2. Free Data

“Can I ask what ‘free data’ is?” Su You was sure the other party could hear her, though she didn’t hold out much hope for an answer.

Still, even if she didn’t get a reply, she already had a vague sense of what the answer might be—whatever free data was, becoming free data definitely wasn’t a good thing.

She waited a few seconds with no response. Just as Su You was about to give up, the window she’d previously closed popped up again, this time displaying an answer to her question.

Unlike the previous window, which required her to close it manually, this one disappeared in less than three seconds. Fortunately, Su You managed to read the contents in time.

[Free data is a type of data that increases the load on the digitized world. If too much accumulates, it can cause the digitized world to collapse. The execution system regularly cleans up free data to maintain the stability of the digitized world.]

In short: if you become free data, the execution system will erase you.

To put it mildly, it’s called “cleaning up free data.” In plain terms, it means being wiped out.

Maybe it was because the execution system had already said that passivity equaled death, so Su You wasn’t especially surprised.

She didn’t know how it worked for others, but if a Lord player didn’t establish their territory for a long time, that was definitely considered passive gameplay.

The only problem was… the time limit was rather tight.

Although the first window hadn’t specified exactly how much time she had, the countdown on the back of the Lord’s Token, along with the phrase “the Lord’s Token is a necessary item to establish a territory,” made it clear to Su You: she had only three days.

But in the game she used to play, the average Lord player took five days to establish their territory. Only hardcore players aiming for speed records would do it within three days; most people would wait until after the third day.

Because once a Lord player established a territory, the system would start counting down to the first attack by Dark Creatures—monsters whose sole purpose was to destroy territories.

If you established your territory before 8 a.m. on the third day, the first wave of Dark Creatures would attack on the tenth day. But if you waited until after that, the first attack wouldn’t come until the fifteenth day.

In other words, if you built your city on the third day, you’d have less than seven days to prepare. But if you waited until the fourth day, you’d have a full eleven days.

Although the first wave of Dark Creatures was weak, for a Lord player who had nothing, they were even weaker—so those extra four days of preparation were incredibly valuable.

Aside from the Dark Creatures, another reason not to build within three days was that, barring extreme luck, it was hard for players to gather enough materials to establish a territory in that time.

So now, Su You not only had to figure out how to gather enough materials in three days to build her territory, but also how to deal with the earlier-than-expected Dark Creature attack.

If delaying territory construction counted as being passive, then surely watching your territory get destroyed would also count as passive. The consequences were obvious.

The third day and the tenth day—these two deadlines were like chains tightening around Su You’s throat, or like two ticking time bombs. If she didn’t manage to defuse them in time, everything would be over.

…

Thinking of this, Su You pressed her lips together, her mind racing as her eyes scanned her surroundings, planning her next move.

In the game she used to play, there hadn’t been a Lord’s Token, but the requirements for establishing a territory were similar: you needed to build a City Heart Flame.

As the name suggested, the City Heart Flame was the “fire at the heart of the city.” It represented the life of a territory—once it went out, the city was considered “dead.”

“When the fire burns, the city lives; when the fire dies, the city falls.” That was the most fitting description of the City Heart Flame.

Su You had just checked the materials needed to build the City Heart Flame, and they were exactly as she remembered: [Plank x5, Stone x5, Flame Stone x1].

Planks and stones were both basic building materials—the former made from wood gathered by chopping trees, the latter from mining or picking up loose stones on the ground.

Since they were basic materials, they weren’t hard to get—just a matter of time.

What really determined how soon you could light the City Heart Flame was getting the Flame Stone.

The Flame Stone wasn’t a natural material; it was a drop from killing a creature called a Fire Demon. There was a chance it would drop when you killed one.

But now wasn’t the time to worry about how to get the Flame Stone. Fire Demons weren’t hard to kill, and Su You had plenty of ways to wipe out their lair—provided she had enough materials.

So her top priority now was gathering resources.

…

Su You was currently standing in a clearing of moderate size, surrounded by flowers, trees, and various plants. Based on her previous game experience, she figured she’d landed at a “forest resource point.”

There were many resource points in this game, but for starting locations, it was usually either a forest resource point or a mining resource point.

The former was better for early development, the latter for later stages.

Given that this was a game involving her life, spawning in a forest resource point was a huge advantage for early development and made accidental death less likely.

Otherwise, if she died before even building her territory, there’d be nothing more to say.

After making her plans, Su You picked a path through the trees where the vegetation was thinner as her target for gathering materials.

She’d only taken a couple of steps when she saw the ground was littered with branches, leaves, logs, stones, weeds, and some unknown—but clearly not ordinary—plants.

Su You walked forward a couple more steps, then crouched down and tentatively reached for a branch on the ground.

[Obtained Branch x1]

Just as she was about to pick up the branch, the moment her hand touched it, it vanished into thin air.

At the same time, Su You faintly heard a “Obtained Branch x1” notification sound in her ear.

Watching the branch disappear, Su You’s eyes flickered slightly, but she wasn’t too surprised.

The branch hadn’t really disappeared; just like the Lord’s Token, it had gone into her backpack.

Su You opened her backpack and saw a branch icon next to the Lord’s Token, with a little number “1” in the lower right corner indicating the quantity.

[Branch]

Category: Material

Quality: White

Description: An ordinary branch, a basic material for crafting and construction.

As expected, the item information was exactly the same as in Sunset Continent.

In Sunset Continent, all items and tools were divided into seven grades: Gray, White, Green, Blue, Purple, Red, and Gold.

Gray was the lowest, Gold the highest.”