Chapter 145: Wang Yi & Wang Er

When it came to people who wanted to harm him, Mek would never let them go out of the kindness of his heart. He was petty and held grudges; their fate was obvious.

Of course, what happened to Mek was clearly different from what Su You was asking now. After all, these three travelers hadn’t provoked Su You, yet they were about to get caught up in trouble. But Mek didn’t care. As far as he was concerned, he’d just been switched to another territory—no one had tried to rob or kill him—so it wasn’t a big deal.

“Any one of the three will do, right? They all come for lunch around noon, so I’ll just pick one unlucky soul then.” Mek couldn’t be bothered to go out and look for them, so he’d just wait for the three to show up on their own.

As for which traveler he’d threaten, that would depend on their luck—whoever came first, or whichever one Mek took a liking to, that’s who he’d choose.

“Oh, and one more thing. Tomorrow is the dark creatures’ attack day for this territory. If nothing unexpected happens, one wave should come at dawn, and another late at night.”

“I’ll help with tomorrow’s dark creature attack, but my magic is limited right now, so don’t expect me to handle all of them for you.” Mek glanced at Su You, then went back to tinkering with whatever he was working on.

Su You naturally knew Mek’s current situation—she even knew better than Mek himself, since she could see all his data and stats.

After leaving the task of “forcing people to join the territory” to Mek, and informing him about the dark creatures’ attack, Su You took a walk around the territory to make sure all the defensive and offensive buildings were properly set up. Then, she quietly waited for time to pass while carving something in her hands...

...

By mid-afternoon, Su You had already piled up over thirty wooden carvings beside her.

Just as she tossed another freshly carved piece to her feet, Su You received two notifications requesting to join the territory.

【Wanderer ‘Wang Yi’ requests to join the territory. Approve?】

【Wanderer ‘Wang Er’ requests to join the territory. Approve?】

Su You: ?

Su You: ……

When she saw the two messages, Su You was momentarily stunned, then realized Mek must have already succeeded in threatening these two travelers.

Both Wang Yi and Wang Er originally had their own territories, so to join another, they first had to leave their previous one. That’s why the application said “Wanderer Wang Yi” and “Wanderer Wang Er” instead of “Traveler Wang Yi” and “Traveler Wang Er.”

The word “traveler” would never appear on this interface.

If it were the old Su You, she would have thought these names were perfunctory, simple, and blunt, and she’d probably have made a snarky comment.

But now, seeing these two notifications, Su You simply breathed a sigh of relief—because she was about to complete a rather troublesome timed quest.

【Congratulations! Sunset Territory has met the requirements for upgrading to Advanced Camp. Upgrade now?】

【Yes】/【No】

Su You had thought this upgrade would be forced, just like before, but to her surprise, she actually had a choice this time.

After a moment of surprise, she decisively chose...【No】!

Although the timed quest was urgent, there was still some time left. Upgrading the territory too early would complete the quest ahead of schedule, but it would also increase the difficulty of the dark creatures’ attack event.

The difficulty of dark creature attacks was mainly affected by three factors: the number of attacks, the number of days, and the territory’s level.

The first two factors were out of her control—she couldn’t turn back time or delete system data to change the number of attacks. The only thing she could control was the third factor.

Back when she played this game, the setting was that territory upgrades could always be manually controlled—they wouldn’t auto-upgrade. So she’d always deliberately hold off on upgrading unless it was necessary.

Not just her—other lord players did the same.

Originally, Su You thought territory upgrades were automatic, and the timing of this quest was quite coincidental, landing right on the day of the dark creatures’ attack.

If she wanted the territory to be judged as a “Mid-level Camp” instead of an “Advanced Camp” during the attack, she’d have to time the upgrade between the first wave of dark creatures and the quest deadline.

That was tricky, especially since her method of recruiting people was through threats, which was highly unstable—the other party could withdraw their application at any time.

To avoid failing the quest and causing other problems in the territory, Su You simply decided to have Mek “persuade” those people to join today, and she’d approve their applications immediately.

That was the safest approach.

As for what would happen if these two left the territory today... That wasn’t possible.

In real life, as long as you had the ability, you could join or leave any territory at will. But this was a data world.

Both joining and leaving a territory had a “cooldown period.” Since they’d just left their previous territory, if they wanted to leave Sunset Territory now, they’d have to wait twenty-four hours.

That’s why Su You said if they wanted to leave the day after tomorrow, they could do as they pleased. She’d be upgrading the territory and submitting the quest tomorrow anyway. Once upgraded, the territory wouldn’t be downgraded even if prosperity or population dropped below the original requirements.

...

Su You stood up, brushed the wood shavings off her hands and clothes, and headed to the tavern to “check in” on the two new members of her territory.

Although the reason they joined was a bit unusual, they’d have to meet eventually, so she might as well go see how things were now.

...

When she arrived at the tavern, Su You saw two stiff-looking men sitting behind the bar.

She’d thought that, as the lord who’d forced them to join, they’d probably give her some dirty looks. But to her surprise, when the two looked up and saw her, their eyes actually showed a glimmer of hope—as if they’d just seen their savior...

All those negative emotions she’d imagined seeing on their faces were nowhere to be found.

Su You: ?

Honestly, Su You was really curious about what these two had gone through—what exactly had Mek done to them?

Even if he was a mage, surely after being forced to join a territory, people would still have at least some resentment.

(End of Chapter)"

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