, jewelry was incredibly rare compared to other types of equipment.
Chéng Yáng opened the Management tab so that he could fill the empty Manager positions.
Naturally, the Player Resources Manager position went to Lǐ Wànshān. His Innate Ability significantly increased the number of Players that could be registered as Citizens, from two hundred to two hundred sixty six. To put anyone else in that position was moronic.
As long as he trusted them, it didn’t matter who he put in the other two Manager positions, so Chéng Yáng just gave them to his friends. Liú Hào became the Border Security Manager and Yú Kǎi became the Municipal Planning Manager.
There was only on thing left to do, activate Divine Grace!
When Chéng Yáng activated Divine Grace, power once again flowed unstoppable into his body. He could feel his body changing. Getting stronger. Faster.
Chéng Yáng
Phoenix Village Lord Class: Mage Level: High-Grade Apprentice (5.12%)
Age
19
Life Span
150
Health
50
Mana
270
Attack Damage
4
Ability Power
40
Attack Resistance
8
Magic Resistance
6
Attack Speed
7
Movement Speed
7.2
Innate Abilities
Ability Power is increased by 30%
Increase the effects of Cultivation Chambers in your Settlement by 30%
Movement speed is increased by 20%
Skills
Meditation (Core Skill) Sit cross legged and focus your mind to recover and advance.
Magic Missile (Standard-Grade) Gather Mana into a condensed sphere, then fire it.
Damage: 48
Cost: 6 Mana
Range: 30 m
Cooldown: 2.72 sec
Proficiency: 2.21%
Equipment
Ebony Stave (One-Handed) A casting focus made from high quality wood and engraved to allow for higher damage and faster casting. ————————————————————————————— Effects: +1 Ability Power, +1 Attack Speed
Damage: 3
Cooldown: 1.36 sec
Range: 1 m
Durability: 50
Black Iron
Corrupted High Priest’s Robes (Cloak) The robes of the high priest of the St. Luantha cathedral that have been corrupted by demonic magic. ————————————————————————————— Effects: +2 Attack Resistance, +10 Mana, +10 Health
Durability: 50
Black Iron
Corrupted Priest’s Biretta (Hat) The biretta of a priest from the St. Luantha cathedral that has been corrupted by demonic magic. ————————————————————————————— Effects: +20 Mana
Durability: 25
Green Bronze
With his stats, Chéng Yáng was capable of one-shotting most Low-Grade Immature monsters. He couldn’t be happier with his Attributes. They were rather average for a High-Grade Apprentice, but considering almost every monster around was still at the Low-Grade Immature level, he was basically invincible.
The concerning thing was that he had nowhere to learn new Skills. Normally, as you leveled up, you gained the right to learn additional Skills. As a High-Grade Apprentice, he had the right to learn up to four Skills. However, there was nowhere for him to learn them.
There were only two ways to learn a Skill. The first was to use a Skill Scroll as loot from an Instance Dungeon. These were only slightly less rare than special drops like the Cleric Idol so very few people could use this method. The second was the pay to learn a Skill from a Class Statue.
Until they reached the High-Grade level, Class Statues in Settlements didn’t have the ability to provide additional Skills. The Class Statues in the Safe Zones, on the other hand, had every Basic Skill available from day one. Unfortunately, after registering with a Settlement, a Player could no longer use the Class Statues in the Safe Zones.
For the foreseeable future, the Citizens of Phoenix Village would have rather static attack patterns. Of course, this small loss of versatility was more than worth the benefits becoming a Settlement’s Citizen provided. Moreover, if a Settlement got their hands on a Skill Inheritance Crystal for an Intermediate or Advanced Skill, they could sacrifice it at the Territory Altar, allowing any registered Player of the corresponding class to learn that Skill.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Since the rush to collect Soul Fragments was over, Chéng Yáng finally got around to establishing a proper guard rotation for the Players. Each of the five teams needed to spend five hours a day guarding the walls, except for Niú Bīng’s team which only had to do so for four hours since they had the overnight shift from 2:00 AM to 6:00 AM. Each team also got one of the five shifts off in order to cultivate.
With the major expense of upgrading the Settlement out of the way, Chéng Yáng tasked Lǐ Wànshān with filling the remaining Citizen slots such that each team had an equal number of each Class. Standard-Grade Villages could accept donations from Players, so instead of having new Players pay back the funds used on them to Chéng Yáng, they paid them back directly to the Territory Altar creating a virtuous cycle that made filling all of the slots trivial.
At 11:00 PM Chéng Yáng prepared for his daily cultivation. When he had used Divine Grace this morning, although his experience had rolled over, the progress had been halved. Even though he could rely on Divine Grace again when the Settlement reached the High-Grade Village level, it was important to maintain good habits and cultivate whenever one could.
His cultivation resulted in a roughly 3.2% increase in his experience bar. At this speed he would reach the Pinnacle-Grade Apprentice level in a month. Assuming, of course, that he could maintain the expenditure from eight times cultivation speed. Chéng Yáng didn’t even dare to think about sixteen times cultivation speed. He barely had amassed the Soul Fragments necessary for eight times cultivation speed, but his entire fortune was worth only a single hour of sixteen times cultivation speed.
The next day, when he woke up, Chéng Yáng saw Liú Hào and Yú Kǎi idling around his Cultivation Chamber’s courtyard. He shared his residence with his team leaders since there wasn’t enough housing to go around. It also made for a discreet location when he needed to discuss something without the hundreds of normal people listening in.
“Yángzǐ, good morning! It’s so odd sharing a living space with the Lord. You really should consider building a private Cultivation Chamber to establish your prestige!” Yú Kǎi buttered up his friend with a devious smile.
“You’re just saying that so you can also have your own home someday.” Chéng Yáng rolled his eyes, “A rich kid like you is probably used to living alone, huh?”
“Well, since you brought it up, team leaders should probably also have their own Cultivation Chambers” Yú Kǎi laughed, “Forget it, forget it. With so many people sleeping on the ground there’s no need to rush things.”
Chéng Yáng sighed.
“It will be hard to remedy that in the near future, the wood you found yesterday wasn’t even enough to build a Cultivation Chamber, but less anything else. Thankfully Old Lǐ should have finished filling the remaining Citizen slots during the night. With over two hundred and fifty Players we won’t have to worry about monsters when moving around in Huìmín.”
“Does that mean we’ll get more Clerics?” Liú Hào piped up, “Just one is too few, even just one or two more would be enough. I’m not asking for much.”
“If you want more then work harder at farming monsters.” Chéng Yáng sighed, “Cleric is a Hidden Class so there are a lot of restrictions on the number of people who can become one. The only way to get more is to upgrade the Class Statue, and to do that we need buckets of Soul Fragments.”
The trio chatted for a while, then left the Cultivation Chamber to start the day. As expected, Old Lǐ had faithfully fulfilled his duties and filled every Citizen slot.
The quality of the new soldiers had dropped again compared to the previous group. Not a single person had an S-Rank Innate Ability and the ration of A-Rank and B-Rank Innate Abilities had flipped. That said, not a single C-Rank Innate Ability had appeared. This large batch of Players would likely make up the bulk of Phoenix Village’s elite forces in the future.
Since the quality of Innate Abilities was dropping fast, Chéng Yáng ordered Old Lǐ to spend 400 Soul Fragments each day assessing people’s talent. Although he hadn’t definitively proven his theory that contact with magic halted the decline of an Innate Ability, he was willing to bet a small amount of funds on it. If this venture worked out, there would be one more batch of talented Players in Phoenix Village’s future.
Chéng Yáng spent his time anxiously awaiting the moment when he could be able to level up the Settlement. Every fifteen minutes he would take a break from hunting to go check the Soul Fragment count. Even though he knew it would be slightly more efficient to just spend the entire time farming, he couldn’t help but check it obsessively.
At 6:45 PM, when checked the Settlement’s system pane, there was a new button at the bottom of the Overview tab labelled “Upgrade”. When he saw that, Chéng Yáng’s heart filled with pride. He’d never heard of a group that had upgraded a Settlement to the Standard-Grade Village level in under forty-eight hours. His hard work had payed off, and it felt like he was truly making the most of his regression. After using Divine Grace, he would reach a height that in his previous life he’d only gotten to right before he died, and he would do it far in advance of anyone else.
Chéng Yáng didn’t hesitate to press the button. At that moment a message popped onto his system pane:
〈Congratulations, your Village has been elevated to Standard-Grade.〉 〈Please take the time to review the details of your Settlement.〉
Compared to when Chéng Yáng had claimed the Territory Altar, the theatrics were rather disappointing. There weren’t any bursts of light or automatic construction like back then.
Chéng Yáng immediately checked the updated information.
Phoenix Village
Level: Standard-Grade Village Soul Fragments: 34
Unique Buildings
Knight Class Statue (Standard-Grade) Knights are durable front-line fighters with decent burst damage.
25/50 Registered
Mage Class Statue (Standard-Grade) Mages are all-rounders that excel in protracted battles.
25/50 Registered
Ranger Class Statue (Standard-Grade) Rangers are highly lethal ranged combatants with strong support capabilities.
25/50 Registered
Druid Class Statue (Standard-Grade) Druids are fast and versatile summoners with a wide array of tricks.
25/50 Registered
Cleric Class Statue (Low-Grade) Clerics are divine spell casters with a focus on healing and buffing.
5/5 Registered
Wall Segment (Low-Grade) Ten meter long segment of a kilometer long circular wall centered on the Territory Altar with four gates and a watchtower every fifty meters.
Durability: 1000
Armor: 5
100/100 Built
Available Buildings
Wall Segment (Standard-Grade) Ten meter long segment of a five kilometer long circular wall centered on the Territory Altar with eight gates and a watchtower every fifty meters. Completing the wall will upgrade interior walls to match.
Durability: 2000
Armor: 10
Cost: 2 Wood
0/500 Built
Cultivation Chamber (Low-Grade) A single story building with furnished bedrooms and a central courtyard. The efficacy of Core Skills is increased by 13% when performed inside.
Durability: 500
Armor: 3
Cost: 10 Wood
Occupancy: 5
10 Built
Cultivation Chamber (Standard-Grade) A single story building with furnished bedrooms and a central courtyard. The efficacy of Core Skills is increased by 26% when performed inside. Cost is reduced by 50% when upgrading from a Low-Grade Cultivation Chamber.
Durability: 800
Armor: 5
Cost: 20 Wood
Occupancy: 8
0 Built
Apothecary (Low-Grade) A building with the facilities and supplies needed to brew potions, salves, and other alchemical goods, and learn the Alchemist and Botanist Professions. Has an attached shop that buys and sells potions. Potions up to the Inferior level are sold.
Durability: 800
Armor: 5
Cost: 100 Wood
0/1 Built
Artisanery (Low-Grade) A building with the facilities and supplies needed to carve and process wood, and learn the Woodworker and Logger Professions. Has an attached shop that wooden equipment and arrows. Equipment up to the Green-Bronze level is sold.
Durability: 800
Armor: 5
Cost: 100 Wood
0/1 Built
Boutique (Low-Grade) A building with the facilities and supplies needed to work with leather and cloth, and learn the skills for the Tailor and Tanner Professions. Has an attached shop that buys and sells cloth and leather equipment. Equipment up to the Green-Bronze level is sold.
Durability: 800
Armor: 5
Cost: 100 Wood
0/1 Built
Grocery (Low-Grade) A store where various cheap life necessities can be bought and sold.
Durability: 800
Armor: 5
Cost: 100 Wood
0/1 Built
Silversmithy (Low-Grade) A building with the facilities and supplies needed for the fine manipulation of valuable metals, and learn the Silversmith and Jeweler Professions. Has an attached shop that buys and sells jewelry equipment. Equipment up to the Green-Bronze level is sold.
Durability: 800
Armor: 5
Cost: 100 Wood
0/1 Built
Smithy (Low-Grade) A building with the facilities and supplies needed to forge metal and learn the Blacksmith and Miner Professions. Has an attached shop that buys and sells metal equipment. Equipment up to the Green-Bronze level is sold.
Durability: 800
Armor: 5
Cost: 100 Wood
0/1 Built
Attributes
Lord’s Innate Ability Cultivation Chamber effects increased by 30%
Fast Soldiers Grants an Innate Ability to registered Players that increases Movement Speed by 20%
Upgrade Conditions
400 Registered Players
4 High-Grade Class Statues
Construct the Apothecary, Artisanery, Boutique, Grocery, Silversmithy, and Smithy
10,000 Soul Fragments
After upgrading, Phoenix Village gained access to a large variety of buildings. In addition to upgraded versions of the Wall Segments and Cultivation Chambers, the various stores were now available as well. Unfortunately, he could only look at them, not buy.
Until his subordinates collected enough wood from Huìmín, it would be difficult for him to gather the wood needed for all the new buildings. His only other option would be to buy Wood from the Artisanery in the Xiāngyáng Safe Zone.
The six stores were the main benefit of reaching the Standard-Grade Village level. Their construction marked the beginnings of an economy in the Settlement. The various good they sold would help the Citizens thrive and in the future almost everyone would have a dozen pieces o Green Bronze equipment.
Unfortunately the upgrade conditions for the stores were rather complex and difficult to achieve. Even if his Settlement reached the Pinnacle-Grade Village level there was no guarantee that any of the stores would reach Standard-Grade.
Thus, if you needed equipment with specific stats, or of a higher level, you either needed to try your luck in an Instance Dungeon, or hire a Professional to craft it for you.
Unlike the stores in the Safe Zones, those in a Settlement doubled as workshops where Players could learn Professions. The Attribute bonuses of equipment created by Players could be freely controlled and although it was time-consuming, reaching the level of creating Black Iron equipment wasn’t too difficult. Equipment created by a skilled Player could also exceed the normal limits of its grade. For example, Green Bronze equipment could provide three Attribute points instead of two.
In Chéng Yáng’s last life, anyone capable of crafting Purple Silver equipment was treated like a national treasure. Aside from Lord’s, they didn’t have to hold anyone else in their eyes and everyone would do their best to curry their favor.
That said, it wasn’t easy to raise the level of a Profession. It took an enormous amount of materials, time, and patience. Not everyone was capable of succeeding.
The only other change in the Settlement’s system pane was the addition of a new tab labelled “Management”. Here he could set a tax of up to 5% on all transactions conducted within the Settlement. He could also appoint Managers who had the power to control various aspects of the Settlement.
A Standard-Grade Village had three manager positions: a Player Resources Manager that controlled the Class Statues, Border Security Manager that controlled the wall and gates, and a Municipal Planning Manager that controlled any other buildings. Each one could be granted a wage of up to 100 Soul Fragments a day that were drawn from the Settlement’s reserves.
Upgrading the Settlement to the High-Grade Village level wouldn’t be easy. The Soul Fragments needed far exceeded everything that he had gathered over the last two days, not even to mention that there was a severe Wood shortage. Regardless, Chéng Yáng was very satisfied with the current Phoenix Village.
As usual, Chéng Yáng woke up bright and early. Since the Blood Soaked Cathedral had already been cleared today, he directly woke up his team leaders and the rest of the sleeping Players.
“Today we’re going to continue rescuing people from Huìmín. To expedite the process, half of us will continuously patrol the stretch of land between Huìmín and the Settlement. This way, normal people can travel between the two unaccompanied. The people on patrol will also need to bring in any edible monster corpses for the normal people to butcher. A good rule of thumb is that if it walks on two legs its no good. Only bring back things that walk on all fours.” Chéng Yáng explained, “Our secondary goal is to collect food, equipment, and wood. The wood is especially important since we’ll need it to build things.”
The Players easily agreed. The new Players were happy to contribute to saving the lives of their fellow Huìmín residents, and the old Players were fine so long as they could gather Soul Fragments and increase their strength. After they left, Chéng Yáng pulled Lǐ Wànshān aside.
“Old Lǐ, I have a special task for you. I’m hoping you can talk to some of the normal people and convince them to transport goods between the Settlement and the edge of Huìmín. This will allow the Players to focus on finding things in the ruin and dealing with monsters. Tell anyone that volunteers that they’d be next in line after the people we chose yesterday.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
As the Lord of Phoenix Village, Chéng Yáng left those troublesome matters to his subordinates. This allowed him to spend his time solo farming in other areas until the last round of Research on the Class Statues finished.
He didn’t have a mechanical watch, so by the time he had returned, the Research had already been completed. When he checked the corresponding tab in the Territory Altar system pane, there were a few changes.
Mage Research Subjects
Phoenix Village Standard-Grade 20/50 Registered
Research
Mana Compressing Techniques With enough training, its possible for a Mage to compress Mana, allowing them to fit more into the Mana nodes they already have.
Cost: 100
Time: 8 hours
80% Mana increase for registered Mages
Advanced Mana Purification Techniques A continuation on previous techniques. These advanced techniques allow further purification.
Cost: 100
Time: 8 hours
80% Ability Power increase for registered Mages
Ironskin Tattoos By expanding on already inscribed Stoneskin tattoos, their power can be increased without sacrificing their current expenditure efficacy.
Cost 100
Time: 8 hours
80% Attack Resistance increase for registered Mages
Advanced Mental State Training When a Mage experiences the power of a high level existence, they can later borrow it through visualization. This new barrier is stronger than one created using willpower alone.
Cost: 100
Time: 8 hours
80% Magic Resistance increase for registered Mages
Mana Circuit Tributaries Small amounts of Mana are stored in a person’s flesh. If additional Mana circuits can be carved into those area and fed into your main Mana circuits, the flow will increase.
Cost: 100
Time: 8 hours
80% Attack Speed increase for registered Mages
Organ Reinforcement By wrapping your internal organs in a thin layer of Mana they become capable of handling even highly accelerated speeds, removing the natural limits we usually impose on ourselves.
Cost: 100
Time: 8 hours
80% Movement Speed increase for registered Mages
The other Class Statues underwent similar changes.
Since there were slots for new Players, Chéng Yáng grabbed twenty of the previously chosen people and performed their Transcendence Ceremonies. Most of those present had already had their talent appraised, so it was rather cheap.
Since he was saving for the level up fees for the Settlement, Chéng Yáng only allowed the bare minimum number of people to become Players. There would be time after the Settlement leveled up to fill the rest of the open slots.
Chéng Yáng spent an hour training the new recruits, then sent them to participate in the ongoing operation in Huìmín.
Now, all he had to do was wait. By his estimates, at the latest it would be 7:30 PM when the necessary funds were gathered but it was likely to be a few hours earlier. Now that they had cleared all of the nearby herds, he could only rely on the natural spawn rate.
Xiāngyáng was in absolute chaos.
Since early that morning there’d been non-stop gunfire throughout the city. This was the sound of the Xiāngyáng Garrison of the People’s Liberation Army closing in on the Safe Zone.
The military had actually recovered mere hours after the earthquake. Although the apocalypse had affected them as well, they had access to high munition weaponry that could completely shred your average monster. A police issue pistol would take a few seconds to kill a monster, but an automatic rifle could kill one instantly, and, unlike the police, their arms and munitions were stored in warehouses, not high-rise buildings. Thus, even after the warehouses collapsed, it was easy for them to access their equipment.
They hadn’t acted immediately due to a disagreement between the military executives. Many believed that they should immediately rush to Xiāngyáng to stabilize the situation but it was treason for the garrison commander to unilaterally impose martial law thus there was a deadlock for some time.
The tipping point was when the engineer corp declared that the damage done to electronic equipment was irreversible. This meant there was no way to receive the go ahead from someone higher up the chain of command. Faced with the choice of treason or the deaths of the civilians in Xiāngyáng, the garrison commander, Yuán Jiànzé, chose treason. He could beg for leniency later, but there was no way to bring the citizens of Xiāngyáng back to life.
That was yesterday afternoon. Computers, cars, and radios weren’t the only equipment they lost to the apocalypse. Almost all modern weapons, even some guns relied on electricity to function. The only things they could use were traditional firing pin weaponry.
The irony of the situation is that the garrison had just gotten updated tanks the year before, replacing their analogue tanks with newer digital versions. At the time they’d been ecstatic to replace the clunky old tanks, but now that the new ones were useless lumps of metal, they could only yearn for the glory of an analogue war machine.
Without vehicles of advanced weaponry it had taken them until this morning to fight their way over from the garrison. As they moved they needed to station soldiers to watch over their supply lines and kill any monsters that spawned, further slowing them.
When they finally arrived in the suburbs of Xiāngyáng, they were able to see the full scale of the disaster. Similar to Huìmín, the ground was littered with half eaten bones, dried blood, and rotting gizzard.
A rich smell of carrion had begun to permeate the city, and if it weren’t for the fact that Players were immune to normal diseases, humanity may have been doomed to die from plague.
At this point, the military began to lose hope. With the destruction so widespread, what could they accomplish? Moreover, there weren’t that many people in the garrison, a little under twenty thousand even accounting for civilian staff. It would be far from enough to cover the entire city, much less secure it.
It was only after they started finding civilians that they regained hope. As they marched through the streets, the civilians hiding in the ruins would rush out to them crying with joy. It was from these civilians that the military learned about the Safe Zone, and how monsters couldn’t get in.
This gave them a goal to work towards. If they could break through the monsters surrounding the Safe Zone, they would be able to resolve the problem of where to put civilians that would keep them safe.
With this goal in mind, the military adopted a new strategy. Instead of running supply lines back to their garrison base, they began to transport the supplied into the city. This would allow them to preserve their power and resolve any logistics issues in the coming war. Like an inchworm, they would clear new areas, then move their supplies forwards. Kilometer by kilometer they inched towards the Safe Zone.
As time passed the crowd surrounding the military grew and inevitably some people tried to cause trouble for the soldiers. It was then that the citizens of Xiāngyáng learned what it meant to be under martial law. Most people were lightly beaten then sent on their way. Anyone that went to far and dared to attack a soldier was executed on the spot. Yuán Jiànzé had no quibbles with using force to maintain public order. So many people had already died, what was a a few more? If they couldn’t break through to the Safe Zone everyone would die. This was simple pragmatism.
The military reached the Safe Zone late that afternoon. Rather than immediately engage the enemy, they chose to set up a defensive line. It would get dark soon and without floodlights it would be too dangerous to engage in large scale warfare.
Since they had time, they sent a group to rendezvous with the Xiāngyáng police force and draft them. If they wanted to win tomorrow, they needed more manpower. The police were the obvious option since they had proven their moral character and had comprehensive weapons training.
As the sky darkened, the military prepared for a long time. There were too many of them to hide underground, so they were forced to endure attack from monsters the entire time, often while not being able to see them before they had already killed someone.
Tomorrow would be a new dawn, but the night would be long.
The day passed quickly for the Citizens of Phoenix Village. In total, they had rescued another eight hundred people from the ruins Huìmín. After tripling the personnel involved, the operation became routine. They no longer had to fear monsters or waste time escorting normal people back. This allowed them to push closer and closer to the city center where more people lived.
They were also able to procure a large number of supplies. In addition to simple cooking tools, they obtained large amounts of food, which was transported back to Phoenix Village by some of the braver civilians. Anything with a long shelf was confiscated and locked away in a Cultivation Chamber. Food shortages would be frequent so it was important to ration anything that could last a while. As for perishables that had survived until now, they were directly distributed to the civilians in the Settlement.
As a result, the atmosphere in Phoenix Village was quite cheerful. Although the civilians didn’t have any privacy, or anything to do, they had full stomachs and nothing to worry about. It was quite easy for them to lie in the sun and pretend like the world hadn’t ended.
Unfortunately very little Wood was collected, a few units at most. Unless they found a wood processing plant like Lǐ Wànshān’s lumber mill, they were unlikely to make significant progress anytime soon.
It would be at least another day until mega-herds with hundreds of monsters would begin to form. Thus, even if they traveled more than a kilometer past the Settlement walls, it wouldn’t be too dangerous for the Citizens of Phoenix Village.
While this Soul Fragment gold mine still existed, it was vital that Chéng Yáng fully excavate it. He brought the new Players out beyond the walls for live combat training, and a few hours later, left them alone under the command of Zhào Chuān.
He planned to use the Soul Fragments his Citizens earned to first fill the remaining slots on each Class Statue. Then, to procure the funds needed to finish the last two rounds of Research. It would take a lot of work, but it was just barely possible.
At around 5:30 PM, Chéng Yáng walked up to Lǐ Wànshān to let him know it was his turn to allow some of his chosen to become Players. The other three team leaders had already gone, leaving only a single Cleric slot left open. Since that was the case, all Lǐ Wànshān had to do was find someone with the talent to become a Mage and have them become a Cleric.
Despite having been dismissed, Lǐ Wànshān hadn’t left. He seemed conflicted, as if he wanted to say something.
“What is it?” Chéng Yáng asked.
“Boss, do you want me to take care of that Hú Jūn fellow? He used to be the mayor and he’s clearly displayed his hostility. If we’re not careful he might stab us in the back.” Lǐ Wànshān voiced his doubts.
Chéng Yáng chuckled.
“So you heard about his outburst? Don’t worry about that Old Lǐ. If he had any chance of posing a real threat to us I would have killed him. I’m not so soft-hearted as to spare someone who wants me dead. Besides, a moron like that can make a useful example. Hú Jūn will remain a normal person for the rest of his life. When the other normal people realize these are my intentions, they’ll stay in line.”
“How thoughtful. As long as he’s always miserable, no one will be willing to come into direct conflict with us.”
“Indeed. Keep an eye on the people Hú Jūn interacts with. He should have some connections among the other normal people, including his brother Hú Yáng. Anyone seen interacting with him will also be barred from becoming a Player until they stop. Let’s see how long they let him drag them down.”
“Yes, boss!” Lǐ Wànshān responded crisply.
“Old Lǐ, you don’t need to call me boss. It sounds really weird coming from you.”
“That just won’t do. Let me tell you as a business owner, without a clear delineation between boss and employee, no one will respect you. If you want the Settlement to be run efficiently, little details like this matter. If you don’t like the title boss, we can use something else. Since Phoenix Village is more like a town than a company, what about mayor?”
The word mayor made Chéng Yáng think about Hú Jūn and he grimaced. Now that he thought about it, it was pretty common for Lords in his previous life to use ostentatious titles. Ancient titles like king, emperor, sultan, and caliph came back into vogue. Since that was the case, it wasn’t strange for him to do so as well.
“You’re right. I do need a title.” Chéng Yáng said after some contemplation. “In my system pane, my title is Phoenix Village Lord, so we’ll go with that.”
Yes, my Lord.” Lǐ Wànshān replied. He didn’t care about the actual title used. He was just happy that Chéng Yáng had listened to and accepted his advice. It meant that Chéng Yáng held some respect for him and his views.
“Old Lǐ, my friends and I are young and haven’t experienced much of the world. I foresaw much about the apocalypse, but I have blind spots when it comes to interpersonal relationships. I hope that in the future I can continue to rely on you to supplement me in that regard.”
“Thank you, my Lord, you can count on me.”
Chéng Yáng sighed after Lǐ Wànshān walked away. He must have died in the first few days or even hours of the apocalypse in his previous life. Otherwise with his Innate Ability and adaptable personality he would have occupied a position of important in one of the Settlements surrounding Xiāngyáng.
The Class Statues completed the fourth round of Research at 8:00 PM that night. Unfortunately, despite his efforts, Chéng Yáng hadn’t been able to gather the funds needed to have each of their start their fifth round of Research on time. It wasn’t until an hour and a half later, at 9:30 PM, that the last Class Statue started the fifth round of Research.
Another complication was that the collection rate for Soul Fragments was going down. So, at midnight, when the Blood Soaked Cathedral refreshed, he planned to have the group he’d brought with him the first time clear it on their own.
The two biggest obstacles for clearing the Instance Dungeon were the mini-bosses and the boss. Previously, without Chéng Yáng present, both were insurmountable. Now that Phoenix Village had a batch of Clerics, the first obstacle was meaningless. Even if the Warriors took a large amount of damage, they wouldn’t have to worry about dying to the self-detonation of a Mephit if a Cleric was constantly healing them.
For the other obstacle, there were two reasons Chéng Yáng believed that someone other than him could pull off the strategy to cheese the boss to death. The first was that he’d obtained some high quality ear plugs from the ruins in Huìmín. With them, you could completely block out the roar of a Low-Grade Greater Mephit. The second was that four rounds of Research had been completed, buffing the Attributes of the Citizens of Phoenix Village significantly. Now, so long as the person responsible for dealing with the boss wasn’t a Mage, there was no way for the boss to kill them before they were able to climb the tree.
Despite these reassurances, Chéng Yáng still chose to let the two remaining runs for the day go to waste. The strategies to beat the Instance Dungeon were simple, but Chéng Yáng was worried that if he sent in people who’d never run the dungeon before they would make a fatal mistake at the last moment. He only trusted Yú Kǎi and Niú Bīng, who knew the layout of the cathedral and the location of the organ to attempt the strategy to cheese the boss.
Chéng Yáng split the four people who had cleared the Instance Dungeon with him that morning into two teams; the first team paired Yú Kǎi with Lǐ Wànshān and the second paired Niú Bīng with Liú Hào. He then filled out the rest of the team such that each had two Knights, a Druid, a Ranger, and a Cleric.
Naturally, the Cleric on Niú Bīng’s team was Páng Shān. Then, to make the number of S-Ranks on each team equal, Chéng Yáng had Zhào Chuān join Yú Kǎi’s group. With these line-ups, it was almost impossible for them to fail.
Chéng Yáng drilled the necessary strategies into their minds, then sent them into the Instance Dungeon. With this, two of the three runs for the day were accounted for.
As for the last run, Chéng Yáng would clear it on his own. With his strength there was almost no danger in doing so, and it allowed him to monopolize the Soul Fragments and equipment that dropped.
By relying on his high Movement Speed, Chéng Yáng kited the Lesser Mephits in the courtyard. Whenever he needed to Meditate and replenish his Mana he would climb onto the roof of a cloister.
Forty minutes after entering, Chéng Yáng had successfully completed the Instance Dungeon. The other two teams had been a bit faster than him and were already outside waiting for him.
Chéng Yáng’s first reaction upon seeing them was relief; nobody had died! The second was jealously. Between the two groups they had five new pieces of Black Iron equipment and four new pieces of Green Bronze equipment!
On average, clearing the Normal Difficulty of the Blood Soaked Cathedral provided three pieces of Green Bronze equipment and one piece of Black Iron equipment. At minimum you were guaranteed two pieces of equipment, one from the boss and one from the end chest. The boss had a 40% chance of dropping Black Iron equipment and the end chest had a 75% chance of doing so. The chance of not getting at least one piece of Black Iron equipment was pretty low.
As such, Chéng Yáng had expected to make quite the profit by completing a run on his own, but only two pieces of Green Bronze equipment had dropped! None of the mini-bosses had dropped anything, and both of his guaranteed drops had been Green Bronze equipment! Moreover, one of them was a Cloak so he couldn’t even use it. In the end, all he got was a Hat that gave him twenty Mana. It was better than nothing but compared to the others it was too pathetic.
Chéng Yáng could only curse his bad luck. He passed off the Cloak to Zhào Chuān and funnel his anger into farming more monsters.
This time, Chéng Yáng was able to collect enough Soul Fragments to start the final round of Research for each Class Statue right as they finished the previous ones. The monsters in the surrounding area had almost bee completely exterminated, but it had been enough.
Tomorrow morning, when their final Research was complete, the Class Statues would level up to the Standard-Grade. This would increase the number of Citizens that could register with each one, allowing the Settlement to fulfill that upgrade condition. Once it did, the only thing left would be to collect a thousand Soul Fragments and level up the Settlement!
Unfortunately, Chéng Yáng was already scraping the bottom of the barrel when it came to Soul Fragments. Unless he was willing to risk the safety of his Citizens by provoking a large herd, there was no way to quickly raise the funds he needed. Since leveling up the village a couple hours early wouldn’t provide any particular benefit, Chéng Yáng wasn’t willing to endanger his Citizens. Especially since their Innate Abilities were all top quality!
The Settlement wasn’t the only thing growing at an astounding rate, Chéng Yáng was too! His large Mana pool meant he spent less time resting, and more time fighting. Since he was strong enough and nothing particularly strong had spawned yet, he had also done his farming solo to maximize his gains. As a result, he managed to level up his Magic Missile skill! This had taken him two weeks in his previous life, but in this one it took him less than two days.
Magic Missile (Standard-Grade) Gather Mana into a rapidly rotating, condensed sphere, then fire it.
Damage: 24.6
Cost: 6 Mana
Range: 30 m
Cooldown: 2.95 sec
Proficiency: 0%
You couldn’t tell when just looking at the description, but the damage ratio had changed. Chéng Yáng only had 20.5 Ability Power, but his Skill did 24.6 damage, meaning it did 120% of his Ability Power instead of the 100% that it did at the Low-Grade level!
Upgrading his Skill wasn’t the only benefit Chéng Yáng gained from these past few hours. Of the nearly three thousands six hundred Soul Fragments raised, Chéng Yáng accounted for nearly thirty percent! Just from that, he had 1,162 Soul Fragments! Enough to unlock eight times training speed even if he couldn’t actually use it.
But that wasn’t all. One of the conditions Chéng Yáng had imposed on the people he had allowed to become Players today was that they needed to pay back the money needed to appraise their talents and perform their Transcendence Ceremonies. In total, they owed 1,420 Soul Fragments. A Low-Grade Village couldn’t collect debt because there was no way to accept donations. There also weren’t any stores or services to ban someone from until the debt was paid. Since that was the case, it was better for Chéng Yáng to embezzle the funds for himself!
Once he counted the Soul Fragments the new Players had paid him, Chéng Yáng had over two thousand Soul Fragments! Enough to support his use of eight times training speed for a few days.
During his cultivation session, Chéng Yáng burned more than three hundred Soul Fragments to supplement his training, filling his experience bar up to the 10.24% mark. Although it was common for the leaders of large factions to consume that many or more every day in his previous life, it was unprecedented to do so this early into the apocalypse!
Chéng Yáng’s team leaders were also able to make significant progress in their cultivation. When they cleared the Instance Dungeon they each gained twenty Soul Fragments. Combined with the surplus of Soul Fragments gained during their fanatic farming session, each of them had unlocked four times cultivation speed without even having to pool their resources.
Some of the Mages and Rangers among the old Players had also managed to unlock four times cultivation speed for an hour or two. Compared to Warriors and Druids who spent most of their time entangled with a single opponent, ranged Classes could farm more efficiently.
The new Players, on the other hand, had unlocked two times cultivation speed at best and some of them had struggled to do even that. Part of the problem was that they had to pay back part of their harvest to Chéng Yáng, however, the primary reason was that they were simply far less efficient than the old Players when it came to farming monsters since they weren’t used to their abilities left.
The people Lǐ Wànshān and the others selected were instructed to wait in the Cultivation Chambers, while the current Citizens of Phoenix Village power farmed monsters. Since they were earmarked to become Players, they were granted a certain level of comfort above the other ordinary people and were allowed to bring their families or friends with them to get out of the sun.
“You fucking bastard! You class traitor!” An angry voiced echoed throughout the Settlement as Hú Jūn stormed out of one of the Cultivation Chambers the chosen civilians had entered.
When Chéng Yáng had made him “disappear” earlier, he had actually teleported him inside one of the Cultivation Chambers and locked him inside until one of the chosen civilians had accidentally let him out. Lords had a remarkable amount of power inside their Settlement, especially over normal people; he could teleport an ordinary person anywhere inside the Settlement’s range of influence. To psychological increase the impact when he used this power earlier, Chéng Yáng had added some theatrics, but in reality, he could do so as long as he willed it.
Chéng Yáng sighed. He’d completely forgotten about this troublesome person.
“You were being incredibly rude while I was trying to work so I had you go somewhere else for a bit. I’m sorry if it was a bit sudden, but your behavior was too excessive.” Chéng Yáng tried to brush Hú Jūn off with an apology, “If you have a problem with how I run things, or feel that I’m too much of a tyrant, you are free to leave the village and return to Huìmín.”
“Leave? Why should I be the one to leave?” Hú Jūn shouted at Chéng Yáng, drawing a crowd, “This place is located within the city limits of Huìmín, and as the mayor of Huìmín, it is legally under my jurisdiction. So, I think that actually you, are the one who should leave!”
Chéng Yáng whipped around to look at Hú Jūn in awe. Could such a moron truly exist in this world? Where did his confidence come from? Even after personally experiencing Chéng Yáng’s authority as a Lord he’d still come over to raise a fuss instead of cowering. Moreover, Chéng Yáng had even apologized to soothe the man’s ego, and yet he still wanted to start a fight.
“You son of a bitch!” Zhào Chuān, who had been chosen by Chéng Yáng and was standing nearby, couldn’t control his anger when he heard Hú Jūn’s bullshit, “Who was it that rescued you from the ruins this morning? Who was it that rescued your family this afternoon? Who was it that provided the food you’ve eaten today fed you two meals today? Mayor? Do you really think that title hold any power anymore? How can such an ungrateful person exist? Shameful!”
“Ha! Don’t think that little act of righteous anger will work on the army when they arrive! They’ll see right through your charade and punish you for the vicious acts you’ve committed again me and the citizens of Huìmín!”
Chéng Yáng snorted.
“How about I toss you outside the walls this time? I don’t know when the army will get here, but unless its within the next ten minutes you’ll be nothing but bones when they do.”
“You, you, you, you… you’re a murderer! A criminal!” Hú Jūn’s turned to face the crowd that had gathered, “Do you see this? These are his true colors! Will you continue to be blinded by his empty promises? Rise up! We outnumber then five to one! So long as we detain them we need not live under his tyranny.”
Despite Hú Jūn’s provocation, the crowd stayed silent. Although Hú Jūn didn’t know the meaning of fear, how could the others not realize that open rebellion meant death? Even if they thought Chéng Yáng was out of line by trying to institute his rule over them, it wasn’t like he’d treated them badly.
“It doesn’t look like your words resonated with the crowd, Mr. Mayor.” Chéng Yáng said with a chuckle. “It seems like they saw through your ambition to control this Settlement yourself. You should learn not to be so greedy, or at least how to be more subtle about it”
Chéng Yáng gave Hú Jūn an opportunity to reply, but having seen that the crowd wasn’t with him, he stayed silent and stewed in his anger.
“Enough people have died from the calamity. Another death, even of a petulant man like you, would just add to the tragedy. Take some time to reflect on yourself before dinner, and remember, if you still refuse to participate, you’ll be going to bed hungry.”
Hú Jūn’s face twisted in fury, but he didn’t reply. He’d overestimated the influence his previous position would have over the survivors from Huìmín. Although he’d been fairly powerful, he’d never been particularly popular and raving like a drunken bum had destroyed his image in the hearts of the public.
Despite Chéng Yáng’s admonition, he still felt like the righteous one in this situation. Since the public hadn’t sided with him, Chéng Yáng must have intimidated or bribed them while he’d be locked inside that Cultivation Chamber.
He swore to himself that he would repay this humiliation ten-fold! When the army arrived he would testify and have Chéng Yáng executed for treason! Then, as the former mayor, wouldn’t he naturally be given the authority Chéng Yáng now held? With a grunt, Hú Jūn pushed his way through the crowd and walked off.
As the crowd that had formed to watch the drama dispersed, Chéng Yáng assessed the aptitude of the people he chose and performed their Transcendence Ceremonies. Although this would unbalance the Class ration on the other teams, it would only be until tomorrow when he was able to level up the Class Statues.
In total, Chéng Yáng’s team now had five Knights, five Mages, six Rangers, three Druids, and a Cleric. Three Players had B-Rank Innate Abilities and the others had A-Rank Innate Abilities, except for one. Zhào Chuān, who had stood up to Hú Jūn earlier, had a special Innate Ability that was on par with or better than an S-Rank Innate Ability!
Zhào Chuān
Phoenix Village Citizen Class: Druid Level: Low-Grade Apprentice (0%)
Age
31
Life Span
150
Health
20
Mana
80
Attack Damage
5.85
Ability Power
13
Attack Resistance
2
Magic Resistance
2
Attack Speed
2
Movement Speed
2.2
Innate Abilities
Attack Damage is increased by 30%
Movement speed is increased by 10%
Natural Predator: All monsters within 100 meters of summoned creatures have their Attributes reduced by 10%
Skills
Spirit Communion (Core Skill) Lie on your back and commune with spirits to recover and advance
Summon Wolf (Low-Grade) Summons an obedient wolf with base attributes equal to the summoner.
Duration: 10 min
Cost: 10 Mana
Cast Time: 14.75 sec
Cooldown: 44.26 sec
Proficiency: 0%
Equipment
Wooden Staff (One Handed) A solid wood staff, well suited to hitting things.
Damage: 5.85
Cooldown: 1.45 sec
Range: 1 m
Starter Gear
Chéng Yáng had been shocked when he saw Zhào Chuān’s system pane. His understanding was that there were three types of Innate Abilities: normal Innate Abilities that enhanced a person’s Attributes, special Innate Abilities that enhanced a Hidden Attribute, Lord Innate Abilities that enhanced Settlements, and Manager Innate Abilities that enhanced Settlements when they were placed in the corresponding management position. Zhào Chuān’s Innate Ability completely defied these conventions and provided him with an always active Passive Skill. An incredibly overpowered one at that!
Since Zhào Chuān had an Innate Ability like this, naturally there must have been people with similar abilities in his previous life. If Chéng Yáng had to guess, these people had been kept as the hidden trump cards of various organizations. Considering how powerful the Innate Ability Zhào Chuān had, Chéng Yáng was inclined to do the same.
Although ten percent didn’t mean much when facing a single Low-Grade Immature monster, if Phoenix Village were besieged by monsters, it could sap away hundreds of Attribute points. Moreover, he could have multiple summons active at the same time! If the effects stacked it would quickly become overbearing; five active summons meant a combined sixty percent Attribute reduction.
Chéng Yáng immediately began to clear an area in the northern part of Phoenix Village where he could quickly impart the knowledge the new Players needed and have them practice their Skills. The sooner he took them out hunting, the sooner he could fill the remaining Citizen slots, and collect the Soul Fragments he needed to level up the Class Statues.
As the new Players got used to their new abilities, a psychological gap between them and the other survivors from Huìmín became to form. Although they had seen the old Players in action, it was only now that they truly understood just how different they were from ordinary people.
Once he was confident they had the basics down, Chéng Yáng left them to practice by themselves for a while and walked back to the Territory Altar to create another ten Cultivation Chambers using nearly all of the remaining Wood. Without sufficient Cultivation Chambers, the growth of the new Players would be stifled. It was painful to use what little Wood he had left, but it needed to be done.
After upgrading the Settlement, if Chéng Yáng wanted to build any of the new buildings he’d have to gather scrap wood from the surrounding area. How much they would find was entirely up to luck and there were no shortcuts.
“Open threat.” Niú Bīng replied. “I’m glad that you have that kind of trump card.”
Liú Hào and Yú Kǎi nodded in agreement. Despite hearing that Chéng Yáng could strip their status as a Player, all they felt was relief. Not one of them believed that he might use that power on them.
“Open threat it is.” Chéng Yáng nodded, “After we create the teams, try to get to know everyone and listen to their issues. We’ve got the plans in place to entice them to stay for benefits, but it costs us nothing if they want to stay because they like the people here. They’ll also fight hard to protect you and each other if they care about you. Also, try to dethrone the reputation of the military in their mind. Don’t push the idea to hard, but if they still hold delusions that the military is the only real authority it will cause problems for us in the future.”
“Rest assured, we’ll make sure to follow your plans.” Yú Kǎi said, “I doubt anyone would believe that the military can return the world to normal after seeing the things they have. It shouldn’t take too much pushing to show them that strength as Players in the only authority in this world.”
“Good.” Chéng Yáng nodded, “Although being likeable can help you lead people, there’s only one thing that will make everyone respect you: strength. As a Player, you only have two options to increase your strength above the others in the Settlement: cultivation, and gathering equipment. Using the second method will generate more envy than respect, so the only option is to cultivate. Two times cultivation speed might make you above average compared to those in a Safe Zone, but who wasn’t able to use two times cultivation speed yesterday? In order to truly surpass the others, you need to unlock four times cultivation speed. This means maintaining a surplus of a hundred Soul Fragments, and absorbing thirty to forty each day.”
“Easier said that done.” Liú Hào derisively snorted, “That’s easier said than done Yoko. Experience Fragments are just too hard to get. Each monster only gives one and if too many people participate you may not get one at all. I spent the entire day patrolling the wall and killing monsters but didn’t even get fifty Experience Fragments and that was using ranged attacks to kill a monster on my own! I don’t think it will be a problem getting enough to use two times training speed but getting that many Experience Fragments every day is just too hard!”
“Then what about if you only had to save up twenty-five each? It’s possible to give your Soul Fragments to another person, so if you save up, it shouldn’t be difficult to save a hundred Soul Fragments between the three of you and Old Lǐ. You just have to make sure to cultivate at different times. This can also be considered something of a test for Old Lǐ. If he refuses to give back the Soul Fragments once he gets them, we can pick someone else to be a team leader and threaten to kick him out of the Settlement to get them back.”
Liú Hào and the others nodded with understanding. It would indeed be simple to gather the necessary Soul Fragments if they split the work.
Once they had finished, Chéng Yáng brought his friends out to put the plan into motion. He would have preferred to take some time to hang out like they usually did, but time was short and the apocalypse waited for no man.
The citizens of Huìmín were sitting in clustered groups. They emanated an aura of anxiety and fear, but this was already better than the despair they had felt earlier.
Chéng Yáng walked over to the Territory Altar and climbed on top, and fired a Magic Missile into the air to draw their attention.
“Attention, everyone.” He shouted, “I have an announcement to make.”
Before he could say another word, the crowd rushed towards him and bombarded him with questions.
“What happened to the world?” “How did you get your powers?” “A you sure we’re safe?” “What is this place?” “Who are you?”
Chéng Yáng stayed silent and waited for the crowd to realize that he wasn’t going to answer them.
“Let me answer your questions, with another question.” Chéng Yáng began, “Do you want to live?”
There was some scattered affirmation, but the crowd had mostly stayed silent.
“I said: Do. You. Want. To. Live!?”
“Yes!” This time the cry was resounding as hundreds of people voiced their desires.
“Good! Since you want to live, listen carefully to what I have to say. Do you remember that pork you ate? It didn’t appear out of thin air. My companions had to risk their lives to kill vicious monsters in order for you to fill your bellies. ‘He who does not work, neither does he eat.’ I’m sure you’ve all heard this quote before.
“How can you expect us to fight monsters? We’re not powerful like you are.” A voice shouted from the crowd. Soon after dozens of others joined in.
“I will not force you to fight monsters.” Chéng Yáng said once the crowd had calmed down. “But that is not the only thing that needs to be done around here. Monsters need to be butchered. Food needs to be cooked. With so many people this area will need frequent cleaning. Anyone who does not contribute towards will not be welcome in the Settlement.”
“So we would be your slaves?!” An angry voice burst out as a man forced himself to the front of the crowd. “Just because you’re powerful you think that we must serve you?!”
Chéng Yáng looked down and saw Hú Jūn. The arrogant man from earlier was making a fuss again. Before he could agitate the crowd further, Chéng Yáng quickly cried out.
“You too can be powerful like me!” Chéng Yáng quickly cried out before the crowd was agitated by Hú Jūn’s words. “I plan to share this power with those who are willing to fight against the monsters to protect everyone else. However, I will only share it with those who are willing to follow my orders.”
“Why should we have to follow you to get power? Why should you get to decide how others live? Everything belongs to the state, this place included!” Hú Jūn had climbed up onto the Territory Altar with Chéng Yáng.
“That’s true, but who here can represent the state?” Chéng Yáng asked, making sure his voice reached everyone in the crowd. “Since the state is not here, whats more important: the state, or its people? I am committed to saving its people, and making sure that all of you survive this disaster. However, this Settlement belongs to me, so until the state is here to instruct me, I have the right to use it how I please.”
Chéng Yáng suppressed a sneer. When the state arrives? How many years in the future would that be? Outside of Běijīng, the state had ceased to exist.
Hú Jūn jabbed his finger and opened his mouth to retort, but Chéng Yáng simply waved his hand at him, as if he were wiping away a stain. Then, in front of the everyone, Hú Jūn vanished.
The crowd became deathly silent when they remembered that the person in front of them wasn’t an ordinary youth. He was someone that could easily kill a monster, someone that had transcended the limits of humanity.
Chéng Yáng watched their reactions with a satisfied smile. He’d never expected the crowd to accept having to submit to him, so it was necessary to do some non-lethal intimidation. Once the stick was visible, they would consider taking the carrot. It wouldn’t be long before they realized just how terrible this new world was. When they did, they would be happy to obey his every command.
“Now then. Who here wants to become a super human? I don’t have the ability to provide this privilege to everyone, but for now, a hundred people will be selected. If you are unwilling to submit to me and follow my instructions, you can leave now. Even if you aren’t chosen today, there will be more opportunities in the future.”
The vast majority of people stayed put and only a small number made a point of leaving. After all, there was no harm in staying to see what happened.
As Old Lee watched the scene from the edge of the crowd, he couldn’t help but feel grateful that he’d met Chéng Yáng when he had. He and his employees already had the power they needed to survive in this world, but if they hadn’t come here to make a delivery, they might have already died.
He also developed a faint sense of superiority over the people present. Not only was he a Player, but he was one of the original Players in the Settlement. It wasn’t just him that felt this way, his employees did too. Without them consciously realizing it, they had tied their fate to Phoenix Village’s.
While he was thinking, Lǐ Wànshān heard a voice.
“Old Lǐ, you too, come over here.”
Chéng Yáng had brought his three friends over to the Territory Altar and was waving him over as well. Although he was confused, Lǐ Wànshān walked over to Chéng Yáng’s side.
“Old Lǐ, since we’re expanding our forces, I’m going to divide us into five teams. Me and my friends will each lead one, and I want you to lead one as well.” Chéng Yáng then switched to address his friends as well. ” Each of us will pick twenty people from the crowd that will join our teams. We’ll also split the people who are already Players between ourselves. We can’t make everyone we pick a Player right now, but you may need extras if too many people have the same aptitude.”
Lǐ Wànshān felt his heart skip a beat. If he led one of the teams, wouldn’t he become an important figure in the Settlement in the future? He wasn’t interested in power, the only thing on his mind was saving his family, but he couldn’t help but feel that it was still a good thing. After all, once his family was saved, having a strong position in the Settlement meant he could provide them with a good life. He would also have some amount of influence over Chéng Yáng. At the very least, if he had something to say, Chéng Yáng would have to listen.
Chéng Yáng gave himself first pick of the citizens of Huìmín. Since there was no way to check someone’s Innate Ability before they became a Player, there wasn’t any real advantage to picking first, but it was a mark of prestige to do so.
When a person became a Player, any underlying conditions they had would be cured. Even the elderly were filled with renewed vigor. Since that was the case, the only real factor when selecting a candidate was their mindset. Chéng Yáng picked out twenty people that had left an impression on him during the day, most of whom were people that had been willing to risk their life for food, or that had survived under horrible conditions that proved their tenacity.
Once Chéng Yáng had made his selection, the other four made theirs. When the last slot had been filled, the crowd let out a sigh. Although they weren’t totally sure what Chéng Yáng intended to do, they knew that they had missed out on an important opportunity.
XMTL 