Chapter 89: The Lumberyard

Since she couldn’t keep it for herself, nor could she give it to anyone else, Su You simply drank the universal potion herself.

The moment she drank it, Su You not only found that her “moderate fatigue” status had disappeared, but her stamina and hunger bars were also fully restored.

With no more negative status dragging her down, Su You felt instantly refreshed and energized. Her body, which had been exhausted no matter what she did, was now brimming with strength.

She glanced at the books and cards in the treasure chest and picked them up.

[Acquired: Book of Magic Runes x1]

[Acquired: Tavern Recruitment Card x1]

[Acquired: Lumberyard Building Card x1]

...

When she saw the words “Lumberyard Building Card,” Su You let out a sigh of relief—at least it wasn’t a Sewing Shop building card.

But then she was a bit puzzled. She had never heard of a “lumberyard” before.

It seemed this was another newly-added feature, and it wasn’t even in her building list. Otherwise, after flipping through her building list dozens of times, there’s no way she wouldn’t have noticed it.

To find out exactly what the lumberyard did, Su You began to examine the details on the building card.

[Lumberyard] (Fully Reclaimable)

Type: Resource Building

Cost: Unknown (Requires learning the “Lumberyard” blueprint to unlock construction)

Description: The lumberyard can automatically bind to the territory warehouse. Any wood resources stored in the lumberyard will automatically be transferred to the territory warehouse. This feature can be toggled on or off. If the warehouse is full, resources will be temporarily stored in the lumberyard’s own storage. The lumberyard’s storage has 100 slots, with a stack limit of 100 per slot, and can only store wood.

...

As if she’d seen something unbelievable, Su You read over the description again to make sure she wasn’t imagining things. This really was a “portable wood warehouse.”

The reason she called it portable was because the lumberyard could be fully reclaimed. That meant once all the trees in an area were cut down, she could pack up the lumberyard and move it to another place with trees to continue collecting.

Now she also understood why she hadn’t seen this building in her list before—it required learning a blueprint before it could be constructed.

Although she wasn’t sure if the lumberyard would be as useful as the description claimed, Su You was in a pretty good mood.

She opened her inventory and glanced at the pile of stuff inside, then left the quest hall.

The first thing she did after stepping outside was use a Residential House building card, placing House 4 next to House 3.

Then she took out the Sewing Shop building card as well.

Currently, the territory layout was as follows: upon entering, the left and right sides were the Post Station and the Tavern, respectively. Behind the Tavern were four residential houses, and behind the Post Station were the warehouse and the quest hall.

The bulletin board and bounty board were in front of the Post Station... and the farmland—four plots—were by the nearby creek.

Finally, there was the Heartfire at the center of the territory, directly facing the entrance, with another axis roughly aligned with her current residence, House 3.

Su You actually had a rough mental map of the layout, but because there was so much freedom and so many factors to consider, her plans were always being disrupted. So her mental map kept changing as her plans evolved.

She took out the Sewing Shop card and placed it on the left side after entering the territory, in the same row as the Post Station, right after the quest hall.

Since building with cards was instantaneous, as soon as House 4 and the Sewing Shop were finished, Su You immediately went inside to take out all the furniture and decorations, just like she had done with the Tavern.

About ten minutes later, Su You was rewarded with two new prosperity notifications.

Residential House: Prosperity +1.

Sewing Shop: Prosperity +5.

So far, the territory’s stats were roughly as follows—

[Sunset Territory]

Lord: Su You

Territory Level: Medium Camp (Upgrade to Intermediate Camp at 10 population and 50 prosperity)

Territory Prosperity: 38.9

Territory Reputation: 11

Territory Population: 5/9

Territory Aura: None

Territory Events:

I: [A dark force seems to be quietly approaching...]

II: [Because of the Post Station, merchants and caravans from the continent will visit the territory. Prepare enough money or goods to gain more bargaining power during trades.]

III: [Because of the Post Station, travelers will visit the territory...]

...

Among these stats, the most obvious changes were prosperity, reputation, and aura.

First, prosperity: Su You saw that the increase to 38.9 was partly from new buildings and partly from territory upgrade rewards.

The reputation was the same. Originally just 1 point, it had suddenly increased elevenfold. This was because upgrading the territory awarded reputation, and going from a basic camp to a medium camp gave exactly 10 reputation points.

Lastly, the territory aura. It was now the morning of the sixth day in this digitized world, and Su You had established her territory around the evening of the second day. That meant the three-day protection aura had expired yesterday evening.

Other than that, there wasn’t much else on the info panel.

...

Just as she’d planned, Su You’s focus today was on building up the territory. After using the two building cards, she grabbed a small stool and sat beside a pile of workbenches, synthesizing materials while pulling up lots of decorative buildings from the construction list.

Benches, lighting, sculptures, wind chimes, flowerbeds, ponds/fish ponds, fountains, and so on...

These little decorations didn’t require many materials, and the materials themselves were simple—mostly wood, stone, fiber, some wildflowers and grass, and occasionally a bit of coal or copper ore.

She started with benches, placing two on each side of the road for now. Each bench was long enough for 2–3 people to sit and rest, and they even had backrests for extra comfort.

Next was lighting.

Here, lighting was provided by stone pillar lamps made with coal. Each lamp required “Stone x3, Coal x1” to craft. Like campfires, these needed fuel to keep burning, but unlike campfires, they didn’t need kindling to be lit.

(End of chapter)"

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your provided text:

---

90. Looks Great, I Like It, Very Satisfied

What’s more, this stone pillar lamp can be switched on and off at will—as long as there’s enough fuel, she can control the lamp however she likes.

It might sound “unscientific,” but the very existence of a data-driven world is unscientific in itself.

Since it was daytime, Su You couldn’t really test how far the stone pillar lamp could illuminate, so for now, she just placed one on each side of the entrance.

Besides the stone pillar lamps, Su You also made another kind of lamp that could be hung from the eaves, called the “Four-Cornered Lamp.”

These four-cornered lamps were somewhat like lanterns, but not exactly the same.

The main materials for the four-cornered lamp were rope and cloth made from rope. The recipe was: rope x4, cloth x1, coal x1. This set of materials could make two lamps. Su You planned to hang one on each side of the eaves at the front of every building, so however many buildings there were, that’s how many sets she needed to make.

There were four residential houses, plus the tavern, the inn, the warehouse, the quest hall, and the tailor shop—a total of nine buildings. She made nine sets of lamps and hung them up last night while she was at it.

After that, she worked on some other purely decorative structures that didn’t serve any practical purpose.

All this construction took her the whole day, because aside from these decorative buildings, Su You also spent materials to redo the ground.

Previously, the roads in the territory were just dirt. Although they were fairly flat—not riddled with potholes like the surface of the moon—they were still a bit uneven and looked out of place compared to the neat and orderly buildings around them.

So Su You used some stone to make “patterned stone tiles” and replaced all the roads with these patterned stone floors.

It just so happened that the other members of the territory were all out. Even Duoya, whose hand had mostly healed, was planning to go out for a walk nearby—supposedly to scout for hunting spots. But since her hand wasn’t fully recovered, Doli was worried about her and went along as well.

With no one around, Su You could work on renovations without being interrupted by people walking around, so her construction speed only got faster.

From the stone-tiled floors to a ring of stone walls around the territory… Originally, there were only wooden fences and walls, but since she’d redone the ground, Su You decided to upgrade the walls to stone as well, to unify the “theme” of the territory. It looked much better and less out of place.

While Su You was busy building, Doli and Duoya came back once. Who knows how shocked they were when they saw how completely the territory had changed.

They were so surprised they almost thought they’d gone to the wrong place—maybe even wandered into someone else’s territory… It wasn’t until Doli pushed open the newly built stone gate and saw the scene inside that she was sure she hadn’t made a mistake or started hallucinating. At the same time, she was even more stunned by what she saw.

“This… we—we’ve only been gone for less than a morning, right?” Doli was so shocked she could barely get the words out.

Just as she said, it hadn’t even been a full morning—so how had their territory changed so much in such a short time?

They had to admit, though, the changes looked really good. It was like their old country courtyard had turned into a proper brick-and-tile siheyuan.

There were still some things that could be improved, but compared to before, the territory now looked genuinely beautiful and pleasing to the eye.

“It must be the lord working on something. Let’s go ask.” Although Duoya was also surprised, she was obviously much calmer. But if you looked closely, you’d see her so-called calm was just a front—when Doli wasn’t paying attention, her eyes kept darting around, taking in all the changes.

After all, she was just a girl in her early twenties, and this wasn’t exactly a time of advanced technology. Most new things had to be experienced firsthand, and since Duoya had never seen anything like this before, it was only natural for her to be curious.

When the two of them found Su You, they saw her constantly taking things out of the workbench, then putting raw materials back in to make new items over and over.

“My lord.”

“Miss Lord, are you decorating the base?”

Actually, Su You had already heard them push open the stone gate just now—she was busy, not deaf—so when she suddenly heard their voices, she wasn’t startled at all and answered naturally, “Mm, just doing a bit of renovation. I’m changing the floors and the outer walls—it’s also safer this way.”

As she spoke, another batch of patterned tiles was finished. Su You took them out, then turned to look at them.

“So, what do you think? Does it look good? Or if you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know—I can use them for reference.” Even though she was the lord, the territory didn’t belong to her alone. It wasn’t enough for just her to think it looked good—everyone had to like it.

But clearly, Su You was asking for nothing.

Duoya wasn’t the type to offer suggestions or be picky about these things, and Doli—well, in modern terms, she’d be a total fangirl, the kind who thinks Su You can do no wrong. After all, a favorability rating of ninety doesn’t come from nowhere.

So, all Su You could get from them were a string of compliments like “I like it,” “I’m satisfied,” “It looks great,” and so on.

“As long as you’re happy with it… Oh, right, Doli, there’s something I wanted to ask you.” As if suddenly remembering something, Su You called out to Doli.

Doli immediately stopped in her tracks, just as she was about to wander off and look around.

“Yes, Miss Lord?” Doli thought Su You must have something important to say, so she sounded a bit nervous.

“No need to be nervous, I just wanted to ask you something.” Su You smiled at her, then continued, “I remember you said before that you know some basic sewing, right?”

Doli: “Yes, Miss Lord. Do you have something you need me to make?”

“Mm… not exactly. Take a look over there first.” Su You pointed toward the tailor shop, signaling Doli to look.

Doli stared at the tailor shop for a moment, as if she was starting to guess what Su You meant.

“That… the tailor shop? Miss Lord, do you want me to work there?” Doli asked tentatively.

She herself had no objections to being assigned to the tailor shop—after all, she already had some basic skills, so she’d pick it up quickly, and she actually enjoyed sewing and making things.

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of the provided Chinese text:

---

**91. Extra Tasks**

However, although Dolly guessed correctly, she only got half of it right.

Su You did indeed plan to send her to the tailor shop, but not as an employee—instead, she was going to make her the owner.

“You mean… you want me to be the owner of the tailor shop?!” When Dolly heard she was to become the owner, her first reaction wasn’t happiness or excitement, but rather a sense of panic and helplessness.

She shook her head frantically, as if refusing, but also as if she was hesitating about something.

“Miss Lord, I’m not even at the level of a beginner tailor yet. I’m not qualified to be the face of a tailor shop.” In fact, that was putting it nicely.

In some small and medium-sized cities, the tailor shops there… well, they’re not just tailor shops. In almost any shop that sells handmade goods, the owner’s skill level is never below intermediate.

If you’re not even at the intermediate level, how are you supposed to manage employees?

You can’t have a situation where the boss is less skilled than the staff, right?

On the Sunset Continent, things are different from the world before. Here, everything is based on strength. The idea of “the boss just provides the money and the staff does all the work” is actually quite rare.

Even if it does happen, it’s usually because a behind-the-scenes investor has spent a lot of money to hire a master with impressive skills to act as the shop’s public face. People recognize the skilled boss, not the moneyed one.

Basically, bosses here are “skilled professionals”—and not just any, but “high-level professionals.”

The reason for this is that, in this world, the boss represents the shop’s reputation. The higher the boss’s skill, the more customers are willing to come and buy things.

More customers means more profit, which in turn attracts more skilled people to apply for jobs.

This value system is quite different from reality, but that’s not important.

As an experienced player, Su You naturally knew this, but she didn’t care… Still, even if she didn’t care, she couldn’t say that outright—after all, she wanted to reassure Dolly.

“But I believe you can become an excellent tailor… unless you don’t want to be the owner of the shop.”

Now, that’s the power of words.

If she’d just praised Dolly, it wouldn’t have worked. But Su You said she believed in her, and with Dolly’s affection for her, there was no way she’d want to let her down.

Sure enough, after hearing Su You’s words, Dolly hesitated for a moment, then nodded, her words full of gratitude for Su You’s trust.

“Since you believe in me, Miss Lord, I won’t let you down.” At this moment, Dolly’s eyes were practically shining. Her excitement wasn’t just because of Su You’s praise and trust, but also had something to do with her past experiences.

It was a knot in her heart—one Su You didn’t know about, but happened to untie by accident.

As a bystander, Doya could see things clearly, but she didn’t plan to say anything, just quietly watched the scene unfold.

And so, Su You appointed Dolly as the owner of the tailor shop, then moved all the sewing materials, tools, workbenches, and the pile of “junk” waiting to be repaired that she’d prepared for Dolly into the shop.

Once all that was done, she went back to her territory construction work.

Just like that, time slowly passed until the evening of the sixth day…

Unlike before, although it was nighttime, the whole area was now lit up with lamps, making the night feel bright and cozy.

The light within the territory drove away the darkness brought in from outside…

…

After a whole day of work, Su You was a bit tired.

Even though she seemed to just sit at her workbench all day, without much walking around or doing anything strenuous, arranging and setting up the territory still took a certain amount of physical energy. And realistically, it was draining both physically and mentally.

After all, doing the same thing for a long time with almost no breaks would tire anyone out.

So, after she’d finished lighting up all the remaining dark corners of the territory, she finally put down her work and decided to give herself a break.

As she rested, she opened the territory information panel. Thanks to her day’s efforts, the “prosperity” of the territory had now surpassed fifty points, meeting the requirements to upgrade to a large camp.

In other words, she only needed to recruit five more NPCs, and she could upgrade the territory to a large camp.

Recruiting five NPCs wasn’t too hard. She had a recruitment card that could bring in two NPCs instantly, and it had been almost four days since she recruited Doya, so the tavern should be refreshing new candidates any day now.

Each refresh would let her recruit one NPC, so that was three in total. She’d just need to wait for two more “wanderers” to show up.

However, there was one thing to keep in mind when using the recruitment card: after using it, the tavern would go back into cooldown.

In other words, it was best to wait for the tavern’s second recruitment refresh before using the card. Otherwise, she’d only get two NPCs, and would have to wait several more days for the next chance.

That’s why Su You hadn’t used the recruitment card right away, but instead spent the day building up the base—she wanted to wait for the second tavern refresh, then use the card.

…

As Su You sat resting and waiting for the tavern to refresh, Dolly and Lake suddenly approached her from opposite directions.

From their expressions, Dolly looked overjoyed—clearly she had good news to share.

Lake, on the other hand, looked a bit odd—not like he had bad news, but not exactly good news either.

The two of them arrived in front of Su You almost at the same time, and both paused when they saw each other.

Lake: “You go first.”

Dolly: “Mine’s not urgent, you go ahead.”

Su You: …Why don’t you both just say it together?

After a few seconds of silence, Lake spoke up first.

“It’s nothing urgent, really. I just noticed there are a few new tasks on the bounty board, but I don’t seem to be able to accept them. So I wanted to ask, my lord, what’s that about?”

New tasks?

Su You was taken aback, then stood up and looked at Dolly, signaling her to share her news.

(End of chapter)"

"92. Bounty Card

Dolly quickly pointed back in the direction she’d just come from and said, “I just wanted to let you know, my lady, that the red berry bushes have fully grown. It shouldn’t be long before they start bearing fruit.”

These red berry bushes had been planted on the third night. Normally, it would take 72 hours—exactly three days—for them to mature, but thanks to “Harmony I,” it only took about 67 hours.

By her calculations, they should be fully grown by this afternoon.

But Su You had been too busy to check on them, so she hadn’t realized. Dolly only discovered the bushes were ready after dinner, when she went to check on the crops’ growth.

The fact that the red berry bushes had matured was great news.

When Su You first established the territory, she’d deliberately chosen a spot with water, berry bushes, and fiber plants. But after so many days of gathering, the wild berries and fiber nearby had long since been picked clean.

It was only because there were few people and plenty of meat that food was never in short supply. That’s why Dolly usually focused on gathering fiber, only picking a few red berries if she happened to see them. Otherwise, she was afraid they’d go bad before they could eat them all, which would be a waste.

Because they hadn’t been actively collecting berries, there were now almost none left in the territory—in fact, you could say there were none at all.

The only ones left were those already cooked into meals.

As a result, everyone’s daily diet was basically meat, meat, and more meat… While meat was tasty and filling, and eating it exclusively didn’t cause any negative buffs, going without any other flavors for so long was still a bit much.

…No wonder Dolly was so happy. She was probably sick of eating meat these past few days, and the thought of having berries soon—even if they hadn’t actually ripened yet—was enough to make her cheerful.

The berry bushes maturing didn’t just mean they’d have something else to eat and more variety in their recipes; it also meant they now had a stable food source.

This food source didn’t require them to go out and risk anything—they could just harvest it within the territory, and it would keep producing over time.

Unlike red grass, berries and fiber plants could be harvested repeatedly, just like fruit trees. In theory, as long as the bushes stayed healthy and well-nourished, they could keep producing fruit indefinitely.

In this data-driven world, that theory was directly realized.

As long as they were watered regularly and cared for, the berry bushes would never die, and berries could be harvested endlessly.

The first batch of berries would appear 24 hours after the bushes matured, and after that, a new batch could be picked every three to five days.

One plot of farmland could support four berry bushes, and each harvest would be enough to fill at least a fifth of a level-one warehouse.

So even if the territory ran out of meat, they could survive on berries alone.

“By tomorrow evening, we should be able to harvest the first batch of berries,” Su You estimated. Dolly immediately nodded in understanding.

“Mm-hmm! I’ll go pick them then!” Dolly nodded, indicating she’d said all she needed to.

After that, Su You followed Lake to the bounty board. When she saw the new tasks posted there, something clicked in her mind… If she remembered right, there was now a new type of task called a “System Quest,” wasn’t there?

And these system quests unlocked once the territory reached intermediate camp status… She’d been thinking about this just yesterday—how could she have forgotten today!?

…It must be because of that debuff.

Su You didn’t hesitate to blame it on the fatigue debuff. Otherwise, under normal circumstances, she’d never have forgotten—especially something she’d just been thinking about the day before.

After shifting the blame, Su You explained to Lake that she’d be handling this particular quest herself, so he didn’t need to worry about it.

Since the quest involved the system, some kind of protocol seemed to kick in. Though Su You’s explanation was a bit odd, Lake didn’t ask any more questions.

“All right, then I’ll leave you to it, my lady.” With that, Lake left without asking anything further or sticking around to check out the system quest.

Su You wasn’t surprised by his reaction and immediately began reviewing the quests.

Currently, there were three system quests on the bounty board. Of these, two were untimed, and one was a timed quest.

【Prosperity and Flourishing】 (Completed)

Issuer: Unknown

Objective: Raise territory prosperity to 50 (53/50)

Reward: Bounty Card, territory reputation, money

Restrictions: None

Failure Penalty: None

【Stop the Darkness】 (Accepted)

Issuer: Unknown

Objective: Successfully repel the attack of dark creatures (0/1)

Reward: Random building card, territory reputation, money

Restrictions: None

Failure Penalty: Unknown

【Develop the Territory】 (Accepted)

Issuer: Unknown

Objective: Upgrade the territory to a large camp (0/1)

Reward: Unknown, territory reputation

Restrictions: Time limit 120 hours (Time remaining: 98 hours 14 minutes 21 seconds)

Failure Penalty: Territory prosperity -10, territory reputation -10, potential value decrease

……

After reading through the three quests, Su You came to the following conclusions—

1. System quests are automatically accepted; she can’t refuse them.

2. System quests are related to territory development (at least so far).

3. Untimed quests may still have failure penalties, but timed quests definitely do.

4. System quests are an important source of territory reputation (since all three reward reputation).

Aside from these conclusions, Su You was left with many more questions—but for now, there was no way to answer them…

Before delving into those, she decided to submit the first quest, “Prosperity and Flourishing,” since she was quite interested in this “Bounty Card.”

After all, it was something new, just like building cards—something she’d never seen before.

【Submit quest ‘Prosperity and Flourishing’?】

【Note: Please ensure your inventory has enough space for the reward before submitting, or bear the consequences.】

Seeing this, Su You was a little surprised. She’d assumed the reward would be sent to the quest hall, like the three treasure chests before. She hadn’t expected it to be delivered directly to her inventory…

She opened her inventory to check. It wasn’t exactly empty—she’d filled it with all sorts of random materials she’d synthesized that day for construction—but there was still enough room for a bounty card.

(End of chapter)"

"93. Potential Value

[Congratulations on completing the quest ""Prosperity and Flourishing."" System rewards: Bounty Card x1, Territory Reputation +5, Silver Coins x10.]

After submitting the quest, the first thing Su You did was click to check the Bounty Card.

[Bounty Card]

Category: Special

Quality: Purple

Description: Consuming this item allows you to post a Regional Bounty in the Quest Hall. For more information on Regional Bounties, please refer to the relevant introduction in the Quest Hall.

...

Regional Bounties had been introduced before. Once a Regional Bounty is posted, any territory that has built a Quest Hall can view the bounty she posted.

And this Bounty Card is the essential item needed to post a Regional Bounty.

If she guessed right, consuming one card allows you to post one Regional Bounty... In the game before, it was pretty much the same, except back then the item consumed wasn’t a Bounty Card, but something called a ""Bounty Scroll.""

The Bounty Scroll functioned the same as the Bounty Card; it was just a different name.

She didn’t know why they bothered to change the name for no reason, but as long as it didn’t affect usage, it didn’t matter.

...

After finishing one quest and figuring out what the Bounty Card was for, Su You turned her attention to the next issue.

This issue was related to the only available time-limited quest.

The penalty for failing this time-limited quest wasn’t exactly light. After all, Reputation and Prosperity are hard to come by in the early stages, especially Reputation. She only had 11 points in total... Oh, now it should be 16, since she just completed a quest.

But even so, suddenly losing 10 Reputation points was still a pretty harsh punishment.

Because without Reputation, the Bounty Card would basically be useless—no one would want to take on a quest from a territory with no reputation; the risk would be too high.

But then again, compared to the previous punishment of wiping your data and erasing you from existence if you failed a quest, just losing some territory stats didn’t seem so bad...

However, aside from territory stats, failing the quest would also reduce her ""Potential Value""...

What exactly was this Potential Value?

Su You stared at the last failure penalty for the third quest, lost in thought.

When was the last time she heard the term ""Potential Value""?

It seemed... just last night.

If she remembered correctly, last night, when her territory leveled up, a window suddenly popped up in front of her mentioning ""Potential Value""...

[A1-16, as the human territory lord with the highest ""Potential Value,"" the Execution System can, within a certain range of authority, provide you with a one-time reward service. The service includes but is not limited to requesting items, asking questions, solving problems, etc.]

Yesterday, she received a reward because she had the highest ""Potential Value"" among all human territory lords. So, if her Potential Value wasn’t high, she definitely wouldn’t have gotten that reward.

But if someone’s Potential Value was too low, so low that they ranked at the bottom among all territory lords, would there be some kind of punishment?

Su You had no way of knowing.

Regardless of whether there was a penalty for low Potential Value, just the fact that a high Potential Value could earn her rewards meant she absolutely had to complete this quest and not let her Potential Value drop.

Yesterday, when Su You was probing the Execution System, she learned something important: this kind of reward service wasn’t a one-off. As long as she met certain conditions in the future, she could get more custom rewards like the one yesterday.

Moreover, the more rewards she earned, the greater the ""authority"" the Execution System would grant her.

If she failed to get the beacon she asked for this time, maybe next time it would be given to her directly—or even several at once...

Although Su You had never openly shown any curiosity about why the planet she lived on had been inexplicably turned into data, not showing it didn’t mean she wasn’t curious.

She simply knew she wouldn’t get any answers, so she didn’t waste time pursuing the question, nor would she waste a reward opportunity on it.

Compared to questions that probably wouldn’t get answered, Su You would much rather ask for items and tools she actually needed.

Because she understood the value of almost every item, but not the value of those questions. Instead of asking something that likely wouldn’t be answered, it was better to get something practical to help her develop her territory faster and more smoothly.

Once she unlocked more authority in the future, then she could ask those secret questions... learn their purpose... and uncover the truth behind everything.

...

...

Although she wasn’t entirely sure about the requirements for getting more rewards from the Execution System, she could guess that it was probably related to Potential Value.

Either that, or it was tied to how quickly she developed her territory.

If she wanted to keep her Potential Value, she had to complete the quest within the time limit.

And judging by the current situation, her quest basically translated to: ""Within the time limit, increase the territory’s population to ten people.""

Aside from one person she could recruit soon from the tavern and two more with Recruitment Cards, she’d have to hope that in the next few days, wanderers like Dolly and Lylek would show up in her territory—and not just one, but two.

On top of that, she had to make sure all three people recruited from the tavern would actually join the territory within the time limit.

Unfortunately, up to now, Su You hadn’t seen the territory info panel refresh with a [Wanderer] event, which meant the chances of recruiting wanderers in the near future were almost zero.

In this situation, her odds of completing the quest were also close to zero.

Su You felt a headache coming on... This kind of luck-based thing was completely out of her control; there was nothing she could do, and naturally, no real choices to make.

""If there really aren’t any wanderers..."" then she’d have to use a rather special method to increase her territory’s population.

Although this method was a bit... unconventional, and even somewhat risky, if there really were no wanderers, it would be her only option.

Thinking about what she might have to do in the next few days, Su You, who had been planning to rest, quietly returned to her desk.

Dolly was about to ask why she wasn’t resting, but when she saw Su You’s less-than-cheerful expression, she swallowed her words and changed the subject.

""Is there still something missing in the territory?"" Dolly saw her sit back down and instinctively assumed there was something in the territory that hadn’t been set up yet, so Su You had come back to fix it.

Su You paused, then nodded slightly. ""We’re still missing some things to protect the territory.""

(End of chapter)"

"94. The Second Recruitment

However, whether this thing meant to protect the territory will actually be used for that purpose first... well, that's not so certain.

After she finished speaking, Dori saw that two arrow towers had appeared near the main gate of the territory.

Actually, it wasn’t just at the main gate. Outside the territory, at the entrance as well, Su You had also built two arrow towers.

Building arrow towers took some time, so Su You used that time to make a good number of arrows... Anyway, she wasn’t short on stone anymore, so there was no need to be as stingy as before.

Once the four arrow towers were completed, Su You felt it still wasn’t quite enough. She gathered some more materials to make traps... But just as she was about to set them up, a notification made her pause.

[Tavern has refreshed. You may go to the tavern recruitment point to select a resident to recruit.]

The moment she heard this prompt, Su You stood up and headed straight for the tavern.

...

A familiar interface, unfamiliar characters and information. Su You began to choose her second NPC to recruit.

[Bru]

Gender: Male

Age: Young Adult

Loyalty: 80

Affection: 20

Talent: Carpenter (75)

Skill: Novice Carpenter

Trait: Loyal (higher starting loyalty), Slow (slower reaction speed in all aspects)

Description: [Bru has always been an honest and sincere person, but because he was born slow to react, he was often bullied by other kids his age. Even so, he still enjoyed playing with everyone.

Later, a teacher came to the village. This teacher not only taught the children a lot of knowledge, but also taught them how to be good people. Under the teacher’s guidance, the kids who bullied Bru gradually realized their mistakes and started to genuinely befriend him.

Because of this, Bru’s family was very grateful to the teacher. Unfortunately, the teacher didn’t stay in the village for long before leaving.

Before leaving, the teacher gave Bru a gift—a beginner’s carpentry manual.

She had noticed that, although Bru was slow to react, he had an exceptional talent for carpentry.

Not only Bru, but every child in the village received a gift from the teacher before she left... Even someone as slow as Bru could sense that this teacher was no ordinary person.]

[Bruming]

Gender: Male

Age: Young Adult

Loyalty: 70

Affection: 15

Talent: Cooking (80)

Skill: Novice Cooking (Bottleneck)

Trait: Sensitive Senses (increases success rate of skills requiring senses, but affects daily life)

Description: [Bruming’s grandfather was the head chef at a city restaurant. Later, due to an accident, his grandfather injured his hand. Although he received timely treatment, he could no longer lift heavy iron pots.

So, Bruming’s grandfather returned to the village... Although he could no longer cook, he hoped someone would inherit his craft.

After returning, he was delighted to discover that his grandson had exceptionally keen senses.

Because he was so sensitive, Bruming couldn’t eat strongly flavored food or tolerate strong smells, but if he could use this sensitivity well, he could become an excellent chef.

Under his grandfather’s guidance, Bruming successfully awakened his talent for cooking and, thanks to his unique senses, created many new recipes.]

[Bruguo]

Gender: Female

Age: Teen

Loyalty: 50

Affection: 10

Talent: Trading (95)

Skill: Novice Trading (Bottleneck)

Trait: Silver Tongue (easier to convince others in social situations), Deceitful (enjoys lying and hiding the truth)

Description: [Bruguo is a refugee. Her hometown was destroyed by a natural disaster, and her parents died because of it. Alone, little Bruguo wandered from place to place until she was taken in by a lonely old woman.

The old woman’s village was very poor. Even after being adopted, Bruguo still didn’t have enough to eat each day, but at least she had a place to stay.

To support herself and the old woman, Bruguo would hitch rides on the village vegetable cart to the city every day... The village was too poor for anyone to afford help, so she had to go to bigger places to look for work, hoping to find a job—any job that could feed herself and the old woman.

But Bruguo was too young, inexperienced, and unskilled, so even in the city, no one was willing to hire her, no matter how low her asking wage.

Just as Bruguo was losing hope, the owner of a restaurant offered her a hand. He let her stay and earn money by doing odd jobs.

At that time, Bruguo was still innocent. Seeing hope, she immediately agreed... but she didn’t expect that all her hard work would bring no reward.

During her time there, Bruguo did the hardest, dirtiest jobs every day and brought the restaurant’s food back to the old woman in the village. After a month, when it came time for her pay, the owner refused to pay her and wouldn’t even admit she’d worked there.

Even when Bruguo made a scene at the restaurant, no one would believe a filthy little girl... Bruguo had no choice but to leave, full of anger and resentment.

After that, Bruguo never trusted anyone again. She stopped trying to earn a living through honest work and instead roamed the city, learning to steal from street kids and using what she stole to feed herself and the old woman. She also picked up the art of smooth-talking and lying from the local ruffians...

Who knows how much time passed. When the old woman died of illness, Bruguo left. Before she went, she did something that made that heartless restaurant owner pay a heavy price.]

...

...

After reading the information on these three NPCs, Su You fell silent for a long time.

Because, for a moment, she truly didn’t know which of the three to choose as her second recruit. It was just too hard to decide.

Unlike the first recruitment, this time all three NPCs had their own strengths and weaknesses—none were particularly outstanding, but none were particularly bad either.

Bru’s drawback was that he was a carpenter. If he weren’t, Su You would probably have chosen him right away.

It’s not that the territory didn’t need a carpenter, but Su You already had one.

If she remembered correctly, Lyle’s carpentry talent was 70. Not as good as Bru, but good enough.

Recruitment opportunities are rare in the early stages, so Su You couldn’t afford to waste a slot on an NPC with overlapping skills.

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your provided Chinese text:

---

95. Domino Meck

Unless Bru’s carpentry talent is exceptionally high—on par with Buming and Bugu, both above 90—Su You would only consider choosing him under those circumstances.

With Bru out of the running, that left Buming and Bugu as options.

Buming’s drawback lay in his traits.

“Heightened Senses”—this is one of the rare traits that has a constant, ever-present effect.

You have to understand, “senses” here doesn’t just mean taste and smell, but also hearing… Sure, “Keen Hearing” sounds impressive, but what if your “Keen Hearing” isn’t an active skill, but a passive one?

To put it simply, it means you can’t control what you hear.

This means Buming not only has trouble eating well, but also has trouble sleeping well.

Unless Su You built him a house in a remote spot and let him live alone, there’s a good chance that if a roommate so much as turned over in bed, snored, or talked in their sleep, Buming would be up all night, unable to rest.

And that’s not all. Because his sense of smell is so sensitive, anything with a scent in the territory would affect him… Looking at it this way, is she recruiting an NPC, or bringing home an ancestor to worship?

As for Bugu, her flaw is the most obvious.

Her starting loyalty and affection are almost at the bare minimum, and on top of that, her negative traits are just like Buming’s—constantly in effect, sometimes in ways Su You can’t even be sure of.

She’s a little liar, full of nonsense and fond of making things up.

With a girl like this in the territory, Su You worries that one day, if she’s not careful, she’ll be tricked into a daze herself.

Even if she isn’t fooled, Su You fears the other residents might end up being led around in circles by this little trickster.

But if you set aside Bugu’s penchant for lying, she’s actually an extremely talented trading NPC.

A trading talent of 95—this is the kind of number that could, on rare occasions, make a merchant sell at a loss just to clear inventory. The odds are low, but with such a high talent, her growth will be rapid. Once her trading level gets high enough, Bugu might even be able to squeeze a few gold coins out of the stingiest dwarf merchant.

That said, the reason she has such a high trading talent is precisely because of the bonuses from her two traits.

Although “Pathological Liar” is a red negative trait, not all negative traits reduce stats. The system evaluates negative traits from the player’s perspective.

An NPC who loves to lie is bad for Su You, because it makes management difficult, but for the NPC herself, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Being easily believed makes trading easier; being good at lying means she can secure better deals for herself.

Although Su You is having a hard time choosing, she never considered giving up this recruitment opportunity. After all, there’s still a timed quest pressing her—she has to bring someone in, even if just to make up the numbers.

...

After another five minutes of deliberation, and after a difficult (well, not really) decision, Su You finally picked the second NPC she wanted to recruit.

[Kind Reminder: You may only choose one NPC for this recruitment. Once your choice is confirmed, all other NPC recruitment information will be cleared from the panel. The NPC you selected will arrive at your territory within a certain period of time.]

[This NPC is on their way to your territory. Estimated time: ???]

Almost as soon as these notifications popped up, Su You took out the recruitment card from her inventory.

[Would you like to use a recruitment card to refresh the tavern recruitment list?]

[Kind Reminder: Refreshing with a recruitment card will cause the tavern recruitment to re-enter the cooldown period after the current recruitment ends; the previous cooldown time will not be carried over.]

Looking at this “kind reminder,” Su You couldn’t help but feel that it really was rather considerate… After confirming her recruitment was successful, she used the recruitment card without hesitation.

[Recruitment card detected. The tavern recruitment list has been refreshed.]

Looking at the refreshed recruitment interface, Su You quickly skimmed through the information of the five new candidates. When she got to the fourth one, she paused.

This fourth NPC looked… kind of familiar?

Because the character looked familiar, Su You didn’t check the NPCs in order this time, but decided to look at this “acquaintance” first.

[Domino Meck]

Gender: Male

Age: Young adult

Loyalty: 60

Affection: 10

Talent: Magic (90)

Skills: Advanced Fire Magic (sealed), Basic Wood Magic (bottlenecked)

Traits: Elemental Affinity (increased affinity for magical elements), Cooking Enthusiast (loves cooking), Dark Cuisine (Cooking talent -50)

Description: [Domino Meck (known as Meck) is a mage with extraordinary magical talent. At just ten years old, he had already reached a threshold that most people could never attain in a lifetime, becoming a distinguished junior fire mage.

After joining the Mage’s Guild, and under the careful guidance of his teachers, Meck successfully broke through to become an intermediate fire mage at the age of eighteen.

He grew so quickly that there was no one left in the city’s Mage’s Guild who could teach him. So, Meck decided to set out alone for a bigger city, hoping to learn more advanced magic (crossed out)… cooking skills!

Yes! That’s right! Cooking skills!

In fact, Meck’s true dream, ever since he was a child, was to become a top chef capable of creating delicious dishes!

Unfortunately, Meck was born with no talent for cooking. His magical talent is as terrifyingly high as his cooking talent is terrifyingly bad… One is frighteningly good, the other is frighteningly bad.

When Meck was first discovered to have exceptional fire magic talent and was invited to join the Mage’s Guild, he refused without hesitation. The reason was simple: he wanted to learn cooking from others, and studying magic would waste too much time and seriously hinder his progress on the path to becoming a culinary god (?).

Although Meck refused, the Mage’s Guild didn’t give up. But Meck was determined. After turning down the Mage’s Guild, he went straight to a restaurant to seek an apprenticeship… and was kicked out in less than three days.

Because the food he made was so bad that even the restaurant owner’s dog foamed at the mouth after eating it.

Upon learning all this, the Mage’s Guild managed to trick nine-year-old Meck into joining by telling him, “As a fire mage, you’ll have better cooking methods.”]

...

Su You’s reaction: “…”

(End of chapter)"

"96. Affinity

After reading through this NPC’s introduction, Su You could finally confirm that she had indeed met this NPC before.

Not only had she met him, she had even successfully recruited him.

And this guy had once stolen the rare ingredients Su You had spent a fortune on—ingredients she’d bought just to give as a gift—only to turn them into a pot of charcoal.

Su You had been so furious that she tore down his little kitchen the very next day.

Not only did she demolish his kitchen, she also confiscated all his so-called “Peerless Recipes,” “Ancient Recipe Fragments,” and “Traditional Cooking Manuals.”

Meike was anxious and angry, but since his “hostages” (i.e., his private collection) were in Su You’s hands, this dignified high-level mage could only lower his head and apologize, promising he’d never do such a thing again.

...

That was all in the past. In any case, seeing this “old acquaintance” again now, Su You couldn’t help but feel a bit complicated inside.

She knew Meike’s strength well—after all, he was a genius mage who had fully mastered magic at the age of nine. As for his personality… well, he wasn’t actually that bad. Compared to other arrogant mages who acted like their noses were in the air, Meike was actually pretty “down to earth.” He was just a little obsessive about cooking.

But to put it bluntly, he was both bad at it and loved to mess around. Even though he knew his cooking skills were terrible, he still insisted on ruining her ingredients at every opportunity.

The worst part was, you couldn’t refuse him. If you did, he’d throw a tantrum, and the next time you needed his help, he’d just stand by with his arms crossed, holding a grudge.

If you ignored his actual age, anyone hearing about this behavior would think he was just some mischievous kid.

But in reality… a mischievous kid in his fifties?

Heh...

After grumbling about Meike in her heart, Su You suddenly realized something.

This was just a digital world—not the save file she’d played before. Even though all of this “Meike’s” data matched her memories exactly, some of the underlying data had already changed.

All she recognized was this “skin”—not Meike the “person.” In fact, he wasn’t even a real person.

She didn’t know him, and this Meike certainly didn’t know her.

Thinking of this, the anger she’d felt recalling how he’d always ruined her ingredients faded, replaced by a strange sense of melancholy.

...But whatever the reason, Su You was determined to recruit Meike.

Whether they were “acquaintances” or not didn’t matter. This was a brand new data world—this Meike was fundamentally different. There was no way she’d recruit him just because of some “old acquaintance” feelings.

Her reason for choosing Meike was simple: he was awesome, he was powerful.

He was a “High-Level Fire Mage.” Even if his skill levels were sealed, at worst he’d still be a mid-level fire mage. Hesitating even a second would be disrespectful to those seven words!

Having made her decision, Su You recruited Meike before even looking at the other four characters’ profiles.

The moment she confirmed her choice, another friendly prompt popped up.

[Confirm recruitment of “Domno Meike”?]

[Tip: This character’s level is much higher than your territory’s level. Recruiting him will seal some of his skill levels until your territory reaches the required standard, at which point his skills will unlock. However, recruitment difficulty remains unchanged.]

[Yes]!

Su You confirmed without hesitation.

If it were any other high-level mage, Su You might have hesitated for half a second, wondering if she could actually keep them after recruiting them.

After all, as the prompt said, this character’s level was so high that recruiting him would be very difficult.

Think about it—a mage this powerful, why would he stay in her tiny, shabby territory?

But Meike was different. Based on Su You’s understanding of Meike… or rather, this “data shell,” she had something that could perfectly control him.

In other words, she was 90% confident she could recruit Meike.

That probability was even higher than recruiting Buguo, that little trickster.

That’s right—the second NPC Su You chose to recruit was Buguo.

The reason was complicated, but it was a result of careful consideration and calculation for maximum benefit.

...

Next, Su You stared at the remaining four NPCs for a long time before finally choosing to recruit one named “Yousen.”

[Yousen]

Gender: Male

Age: Young Adult

Loyalty: 70

Affection: 20

Talent: Farming (75)

Skill: Basic Farming

Trait: Affinity (his special affinity has unique effects on small animals and plants), Aftereffects (he suffers lingering effects from an illness or injury)

Profile: [Yousen’s whole family were ordinary farmers. Growing up immersed in this environment, Yousen developed excellent farming skills from a young age.

Yousen was born with a mysterious affinity—no matter the animal, or even plants… small animals would naturally approach him, and plants would grow healthier under his care.

At fifteen, Yousen even cultivated a brand new plant species, which caused quite a stir in the village. But with the attention came jealousy.

Not long after, a local troublemaker pushed Yousen into the river. Though passing villagers rescued him in time, he was left with lingering effects—whenever it rained or the temperature dropped, his legs would ache unbearably.

Later, Yousen’s family discovered that the troublemaker hadn’t acted on his own, but had been hired by the wealthiest family in the village.

That family made their fortune selling seeds, thanks to their unique cultivation techniques that produced high-yield crops.

But the seeds Yousen accidentally bred were even more productive and grew faster, threatening their business. Fearing for their livelihood, they tried to get rid of Yousen.

After the truth came out, the wealthy family’s reputation was ruined and they eventually moved away. Yousen’s family also left the village, seeking a famous doctor in a bigger town to cure his condition.]

...

The reason for choosing Yousen was simple: his negative trait wasn’t particularly bad, only affecting him during certain times. Most of the time, he was perfectly normal, so it was almost like he didn’t have a negative trait at all.

More importantly, his positive trait was outstanding—on a scale of 1 to 100, it was at least a 90.

(End of chapter)"

"97. Dory’s Story

The “Affinity” trait isn’t as simple as it appears on the surface.

Beyond just being good with animals and taking care of plants, this trait also gives the NPC a tiny chance to cultivate special plants.

This was already reflected in Yousen’s backstory.

That’s also why Su You gave up on another NPC who had a whopping 85 points in Planting Talent and had even reached the beginner bottleneck in skill level, and instead chose Yousen.

Because this trait can more than make up for a lack of planting talent—in fact, it’s even more important than talent itself.

[Would you like to recruit ‘Yousen’?]

[Kind Reminder: You may select two people in this round of recruitment. You have already recruited one (Domno Meck). Once you confirm your choices, all other NPC recruitment information will be cleared from the panel, and the NPCs you selected will arrive at your territory within a certain period of time.]

[Yes]

[This NPC is on their way to your territory. Estimated time of arrival: ???]

……

Bu Guo, Domno Meck, Yousen…

Su You silently recited the names of these three NPCs, then pushed open the tavern door.

As she left the tavern, Su You noticed that it was already completely dark outside. This alone showed just how long she’d been inside, and how much time she’d spent agonizing over her choices.

It seemed everyone else in the territory had already gone to their rooms to rest. Out here, Su You was the only one left… or at least, that’s what she thought.

“Miss Lord?” A familiar voice, a familiar way of addressing her—Su You paused for a moment, then turned to see Dory, who looked just as surprised to see her.

Su You was a bit puzzled as to why Dory was here at this hour, just as Dory was wondering why Su You hadn’t gone back to her room to rest so late at night.

They stared at each other for a few seconds before Dory broke the silence.

“I just remembered I still have something to do. If you’re free, you should get some rest.”

Su You nodded and headed toward her house—she’d been planning to rest anyway, just hadn’t expected to run into Dory.

She wasn’t particularly interested in what Dory had to do; that was her private business. As long as she wasn’t doing anything harmful to the territory, that was enough for Su You.

But Su You had barely taken a few steps when she realized something seemed off about Dory’s expression… Her eyes were a little red, as if she’d been crying.

Did Dory really have something to do, or was she just upset about something, and didn’t want to disturb Duoya’s rest, so she’d come out to find a quiet corner to cry alone?

After noticing this, Su You immediately turned around to look for Dory, but found that she had already disappeared.

She first opened the territory info panel to confirm that Dory was still within the territory and hadn’t left, then began searching for her.

Since there weren’t many buildings in the territory yet, there weren’t many places to search.

There was no need to check the residential houses, since people were inside, and Dory was unlikely to go to the only empty one. So Su You’s search route went from the tavern to the stables, then to the quest hall… When she reached the tailor shop, she faintly heard the sound of someone sobbing inside.

Su You hesitated for a moment, but in the end, instead of knocking, she simply pushed open the door to the tailor shop.

She was the lord—there was no building or item in her territory she couldn’t use or open, especially since she’d built this one herself.

The noise from opening the door wasn’t small, and it immediately startled Dory, who was hiding inside, grieving alone.

Since Su You hadn’t knocked and opened the door so quickly, she saw Dory before she had a chance to wipe away her tears, her eyes filled with surprise and panic.

“Miss Lord…” Dory instinctively wanted to ask why Su You was here, but when she saw Su You walking over and handing her a clean cloth, the words caught in her throat.

“You don’t need to explain anything to me. I won’t interfere in the private affairs of my territory’s residents.” With that, Su You pushed the cloth closer.

Dory seemed surprised that Su You didn’t ask or say anything, and sat there stunned for several seconds. Only when the cloth was practically in front of her face did she react.

She took the cloth and wiped her face haphazardly.

After handing over the cloth and confirming that although Dory was sad, she wasn’t about to do anything foolish, Su You prepared to leave. But she’d barely taken two steps when Dory called out to her.

“Miss Lord, don’t you have anything you want to ask?” As soon as she said this, Dory regretted it—Su You had just said she didn’t need to explain, and now she was asking if Su You wanted to ask anything… Wasn’t this just looking for trouble?

Fortunately, Su You didn’t mind. She hadn’t been lying—she truly wasn’t interested in other people’s private matters.

But if Dory wanted to share, Su You didn’t mind staying to listen.

“If you want to talk, then I can ask.” Su You’s words brought a hint of warmth to Dory’s heart, which had been heavy with worry and sadness from recalling the past.

Her mood visibly improved, though there was still a trace of sorrow in her eyes.

“Then… Miss Lord, do you want to ask what happened to me in the caravan before?” As she said this, Dory’s eyes held a hint of hope, as if she wanted Su You to ask.

This should have been Su You’s question, but now, their roles seemed completely reversed.

Seeing that Dory really did want to share, Su You gave up on going to rest. She dragged a chair over and sat down across from Dory.

“Then let me ask—what exactly happened to you in the caravan back then…”

……

The story wasn’t long, and the beginning was just as Dory had said before.

She’d joined the caravan against her parents’ wishes, and then the caravan was attacked by wild beasts, causing her to be separated from the others… She hadn’t lied, but she had left something out.

The reason the caravan was attacked was because someone in the caravan got greedy and, while no one was looking, stole a beast cub.

Beast cubs are worth a fortune in big cities, because in this world, there are people called “Beast Tamers.”

When a beast is still a cub, it’s much easier to tame.

(End of this chapter)"

"98. Qin Yao

Not only that, but the young beast cubs have plenty of time to bond with their handlers. As long as the training methods are correct, these wild beasts can become powerful and fiercely loyal servants.

Back to the matter at hand: after this person stole the beast cub, he didn’t tell anyone. Instead, he hid it in one of the caravan’s cargo crates, planning to wait until they returned to the city before secretly taking it out to sell.

Because the caravan had no idea about the cub’s presence, they took no precautions. So when the cub’s parents tracked them down by scent, everyone in the caravan was still fast asleep.

And it wasn’t just the cub’s parents—apparently, they’d called for their kin as well. Otherwise, if it had only been two beasts, the caravan, with its dozens of people, wouldn’t have been thrown into such a panic.

But there were more than twenty ferocious beasts at the time. With that many, even if another caravan had joined them, it would have been a death sentence.

So the caravan was left with only one option—to run.

What followed was the caravan members being chased and scattered by the beasts, Dory included.

During the chase, Dory was actually running with several others. But one of them twisted his ankle while fleeing and was about to be caught by the beasts. Hearing his desperate cries for help, Dory’s heart softened.

She wanted to help him, but her kindness nearly cost her own life.

The man, knowing he’d twisted his ankle and that the only person reaching out to help was a weak woman who couldn’t possibly carry him, had a simple thought—if he couldn’t escape, he’d drag someone down with him!

So when Dory came back to help, he grabbed her, trying to make her die with him.

……

Hearing this, Su You felt she could already guess what happened next.

First, since Dory was standing here safe and sound, she must have escaped. But given the situation, with the beasts around, she couldn’t have gotten away on her own.

Which meant someone had saved her—and whoever saved her paid a heavy price, most likely their life.

And the reason Dory was so heartbroken was probably because the person who saved her was very close to her… If it had just been an acquaintance, they wouldn’t have risked their life, and Dory wouldn’t be this devastated.

After all, even if the person was a benefactor, if they were a stranger, Dory would feel guilt, self-blame, gratitude, regret… but not this kind of grief.

Sure enough, Dory’s next words confirmed Su You’s guess.

“Sister Qin… She rushed up alone to fight that beast to save me…”

The “Sister Qin” Dory spoke of was Qin Yao, a gentle older girl who lived next door. The two of them had grown up playing together. Qin Yao always looked after her, and Dory was very fond of her.

Unlike Dory, who had no fighting skills, Qin Yao had shown exceptional talent for combat since childhood and later entered the best local combat academy with outstanding grades.

The only reason she was with the caravan was because she didn’t feel comfortable letting Dory travel alone, but also didn’t want to go against Dory’s wishes by telling her parents. As it happened, Qin Yao’s academy was on break, so she was at home and decided to join the caravan with Dory.

Although Qin Yao claimed she wanted to experience caravan life, Dory always knew she really just wanted to protect her.

Dory never imagined that, despite her confident promises that nothing would go wrong, in the end… she herself was fine, sitting here safe and sound, but someone else had paid with their life for her stubbornness.

……

That’s where the story ended.

As for why Dory didn’t want to go home, Su You now understood.

Maybe this answer made Dory seem cowardly, but anyone faced with such a situation would want to avoid going home and facing reality, choosing instead to run away. Whether that choice is right or wrong, it’s understandable.

But…

After hearing the story, Su You still had some questions.

“So how did you escape in the end? Did you just watch her fight the beast and then run away by yourself?” Su You didn’t believe Dory would do something like that.

At most, she might have stayed there, frozen, but she would never have run away.

Su You even thought that, if Dory had a choice, she might have chosen to die with Qin Yao.

But if Dory hadn’t run, and Qin Yao hadn’t defeated the beast, then Dory wouldn’t be standing here now.

Faced with Su You’s question, Dory fell silent.

No one knew how long passed—long enough that Su You began to wonder if Dory really had abandoned Qin Yao and was too ashamed to admit it—before Dory finally answered.

“No… I wanted to help, but I was too scared… and then I fainted.” Dory hadn’t answered before not because she was ashamed, but because recalling that scene was just too painful for her.

At the time, Qin Yao was covered in blood, just like Duoya that night…

In fact, to be precise, Qin Yao’s situation was even worse than Duoya’s!

After all, Duoya fought at range—though she was injured, she could still move quickly and run. But Qin Yao was a close-combat fighter, and she had to protect Dory, so she couldn’t run, and her injuries were even more severe.

Before Dory reached the territory, there were actually two reasons she didn’t dare rest.

One was fear of the beasts. The other was that every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was a vivid red.

This nightmare kept her from resting until she reached the territory, where things finally got a little better.

But tonight, she’d dreamed of that day again, which was why she came here—to cry and let out her emotions.

“Did you faint from fear?” If Dory had said yes, Su You wouldn’t have been surprised, since one of Dory’s traits was being timid, and fainting from fear was entirely possible.

But Su You didn’t get a clear yes or no.

Because at the time, Dory’s whole mind was on Qin Yao, so she herself wasn’t sure how she’d fainted.

“I might have fainted from fear, but I also feel like maybe I didn’t… I’m not really sure.”

Normally, anyone in that situation would assume they fainted from fear—Dory thought so at first too. But she always felt like it wasn’t just fear, but that some other force had made her pass out, though she had no proof.

(End of chapter)"

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**99. Maybe She’s Still Alive**

At the time, she hadn’t noticed anything, so she could only assume she’d fainted from fright.

“When you woke up, did you see… her, or that beast?” Su You wasn’t trying to make Dolly relive that painful memory on purpose. The reason she kept asking was because the character “Qinyao” felt strangely familiar to her.

It was the same kind of familiarity she felt with Meike, but since she didn’t know much about Qinyao yet, she couldn’t be sure if she was the one who would become so fearsome in the future…

“No, I didn’t see anything when I woke up.” When she came to, everything she had was gone—probably stolen by the person who’d grabbed her earlier. Other than that, there was nothing around: no bodies, human or animal. Only the bloodstains on the ground showed that something terrible had happened there.

“If you didn’t see anything, maybe your sister Qinyao is still okay.” If this were the real world, Su You would think that even if there was no body, the person was probably gone, given the huge difference in strength.

As for why there was no body… maybe the beast dragged it away?

But this wasn’t the real world—anything could happen here. Plus, Su You remembered that in the later stages of the game, there was a female character named “Qinyao” who appeared.

Her story was very similar to the one Dolly described—she too was separated from her family because of a beast.

Although most NPCs in this world weren’t connected, “most” didn’t mean “all.” There were still a few NPCs with ties to each other.

For example, Meike’s beloved was a high-level seamstress that players could sometimes recruit in the later stages.

Su You didn’t know if she’d have a chance to meet that gentle woman here, but if she did, she’d definitely recruit her—not just to make up for a certain regret, but also to have someone who could keep that mischievous guy in check.

Before meeting her, Meike’s heart was all about cooking—everything else came second. But after she appeared, she became his number one.

…

Back to Dolly’s story.

Su You knew there was a powerful woman named Qinyao, but Dolly didn’t know that, so she naturally thought Su You was just trying to comfort her.

“Maybe…” Dolly didn’t argue with Su You about it—there was no need. Besides, she knew Su You meant well.

Su You could tell Dolly didn’t really believe her, but she didn’t explain further. After all, even she wasn’t sure if the two Qinyaos were the same person…

But even if they were, it wouldn’t matter, because the Qinyao she knew wasn’t a recruitable NPC. In fact, she was opposed to Su You—or rather, to all the human lords like her.

“To be honest, I’d really like to believe you, but we both know it’s unlikely.” Dolly said this with a smile, but anyone looking at her would know it wasn’t a real smile.

“I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but you’re actually a lot like Sister Qinyao…” She didn’t mean in appearance, but in a certain special quality.

Just as she’d always felt protected and cared for by Qinyao growing up, she now felt a similar, inexplicable sense of security around Su You. That was also why her affection for Su You grew so quickly.

“Let’s not think about this anymore. Get some rest.”

“You too, my lady… I feel much better now that I’ve talked about it. Sorry for worrying you.”

It was an unpleasant night. Even though Su You knew she was different from them, she still couldn’t see them as just NPCs—neither before, nor now.

After all, she herself was just a string of data now. There was really no difference between her and them. So after hearing this story, Su You couldn’t help but feel affected.

But she quickly pulled herself together and went back to her room to rest.

…

…

A night passed.

The seventh day dawned in the digital world, and there were less than three days left before the dark creatures attacked.

The first thing Su You did that morning was gather a large amount of materials and head to the mine with Lake and Doya.

Normally, she would have brought both Lyle and Lake, but since Doya’s arm had mostly healed, she wanted to check out the place where monsters spawned.

There weren’t many people in the territory, so there was no need for all four of them to go. Someone had to stay and “watch the house.”

Plus, Su You calculated that it had been almost two and a half days since the relay station was built. The merchant should be arriving today or tomorrow.

To avoid missing the merchant and losing the chance to trade, Dolly and Lyle stayed behind to keep watch and greet any guests.

…Led by Lake, Su You and Doya stopped about twenty meters from the stone gate.

After more than a day, the area around the stone gate was now crawling with ghostly skeletons. Su You could see at least twenty of them, not to mention the ones hiding in the nooks and crannies.

Ghostly skeletons were aggressive monsters, so to avoid alerting them, the three of them only dared to stop this far away.

“My lady, that’s the stone gate we told you about… Just like you said, it really does spawn ghostly skeletons!” Looking at the dense, flickering skeletons ahead, Lake felt a chill run down his spine.

He pulled his gloves from his pocket, ready to fight at any moment.

Although their goal today was just to help Su You fence off the stone gate, the skeletons were clustered around it like loyal gatekeepers. They’d have to defeat them all before they could do anything about the gate.

But there were only three of them, and Su You herself couldn’t fight. With just Lake and Doya, it would be two against twenty—each of them would have to take on ten. That was impossible.

What’s more, Doya didn’t have a proper weapon yet. Unarmed, she couldn’t make use of her range as an excellent archer, so her combat ability was basically the same as Su You’s."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your provided text:

---

100. The Sealing Item

So, if they wanted to efficiently eliminate these ghostly skeletons without paying too high a price... at the very least, without suffering any casualties, right?

If they didn’t want anyone to get hurt, they’d need a solid plan.

“Lake, go check over there...” After surveying the area, Su You already had a rough plan in mind for taking down these ghostly skeletons. She called Lake over, gave him a few instructions, and he left at once.

Then, Su You took out a backpack full of materials and began setting things up.

As she worked, she kept glancing up to observe her surroundings. During this time, Duoya stood at a distance—not too close, not too far—so she could keep an eye on Su You’s actions without getting in the way.

After about ten minutes, Lake returned. By then, Su You had already surrounded their current position with wooden fences and walls.

“My Lord! It’s exactly as you said! There’s a black, square stone right behind that stone door!” Lake hurried back to Su You and reported his findings, then started asking about her next steps and what the stone was for.

“That stone doesn’t have a name, but it’s quite useful. It can seal the stone door for a while.” The reason it has no name is that different monster spawners have different corresponding “stones.”

Actually, monster spawners don’t always take the form of stone doors. Sometimes it’s a pit, a wooden door, a ladder, a pond...

The sealing item for a stone door is a “stone.” Other spawners have different sealing items—for example, a locked door might require a key, a ladder-type spawner might need a rope, and so on...

Not every spawner has a sealing item, but if it does, it will always spawn somewhere nearby.

Although sealing items can seal a spawner, which sounds impressive, there’s a major drawback: sealing doesn’t stop the spawner from generating monsters. It just traps them inside, preventing them from coming out.

But when the seal is lifted, all the monsters generated during the sealed period will be released at once.

So, in many cases, even if there’s a sealing item available, people often choose not to use it.

Because if only a few monsters come out at a time, they’re easier to handle and can be picked off one by one. But if a huge horde is released all at once, the difficulty skyrockets.

Take now, for example—it hasn’t been that long, and there are already over twenty monsters here. If they sealed the spawner for several days, wouldn’t they have to face a hundred ghostly skeletons when the seal is broken?

However, since Su You had Lake look for the sealing item, it meant she intended to seal the spawner for a while.

Even though the spawner would become much more dangerous when the seal was lifted, no one would knowingly walk into such a situation without making preparations.

Normally, after sealing a spawner, people would either set up a lot of offensive or defensive structures nearby, or use the time to build up their strength until they’re ready to deal with the spawner.

Su You didn’t want to choose—she planned to do both.

She would build structures here and also accumulate fighting power. When the seal broke, that would be the day the spawner was destroyed.

Her greatest confidence came from Meck.

If Su You weren’t sure she could recruit Meck—knowing full well how strong he was—she wouldn’t dare. Even if hundreds of ghostly skeletons appeared at once in the future, he could handle them all with ease.

...

But the immediate problem was to deal with the ghostly skeletons already present. If they couldn’t even handle these, what was the point of sealing the spawner?

After learning about the sealing item, Su You placed the last two arrow towers she needed to build in suitable spots, then turned to Duoya.

“Want to try?” Su You’s meaning was clear—she wanted Duoya to operate the arrow tower.

Although using an arrow tower was different from shooting a bow, the attack methods were similar enough. Since Duoya was already an excellent archer, with the potential to become a master marksman, handling the arrow tower should be no problem.

Duoya didn’t waste words—she immediately took control of one of the arrow towers.

Once manually operated, the arrow tower could not only be aimed and fired by a person, but more importantly, it could benefit from the operator’s attribute bonuses.

The more compatible the operator’s attributes were with the structure, the higher the bonus and the greater the damage.

Duoya was an archer, so her compatibility with the arrow tower was self-evident. Plus, Su You hadn’t built a basic arrow tower this time, but an intermediate one...

The intermediate arrow tower required [Plank x5, Stone Brick x5, Rope x10]. The main difference between intermediate and basic arrow towers was the damage bonus.

A basic arrow tower had a base attack of 5, while an intermediate one had a base attack of 20—a full four times higher!

With the stone arrows’ built-in 10 attack, a single shot from the tower would deal 30 damage!

And with Duoya’s own bonuses, Su You saw that the tower’s attack had reached 45 (10+20+15).

In other words, Duoya’s presence added another 15 attack points to the tower.

The ghostly skeletons had 10 defense, so each shot dealt 35 damage. With 100 HP each, Duoya only needed to fire the intermediate arrow tower three times to kill one.

But that wasn’t enough. After all, two hands can’t beat many—over twenty ghostly skeletons couldn’t be handled just by killing one every three shots.

That’s why Su You built a second intermediate arrow tower, this one for herself.

Although she had no combat attributes and couldn’t add any bonuses, as long as she hit a ghostly skeleton, she could still deal 20 (10+20-10) damage—meaning five shots to kill one.

It wasn’t as fast as Duoya, but every kill helped.

...

While Duoya was testing out the arrow tower, Su You had already assigned Lake his task.

Since the two of them would be manning the arrow towers, the job of luring monsters naturally fell to Lake.

Unlike last time, this time the ghostly skeletons had all spawned from the spawner, so they were packed tightly together—disturbing one could set them all off.

---"

"101. Beginner Agility Potion

They were like dominoes—if Lake disturbed even one of them, the remaining twenty or so would all target him, toppling toward him one after another.

If he couldn’t escape in time, just a few hits from each of those twenty-odd ghostly skeletons would be enough to finish him off. After all, ghostly skeletons had a decent attack power—20 points each.

Although Lake was equipped with some gear, sheer numbers would overwhelm him. Having equipment just meant he wouldn’t die instantly, not that he wouldn’t die at all.

“Take this. If you find you can’t outrun them, drink it right away. Don’t try to save it—your life is more important than anything else.” As she spoke, Su You handed Lake the Beginner Agility Potion she’d been keeping for emergencies.

Seeing Lake’s curious look as he held the potion, Su You briefly explained, “It’ll boost your speed for five minutes.”

【Beginner Agility Potion】(Ingredients: Wind Millet Grass*1, Greenheart Herb*5, Water, Container)

Type: Potion

Quality: Green

Effect: +100 Movement Speed (Duration: 5 minutes)

Description: The main ingredient of the Beginner Agility Potion is Wind Millet Grass. When consumed, it can temporarily unlock the body’s potential, greatly increasing movement speed. Due to the strength of its effects, do not use consecutively. After each use, you must wait about one hour for the remaining effects to wear off (translation: 1-hour cooldown). If you use it again before the effects have fully worn off, you do so at your own risk.

So, what does a 100-point movement speed boost actually mean?

Here, a normal person’s walking speed is about 300, running is anywhere from 500 to 800, and only those with special talents or skills might reach 900. If you can hit 1,000… that’s fast enough to dodge attacks from some high-level non-human creatures.

So, a 100-point speed boost is actually quite significant. As long as nothing unexpected happens, if Lake drinks it in time, he’ll definitely make it back safely.

As for the potion’s ingredients, Su You had previously mentioned Wind Millet Grass—she kept one stalk as a seed, and used the other three to make just this one bottle of agility potion.

Greenheart Herb, on the other hand, is a special plant with no medicinal effects of its own, but it can enhance the properties of other herbs.

Not just agility potions—strength potions, healing potions, mana potions, and so on—all can use Greenheart Herb to boost their effects and reduce the amount of main ingredients needed.

Otherwise, the basic recipe for a Beginner Agility Potion would have been: [Wind Millet Grass*3, Water, Container].

But thanks to Greenheart Herb’s special properties, Su You was able to substitute it for some of the Wind Millet Grass in the recipe.

“Understood, my lord. Don’t worry.” Lake carefully took the potion. To make sure he could use it quickly, he didn’t even put it in his pocket—he just held it tightly in his hand.

With Lake’s task settled, Su You turned to Duoya. “How’s it going?”

Duoya, already at the top of the arrow tower, nodded at Su You, then demonstrated her skill by shooting an arrow that pierced three falling leaves in a row.

Lake, who had been about to leave, saw this and couldn’t help but blurt out an uncultured exclamation—

Lake: “That’s badass!”

Su You: “...” Did the system accidentally mix in some other data templates during import?

...

Although Lake had always admired Duoya’s skills because of the Black-striped Tiger incident, he’d never truly witnessed her abilities firsthand, so his admiration wasn’t all that deep.

But with that arrow, not only did Su You see that Duoya could handle the arrow tower perfectly, Lake also got a real sense of her strength, which boosted his confidence for the task ahead.

After watching Duoya’s display, Lake didn’t waste any time. Clutching the potion, he dashed behind the stone gate, then led a group of ghostly skeletons around the area three times—

This was the monster-pulling technique Su You had taught him.

Normally, to pull monsters, you’d just rush in to get their attention and then lead them back. That works, but the problem is it draws all the monsters at once, making them too densely packed and putting a lot of pressure on Su You and Duoya.

It’s best to take them out one by one—not scatter your attacks all over the place. But if the monsters are too tightly packed, even the best aim can’t prevent certain situations—for example, monsters crowding together and accidentally shielding each other.

Even with Duoya’s archery skills, she couldn’t avoid that.

But if you circle the area a few times with the ghostly skeletons in tow, their numbers will naturally thin out due to various factors.

There are many reasons for this—differences in movement speed, environmental obstacles, or even the monsters tripping over each other and knocking their companions down...

The goal is simple: to break up the dense mob into smaller, more manageable groups.

It sounds easy, but it’s actually quite difficult—especially since ghostly skeletons come with a “physical stealth” buff. Lake had to be extra careful when pulling them and planning his escape route.

Otherwise, if he tripped over a ghostly skeleton lying in wait, he’d be done for.

Luckily, nothing went wrong. After about three laps, Lake managed to bring five or six scattered ghostly skeletons to the front of the arrow tower.

To avoid friendly fire, Su You didn’t attack, but Duoya was different—she was confident enough to strike first, targeting one of the ghostly skeletons.

Although Lake was the initial aggro target, the hatred generated by an attack is always greater, so the skeleton Duoya hit naturally broke off from chasing Lake and started attacking the sturdy wooden barricade Su You had set up, trying to break through and reach the arrow tower and its occupant.

For her second shot, Duoya didn’t aim at the skeleton attacking the barricade, but instead targeted the remaining ones still chasing Lake. Just like before, her attack drew their aggro, luring them all to the barricade."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of the provided Chinese text:

---

102. Sealing the Ghost Stone Gate

Before the group of ghost skeletons could be lured over, Su You had already taken down the first one.

This was a tactic she and Doya had agreed on beforehand: Doya, with her superior archery, would attack the ghost skeletons behind Lake to draw them over, and then Su You would finish them off.

This way, Lake wouldn’t be chased for too long and exhaust himself, and Su You could attack without worrying about accidentally hurting him or wasting her own damage output.

Once the first wave of ghost skeletons was dealt with, Lake would bring over the second wave... and so on, until the fifth wave was finally lured to the arrow tower and taken out by Doya and Su You working together. Only then did things finally settle down.

...

The moment the last ghost skeleton fell, Lake collapsed onto the ground without a care for his image, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.

Su You knew exactly how exhausted he was—after all, he’d been running at full speed for over ten minutes.

What’s more, he not only had to run, but also stay alert to his surroundings at all times to avoid getting ambushed. No normal person could handle that much exertion... and Lake was just a regular person too. He wouldn’t have lasted if not for the agility potion Su You had given him—otherwise, he would’ve been down after seven or eight minutes.

Knowing how tired he was, Su You didn’t disturb his rest. She just had Doya bring him some food and water to help him recover, while she herself headed straight for the stone gate and picked up the black stone.

She circled the stone gate, feeling around carefully, and finally placed the black stone into a barely noticeable groove in the gate.

The moment the black stone was set in place, Su You received a notification that the stone gate could be sealed—

[Do you want to seal the Ghost Stone Gate?]

[Kind Reminder: While the Ghost Stone Gate is sealed, ghost skeletons will continue to spawn, but at a 30% reduced rate. Any ghost skeletons spawned during this period will be trapped inside the gate and unable to leave. Once the seal is lifted, all ghost skeletons generated during the seal will escape from the gate.]

Just as she expected.

Su You’s eyes flickered, then she pressed the black stone down firmly, making her choice with action.

[Ghost Stone Gate has been sealed. Seal duration: 120 hours.]

With the gate successfully sealed, Su You breathed a sigh of relief. She looked around, checking if there was anything else of value nearby.

But no matter how hard she looked, all she saw were flowers, grass, and trees—nothing else of any real worth.

Su You wasn’t disappointed, though; she hadn’t expected much to begin with. After returning to the area near the arrow tower, she started picking up the loot dropped by the ghost skeletons.

[Obtained Copper Coin x35]

[Obtained Copper Coin x17]

[Obtained Unknown Bone x6]

[Obtained Scale Powder x43]

...

The ghost skeletons mainly dropped three things. First, copper coins—no need to explain their use.

The other two were “Unknown Bones” and “Scale Powder.”

The “Unknown Bones” looked just like regular bones. Their main use was to be processed into “Bone Meal,” which is one of the ingredients for “Growth Fertilizer.”

Growth Fertilizer, as the name suggests, is used on crops to reduce their growth time.

The higher the grade of the crop, the less effective the fertilizer becomes, and each plant can only be fertilized a limited number of times—usually five.

Besides making bone meal for fertilizer, bones had other uses too: they could be crafted into bone spikes (weapons), bone clubs (weapons), or even some rather creepy decorations like skull vases, skull ornaments, or skull tables.

As for the other material, scale powder, it was a white powder that dissolved in water—a common alchemy ingredient.

Speaking of alchemy, it’s worth mentioning how it differs from potion-making. The biggest and most obvious difference is the raw materials.

Potion-making uses herbs as ingredients, and the process is delicate—every step must be precise, or the potion could fail. At best, it just won’t work; at worst, a healing potion could turn into deadly poison.

Alchemy, on the other hand, uses all sorts of materials. Besides scale powder, anything could be used—berries, herbs, ores, animal skins, teeth... all kinds of odds and ends.

Alchemy is all about experimentation—“There are only materials you can’t get, not things you can’t make.” That’s no joke.

Of course, just because you can throw things together doesn’t mean you’ll get anything useful—without the right recipe, who knows what you’ll end up with.

Su You, however, knew an alchemy recipe involving scale powder. Using it as the main ingredient, along with a few other materials of similar properties, she could make a transparent solution.

Applying this solution to the body would coat it in a thin film, making the user nearly as invisible as a ghost skeleton—a common concealment (not true invisibility) item.

...

After cleaning up all the loot, Su You took out the remaining materials from her backpack and began setting up more defenses—preparing for when the seal would break in five days.

By then, she’d probably have recruited Meike and would bring him along to deal with the ghost skeletons. But that was just the plan—plans rarely keep up with changes, and Su You had altered her plans plenty of times before due to unexpected events. So she had to be prepared.

While Su You was busy setting up defenses, Lake, now rested, came over to ask if she needed anything. Seeing her shake her head, he headed off to the mine to continue digging.

Although he hadn’t brought a pickaxe this time, Su You had already built a wooden chest at the usual mining spot. It was stocked with everything Lake needed: pickaxe, whetstone, basic healing potions, and enough food for two or three days.

There was even a wooden cart parked there for transporting stone.

Once Lake left, only Su You and Doya remained in the area."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

103. Sister Yun

After Lake left, Duoya glanced around and felt there was nothing else for her to do. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should say goodbye to Su You before heading back to her territory...

If it were before, she definitely wouldn’t have gone back so early. She would have taken her weapon and wandered around the area, looking for any prey. But now, she hadn’t recovered yet, and she didn’t have her weapon, so hunting was out of the question.

Whether it was just a coincidence or not, just as Duoya approached Su You to say goodbye, Su You suddenly stopped what she was doing and said she wanted to take Duoya somewhere.

Duoya was momentarily surprised, but she agreed right away.

Because of her injury and recovery, she was probably the most idle person in the whole base. She had nothing to do all day. Although no one minded, she herself was starting to get restless from boredom.

Since she had nothing else to do, she might as well go. She trusted that Su You wouldn’t harm her.

So, after finishing up the last thing she was working on, Su You led Duoya back the way they came... But before they reached the territory, about halfway there, Su You took her off in another direction.

After walking for about ten more minutes, Su You stopped.

Duoya looked around but didn’t notice anything unusual, so she stopped as well.

“Lord, what is it...?”

Facing Duoya’s puzzled gaze, Su You remained calm. She pointed to a few nearby trees and said, “This one is a willow.”

Then she pointed to another, “This is red maple.”

As Su You spoke, Duoya’s gaze followed the direction of her finger.

“These are all good materials for making bows. Pick whichever one you like.” As she’d said before, when it comes to weapons, what matters most is how well they suit you—especially for someone as specialized as Duoya.

This spot had been discovered by Lyle by chance while he was chopping wood. He knew Su You needed wood for making bows, so he told her about it. Su You then decided to bring Duoya here to pick out her own materials.

At first, Duoya didn’t quite get it, but when Su You introduced the first type of tree, she understood her intention.

After all, as an archer, she couldn’t not know which woods were suitable for making bows.

She looked at the trees and gave a universal answer—

“Any of them will do.”

Su You: “...”

‘Any of them,’ ‘whatever’—words that sound easygoing, but in reality are the hardest to deal with.

Noticing Su You’s slightly odd expression, Duoya paused and explained, “It’s mainly because none of these are my favorite materials. So to me, it doesn’t really matter which one I use.”

Ah, that made sense...

Wood might all look similar, but in reality, weapons made from different types of wood can be quite different.

Some woods feel better in the hand, some are lighter or heavier, some are more flexible and can bend further...

If you translate these differences into attributes, some woods make bows with higher accuracy (feel, draw), some make bows with higher base attack (power, heavy bows), some have faster attack speed (speed, light bows), and some shoot farther (flexibility, longbows), and so on.

Duoya preferred light bows, since she was agile and quick, and her physical abilities made light bows the natural choice for her.

“If you want a light bow...” Su You frowned slightly, then relaxed. “The best wood for a light bow is purple cedar. It’s rare, but not impossible to find. If we come across some in the future, we’ll collect it and make you a proper bow.”

As for now... Even if these woods weren’t ideal, something was better than nothing. It was better for Duoya to use a bow than any other weapon.

Su You took a bronze axe from her backpack and collected some of each type of wood suitable for bow-making.

[Obtained Willow Wood x15]

[Obtained Red Maple x13]

[Obtained Cloud Oak x16]

...

Making a bow required six pieces of the corresponding wood, so after gathering about two sets of each, Su You stopped.

“Let’s go back.”

With that, Su You and Duoya returned to the territory.

...

...

“Sister Yun, look over there... Is that a small territory?” In the forest, a man seemed to spot something. He hurried excitedly to the person ahead, pointing in a direction as he spoke.

The woman called ‘Sister Yun’ looked where he pointed, pausing slightly.

She glanced back at the group behind her, then decisively gave an order.

“We’ve had a long, tiring journey. Although we’ve gained a lot, there’s no need to push ourselves so hard... Since everyone’s tired, let’s rest at that territory for a while.” As soon as she said this, the group—who really were exhausted—immediately perked up.

They started praising Sister Yun’s wisdom as they gathered their things and made their way toward the territory.

This was a small merchant caravan, with only about a dozen people, but they carried more goods than other caravans twice their size.

That was why Sister Yun said they’d had a fruitful trip.

They’d been lucky. This was only their second time running this trade route, and like before, they’d only brought a cartload of local specialties to test the waters. But it just so happened that the place they went to had recently suffered a disaster, and the goods they brought were exactly what the locals desperately needed... So, the result was obvious—they made a huge profit.

They’d traded things of little value for a large amount of valuable goods. “Fruitful” didn’t even begin to describe their gains.

But with so much cargo and so few people, it would be hard to protect everything.

Even though this was only their third time trading, they weren’t fools.

At the trading post, they’d already sensed a lot of unfriendly eyes on them. The others didn’t know their strength and, having just suffered a disaster, were in a weakened state, so they didn’t dare act rashly.

Sister Yun didn’t give them a chance to find out more, either. After the deal, she pretended to accept their invitation to stay, but actually kept everyone on alert, packed up their goods, and slipped away in the night..."

"104. Seeking Shelter

You could say that this journey has been all about braving the elements—eating on the go, sleeping under the stars. Despite their considerable wealth, there simply weren’t any places to restock along the way, so everyone ended up looking bedraggled and dusty… But then again, this was the path they chose for themselves.

They’d left in a hurry, worried they wouldn’t be able to protect their goods, so how could they possibly take the crowded, well-traveled main roads?

That’s why, when they suddenly spotted a territory up ahead, their delight was genuine and not at all exaggerated—they truly were overjoyed at the prospect of finally getting a proper rest.

But just as everyone was celebrating the thought of a comfortable place to stay, they caught a glimpse of the territory’s “true face.”

In an instant, the joy on everyone’s faces was replaced by disappointment.

“This… must be a newly established, small territory, right?”

Even though Su You had spent an entire day renovating the place two days ago, she was limited by the materials at hand. No matter how skilled she was, there was no way she could turn a pile of stones into something grand and luxurious.

So when the small caravan saw the neat but still rather crude stone walls and gate, it was impossible for them not to feel let down.

Still, none of them really minded.

After all, out here in the wilderness, just having a territory to offer them a place to rest was already a stroke of luck—how much more could they really expect?

No matter how poor the conditions, this was still a territory protected by the Heartfire of the city!

That was a huge step up from sleeping in tents every night and having to post guards in shifts.

“Actually, having things this basic is a good thing for us,” Sister Yun said, her words clearly carrying a deeper meaning.

Those who understood her immediately felt their disappointment melt away, replaced by a sense of relief.

“Sister Yun is right,” someone agreed. Others, not quite catching on, tugged at their companions’ sleeves, quietly seeking an explanation.

One of them sighed at the confusion on their faces, then lowered his voice and explained, “There are pros and cons to good conditions, and pros and cons to bad ones. A new territory like this means there aren’t many people, and their fighting strength is weak… Of course, we wouldn’t do anything bad, but it pays to be cautious.” In other words, while the conditions here were poor, the territory posed little threat to them. They didn’t have to worry about anyone getting greedy over their goods, and even if someone did, they wouldn’t be much trouble to handle.

The few who hadn’t understood now saw the light, and their feelings shifted to relief, just like the others.

While they were discussing this, Sister Yun had already gone up to knock on the stone gate by herself.

A moment later, the gate opened, revealing a young, delicate-looking woman—Dolly, who had been left behind to “watch the house.”

Dolly glanced at the group and quickly guessed who they were. After all, she’d once been part of a caravan herself and knew all the telltale signs. Plus, before leaving, Su You had mentioned that a caravan or some lone merchants might be arriving soon…

Although Dolly didn’t know how Su You could have known that, it didn’t affect her trust in her “Lady Lord.”

“You are…?” Even though she’d already figured out their identity and could guess their purpose from their appearance, Dolly still put on a wary and slightly confused expression.

Don’t be fooled by how obedient and harmless she seemed around Su You—she’d taken part in plenty of caravan trades, met all sorts of people, and heard her share of strange stories. She was hardly some naïve little flower.

Her previous misfortune had just been a matter of bad luck and a foolish teammate—otherwise, things would never have turned out that way…

Seeing that the gatekeeper was such a young woman, Sister Yun’s gaze and tone softened.

“Sorry to bother you. We’re a caravan passing through. We’re willing to pay something in exchange for a few days’ shelter and a chance to rest,” Sister Yun said, then waited quietly for Dolly’s reply.

She could tell that this young woman wasn’t the type to be difficult, so unless something unexpected happened, she didn’t think her request would be refused.

Of course, not refusing didn’t necessarily mean agreeing, but everything could be negotiated.

They weren’t expecting to stay for free—they’d pay for their lodging. This was a small territory that probably lacked everything, while they were fully stocked and had plenty to offer. There was no way they couldn’t afford a place to stay.

Hearing Sister Yun’s words, Dolly hesitated for a moment, then turned around and said something to someone inside. A young man soon came over to take her place.

This was Lyle, who had also been left behind to “watch the house.”

“If you just want to rest, we can let you in. But as for staying overnight…” Lyle trailed off, not finishing his sentence.

Sister Yun found this a bit odd but said nothing, assuming they just wanted more compensation. She gestured to the people behind her.

One of them quickly pulled something from their chest and hurried over.

Since Dolly had stepped aside, she couldn’t see what it was, but Lyle immediately recognized it as a high-quality piece of fabric.

Judging by the amount, it was enough to make at least three sets of clothing (top and bottom). As for the attributes, that would depend on the other materials and the maker’s skill.

At Sister Yun’s signal, the person holding the fabric tried to hand it to Lyle, but he quickly waved it away and didn’t accept.

“Um…” Lyle frowned slightly, unsure how to address her.

“My surname is Yun—Yun Li. I’m the leader of this caravan,” Sister Yun—Yun Li—introduced herself simply, then waited to see what Lyle would say next.

If it was just about wanting more payment, Yun Li thought he was being a bit too coy, so there must be another reason for his reluctance.

“Captain Yun, you misunderstand. That’s not what we meant. We’re just residents of this territory—we don’t have the authority to let you stay,” Lyle explained, and Yun Li suddenly understood."

"105. Checking In at the Waystation

No wonder…

No wonder she’d felt like something was off…

If this were a big city, it wouldn’t matter—city gates wide open, people coming and going as they pleased, so naturally there’d be no issue.

But this was just a small territory, clearly not open to outsiders yet. Of course, they couldn’t come and go as freely as in a big city.

And as for whether they could stay the night, that was something only the lord of the territory could decide once they returned.

No matter how many nice things she said or how many gifts she offered, it would only put these two in a difficult position.

After all, they were just residents—they couldn’t make decisions for the territory.

Once Yun Li understood, Lyle continued, “Our lord had some business outside, but he’ll be back before noon at the latest.”

Hearing this, Yun Li responded accordingly.

“I misunderstood. In that case, we’ll just rest here for a while. As for staying the night, we’ll discuss it again once your lord returns.”

Lyle nodded slightly, then he and Dolly opened the stone gate to the territory.

Yun Li signaled to her group to enter in an orderly fashion, carrying their belongings without making any unnecessary moves. She even had the person who’d just taken out some cloth put it back, reminding everyone not to do anything extra.

And so, Lyle and Dolly led them into the waystation.

This waystation, like the tavern, didn’t just have its special function—its basic facilities were all in place as well.

For example, a tavern sells food and drink, while a waystation is like an inn, providing temporary lodging for guests.

The waystation wasn’t large. The first floor was a dining area, and the upper floors were for lodging. There were two more floors above the first: the second floor had eight double rooms—two on each side, and four in the middle row.

The third floor had ten single rooms—three on each side, and four in the middle.

So, in total, there were eighteen rooms, able to accommodate twenty-six people. It wasn’t a lot, but since the caravan wasn’t that big, it was more than enough for their dozen or so people.

Like the tavern, the waystation could be expanded later. But in the early stages, its special function was used more than its basic facilities, so whether it was expanded or not didn’t really matter.

“This is our waystation,” Lyle said. “As you can see, we’re just a small territory, so things are rather simple.” Though he spoke of their humble conditions, there wasn’t a hint of embarrassment on his face.

He could say his territory was simple, and everyone knew he was just stating a fact, not being self-deprecating. But they, as guests, couldn’t show any hint of disdain.

“We’re just borrowing a place to stay—how could we mind?” Yun Li replied, her expression unchanged, showing not the slightest trace of dislike.

They’d slept in tents out in the wilderness before—how could they possibly complain about having a roof over their heads?

Besides, from what she could see, though the territory was small, the buildings were neatly arranged, the ground was clean and level, and the roads had all the basic amenities—lighting, benches, flower beds, and so on.

Aside from the limited number of buildings, it wasn’t much different from some small towns.

To have an environment like this was already beyond Yun Li’s expectations.

She’d even worried there might not be anywhere to stay inside the territory, and that they’d have to pitch tents anyway. But thankfully, things weren’t as bad as she’d feared.

“We’ll just rest here for a while, then. There are sixteen of us, but we have a lot of stuff. If we wanted to rent out the whole waystation, how much would it cost?” Even though there were only sixteen people, they had a lot of luggage—enough big and small chests to fill six or seven rooms.

The important small items could be kept on them, but the larger things couldn’t.

But they couldn’t leave their things outside the territory, nor could they just pile them up on the road, so they’d have to store them in the waystation.

From the earlier conversation, Yun Li had gathered that aside from the lord and the residents, there were no other outsiders in the territory. That meant they could have the whole waystation to themselves.

So she decided to just rent out the whole place.

Lyle thought for a moment, then replied, “We never expected outsiders to visit, so these buildings aren’t open for business, and there’s no set price. This is something we’ll have to discuss with the lord when he returns.”

Yun Li didn’t press the issue, instead urging her people to get organized and rest while they could, in case the lord refused to let them stay overnight. At least they’d have had a day’s rest.

Seeing that they were settling in, Lyle realized that as an “outsider,” his presence would only make them uncomfortable. After a few polite words with Yun Li, he prepared to leave.

“I’m Lyle, and the one who opened the gate earlier was Dolly. We live in the house across from the waystation. If you need anything, just come find us.”

“Thank you for your help,” Yun Li replied. Lyle nodded to them, then left the waystation.

…

After leaving, Lyle saw Dolly waiting outside.

“…They seem like a well-behaved group,” he said, taking a couple of steps forward and briefly recounting what had happened, sharing his impression.

Dolly nodded—she clearly agreed.

After all, she’d seen her share of “wild” caravans, but this was the first time she’d encountered such a harmonious small group.

That’s right—actually, the atmosphere in many small caravans wasn’t very good. Ironically, the big caravans with hundreds or even thousands of people—often thought to be full of trouble—actually had much better internal environments.

Small caravans had fewer people, but everyone was there for money.

The fewer the people, the less complete the rules and profit-sharing, so disputes over money were more likely—hence the bad atmosphere.

Big caravans were different: more people, clear divisions of labor, everyone with their own job.

Each person had their own role, and profits were distributed according to the work done. Even if someone envied another for earning more, it was because that person had worked harder."

"106. A Good Opportunity

In situations like this, most people would simply feel envious.

But if someone were to feel jealous, that kind of person would quickly be ostracized from the caravan’s social circle, and before long, they’d be kicked out altogether. After all, any leader with a brain wouldn’t allow a “pest” like that—someone who could poison the atmosphere—to remain and affect others, disrupting the harmony of the whole caravan.

After listening to Dory’s thoughts and explanations, Lyle gained a deeper understanding of the caravan—and found himself admiring the woman he’d just been speaking with.

“So, this small caravan is doing well, probably because it’s well managed and the profits are distributed fairly?”

Dory nodded, confirming his words and adding, “Besides profit-sharing, there’s also the outcome of this trip’s trade…”

If the trading journey didn’t go well, there wouldn’t be any profits to share at all. Everyone would have worked for nothing, and the mood would naturally be sour.

“I see… In short, it all comes down to Captain Yun’s abilities.” Lyle summed it up in a single sentence.

Why is the profit distribution fair? Because the captain manages things well and arranges everything properly!

Why do the trades go smoothly and end with good results? Because the captain is capable, able to negotiate for more and walk away with gains!

Although not every caravan is run solely by its captain, that’s usually the case—and certainly true for this one. Otherwise, the others wouldn’t follow Captain Yun’s orders so willingly.

“That’s right,” Dory replied, a faint look of envy in her eyes as she recalled that woman.

After all, being able to lead a caravan and trade everywhere had once been her dream. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have loved tagging along with caravans so much.

But after what happened with Qinyao, that dream had faded…

Maybe it was because she’d opened up to Su You just yesterday, finally letting out what she’d bottled up for so long. Dory felt much lighter now. Even though thinking about it still affected her, it wasn’t as bad as before.

After that, Dory headed to the tailor’s shop to continue her work—after all, her repair skill still hadn’t leveled up.

Her top priority now was to level up her skill as soon as possible so she could help the lord repair a certain “item.”

That “item” referred to the “Damaged Fire Demon Armor” Su You had found in the Fire Demon Lord’s treasure chest.

Although the armor was currently gray quality, the ability to repair items depended on their original quality.

In other words, as a beginner repairer, Dory could only fix items up to green quality. With great luck, special materials, or certain buffs, she might manage blue quality or higher.

But the Fire Demon Armor, in its original state, was blue quality.

With Dory busy, Lyle didn’t idle either. He went down to the creek, picked up a hoe, and started turning the soil.

He’d just seen this new task posted on the bounty board that morning—it looked like the lord wanted to open up new farmland, so the task was to till the earth.

Lyle didn’t think too much about the reason; he just accepted the task and got to work.

As for chopping wood… The lord had mentioned that the wood stores were more than full—there were over a thousand units in the warehouse, taking up more than a dozen slots. Even if he chopped more, there’d be nowhere to put it.

Given that, Lyle decided to take it easy and do some other work for a change—and get in a bit of combat training at the same time.

Combat skills, like life skills, gained proficiency through repeated practice.

But while life skills could be leveled up just by crafting as long as you had materials—like Dory at the tailor’s—combatants couldn’t always go out looking for monsters to fight.

Not only would that be dangerous, but there just weren’t that many monsters or creatures to hunt. Still, not having opponents didn’t mean they couldn’t improve their combat skills.

They could still practice their moves to gain proficiency, though progress was slower and there was a cap. But it was better than nothing.

So, after Lyle finished tilling a row of land and turning in the task, he took out the fang dagger Su You had given him and began practicing his moves on a tree.

…

Who knows how much time passed before the stone gate of the territory creaked open—Su You and Doya had returned.

Hmm?

Wait!

Was there someone else with them?!

Lyle stopped what he was doing and hurried over to Su You. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a young girl, her face showing anger and unease as Doya restrained her. He only glanced at her before turning his attention away.

Then, Lyle recounted everything about Yun Li and the caravan, as well as the impressions and opinions he and Dory had formed about them.

“…Just like Dory said, this caravan may be small, but their profits are definitely substantial… My lord, this is a great opportunity.” Lyle especially emphasized how much cargo they’d brought—enough to fill five or six rooms—and his tone was tinged with excitement.

It really was a great opportunity!

The more goods the caravan had, the more they could trade for. If they managed to get something valuable, the territory’s development would only accelerate.

“I understand. Thank you, both you and Dory, for your hard work.” Su You glanced at the inn, then pointed to the girl Doya was holding and continued, “They’re probably still resting, so let’s not disturb them for now. I’ll take this young lady to the tavern for a chat. If Captain Yun or anyone else from the caravan wakes up, please bring them over.”

“You’re too kind, my lord. I’ll keep watch here.” Lyle had trained enough for the day—he’d nearly maxed out his daily proficiency gain, and could save the rest for later.

As Lyle finished speaking, the girl in Doya’s grasp glared, then looked at Su You in disbelief."

"107. Slaying the Long-tailed Crocodile

""Are you the lord here?"" When the girl said this, she even forgot to struggle.

Even so, Duoya didn’t loosen her grip on the girl.

She had no choice—this little girl was simply too slippery. If Su You hadn’t used her construction skills earlier, they probably wouldn’t have been able to catch this little trickster at all.

In fact, when they first caught her, Duoya almost let her go because she felt sorry for her... Who could blame her? The way the girl looked, all pitiful and in pain, was just too convincing, so Duoya couldn’t help but loosen her hold.

If Su You hadn’t arrived in time, the girl would have probably escaped again.

This little liar...

“I’m going to the tavern first then... By the way, where’s Dolly?” Faced with the girl’s question, Su You didn’t respond and simply chose to ignore her.

When the girl saw she was being ignored, she puffed up her cheeks in annoyance. With her baby face, she actually looked rather cute.

But at the moment, no one had the time to care, so no one noticed this scene.

“She’s at the tailor’s, said she needs to keep repairing and upgrading some things.”

“Alright, got it. You go get some rest.” With that, Su You glanced back at Duoya, then led the girl into the tavern together.

...

...

Once inside the tavern, Su You told Duoya to let go of Buguo... That’s right, the girl they’d caught was none other than Buguo, the second NPC Su You had recruited at the tavern.

As for why she’d been caught by Su You and Duoya, that story started about an hour earlier...

One hour ago—

Su You had just finished gathering wood for making bows and arrows, and was preparing to return to the territory with Duoya.

On the way back, Duoya said she wanted to check out the long-tailed crocodiles—the same creatures Su You had mentioned before and wanted her help dealing with.

The reason they needed to be dealt with was because Su You had spotted some important resources in the area guarded by the long-tailed crocodiles. The crocodiles acted as guardians of those resources, like some kind of beast protectors.

Su You didn’t know why Duoya suddenly wanted to go there, but since it wasn’t far, she took her along.

When they arrived at the crocodiles’ location, Duoya said she could take them all out right now, as long as she had a bow.

So Su You had a few options.

One, she could handcraft a bow and arrows for Duoya to use, but the success rate for handmade ones was too low. Another option was to set up a workbench on the spot and craft the bow and arrows there. The third option was to return to the territory, use the workbench there to make the weapons, and then come back to deal with the crocodiles.

After confirming with Duoya that she could take care of the crocodiles right away, Su You didn’t hesitate—she set up a workbench on the spot and started crafting.

Following Duoya’s suggestion, Su You chose red maple wood for the bow. The materials needed were: [Red Maple Wood x6, Advanced String x3].

The wood could be substituted with any other type in the same quantity, and advanced string was crafted the same way as cloth scraps: 5 string = 1 advanced string (or cloth scrap).

Cloth scraps could be further combined into cloth and fine cloth, but advanced string couldn’t be upgraded any further.

Once the ‘Red Maple Bow’ was finished, Duoya weighed it in her hands, then skillfully took the stone arrows Su You handed her, nocked them, and aimed at the nearest long-tailed crocodile.

[Long-tailed Crocodile]

HP: 250/250

Attack: 30~50 (Tail attack range +1)

Defense: 15

...

Just looking at those stats, it was clear how tough these crocodiles were.

But no matter how tough they were, their strong territorial instincts meant they couldn’t even get along with their own kind, so there were only four long-tailed crocodiles here.

Most likely, these four were a family—otherwise, they’d never coexist so peacefully.

With so few of them, Duoya felt that each long-tailed crocodile, which was almost as strong as two ghost skeletons, was actually easier to handle than eight ghost skeletons.

The bow made from red maple was a heavy bow, so its base attack was higher.

A bow with a base attack of 20 gained an extra 5 points thanks to the red maple wood, and the chances for armor-piercing and critical hits went up from 1% to 1.5%.

The damage calculation for bows and arrows was similar to that of arrow towers: base bow damage + base arrow damage + user’s attribute bonuses.

The advantage of bows and arrows, though, was that attack speed depended mostly on the user, while arrow towers were limited by their own reload speed. So in terms of attack speed, using a bow directly was superior.

Bows and arrows were also more affected by the user’s attributes than arrow towers.

That didn’t mean arrow towers were worse, though—they had greater range, assisted aiming, and some defensive durability.

...In short, there was no absolute good or bad, only what was suitable.

After Su You finished the red maple bow and handed it to Duoya, she watched as Duoya immediately took out three arrows, nocked them all at once, and aimed at the nearest long-tailed crocodile—

-

45-

45-

90! (Critical hit)

...

With just that one attack, Duoya dealt 180 damage in one go, instantly reducing the crocodile’s HP to a third. With only 70 HP left out of 250, two more arrows would finish it off.

But before Duoya could attack again, the wounded crocodile and the others naturally weren’t just going to stand there and take it. The attacked crocodile charged at Duoya first.

By then, Su You, who had no combat ability, had already retreated to a safe distance, giving Duoya plenty of space to fight.

The long-tailed crocodile had a decent attack range, but it was a classic short-legged croc.

Crocodiles aren’t exactly slow, but those short legs meant it couldn’t even outrun a normal person... let alone Duoya, who specialized in agility as an archer. Dodging the crocodile’s attacks while shooting back was no big deal for someone who could go toe-to-toe with a Black-striped Tiger.

So Su You just stood by and watched Duoya show off against three crocodiles... Why three?

Because before the first crocodile could even get close, it had already turned into a pile of loot on the ground."

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**108. No More Pretending**

After playing a game of hide-and-seek with the remaining three long-tailed crocodiles, not a single one was left alive. All of them had turned into loot scattered across the ground.

After that, Su You didn’t rush to collect the loot. Instead, she took Duoya and headed into the pool where the long-tailed crocodiles lived—

Because what Su You needed was right there!

Let’s set aside what treasures they found after going in. The point is, when they came back out, they discovered that much of the loot from the crocodiles had vanished.

Especially the money—not a single copper coin remained.

You have to understand, while the corpse of the Fire Demon Leader had a time limit and would disappear after a while, these loot drops were different. They wouldn’t just vanish for no reason… unless someone else had taken them.

Originally, Su You thought there weren’t many people around, so it was fine to leave the loot there and collect it later. The most important thing was to quickly retrieve the item guarded by the crocodiles… But she never expected that, in this deserted wilderness, someone would actually pass by at just the right moment—and steal their spoils!

And that person was none other than Buguo, the girl Su You and Duoya had brought to the tavern.

…

…

Back to the present: after being released, Buguo’s first instinct was to try and leave… But if they were outside, maybe she could have gotten away. Here, though, on Su You’s turf, how could she possibly let Buguo escape?

So, in the end, Buguo didn’t even make it to the tavern door.

Maybe Su You and Duoya had already guessed this would happen, so neither of them tried to stop her.

“What… what are you going to do to me?” Realizing her efforts were useless, Buguo pouted, then turned around and put on a pitiful, aggrieved expression, hoping to win some sympathy from the two in front of her.

If Su You hadn’t already known she was a little trickster, and if Duoya didn’t know she was the one who’d stolen the loot, they might really have been fooled by this pitiful act.

After all, Buguo’s appearance was still very deceiving.

Her adoptive grandmother had died when she was only twelve. She’d been wandering for over two years since then, which meant she wasn’t even fifteen yet.

Not even fifteen!

In a normal society, she wouldn’t even be in high school yet!

So even if they knew she’d stolen from them, there was no way they’d do anything too harsh to a kid her age.

Still, even if they wouldn’t hurt her, Su You was determined to make her hand over everything she’d taken.

“Pretending won’t work on me. I’m not buying it.” Faced with Buguo’s pitiful look, Su You’s expression didn’t waver in the slightest.

She knew Buguo’s story, and she knew the kid was genuinely pitiful, but that didn’t mean she’d let her off for stealing from them.

Besides, she was hoping to recruit her.

Originally, Su You had hoped that once Buguo arrived in the territory, she could win her over with sincerity. But since their first encounter had gone so badly, if she just let Buguo go now, the girl would simply run off—recruitment would be out of the question.

So Su You had to think of another way… but that was easier said than done.

Though she sighed inwardly and felt conflicted, none of it showed on her face.

She looked up at Buguo, who, since Su You’s last remark, had changed expressions faster than flipping a page—pitiful and aggrieved one moment, now wary and cold the next.

“Since you already know, I won’t pretend anymore.” With that, Buguo steeled herself and opened her small cloth bag.

She moved so fast that the other two didn’t even see what was inside before she pulled out a handful of copper coins and some other items, placing them all on the table.

Once everything was out, she quickly closed the bag again. “I admit I took the stuff, but can you really blame me? In a place like that, who’d have thought the loot belonged to someone?”

Su You had been examining the items, but when she heard this, she glanced up, picked up one of the things, and looked at Buguo with a half-smile.

“You said it yourself—in a place like that, how could there possibly be ownerless loot?”

Buguo was at a loss for words, staring at the item in Su You’s hand, unable to reply for a long moment.

Of course she knew the loot belonged to someone. After all, how could a pile of loot just appear in the middle of nowhere?

Someone must have killed the monsters and just hadn’t picked up the drops yet!

Well, there was another possibility: wild beasts fighting each other to the death… but that clearly didn’t fit this situation, since Duoya used a bow and arrow.

And what Su You had picked up was a stone arrowhead.

If Su You hadn’t even picked up the loot, how could she have had time to retrieve her arrows?

In other words, besides the crocodile loot, there were arrows all over the ground… If there were arrows, it meant people had been there. What, did the beasts suddenly learn to use bows and arrows?

Having her “I didn’t know” excuse exposed, Buguo just gave up, slumping in defeat and not bothering to explain further.

She realized that, although this female lord didn’t plan to let her off, she didn’t seem intent on harming her either… So, whatever happened, she’d just accept it.

Su You finished checking the loot, said something to Duoya, and then Duoya left the tavern—making sure to close the door behind her.

Once Duoya was gone, Su You’s gaze fell on Buguo.

Feeling Su You’s eyes on her, Buguo kept her head down, lips pressed tight, clutching her bag even tighter.

…She… shouldn’t be able to tell, right?

Because Buguo kept her head down, she didn’t see what Su You was doing. She only knew the woman who’d caught her had left, and now it was just her and the female lord.

Just as her curiosity was about to get the better of her and she was about to look up to see what Su You was plotting, a hand suddenly appeared in her field of vision, palm up.

“What are you doing?” Buguo’s eyes darted nervously as she looked up, meeting Su You’s gaze—she hadn’t even noticed when Su You had gotten so close.

Startled, Buguo hugged her little bag and jumped back a few steps, tense as a frightened young animal.

“Nothing. I just want you to hand over everything you took.” Su You watched her expression, then looked at the bag she was clutching tightly…"

"109. Beast Core

“It was you who stole something—don’t act like I’m the one bullying you, okay?” There was a hint of helplessness in Su You’s tone.

All she could say was, little liar really lived up to her name… No wonder the system had tagged her as a “little liar.”

At first, Su You thought that when Buguo realized her attempt at playing weak hadn’t worked, she’d hand over everything she’d taken just to protect herself… And throughout the whole process, Su You hadn’t noticed anything off in her demeanor—at least, nothing that raised any red flags.

But just to be safe, Su You double-checked all the loot.

Once she finished counting everything, Su You realized that Buguo had still been putting on an act.

Not only had she hidden something and not handed it over, but what she’d hidden was actually the most valuable item among all the loot.

This particular item wasn’t even a guaranteed drop, but before leaving, Su You had glanced at the items on the ground and vaguely remembered seeing it—though she hadn’t been sure if her eyes had deceived her.

Originally, when she reached out and asked Buguo to hand over the items, it was just a test. But now, combined with Buguo’s behavior, Su You’s uncertainty had turned into absolute certainty.

No matter how skilled Buguo was, she was still just a teenager. She might have been able to lie and put on a perfect act at first, but in the end, Su You still managed to trick her into revealing herself.

“I admit I took something, but I’ve already handed everything over,” Buguo said, hesitating for a few seconds before replying with feigned confidence.

Seeing that Buguo refused to admit it, Su You took two steps closer.

Buguo immediately shrank back… This time, it wasn’t an act—just a pure, instinctive reaction.

“I may not have picked up the items myself, but I know exactly what was there. You know better than I do whether you took a round, emerald-green bead.” That emerald-green bead was actually a beast core—a rare material with an extremely low drop rate.

Beast cores had many uses: they could be used to make potions, for alchemy, to craft weapons and equipment, or as enchanting materials… The stronger the beast, the lower the drop rate of its core, but the better its effects.

What Buguo had taken was the Long-tailed Crocodile’s beast core. The Long-tailed Crocodile was a formidable beast, so its core was at least of green quality—possibly even blue.

From Su You’s memory, even a white-quality beast core was worth several, even dozens of gold coins. Green ones went for a hundred gold, and anything above green was priceless—rare and impossible to find on the market.

When Buguo realized Su You really knew she’d hidden something, her face instantly went pale.

Given the situation, her best option was to hand over the beast core. If she did, things would probably end there—after all, if Su You really wanted to hurt her, she wouldn’t bother with all this talk.

Even if Buguo had no combat ability, Su You could easily handle a child—and she still had weapons in her backpack.

But Buguo didn’t hand over the beast core.

Su You frowned, but instead of acting, she asked, “Do you know what a beast core is?”

Buguo was silent for a moment, then nodded slightly.

“What do you need money for?” As soon as she finished the first question, Su You followed up with another that seemed completely unrelated.

It seemed unrelated, but when Buguo heard it, her eyes widened and she stared straight at Su You.

“How…how did you know I needed money?” As soon as Buguo said it, she regretted it, but it was too late to take it back. She could only stand there, dumbfounded.

How did she know? She guessed, of course.

After all, beast cores had only two uses: to sell for money, or to craft something.

Buguo clearly didn’t have the skills to craft anything herself. If she wanted something made, she’d have to hire someone—and that cost money. Especially since beast cores were high-level materials, she’d need someone with advanced skills, which would be even more expensive.

Most likely, Buguo only recognized the beast core, but didn’t really understand it, so she had no idea what it could be used for.

If she truly understood beast cores, she wouldn’t have just tossed it into her bag so casually… After all, beast cores weren’t just useful to humans—beasts could also consume them to grow stronger. Their allure was on par with that white ermine.

Of course, Su You wasn’t about to say all that out loud.

“What do you need the money for?” Su You didn’t answer Buguo’s question, but pressed her own.

When Buguo still didn’t seem willing to answer, Su You added, “You know what the situation is. If I wanted to use force, I wouldn’t bother with all this talking.”

Buguo knew Su You was right, but she still pressed her lips together and stayed silent, lowering her head so her messy hair covered her eyes, making it impossible to tell what she was thinking.

Su You said, “If you cooperate and answer my questions, maybe we can work something out.”

She’d long expected Buguo would be hard to recruit, but when actually faced with such a difficult NPC, Su You was more than capable of handling it.

After all, she’d met plenty of “weird and troublesome” NPCs before; in terms of being difficult, Buguo didn’t even crack the top ten.

The fact that she was just a child put her at a huge disadvantage.

Maybe Su You’s words got through to her, because Buguo’s head gave a little shake, and then she slowly looked up. “I need the money to pay the church… for a soul burial.”

The church… soul burial?

Su You silently repeated those words, and roughly understood Buguo’s goal.

At the same time, Buguo continued, “I once saw someone take out a beast core by accident. They said it was really valuable.” Since she’d only learned about it by chance, Buguo didn’t know about the dangers of beast cores—she just knew they were worth a lot.

She hadn’t planned to hunt beasts for their cores to sell—she knew her own limits.

She hadn’t given the beast core much thought. It was just that today, she happened to pass by where the Long-tailed Crocodile was, and saw Duoya and Su You fighting it… In fact, she knew perfectly well the loot belonged to someone else—she’d watched Duoya kill it from start to finish.

But because Su You was focused on Duoya, and Duoya was focused on the crocodile, plus Buguo had hidden herself well, neither of them noticed her."

"110. The Church

What happened next, well, you already know.

Basically, after Bu Guo saw the two of them head behind the pond and waited a while without seeing them come out, she decided to check if there was anything valuable among all the stuff scattered on the ground.

And wouldn’t you know it, she actually found a beast core!

...

“Here you go.” As Bu Guo gave a brief summary of what happened, she reluctantly took out a green, bead-like object from her bag... This was the beast core.

As she was taking it out, whether because her hands were unsteady, or she was too nervous, or maybe her legs had gone numb from standing too long, she moved a bit and the bag slipped from her grasp and fell straight to the ground.

“No!” Bu Guo scrambled to catch the bag, but in her panic, the beast core slipped out too, landing on the ground with a crisp sound, rolling a few times before coming to a stop.

Su You had been about to take the beast core, but seeing this, she chose instead to help Bu Guo catch the bag.

The sudden drop startled Bu Guo so much that sweat broke out on her forehead. When she saw Su You reach out and catch it, she barely managed to blurt out a quick “thank you” before snatching the bag back from Su You’s hands.

Su You wasn’t upset at all. Instead, she bent down to look for the beast core that had just fallen.

When she finally found the beast core in a corner and turned around, she saw Bu Guo let out a sigh of relief and start organizing her bag.

Maybe she’d been really frightened, because Bu Guo’s hands were shaking as she tried to close the bag, and she struggled for quite a while without managing to pack it up again. Because of this, Su You could clearly see what was inside—

It was a grayish-white ceramic jar.

Combining this with what Bu Guo had just said, Su You guessed that it probably contained the ashes of the old woman who had taken her in.

A ceramic jar like that would break easily if dropped, and it also carried a special meaning. No wonder Bu Guo had been so nervous just now.

The “soul burial” Bu Guo had mentioned was actually a kind of ritual often performed by the church. Supposedly, holding this ceremony would allow the deceased to rest in peace and be reborn into a good family in their next life.

Although Bu Guo was a little con artist, if she could have survived without stealing or cheating, would she really have become the compulsive liar she was now?

Just the fact that she was willing to care for the old woman who took her in, carrying this ceramic jar with her for two years, and was even now trying to scrape together money to have the church perform the soul burial for the old woman—Bu Guo’s character was already far better than most kids her age.

...

Once Bu Guo had finally packed up her things, she stood up with the bundle in her arms and looked quietly at Su You.

Maybe because Su You had just helped “save” the ceramic jar, Bu Guo wasn’t exactly close to her, but she was definitely much more grateful and friendly now.

“This time I really didn’t lie to you. I’ve already given you everything I took.” Bu Guo’s eyes were a little red—not from crying, but from the panic just now.

Looking at her small, thin frame clutching such a big bundle, and her slightly red eyes, Su You couldn’t help but feel that this kid was genuinely a bit pitiful.

Because she was just so real...

“Mm, I believe you.”

To say “I believe you” to someone who’s used to lying—Su You only said it because she knew Bu Guo really hadn’t lied this time, and Bu Guo knew it too, but hearing those words still made her feel a little strange inside.

Bu Guo hugged her bundle tighter, pushed down her emotions, and continued, “So... can I go now?”

She had arranged with the priest to hold the soul burial for Granny in three days, but she had to scrape together enough money in those three days, or the priest wouldn’t help her.

And now two days had already passed... tomorrow was the last day.

It had been hard enough for her to save up money in the first place, and even though she’d gotten better at talking her way through things, it wasn’t exactly a reliable method, so she still hadn’t managed to save enough.

She’d been genuinely happy when she found the beast core. She didn’t know exactly how much it was worth, but the person who’d given it to her before had said that with one of these, you could buy a house in a small town. So it had to be valuable—at least enough to cover the cost of the ritual.

But now, not only had her efforts been wasted, she’d also spent so much time here... In short, Bu Guo didn’t want to stay any longer.

Su You didn’t know her plans, but she definitely didn’t want Bu Guo to leave.

That’s why she was even harder to recruit than Meike... With her heart set on leaving, it was almost impossible to get her to stay.

Unless Su You could find her “weak spot”—like how Duoya needed the dragonbone tattoo.

Su You quickly ran through her recent conversation with Bu Guo in her mind, and as if she’d thought of something, her gaze swept over Bu Guo’s bundle once more.

“You can leave if you want, but first you have to help me with something—as compensation for stealing from me.”

Right now, Bu Guo’s mind was completely occupied with how to quickly scrape together the rest of the money for the soul burial, so it hadn’t even occurred to her that Su You might not let her go.

Because time was running out, Bu Guo’s state of mind had changed.

With her nerves frayed, she couldn’t put on a good act, and even her lies lost their usual polish.

“Not now, I need to save money. The priest said I have to pay him by tomorrow.” Bu Guo was worried Su You wouldn’t let her go if she didn’t believe her, so she very seriously promised Su You that she’d definitely come back later.

Bu Guo liked to lie, but in some things she kept her word. At least Su You knew she was probably telling the truth this time.

But even if she wasn’t lying, someone else was.

“As far as I know, the soul burial ritual is performed by the bishop. Ordinary priests don’t have the authority, let alone the ability.” The ritual itself was real, but whether it could really achieve the legendary effect, Su You wasn’t sure.

But she remembered now—Bu Guo had said it was just an ordinary priest who agreed to help her. And just as Su You said, only the bishop had the right and ability to perform this ritual.

In other words, Su You was telling Bu Guo that she’d been tricked.

How could an ordinary priest have the authority to make decisions for the bishop?

Most likely, the priest saw that Bu Guo was just a gullible kid, and decided to take advantage of her desire to hold a soul burial for her granny to scam her out of her money."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

111. Blue-Patterned Porcelain Vase

As for whether he could actually trick them... that didn’t matter. After all, he hadn’t lost anything—if he managed to pull it off, great; if not, there was nothing to lose. It was just a business with no capital at stake.

If he really did manage to get some money out of it, he could always just make up some ritual for Buku and call it a day—she didn’t know anything anyway, nor did she have any idea what the ritual was supposed to look like.

Besides, even if he didn’t bother to make anything up, there was nothing Buku could do to him. It was just like how she’d been helpless when the tavern owner owed her money.

No one would choose to believe a stray child; they’d always trust the church’s priest instead.

Buku’s hands trembled slightly as she clutched her bundle. It was hard to tell if she believed him or not.

Seeing this, Su You didn’t try to persuade her any further.

“How much more money do you need?”

Buku hesitated at Su You’s sudden question, but after a moment, she gave a number.

“He said he wanted one gold coin. I’ve already saved up half in the past two days.”

She’d managed to save fifty silver coins in just two days?

Su You was a little surprised, and at the same time, gained a clearer understanding of Buku’s “abilities.”

Leaving aside whether her methods of saving money were “proper,” at least her skills in this area were impressive.

To put it in perspective, a person living comfortably for a year would only spend about two gold coins at most, and the Lyle brothers, after a whole day’s work, would only earn a few dozen copper coins.

So this priest really was heartless... Not only was he scamming a child, he was asking for so much.

“Help me with something—as compensation for stealing from us. But if you do a good enough job, I’ll pay you. The better you do, the more you’ll earn—there’s no upper limit.” Su You didn’t try to persuade Buku to stay, but she wasn’t about to waste a chance to make use of her.

After all, she had a level 95 trading talent, and her skill was already at the beginner’s bottleneck. It would be a waste not to use it.

The merchant caravan had just arrived, so Su You could have Buku handle the trade with them, and then split some of the profit with her based on the results.

Letting Buku get tricked again wasn’t ideal for her, but only by letting her realize she’d been deceived would she consider staying. Otherwise, Su You could tell that, while Buku already had seeds of doubt in her heart, she hadn’t truly come to trust her yet.

Buku hesitated.

She had a bit of goodwill toward Su You after what had just happened, but not enough to trust her... Still, she needed money.

Desperately needed money.

And she knew there was no way she could earn enough by tomorrow. Her desire to leave was just a last-ditch struggle.

Unless she got lucky and “found” another beast core, but that was clearly impossible.

“What do you want me to do?” Buku looked at Su You, still wary, but clearly less determined to leave.

Su You smiled at her, then began to explain...

...

...

“Captain Yun, our Lord has returned and is waiting for you in the tavern,” Lyle said as soon as he saw the door of the inn open.

Yun Li nodded slightly. “Please ask your Lord to wait just a moment longer.”

With that, Yun Li stepped back into the inn. Less than two minutes later, she came out again.

Lyle couldn’t tell if she was carrying anything new or had left something behind, nor could he guess why she’d gone in.

“Please lead the way.” Yun Li didn’t mind Lyle’s curious gaze. She hadn’t brought anyone else with her—she intended to meet Su You alone.

So Lyle led Yun Li across to the tavern.

The tavern door was closed. Lyle knocked, and when he heard Su You’s voice, he pushed the door open. Yun Li entered and saw a young woman and a skinny girl who looked to be only in her early teens.

The girl was sitting at the bar, in front of her a plate of fragrant berry-roasted meat, nearly finished, and a cup of sweet-and-sour berry juice, almost empty.

Yun Li looked away and, at Su You’s invitation, sat down across from her.

“Hello, Captain Yun. I’m Su You, Lord of Sunset Territory. I’ve already heard from Lyle about your situation. You’re hoping to stay here for a few days?”

Yun Li was a little taken aback by how direct Su You was—no small talk, just straight to the point. After a few seconds, she nodded.

“Yes, we’d like to rest here for a few days, Lord Su. Of course, we’re not freeloaders—the cost of lodging is negotiable. If you need anything and we have it, we can discuss that as well.”

Since Su You wasn’t beating around the bush, Yun Li didn’t either. She took out a small box she’d brought from her room and placed it on the table.

“This is a specialty we picked up while passing through another territory a few days ago. Please accept it as a gift, and forgive us for staying at your inn without permission.” As she spoke, Yun Li opened the box, turning it toward Su You.

Inside was a delicate porcelain vase.

[Blue-Patterned Porcelain Vase]

Category: Trade Item

Quality: Green

Description: A decorative trade item of certain value. Can be used as an ornament to increase a building’s comfort, or sold to merchants for money.

Though it looked like a vase, it was essentially a gift of money to Su You.

Su You accepted it without hesitation.

The other party wanted to use this chance to build goodwill and persuade her to let them stay; she was just going along with it.

“Well, the inn is empty anyway. Since Captain Yun wants to rent it, let’s go by your standard inn rates.”

Yun Li’s eyes lit up—she hadn’t expected things to go so smoothly. She’d thought she’d have to negotiate for a while...

But thinking about it, it made sense. From the way Lord Su spoke, she clearly wasn’t one for beating around the bush. This was just the kind of decision she’d make.

Since Su You had agreed to the standard price, without raising it or adding extra conditions, Yun Li was happy to accept—and her impression of Su You improved even more.

“Thank you very much, Lord Su.” With that, Yun Li began to calculate the price."

"112. Barter

“At 20 copper coins per night for a double room, and 15 copper coins per night for a single room... What does Lord Su think?”

Su You recalled the prices at inns she’d seen before and nodded.

“Eight double rooms, that’s 160 copper coins. Ten single rooms, that’s 150 copper coins.” Altogether, that came to 310 copper coins per day.

It might seem a bit low, but in reality, Su You was still making a profit.

After all, her inn was far from fully equipped. While it could operate normally, unless someone had nowhere else to stay, most people wouldn’t choose it—the conditions were really lacking.

No cook, no dining area, no staff, and no facilities for bathing... Aside from a bed and a roof to keep out the wind and rain, there really wasn’t much else to offer.

Yet the price Yun Li suggested was on par with a mid-tier inn in a small city. If it were a bottom-tier inn, even a double room wouldn’t go for 15 copper coins—10 at most.

But there was nothing to argue about. Yun Li’s group was the party in need, so it was only natural for the price to be higher... Just like in those tourist spots on mountaintops—prices for a bottle of water could be worlds apart depending on whether you bought it at the top or the bottom.

“Let’s call it 300 copper coins. Captain Yun, you can stay as many days as you like.”

There were still travelers and visitors who might arrive at the territory at any time, and if they showed up while Yun Li’s group was still here, they’d leave right away for lack of accommodation... But that was fine. At worst, Su You could just vacate a resident’s house for them.

As long as there was somewhere to stay and the guest was willing, that was enough.

The difference between travelers and merchants was that one came to spend money, and the other to trade. Other than that, their “refresh” mechanisms were pretty much the same.

“Thank you, Lord Su.” Yun Li didn’t stand on ceremony. She took nine silver coins from her purse. “We’d like to stay for three days to start. If we leave early, there’s no need to refund the money. If we need to stay longer, we’ll trouble you again then.”

Basically, no refunds for leaving early, and if they stayed longer, they’d pay extra—Su You couldn’t lose out.

“Alright.” Su You accepted the nine silver coins and moved on to a more important topic.

Since they were a merchant caravan, the most important thing was, of course, trading.

Su You glanced at Bu Guo, who had finished eating, and said to Yun Li, “Captain Yun, as you can see, this territory is still in its early stages and needs a lot of supplies to develop...”

Yun Li immediately understood and continued, “We don’t have a huge selection, but Lord Su is welcome to take a look. If you need anything, we can offer you a favorable price.” Whether it would actually be a bargain was another matter, but at least it sounded good.

With that, Yun Li led Su You to where they stored their goods.

On the way, she noticed the little girl who’d been eating earlier was following them. She didn’t know why, but since Su You said nothing, and the girl was just a child, Yun Li didn’t mind.

...

Once inside the inn, Yun Li brought Su You to a room on the third floor.

“These are some specialty products we’ve collected from various territories along the way. Lord Su, please take a look.” Yun Li had everyone open up their luggage so Su You could browse.

Since these were local specialties, they weren’t particularly valuable or rare, so the merchants didn’t mind showing them openly.

Here, Su You saw a large quantity of basic materials and some special goods, quite a few of which were exactly what she needed.

“Looks like Captain Yun’s trip was quite fruitful.” Su You had only heard from Lyle that the caravan had a lot of goods, but without seeing it for herself, she hadn’t known what “a lot” really meant.

Now that she saw it, Su You had to admit—they really did have a lot... So much that she realized this wasn’t the kind of inventory a caravan of just a dozen people could normally manage.

No wonder they’d chosen to take the remote forest route—they were probably worried about “treasures inviting trouble” and being targeted by unfriendly forces.

At Su You’s comment, Yun Li smiled. “It was just luck. The places we visited happened to be hit by a natural disaster.”

So that was it—a natural disaster. No wonder there was so much stuff...

A territory struck by disaster would see its prices collapse unless the lord had prepared in advance. For a while after, the local economy would be in shambles.

Su You pondered for a moment. Instead of picking out goods right away, she asked another question.

“Captain Yun, do you accept bartering?” Su You certainly had money to buy things.

She still had two gold coins on her, and with the nine silver coins Yun Li had just given her, she had over a dozen silver coins as well. She could buy things outright, but Su You had a better bargaining chip—the extra fang daggers she’d made earlier.

Money was universal and always useful, so she’d rather not spend it if she didn’t have to. The fang daggers, on the other hand, were of little use to her now—best to trade them away.

When Yun Li heard the words “barter,” she couldn’t help but frown slightly.

In the past, she would have agreed. Merchants had many ways to trade, and with skillful negotiation, bartering could even be more profitable.

After all, money was a fixed unit—a copper coin was always a copper coin, you couldn’t sell it for two. But the value of bartered goods wasn’t fixed; how much you got depended on your own abilities.

But this time was different. They already had too much stuff. If possible, Yun Li would much rather convert it all to money—goods were hard to carry, but money was easy.

Still, Su You was the lord here, and they were staying on her land. She had to show some respect and couldn’t refuse outright.

“Barter is certainly possible, but as you can see, we already have a lot of goods. We can’t accept just anything.” Yun Li was worried Su You would try to trade a bunch of odds and ends—those might be profitable, but they were bulky and troublesome.

“Don’t worry, Captain Yun. I won’t waste your time with trivial items that have no real trade value... Why don’t you take a look first?”"

"113. Buguo’s Skills

Su You took the fang dagger out of her backpack and displayed it in front of Yun Li.

After all, this was a blue-quality weapon, and Yun Li, as the leader of a trade caravan, had a discerning eye. She could naturally tell that this fang dagger was extraordinary and quite valuable.

“Lord Su, may I take a look at this dagger?” This time, it wasn’t Yun Li who spoke, but a middle-aged man who had been standing slightly behind her.

Although Su You didn’t know who he was, she could guess from experience that he was likely the caravan’s negotiator.

A negotiator, as the name suggests, is a professional skilled in bargaining, able to secure better deals for their side during transactions.

A caravan leader isn’t necessarily a negotiator, but every caravan needs one—otherwise, they’d just be at the mercy of others.

“Please.” Su You handed the fang dagger over without hesitation.

Meanwhile, while no one was paying attention, Buguo, who had been standing behind Su You, quietly moved to her side.

Buguo recalled what Su You had told her earlier, straightened up, and focused her bright black eyes on the middle-aged man, carefully observing his expression.

After about a minute, the man returned the dagger and whispered a few words to Yun Li.

“This fang dagger is of good quality. Lord Su, what price do you have in mind?” Yun Li was pleasantly surprised after hearing the man’s assessment.

Although she knew the dagger was excellent, she couldn’t praise it too much out loud. After all, complimenting the other party’s goods only gave them room to raise the price—she’d just be digging a hole for herself. So Yun Li only said it was “not bad.”

But while she said “not bad,” she was actually very satisfied with the dagger.

She had thought this was just a small territory, and even if they had something decent to offer, it wouldn’t be anything remarkable. Who would have thought Lord Su would present a dagger made from wild boar tusks right off the bat?

And the craftsmanship was superb!

Since the item was good, Yun Li definitely didn’t want to miss out.

You have to know, among all tradable goods, equipment and weapons are the easiest to price and the most desirable. Even if they can’t sell them, they can use them themselves.

Strengthening their own forces is, in a way, increasing their trading power.

What’s more, as luck would have it, one of their caravan members happened to use daggers!

In other words, as long as Su You’s asking price wasn’t outrageous—even if it was a bit above their expectations—Yun Li would still buy it.

“Captain Yun, I’m sure you can tell the quality of this dagger, so I won’t go into details. As for the price…” Su You paused, as if considering, “Twenty gold coins, or the equivalent in other goods or materials.”

Twenty gold coins was actually a high price.

Although the dagger was blue-quality, its blade was only made of copper due to material limitations, which restricted its attributes and thus its price.

Its true value lay in two aspects: the wild boar tusk blade, and the “Sharp” prefix.

But in business, prices only go down from the opening offer, so starting a bit high was normal. Yun Li wasn’t surprised by Su You’s quote.

It was high, but not unreasonably so—there was still room to negotiate.

Yun Li didn’t reply directly. Instead, she glanced at the middle-aged man, who stepped forward and smiled at Su You. “Lord Su, that’s a bit much. If the blade were iron, the price would be fair, but it’s only copper… How about thirteen gold coins?”

He slashed a third off the price with one sentence. Su You glanced at him but didn’t respond.

“What’s wrong with a copper blade? This dagger is enchanted! How can an enchanted weapon be priced the same as an ordinary one?” Buguo suddenly spoke up, surprising everyone except Su You.

They had already wondered why Lord Su had a child with her. Now it seemed… could this child be her negotiator?

The middle-aged man’s carefully prepared arguments were thrown off by Buguo’s age.

It wasn’t that he looked down on her, but she was just so young…

Although Buguo was almost fifteen, not exactly a child but not quite grown, years of wandering and malnutrition had left her so thin that she could easily pass for ten. No wonder the man was so surprised.

“Little girl, you might not know this, but while enchanted weapons are valuable, not all of them are worth much.” The man didn’t understand why their negotiator was a kid, but since Lord Su didn’t object, he could only go along and talk to Buguo.

Buguo blinked. His words went in one ear and out the other.

“Sure, some enchanted weapons aren’t worth much, but ours is valuable,” she said, not letting him interrupt. “This enchantment increases the dagger’s sharpness by nearly half. How can that compare to other enchantments?”

“Half?!” The man was stunned, caught off guard by Buguo’s claim.

But he was a professional. Even though he couldn’t believe he’d almost been convinced by a child, he quickly composed himself.

“Little girl, don’t exaggerate. I’ve seen plenty of enchanted weapons. At most, this dagger is worth thirteen gold coins.”

Buguo pouted, looking a bit helpless. “Uncle, maybe you have seen a lot of enchanted weapons, but as you said, there are many kinds. Have you seen one like ours?”

“You might not get it just by looking. Why don’t you try it out? You’ll see if I’m telling the truth.” As she spoke, Buguo took the fang dagger from Su You and handed it to the man.

(End of chapter)"

"114. Hustling

Actually, Buguo really hit the nail on the head—this middle-aged man had indeed seen quite a few enchanted weapons before, but this was the first time he’d ever seen one with a Sharpness enchantment. That’s why he’d been so uncertain just now about whether Buguo was telling the truth or not.

Now that Buguo was letting them try it out, the middle-aged man thought for a moment, then beckoned someone over.

“You give it a try.”

While the other person was testing the weapon, Buguo’s mouth didn’t stop for a second—she just kept chattering away.

“When I was in Glacier City, I went to the black market with my companions. They didn’t have a weapon exactly like this, but there was a big iron broadsword with a Sharpness enchantment. A whole crowd was bidding on it, and the price got up to fifty gold coins, but the stall owner still wouldn’t sell!”

Even though the middle-aged man knew Buguo was probably making this up, he couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of… justification? Like, “If I buy this dagger for twenty gold coins, maybe I’m not getting ripped off after all?”

As soon as that thought popped up, the middle-aged man was startled. He pinched himself hard to snap out of Buguo’s persuasive spell.

But Buguo didn’t care whether he was listening or not, or what he was doing. Whether he listened was his business—her job was just to keep talking as hard as she could.

“…In the end, that broadsword sold for sixty-three gold coins! Sure, it was an iron broadsword, but both the blade and the body were iron. Our dagger here, the body is copper, but the blade is made from a wild boar’s tusk! Iron can’t compare to a wild boar’s tusk!”

“These days, just a wild boar’s tusk alone goes for over ten gold coins on the market. And this is a finished enchanted tusk weapon! Thirteen gold coins—is that a fair price? Can three gold coins even cover the labor to make this dagger? Do you think you could get such a good enchantment for just three gold coins?”

Middle-aged man: …

Yun Li: …

Damn, why does this sound more and more convincing the more I listen?

Seeing the little girl getting more and more enthusiastic, the middle-aged man was starting to feel dizzy. But the last bit of his rationality kept him from being completely taken in, even though he was already half-convinced.

Su You saw that he wanted to say something but was too embarrassed to interrupt, so she reached out and patted Buguo on the shoulder.

“Buguo.” Su You called her name. Buguo paused—she still had a lot more to say, but she stopped and decisively shut her mouth.

Finally, with a chance to speak, the middle-aged man was just about to open his mouth when the person who’d gone to test the dagger came back—looking not only excited, but almost thrilled.

“Uncle Feng!”

The tester’s name was Tong Lin. He was the one in the caravan who liked using daggers, and the one who’d called out “Uncle Feng.”

Since daggers were his specialty, Tong Lin was overjoyed as soon as he got his hands on this one. When he actually started testing it, he was even more surprised by how sharp it was. He played with the tusk dagger, growing more and more reluctant to let it go.

If it weren’t for the fact that his rational mind reminded him the dagger wasn’t theirs yet, he probably would’ve just slipped it into his pocket and walked off with it.

He came back with the dagger, his excitement and longing obvious in his voice.

And the “Uncle Feng” he called out to was, of course, the middle-aged man. Uncle Feng had a bad feeling as soon as he heard Tong Lin call him.

“Uncle Feng, this dagger—”

“Tong Lin!”

Tong Lin was just about to share his thoughts on the dagger, but Uncle Feng cut him off before he could finish his sentence.

Tong Lin froze, then seemed to realize something and immediately put on a calm, collected expression… but it was a little too late.

“Looks like this young man is pretty satisfied with the dagger,” Su You said with a smile.

Tong Lin wanted to cry but had no tears. He wanted to deny it, but couldn’t bring himself to lie, so he could only squeeze out two words—

“It’s okay…” (Actually, I’m not satisfied! Really not satisfied!)

Uncle Feng: …You might as well have kept your mouth shut!

…

…

Thanks to Tong Lin’s “help” and Buguo’s special persuasive skills, after some back-and-forth, the final selling price for the tusk dagger was seventeen gold coins and thirty silver coins.

At the start, Su You had told Buguo that her target price was fifteen gold coins. Anything above that, Buguo would get a cut as a bonus.

When Buguo heard the final price, she was clearly delighted—the smile never left her face after the deal was done.

Afterward, Su You and Buguo went on a shopping spree through the caravan’s goods.

The first batch they bought was seeds.

Su You bought a lot of seeds: wheat and rice, as well as potato and corn seeds.

There were ten bags of wheat seeds at twenty copper coins each, five bags of rice seeds at the same price, and three bags each of potato and corn seeds at thirty copper coins per bag.

After some haggling, Buguo managed to get the total price for seeds down from 480 copper coins to 433.

Buguo was a bit dissatisfied with this result. After all, not only could she earn money by selling Su You’s goods at a higher price, she could also get a cut by helping Su You buy things at a lower price.

But Buguo wasn’t discouraged—she just doubled down and started negotiating the price for the second batch of goods.

…

The second batch was basic materials.

Su You mainly bought cotton and some ready-made cloth, as well as a few miscellaneous materials.

Cotton was priced at one silver coin for a bundle of fifty tufts, and Su You bought seventeen bundles in total.

She’d wanted to round it up to twenty, but the seller only had seventeen in stock, so she bought them all.

Besides cotton, Su You also bought a batch of soft cloth.

Soft cloth was made from cotton, similar to fiber-based cloth, and the recipes were almost the same. The difference was that cotton-based soft cloth was softer and more comfortable, making it suitable for underwear or bedding.

Fiber-based linen cloth could be used in the early stages when there wasn’t enough cotton, but once conditions improved, it was mostly used for decorations—curtains, tablecloths, daily items, and so on.

Linen’s advantage was that it was easy to get in the early stages—the forest was full of fiber plants, and anyone willing to collect them could gather plenty.

Cotton was different. Although you could occasionally find cotton plants in the forest, there really weren’t that many.

(End of chapter)"

"115. Buy, Buy, Buy

There was only a tiny bit of cotton, nowhere near enough to make anything. If she wanted to have enough cotton to use, she’d have to grow it herself.

The caravan had even less soft cloth than cotton, but the price was much higher.

After all, it took 10 bundles of cotton to make 1 cotton thread, 5 cotton threads to make 1 piece of soft cloth, and 5 pieces of soft cloth to make 1 bolt of soft cloth (the same amount as synthesized fiber fabric). In other words, it took 250 bundles (five sets) of cotton to make a single bolt of soft cloth.

At a price of 60 silver coins for a set of soft cloth (10 bolts), Su You once again emptied out the merchant’s stock, buying a set and a half of soft cloth.

Buying finished goods was always more expensive. If you calculated the cost of soft cloth based on the price of cotton, the base cost would be 50 silver coins, with the extra 10 silver coins essentially being the processing fee.

But in reality, if the merchant had enough stock, Su You would definitely choose to buy cotton.

After all, processing just meant spending a bit more time at the workbench, and it really wasn’t worth paying those extra 10 silver coins.

But since the merchant didn’t have enough cotton, Su You had to settle for second best.

Anyway, there was still Bu Guo to haggle for her. To make money, she’d definitely work even harder.

Seventeen sets of cotton plus one and a half sets of soft cloth would have cost 107 silver coins at the original price, but thanks to Bu Guo’s efforts, Su You managed to bargain it down to about 90 silver coins.

Proportionally, the price after haggling for seeds was about a 10% discount, while the price difference for the cotton and soft cloth was about a 15% discount.

And since the total price was higher, bargaining was even harder this time, so Bu Guo’s success really made Su You reevaluate her trading skills.

Besides cotton and soft cloth, Su You also bought some other materials, like iron ore, feathers, sand, animal hides, charcoal, and so on…

In short, if Su You thought she might use it, she didn’t let it go.

Even though there were a lot of types, there wasn’t much of each, and most of them weren’t worth much, so buying this whole pile only cost Su You 39 silver coins in total.

The pricier ones were the iron ore and animal hides.

Iron ore was one silver coin each; they only had seven, so Su You bought all seven, for a total of seven silver coins.

As for animal hides, the quality varied, so they were priced at 50 copper coins for a whole hide and 20 copper coins for a damaged one. There were 15 whole hides and 23 damaged ones, and Su You bought them all, spending 12 silver coins and 10 copper coins.

Maybe because she’d bargained so hard before, the merchant was very firm on the price for these odds and ends. No matter how Bu Guo tried, Uncle Feng wouldn’t budge from 39 silver coins.

Su You knew she’d already gotten plenty of bargains and didn’t want to push her luck, so she patted Bu Guo’s little head, drooping in disappointment at her failed haggling, and paid the 39 silver coins.

…

The third batch of purchases—the last batch—was much larger and more complicated.

There were monster drops, tools, and all sorts of other things.

The caravan’s monster drops included, but weren’t limited to, the unidentified bones (Ghost Skeleton) Su You had gotten before, scale powder (Ghost Skeleton), beast fangs (Long-tailed Crocodile), and so on.

Monster drops weren’t cheap, so even though Su You wanted them and had enough money to buy, buy, buy, she didn’t want to waste money. She only picked out materials she could use right now.

As for things she didn’t urgently need, she could always collect them later.

There were actually quite a few materials she thought she could use. For example, the bones she planned to use as raw material for fertilizer to speed up seed growth—Yun Li’s people counted and found there were 17 bones in total, and Su You bought them all.

There were also beast fangs, which were one of the materials needed to make intermediate traps. Now that Duoya had recovered, as a hunter she could use bows and traps to catch more prey.

The caravan happened to have a set of beast fangs (50 pieces), and Su You bought the whole lot.

As for scale powder, Su You didn’t buy any, since it wasn’t useful to her at the moment and would just be a waste of money.

But even though she didn’t buy scale powder, she did buy some other things, like eagle eyes, slime, poison sacs, clay, unidentified flowers and herbs, and so on.

Of note were a material called “Eagle Eye” and a blue flower.

Eagle Eye, as the name suggests, is dropped by eagle-type beasts or monsters, and can be used to make an item called a “Far-seeing Lens.”

Basically, it’s a telescope.

And the blue flower was called “Star Night Flower.” Star Night Flower is a special flower that only blooms at midnight, and its characteristics are quite similar to the Sunset Flower.

Su You didn’t buy the Star Night Flower just to tell time at midnight, but to craft the “Clock” of the Sunset Continent.

That’s right—the Sunset Continent actually has a clock-like item that can tell time, and its raw materials include five kinds of flowers: the Sunset Flower and Star Night Flower among them.

Besides the yellow Sunset Flower and blue Star Night Flower, the other three are the red Zhu Tang Flower, white Frost Orchid, and purple Lian Dai Flower.

These flowers aren’t particularly rare, but they do take some effort to collect. Being able to make a clock as soon as possible was still important to Su You.

…

These monster drops cost Su You a total of 83 silver coins—already the result of Bu Guo’s bargaining; otherwise, it would have been 91 silver coins.

As for tools, Su You bought two fishing rods and a portable copper lantern.

The fishing rods were five silver coins each, and the lantern was two silver coins, for a total of twelve silver coins.

Finally, Su You also bought some skill learning manuals from Yun Li.

Learning manuals aren’t skill books; they don’t let NPCs instantly gain skills. They’re more like textbooks, providing the conditions for learning a skill.

After a period of study, an NPC has a chance to learn the relevant skill. Once they succeed, they start at “Apprentice” level, and as they get more proficient, the skill upgrades to “Beginner” and appears on the NPC’s info panel.

Su You mainly bought sewing and carpentry manuals—one for Duoli, the other for Lyle.

As for other manuals, Su You picked out a few based on her needs.

Skill learning manuals weren’t exactly cheap, but not too expensive either.

Thanks to two anonymous tips.

(End of chapter)"

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**116. Poaching Talent**

Su You bought a total of five skill manuals, each costing ten silver coins, so that was fifty silver coins spent right away.

Aside from sewing and carpentry, the other three manuals were for fishing, melee combat, and basic defense.

...

Up to now, Su You had bought everything she needed and could buy.

Seeds cost about 4 silver coins, cotton and soft cloth 90 silver, beast hides and feathers 39 silver, monster drops 83 silver, tools 12 silver, and the five skill manuals 45 silver (Buguo bargained 5 silver off the price)...

All together, she’d spent a total of 273 silver coins.

Since Yun Li and the others hadn’t yet paid her for the daggers she sold, Su You didn’t need to pay anything herself... In fact, not only did she not need to pay, Yun Li actually owed her 14 gold coins and 57 silver coins.

After getting the money, Su You called Lyle over to help move the goods. When Lyle came, he happened to bring Lake with him, who had just finished mining stone.

Looking at the piles of materials, Lyle was glad he’d had the foresight not to come empty-handed—he’d brought the wooden cart along.

Even so, with the cart, they still had to make three trips to move everything.

It wasn’t that the quantities were huge, but there were just too many different kinds of items. The cart only had ten slots and couldn’t fit everything at once.

While they were moving things, Uncle Feng kept staring at Buguo. Buguo wasn’t intimidated at all and stared right back, like two stubborn kids having a contest.

“Lord Su, this little girl is really something. So young and already so sharp-tongued. Who knows how many merchants will fail to make a perfect deal in your territory in the future...” Uncle Feng felt a bit embarrassed to keep staring at Buguo, so after a while, he looked away and sighed.

Su You smiled and shook her head slightly. “You misunderstand—Buguo isn’t a resident of Sunset Territory.”

“She’s not from your territory?” Uncle Feng was surprised, and a little delighted.

He glanced at Buguo, then at Su You, not quite understanding their relationship, but he didn’t doubt Su You’s words.

After all, Su You had no reason to lie. Whether Buguo was a local or not didn’t affect the deals that had already been made.

He didn’t think there was anything wrong with Su You bringing in ‘outside help’ to assist with bargaining. Trading isn’t a competition—there are no rules saying only your own people can help you haggle.

But now that he knew Buguo wasn’t a resident of Sunset Territory, an idea popped into Uncle Feng’s mind.

He turned to look at Yun Li, only to find Yun Li was looking at him too. Their eyes met, and both instantly understood what the other was thinking.

“Since Buguo isn’t one of Lord Su’s people, I suppose you wouldn’t mind if I tried to poach her?” Yun Li smiled. Though he sounded like he was joking, there was a hint of seriousness in his tone.

Su You replied casually, “Buguo isn’t from my territory. She’s free to go wherever she likes. How could you call that poaching?”

She wasn’t actually worried about Yun Li stealing Buguo away, because she knew Buguo wouldn’t go with him—at least not right now. After all, she still had unfinished business with that priest.

And if the priest’s matter was settled, Buguo would be even less likely to go with Yun Li. After being tricked twice already, there’s no way she’d trust a stranger so easily a third time.

“Here are fifty silver coins, as a reward for helping sell the daggers.” Ignoring Buguo’s stunned expression, Su You shoved the already-prepared pouch of coins into her hand.

Before Buguo could react, Su You handed her a second, smaller pouch.

The first pouch was the reward for selling the daggers; the second was for helping haggle down the prices while shopping.

After giving both pouches to Buguo, Su You patted her on the head and left the post station, leaving the space to those who wanted to poach talent, and the one about to be poached.

...

Since she’d left the post station, Su You didn’t know what happened inside. In any case, she hadn’t gone far when, before she could even instruct Lyle and the others on where to put the materials, she saw a small figure dash out of the post station.

After leaving, Buguo had originally planned to head straight back to the city where the priest was, but after hesitating, she came over to Su You, apologized, and said goodbye.

Whether it was to leave a good impression or for some other reason, when Buguo came to say goodbye, Su You casually took a piece of berry-roasted meat from her warehouse and handed it to her.

But Buguo didn’t accept it.

“Thank you... The three silver coins and those coppers you gave me are more than enough for plenty of food... I’m leaving now.” The three silver coins were the amount in the second pouch Su You had given her.

To avoid the silver being too conspicuous, Su You had added some copper coins to the pouch—twenty or thirty at most, but enough to buy snacks along the way.

“Take care. And what I said before still stands—you’re always welcome back, anytime.”

Buguo didn’t reply. She just hugged her bundle tightly and left the territory at a run.

Her departure happened to be seen by Dolly, who was coming out of the sewing shop. Dolly was curious about the little girl, but she had more important things to discuss with Su You.

“Miss Lord! My sewing skill has reached the beginner level!”

Su You turned to look at her, and her already good mood from recent gains got even better at Dolly’s news.

However, after sharing the good news, Dolly looked a bit down... Although her sewing skill had reached beginner level, her repair skill was still stuck at the beginner bottleneck.

“Unfortunately, my repair skill still hasn’t improved...”

“Skill improvement was never something that could be achieved overnight... Actually, I’m even happier that you improved your sewing skill today.” Su You wasn’t just trying to comfort her.

Of course, if Dolly had improved her repair skill, that would have been great, but for Su You, the only immediate benefit would be repairing the Fire Demon Armor. There were still a few days before the dark creatures attacked.

Even if the attack started and Dolly hadn’t leveled up, it wouldn’t be a problem—Su You had plenty of alternatives.

(End of chapter)"

"117. Scrap Heap

But upgrading her sewing skills didn’t just mean Dolly had gained a new ability—it also meant she could now craft many sewing recipes she hadn’t been able to make before.

And it just so happened that Su You had recently bought a large batch of materials suitable for sewing, like cotton, soft cloth, animal hides, and so on…

“Since your sewing skill has leveled up, I’ll leave all these materials for you to handle,” Su You said, pointing at the piles of fabric and cotton scattered on the ground.

Dolly had never refused anything Su You asked of her, so she immediately crouched down, inspecting the materials as she asked what Su You wanted her to make with them.

“What do you want to make? Though it might take me a few more days to get started… I just leveled up, so I’m still not very skilled yet. If I use such good materials right away, I might waste them. Let me practice for a couple of days first before using this batch.” Dolly stroked the soft cloth, the excellent texture making her reluctant to let go.

“If you’re not confident, you can practice with burlap first,” Su You said. She hadn’t intended for Dolly to use the good materials right away anyway. She’d bought this batch of cotton and cloth mainly to make pillows, quilts, and everyday clothing.

“Mm, I should practice with burlap first… Huh? What’s this?” Dolly looked at the booklet that had been shoved into her hands, momentarily stunned. But when she saw the big characters on the cover—“Basic Sewing Study Manual”—she realized what it was.

She’d seen similar manuals before, though not for sewing, but for repairers.

“I originally bought this for you to learn sewing skills. Now that you’ve already leveled up, it’s not as useful, but if you run into any problems while making things, it might still help.”

Although she’d leveled up, Dolly hadn’t done so through the system’s learning process, so she was bound to have missed some details. So, while the manual wasn’t hugely useful, it could still help a bit.

Since she’d already handed out the sewing manual, Su You also gave the carpentry manual to Lyle, and then handed the basic defense manual to Lake.

Combat skills and life skills are different. Learning life skills depends heavily on talent, but while talent is important for combat skills too, hard work matters even more.

And not all skills require talent—for example, defense skills don’t. So the basic defense skill manual is a universal skill that anyone can learn. There’s no such thing as not being able to learn it—only not wanting to, or not putting in the effort.

Unfortunately, the merchant caravan only had one copy of the basic defense manual, or Su You would have bought more.

“Lake, you learn it first. Once you’re done, pass it to Lyle, and then finally to Doya.” The reason Doya was last was because she was a ranged fighter and generally less likely to be attacked.

But just because she was rarely attacked didn’t mean she shouldn’t learn it. The more you know, the better. It just wasn’t as urgent—Lyle and Lake, being melee fighters, needed to learn it first.

“Got it. I’ll learn the skill as soon as possible,” Lyle and Lake said, almost in unison.

…

With everything distributed, Su You started dealing with the remaining materials and prepared for another round of construction.

Before handling the materials, Su You decided to expand the territory’s warehouse space. Otherwise, there simply wouldn’t be enough room for all this stuff.

There were two ways to increase warehouse space: build another warehouse, or upgrade the existing one. Both took time, so Su You quickly made a few wooden chests to store things temporarily.

Unlike before, this time Su You placed the chests inside Residential House 4.

Actually, a warehouse didn’t have to be a purpose-built building. You could also turn an empty room into a “warehouse” by filling it with chests. In a way, that counted as a warehouse too.

However, this kind of warehouse wasn’t recognized by the system—it was a workaround players used by exploiting the game’s mechanics.

Although you couldn’t upgrade it, you could fit quite a few chests in a normal building, so even without upgrades, the storage capacity wasn’t less than a real warehouse.

…But this method was only good for the early stages. Later on, you’d still need proper warehouses. Too many chests made it hard to find things, you couldn’t keep food fresh, and the stacking limit didn’t change—so items took up even more space.

Su You cleared out all the basic furniture from Residential House 4 and arranged the chests in a U-shape. Except for the corners, which were left empty so the chests could be opened, she managed to fit ten chests in total.

With each chest holding twenty slots, that made two hundred slots altogether.

At the same time, Su You built Warehouse 2 behind Warehouse 1, and also built Residential Houses 5 and 6 next to House 4.

With these three buildings finished, half of Su You’s stockpile of wood was instantly gone. She still had plenty of stone, though, since Lake had just brought back a batch—more than enough for her needs.

“By the way, I set up a lumberyard near where you’re mining stone. If you chop any wood, you can store it there,” Su You said, suddenly remembering, and turned to tell the two brothers.

Lyle acknowledged, and also told Su You that he’d finished turning over all the soil in the fields.

Hearing this, Su You immediately pulled out a pile of wooden fences and gates from the workbench—these were all materials for building basic farmland.

To build basic farmland, she also needed a large amount of ash.

Each plot of basic farmland required 20 ash. She wanted to build six more plots, to make a total of ten including the four she already had, so she needed 120 ash.

But she only had 19 ash left, leftovers from the last time she built farmland. She didn’t even have enough for one plot, let alone six.

It looked like she was short by a lot, but ash was actually a very easy material to get.

Su You went over to the central fire and opened its information panel. On the second page, labeled “Scrap Heap,” she found a huge pile of ash and charcoal.

The central fire, at its core, was just a fire burning—so it was perfectly normal to have ash and charcoal left over after burning.

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**118. Balanced Arrows**

All the waste produced from burning is automatically collected here. The waste pile has space for ten slots; you can’t manually put items in—it only stores the residue left after burning.

Once it’s full, any extra residue is automatically destroyed by the system. So, if you want charcoal or ash, you have to collect it in time.

【Obtained Charcoal x187】

【Obtained Ash x598】

...

Since Su You hadn’t cleared out the waste before, when she checked this time, nearly five days and nights’ worth of burned residue had completely filled the waste pile.

The charcoal (stack limit 50) took up four slots, while the ash (stack limit 100) filled the remaining six.

With all this ash, Su You immediately finished placing the remaining six basic farmland plots.

Building basic farmland takes two hours, which means in a while, Su You would be able to plant crops on all six plots.

While waiting for the farmland to finish, Su You used about five planks to build another “matchbox.”

Building a “matchbox” doesn’t require any construction time—or rather, it’s so short, just a dozen seconds or so, that a bare-bones house quickly appeared on her territory.

Here, a “matchbox” isn’t literally a box for matches, but a plain, square building with no decorations.

The name “matchbox” is something players came up with; in the construction list, its real name is “Custom Empty House.”

Not only does the Custom Empty House have no exterior decorations, but the inside is just as bare—like an unfinished apartment, completely empty.

The size of the Custom Empty House is up to you: the more materials you invest, the bigger the space, and the longer it takes to build... But even if you build an empty house as big as a stadium, it only takes a few minutes at most.

Su You built this Custom Empty House for a similar reason as the previous Residential House 4—except the former was used as a “warehouse,” and this one would be a “workshop.”

While the Custom Empty House has many advantages—short build time, low material cost—it also has a clear drawback: when your territory has Custom Empty Houses, prosperity decreases.

The more Custom Empty Houses you build and the more space they take up, the more prosperity drops. And the decrease isn’t a fixed value—it increases linearly.

For example, building one Custom Empty House might lower prosperity by ten points, but building two of the same size could lower it by thirty, and three could drop it by eighty or even a hundred... That’s why Su You hadn’t built any before—she needed to upgrade her territory and couldn’t afford the prosperity loss.

But now it didn’t matter as much. She was still eager to upgrade, but even after building a Custom Empty House, her territory’s prosperity was still above fifty—enough to upgrade to a large camp. What she lacked now wasn’t prosperity, but population.

...

After the Custom Empty House was built, Su You opened the territory info panel—sure enough, prosperity had dropped by five points.

She’d had nearly sixty, and now there were only fifty-four left... But Su You had expected this, so she wasn’t surprised. As long as it didn’t drop below fifty and affect upgrades, it was fine.

After checking the info, Su You took out her hammer and recycled all the workbenches near the territory’s heartfire, instantly freeing up a lot of space.

She moved these workbenches into the Custom Empty House: the basic workbench on the left, the furnace on the other side.

Since wooden chests can’t be recycled, Su You built a few more inside the matchbox to store raw materials and workbench outputs.

Once everything was set up, Su You brought out the materials she’d bought earlier.

The cotton and soft cloth had already been sent to the tailor shop—she kept only a small reserve here. The animal hides were the same, mostly stored at Dolly’s tailor shop.

As for feathers and ore, Su You used the feathers to make balanced arrows. Balanced arrows are basically arrows with added fletching.

The original arrows had no fletching; while usable, their balance was much worse.

Feathers came in stacks of fifty-one. Su You bought about two and a half stacks, and since one feather could make two balanced arrows, she had enough materials for about 250 balanced arrows.

She used two stacks of feathers to make stone balanced arrows, leaving half a stack for later—she planned to use those to make copper balanced arrows.

Once the first batch of stone balanced arrows was done, Su You put down her tools and checked their stats—

【Stone Balanced Arrow】(Consumes: Wood x2, Stone x1, Feather x5; can craft 10–12 arrows)

Type: Weapon

Quality: Common

Stats: Attack (10), Armor Penetration (6%), Attack Range (+1), Accuracy (+1%)

Description: Stone arrows with fletching. Can be used as ammo for bows or arrow towers. Has greater range, faster attack speed, and higher armor penetration than ordinary arrows. Improved balance increases accuracy.

The original stone arrows, without fletching, only had [Attack (10), Armor Penetration (5%)], but just by adding fletching, the stats improved noticeably.

Naturally, Su You intended to give all these balanced arrows to Duoya, since she was the territory’s only archer.

After handing the arrows to Duoya, Su You also gave her some animal teeth for making intermediate traps.

With these supplies, Duoya took her red maple bow (which Su You had made for her earlier) and left the territory for some “rehabilitation training” in the forest.

...

...

Since she’d bought so many things, Su You didn’t go out at all today.

But she didn’t feel bored. Building a few structures or crafting some items made the time fly by—she barely had a moment to spare.

After finishing the balanced arrows, she went right back to processing materials: smelting sand into glass, making quill pens from charcoal and feathers, smelting iron ore into ingots...

(End of chapter)"

"119. Buying Food

Once the materials were finished, it was time to continue developing the territory...

Although the territory had already been renovated once yesterday, just as Yun Li had commented about Sunset Territory, there were still far too many buildings missing.

Su You planned to gradually fill in these gaps, but building up a territory isn’t something that can be accomplished overnight. It’s like creating a work of art—you can only finish a part each day, and only after days and months of steady effort will you finally achieve a perfect result.

Today, in addition to the previous ones, Su You planned to construct three more buildings: the Lord’s Manor, the Training Ground, and a Well.

The Lord’s Manor had been mentioned before. It wasn’t just a residence for the lord; it also had other special functions. For example, she could issue announcements, adjust taxes, and modify territory policies from the manor. Without it, Su You wouldn’t be able to perform any of these administrative actions.

Building the Lord’s Manor required quite a few materials, but after several days of stockpiling, Su You had finally gathered enough.

10 planks, 10 stone slabs, 10 marble bricks, 20 glass panes, and 10 pieces of fabric (or soft cloth)—these were the required materials.

Since soft cloth was more precious, Su You naturally chose to use synthetic fiber fabric for the construction.

As for glass, the synthesis path was: 1 sand = 1 glass shard, 3 glass shards = 1 glass pane, so 20 glass panes actually meant 60 units of sand.

Although the caravan didn’t have much sand, they did have at least 60 units. Su You used this batch to fire the glass shards, then combined them at the workbench into glass panes.

As for the planks, stone slabs, and marble bricks, there wasn’t much to say—these were familiar materials she’d used many times before. She had a good stockpile of each, so she didn’t even need to synthesize them and could just use the finished products directly.

[Consume Plank x10, Stone Slab x10, Marble Brick x10, Glass x20, Fabric x10 to build the Lord’s Manor?]

[Building Lord’s Manor. Estimated time: 12 hours.]

Twelve hours—that meant it would be finished around midnight tonight.

Su You placed the Lord’s Manor at the end of the main road running through the center of the territory—in other words, the territory gate, the central fire, and the Lord’s Manor formed a straight line.

After placing the Lord’s Manor, Su You began preparing materials for the next building.

The next building was the Training Ground, which, as the name suggests, was for training the NPCs’ combat abilities.

The training ground had targets, dummies, and sandbags, allowing combat personnel to practice their skills to their hearts’ content.

While it was possible to train skills without a training ground, practicing inside one provided bonuses: faster speed, higher efficiency, less time required, and it even increased the daily cap on skill proficiency gained from non-combat practice.

The materials for the training ground were similar to other buildings: a certain number of planks, stone bricks, and marble bricks.

[Consume Plank x5, Stone Brick x10, Marble Brick x5 to build the Training Ground?]

[Building Training Ground. Estimated time: 300 minutes.]

Su You placed the training ground behind the tavern, near the city gate.

The previously built empty house was placed behind the tailor shop, close to both the tailor and the warehouse, making it convenient for accessing materials—a pretty suitable location.

...

The third building, and the last one Su You planned to construct for now, was the Well.

The purpose of the well was obvious: to make it easier to fetch water. The key point here was that water from the well was safe to drink directly, even without boiling, and wouldn’t cause any negative status effects.

On top of that, the well’s water was renewable and refreshed quickly.

Wild water sources were different. While they did refresh, the rate was extremely slow and they could be affected by disasters—like drought (drying up) or acid rain (pollution).

Building next to a water source was partly for convenience, but that was only in the early stages when resources for a well weren’t available. Once the conditions were met, it was always best to build a well as soon as possible.

The materials for building a well were a bit unusual. While other buildings mainly required wood and stone, the well needed tools—specifically, two tools: a pickaxe and a shovel.

Moreover, wells could be upgraded. Upgrading increased both the maximum water capacity and the refresh rate. Upgrades also required pickaxes and shovels, plus a few other materials.

The difference was that a level-1 well required stone pickaxes and shovels, while a level-2 well needed copper versions.

Su You happened to have some old stone pickaxes and shovels in her warehouse, so she took them out.

According to her plan, she was going to dig two wells for now: Well 1 would be placed near the farmland for irrigation, and Well 2 would be next to the training ground, behind Residential House 1, for the daily use of the territory’s residents.

[Consume Stone Pickaxe x2, Stone Shovel x1, Stone x10 to build a Well?]

[Building Well. Estimated time: 120 minutes.]

...

...

After a few hours of rest, Yun Li and the rest of the caravan were feeling refreshed.

While their spirits were restored, their bodies were facing a new problem—one related to food.

After such a long rest, everyone was getting hungry, but few people were actually eating.

It wasn’t because they didn’t have any food. On the contrary, they’d stockpiled a fair amount. The problem was, all they had left were dry, tough grain biscuits.

These biscuits were cheap and filling, but they tasted awful, had a bad texture, and if you ate too quickly, they could even get stuck in your throat.

Previously, they had no choice—there hadn’t been any territories or cities along the way where they could resupply. But now that they’d finally arrived at a territory, there was no way they wanted to keep gnawing on those biscuits.

“Captain, did the lord here say if they’re selling any food?” someone asked, rubbing their loudly growling stomach. Looking at the rock-hard biscuit in their hand, their appetite instantly vanished.

Yun Li felt much the same. Looking at the dry rations, she had no appetite either. She wasn’t some pampered young lady, but it had been a long time since she’d had it this “rough.”

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

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120. The Fat Sheep

If they truly had no other options, that would be one thing. But now, they had both money and supplies, and had even managed to secure a territory as their base. There was really no need to keep forcing themselves to eat such unpalatable food.

Looking at everyone’s gloomy faces, she sighed softly.

“I’ll go ask, but don’t get your hopes up too much.” After all, while this was technically a territory, its conditions were plain for all to see. Even if they couldn’t buy any decent food, it wouldn’t be surprising.

As Yun Li walked away, one of the caravan members also let out a sigh.

“Sigh, if only we’d bought more food back when we were at the second territory.”

But someone quickly replied, “Who could have known? Didn’t we already bring plenty of food when we set out?”

It was true—they had brought plenty of food at the start. But when they passed through a territory struck by both locusts and drought, they decisively traded away most of their supplies.

That was also why they’d made such a huge profit this trip.

In a territory hit by two natural disasters at once, food prices soared sky-high—anything edible could fetch a fortune.

For example, the flatbread they were eating now would only cost two or three copper coins back in their own town, but in that disaster-stricken territory, a single piece was snatched up for seven or eight, even over ten silver coins!

And that’s not even counting the other food they had—bread, roast meat, dried fruit… They’d only spent a few dozen silver coins on food before setting out, but before they’d even sold any other goods, just the food alone had already earned them dozens of gold coins!

“Let me ask you: if a loaf of bread could sell for twenty-five silver coins, would you keep it for yourself or sell it?”

“Of course I’d sell it! …Well, I’m just saying. With money, you can buy anything you want to eat, right?”

Whenever they wanted a good meal, they could have one. But opportunities like this to make a killing were once in a lifetime—they couldn’t let it slip by.

The fact that they’d managed to hold onto some flatbread for themselves was already pretty impressive.

Besides, if they hadn’t made such a big profit, they wouldn’t have been able to afford that dagger. Before this trip, all their possessions combined weren’t even worth ten gold coins.

Still, while making money was great, it also put them in danger. If it hadn’t been for their clever and decisive leader, who knows what kind of trouble they’d be in now.

“Actually, it’s my fault. If I hadn’t let something slip, everyone wouldn’t be so on edge…” One of them spoke up guiltily as the topic came up.

In fact, they’d visited two territories on this trip—one recently hit by disaster, and the other a normal one.

They’d made a fortune in the first, and when they reached the second, they started trading as usual.

They sold off all their goods, then used the gold coins they’d earned to buy up local specialties and other items at low prices.

Maybe it was because this was their first time doing such big business and they lacked experience, but they completely forgot to keep a low profile, so their activities were noticed by quite a few people.

Within just two days of arriving, someone came snooping around. Caught off guard, one of them accidentally let something slip.

Not only did he reveal that they’d made a lot of money, but also that their caravan only had a dozen or so people, with less than ten fighters.

Rich, and with little fighting power—a caravan like that was a “fat sheep” in the eyes of some.

The person fishing for information was skilled, but the one who let it slip wasn’t stupid either.

As soon as he realized what he’d done, he immediately reported it to their leader, Yun Li, who decisively ordered everyone to stop all trading and leave with their goods that very night.

Of course, the one who let it slip was responsible—if not for him, they could have stayed a few more days and stocked up on more supplies.

But no one really blamed him. After all, while he was at fault, everyone shared some of the blame.

It wasn’t just him who’d been too conspicuous. This experience had taught them a valuable lesson—as long as they didn’t repeat the same mistake, it would be fine.

“Forget it, what’s done is done… Let’s think about what we’ll do if Sister Yun can’t buy any food.”

…

While the caravan members were anxiously hoping Yun Li could buy some food, she had already found Su You near the farmland.

By now, all six new plots had been built. With the fields ready, Su You was preparing to plant the second batch of crops.

Of these, wheat and rice both had a ten-day growth cycle, while corn and potatoes took seven and five days, respectively.

According to her plan, she would use Fields 5 and 6 for wheat. After planting all ten packets of wheat seeds, only two packets remained.

Field 7 was for rice; after using five packets, only one was left.

Field 8 would be split in half—one side for potatoes, the other for corn, using two packets of each and leaving one packet of each remaining. Although this wouldn’t trigger Harmony I, there was no helping it—she only had three packets of potato and corn seeds each, but it took four packets to fill a field.

As for Fields 9 and 10, Su You decided to plant cotton in both.

Red grass was important too, but its growth cycle was too long—seven days. Plus, basic healing potions made from it were rather weak. With the debuff of potion resistance, you couldn’t use them indefinitely, so while it was necessary to keep some in reserve, there was no need to stockpile too much.

The batch of red grass planted a few days ago alongside berries and cotton would yield about 30–40 plants, which was plenty.

After planting all the seeds, Su You checked on the first four fields.

Fields 1 and 2 had red berries, which had already been harvested once yesterday afternoon.

There were eight berry bushes in total across the two fields, and each bush could yield 30–50 berries.

(End of this chapter)"

"121. Double Calamity

After harvesting the berries yesterday, Su You got an exact figure from Dolly—these eight berry bushes yielded about three and a half stacks of berries in total.

Note, the “three and a half stacks” here doesn’t refer to the backpack stacking limit, but the warehouse stacking limit. In other words, yesterday’s batch of berries amounted to a full 350 berries.

Normally, the yield wouldn’t be this high, but thanks to the Harmony I buff, this harvest turned out pretty well.

Even if you don’t use them for cooking and just eat them directly, with each berry restoring 6 hunger points, those 350 berries add up to over 2,000 hunger points… So, right now, there’s really no shortage of food in the territory.

As a die-hard infrastructure and farming fanatic, Su You would never let herself starve to death—that would be way too embarrassing.

As for the cotton and red grass planted in Fields 3 and 4, thanks to Dolly’s careful tending, they’re growing nicely too.

Although it’s the first time planting them, so the illustrated guide hasn’t been unlocked and there’s no growth countdown, Su You estimates from experience that the cotton should be ready to harvest around noon tomorrow, while the red grass will take a bit longer, but should be ready by the morning after.

And the day after tomorrow will be the ninth day in the digitized world—just in time to harvest before the dark creatures attack… You could say, everything is going according to plan.

As long as nothing unexpected happens, Su You is 99% confident she can handle the dark creatures’ assault smoothly.

But life is unpredictable. While nothing went wrong with the dark creatures, another matter brought to light some information that gave Su You quite a shock.

……

Just as Su You finished planting a patch of wheat, she heard Yun Li calling her. She paused her work and turned to look at Yun Li.

“Lord Su, do you have any food for sale here?” After making her request, Yun Li briefly explained what had happened to their caravan, leaving out some details about the caravan itself. But now, Su You basically understood what had happened on their journey.

“We do have food. The tavern is selling some right now, though it’s mostly berry and meat dishes, so the selection is a bit limited. If you don’t mind, Captain Yun, you can go take a look.”

As for the issue of the tavern not having an NPC to handle payments… Originally, Dolly was supposed to temporarily fill in as the tavern NPC, but she’s busy with the tailor shop and has a lot on her plate, so to avoid wasting her time, the tavern is still running without an NPC manager.

But that’s not a problem—Yun Li just needs to buy what she wants and pay Su You directly.

Su You wasn’t worried about Yun Li trying to dine and dash. She didn’t know exactly how much the caravan had made, but since they could fork over a dozen gold coins without batting an eye, they surely wouldn’t haggle over a few silver coins for food.

Besides, this was Su You’s territory—they wouldn’t risk “wandering the forest” again just to save a bit on food.

“I don’t mind! Anything’s better than gnawing on dry biscuits.” Yun Li’s eyes lit up at the mention of meat and berries.

Since they were right by the fields, she could see the berry bushes growing in Fields 1 and 2, and recognized them as a tasty variety. Even without meat, buying some berries as a treat would be nice, but now that there was meat too, that was even better.

After learning that the tavern had food, Yun Li said a quick word to Su You and got ready to head over. But just as she was about to leave, Su You called out to her.

“Wait a moment, Captain Yun. I have a few questions I’d like to ask.”

“Of course, Lord Su.” Although Yun Li was eager to buy food, she patiently stopped when she heard Su You’s request.

“It’s like this—just now, I heard you mention that the first territory you visited had just experienced two calamities? Could you tell me exactly which two?” When Su You heard “double calamity” earlier, her heart skipped a beat.

Because double calamities don’t just happen in system territories—player-built territories can encounter them too. The odds are low, but Su You wanted to know the details.

“Locust plague and drought,” Yun Li answered without hesitation, since it wasn’t sensitive information.

But after she spoke, she could clearly see Lord Su’s brows knit tightly together.

“Do you remember roughly how far that territory is from here… from Sunset Territory?” Normally, during calamities, the Sunset Continent is divided into many regions. Territories in the same region either experience exactly the same calamities, or ones of opposite nature.

If Sunset Territory and that double calamity territory are in the same region, then after this month’s mild season ends, there’s a high chance Sunset Territory will also face a double calamity.

The possible calamities here include locust plague, drought, flood, acid rain, and a special event called ‘Forest Revel.’

Of these, flood and acid rain are the opposites of drought—one means no water, the others mean water is “abundant,” sometimes excessively so.

As for the locust plague, its counterpart is Forest Revel—a bizarre state where the entire forest enters a… very strange condition.

In short, Su You really hoped her territory wasn’t in the same region as that double calamity territory. But even if they were…

“It’s hard to estimate the distance, but from the second territory to here, it took us about—?”

Hearing Yun Li’s answer, Su You nearly blacked out on the spot.

So… they really are in the same region!

Even though measuring by travel time isn’t precise, if even a journey of ten days or half a month (without rest) is still within the same region, the answer is obvious.

Not to mention, Yun Li’s group must have traveled with breaks, not non-stop… so the distance is even shorter.

“Lord Su, are you… alright?” Maybe Su You’s frustration was too obvious, but Yun Li couldn’t help asking softly, a little confused.

Su You forced a smile, not wanting to talk, but seeing Yun Li’s concern, she pulled herself together and shook her head.

“I’m fine. Go ahead and buy your food, Captain Yun.”

Yun Li: “…Alright.”

Although Su You really didn’t look “fine” at all, Yun Li didn’t press further.

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**122. Failed Unboxing**

Of course, the most important thing was that she still remembered there was a bunch of hungry, wailing mouths waiting for her back at the courier station—she couldn’t afford to waste any more time here.

After Yun Li left, Su You glanced at the half-planted field, sighed, and then finished planting the rest.

Although the double disasters had hit Su You hard, she was someone who’d weathered many storms. By the time she’d finished planting, she’d already adjusted her mindset.

So what if it’s a double disaster? It’s not that hard. As long as you prepare in advance, no disaster is insurmountable.

While comforting herself, Su You began planning her next steps in her mind.

Originally, she’d wanted to scout the surrounding terrain to figure out what kind of disaster would strike in a month. But now it seemed unnecessary—double disasters had no distinguishing features.

Still, she needed to map the area. In fact, because it was a double disaster, she needed to speed up her exploration. Only by uncovering the entire map could she know where resources were and gather what she needed as quickly as possible.

...

After receiving the money Yun Li sent for buying food, Su You locked herself in the tool shed with the items she’d retrieved from behind the Long-tailed Crocodile’s pond.

Long-tailed Crocodile plus pond—this was a classic loot farming spot.

A “loot farming spot” is basically a place where treasure chests spawn in the wild, also known as “nature’s gifts.” The Long-tailed Crocodile was the “guardian beast” of this chest.

The items that could spawn in this chest were all sorts of things—it was pure luck. But no one would pass up the chance to open it. Even if the odds were low, just one rare material or item could be a huge windfall.

Especially in the early stages, any resource could significantly accelerate the development of her territory.

But these chests weren’t easy to get. You had to defeat the guardian beast, and even then, the chest wasn’t something you could just open.

Because the chests that spawned at these loot spots were locked. Normally, you needed a key crafted by a blacksmith, or a special universal key obtained through rare means.

If you didn’t have a key, your only option was to pick the lock.

Lockpicking was a bit unusual, but perhaps to satisfy players’ mischievous tendencies, the game developers had deliberately added and even refined the lockpicking mechanic.

In other words, locked chests could indeed be opened this way—it wasn’t a bug discovered by players.

But this method had a major drawback: if you failed at any step, the chest would self-destruct, and all your efforts would be wasted.

With no blacksmiths or keys in her territory, Su You naturally had to pick the lock.

After an entire afternoon’s effort, Su You finally managed to open the first lock… Yes, the first lock—meaning there was a second one inside.

When Su You saw that the chest contained another, smaller locked chest, like a Russian nesting doll, her feelings were complicated.

If she’d known it was a nesting chest, she wouldn’t have bothered—she’d rather have spent the time exploring.

But since she’d already gotten this far, there was no way she’d give up. As annoying as nesting chests were, at least they meant the contents were valuable—not just junk.

What she wanted most was a recruitment card, or some other item that could help her recruit NPCs.

The odds were slim, but hope was hope.

The first lock had been slow but relatively smooth. The second was different—Su You pressed her lips together, brows tightly furrowed, clearly facing a tough challenge.

“…Why did they even change this stupid thing?” After another near-failure, Su You decided to take a break, lest she accidentally destroy the chest.

She shook out her sore hands, cramped from holding the same position for so long, her resentment toward this data-driven world practically overflowing.

The lockpicking process was basically manipulating the tool to move the lock pin out of its groove. Previously, all the locks followed a few fixed templates—once you mastered them, picking was easy.

Some people had even made a “lockpicking simulator” to practice.

Su You had used that simulator, maxing out her lockpicking skills (in real life).

But the grooves in this second lock were totally different from any she’d seen before—not one of the old templates. So she had to experiment, little by little, trying to ease the pin out of the groove.

This wasn’t a simulator—there were no do-overs. Su You had to be extremely careful, inching the pin along bit by bit.

Who knew how much time passed. After her break, Su You continued picking.

She finally managed to move the pin to just a hair’s breadth from the exit—one more nudge and the chest would open. But just then, she heard a loud bang.

*Bang—*

At the same time, her hand slipped, and the pin struck the edge of the groove—

[Lockpicking failed.]

Su You: …Damn it! (a kind of plant!)

She didn’t have time to wonder what caused the bang. The first thing she did was look down at the chest… only to find it gone.

Because she’d failed, the chest had vanished.

Honestly, if the Lord player could learn combat skills, Su You’s greatest wish would be to boost her strength and destroy this world that seemed so intent on targeting her.

Never mind the little setbacks—ever since she founded her territory, nothing had gone smoothly.

First the monster cages, then the double disaster, and now, out of nowhere, some explosion-like noise had ruined her lockpicking, making all those Long-tailed Crocodiles she’d killed a total waste.

After all, she’d gone through all that for the chest. The beast cores were just a bonus, but nowhere near as valuable as the chest.

(End of chapter)"

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**123. Love and Hate**

The loud bang didn’t just destroy the treasure chest Su You was about to open—it also startled everyone else in the territory.

Duoya wasn’t in the territory and still hadn’t returned, so she had no idea what had happened and was still out hunting in the forest.

Doli had been repairing the things Su You had deliberately broken earlier, hoping to improve her repair skills. But the sudden explosion made the wooden cup she was working on—already almost “healed”—shatter in her hands, leaving her completely dumbfounded.

This was the first time in her life that not only had she failed to repair something, but she’d actually managed to blow it to pieces—so badly that there was no way to put it back together.

Even though Doli knew it wasn’t her fault and that she’d been affected by something outside, she was still in a bad mood—just like Su You.

As for the brothers Lyle and Lake, they were both practicing their skills near the territory.

One was working on his carpentry by carving wooden figures, while the other was training his defense skills. After the explosion, Lyle nearly cut his finger with his carving knife, and Lake stumbled and almost fell flat on his face.

Then there were the merchants at the inn. Since the inn was right next to the territory wall—basically at the edge of the territory—they heard the noise even more clearly and loudly than Su You and the others.

A group of them had just finished eating and were chatting happily, when the sudden bang scared several people so badly they fell right off their chairs.

Yun Li frowned and led a few people out to check what was going on, only to run into Su You and Lyle, who were also heading out to investigate.

They exchanged glances and nodded to each other, then, with unspoken agreement, all headed toward the main gate.

Whether it was coincidence or not, as soon as Lyle pushed open the gate, a fireball shot straight toward him. He didn’t have time to dodge, but luckily someone next to him pulled him out of the way, so the fireball missed him.

Otherwise, judging by the direction of the attack, even though this was a digital world and he wouldn’t be disfigured or seriously injured, he’d definitely have lost a lot of HP.

While everyone else was still wondering what was happening outside and why there were fireballs, Su You already knew who was behind all this.

A fireball… who else could pull that off but a fire mage?

And when it came to fire mages, besides the one Su You had just recruited—Meike—who else could it be?

Since it was almost certainly Meike outside, Su You also figured out what had caused the commotion.

Among fire spells, there’s one called “Explosion”—it always makes a huge racket when cast.

Even if it wasn’t Explosion, it had to be some other high-level spell capable of making that kind of noise.

There are quite a few such spells, but they’re all advanced magic—ordinary mages can’t learn them. But since Meike hadn’t officially joined the territory yet, his power hadn’t been restricted, which meant he was still a high-level mage. For someone like Meike, casting this kind of spell was no problem at all.

“There’s probably a fire mage fighting outside. To avoid getting caught in the crossfire, you’d all better stay put for now.” Su You said this to everyone, then turned to Lyle: “You stay here and keep watch. I’m going to grab something. If anyone wants to come in, let them, but make sure you ask what’s going on outside first.”

“Yes, my lord,” Lyle nodded, then stood guard behind the now-closed stone gate.

Yun Li and her group wanted to go out and take a look, but they weren’t reckless. After Su You’s warning, their curiosity faded.

“You two stay here, the rest of you go back,” Yun Li picked two people with combat skills to stay and help Lyle guard the gate.

Even though she had nothing to do with this territory, they were staying here for now, so she was willing to lend a hand where she could. But if things got out of hand, she wasn’t about to play the hero. Leaving these two behind wasn’t just to help—it was also to keep tabs on the situation.

If anything went wrong, they’d report to her, and she could make plans accordingly.

What kind of creature could go toe-to-toe with a fire mage of this caliber?

And could this fire mage actually win against whatever it was?

Yun Li felt uneasy. She hoped nothing bad would happen, but wishing alone wouldn’t solve anything.

Not knowing what was really going on, she instinctively hoped the fire mage would win. After all, the mage was human, and unless he was one of those rare extremists, he probably wouldn’t attack them.

But as for the creature fighting the mage—who knew what it might do?

While Yun Li anxiously returned to the inn and told the others what had happened, Su You was already rummaging through a chest and found what she needed—a high-level cooking skill book.

As mentioned before, Meike had a borderline obsessive passion for cooking. When Su You recruited NPCs, she’d always find their weaknesses or preferences and use those to win them over.

Since Meike loved cooking, she’d just give him a high-level cooking skill book.

With this book, Meike wouldn’t become completely loyal to the territory or blindly follow Su You’s orders, but combined with a few promises (like providing ingredients and a kitchen for him to cook in), persuading him to join shouldn’t be hard.

As for getting him to actually listen after that, Su You would have to work on raising his favor and loyalty herself.

Of course, even without the skill book, Su You had other ways to tempt Meike to stay—it would just cost more.

For example, she could let him use up a ton of ingredients, and put up with his “experimental” cooking from time to time…

The problem was, she couldn’t let her annoyance show. In other areas it was fine, but if she showed any displeasure about his cooking, his favorability would drop. Not by much—just a point or two, and it would bounce back in a few days—but it was still annoying.

And as annoying as he was, he was also incredibly useful. That’s why Meike was one of those NPCs Su You both loved and hated.

Thanks to the anonymous reader for the tip!

(End of chapter)"

"124. Little Black Bug

……

All in all, Su You suddenly felt rather glad that she’d managed to get her hands on this advanced cooking skill book.

In her previous save file, she’d actually considered giving Meike a cooking skill book as well, but at that time Meike had already reached his skill limit, and every single one of his skills was maxed out.

She couldn’t bear to use an item to erase any of those powerful combat skills just to let him learn a cooking skill that was neither here nor there and would never reach max level anyway… Plus, she’d only recruited Meike when her territory was already fairly prosperous, so she wasn’t worried about him wasting ingredients—she wasn’t short on supplies.

But now, things were different. Meike had just arrived, so he definitely didn’t have many skills yet. Teaching him cooking wouldn’t be a problem.

Su You tossed the skill book into her inventory, then walked out of Residential House 4.

But just as she stepped out the door, she seemed to sense something dart past her feet with a whoosh.

Before she could react and figure out what had just happened, she saw Lyle rushing over to her, looking anxious.

“My lord, are you alright?”

Su You shook her head, about to turn around and see what exactly had just shot past her, when suddenly—boom!—the main gate of the territory was blown open.

Su You: ?!

Her eyelid twitched. Looking up, she saw a middle-aged man in a tattered mage’s robe—someone who looked vaguely familiar—storming into the territory with an imposing air.

“Where’s that little black bug?! Get out here, you! Stealing my food and then complaining about it—just you wait, I’ll roast you into a steak and show you what real gourmet food tastes like!”

“If you’ve got the guts to say my cooking is bad, then you’ve got the guts to come out and face me! What are you hiding for?!”

Su You: ……

Well… even though Su You didn’t know exactly what had happened, based on her understanding of Meike and the information in his words, she could more or less guess the situation.

The “little black bug” Meike mentioned was probably the creature he’d just fought, and the fight had started because the “little black bug” said Meike’s cooking was bad…

Yeah, that made sense. Meike wasn’t angry because the “little black bug” stole his food, but because it said his cooking tasted awful.

Maybe other people wouldn’t understand Meike’s logic, but Su You did… Well, actually, she didn’t really understand it either, but she knew that’s just how Meike’s mind worked.

But regardless, that was no excuse for Meike to go smashing up her territory.

“Lyle.” Su You pointed behind her, at Residential House 4. “Something just ran in there. See if you can catch it. If you can’t, that’s fine—your safety comes first. Just block it inside and don’t let it escape.”

Lyle hesitated—a rare thing, as he usually followed Su You’s orders without question—because there was still a very dangerous person here.

Su You could see the worry in his eyes, but she didn’t have time to explain. She just indicated that she’d be fine, then walked toward Meike.

Her confidence didn’t come from the skill book, but from the system’s protection.

Any NPC recruited from the tavern, no matter how eccentric their behavior, would have an extremely low desire to attack the person who recruited them.

Unless someone deliberately provoked them, they would never attack unprompted.

Of course, it was possible that the data-driven world could delete this bit of programming, but even if it did, Meike wasn’t a violent person. His aggression was only directed at those who mocked his cooking or disrupted him while he was cooking… or at other creatures.

Under normal circumstances, he would never harm the innocent. So Su You was unlikely to be in any danger—unless she lost her mind and started mocking his cooking like that “little black bug.”

Lyle didn’t know any of this, so naturally he was worried. But when he saw Su You safely walk up to Meike, he hesitated, then chose to follow her instructions and went into Residential House 4 to look for the “thing” she’d mentioned that had slipped inside.

……

Meanwhile, Su You had already reached Meike.

Although Meike was angry about his cooking being insulted, most of his rage had already been vented in the earlier fight. The reason he’d blown open the gate and rushed in now was simply an instinctive reaction to chase the “little black bug”—he didn’t actually have any grudge or ill will toward the territory itself.

So when he saw Su You, his attitude wasn’t exactly friendly, but he wasn’t as furious as before either.

Su You knew Meike’s temperament well. She wasn’t sure if he was exactly the same as before, but his current attitude said it all.

He didn’t attack Su You, but he didn’t apologize either.

“Consider this your compensation for the damage to your territory. Where’s your lord? Tell them to come out. Some stinking creature ran into your territory—I’m going to drag it out.” Meike tossed Su You a gold coin, sounding a bit annoyed, his eyes darting around as if searching for the “little black bug” that had insulted his cooking.

Su You didn’t stand on ceremony—she put the gold coin straight into her backpack.

Seeing this, Meike frowned, about to say something, but Su You spoke first.

“I’m the lord here. I accept your compensation. If you want to look for that so-called stinker in my territory, I won’t stop you, but you can’t make a mess, and you absolutely can’t…” Su You pointed at the blasted stone gate. “…randomly destroy buildings in my territory.”

Meike had thought she was just someone trying to pocket the gold coin, but she’d actually said she was the lord…

He found it a little odd, but didn’t say much. Whoever the lord was, it didn’t matter to him—this wasn’t his territory anyway. What mattered most right now was finding the guy who dared say his cooking was bad.

“I’m just here to find that stinker. As long as your territory doesn’t shelter it, I won’t cause any trouble.” With that, Meike snorted, glanced around at the territory, and after seeing how simple and sparse the place was, quickly got a basic sense of it.

It was a small territory, but that was fine—fewer buildings, smaller area, easier to search.

Just as he was about to go check each building, Su You suddenly called out to him.

“I just saw a black shadow dart into that house. Why not check there first?”

(End of chapter)"

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**125. Precision Strike**

As she finished speaking, Su You pointed in the direction of Residential House 4.

Hearing her words, Meike paused for a moment, but didn’t give a clear response. Instead, he simply strode straight toward the place Su You had indicated.

To him, it didn’t matter where he checked first. He was a high-level mage, absolutely confident in his own strength, so he wasn’t afraid of Su You plotting against him.

In any case, today he was determined to dig three feet into the ground if he had to—he was going to find that ‘black bug’ that dared to mock him!

Su You followed behind. When the two of them arrived in front of Residential House 4, Su You happened to see Lyle pushing the door open and coming out of the room.

“My lord, the thing inside looks like a black snake... but it’s really fast, I couldn’t catch it.” Lake looked apologetic, a bit helpless and frustrated.

In fact, he’d almost caught the little black snake several times just now, but the snake was extremely clever, often making fake moves to mislead Lake’s judgment, causing him to lunge in the wrong direction while the snake darted off in the opposite way.

“That’s no ordinary black snake. It’s normal that you couldn’t catch it.” Meike glanced at Lyle. Although he was just stating the truth and didn’t mean to mock, his words still made people feel uncomfortable.

But Meike clearly didn’t care what others thought. After all, as a high-level mage, he could do as he pleased. With absolute power, nothing else really mattered.

After saying that, Meike ignored the two of them.

Now that he knew the black snake was inside, he pushed open the door to Residential House 4 and went in.

“My lord, this gentleman is...?” Although Meike’s words just now weren’t pleasant, Lyle didn’t take it to heart, nor did he feel upset because of them.

After all, the other party was a powerful mage, not someone he could afford to offend. Besides, Meike was just telling the truth—the black snake was indeed formidable, and his own skills weren’t much to speak of. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so flustered trying to catch a snake.

What Lyle cared about most now was what exactly this mage wanted, and whether he might pose any threat to the territory.

Su You saw his concern and explained what had just happened, even showing him the gold coin Meike had given her.

“This mage just wants to settle a personal matter. He’s not the type to attack people at random. You don’t need to worry so much.”

Seeing the gold coin in Su You’s hand, Lyle reluctantly accepted that this mage might actually be a relatively ‘kind’ one.

After all, from everything he’d heard, mages were all proud and arrogant.

If it had been a more arrogant mage in this situation, they’d just have to consider themselves unlucky. Compensation would be out of the question; if the mage didn’t take advantage of them, that would already be merciful.

This mage might seem ill-tempered, but he was reasonable and even generous... Not that Lyle had any choice but to believe it.

“So after—” Lyle was about to ask Su You if there was anything they needed to do after Meike caught the snake, but before he could finish, he heard the sound of a door opening behind him. Then, something suddenly whipped hard against his calf.

It hurt—a lot. While it wasn’t enough to cause real injury, Lyle was sure that if he rolled up his pant leg, there’d be a big bruise where he’d been struck.

But he didn’t have time to worry about that, because he saw the black snake shoot out like lightning. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but he thought the snake paused in front of Su You, then darted straight to her side, trying to climb up her leg.

“Get back here, you little pest!” came the furious shout of the mage from behind. Before Lyle could help Su You catch the snake, he saw his lord bend down with a calm expression and simply ‘pick up’ the little black snake.

That’s right.

She just picked it up.

Lyle: ...My lord is amazing!

He wasn’t exactly afraid of snakes, but catching a cold-blooded animal like this usually required some mental preparation—especially since this black snake was clearly no ordinary creature.

What if it bit her?

What if it was venomous?

But none of those ‘what ifs’ mattered now, because after Su You picked up the snake, she noticed something odd—the snake didn’t struggle at all, nor did it try to attack her.

Su You had only grabbed it so casually because she recognized it wasn’t poisonous, but now it seemed this snake wasn’t just harmless—it might actually be... a bit dim-witted?

Had Meike hit it silly? It didn’t even know to struggle?

The moment Su You locked eyes with the black snake, she frowned. Then she heard the snake speak—

‘You lousy cook! Your food is disgusting and you won’t even let people say so. If your cooking is so good, why don’t you eat it yourself? Don’t you have any (censored) idea whether it’s good or not?’

‘Saying it’s bad is already being polite! Who knows how long I was puking in the trees after eating that garbage you made—I almost died from your cooking!’

‘Even if I turn into roast meat today, I’m not letting you be the one to cook me! If I become roast snake, I refuse to be some charred, disgusting snake meat!’

Su You: ...

Lyle: ...

Su You wasn’t surprised to hear the snake talk—this world was full of strange things, and she couldn’t judge it by the standards of her previous, ordinary life.

But after hearing the snake’s mocking tirade, even though she didn’t know it, Su You couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious for it.

Wow!

Just wow!

Even a data snake can talk back like this these days?

Honestly, the first two lines weren’t so bad, but that last one—‘Even if I die and get roasted, I won’t let you cook me, because your cooking sucks’—was a precision strike.

To be honest, if Su You were Meike, she wouldn’t be able to swallow that insult either.

And as it happened, even though she wasn’t Meike, Meike himself clearly couldn’t take it.

He charged out of the room, pulled out his magic staff, and glared menacingly at Su You... or rather, the snake in her hand.

No doubt, if he weren’t worried about accidentally hurting Su You, he’d have blasted the snake with a fire spell right then and there.

“My lord, hand it over to me and this matter will be settled,” Meike said, doing his best to calm himself.

(End of chapter)"

"126. Do We Know Each Other?

Su You didn’t hesitate at all. She stepped forward, dragging the black snake with her, ready to hand it over to Meike.

Although she admitted that everything the black snake said was true, that didn’t affect her decision to side with Meike.

It wasn’t just because she wanted to recruit Meike—more importantly, she really couldn’t afford to offend him right now.

Even though Meike definitely wouldn’t attack her at the moment, if she showed even the slightest intention of speaking up for the snake, things would get complicated.

Besides, Su You had no interest in lowering Meike’s initial favorability or loyalty toward her and her territory just to save a snake.

The black snake seemed to sense her intentions. It had been limp and lifeless, but suddenly began to struggle desperately.

As it thrashed, some wounds on its body—which had been barely noticeable and seemed to be healing—split open again, fresh blood dripping out.

‘I can die, but I want this human to kill me. If I’m going to be roasted, I want her to do it!’

Su You: “???”

Su You was stunned for a moment, glancing at the black snake in confusion. She didn’t understand why this suddenly had anything to do with her.

Meike sneered, “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to. You just want to use this chance to escape, don’t you?”

The black snake rolled its eyes—literally rolled them, and Su You saw it with her own eyes.

‘Oh, please. As if I could run away. I just want to die at this human’s hands. At least she can cook, so my meat won’t go to waste. I’m a hundred-year-old snake spirit, after all. If you waste my meat, I’ll die with regrets!’

There was so much to unpack in the snake’s words that Su You didn’t even know where to start. But right now, her main concern was the same as Meike’s—

“We know each other?”

“You two know each other?”

The black snake snorted, sounding rather imposing, but its next words carried a hint of grievance.

‘How could we not know each other? I gave you those stones! And that boar!’

Su You froze, then suddenly realized what was going on.

So this black snake was the “mysterious creature” who had traded her stones for roasted berries and later tossed her a wild boar?

But…

Su You looked at the snake in her hand—it wasn’t even as thick or as long as her arm. She just couldn’t connect it to the “mysterious creature” that had caused such a commotion before, wiping out stone monsters and killing a wild boar.

Sensing Su You’s doubtful gaze, the black snake instantly bristled—well, not literally, since it had no fur.

Its scales stood on end, clearly agitated by her skepticism.

‘What’s with that look? If I hadn’t… if I weren’t so badly injured, would I be like this?’ In a way, the black snake was actually pretty good at reading the situation.

It hadn’t expected this mage—Meike—to care so much about cooking skills.

Previously, it had kept mocking him because it figured it wouldn’t survive anyway. If it was going to die, it might as well go out cursing!

But now things seemed to be taking a turn, so it wisely stopped provoking Meike.

Su You didn’t know what the snake was thinking, but she did start to feel a bit more inclined to keep it alive.

As long as it didn’t affect Meike’s favorability, of course.

Between the black snake and Meike, Meike was definitely the higher priority. The only reason she wanted to keep the snake was because of a certain respawn mechanic.

The respawn mechanism for creatures like the black snake was similar to that of mines: each area had a limited number of resource points, which included not only minerals but also biological resources.

If the black snake really was the “mysterious creature,” then it was actually a “boss beast”—a special resource. Killing one would yield a lot of loot, and, judging by her previous experience with the fire demon boss, maybe even a treasure chest.

But these creatures weren’t easy to deal with. The only reason the black snake was in such bad shape was because it had fought another boss beast and both sides were badly wounded. Then it tangled with Meike and ended up like this.

If the black snake had been at full health, Meike might not have been able to beat it—at best, it would have been a draw, and the snake might even have had a slight edge. The odds would have been about sixty-forty, with the snake at sixty.

A creature that even a high-level mage couldn’t easily defeat—that said a lot about the snake’s combat power.

The respawn mechanic for boss beasts was: each area had a fixed number of them. As long as one lived, it remained the “boss” of the area. Only if it died would a new boss beast spawn to take its place.

The black snake wasn’t exactly friendly to her, but at least it was neutral. Having a neutral boss beast around was much better than having a new, aggressive one that might attack humans on sight.

Su You weighed the pros and cons, then handed the black snake to Meike. At the same time, she spoke up:

“Mage, I am the lord of this territory. I’d like to invite you to join us.” Before Meike could respond, Su You continued, “I know, given the current state of the territory, it’s impossible to expect a high-level mage like you to join. But I might have something you want.”

Meike took the black snake. He’d planned to leave the territory and deal with the snake elsewhere, but after hearing Su You’s words, he turned to her, signaling her to go on.

He didn’t think Su You’s invitation was naive—he’d heard countless such invitations before and was used to it.

In the past, he would have ignored such offers and left straight away.

But maybe it was the black snake’s comment about the lord’s cooking that got to him, so Meike was willing to stay and listen.

Maybe you could call it a soft spot for good cooks.

“You seem to enjoy cooking? I happen to have a book about it.” As she spoke, Su You took out a high-level cooking skill book.

She held it with the back facing Meike, so he couldn’t see the title, but he could guess what it was.

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of the provided Chinese text:

---

127. Free to Stay or Leave After a Year

In his eyes, this book was nothing more than a cookbook, a secret recipe, or some sort of culinary manual...

""Is this a family heirloom recipe? Or a secret cooking manual?"" Mek waved his hand impatiently as he spoke. ""I've got plenty of things like that. If that's all you have to offer, it's not enough to interest me.""

In fact, ""plenty"" didn't even begin to describe Mek's collection of cookbooks. After all, as a high-level mage, anything he wanted would be delivered to him by people eager to curry favor.

They would do anything to build a connection, hoping Mek would help them out.

Mek knew exactly what their motives were, so he never accepted anything for free. If someone brought him something he was interested in, he would buy it at a price above market value.

He was willing to collect these things, but he didn't want to owe anyone favors for them—let alone ""sell himself"" to a territory over such things.

""It's not a recipe, and it's not a manual. This is a cooking skill book."" Su You flipped the book over, showing Mek the bold title: ""Advanced Cooking Skill Book.""

Mek was stunned for a moment, then suddenly reached out, trying to snatch the book from Su You's hands.

Su You had expected Mek to get excited, but she hadn't thought he'd get this worked up. Still, she let go, allowing him to take the skill book, while stopping Lyle from intervening.

Mek turned the skill book over and over in his hands, examining it closely. Once he was sure it was genuine and not some disguised book, he clutched it tightly, unwilling to let go.

""Name your price. I'll buy this skill book."" Mek wanted the advanced cooking skill book badly, but he still had his own calculations.

After all, Su You had made it clear that she wanted to use this book to recruit him, but Mek was trying to buy it with money instead.

Although Su You was short on cash, Mek himself was far more valuable to her than money.

Recruiting a mage of his caliber at this point in time—especially knowing his limitless potential—was an opportunity money couldn't buy.

""I'm not selling this book. I'm only using it for recruitment."" Su You shook her head, rejecting Mek's attempt to buy the advanced cooking skill book.

Even though the book was now in his hands, since he'd snatched it from Su You, its ownership still belonged to her. In other words, Mek couldn't learn from it unless Su You agreed to give it to him.

That's why Su You dared to bring out the skill book in the first place. She knew Mek would probably try to grab it, but she also knew he couldn't use it without her consent.

Hearing Su You's firm response, Mek frowned.

""If it's not money you want, name anything else. I can agree to anything."" Mek really didn't want to join a territory. To him, joining a territory meant restrictions, and it would interfere with his pursuit of culinary excellence.

He was a man determined to seek out the world's finest cuisine and apprentice himself to the God of Cooking!

Su You stared at him for a few seconds. She didn't say anything, but her meaning was clear—she wanted him to stay and join the territory.

""If this is too difficult for you, then forget it. Please return the advanced cooking skill book to me, and I'll find someone else who's willing to stay for it."" The tactic was old-fashioned, but it didn't matter if it was new or not—as long as it worked.

At this point, Mek's face was twisted in agony. Not just his face—even his heart felt twisted with indecision.

""Fine! I'll join the territory, but I'll only stay for two years. After that, I'm leaving."" Mek thought long and hard before finally coming up with a compromise.

He could join the territory, but there was no way he'd be trapped in this small place forever.

Two years wasn't too long or too short. For the sake of the advanced cooking skill book, he'd cooperate and follow all her reasonable arrangements.

Mek had even thought, if Su You didn't agree, he could extend it to three years. If she still didn't agree, then he would... he would...

Mek looked at the skill book in his hands, his conflicted heart aching.

If three years wasn't enough, then five years would be his limit. If she still refused, then even if it broke his heart to give up the skill book, he would just walk away.

But things didn't go quite as Mek had imagined.

""If you let it go today, you only need to stay for one year."" Su You pointed at the black snake that Mek had instinctively tossed to the ground when he grabbed the skill book.

Mek was stunned.

He never expected the lord to voluntarily reduce the term by a year just for a snake.

Honestly, Mek didn't really care about killing the snake or not.

The black snake's taunts were annoying, but it wasn't like he had to kill it. Besides, now that he had the advanced cooking skill book (no, you don't), becoming the God of Cooking was only a matter of time. On the path to culinary greatness, there would always be obstacles and doubters—he didn't need to worry about it.

Whether to kill the snake for revenge or stay an extra year wasn't a hard choice for Mek. But he was a little worried Su You might regret it.

""Are you sure?"" Mek looked at Su You suspiciously, worried she might have some other scheme.

Su You nodded. ""Let the black snake go, and you only need to stay in the territory for one year. After that, you're free to stay or leave as you wish.""

At that moment, Mek didn't notice that Su You had said ""free to stay or leave,"" not ""leave after a year."" She said it because she was confident that after a year in the territory, Mek would have no intention of leaving.

And even if he did leave, it wouldn't matter. By then, the territory wouldn't be lacking a high-level mage.

But as for Mek, he never imagined—nor could he believe—that there would come a day when he'd actually want to stay... Yet, that's exactly what happened a year later.

But that's a story for another time...

""Alright, it's a deal. You can handle the black snake yourself."" With that, Mek found a corner, squatted down, and started reading the skill book, not caring at all about maintaining the dignity of a high-level mage.

At the same time, as Mek spoke, a familiar system notification sounded in Su You's ear:

[Advanced Fire Mage Domno Mek has applied to join your territory. Please check and process the application promptly.]

(End of chapter)"

"128. Bandages

[Kind Reminder: Due to territory level restrictions, higher-level NPCs will have their skill levels sealed after joining your territory. This seal can be lifted by upgrading your territory or by using certain materials and items at the Profession Hall.]

Su You quickly reviewed Meck’s information and then agreed to let him join.

As soon as she agreed, Meck seemed to sense something. He stood there in a daze for a few seconds, then quickly reverted to his usual impatient self.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry! I want to learn skills!”

“Alright, alright, go ahead and learn.” Su You handed him the advanced cooking skill book, letting him read and learn as he pleased. Meanwhile, she bent down and picked up the black snake again.

‘Why did you save me? Wouldn’t it be better to let that guy guard your home for another year?’ The black snake felt conflicted.

No one wants to die, and it was no exception. It had already resigned itself to death, only to find itself suddenly saved by a human who looked completely powerless.

And the price for saving it… Although the black snake didn’t like Meck, it knew very well what a high-level mage meant in the human world.

Because it understood, it couldn’t quite figure out why this human would do such a thing.

But Su You had no intention of explaining. She simply brought the snake to her workshop.

She set the black snake aside, took two items from a wooden box, and placed them on her workbench.

[Do you want to use Cloth Scraps*3 and Hundred-Flower Herb*1 to craft Bandages*3?]

[Crafting: Bandages*3. Estimated time: 300 seconds.]

Bandages, much like basic healing potions, are among the most common and frequently used medicines in the early stages and can be used to restore health.

The difference is that the Hundred-Flower Herb used in bandages can only be applied externally, so it can’t replace Red Herb in making basic healing potions. Also, bandages only work if there are external wounds; if there are none, they won’t restore health.

So, while the two are similar, the differences are quite clear.

During the five-minute crafting time, Su You took out some bark-based paper and a feather pen she’d made earlier, then started writing and sketching on the paper… The black snake didn’t know what she was doing, but didn’t bother to ask.

In just a few minutes, Su You had filled the paper with writing.

She couldn’t help it—so much had happened today that she needed to take some time to organize her thoughts… Double disasters, the treasure chest exploded, and she’d only just sealed the monster spawn cage. Today was just one disaster after another.

Nothing but bad luck!

Su You took a deep breath, then began reviewing the notes she’d written, checking if anything needed to be revised or added—

First, she’d sealed the monster spawn cage this morning. The seal would last five days, so on the twelfth day of the datafied world, she’d have to bring people over in advance to prepare.

At a rate of about 25 ghost skeletons spawning per day, five days would mean 125 of them. Fortunately, after sealing, the spawn rate drops by 30%, so in reality, she’d be facing about 90 ghost skeletons after five days.

…That’s about a third less than before, but it’s still a lot. Still, now she’d recruited Meck, Duoya was also a skilled fighter, and Lyle and Lake weren’t bad either.

Currently, her territory had five people including herself, and four of them were combat-capable. With this setup, as long as nothing unexpected happened, dealing with the monster spawn cage shouldn’t be a big problem.

Second, regarding the dark creatures’ attack on the tenth day—it was now day seven, so she had less than three days to prepare.

The dark creatures would attack in two waves: one at dawn on the tenth day, and another late at night on the same day.

If the attack mechanism was the same as before, each wave should have about 10–20 dark creatures, with at least one elite among them.

But as before, since her combat power was sufficient, it shouldn’t be too hard to handle.

Third, the double disasters.

Now, the possible types of disasters had been narrowed down to locust plague, drought, flood, acid rain, and one more: Forest Frenzy.

There were three possible combinations of these disasters:

1. Locust plague and drought

2. Forest Frenzy and flood

3. Forest Frenzy and acid rain

If Su You could choose, she’d definitely prefer the first combination, because it’s the only one she could fully prepare for in advance.

Locust plagues aren’t that scary—she had ways to deal with them. Drought just meant a lack of water, but the well would still replenish, just more slowly and in smaller amounts, so water could be stockpiled in advance. Drought wasn’t a big deal.

Floods and acid rain weren’t too hard to handle either—just prepare for water-blocking and drainage for floods, and have anti-corrosion materials ready for acid rain.

The hardest to deal with was Forest Frenzy.

Forest Frenzy meant the entire forest would enter a “hyperactive” state, with plants mutating rapidly and becoming extremely active.

This “activity” is hard to explain, but basically, the plants would initiate “friendly” or “unfriendly” interactions with humans.

Besides plants, animals would also become frenzied—even the most docile creatures would become overly enthusiastic, not to mention those already aggressive.

And Su You’s territory was in the forest. If Forest Frenzy was triggered, all outdoor activities would be severely hampered, maybe even impossible, for the duration of the event.

The only good news was that Su You knew about the double disaster in advance, and she also knew it would happen on day 31.

Fourth, the timed quest.

This quest was automatically accepted when the territory leveled up, which happened on the night of day five. The quest duration was five days, so the deadline was the same day as the dark creatures’ attack.

…

Those were the most important points. The rest were mostly things Su You needed to prepare, the order in which buildings needed to be constructed, and materials to collect.

After finishing her notes, the bandages she’d started crafting were done.

She picked up the bandages, grabbed the snake with one hand and the bandages with the other, and, without much care, wrapped them haphazardly around the black snake. As long as the system registered them as used, it didn’t matter how she applied them.

(End of chapter)"

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**129. Yousen, Who’s Practically Paying to Join**

Because she didn’t put much care into it, the snake—which was already a long, slender creature—ended up looking like a white mummy after Su You wrapped it up.

The black snake had a bad feeling the moment it saw Su You pull out the bandages, but it was too badly injured to move. Any movement risked reopening its barely-healed wounds. Besides, it trusted that Su You wouldn’t harm it, so it simply let her wrap it up like a mummy.

There were three bandages in total; Su You used two. When she was about to use the third, the system notified her that the target was no longer bleeding, so she just stuffed the last bandage into her backpack, planning to toss it into the crate in Residential House 4 later.

“Heal up on your own. I’ve left you some food. Once you’re better, hurry up and leave. If that mage comes after you again, I won’t step in next time.” With that, Su You put down some food and left the tool shed, leaving the door slightly ajar.

She didn’t bother worrying about how the snake, now wrapped up from head to tail, was supposed to eat or free itself. That wasn’t her problem. If a mighty forest boss couldn’t even deal with a few bandages, it might as well starve. She’d already done more than enough.

As for why she didn’t just kill the black snake for a big reward, she’d already explained: compared to the reward, it was more important not to let a new, potentially even more dangerous creature respawn here.

Besides, the snake might look half-dead, but Su You had no idea what its true condition was. She’d even tried using her detection skill to check its stats, but all she saw was a long string of “???”s.

She couldn’t even see its HP, let alone its attack or defense stats.

It might not be a match for Meike, but that didn’t mean she could easily take it down herself. If she wasn’t quick enough and it managed to bite her, she’d probably lose most of her HP—or even end up in a near-death state.

For now, building a friendly relationship with the black snake was clearly the most beneficial choice.

…

…

In the blink of an eye, another day passed. On the afternoon of the eighth day, Su You returned to her territory and finally met the last NPC she’d recruited—Yousen.

Unlike recruiting Buguo and Meike, recruiting Yousen was incredibly easy—so easy that “easy” didn’t even begin to describe it.

If the difficulty of recruiting someone was usually a 1, then recruiting Yousen was a 0.

When Yousen arrived at the territory, Su You wasn’t even there—she’d taken Laike to the mine to have him dig for copper ore and marble. When she got back, she found a young man had appeared in the territory.

That young man was Yousen.

Somehow, Yousen already knew Su You was the lord, so he immediately asked to join the territory. Before this, Su You hadn’t spoken a single word to him—their very first conversation was him asking to join.

If Su You hadn’t checked his stats and seen that both his favorability and loyalty were normal, she would have suspected something was off. After all, it was rare for an NPC to be so eager to “sell themselves.”

But since Yousen seemed perfectly normal and she needed to recruit him anyway, Su You simply agreed.

After joining, Yousen was assigned to live in Residential House 5.

Currently, the residential assignments in the territory were as follows:

Residential House 1 (Duo Li, Duo Ya), Residential House 2 (Lyle, Laike), Residential House 3 (Meike), Residential House 4 (used as a warehouse), Residential House 5 (Yousen).

As for Su You, she moved straight into the Lord’s Mansion as soon as it was built.

Even though Meike’s level had been suppressed to beginner, he was still a high-level mage, so Su You gave him a bit of respect and assigned him a private room.

To further increase his favorability, Su You even converted the extra space into a small kitchen and gave Meike access to all the ingredients in the territory.

At first, Meike was dissatisfied with the basic conditions, but the moment he saw the kitchen, all his complaints vanished. When Su You told him he could use any ingredients from the warehouse without restriction, he immediately gave her a whopping ten favorability points!

Honestly… this guy might be a bit useless and playful, but as long as you cater to his interests, he’s pretty easy to please.

In the past, Su You would never have dared to give him access to the warehouse, but now that he was a chef with advanced cooking skills, she wasn’t worried.

Meike’s cooking might not be great, but as long as the system’s programming was solid, it was fine.

With a willing, enthusiastic “employee” working for free, Su You finally had one less burden—she no longer had to cook for herself!

Besides giving Meike access to ingredients, Su You also put him in charge of the tavern, which was currently just a place to sell food.

Meike had no objections to being the tavern owner. In fact, every time he sold food for the first three times, he gave Su You an extra point of favorability—three sales, three points.

She wasn’t sure if this had triggered some special hobby of his, but as long as favorability went up, it was a good thing.

As Su You enjoyed the roast meat Meike had made, she couldn’t help but feel a bit emotional—she never thought she’d live to see the day she could safely eat Meike’s cooking.

In the past, Meike’s “dark cuisine” wasn’t just unpalatable—it could actually reduce your HP, and in severe cases, even inflict a bleeding debuff.

As a lord player, Su You couldn’t level up, and without special items, her HP would always be stuck at 100. That meant just a couple bites of Meike’s old cooking could be fatal.

So even though Meike used to force people to taste-test his food, he never dared mess with Su You—not just because he was afraid she’d dismantle his kitchen and confiscate his treasures, but also because he didn’t want to lose his “sugar daddy” who let him waste so many ingredients.

There was Su You, happily munching on roast meat, while Meike watched her eat with growing satisfaction.

After all, this was the first time in his life he’d seen someone willingly eat his food—and even pay for it!

“Boss, I’ll have two servings of berry roast,” someone called out to Meike, waving and handing over ten copper coins.

(End of chapter)"

"130. Happiness and Joy

This man was a member of the caravan. Not just him—other caravan members were also trickling into the tavern. They each took out their money and told Meike what food they wanted.

“Alright, here’s what you ordered.” Meike took their money with a cheerful smile and handed out everything they’d asked for in order.

“Thank you, boss! Your food is really delicious,” said Caravan Member A, grinning as he took his roasted meat.

He wasn’t just flattering Meike—yesterday afternoon, Meike had just finished studying a skill book and was assigned by Su You to run the tavern. So, the food they’d eaten yesterday was already made by Meike himself, not the soulless dishes churned out by Cheng Xinhuo.

Maybe it was the bonus from his advanced cooking skill, but Meike’s food really did taste better than what Cheng Xinhuo made.

Meike loved cooking, loved watching others eat his food, and loved it even more when people genuinely praised his cooking.

Just because of that one sentence from Caravan Member A, Meike’s affection for him shot up.

If the tavern didn’t belong to Su You, and if Su You hadn’t provided the ingredients, Meike probably would have given this guy a free meal on the spot.

“As long as you like it! There’s more if you want,” Meike suppressed his inner joy, his whole being radiating happiness.

Even though he’d only been in this territory for less than a day, the joy he’d felt in that short time was more than he’d experienced in decades!

Caravan Member A was sincere in his praise, but seeing Meike so happy made him feel a bit odd.

He actually knew that this seemingly simple, honest middle-aged man was the very same high-level mage who’d caused that huge explosion yesterday… Which raised a question: why would a high-level mage be so delighted just because someone complimented his cooking?

Caravan Member A couldn’t understand it, but he was too embarrassed—and too afraid—to ask.

After all, no matter how approachable he seemed now, the man was still a high-level mage. If he accidentally said something that hit a sore spot, it could end badly.

Actually, it wasn’t just Caravan Member A who found it strange—the other caravan members did too. But like him, they only dared to sneak glances at Meike’s expression and didn’t dare ask anything.

So, in this slightly awkward atmosphere, everyone finished their lunch.

“Lord Su!” Before they left, Caravan Member A approached Su You. “We’ll be leaving the territory tomorrow morning. The captain asked me to let you know.”

Afraid Su You might misunderstand, Caravan Member A quickly added, “Normally, the captain would tell you herself, but she has something urgent to handle today and isn’t in the territory, so she asked me to inform you in advance.”

Yun Li really did have urgent business. When she was about to leave the territory, Su You and Laike had gone to the mine and weren’t around. Plus, she couldn’t guarantee she’d be back tonight, so she asked another caravan member to pass on the message.

Su You nodded to show she understood, and after Caravan Member A finished speaking, he left with the others.

Actually, Yun Li leaving tomorrow was within Su You’s expectations, because the day after tomorrow would be the tenth day—the time when the dark creatures would attack.

It could be seen as some mysterious force prompting Yun Li to decide to leave, allowing the caravan to perfectly avoid the dark creatures’ attack, which was now less than twenty-four hours away.

After finishing her meal, Su You also left the tavern. Before leaving, she glanced back at Meike and saw he was still busy experimenting with new dishes. After a moment’s thought, Su You decided not to stop him… After all, with advanced cooking skills, no matter how strange the food turned out, it probably wouldn’t be inedible.

After leaving the tavern, Su You headed to check on the farmland.

Yousen had just arrived. Although he had planting skills and the perfect match trait, Su You still wanted to check on the fields herself, since Yousen’s eagerness to work for free still struck her as a bit odd.

When she got to the fields, she saw Yousen just putting away his bucket.

As he set the bucket down, Yousen looked up and saw Su You across from him.

“Lord, I’ve finished tending to the crops here. They’re all growing well.”

As he spoke, Su You looked over the ten plots herself. Just as he said, the nine fields were indeed in good shape.

As for why it was nine fields…

“By the way, Lord, the cotton in this plot just matured. I’ve harvested it and put it here for now.” Yousen pointed to the cotton on the ground, then continued, “Now that the cotton’s been harvested, this plot is empty. What would you like to plant next?”

“Plant cotton again. Did you get any cotton seeds from the harvest?”

Unlike wild plants, domesticated (field-grown) crops yield both produce and seeds when mature, so there’s no need to process the plant further to get seeds.

For cyclical plants like berry bushes, seeds drop on the final harvest.

Hearing Su You’s instructions, Yousen nodded and pulled out seven or eight packets of cotton seeds from under the pile of cotton.

“Don’t change the other crops for now. After harvesting, just replant the same thing as before,” Su You said, satisfied with the current planting arrangement. Since she didn’t have any new seeds, she wasn’t planning to change anything yet.

“Alright, understood,” Yousen replied obediently.

“If you want to earn some money after planting, you can check the bounty board to see if there are any suitable tasks for you.”

Yousen gave a shy smile, then hesitated, looking like he wanted to say something but was holding back.

Su You was about to leave, but seeing his expression, she paused.

“Is there a problem?” Su You asked, opening Yousen’s info panel. Aside from a slight increase in loyalty and favorability, all his stats were exactly the same as when she recruited him that morning.

Yousen nodded, looking a bit embarrassed—almost like a bashful bride.

Su You even thought she saw a faint blush on his face?!

After confirming she wasn’t seeing things, Su You was left completely bewildered.

(End of chapter)"

"131. Upgrading the Backpack

Su You: What? What just happened? Did I miss some major plot development?

Just as Su You was starting to feel a bit lost, Yousen finally spoke up.

“Um... Lord, I wanted to ask you—within the territory, is there someone with short hair, really skilled with a bow...”

Yousen had only gotten halfway through his question, but Su You already guessed who he was talking about.

Short hair, uses a bow—who else could it be but Duoya?

...So, could it be that Yousen likes Duoya, and that’s why he’s so eager to stay in the territory?

Su You didn’t know, didn’t really understand, and as a child, she found this plot twist a bit unusual and hadn’t quite processed it yet.

After hearing Yousen’s words, Su You, who was just over two hundred months old, had a rather complicated expression.

“You must be talking about Duoya. She is indeed one of the people in the territory.”

Yousen’s eyes lit up, and he quickly thanked Su You... The more he acted like this, the more convinced Su You became that her guess was right.

“There aren’t any rules against that in the territory, but I hope this won’t affect your work here.” Su You wasn’t Duoya, and she couldn’t see how much affection one NPC had for another, nor did she really care about NPC romances.

Even though, as the lord, she technically had the authority, she wasn’t about to make decisions for NPCs about their love lives.

But while she supported their freedom to fall in love, she didn’t want it to affect the NPCs’ loyalty to the territory.

In other words: Office romance? OK! Let it affect your work? NO!!!

Some people might think Su You was overthinking it—what’s the big deal if NPCs fall in love? It wouldn’t have any real impact. But only Su You knew that, in the past, when players tried to force NPC couples together, it led to decreased affection, lower loyalty, and sometimes even NPCs leaving the territory. There were even cases where an NPC, unable to get what they wanted, ended up blowing up the territory...

It might sound bizarre, but in a game with maxed-out realism and freedom, anything was possible.

Of course, these situations were rare and only happened if you really pushed your luck.

And as for the territory explosion incident, it was later debunked—the truth was that an NPC had mistaken (fake) explosives for a gift and given them to their crush, and, well...

Both NPCs were fine in the end, since the explosives were fake—just for show, no real power—but when your attempt to woo someone almost blows them up, it’s obvious things aren’t going to work out.

After that player posted about it on the forum, the story got twisted into: “Shocking! NPC blows up territory after being rejected!”

After hearing Su You’s words, Yousen nodded, then spoke seriously, as if making a promise: “I understand, my lord. Don’t worry... I’m not—”

“Alright, no need to explain. As long as you know what you’re doing.” Su You didn’t care for these kinds of promises, especially since it had nothing to do with her. Yousen didn’t need to make any guarantees to her—unless he was promising to devote himself to the territory’s development in the future...

But as things stood, if Yousen really was here for Duoya, he didn’t seem like the type to cause trouble, so Su You wasn’t particularly worried.

“Alright, get back to work. Good luck, kid—I have high hopes for you.” Su You didn’t specify what she meant by that, and after saying it, she left.

Su You headed to the warehouse, because she’d just seen Lake pushing a wooden cart back. Lake’s return meant he’d probably finished mining marble and copper ore.

After Warehouse 2 was built, Su You had switched the bounty board’s linked storage from a wooden box to Warehouse 2.

So she went to Warehouse 2 to collect the marble and copper ore, then took the materials to the workshop to finish the items she hadn’t been able to make yesterday due to a lack of materials.

Su You had two things to craft: copper balanced arrows, and her own backpack (upgrade).

The recipe for copper balanced arrows was: wood*2, copper ingot*1, feathers*5. It was the same as the stone balanced arrow recipe, just swapping stone for copper.

The materials and output were the same—each batch produced 10 to 12 arrows.

Su You had half a batch left from before, which was 25 feathers, so she used wood*10, copper ingot*5, feathers*25 to make 50 to 60 copper balanced arrows.

After putting the materials on the workbench, Su You started preparing the materials for the backpack upgrade.

The initial backpack was level 0, with only five slots. She’d previously used string and bark to upgrade it to level 1, doubling its space from five to ten slots.

Upgrading to level 2 was different—it required a lot more materials: advanced string, cloth (or soft fabric), some copper ingots, and beast teeth.

The reason for so many materials was that backpack space had a huge impact on game progress, so each upgrade required materials worth several times more than the previous level.

Su You had always wanted to go exploring, but hadn’t taken action. Partly because she needed to build up the territory (with the dark creatures’ attack looming), but also because of the backpack’s limitations.

The backpack was too small to carry much, so Su You felt that even if she went exploring, she wouldn’t be able to bring much back, which made her reluctant to go.

She took out the required materials and opened her backpack.

[Consume advanced string*10, cloth*5, copper ingot*2, beast teeth*5 to upgrade backpack to level 2?]

As before, when upgrading the backpack, the backpack interface closed automatically. When Su You opened it again, the space had doubled from ten to twenty slots.

Excluding level 0, the backpack had ten levels in total. Each level increased the number of slots, and starting from level 3 or 5, each upgrade also brought other changes.

For example, at level 3, the stacking limit increased to 100. Except for special items like tools, weapons, and equipment, all other materials could be stacked up to 100 per slot.

And since a level 3 backpack had 50 slots, it was basically like carrying a level 1 warehouse with you.

A level 5 backpack had 100 slots, with the same stacking limit of 100, but it also unlocked a feature called “auto-absorb”—which, as the name suggests, worked like a magnet to automatically pick up dropped items within a certain range.

This feature could be toggled on and off, and you could even filter which types of items would be auto-picked up."

"132. Food, Clothing, Shelter, and Transportation

If the level 5 backpack is already this impressive, then the level 6 backpack is truly extraordinary.

A level 6 backpack has 200 slots, but more importantly, it comes with a feature that almost every player at the time desperately wanted: any food stored inside the backpack would enter a “preserved” state—it would never spoil or rot as long as it wasn’t taken out.

In fact, it wasn’t just food. With the exception of certain special items, anything prone to rotting or going bad could be kept fresh forever in the backpack.

Although these backpack features sound amazing, according to some in-game statistics Su You once saw, only 2% of all players ever managed to upgrade their backpack to level 4. For level 5, it was just 0.4%, and as for level 6—fewer than ten players ever reached it.

As for level 7? Not a single player had ever achieved it.

Back then, Su You only upgraded her backpack to level 6 before giving up on further upgrades. Even though she had the resources to buy the materials needed for a level 7 upgrade, the cost simply wasn’t worth the benefit. Besides, 200 slots at level 6 were already more than enough for her, so she didn’t bother going any further.

By the mid-to-late stages of the game, most lord players rarely left their territories, so backpacks became less and less important, making further upgrades unnecessary.

Since she never upgraded beyond that, Su You had no idea what special effects a level 7 backpack might have.

And she wasn’t alone—none of the other players she knew had any plans to upgrade their backpacks either. So aside from rumors, there was zero information about level 7 backpacks, and the game company never released any official data on them.

With the backpack upgraded and the copper balanced arrows crafted—fifty-five arrows in total, which was about average—Su You stored the arrows in her backpack, since Duoya wasn’t in the territory at the moment. She’d give them to her when she returned.

Today, Su You had assigned Lake to mine copper ore and marble. She used some of the copper ore for making arrows and upgrading her backpack, and stored the rest in the warehouse for other uses.

As for the marble, she needed it for construction—she wanted to finish all the basic infrastructure in her territory before the first dark creature attack.

The first dark creature attack wasn’t just there to increase the game’s difficulty. Once a territory successfully survived its first attack (whether on day ten or fifteen), it would gain a huge amount of reputation (for fending off the dark creatures and becoming famous), and the player would also have the option to open their territory to outsiders.

This is what Yun Li was referring to earlier when she mentioned that Sunset Territory wasn’t “open to the public.”

The difference between an open and a closed territory is kind of like the difference between a shop that’s “open for business” and one that’s “closed.”

Once a territory is open, the number of visiting travelers and wanderers increases, more merchant caravans and traders will stop by, and population growth speeds up.

Su You needed to finish building all the essential structures in her territory before the dark creature attack. That way, when travelers or merchant caravans arrived, if they enjoyed their stay, her territory’s reputation would increase.

The more satisfied they were when they left, the more reputation she’d gain, and word-of-mouth would spread.

With their recommendations, even more people would come to the territory, creating a positive feedback loop.

The “essential” buildings Su You referred to could be summed up as “food, clothing, shelter, and transportation.”

First up: “clothing.” Su You already had a tailor shop, and Dolly had successfully leveled up her tailoring skill.

Although it was still at the beginner level and she couldn’t make anything too fancy, she could handle everyday items like clothes and bedding.

Next: “food”—places to buy and eat food.

For food, Su You already had a tavern and a diligent, passionate owner-chef, so there wasn’t much to worry about.

The only issue was that the menu was a bit limited, since the only ingredients available were meat and berries. But Su You had already planted wheat, rice, potatoes, and corn. With Eusen around, once these crops were harvested, the menu would expand.

Things like bread, corn pancakes, rice, crispy rice, baked potatoes, potato cakes, roasted corn… it was just a matter of time.

Then came “shelter.”

This mainly referred to residential houses and inns—both places where people could stay.

Shelter was actually even more important than the previous two. After all, you couldn’t expect visitors to just sleep on the ground, could you?

To provide accommodations, Su You used an inn card she’d previously obtained to build an inn in front of Warehouse 1. She also planned to build a row of residential houses alongside the training grounds, bringing the total up to ten.

Since wood was needed for other things, this was just a plan for now—she only used a building card to construct the inn for free.

An inn could house many people, while a residential house could only hold two. With an inn, there’d be enough space for everyone unless a large merchant caravan like Yun Li’s needed to stay over.

Residential houses were generally for permanent residents, while outsiders usually stayed at the inn. Of course, if someone really wanted to stay in a house, they could—as long as they paid extra.

Finally, “transportation” referred to roads and vehicles like carts and wagons.

Su You was already working on building roads, both inside and just outside her territory.

As for carts and wagons, the relevant building was a “mount shop,” but having a shop was useless without anything to sell.

Horses and donkeys had to be purchased from specialized animal-trading caravans. Since only one caravan had visited so far, it was unlikely another would show up anytime soon—and even if one did, it might not be selling animals. So for now, all Su You needed to do was improve the roads.

…

With food, clothing, shelter, and transportation taken care of, Su You looked through the building list for other common shops—

For example, a “tool shop” selling axes, shovels, pickaxes, fishing rods, and other tools; a “weapon shop” for all kinds of weapons; and an “armor shop” for various types of armor, and so on…"

"133. Travelers and Visitors

The construction materials for this type of shop are all the same: composite wood planks, composite stone slabs, and marble tiles.

Composite wood planks are synthesized from regular wood planks—5 wood planks make 1 composite wood plank, which means 60 units of wood are needed for 1 composite wood plank.

Similarly, composite stone slabs are made from regular stone slabs—3 stone slabs make 1 composite stone slab, or in other words, 48 units of stone for 1 composite stone slab.

Whether it’s a tool shop, weapon shop, or armor shop, all of these shops originally start as a “blacksmith shop.”

Once upgraded, the blacksmith shop can be converted into a tool shop, weapon shop, armor shop, or other types of stores. Before upgrading, the blacksmith shop can sell all items produced by the blacksmith.

The purpose of upgrading is to categorize these products. When items are sold in the shop that matches their category, they fetch a higher price, customers are more satisfied, and the shop gains its own reputation, which helps attract more people to the territory.

For example, a stone axe might sell for 25 copper coins at the blacksmith shop, but if sold at the tool shop, it could go for 35 copper coins.

The same goes for other items—selling them in the corresponding shop increases their price.

Other buildings similar to the blacksmith shop include the craftsman’s workshop and the tailor shop. Both can be upgraded to specialize in selling a certain type of product.

But since it’s still early days, there’s no need to split things up so finely, and Su You doesn’t have enough materials to build and upgrade so many buildings anyway. For now, she plans to build just one blacksmith shop, one craftsman’s workshop, and one tailor shop.

With these three shops, plus a tavern and a waystation, the territory’s basic commercial facilities will be complete.

[Consume 5 composite wood planks, 5 composite stone slabs, and 5 marble tiles to build a blacksmith shop?]

[Construction in progress: Blacksmith Shop. Estimated time: 300 minutes.]

...

[Consume 5 composite wood planks, 5 composite stone slabs, and 5 marble tiles to build a craftsman’s workshop?]

[Construction in progress: Craftsman’s Workshop. Estimated time: 300 minutes.]

The blacksmith shop, craftsman’s workshop, and tailor shop are all being built in the same row. The craftsman’s workshop is next to the tailor shop, and the blacksmith shop is right beside it.

After picking the locations, the construction countdowns began. Su You also took the opportunity to organize the remaining materials and tally up the quantities.

Thanks to the lumber mill, Lyle no longer has to haul logs back and forth. The lumber mill not only transports wood but also serves as a sheltered rest spot, so Lyle’s wood-gathering efficiency has increased by a full 50%.

Whereas before, chopping seven or eight hundred units of wood a day was exhausting, now gathering eleven or twelve hundred a day is easy.

Currently, the warehouse in the territory holds over 2,000 units of wood, though there’s less stone—just over 700 units.

Besides wood and stone, there are also plenty of other materials, like rope. Since fiber takes up too much space, Su You has turned it all into rope, so there are only about 300 ropes left in storage.

There used to be more rope, but Dory, who was in charge of collecting it, has now been assigned to the tailor shop, so no one is gathering fiber anymore. As a result, the rope supply is only going down, not up.

Even so, after several days of use, there are still over 300 ropes left, which shows just how hard Dory worked before.

But now that the territory is growing cotton—three whole fields of it—cotton can be used as a substitute for fiber, so whether or not anyone collects fiber isn’t that important anymore.

...

*Knock, knock, knock—*

Just as Su You was about to finish inventorying the warehouse, there was a sudden knock at the workshop door. Before she could open it, she heard Dory’s voice outside—

“Miss Lord, that little girl you and Doya brought back before—she’s come back again...” As Dory spoke, the door in front of her was already opening.

“Is it Buguo?”

Dory nodded. “Yes, she said her name is Buguo... Oh! And besides her, there are a few travelers and a wanderer outside the territory. They’d like to stay here for a while.”

“A wanderer?” Su You was a bit surprised. She hadn’t expected a wanderer to show up at this time.

But then again, the territory is short on people, and with a timed quest hanging over her, Su You was more than happy to welcome wanderers—in fact, she wished more would come.

“Yes, just one wanderer, and about three or four travelers. I didn’t get a good look. Right now, Lake is greeting them.” As Dory spoke, she led Su You to the tavern.

Lake had spent the whole morning mining stone and was exhausted, so instead of heading back out after turning in his quest, he decided to rest in the territory.

Coincidentally, the training ground had just been completed, so after lunch, he wanted to check it out and maybe get some practice in.

But on his way there, he saw a few people lingering at the territory’s gate. Out of curiosity—and for the territory’s safety—Lake went over to ask about their situation.

That’s how he learned they wanted to stay for a few days. Just then, Dory happened to pass by, so Lake called her over to inform Su You, while he took the newcomers to the tavern.

...

“This is a new territory, isn’t it?” Traveler A said, taking a big bite of roast meat and sighing with satisfaction. “I never expected such a small place to have such amazing food. This roast is incredible—better than anything I’ve had at the big city taverns.”

The best part was, not only was it delicious, it was cheap too.

He remembered paying over twenty copper coins for a piece of roast meat before, but here it was only ten!

Supposedly, the chef here has Intermediate Cooking Skills, which is why the price is so high... but honestly, this chef is way better.

Half the price, better flavor, and a generous portion—Traveler A, a true foodie, was instantly won over by this meal.

Lake just smiled and said nothing. He didn’t need to say anything—Meike, the chef, had already started chatting with Traveler A as soon as he was praised, leaving Lake with no chance to get a word in.

As for Traveler B, Traveler C, and the wanderer, those three were much quieter. After paying, they simply ate their food in silence.

(End of chapter)"

"134. The Great Liar

Oh, right, there was also a little girl named Buguo. She didn’t order any grilled meat—just a cup of berry juice. Then she hugged her bundle and sat quietly in the corner of the tavern, sipping her drink in tiny mouthfuls. She looked so calm and composed that she hardly seemed like a child at all.

Meanwhile, Meike and Traveler A were getting along better and better as they talked. If Laike didn’t know this was their first meeting, he would have thought they were long-lost brothers or something… How had their conversation gotten so friendly that they were now slinging their arms around each other’s shoulders?!

Weren’t mages supposed to be proud, arrogant, and aloof?

Laike tugged at the corner of his mouth, then turned his attention to the other two travelers and the wanderer.

These three all seemed like the quiet type, or at least not the kind to chat with strangers. So no matter how lively Meike and Traveler A’s conversation got, they barely reacted, just focusing on eating—until…

“What’s that…?!”

“Fire magic?! The tavern owner is actually a fire mage?”

“Am I seeing things? That really looks like magic!”

Laike himself had just taken out the food he’d bought earlier and was about to take a bite of grilled meat when he heard a series of exclamations erupt around him.

And the content of those exclamations gave him a strange suspicion.

He looked up, and sure enough, Meike—who had been chatting just a moment ago—was now back at the stove. One hand conjured flames out of thin air, which he used to roast a huge chunk of beast meat.

As the fire wrapped around the meat, the grill sizzled, and golden drops of hot oil slid down the marbled surface, finally dripping into the pan and pooling into a little golden puddle.

It wasn’t just a visual spectacle—the unique aroma of roasting meat filled everyone’s noses.

Even though the meat in their hands and the meat Meike was cooking were made from the same ingredients and prepared in the same way, somehow the piece in Meike’s hands just seemed more delicious.

Watching Meike use his mage abilities to show off his cooking skills, Laike was at first stunned. But after the shock wore off, the lofty, mysterious image he’d always had of mages came crashing down. All he saw now was a middle-aged man using fire magic just to grill meat—so down-to-earth it was almost comical.

And it wasn’t just Laike. The other three, who had barely spoken or moved, all stared with their mouths agape when they saw Meike using fire magic to show off his cooking.

What Meike didn’t know was that, thanks to his impressive culinary skills, he’d successfully led these newcomers into a major misconception: that all fire mages are naturally gifted cooks—and exceptionally good ones at that!

“Boss… you—you’re a mage?!” Traveler A stammered, feeling so dizzy he nearly fainted.

Especially when Meike nodded in confirmation, Traveler A’s eyes rolled back—he didn’t actually faint, but it was a close call.

Mages held a special status in this world. After all, less than one percent of the continent’s population had any magical talent at all… and talent alone wasn’t enough to become a mage.

Of those with talent, only half ever succeeded in becoming mages, making them even rarer and more prestigious.

At that thought, Traveler A suddenly realized something—damn, he was amazing!

He’d actually been slinging his arm around a mage!

He could brag about this for the rest of his life!

…Of course, Traveler A didn’t know that Meike was actually a high-level mage. Although he was currently only at the beginner level, as soon as he left (or withdrew from) the territory and was no longer restricted by the territory’s level cap, he would be a high-level mage.

If just meeting a mage was this exciting, imagine how Traveler A would react if he knew he’d just been buddy-buddy with a high-level mage—he’d probably faint from excitement.

But before they learned Meike’s true identity, they first met the lord of the territory.

“Greetings, my lord…” Including the wanderer, all three travelers asked if they could stay here for a few days. They weren’t sure exactly how long, but they were definitely interested in a territory where a fire mage worked as a chef.

Since Inn 1 was occupied by Yunli’s merchant caravan, and Inn 2 had been built instantly using a construction card (so it was ready immediately), the newcomers could move straight into Inn 2.

“This will be your accommodation, arranged by the lord,” Laike said, leading the four, now full, guests into the empty Inn 2 and giving them a brief introduction.

The prices were set the same as Yunli’s.

A single room cost fifteen copper coins, while a double room was ten copper coins per person.

The double rooms were furnished for two, so they were a bit smaller overall. If you wanted more comfort, a single room was the way to go.

Traveler A: “I’ll take a single room.”

Traveler C, hearing this, made the same request.

After a brief discussion, Traveler B and the wanderer decided to share a double room.

Laike collected their payment and led them upstairs…

…

…

While Laike was settling the four guests, Su You made her way to the little corner of the tavern and sat down across from Buguo.

“You were right,” Buguo said, sensing someone approach. She looked up and saw it was Su You, then muttered this out-of-nowhere remark in a gloomy tone.

Su You didn’t know exactly what Buguo had gone through after leaving yesterday, but she could guess that Buguo was referring to her earlier words: “That priest is a liar.”

Buguo took a big gulp of berry juice, so fast she almost choked.

…Honestly, if Buguo weren’t just a child, and if Su You didn’t know she was only drinking juice, her whole demeanor in this setting would have made her look like a jaded adult drowning her sorrows.

“He’s a liar—a big, fat liar!” Buguo slammed her wooden cup down on the table, the loud thud drawing Meike’s attention.

Meike glanced at Su You, then at Buguo… If he were a normal person, he might have been interested in the gossip, but clearly, Meike was not normal. He just curled his lip, shifted his posture, and went back to grilling meat.

To him, even magic wasn’t as interesting as cooking—let alone gossip.

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of the passage you provided:

---

135. No Backsies

Su You didn’t notice Meike’s actions at all, because her gaze had been fixed on Buguo the entire time. It was only when she saw Buguo place her bundle on the table that Su You finally shifted her attention to it.

Buguo slowly unwrapped the bundle, and then, one handful after another, she took out silver coins from the small parcel. The coins piled up on the table, forming a small silver mountain.

Su You didn’t know exactly how many coins there were, but she was certain there were far more than a hundred—definitely more than a hundred and three.

“Where did you get all these coins?” Su You figured that if she didn’t speak up, Buguo probably wouldn’t either, so she just picked a random topic to break the silence.

Buguo paused as she took out the last few coins, then said, “Don’t worry, this money is clean. It’s not stolen, not robbed, and not swindled.”

As she spoke, she pushed the pile of coins toward Su You. The coins made a pleasant clinking sound as they slid across the table—somehow, the sound of money was never grating.

As she pushed the coins, the pile was so large that the coin on top wobbled and rolled down the little silver hill. But just as it was about to fall off the table, a hand caught it and put it back in place.

“I want to buy a piece of land here to bury someone,” Buguo said calmly, showing none of the gloominess she’d had before.

Since she was buying land, it was obvious why Buguo had brought out all this money—this was what she intended to use for the purchase.

“If it’s not enough, I’ll owe you the rest and pay it back later.” Honestly, Buguo herself didn’t know exactly how much money she had. People had just stuffed coins into her hands, and she’d accepted whatever they gave without counting.

Since they’d given it willingly—she hadn’t stolen, robbed, or tricked anyone—she didn’t feel guilty about taking it.

That said, Buguo had assumed that buying a burial plot in a small territory like Su You’s would be cheap. But when she saw Su You fall silent, she suddenly felt a pang of regret—if she’d known, she would have asked for more money.

She instinctively thought Su You’s silence meant the money wasn’t enough.

If it really wasn’t enough, Buguo had no idea how she’d earn more—after all, aside from her knack for trickery, she didn’t have any other skills. But she didn’t want to use ill-gotten money to buy a burial plot.

As for why it had been okay to steal or swindle for the soul-burying ritual before, maybe Buguo felt that the ritual would cleanse the sins attached to the money.

“Well? Is it enough or not? Just give me a straight answer!” Buguo grew anxious at Su You’s continued silence. She bit her lip, not wanting to drag things out any longer.

Meanwhile, Su You had just snapped back to reality. She hadn’t been silent on purpose—she’d just received a notification about someone applying to join the territory and had gotten distracted.

Now that she’d dealt with it, Su You recalled what Buguo had said and asked, “You want to bury someone? What about yourself?”

Su You didn’t really care whether someone was buried in her territory or not. Eventually, as the territory developed, they’d need to build a cemetery anyway.

Even though it wasn’t time to build one yet, planning ahead wouldn’t hurt.

But more than the cemetery’s location, Su You cared about Buguo’s intentions. She definitely wanted Buguo to stay—not just because of the time-limited quest, but because Buguo’s abilities made her a very valuable NPC.

“I…” Buguo lowered her head and stayed silent for a long time.

Maybe she’d never even considered the question. All she’d thought about was burying this person properly; as for herself, she didn’t care. After wandering for so many years, what was the worst that could happen—starve to death?

“How about this: I’ll take the money, and you stay and join the territory. I’ll arrange a place for you to live.” There happened to be a vacant resident house, number 6, which Buguo could have all to herself.

“I’ll give you a two-person house for just yourself, and this money will count as payment for the house. You can put the person you want to bury in the other room, and that way you can visit her every day.” The resident houses were basically two-bedroom apartments, so both occupants would have their own space.

With Buguo living alone, she’d only need one room, and the other could be used for whatever she wanted.

It might seem like a waste of space, but Su You wasn’t losing out—in fact, she was making a killing. With all these silver coins, she could build a small luxury villa, let alone buy a house.

“Are you serious?” Buguo looked at her suspiciously.

Maybe she’d been tricked too many times, and suspicion had become second nature. Even though she knew Su You had no reason to deceive her—after all, she’d already handed over the money willingly.

Su You didn’t bother to answer. Instead, she took action—she swept the coins off the table and, without hesitation, grabbed Buguo’s hand and led her straight to Resident House 6.

…

“This is the place.” Su You pushed open the door to Resident House 6 and led Buguo inside.

No one had ever lived here, so it was completely empty and dusty. But Buguo didn’t mind—she’d spent most of her life wandering, staying wherever she could. Just having a roof over her head was already a luxury.

With a place like this, Buguo could definitely live quite happily on her own.

After showing her around, Buguo stopped and turned back to confirm, “You said this place is for me. You can’t take it back.”

“Mm, it’s yours,” Su You replied, eager for her to stay. “If you need anything, go to the tailor shop across the street and ask for Sister Dolly.”

Su You had barely taken a few steps before she turned back, took five silver coins from her bag, and handed them to Buguo.

“For meals, go to the tavern. If you run out of money and want to work, check the bounty board—there are plenty of tasks, maybe something that suits you.” With that, Su You left, not forgetting to close the door behind her.

As the door clicked shut, Su You received another application notification—

(End of chapter)"

"136. Don’t Be Nervous

[Wanderer “Buguo” has requested to join Sunset Territory. Do you accept?]

…

[Current population: 9/13]

Just one more person to go…

Su You double-checked the population count, then got ready to check out the person who’d suddenly applied to join the territory while she was chatting with Buguo.

This person was the only wanderer among the four—his name was You Ai.

Although wanderers generally have a high chance of joining a territory—as long as you don’t give them a terrible impression, they rarely refuse—it was still a bit odd for someone to join so abruptly, before anything had even happened. Unless, of course, he was another “Yousen” with a hidden agenda, but otherwise, it didn’t really make sense.

As luck would have it, Su You was just wondering where he was, and after making half a round of the territory, she spotted someone lurking rather suspiciously at the entrance of the tavern.

“Lord!” You Ai was startled when a shadow fell across him, and when he turned to see Su You, he jumped again.

Seeing how jumpy he was, Su You asked what he was doing there, while at the same time opening up You Ai’s personal info panel—

[You Ai]

Gender: Male

Age: Young Adult

Loyalty: 69

Affection: 32

Talent: Magic (55)

Skills: None

Trait: Mediocre (No distinguishing features)

Description: A wanderer with a certain degree of magical talent, but nothing particularly special.

…

Su You had already glanced at his info when he applied to join, but since Buguo was there at the time, she’d only skimmed it.

Now that she looked more closely, she realized there wasn’t much to see—compared to the others, You Ai’s information was really sparse.

Still, even with so little info, Su You could guess why he was here.

“Why are you squatting here? You can just go inside, you know.” Su You’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was enough for Meike inside to hear.

Meike, who had finally stopped what he was doing, played with a small flame in his hand, then looked up at the two people near the door.

“Oh, you’re still here.” Meike had noticed someone lurking outside for a while, but since the guy didn’t seem to mean any harm and wasn’t bothering him, Meike hadn’t cared about being watched.

Of course, he also knew this was Su You’s territory. Even if he didn’t like being spied on, he had to give Su You some face and couldn’t just act out.

But now that Su You had caught the guy, even Meike couldn’t just pretend he hadn’t seen anything.

“No, I just…” You Ai stammered, looking awkward.

He hadn’t really done anything wrong, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d committed some terrible crime.

He wanted to leave, but with Su You and Meike both watching him, he couldn’t just walk away. After hesitating for a while, he finally blurted out his reason.

“I—I just wanted to see the boss’s magic…” As he spoke, he glanced at Meike out of the corner of his eye, trying to gauge his reaction.

His cautious little movements made it clear he was worried Meike would be annoyed or disgusted by his request, but Meike didn’t react at all—as if he wasn’t the one being spied on.

“Do you want to learn magic? Or are you just curious about it?” Su You could see his info panel, and with his magic talent, it wasn’t hard to guess that You Ai most likely wanted to learn magic.

Even though his talent was low, as mentioned before, people with any magical talent at all were rare on the continent. So even a low talent put him ahead of 99% of people.

“I want to learn magic!” Since he’d already been caught spying, and had basically told the truth, there was no point in lying now.

Might as well be honest, rather than leave a bad impression on the mage and the lord—though given his sneaky behavior, he figured their impression of him wasn’t great anyway.

If it were anyone else, Su You might have just nodded and left, but You Ai was different—he had magical talent, and he was now one of her people.

Even though their current combat strength was enough to handle the upcoming dark creature attack, Su You still wanted more fighters in the territory. After all, there was another monster cage to deal with in a few days, and the dark creature attacks were a recurring event—they’d only get stronger and more numerous each time.

“Meike.”

Hearing Su You call him, Meike curled his lip, clearly reluctant.

He’d already given up magic for cooking—why would he waste his precious cooking time teaching someone else magic?

No way!

Unless…

“Just help me test his attributes. I have something that can let him change class to mage, so you don’t have to worry about teaching him the basics. All you need to do is show him how to use magic and teach him a few simple beginner spells. If he learns quickly, I’ll get you a brand-new set of cookware.” Su You knew Meike’s temperament well, so as she asked for his help, she dangled a reward he couldn’t refuse.

Ingredients, cookware, recipes, cooking manuals… these were all irresistible to Meike.

“Deal!”

Sure enough, as soon as Meike heard Su You’s promise, he rushed out of the tavern and grabbed You Ai’s hand.

You Ai was startled yet again.

If he hadn’t just overheard Meike and Su You’s conversation, he would have thought the mage was about to attack him.

Since this was his first time interacting with a mage—the thing he’d dreamed of—You Ai was so nervous that his hands were shaking, especially the one Meike had grabbed, trembling like he had Parkinson’s.

Meike glanced at him, and thinking of the promised reward, resisted the urge to curse. He forced what he thought was a gentle smile, though it came out a bit twisted: “Calm down, don’t be nervous. I’m just checking your elemental affinity.”

Because he was so nervous, the magic elements inside You Ai were extremely active—so active, in fact, that they were practically chaotic.

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

137. Elemental Stones

They were like a bunch of bouncy, energetic balls flying everywhere, making it impossible for Meck to detect what types and how many elements there were.

Of course, there was actually a much simpler and more direct way for him to calm Yuwei down—just knock him out. If someone’s unconscious, they can’t be nervous, and the elements would naturally stop bouncing around.

But Meck obviously couldn’t do that, so all he could do was patiently wait for Yuwei to calm down.

Originally, Yuwei was still in a nervous state, but this time it wasn’t because he was meeting a mage. Instead, it was because he knew he was about to become a mage himself.

A wish he’d had for so many years was finally about to come true. No matter who it was, their emotions would be all over the place.

Seeing that Meck was about to lose his temper, Su You sighed and tried to distract Yuwei with another topic.

“So, why did you join the territory? Was it just because you saw he was a mage?”

Yuwei was taken aback, then actually started thinking about it, and quickly answered, “That was part of it, but I was already looking for a suitable territory to join.”

But it’s really hard to get into a major territory. If you want to join a powerful one, you have to pay a hefty ‘application fee’ up front, and on top of that, the cost of living in those places is sky-high.

With all those factors, Yuwei never expected he’d be able to join one of the big territories—he knew he wasn’t qualified.

Since he couldn’t go to a major territory, Yuwei decided to look for a small or medium-sized one to settle in.

Small territories might be lacking in resources and opportunities, but they also need people, so usually they don’t charge any ‘application fees.’

Plus, it’s easier to put down roots in a small territory. If you have some ability and contribute to the territory’s development, you might even be able to land an official position once the place grows.

This brings up the difference between Wanderers and Travelers—the biggest distinction between these two types of NPCs is whether or not they belong to a territory.

Put simply, Travelers already have a territory they belong to, while Wanderers haven’t joined any territory at all.

Wanderers are rootless, drifting from place to place, which is why they’re the ones who might join a territory.

Travelers, on the other hand, generally won’t join a new territory since they already have a ‘home’—unless something unusual happens, they won’t leave their original territory.

…

Thanks to Su You’s question, Yuwei relaxed a bit. While the magic elements in his body quieted down, Meck seized the moment to use his own energy to check Yuwei’s body.

As he examined him, Meck muttered under his breath, “If only we had an Elemental Stone—this would be so much easier…”

Elemental Stones are special items that can detect what elements are present in a person’s body.

If you use an Elemental Stone, it doesn’t matter when or where—so long as the person is alive and not deliberately hiding it, you can always tell what their primary element is.

But if a mage is using their own energy to check someone else, the person being checked has to be calm.

After about two or three minutes, Meck frowned, rolled his eyes, and said with obvious annoyance, “Tch… turns out he’s water element.”

Meck was already a bit impatient from all the time Yuwei had wasted, and now, after all that, it turned out Yuwei’s primary element was water!

Meck himself was a fire element mage. Even if he didn’t want to be biased, fire and water just don’t mix—it’s no wonder he was so annoyed.

Su You could guess why Meck was so displeased, but Yuwei didn’t know. He thought the mage was just annoyed because he’d wasted time earlier.

“What element he is doesn’t matter. Don’t tell me you can’t teach him?” Su You raised an eyebrow, her tone carrying a hint of challenge.

Su You’s goading wasn’t particularly subtle, but it worked on Meck anyway. He knew she was doing it on purpose, but for the sake of the new kitchenware, he decided to let it slide.

Meck snorted, sounding a bit proud: “I am a high—mage, after all. Teaching a beginner who’s just getting started shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“As long as you can teach him, that’s fine.” Su You nodded, then turned to Yuwei. “You should follow him and learn the basics of magic…”

“I’ll study hard! Please don’t worry, Lord!” As soon as he realized he’d get a chance to learn magic, Yuwei immediately promised loudly.

Only after he finished did he realize he’d interrupted Su You, so he quickly apologized and scratched his head awkwardly.

“Please, go on, Lord.”

Su You understood how excited he was, so she didn’t mind the interruption. She took out the magic rune book she’d prepared for directly changing classes to mage.

“If you can become a mage on your own through study, that’s best. If not, I have something here that can help you change classes, but I won’t give it to you for free. You’ll have to earn it with your own contributions and money.”

Magic rune books aren’t expensive, but if she could save one, that would be ideal. If not, it was fine to use it—after all, water mages are a bit special compared to other types.

Since they already had a fire mage, using the first rune book to make a water mage was actually a good choice.

The ‘territory contribution’ Su You mentioned refers to a numerical value earned by completing tasks she assigns.

Right now, the tasks are all simple, and contribution points are special—they can’t be handed out freely, or the value would collapse. So for now, Su You hasn’t released any contribution tasks, and there’s currently no way to earn them.

But soon, there will be.

…

…

Yuwei went off with Meck to learn about magic, while Su You found a place to sit and opened up all the NPC info panels to compare and review them.

NPCs like Yuwei, who don’t have high talent, skills, or a backstory, are considered ordinary NPCs.

Meanwhile, those like Dolly Doya, who have high talent in a certain field, at least one basic skill, and a more complete backstory, are special NPCs.

Aside from the data differences, there’s not much distinction between the two types. The only real difference is that ordinary NPCs have lower AI, while special NPCs have higher AI.

(End of Chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

138. Braised Sand Snails

Up until now, Su You felt that these NPCs were no different from real people—their realism far surpassed anything she’d experienced in previous games.

If she didn’t know for sure that this was a digital world, Su You would have thought they were all actual humans... It was precisely because of this high degree of realism that she couldn’t treat them like she did in other games, as if they were just a string of disposable data, unimportant and meaningless if they died.

Although her previous game also claimed to be 90% realistic as a full-dive VR game, 90% is still not 100%. But this digital world was different—Su You could directly confirm that it was 99.99% realistic...

As for why it wasn’t 100%, well, unless none of this was actually data, Su You would always define them as 99.99%... or even 99.99999% real, but never truly 100%.

Speaking of which, the brothers Lyle and Lake were a bit odd—Su You couldn’t quite figure out what kind of NPCs they were.

After all, even though they didn’t have backstories, they had skills and talents, and their talents weren’t any lower than those of special NPCs. Lake’s skill level had even reached a bottleneck. From any angle, they should be considered special NPCs.

...Su You felt something was off, but she couldn’t pinpoint what it was. After pondering for a while and getting nowhere, she simply gave up.

Maybe this was just another adjustment the digital world made based on actual circumstances. There was no need for her to waste time thinking about it.

...

After that, Su You took her supplies and went to explore the area directly south of her territory.

She spent almost the entire afternoon exploring, finally uncovering the area. The part of the map that had been shrouded in thick fog now revealed its true appearance.

The southern part of the territory seemed to be near the coast, because Su You saw quite a bit of scattered sand on the ground here—the kind of sand that only appeared near underground water holes or coastal areas.

Sand could be collected to make glass, but there was too little of it, and it was mixed with dirt, making it hard to separate. So she couldn’t collect any of this sand.

However, she had previously bought a lot of sand from the merchant caravan. Besides using it to make glass for construction, it could also be used to make glass bottles.

Glass bottles were the most common containers for storing various potions. Su You’s potions had originally been stored in wooden cups, but many potions weren’t suitable for that, as the wood would weaken their effects and even cause potions that normally wouldn’t spoil to go bad after a while.

But if the potions were stored in glass bottles, this problem wouldn’t occur.

“So this is actually a coastline? There might be other monsters here...” Su You frowned and decided not to go any further.

Even though she really wanted to see if there were any other resources at the coast, for safety’s sake, she gave up on advancing.

Glancing at her backpack, which still had plenty of space, Su You didn’t go forward, but she did take the opportunity to gather a lot of other materials nearby.

Besides sand, areas near the coast could also have some special creatures—both animals and plants.

[Obtained Sea Star Grass ×46]

[Obtained Sand Snail ×57]

[Obtained Vine Hemp Greens ×75]

[Obtained Green Silky Threads ×100]

[Obtained Clay ×135]

...

Looking at her now full backpack, and then spotting a crab nest not far away, Su You sighed with a hint of regret.

It just goes to show that for a hoarder player like her, who loves to stockpile and collect everything, no backpack is ever big enough.

Good thing she’d upgraded her backpack before coming out, or she would’ve been able to carry even less—and she’d be even more heartbroken!

Seeing the sky grow darker, Su You made a mental note to come back and raid that crab nest next time, then headed back to her territory.

The first thing she did upon returning was to take out all the ingredients from her backpack and hand them over to Meike.

When Meike saw the pile of “wild grass” and the heap of snail-like things that looked like rocks, his brows furrowed so tightly they almost twisted into a knot. If Su You hadn’t told him these were all ingredients—and excellent ones at that—Meike would have thrown out what he considered a pile of garbage without hesitation.

“You’re sure this stuff is edible?” Meike asked, picking up a sand snail about the size of a ping-pong ball and eyeing its pitch-black shell with distaste. He really couldn’t imagine what part of it could possibly be eaten.

“It’s edible. I have recipes—just follow them.” Other than the size, sand snails were basically the same as the snails she’d eaten before.

The best thing about sand snails was their thin shells and abundant meat—the flesh was thick, springy, and delicious. They didn’t require any special prep and could be cooked directly. Unlike before, you didn’t have to worry about sand if you didn’t clean them thoroughly.

“Here’s the recipe for sand snails.” Besides the sand snails, Su You also gave him recipes for sea star grass, vine hemp greens, and green silky threads.

Sea star grass was similar to kelp, but a bit different—it could be served cold or used in soup.

Vine hemp greens were a wild vegetable with a very refreshing taste. They didn’t need fancy cooking—just a simple stir-fry was delicious.

Green silky threads were also a kind of vegetable, named for their emerald color and thread-like shape. They were cooked much like vine hemp greens—just stir-fry them.

Following Su You’s recipes, Meike, still a bit skeptical, first made a batch of braised sand snails.

The seasonings for the braised sand snails were ones Su You had specially bought from the merchant caravan for Meike.

If you used the workbench to make food, you didn’t need seasonings—the food would still taste great. But if an NPC cooked by hand, no matter how high their skill level, they couldn’t make bland ingredients taste amazing out of thin air.

Su You had bought plenty of seasonings—enough to last a long time—so Meike was quite happy cooking, since he had all the ingredients he could want.

[Braised Sand Snails]

Category: Food

Quality: White

Effect: Restores 15 hunger points

Description: Fragrant and savory, the snail meat is plump and springy—a truly delicious dish.

...

“This actually looks pretty good,” Meike said, looking at the braised sand snails he’d just made. Though his face was calm, he couldn’t hide the pride in his voice.

Su You didn’t even have to guess what he was thinking... Meike was definitely feeling smug about his cooking skills—after all, it was only because he was so good that he could turn a pile of rock-like things into such a tasty dish.

(End of chapter)"

"**141. Night of the Eighth Day**

In truth, Yousen wasn’t even sure if what he felt for Duoya was really that kind of “liking.” But after all, she had saved his life—twice, in fact—so it was only natural that she held a special place in his heart…

After getting a general sense of the situation, Su You cleared her throat to remind them of her presence. Before the two could say anything, she handed Yousen the batch of basic growth fertilizer she’d prepared earlier.

“This is basic growth fertilizer. You’ve farmed before, so you should know what this is. I’ll leave these with you.” With that, Su You didn’t give them a chance to react and headed straight to the tavern to get dinner.

…

Maybe because it was dinnertime, the tavern was bustling. Dolly, the Lyle brothers, Buguo, and Yue were all there, and the members of the merchant caravan had also come for their last meal…

Here, “last” meant they’d be leaving Sunset Territory early the next morning, so there’d be no chance for a second dinner here—unless they returned someday, but who could say if that would ever happen.

The once-empty tavern was now packed, to the point that there weren’t enough tables and chairs to go around. Fortunately, Su You had prepared for this and brought out several brand-new sets from the storeroom.

“Braised sand snails? Starweed meat soup? What are these?” Merchant A stared in surprise at several new wooden boards hanging on the wall—these were Meike’s handiwork.

The boards were about the size and thickness of a smartphone, each with a hole and string for hanging, listing the names and prices of the tavern’s dishes.

They were hung on the stone-needle wall, serving as the menu.

Actually, Meike had put up these boards ever since he became the tavern’s manager, so what surprised everyone wasn’t the boards themselves, but the increased number and the new dishes listed.

Originally, there were eleven boards, divided into three categories based on ingredients:

The first type used only berries: roasted berries, berry juice, dried berries.

The second type used only meat: small roast, large roast, meat soup, small jerky, large jerky.

The third type combined berries and meat: berry roast, deluxe roast, berry meat soup.

Su You herself didn’t think it was necessary to be so detailed, but Meike liked it that way, so she let him be—she couldn’t be bothered to argue with his stubbornness over such trivial matters.

There had been eleven boards, but now there were five more—meaning five new dishes: braised sand snails, starweed meat soup, cold starweed salad, stir-fried vine hemp greens, and stir-fried green silks.

For now, the price was set at 1 copper coin = 10 hunger points. The previous rate of 1 copper = 20 hunger points only applied to territory residents; for outsiders, the price was doubled.

Of course, this was just a temporary pricing scheme. Once the territory opened up, such a blatant price difference wouldn’t be possible. Otherwise, if residents couldn’t resist the temptation to buy food for outsiders and make a profit, it could become a serious problem.

Hearing Merchant A’s question, Meike pointed to the freshly cooked new dishes and explained, “These are all new ingredients the lord found this afternoon. There isn’t much of each, so if you want to try them, you’d better order quickly.”

Meike wasn’t exaggerating about the limited quantities—there were only three servings of braised sand snails left, though the other four dishes still had plenty of ingredients.

Whether it was trust in Meike as a mage or faith in his cooking over the past two days, everyone was eager to give face and at least try one of the new dishes.

Braised sand snails, being the most limited, sold out first. Most people figured they’d just try something else if they missed out, but when the aroma of the braised sand snails wafted through the tavern, regret was inevitable.

Of the three servings, Dolly snagged one, and when Buguo came in right after, Dolly called her over to eat together.

Buguo was a bit reluctant—not because she disliked Dolly (in fact, she had a good impression of her). When Su You had told Buguo to collect clothes and bedding from Dolly, Dolly had even helped carry them to Buguo’s house, worried she couldn’t manage alone.

Buguo’s reluctance was just because she was used to being alone and wasn’t comfortable socializing with strangers… but in the end, Dolly managed to pull her over.

The other two servings went to a traveler and a merchant, respectively.

The rest could only swallow their saliva at the mouthwatering aroma.

Fortunately, with Yue’s help, everyone’s other orders soon arrived, so at least they had something to eat and didn’t have to just watch others enjoy their food.

Thanks to the braised sand snails’ stellar performance, everyone’s expectations for the other four new dishes rose as well.

A few people who’d planned to just get some roast meat decided to splurge and order more dishes after some hesitation.

For a while, the tavern was filled with a chorus of praise.

Meike basked in the compliments, tossing coins into the cash box as he secretly stir-fried the leftover sand snails—too little for a full serving—for himself.

But the aroma was so strong that his “sneaky” act was quickly discovered by the others. Still, everyone was busy eating, and since Meike was a mage, they just shot him a few glances and let it go.

In this cheerful atmosphere, Su You enjoyed her dinner.

…

After dinner, Su You went to the bounty board to adjust some of the mission details.

As for territory tasks, although Su You had told everyone to pick according to their own situation, they’d developed a basic sense of teamwork: they generally avoided taking the same missions as others.

With so few people, division of labor was essential to ensure no resource ran short. If everyone did the same task and gathered the same materials, other supplies would quickly run out, which was unacceptable.

The current arrangement was working well—

Lyle chopped wood. Only when there was too much wood and nowhere to store it would he consider other tasks.

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your provided Chinese text:

---

**142. Farewell**

Laike’s main job is mining stone, including marble and ore. He’s similar to Lyle in that they only switch to gathering other resources when their primary stockpiles are overflowing.

Doya is in charge of hunting and gathering meat. Since food is consumed daily—and with more and more people settling in the territory—there’s never a surplus of food that can’t be finished.

Dolly, while working hard to upgrade her repair skills, also uses materials to craft items Su You needs. After she finishes making each item, Su You pays her a fee for her work.

As for the three people who were just recruited—including the new wanderer with some magical talent—they now each have their own roles as well.

Mek is self-explanatory: a volunteer chef and part-time tavern owner, full of enthusiasm and happy to work for free. In less than two days as the tavern owner, he’s already shown an almost fanatical passion for the job.

Yousen is responsible for the farmland. After the tenth day, when the territory officially opens, Su You will have him start experimenting with cultivating new plant seeds. For now, his main focus is still on growing the usual crops.

Buguo is too young to do heavy labor like chopping wood or mining, and she knows her own limits, so she doesn’t push herself. For now, she’s responsible for gathering lighter resources in the forest, such as fibers, twigs, stones, and berries—things that are easy to collect.

Although these jobs don’t pay much, they’re enough for her to earn her meals and even save a little.

For a child with Buguo’s unique background, this kind of life is a perfect fit, and she herself is very satisfied with the current pace.

Of course, these are just Buguo’s side jobs. Her greatest strength can’t be put to use on a daily basis.

After all, merchants and caravans don’t come by all the time, but whenever they do, and she manages to negotiate a few deals, the rewards Su You gives her are enough to last someone else a long time.

So, not only will Buguo never have to worry about money in the future, she might even become one of the wealthiest people in the territory.

The saying “One big deal can feed you for three years” fits her perfectly.

The last one is You’ai, who is currently being roped in by Mek to taste-test dishes and help out (serving food, washing dishes, etc.).

In between helping Mek, he occasionally studies some magic (mainly when Mek is in the mood to teach), and in his spare time, he also takes on tasks like chopping wood or mining stone and sandstone.

...

The tasks on the bounty board are still the same as before, with no changes. After adjusting the rewards and quantities for the old tasks, Su You also added a few new ones:

**[Collect Sand] (Repeatable)**

Posted by: Lord

Objective: Submit Sand (0/10)

Reward: 1 copper coin

Tools: Copper shovel (Rental fee: 2 copper coins, Deposit: 30 copper coins)

**[Collect Clay] (Repeatable)**

Posted by: Lord

Objective: Submit Clay (0/10)

Reward: 1 copper coin

Tools: Copper shovel (Rental fee: 2 copper coins, Deposit: 30 copper coins)

**[Collect Ingredients 1] (Repeatable)**

Posted by: Lord

Objective: Submit Stargrass/Vine Hemp/Green Silks (0/5)

Reward: 1 copper coin

Tools: None

**[Collect Ingredients 2] (Repeatable)**

Posted by: Lord

Objective: Submit Sand Snails (0/10)

Reward: 1 copper coin

Tools: None

...

The first two tasks are for gathering building materials.

At the start, the only building materials are wood, stone, and marble, but as construction upgrades progress, more materials will be needed.

In addition to frequent use of advanced wood (composite planks) and advanced stone (composite slabs), sand will be needed for glassmaking, and clay for firing tiles and bricks.

The latter two tasks are for gathering food ingredients.

For the first ingredient task, you only need a total of five of any combination of the three items to complete it—it’s not necessary to collect five of each.

The second ingredient task is straightforward: ten sand snails can be exchanged for one copper coin.

All four of these tasks require going to locations Su You just explored this afternoon, so she made several copies of her newly mapped areas and posted them on the bulletin board...

...

...

On the morning of the ninth day, Yun Li—who had been absent all night—appeared before Su You.

“Thank you, Lord Su, for your hospitality these past few days. We’ll be leaving soon due to some matters.” Although Yun Li had already had someone from the caravan inform Su You, she still came to say goodbye in person.

To show her gratitude, Yun Li also brought a box as a gift for Su You. “Lord Su, please take a look inside.”

Su You hadn’t planned to open the box immediately, since that would be a bit impolite, but since Yun Li insisted, she didn’t hesitate.

Upon seeing what was inside, Su You was pleasantly surprised. In return, she decided to reciprocate—she took out two items from her own backpack.

The first was a willow longbow, and the second was some jerky and dried berries—foods that are easy to store.

“This is a longbow made from willow wood, with a bowstring crafted from the sinew of a Black-striped Tiger.” Originally, this willow bow was meant for Doya, since her previous red maple bow had a rather ordinary string. At the time, Su You only used that material because she didn’t want to make another trip back to the territory.

After returning from defeating the Long-tailed Crocodile, Su You found time to make the longbow Doya needed.

She had used a heavy bow against the Long-tailed Crocodile because there was no need for “kiting”—attack power was more important than range in that case, so there was less risk of wasting stats. But generally, in the absence of a light bow, Doya prefers a longbow for its range.

Just like with Lyle’s dagger, before making this bow, Su You prepared three pieces of refined magic ore... As for why not more, it’s hard to explain—enchantments don’t get more likely with more attempts.

Three tries: if you get it, great; if not, that’s just how it is.

But while Su You’s luck isn’t great in other areas, she seems to have good fortune with enchanting.

On her second attempt, she managed to make an enchanted willow bow, so she stopped there.

After all, there’s plenty of wood and magic ore to be found, but beast sinew is limited.

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your provided text:

---

143. Promoting the Territory

The beast tendons here were collected when she dismantled the Black-striped Tiger. She only managed to gather ten tendons in total, so these things aren’t exactly cheap.

The best use for fangs is to make daggers, which is why Su You used both of them up.

But beast tendons are different. Their uses go beyond just making bows, and even then, they’re only for longbows, not the light bows that Duoya prefers.

“Black-striped Tiger tendons?” Although Yun Li didn’t know what a Black-striped Tiger looked like, it was enough for her to know these were tiger tendons.

“I’m afraid this isn’t appropriate. This willow longbow is a bit too valuable.” While it definitely wasn’t as expensive as an enchanted dagger, the right buyer would still be willing to pay several gold coins for it. Even at the lowest, it wouldn’t go for less than a gold coin.

But what she was offering in return was just a few small gifts—not even worth a single gold coin, and their total value didn’t even add up to ten silver coins.

“These jerky and dried fruits—I really do like them and need them.” Although she felt awkward accepting the willow longbow, the food itself wasn’t worth much, and they really did need it.

After all, they still had a long way to go before reaching their final destination—their home.

The food she’d bought at the tavern before wasn’t exactly a small amount, but most of it had a short shelf life. As for jerky and dried fruit, which last much longer, Su You hadn’t made much since it wasn’t cost-effective, so Yun Li hadn’t been able to buy much either.

With a dozen or so people, the roasted meat and berries would last only a few days at most. Once they finished those, they’d be stuck eating those dry, tasteless biscuits.

“Captain Yun, you should just accept this bow.” Su You wouldn’t just give away something so valuable for no reason. She obviously had another motive.

“Actually, I do have a favor to ask… I want to post a regional bounty, but as you know, small territories have no reputation, so no one responds to their bounties. I was hoping you could help spread the word about my territory.” By “responding to the bounty,” she meant people would see the bounty and be willing to take on the task.

Right now, there are very few ways to increase reputation. If she relied only on timed quests, who knows how long it would take… But if non-residents could help promote the territory, its reputation would grow much faster.

Of course, “much faster” doesn’t mean gaining hundreds or thousands of points a day—that’s impossible. But if things go well, even a few points of reputation increase per day would be great.

Especially since Yun Li was part of a merchant caravan… Caravans travel everywhere, so their promotional reach is even greater.

“Promote your territory? Lord Su, how exactly do you want me to do that?”

Yun Li knew about regional bounties. After all, she had friends in bounty groups who’d told her about the requirements for accepting bounties. The first and most important rule was: “The territory or individual posting the bounty must have a certain level of reputation, or we absolutely won’t accept it.”

Otherwise, there’s a high chance of wasting a trip—or even running into danger.

But when it comes to promotion, you can’t just go up to everyone you meet and start raving about some territory, urging them to check it out. That’s not real promotion.

Promotion needs a strategy. At the very least, the territory should have something worth promoting—something that attracts people.

Hearing Yun Li say this, Su You knew she’d probably agree. After all, it wasn’t a difficult task.

To be blunt, even if Yun Li agreed but didn’t actually do it, Su You would have no way of knowing—she didn’t have any way to monitor Yun Li’s actions.

“Tomorrow, a wave of dark creatures will attack the territory…”

……

……

Five minutes later, after delivering her gifts and accepting the willow longbow and food from Su You, Yun Li led her caravan away from Sunset Territory.

Once Yun Li had left, Su You sorted the items she’d received.

The box contained a mix of things, but all of them were quite good in Su You’s eyes—a few packets of seeds, some pieces of associated ore, and several small cylindrical objects about the size of a pinky knuckle.

There weren’t many items and they were a bit random, but in terms of value, they were probably worth a few silver coins.

After checking, Su You found there were four packets of seeds, but only three types.

The first was Snakevine Grass seeds, the second was Koudan seeds, and the third was Silver Dew Grass seeds. There were two packets of Silver Dew Grass, and one packet each of the other two.

Snakevine Grass is a poisonous plant that can be used to make poison in an alchemy furnace. As for what the poison can be used for, that’s pretty broad—limited only by your imagination.

The most common uses are coating weapons to poison enemies, or poisoning bait in traps to catch prey.

The second, Koudan, is an herb. Like Snakevine Grass, it’s also toxic, but there’s another herb that can neutralize Koudan’s poison, turning it into a powerful medicine.

Whether it’s made into poison or medicine depends on your needs.

The third, Silver Dew Grass, is special. It’s not an herb or a crop, and it’s non-toxic and tasteless—can be eaten directly. Its main effect is to remove the “Heatstroke” debuff and grant a “Cool” anti-heatstroke buff.

Among the many natural disasters, “extreme heat” is one of them. Silver Dew Grass is an important resource for resisting this disaster.

Although encountering extreme heat is probably something for much later, having these resources in advance is definitely a good thing—saves you from scrambling to collect them later.

……

Aside from these three plants, the pieces of associated ore—which look almost indistinguishable from regular stones—can be used to craft equipment materials later. But since there aren’t any craftsmen who can work with ore right now, Su You just put them away for now.

As for those little cylindrical objects, they were quite interesting—their name was “Ultra-Mini Bombs.”

Though called bombs, they’re basically like poppers—attack power is basically zero. Their main use is to make a loud bang when thrown, attracting or scaring off creatures (especially timid ones).

Looking at these little poppers, Su You couldn’t help but think of the monster spawner she’d have to deal with in a couple of days. If she could use them to gather up the ghostly skeletons…

(End of Chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your provided Chinese text:

---

144. Join or Die

She placed the micro-bomb in a box with commonly used items, planning to see if she could use it to make some kind of trap after tomorrow’s dark creatures’ attack, which would make it easier for her to deal with the monster spawner later.

…

After the merchant caravan left, the territory felt much quieter. But thanks to the increased population—and the fact that the three travelers hadn’t left yet—it was still livelier than before the merchants had arrived.

Su You looked at the population count, now showing “9,” and thought about the timed quest’s countdown, which had just over thirty hours left. She couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious.

In the last thirty-some hours, only a few travelers and a wanderer had shown up. She’d already checked: the events for recruiting travelers and wanderers had both disappeared. That meant it was pretty much impossible to recruit any more wanderers to boost her population…

Originally, Su You hadn’t wanted to use this method, but she had no choice. It wasn’t her fault she’d been unlucky and hadn’t gotten another wanderer yesterday.

Thinking about all this, Su You went to the tavern to find Meike.

Meike was annoyed at being interrupted while cooking, but when he saw Su You’s troubled expression, he swallowed the words he’d almost blurted out and instead asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I need your help with something.” Since breakfast was over, Meike was the only one in the tavern.

Normally, Yue would be here helping out, but Meike had just told him he wanted to experiment with new dishes and not to get in the way, so Yue had gone off to take a job from the bounty board.

“So, what do you need?” Under normal circumstances, Meike wouldn’t refuse a request from Su You. After all, he’d joined the territory partly to act as a “bodyguard,” and partly to repay a favor.

Over the past few days, Meike had come to deeply appreciate just how powerful that advanced cooking skill book was. His opinion of Su You, the lord who’d given it to him, had only grown more favorable.

Especially since Su You treated him well—providing ingredients, a kitchen, everything he needed—and she didn’t bother him with every little thing… But!

But something was clearly off about Su You’s expression. Meike was sure that whatever she wanted his help with this time, it wouldn’t be simple.

And he was right—Su You’s request was indeed out of the ordinary.

“You remember those three travelers who just arrived in the territory, right?”

Meike nodded, then guessed, “You want to do something to them?” He couldn’t think of any other reason Su You would bring this up.

But if that was the case, he didn’t understand why. The travelers didn’t seem special.

Rob them?

They didn’t look like they had much money.

Something else?

Meike figured Su You’s eyes weren’t that bad.

“Sort of. I want one of them to join the territory, but since they’re travelers, I’ll have to use some special means to get them to stay.” Since she’d come to Meike, those “special means” were either using force, or leveraging Meike’s identity as a mage to tempt them.

But the latter wasn’t likely to work—not everyone was like Yue. Just because people admired mages didn’t mean they’d change their minds for one.

So the simplest way was the more violent one: use force to solve the problem—join the territory, or die.

The reason she chose Meike for this was simple: his identity was more intimidating than anyone else’s, and the others really weren’t suited for this kind of thing.

To put it bluntly, Meike didn’t have much of a moral compass (not in a bad way). He might not agree with Su You’s approach, but he probably wouldn’t refuse, and he wouldn’t feel any guilt about it.

If it were Duoya or Lyle, they probably wouldn’t refuse either—their goodwill toward Su You was high enough—but they’d definitely feel conflicted inside.

“…That’s it?” Meike had expected something much more serious, but it turned out she just wanted him to threaten one of the three travelers into joining the territory.

It wasn’t a hard task, though Meike didn’t quite understand.

“Yeah, that’s it. Not too hard, right?”

Meike replied, “It’s not hard, but have you thought about whether they’ll do anything bad to the territory after being threatened into joining? In other words, aren’t you worried about their loyalty?”

There was a clear difference between joining a territory willingly and being forced to join. The former usually meant higher loyalty and goodwill, while with the latter, if either stat wasn’t zero, you should count yourself lucky.

Yes, those stats could go negative, though that almost never happened among territory residents.

After all, if loyalty dropped below 30, there was a chance they’d leave. Below 10, almost any NPC would choose to leave—unless they wanted to stay for revenge.

“I’m not worried. They just need to join before tomorrow. The day after, they can leave. If they try anything, I’ll just kill them.” Su You said this coldly, and Meike’s opinion of her changed dramatically.

He’d wondered how long such a young girl could hold onto a territory, but now…

“Alright, leave it to me.” Honestly, Meike didn’t see anything wrong with Su You’s matter-of-fact talk about killing. On Sunset Continent, strength was everything—whether it was technical skill or combat power.

As he’d said before, no one took bounties from small territories, because many were set up as traps: people would lure others in, then rob and kill them.

It was wrong, sure, but no one found it strange—it happened all the time.

Besides, Meike himself had killed before, though never without reason.

Once, someone found out he was a mid-level fire mage (he hadn’t advanced to high-level yet), and came to ask for a favor, bringing gifts. When Meike refused, the man got angry and tried to ambush him that night, even using a killing move.

Maybe he overestimated himself, or underestimated a mid-level mage’s combat power, but either way, they didn’t stand a chance against Meike…

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent and natural English translation of your provided Chinese text:

---

**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)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your Chinese text:

---

146. They should be thanking you

Even people with the strongest nerves couldn’t possibly stay so calm in this situation. They’d just been threatened, yet they still acted like it was no big deal.

“The Lord is here.” Since there were others present, Meck respectfully called out to Lord Su You.

Hearing Meck’s voice, Wang Yi and Wang Er both jumped in surprise for some reason, then hurriedly greeted Su You.

Wang Yi: “Greetings, my lord!”

Wang Er: “Greetings, my lord!”

Su You was silent for a moment, then opened up the information panels for the two of them.

Ignoring the other details, what Su You cared about most right now were their loyalty and favorability stats… What kind of numbers would lead to this kind of behavior?

[Wang Yi]

Loyalty: 35

Favorability: 8

[Wang Er]

Loyalty: 41

Favorability: 5

……

Although these numbers were obviously much lower than those of the previous people, as mentioned before, for people who were forced to join the territory, you couldn’t expect high favorability. As long as their loyalty was above zero, that was already pretty good.

In other words, both of them had loyalty above 30—practically sky-high!

“What did you say to them? Or did you do something to them?” Su You felt something was off, so she walked over to Meck and lowered her voice to ask.

She just wanted to know what exactly was going on with these two right now.

Although Su You didn’t really care whether these two stayed or left, nor did she need to know much about them, the current situation was clearly beyond her expectations. She needed to know what had happened so she could keep everything under control.

Faced with Su You’s question, Meck just shrugged. Unlike her, he didn’t lower his voice, but spoke at a normal volume that everyone present could hear.

“Isn’t it what you said? There’s going to be a dark creature attack tomorrow.”

Su You knew it couldn’t be that simple, so she stayed quiet and listened to Meck continue.

“During a dark creature attack, non-territory members will be kicked out. So to save their lives, they joined the territory. Isn’t that perfectly normal?” As for why they didn’t just leave… well, there just wasn’t enough time.

The merchant caravan left early this morning, before dawn.

But now it was already afternoon. If they left now, it would soon be dark, and everyone knew how dangerous the forest was at night.

Besides, “tomorrow” actually meant the early hours of the next morning, right after midnight.

If they couldn’t leave the territory before then, they’d basically be doomed—because by that time, the dark creatures attacking Sunset Territory would also attack anyone on the roads.

“Exactly, the boss is right.”

“Thank you, Lord, for letting us temporarily join the territory and enjoy the protection of the Heartfire!”

Meck raised an eyebrow, then imitated Su You’s earlier manner, lowering his voice and saying, “I did pretty well this time, didn’t I? Look, they’re even thanking you.”

Su You: “……”

Su You’s eyelid twitched, but she ignored Meck’s words.

Facing the two men’s gratitude, she nodded and replied, “As fellow humans, it’s only right to help each other. If you have other matters to attend to, you’re free to go.”

However, even as she said this, Su You knew it was all a lie.

Meck was actually lying, and she simply went along with the story he’d made up, not exposing him… After all, they were on the same side. Meck only did this because she’d arranged it—she’d have to be crazy to call him out!

The lie was this: during a dark creature attack, non-territory members wouldn’t actually be kicked out. They could still take shelter inside the territory.

But whether it was because these two really didn’t know that, or they were just easy to fool, or maybe their NPC AI was just too low, or perhaps Meck had done something else to them… In any case, they believed Meck’s story.

After believing Meck, the two of them left their original territory and joined Sunset Territory.

For them, joining Sunset Territory was just a temporary measure to save their skins. Meck had told them that after the dark creature attack was over, they could leave anytime…

After hearing this, Wang Yi and Wang Er—who already thought there was no reason for a mage to lie to them—believed Meck completely, without a shred of doubt.

So, even though they didn’t want to leave their original territory, they did it anyway to survive.

As for whether the other traveler had also joined the territory, they were curious, but didn’t want to bother Su You and Meck about it. After all, other people’s lives and deaths had nothing to do with them.

……

“You did well.” Now that the matter was perfectly resolved, Su You could finally relax.

Given Meck’s good performance this time, Su You directly gifted him a batch of kitchenware.

Things like a kiln (as an oven substitute), a grill (for barbecuing), ceramic stew pots (for soups), a chopping board…

These not only enriched the tavern’s kitchen supplies, but also made Meck’s future cooking much more convenient.

You had to know, he’d only had a single stove and a copper pot before. Other than roasting meat with his own fire magic, everything else had to be cooked in that one pot.

While that worked, for a cooking fanatic, collecting all kinds of kitchenware was a unique hobby.

Plus, Su You had given him a bunch of ceramic tableware yesterday. For a moment, Meck felt that Su You was the best lord ever.

“Ah, that’s more like it! If you get more stuff like this in the future, make sure I’m the first to get it.” Meck happily admired his new kitchenware, then ignored Su You and busied himself with his new toys.

……

……

Su You wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt like the ninth day was passing even faster than the previous eight.

She’d just left the tavern and looked up to see that the once blue sky was now covered with a misty gray.

Su You opened the territory information panel, and when she saw a new line of text that had appeared at some point, her expression changed noticeably—

[Sunset Territory]

Lord: Su You

Territory Level: Medium Camp (Can be upgraded to Advanced Camp when population reaches 10 and prosperity reaches 50)

Territory Prosperity: 69

Territory Reputation: 13

Territory Population: 11/13

Territory Aura: None

Territory Events…

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of the provided Chinese text:

---

**147. Forest Ruins**

I: [A dark force seems to have drawn near the territory. They covet the bright flames they so despise, intending to destroy them under the cover of night and plunge the world into endless darkness... Perhaps they will fail, but they will never give up...]

II: [The plants are restless, the beasts are agitated, and the entire forest is shrouded in a strange, gloomy atmosphere. Every night, a mysterious energy radiates from the top of a tall tower, and the area under its influence seems to be affected in some way...]

...

“Could this be... the Forest Ruins?” Su You frowned, staring at the second territory event for a long time before coming to a conclusion.

The first one was obvious—it was a warning and hint about the dark creatures’ attack the following day.

‘Have drawn near the territory’ meant they would arrive soon. ‘Despise the flame/destroy the flame’ indicated their ultimate goal was to destroy the Heartfire at the center of the city. ‘Under the cover of night’ hinted that their attack would come at night.

As for the last part, ‘Perhaps they will fail, but they will never give up,’ this not only implied that the dark creatures would attack twice—if they failed the first time, they would come again—but also suggested that this event wasn’t a one-off, but a recurring cycle.

Having analyzed the first event, Su You turned to the second.

This strange, entirely new territory event, Su You suspected, was related to a structure called the ‘Forest Ruins.’

She was only guessing because the previous descriptions of the Forest Ruins hadn’t been like this... but that wasn’t important for now.

The so-called Forest Ruins were actually similar to monster spawners—a randomly generated structure in the wild. While monster spawners produced monsters, the Forest Ruins represented ‘guardianship’ and ‘treasure.’

Guardianship meant that within the area covered by the ruins’ energy, no resources could be gathered—whether chopping trees, mining, fishing, collecting berries, or gathering fiber... all these activities were forbidden.

But ‘forbidden’ here didn’t mean you weren’t allowed to do them—it meant you simply couldn’t.

You’d find that trees could never be felled, rocks could never be mined, berries couldn’t be picked from bushes, and fish would never bite...

If you wanted to lift this effect, you’d have to destroy the ruins.

This brings up the second feature of the Forest Ruins—treasure.

Destroying the Forest Ruins was similar to destroying a monster spawner: you had to enter a ‘dungeon’ and fulfill certain conditions to destroy it.

The difference was, there weren’t many monsters inside the Forest Ruins—sometimes none at all. The real challenge lay in the oppressive darkness, twisted labyrinths, and countless traps and mechanisms.

Amid all this danger, the Forest Ruins also contained countless treasures—and ‘treasures.’

The former were genuine, with a chance of finding valuable items. The latter were actually part of the ruins’ traps and mechanisms.

...

Since this event had appeared, it meant the ruins must have spawned somewhere not far from the territory. Otherwise, it wouldn’t affect the territory, and the event wouldn’t have triggered.

Su You opened her map, circled a few likely locations where the Forest Ruins might have appeared with her quill, then put the map away.

Although destroying the Forest Ruins was important, the dark creatures’ attack tomorrow and the unlocking of the monster spawner on Day 12 were even more pressing.

At most, she’d scout those locations on Day 11 to pinpoint the ruins, but actually dealing with them would have to wait until after the monster spawner was taken care of.

After all, there was already a monster spawner at the mines, and there was no way the ruins would spawn in the same place.

As long as the ruins didn’t appear at the mines and didn’t interfere with their stone gathering, it didn’t really matter to Su You where they spawned.

So what if she couldn’t gather resources there?

At worst, she just wouldn’t chop trees in that area. It’s not like the whole forest would run out of trees, right?!

Even so, Su You couldn’t shake the feeling that this world was much harder than the previous game.

From the very start, the time limit forced them to establish their territory within three days, ensuring they’d face a dark creature attack the next day—Su You had already noticed this.

If, at the time, she could explain it as the system trying to weed out lazy players, everything that had happened since made it clear that wasn’t the case.

She’d never encountered, nor heard of, a situation where a monster spawner, ruins, and a double disaster all appeared in the same region—let alone by Day 9!

If Day 9 was already this fraught with danger, Su You could hardly imagine what Day 19, Day 29, or even Day 99 would be like...

Sensing the world’s difficulty was ramping up in strange ways, and worried that tomorrow’s dark creature attack might be even tougher than what she’d experienced before, Su You built four more basic arrow towers near the territory for extra defense.

She also dismantled the basic arrow towers flanking the main gate and rebuilt them as intermediate arrow towers.

With more towers, she crafted a batch of stone arrows and loaded each tower’s ‘ammo box.’

Not only that, she took out the mini-bombs she’d prepared for the monster spawner and put them in her backpack, so she could use them in case of emergencies.

While doing all this, Su You checked the tool shed. The black snake that had been resting in the corner that morning was now gone, and all the food she’d left for it had disappeared as well.

She searched the shed to confirm the snake had left, then closed the door and moved on.

...

...

While Su You was busy, Dory, who hadn’t left the territory, grew increasingly anxious watching her hustle about.

She knew the dark creatures would attack tomorrow—Su You had written a notice and posted it on the bulletin board first thing in the morning. Not just Dory, but everyone in the territory knew.

When Su You finally stopped to rest, Dory pursed her lips, hugged the item she’d made, and ran over to Su You.

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your provided text:

---

148. The Attack of the Dark Creatures (1)

“Miss Lord, look at this.” Dolly picked up a piece of fiery red scale armor from her hands, gave it a shake, and then showed it to Su You from every angle—inside and out.

Su You had been absorbed in arranging the territory’s defenses, but when she saw this somewhat familiar-looking garment, she seemed to guess what it was.

“Is this the Flame Demon Armor?”

To be fair, the original Flame Demon Armor had been in such a terrible state that Su You really couldn’t connect that pile of tattered red rags from before with the now-complete, crystal-clear, and glossy scale armor in front of her.

“Yes, Miss Lord, take a look.” Dolly looked quite pleased, because not only had she helped Su You with another task by repairing the armor, but it also meant her repair skill had reached the intermediate level.

Su You took the Flame Demon Armor and examined it, then fetched the matching Flame Demon Leggings from the storage, handing both items to Dolly.

“Put them on, let me see.” Su You wanted Dolly to wear them to check the set bonus of the Flame Demon set. As the lord, she couldn’t equip high-level gear herself. While the Flame Demon set wasn’t exactly high-level, it was still a set.

No matter the level, she couldn’t equip any set items.

Dolly didn’t know why Su You wanted her to put on the outfit, but she nodded obediently and put it on right away.

[Flame Demon Armor] (Equipped)

Type: Equipment

Quality: Blue

Durability: 100/100

Attributes: Defense (20), Resistance (2%), Fire Resistance (5%)

Description: A complete set of Flame Demon Armor, offering strong defense and additional fire damage resistance. When equipped together with the Flame Demon Leggings, set bonuses are activated.

[Detected: Character has equipped Flame Demon Set (2/2). Set bonuses activated.]

Flame Demon Set (2/2):

Attribute 1 (Passive): Fire Resistance +5%

Attribute 2 (Passive): 10% chance to inflict additional fire damage on attack. Fire damage lasts for ten seconds, dealing 1% of the target’s current HP as fire damage per second.

Attribute 3 (Passive): When the wearer’s fire resistance reaches 50%, the chance to trigger Attribute 2 doubles (20%).

...

“20% chance to trigger fire damage…” Su You muttered to herself, a hint of excitement in her voice.

She’d already been surprised by the first two attributes, but when she saw the third, it felt like she’d just been hit by a stroke of luck.

She immediately opened Dolly’s detailed stats panel and found the “Elemental Resistances” section. Among all the resistances, she located Fire Resistance—18%.

Flame Demon Armor gives 5%, Flame Demon Leggings 3%, Set Bonus 1 gives 5%, and most people are born with 5–10% innate elemental resistance. Dolly’s innate fire resistance was probably 5%, bringing the total to 18%.

So, reaching the 50% required for Attribute 3 was actually quite difficult. But the territory had a fire mage, Meck!

Fire mages naturally have high fire resistance, as it’s determined by the elemental content in the human body.

A genius like Meck would have at least 15% fire resistance. With this set, his fire resistance would be at least 28%!

But that was still only halfway there...

There are many ways to increase fire resistance: besides equipment, you can take resistance potions, learn relevant passive skills, or use certain resistance-boosting abilities.

For example, the fire mage’s Magic Shield.

Magic Shield not only blocks some magic damage but also doubles the target’s corresponding magic resistance. Fire mages’ shields double fire resistance, water mages’ shields double water resistance, and so on...

So Meck’s 28% fire resistance would become 56% with Magic Shield—just enough for Attribute 3!

After a brief moment of excitement, Su You suddenly thought of something and sighed.

Dolly, who had been happy, was taken aback by the sudden sigh and quickly asked with concern, “Miss Lord, is there something wrong with this equipment?”

“No, it’s great.” It really was great—just that there wasn’t anyone suitable for it.

Even after all those calculations, Meck could technically trigger Attribute 3, but he wasn’t suited for this gear.

To be precise, mages weren’t suited for this kind of equipment.

Mages’ main attack method is casting spells. While their attacks are powerful, long-ranged, and wide-area, their fatal flaw is the casting time—in other words, their attack speed is slow.

If Meck were a high-level mage, that would be different. But as a beginner mage, even with his deep understanding of magic, his casting speed couldn’t be much faster than other beginner mages.

And since Attribute 2 triggers on attack, regardless of probability, the faster your attack speed, the better this set works.

Weapons with high attack speed are usually bows, daggers, and short swords.

Take Doya, for example—she can attack twice per second but can’t trigger Attribute 3. Compare that to Meck, who can only attack once every three seconds with magic but can trigger Attribute 3. Statistically, Doya has a higher chance of triggering Attribute 2.

And Doya’s abilities go beyond that.

Even when kiting a long-tailed crocodile and attacking at the same time, she could still shoot two arrows per second. If she focused solely on attacking, her speed would be even higher.

And if she had a light bow to boost her speed...

Su You took back the Flame Demon set from Dolly. After a moment’s thought, she decided to give it to Doya.

Lyle was also skilled with daggers, but as a melee fighter, he’d waste time dodging attacks, reducing his output. To maximize the set’s attributes, an archer was the best choice.

Sometimes, it’s not about how many attributes you can trigger, but about making the right choice for the situation.

...

...

Late at night, a faintly glowing blue flower quietly bloomed. Under the firelight, its soft petals sparkled like starlight.

It should have been a beautiful moment, but everyone in Sunset Territory was on edge.

Even the NPCs, who couldn’t see the information panels, could sense that something was off in the air.

(End of chapter)"

"149. The Attack of the Dark Creatures (2)

For a brief moment, it felt as if their very breath had stopped. When they snapped back to their senses, they immediately noticed a strange, repulsive stench filling the air.

Meck was clearly more familiar and sensitive to this odor than the others. The instant he detected it, he frowned, stood up from the bench, and made his way to the tall tower Su You had finished building that afternoon.

There were only three such towers near the city gates. The two on either side were for Meck and Doya to use during battle, while the third, set a bit farther away, was reserved by Su You for herself to observe the fight.

As for Lyle and Lake, they wouldn’t be fighting the dark creatures for now. If they wanted to join the battle, they’d have to go outside, but as always, the night was far too dangerous without the protection of the city’s heartfire.

Only if Doya and Meck, along with the nearby intermediate arrow towers, couldn’t hold the line, would they consider opening the stone gate to let the dark creatures inside the territory, so Lyle and Lake could help deal with or relieve some of the pressure from the attack.

“They’re here…” Doya seemed to sense something as well.

She, too, climbed up onto one of the towers, just like Meck.

“Do either of you know how to use an arrow tower? Or have any experience with bows?” Su You asked Lyle and Lake, who, though clearly nervous, seemed a bit bored with nothing to do.

Lyle and Lake shook their heads. “No.”

That was within Su You’s expectations. If they had such skills, it would have shown up on their information panels.

Still, Su You pointed to two of the intermediate arrow towers and said, “It’s fine if you don’t. If you want, you can give it a try.”

Their technique might not be great, but as long as they didn’t have negative talents related to archery—like Meck, who not only lacked any cooking talent but actually had a negative one—even basic participation could boost the arrow towers’ combat effectiveness.

Even if they just stood on the towers and did nothing, their presence would still provide some attribute bonuses to the towers.

“We’ll give it a try.” Lyle and Lake each climbed up onto the arrow towers Su You had indicated.

Once everyone was in position, the darkness outside seemed to grow even more oppressive, as if something unnatural was lurking within it. Standing atop her observation tower, Su You could clearly see that the area outside the city looked like a pot of boiling oil.

Though it was pitch black, she could somehow make out strange shapes churning in the darkness.

Suddenly—

A blob of “black sludge” slammed into the stone wall.

Su You frowned, but before she could say anything, Meck immediately cast a spell, wrapping the black sludge in magic and burning it to ashes.

“These are the dark creatures. Be careful, everyone.” Indeed, that blob of black sludge was a dark creature.

Dark creatures had no fixed form; they looked like lumps of black modeling clay—or perhaps slimes?

Call them what you will, these things were the dark creatures, the enemies they would face tonight.

They could change shape at will, only molding themselves into a more defined form when they needed to attack or defend.

Since they were still in their slime state, they couldn’t attack yet. But this wasn’t a turn-based game—if they didn’t attack, Su You would simply activate the arrow towers’ auto-attack, targeting the nearest slime.

[Dark Remnant]

HP: 300/300

Attack: 50

Defense: 10

…

“Dark Remnant” was the name for these dark creatures in their slime form. Before they shifted into a specific shape, they had high attack, low defense, and moderate HP.

As two arrows struck the nearest Dark Remnant, two large “-20”s floated up from above it. Its HP dropped from 300 to 260.

Even before Su You attacked, Meck—irritated from staying up late—had already begun chanting a fire spell that could deal area damage. He just wanted to get rid of these black things as quickly as possible and go back to sleep!

“Flame Rain—” As soon as the chant ended, a cluster of fiery red flames appeared, hovering above the area outside the city where the dark creatures were most densely gathered.

Before the creatures could react, the flames rained down like a storm.

Illuminated by the fire, everyone could clearly see the road outside was covered in blobs of black sludge.

Su You quickly counted—she could see about seventeen or eighteen of these black masses, meaning there were at least that many Dark Remnants in this wave. As for whether there were more hidden elsewhere, she couldn’t be sure for now.

As she finished counting, the searing flames fell onto the black sludge, igniting it like a barrel of oil. The sludge exploded, splattering sticky, disgusting black goo everywhere—

“Hiss—”

“Grrr—”

Though the Flame Rain was impressive, Meck was still only a novice mage and couldn’t unleash its full power. After the spell, the dark creatures had only lost about a tenth of their HP.

But that was already impressive—ten percent meant 30 HP, and at least seven or eight creatures were hit, so the Flame Rain had dealt over 200 points of damage!

This was exactly why Su You insisted on having a mage—area-of-effect spells were just too powerful.

As the fire burned the black sludge and the ground, the dark creatures outside let out wails and roars, some mournful, some furious. The sounds pierced the night, sending chills down everyone’s spines.

Su You was fine—she’d seen this kind of thing many times and wasn’t fazed in the slightest. She could even eat a bowl of rice with a straight face while watching.

Meck also had strong nerves. In fact, the more disgusting he found these things, the faster he chanted, eager to burn them all to ashes.

The others weren’t doing as well.

Doya, Lyle, and Lake—though none of them were exactly sheltered—had never seen dark creatures in person before. For a moment, they struggled to stomach the sight of the sticky, nauseating mess.

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

150. Dark Creatures Attack 3

The first to react was Doya. After all, she was used to killing animals and had seen plenty of bloody, violent scenes. She simply equated this to her previous hunting experiences, adjusted her mindset, and quickly regained her composure.

“Focus on the ones that are already bleeding.” This wasn’t just because the wounded dark creatures were easier to finish off—it was also because, when the flames landed on them, it was as if they were being ‘ignited.’

What was once pitch-black and invisible was now lit up by these burning dark creatures, making them stand out like the brightest stars in the night sky.

‘Whoosh whoosh—’

‘Whoosh—’

Doya skillfully picked up the enchanted willow bow that Su You had prepared for her. She started with a double shot, then quickly fired a third arrow.

-

88! (Double shot bonus damage) -

75! (Double shot bonus damage) -

60

……

After all, this bow was made from the tendons of a Black-Striped Tiger Beast and was enchanted for attack power, so its damage was an impressive 55 points!

Doya’s own stats weren’t bad either—especially since she specialized in archery. With this bow, her attack stat reached 70 points. As a result, after just three arrows, the dark creature that had only lost a tenth of its health was now down to just a tenth remaining.

‘Whoosh—’

-

60

Another arrow, and Doya scored her first kill—also the very first kill of this wave of dark creature attacks.

Seeing how easily she took down a dark creature, Lyle and Lake, who were a bit less accustomed to such scenes, quickly snapped out of their daze.

They took a deep breath and began operating the arrow towers, targeting the already-wounded dark creatures.

By the end of the first round of attacks, Doya had successfully killed five dark creatures, while Lyle and Lake together had taken down about six.

Mack, on the other hand, hadn’t gotten any ‘kills’ yet. He was mainly using area attacks, which dealt less damage and were slower, so it was hard for him to land the finishing blow.

Of course, he didn’t really care about getting ‘kills’ anyway.

“Hold your fire!” Su You quickly called out when she saw the dark creatures, illuminated by the flames, suddenly start to writhe and surge like molten lava.

The dark creatures were now entering the ‘transformation’ phase.

In this phase, they were nearly invincible. Unless there was a huge difference in power, any attacks now would be pointless.

Mack had already stopped, and the other three halted as soon as they heard Su You’s warning.

To help everyone see what was happening outside, Mack thoughtfully tossed out a few small fireballs.

By the light of the fireballs, everyone could clearly see the dark creatures they had killed—now just piles of mush on the ground—suddenly begin to change rapidly.

It was as if someone was molding clay; the creatures gradually took on various new forms. Among these forms, everyone could recognize some familiar faces.

For example, some dark creatures transformed into ghostly skeletons, others into long-tailed crocodiles, and still others into fire demon monsters...

[Long-Tailed Crocodile Remains]

HP: 150/150

Attack: 50

Defense: 10

[Fire Demon Remains]

HP: 150/150

Attack: 50

Defense: 10

……

These transformed dark creatures not only gained attack abilities, but their attack methods and stats were largely based on the template of the creature they mimicked.

This also meant that their previous kills were reset, since the ‘dead’ dark creatures had now ‘revived’ in a new form.

Of course, this revival wasn’t unlimited—otherwise, dark creatures would be invincible and would have conquered the world by now. Besides, this was only the first wave of dark creature attacks, so the difficulty couldn’t be that high.

Dark creatures only gain attack and defense abilities after transforming, and only then can they actually be killed.

In their original, pure-remains form, their HP could be depleted, but they wouldn’t die. Instead, they’d just gather together and then transform into killable monsters.

After transformation, their attack stays the same, but their HP and defense are halved. This is because the transformation was forced; if it had been voluntary, their stats would remain unchanged.

In other words, it was still worthwhile to kill the untransformed dark remains, since it made them weaker once they became combat-ready.

The only bad news was that, while Su You had originally seen only a dozen or so dark creatures, there were now clearly over twenty—maybe even thirty!

This was definitely different from before!

It seemed her suspicions were correct: this data-driven world was much harder than the previous game!

Previously, the first wave of dark creature attacks usually numbered only 10 to 20!

But Su You didn’t have time to dwell on this. After scanning the area below, she immediately gave orders: “Focus on the long-tailed crocodiles first!”

As she spoke, she began operating several arrow towers herself, targeting the dark creatures that had transformed into long-tailed crocodiles.

Although they looked like long-tailed crocodiles, these creatures were like shoddy mud sculptures—no green scales, no skin, no eyes or mouth.

At Su You’s command, Doya quickly switched targets to the ‘Long-Tailed Crocodile Remains’ and fired three arrows in quick succession, each piercing the tail and limbs of the same creature.

Lyle and Lake weren’t archery specialists, so they were a bit slower. By the time they managed to aim an arrow tower at a dark creature, Doya had already finished off one and was moving on to the next.

Still, even though they were slower, their aim with the arrow towers was pretty good—almost every arrow hit a dark creature. Of course, whether it was the one they’d aimed for didn’t really matter, as long as they didn’t waste any damage.

As they continued taking down dark creatures, Su You kept a close watch in the darkness—she needed to quickly identify any elite monsters among this wave.

The regular mobs were easy enough to handle; their attacks were weak and they were just stat monsters.

But elites were different. Elites had skills—like the Fire Demon Leader’s ‘Summon’ ability. These were ‘mechanic monsters.’

Mechanic monsters might not have strong stats, but their skills could easily turn the tide of battle...

(End of Chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

151. Attack of the Dark Creatures 4

Now that Su You noticed the difficulty had increased, she was quite worried that this would make the elite monsters even stronger—or give them even more troublesome abilities.

Judging by their current progress, Su You felt that this wave of dark creatures wasn’t actually that difficult—there were a lot of them, but the pressure wasn’t particularly high.

After all, in practical terms, they didn’t even need to open the gates to let Lyle and Lake out to fight. Just a few arrow towers, plus Duoya and Meck, were enough to wipe out this batch of dark creatures.

Granted, this was partly because Su You had prepared thoroughly and, with some luck, managed to recruit Duoya and Meck. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that things weren’t so simple.

A familiar sense of unease crept in. Su You forced herself to calm down and carefully observed the situation outside... But since the dark creatures almost blended into the night, even with her keen eyesight, it was impossible to pick out those pitch-black shapes in the darkness.

And maybe it was just her imagination, but Su You felt like there were even more dark creatures down there than she could see... They’d already killed so many, yet below, the mass of darkness still surged like a black swamp. Staring at it too long even gave her the illusion that she might get sucked in herself.

“Lord, there are still a lot of dark creatures down there,” Duoya said, frowning as she fired her arrows, voicing her own sense that something was off.

She hadn’t counted exactly how many she’d killed, but with two empty quivers (each holding fifty arrows), and knowing her own damage output, she could estimate she’d taken out at least twenty-something dark creatures!

Even without counting Meck’s kills, Lyle and Lake should have managed to kill at least a dozen between them, even if they weren’t that strong.

Not to mention the other automated intermediate arrow towers!

Those towers must have killed at least ten as well.

All together, that was close to fifty dark creatures! That number just didn’t add up!

And after observing for a while, Su You noticed another problem—

These dark creatures seemed to be constantly moving toward the territory, but something was affecting them, slowing them down so much that they were killed before they could even get close.

At this point, the territory’s defensive structures had only lost a bit of durability from the initial attack; since then, they’d barely taken any damage and were still almost at full strength.

“Lyle, Lake, go down and guard the stone gate,” Su You ordered as soon as she realized something was wrong.

Even if the durability was dropping slowly, it was still dropping. She couldn’t just stand by and watch it get depleted.

These dark creatures seemed endless. Since they couldn’t kill them all, it was better to stop attacking for now, to avoid triggering some kind of negative chain reaction.

As long as the stone gate was held, she’d have time to think...

The weirdness outside clearly wasn’t caused by ordinary dark creature mobs. If even the small fry were this tough, she might as well give up—the mobs would be unbeatable, and it would be game over.

“It’s the elite monster causing this...” If it wasn’t the mobs, then it had to be the elite monster’s doing.

Even though it was dark outside, Meck’s fire attacks gave off some light, so Su You could just barely make out what was happening.

But after watching carefully for a long time, she still didn’t spot the elite monster—just piles of ordinary dark creature remains everywhere... Unless there was no elite monster in this wave, it must be hiding on purpose.

Besides, if it were a combat-type elite, it might not charge in first, but it wouldn’t be hiding either. Would it really wait until all its minions were dead before taking on everyone by itself?

Su You strongly suspected she was dealing with a non-combat elite monster. Non-combat elites had almost no fighting ability—much like lord players—but they usually had all sorts of strange skills, most of which boosted the dark creatures’ offensive power.

If she was right, this elite’s skill was probably something like summoning or resurrection, which would explain why the dark creatures kept coming endlessly.

She’d reached a conclusion, but it didn’t help much—she still couldn’t find it, because it was just too dark outside.

Night was like a natural cloak of invisibility for dark creatures.

Su You thought for a moment, then turned to Meck for help. “Something’s wrong, Meck. I need a light spell—there’s an elite monster hiding out there.”

“Got it.” After hurling another fireball down below, Meck picked up his staff. “I can only keep it up for five seconds.”

Illumination magic was the most basic of beginner spells, but because it was so dark outside and the area to be lit was so large—and with his own power suppressed—Meck could only maintain the spell for five seconds if he wanted to light up the whole area.

“Shrink the area a bit—just light up the edges, not the center,” Su You said. The center was the most dangerous spot; even AOE (area-of-effect) splash damage could hit other monsters, so there was no way the elite would hide somewhere so risky.

Besides lacking combat power, elites were also notoriously fragile—easy to kill if you could find them.

“Ten seconds,” Meck replied, raising his staff a little higher.

“Lyle, Lake, stay alert and defend!” Su You shouted as she saw Meck preparing the spell.

A few seconds later, the world outside lit up as if someone had switched on a giant bulb, turning night into day all around them.

Su You could clearly sense the dark creatures outside freeze for a split second.

Then, as if injected with adrenaline, they suddenly charged furiously at the territory’s gate and stone walls.

With their assault, the gate and walls—which had only lost a few dozen points of durability before—now began to lose durability rapidly... faster and faster...!

Fortunately, Su You had reinforced the stone walls and gate. The gate’s durability had doubled from 1,000 to 2,000, and the walls had gone from 800 to 1,500.

Lyle and Lake, who had already come down from the arrow towers, stood tensely at the gate, fists clenched, watching as the stone gate shook under the relentless assault—still sturdy, but clearly under strain...

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**152. Dark Creatures Attack 5**

They showed no fear in the face of powerful enemies; instead, their fighting spirit burned fiercely.

Whether it was Lyle or Lake, both of their loyalty to the territory had reached the maximum value at this moment... In other words, they were willing to die to defend the territory!

Of course, Su You would never let them throw their lives away. Even if they were just ordinary NPCs without any special skills, she wouldn’t do that.

But right now, Su You didn’t have time to worry about the durability of these defensive structures, because she only had ten seconds—to find the hidden dark creature within those ten seconds.

Seeing that the defenses wouldn’t be breached in the short term, Su You immediately began searching for the elite monster.

Not this one...

Can’t see it...

Not here...

Su You frowned, carefully scanning from left to right. Just as Meike was starting to frown as well, about to run out of magic, Su You suddenly told him to stop using his illumination spell.

Meike, who could barely hold on for a few more seconds anyway, didn’t care whether Su You had found it or not—he immediately lowered his staff.

The moment he did, the environment outside, which had been as bright as day, was instantly swallowed by darkness at a rapid pace.

The sudden shift from light to dark and back again was enough to make anyone feel uneasy.

Su You attached a micro-bomb to an arrow. Although the extra weight would greatly reduce its range, with the help of the arrow towers and the fact that the target wasn’t far away, it would still achieve her goal.

*Whoosh—*

*Boom—*

Doya and the others didn’t know what Su You had done. All they knew was that after a not-so-loud explosion—soon drowned out by the howling outside—a piercing scream erupted from a certain spot, almost shattering everyone’s eardrums.

Found it!

Su You immediately lit the lamp hanging in that spot, then checked the only dark creature among them that hadn’t disguised itself as something else.

As she checked its information, she quickly extinguished the lamp again.

**[Elite: Clay Remnant]**

HP: 100/100

Attack: 0

Defense: 50

Skills:

**[Reshape]:** Absorbs nearby debris to create new remnants.

**[Conceal]:** Hides in the darkness, reducing its presence; invisible unless actively searched for.

After seeing its skills, everything became clear—

For example, why the dark creatures outside kept coming, and why Su You couldn’t find it just now...

The former was because it could reassemble the corpses of fallen remnants into new ones, ensuring a constant stream of dark creatures. Su You had already suspected as much.

The latter was due to its concealment skill.

With concealment active, unless you hit it with an area attack or use detection or reveal-type skills in its direction, you’d never find it as long as it didn’t deactivate the skill itself.

""Outside the stone gate, near the third lamp on the right—there’s an unshaped dark creature there. Doya!"" Once she confirmed the position, Su You immediately called out the location.

The moment Doya heard her name, she fired the copper-balanced arrow she’d already nocked, aiming straight for the [Elite: Clay Remnant]—the one that could “mold clay figures”!

“Milord! The main gate can’t hold much longer!” Lyle shouted, desperately bracing the stone gate with Lake as the dark creatures slammed against it.

Even though they knew that the two of them alone couldn’t possibly hold back dozens of dark creatures, they didn’t hesitate for a second.

It was bad news, but at the same time, Su You received some good news.

Doya: “Milord, that monster’s been dealt with. Should I start attacking the other dark creatures now?”

NPCs couldn’t see this information, so although Doya could guess that Su You had her kill that special dark creature because it was likely the source of the endless dark creatures, she couldn’t be sure. She still had to ask Su You before acting.

“Focus on the ones near the gate first.” Su You didn’t say yes or no, but directly gave a new target.

At the same time, she activated the arrow towers’ auto-attack and set all their targets to the area near the main gate.

After the first volley, four or five dark creatures fell instantly, but more quickly surged forward from behind, like moths to a flame.

“You two, stop holding the stone gate. Get behind the barricade and prepare for battle.”

In this data-driven world, everything was determined by numbers. The stone gate wouldn’t lose durability any slower just because they were bracing it. On the contrary, when its durability hit zero and it was smashed open, they might be thrown out or even crushed beneath it.

If that happened, they’d really be done for—Su You wouldn’t be able to save them.

She knew the gate was doomed to fall tonight, but she wasn’t afraid. She’d already set up a dense array of traps and barricades behind it.

Although she hadn’t expected the dark creatures’ attack to be this difficult tonight, it didn’t affect her preparations. To ensure absolute success, she’d gone above and beyond.

A true veteran never lets their experience make them complacent. Instead, they use it to be even more thoroughly prepared for anything.

...

At this point, Lyle and Lake had already retreated behind the stone barricade as Su You instructed.

Barely ten seconds after they fell back, there was a loud *boom*—the main gate collapsed, and the dark creatures outside surged in like a tidal wave.

Though she’d expected this, Su You still couldn’t help but sigh as she watched her stone gate—destroyed twice in just ten days (the first time by Meike’s explosion)—fall again.

But as she sighed, the dark creatures, seeing the gate smashed open, immediately entered a strange frenzy.

They scrambled madly toward the heartfire at the center of the town, but before they’d taken more than a few steps, the ground beneath their feet gave way...

And everyone present witnessed a spectacular “dumpling drop” show.

That’s right—Su You had dug a huge pit behind the gate, using the same method as the Fire Demon Chief, to give these dark creatures equal treatment—

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

153. The End of the Dark Creatures’ Attack

Don’t ask why I used this trick—old or new, it doesn’t matter as long as it works.

Because of the pit, the dark creatures were caught off guard and fell in one after another, just like dumplings dropping into a pot—*plop*, *plop*, *plop*.

But while this method is effective, it does have its drawbacks.

For example, these dark creatures can produce a kind of slime. While it can’t be used as material for making clay figurines, it can serve the same purpose as the stones in the story of the crow drinking water—by gradually filling up the bottom of the pit, the slime eventually pushes the dark creatures up and out.

*Whoosh*—an arrow shot straight into one of the dark creatures.

Even though they had a way to climb up, the others present weren’t about to just stand by and watch them escape.

For Doya and the arrow towers, these dark creatures trapped inside the pit were slow-moving, no different from wooden stakes—basically sitting ducks for her to attack at will.

Of course, Doya’s strength alone was limited, but she wasn’t fighting alone… Previously, Lyle and Lake couldn’t do much because they weren’t allowed outside, unable to show their true strength.

But now, with the enemies right in front of them—and since they were just a mass of black goo, more disgusting than scary—the two of them grabbed their weapons and jumped into the fray.

They were smart about it, too. Knowing that Doya and the arrow towers were attacking, they deliberately chose a corner to fight off the dark creatures trying to climb out, avoiding most of the areas targeted by Doya and the towers.

These dark creatures weren’t particularly strong to begin with. If it hadn’t been for that elite monster earlier, they would’ve been wiped out long ago. So, the fight was easy—while the creatures were busy trying to climb out, they barely put up any resistance.

While the others were clearing out the remaining dark creatures, Meck didn’t step in… but there was no need for him to. With just three people and a few arrow towers, it took about ten minutes to finish off all the dark creatures.

…

As the last dark creature let out its dying wail, Lyle took out a clean cloth and carefully wiped his dagger.

Even though there wasn’t a trace of dark creature left on the blade, he still looked dissatisfied.

“My lord, if there’s nothing else, I’d like to go wash up.” It wasn’t just his dagger—while he didn’t have any major wounds, his body was splattered with black, unidentified slime.

The slime was non-toxic, but it was disgusting and uncomfortable. If he could, Lyle would have jumped straight into a bath right then.

Su You nodded, then turned to say something to Meck before turning back.

“Meet at the tavern later—I’ll heal your wounds.” Neither of them was badly hurt, but since healing was available, it was better to be safe than sorry and avoid any chance of infection.

“Understood.” Lyle nodded to Su You and left.

Lake shook out his numb hands from all the punching. After seeing Lyle leave, he said a few words to Su You and followed after him.

As for Doya…

“I’m not hurt, so I’ll go rest now.”

Don’t be fooled by how she’d been shooting arrows nonstop, sometimes even pulling off double or triple shots. Anyone who knows archery understands that prolonged use not only strains the hands, but also tires the eyes from constantly focusing on targets to improve accuracy.

What’s more, the battlefield visibility had been terrible. Doya had to put in extra effort to seize every possible shot, making it even more exhausting than usual.

In other words, while she looked relaxed and carefree up on the tower, picking off dark creatures from a distance and staying unscathed, she was actually the most exhausted of them all.

“Alright, go get some rest. I’ll have Dolly leave some food for you.”

NPCs like Dolly Yousen weren’t fighters, but their desire to protect the territory was just as strong as anyone else’s—especially Dolly.

She wished she could pick up a weapon and fight the dark creatures herself, but knowing she wasn’t cut out for battle, she stayed out of the way. Instead, she prayed for victory and made sure she’d be well-rested to take care of the others come morning.

“Could you help clean up in here?” Su You said to Meck.

She wasn’t planning to fill in the pit—there’d be more dark creatures tonight, so it could be reused.

But before that, the slime and other unknown substances inside needed to be cleared out; otherwise, it would be both disgusting and smelly.

Meck’s fire magic was perfect for burning away the slime, so Su You was making the most of his abilities.

“Alright, leave it to me.” Meck was tired, but he could still cast a few basic fire spells.

Besides, Su You had promised him more kitchen tools and ingredients once the territory opened up, so he resigned himself to the task and pulled out his magic staff.

Meck was true to his word—if he said he’d handle it, he would.

So Su You left the cleanup to Meck with peace of mind.

She herself took out a stone hammer and demolished the ruined [Stone Gate], then built a brand new, reinforced one in its place.

The surrounding stone walls were also damaged, but it was late and there wouldn’t be any more monsters tonight, so Su You decided to repair them tomorrow.

…

…

After fixing the gate, Su You went to the tavern and woke up Yue, who had been waiting there for a long time.

“Huh? My lord…” Yue, who had dozed off while waiting, looked a little dazed when Su You woke her.

“Someone needs your healing,” Su You said.

At those words, Yue perked up instantly, all her sleepiness gone.

Just then, Lyle and Lake walked in from outside. Seeing Yue staring at them with eager, excited eyes, the two of them couldn’t help but take a half-step back.

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

154. Healing Magic

Yue: Huh? Are you seriously taking a step back?

Yue clearly didn’t think there was anything odd about his behavior. In fact, he looked a little confused. “Aren’t you here for treatment? And besides, we’re all men here—what are you so afraid of? It’s not like I’m going to eat you!”

Lyle, Lake: That’s exactly why we’re afraid—because we’re all men!

Su You: …What kind of weird stuff is even in this execution system’s database?

Seeing the awkward atmosphere, and feeling just as tired and sleepy as everyone else, Su You couldn’t help but interject, “Let’s not waste time. He’s a water mage—he can use healing magic.”

Water mages are one of only three classes that can learn healing spells.

The other two are the “Healing” class and the “Light” class.

But since people with healing or light elements are far rarer than those with other elements—almost to the point of being legendary—most of the time, water mages are the ones who take on the role of healer.

That’s why Su You had said water magic was special, and also why she felt giving the skill book to Yue wouldn’t be a waste.

“I see.” Hearing Su You’s explanation, Lyle and Lake finally remembered why they’d come here in the first place, and everything clicked.

But still… if it’s just treatment, then fine… but why was he looking at them with such a weird expression?

Don’t they realize how creepy it is to have someone staring at you in the middle of the night, eyes wide and face full of bizarre excitement?

But now that the misunderstanding was cleared up, and they knew this guy was a mage—one who could use healing magic at that—their attitudes changed instantly.

They weren’t about to start sucking up, but they were definitely more polite.

“Thank you for your trouble, Master Mage,” Lake said courteously, sitting down in front of Yue and extending his hand.

There was a scratch on his hand, probably from some dark creature.

The wound wasn’t large, but it had bled quite a bit. He’d already cleaned off the blood earlier, and after the battle he’d immediately used a basic healing potion, so the bleeding had stopped.

Yue was already nervous—this was his first time using healing magic, after all. And when he heard Lake address him as “Master Mage,” he got even more flustered.

“N-no, you don’t have to call me ‘Master Mage’… I only started learning magic a couple of days ago, and this is my first… my first real attempt at using it…”

“Just call me Yue. That’s my name.”

Yue did want to be called a mage, but not out of vanity.

For someone who’d grown up knowing he might become a mage, only to later learn he probably never would due to lack of talent, that title was a dream, a longing, a kind of recognition.

But he knew very well that right now, he wasn’t even an apprentice mage…

Only those above the beginner level could truly be called mages. Even apprentices didn’t count, let alone someone like him.

…

Lake had been a little excited too—it was his first time being treated by a mage—but after hearing this was Yue’s first time as well, his expression stiffened.

So… are the two of us just guinea pigs now?

Lake’s outstretched hand trembled a bit, but since the lord had sent them, and seeing how serious and professional (or so he thought) Yue looked, he figured maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as he feared…

He was too embarrassed to just leave, so he had no choice but to grit his teeth and go through with it.

Lyle, on the other hand, felt a bit relieved.

At least he wasn’t the first “guinea pig.” He could watch and see how it went. If it worked, great. If not, he could always find an excuse to slip away…

“Well… good luck,” Lake said, bracing himself. He didn’t really want to look, but he couldn’t help glancing several times at his injured hand.

Yue had no idea about their complicated thoughts. He just assumed they were shy about watching magic being cast, so he smiled at them. “You can watch if you want. It won’t affect me.”

Lake: “…Okay.” That wasn’t what he meant, but the misunderstanding was fine.

Lyle: …Good luck, brother.

Yue didn’t notice their reactions. He focused on the wound, recalling what Meike had told him about casting spells, and threw himself completely into the process.

“….”

A string of unfamiliar but not overly complicated incantations rang out. Lake could clearly feel a cool sensation spreading from his wound.

It was like ice, but softer—like gentle ripples of water caressing his skin. It felt incredibly soothing… Yet, in reality, Lake couldn’t see anything happening to his wound.

But he could clearly watch as the wound slowly knit itself together, visible to the naked eye… until it was completely closed, leaving only a faint scar where the cut had been.

Seeing that, while not perfect, it was a definite success, Yue let out a huge sigh of relief. The tension of casting his first real spell vanished, replaced by a deep, indescribable satisfaction.

“How do you feel? Any discomfort?” Yue looked at Lake expectantly.

Lake snapped out of his daze from witnessing that magical scene. He touched his hand, now fully healed except for a thin scar as proof there’d ever been a wound.

“No, I feel great! You’re amazing!” Lake’s praise was sincere, and Yue’s face lit up with joy at the genuine compliment.

Su You watched the successful treatment, showing no emotion on her face, but feeling very satisfied inside.

But then she couldn’t help but yawn… Seeing the “Severely Fatigued” status on her panel, Su You knew she needed to rest as well.

She closed her panel and said to Yue, “I’m heading out. Heal them up, and all of this will count toward your contribution points.”

“Don’t worry, my lord! I’ll make sure they’re fully healed!” At the mention of “contribution points,” Yue’s eyes lit up, and he immediately patted his chest in assurance. “I’ll make sure to heal every single wound they have—not a scratch left!”

(End of Chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of the provided Chinese text:

---

**155. Potatoes Are Ready**

Although he wanted to become a mage through his own efforts, he knew how difficult that would be. So, he pinned his hopes on that magic rune book that could directly turn someone into a mage.

But if he wanted to exchange for the magic rune book, he needed contribution points.

As soon as Yue finished speaking, Su You had already disappeared from the tavern.

Lyle and Lake didn’t know what the “contribution points” Su You mentioned were. They wanted to ask, but they still had wounds to treat, and Su You was tired and had gone to rest. So, they could only wait until tomorrow to ask.

Afterwards, Yue finished treating their wounds, and the three of them each went home, letting exhaustion wrap around them as they quickly fell into a deep sleep.

……

……

A restless night passed. Everyone slept soundly, simply because they were truly tired and worn out. But in another sense, they didn’t sleep well, since they all remembered there was still a tough battle to fight that night.

Su You was, as always, the first to wake up, as if she hadn’t stayed up late at all the night before.

The first thing she did after getting up was to repair all the stone walls back to full durability.

There were many ways to repair stone walls. Su You didn’t use the most material-efficient method, but rather the simplest one—she just opened the stone wall’s information panel and directly spent the required materials to repair it.

Since it was a stone wall, the repair material was naturally stone.

After spending some stone to fully restore all the walls, Su You went outside her territory to collect all the loot dropped by the dark creatures from the previous day.

Most of the dark creatures had died in the pits inside the territory, so there was quite a bit of loot in those pits as well. Su You collected everything and put it in her backpack.

After cleaning up the area, she walked a lap around the edge of her territory. When she reached a certain corner, she saw a section of stone wall with a missing chunk.

She patched up the wall as usual, and then, less than three meters from the wall, she found a few copper coins—probably dropped by a dark creature.

Dark creatures didn’t just spawn at the front gate; they could appear from any direction around the territory and launch sneak attacks.

However, the number of dark creatures attacking from non-front directions was usually small—rarely more than two at the same spot.

Su You had long since placed arrow towers all around the territory, and had activated their auto-attack mode before the dark creatures attacked. So, these dark creatures naturally became easy targets for the towers.

After making a full circuit, Su You had used up a stack and a half of stone from her backpack, but she’d also collected quite a few copper coins and other loot.

“Lord!” Yousen came running over, both hands clenched as if holding something, excitement written all over his face.

“Look!”

He didn’t keep her in suspense. Once he reached Su You, he stretched out his hands and opened his palms, revealing a round potato.

Seeing the potato, Su You immediately understood why Yousen was so happy—the potatoes in the fields were ready for harvest!

As a bit of a foodie, Su You’s mind instantly filled with potato recipes—

Potato pancakes, baked potatoes, fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, French fries… There were so many dishes you could make with just potatoes alone.

And if you added berries, meat, and the three kinds of wild vegetables she’d collected earlier, there would be even more options!

Potato stew, stir-fried potatoes with meat, berry potato chips, vegetable potato pancakes…

“Are the potatoes ready?” Su You cleared her mind of recipes and asked again, just to confirm.

Ever since Yousen had arrived, Su You hadn’t paid much attention to the fields. She only remembered that she’d planted the potatoes around noon on the seventh day, so it had been less than three days since then… But the normal growth cycle for potatoes was five days. Even with the Harmony effect, it only reduced the time by ten hours.

By normal timing, the potatoes shouldn’t have been ready today. But Su You had just given Yousen a big batch of growth-accelerating fertilizer…

“Yes!” When it came to his specialty—farming—Yousen chattered on excitedly. Su You didn’t catch all the details, but she got two main points:

First, the potatoes were indeed ready, with a yield of about 150.

Second, although the fertilizer helped, the potatoes should have needed another two hours to mature. Yousen had used his own abilities to make them ripen a few hours early.

“Great. Plant more potatoes in the freed-up fields. Take the harvested potatoes to the tavern and give them to Meck—he’ll pay you.” Of course, the money wasn’t coming from Meck personally, but from the tavern’s funds.

The tavern hadn’t been open long, but it had only been taking in money, not spending it, so it had accumulated a decent amount. Su You herself also had money, so she didn’t plan to touch the tavern’s funds for now; they’d be used only for buying ingredients and paying wages.

“Yes, ma’am.” With the main news delivered, Yousen still didn’t leave. He pointed toward the creek near the fields, his expression turning a bit odd. “Lord, there’s something I wanted to mention. It might just be my imagination, but I keep feeling like there’s something alive in that creek.”

If it had only happened once or twice, he wouldn’t have thought much of it. But Yousen had heard the sound of something splashing in the water several times now.

Yet, whenever he looked in the direction of the sound, there was nothing there.

This had happened four or five times already—he could hear it, but never see anything.

“What time of day did you hear it? Morning, afternoon, or night?” Su You frowned. Her good mood from the potato harvest was already fading.

Day after day… Would things ever calm down for her?

Couldn’t she just have a few peaceful days?!

The dark creature attacks weren’t even over yet!

“All of the above. The first time was in the morning when I was watering the fields. The second and third times were in the afternoon when I was checking the crops. I even heard it once at night, just after dinner.”

Su You: “……” Great.

For now, Su You couldn’t think of anything in particular that matched this situation. Plus, this data-driven world was a bit different from the original game, so she couldn’t rule out the possibility of a new event.

“For now, stay away from the creek. Use water from the well instead—I’ll build another one if needed.”

(End of chapter)"

"156. Devour

“All right, my lord, don’t worry. I’ll remind the others as well.” Even though he was the only one who usually went near that area, there was always a chance someone else might wander over to check on the crops and run into trouble.

Su You nodded, but after a moment’s thought, she realized that wasn’t enough. In the end, she decided to go to the fields with Yousen.

After leading her there, Yousen planted the potatoes, and once he was done, he loaded up a cart with potatoes and headed off to the tavern.

Su You, meanwhile, checked the stream. As expected, she found nothing out of the ordinary. Then she took out a pile of fences and enclosed the stream.

Technically, the way she’d marked out her territory, the stream was already within her domain, and usually nothing strange would spawn inside the territory… unless the game mechanics had changed, or this odd thing had been there from the very beginning.

But right now, she clearly didn’t have the time or ability to explore the stream, so this would have to wait until after the dark creatures’ attack was over—and until Yue became a novice mage.

With a water mage around, exploring areas with water—especially places almost entirely made up of water—would be a breeze.

…

After finishing all this, Su You went to the quest board, opened up the territory information panel, and upgraded the territory to “Advanced Camp”…

At this point, there were less than twelve hours left on the countdown for the territory upgrade timed quest.

[Congratulations! Sunset Territory has met the upgrade requirements and has been successfully upgraded to Advanced Camp. The upgrade reward has been delivered to the chest in the quest hall.]

There’s even a reward chest?

Looks like there’ll be a reward every time the territory levels up from now on… Su You thought, just as another notification popped up.

[Timed Quest “Develop the Territory” completed. Please submit the quest at the quest board.]

Su You paused, then opened the quest board. She saw that although she hadn’t submitted the quest called “Develop the Territory,” the countdown timer had already stopped… After a few seconds, the timer disappeared completely.

[Develop the Territory] (Completed, ready to submit)

Issuer: Unknown

Quest Objective: Upgrade the territory to Large Camp (1/1)

Quest Reward: Unknown, Territory Reputation

Quest Limit: 120 hours

Failure Penalty: Territory Prosperity -10, Territory Reputation -10, Potential Value Decreased

…

So does that mean for timed quests, as long as you meet the requirements, the countdown stops, and you can submit the quest whenever you want?

Su You wasn’t entirely sure, but for now, the timer really had stopped.

This actually made her hesitate—she’d been rushing to finish the quest, but now she wondered if she should submit it right away.

“I think there were similar timed quests before…” But they weren’t issued by the system, or at least not under the system’s name.

She used to have a good relationship with the elves, so she often received exclusive quests from them, many of which were also timed.

While doing those timed quests, Su You had noticed a pattern: a new timed quest wouldn’t appear until the previous one was submitted.

No one had really paid attention to this refresh mechanic before, and Su You herself only remembered it after thinking about it for a long time.

“Forget it, I’ll hold off on submitting for now.” Since the timer was gone, she wasn’t worried about failing the quest.

But if her guess was right, and the quest board’s timed quests only refresh after the previous one is submitted, then holding off was actually the better choice.

Because the quest board forced you to accept quests, and who knew what weird task the next timed quest would be?

Before leaving the quest board, Su You double-checked the quest to make sure the timer was really gone, and only then did she feel safe enough to go do other things.

By “other things,” she really just meant restocking the arrows she’d used up last night, delivering a potato recipe to Meike, and then sorting through her backpack to see if any of the dark creatures had dropped anything useful…

…

…

Daytime passed quickly. With the combat strength of the previous wave of dark creatures as a reference, Su You spent the day repairing and further strengthening the territory’s defenses.

This time, she reinforced the defenses by adding another ring of stone walls. Now, if the dark creatures wanted to break in, they’d have to destroy the durability of two layers of stone walls before they could get inside.

While the defenses were stronger, it had used up a lot of stone—there were now less than two stacks left in the warehouse.

No one else in the territory had gone out all day—those who could fight were saving their strength for tonight’s dark creature attack, and those who couldn’t fight didn’t dare go out at a time like this.

After all, once the dark creature invasion event was triggered, dark creatures would spawn around the territory 24 hours a day—not just at night. The only difference was the number, their combat strength, and whether or not they would attack proactively.

And so, Sunset Territory faced the second wave of dark creature attacks for the day. As long as they could defend against this one, the event would be over, and the next dark creature invasion wouldn’t happen for at least several dozen days.

Once again, night fell, and everything was shrouded in darkness. Up to this point, the situation was exactly the same as it had been in the early hours of the morning.

With experience from the first attack, everyone was much calmer facing this new horde of dark creatures—even Su You. But what really put her at ease was that she immediately spotted the elite monster in the center of the dark creature swarm.

She didn’t even need to check the stats to know this was clearly a combat-type elite monster. Otherwise, it would have hidden itself instead of standing out in a “center of attention” position.

Still, Su You had to check, since she needed to know its details to plan the attack.

[Elite: Strong Dark Remnant]

HP: 2000/2000

Attack: 50

Defense: 30

Skill:

[Devour]: At intervals, can restore its own HP and enhance its stats by devouring nearby living dark creatures.

…

The moment she saw this skill, Su You immediately ordered everyone to stop attacking the elite monster.

“Don’t attack the tallest, biggest one for now! Focus on killing all the dark creatures around it first!” This thing’s combat power wasn’t actually that high—its only advantage was its large health pool and tankiness.

(End of Chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent and natural English translation of your text:

---

157. The Second Wave of Dark Creatures Attacks

The main challenge with this elite monster isn’t its thick health bar—it just takes longer to kill, but it’s not particularly difficult. The real problem lies in its special ability:

Devour.

It can heal itself and boost its stats by eating nearby living dark creatures. Although Su You didn’t know the exact numbers, she had no intention of letting it use this skill at all.

Since it can only devour living creatures, if they killed all the surrounding dark creatures, it would have nothing left to “eat.”

After hearing Su You’s plan, Duoya and Meike immediately switched their focus to the ordinary dark creatures nearby.

There seemed to be less than twenty dark creatures in this wave, but their stats were noticeably higher than those from the early morning. As a result, Duoya had to use about half again as many arrows to take down a single dark creature compared to before.

This pace was too slow.

Watching the elite monster’s sluggish movements, Su You turned to the two brothers and asked, “Where are the bronze lanterns I gave you?”

There weren’t many dark creatures outside, and this batch was different from the previous one, so the brothers could actually join the fight outside—as long as they brought a light source.

Su You wasn’t sure what exactly would happen at night, but she’d prepared for the possibility that the two of them might need to fight outside.

Although the light source would send the dark creatures into a brief frenzy, it also offered some protection, since dark creatures couldn’t force their way close to the light.

“We’ve got them!”

“Right here!”

The two of them quickly took out the bronze lanterns Su You had given them that morning and hung them at their waists. The glow from the lanterns lit them up clearly.

“Be careful. You don’t need to attack—just drive the other dark creatures away from the elite monster. Got it?” She’d just checked: all the dark creatures were focused on attacking the territory, so their aggro was firmly locked.

Once they stepped outside with the lanterns, as long as they didn’t attack and draw aggro, the dark creatures wouldn’t abandon their assault on the territory to attack them—at least not right away.

“Don’t worry, my lord, we know what to do.” The two brothers already understood from Su You that the big guy could power up by eating other dark creatures, so they knew exactly why she’d arranged things this way.

Their job was to drive away all the dark creatures, so the elite monster couldn’t use its Devour skill. That would give Duoya, Meike, and the arrow towers enough time to clear out the ordinary dark creatures. Once those were gone, they could focus on the elite monster.

Time was tight, so they didn’t waste words and left the territory immediately.

The moment they opened the stone gate, a bunch of dark creatures tried to rush in, taking advantage of the open door. But Su You and Meike had already planned for this—

As soon as the door opened, a wall of fire sprang up between the stone gate and the dark creatures.

The dark creatures tried to charge in, but the instant they touched the flames, they were engulfed and burned. Their howls and roars of pain made them instinctively retreat several steps—no matter how dumb their AI was, they weren’t going to stand there and get roasted.

As soon as the firewall disappeared, the dark creatures surged forward again like a tide, but by then, the stone gate had slammed shut.

Unable to get in, the dark creatures went berserk, attacking the stone gate like trapped beasts. They were just waiting for the moment the gate fell, so they could rush in and snuff out the flames!

…

Lyle and Lake had already made it outside safely. Just as Su You had expected, although the sudden appearance of two “beacons” in the darkness made the dark creatures agitated, not a single one tried to attack them.

And since they were the only sources of light in the darkness, there was no way Duoya, Su You’s arrow towers, or Meike could accidentally hit them—they stood out too much.

Just like that, the two brothers made it to the elite monster’s side without a scratch.

“Roar—”

The elite monster was a bit stronger, but it was still a dark creature, and shared their traits. It hated the light, so Lyle and Lake could clearly feel it: as they approached, the elite monster first turned and roared at them, then shuffled a step away.

Noticing this, the brothers didn’t get any closer—they remembered their mission was to drive dark creatures away from the elite monster, not to control the monster’s movements itself.

All they had to do was act like “bodyguards,” making sure that aside from the two of them, nothing else got close to the elite monster. If they forced their way closer and provoked it, that would be bad.

…

With no other weirdly-skilled elite monsters interfering, this wave of dark creatures was handled smoothly.

The remaining dozen or so dark creatures didn’t even manage to take down half the stone gate’s durability before they were all wiped out, leaving only the elite monster on the field.

After the small fry were dealt with, Lyle and Lake didn’t return to the territory. Instead, they drew their weapons and joined the fight.

During the battle with the elite monster, Duoya got lucky: the fire damage from her Flame Mage set triggered several times.

Su You could clearly see the burning effect on the elite monster, and the monster noticed it too, trying to put out the flames.

But whether it was using the wrong method or the effect simply couldn’t be removed physically, it failed every time. In fact, it wasted several attack opportunities trying.

As melee fighters, Lyle and Lake hacked and smashed at the elite monster. They took some hits, but since the monster was slow, they dodged most of its attacks.

The few blows that did land didn’t do much damage, since both brothers were fully equipped with leather armor—shirts, pants, shoes, and even hats.

All this gear had been crafted by Dory, who now had sewing skills, using materials Duoya hunted in the forest or collected from her traps.

Even without enhancements, this set provided 18 points of defense. But Dory had managed to put together a fully enhanced set, bringing their defense up to a whopping 30 points!

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your provided text:

---

158. Renowned I

Although the two of them split their enhanced and unenhanced gear between them, resulting in a drop in defense, they still each had over twenty points of defense. With that much defense, even an elite monster’s attack would only take off about twenty points of health, maybe even less.

Both of them had over two hundred HP each, which meant they could each take at least ten hits.

Even if they just stood there and let the elite monsters hit them ten times each, that would be more than enough time to kill the monsters twice over. Not to mention, they could dodge attacks… In short, compared to the batch of dark creatures from this morning, this group was laughably easy.

—

140! (Critical hit)

With a critical hit from Duoya, the elite monster slowly collapsed under her slightly stunned gaze. In the end, just like the other dark creatures, it turned into a disgusting puddle of black, sticky sludge, which was then consumed by flames, leaving nothing behind…

…

[System quest ‘Stop the Darkness’ completed. You may submit the quest at the bounty board.]

[Congratulations! Player A1-16 has led Sunset Territory to successfully repel an attack by dark creatures without any casualties. The story of Sunset Territory’s victory over the darkness will now spread in a small area. Territory Aura acquired: ‘Renowned I’.]

[In this dark creature attack event, A1-16’s performance has placed them on four leaderboards—]

[Dark Creature Attack Event – Time Ranking: 17]

[Dark Creature Attack Event – Kill Ranking: 8]

[Dark Creature Attack Event – Damage Taken Ranking: 1]

[Dark Creature Attack Event – Overall Ranking: 1]

…

[Except for the overall ranking, the following rewards apply to the other leaderboards: Top 100 – Wooden Chest; Top 50 – Bronze Chest; Top 30 – Iron Chest; Top 10 – Silver Chest; Top 3 – Gold Chest; 1st place can claim all chest rewards cumulatively.]

[Your efforts have successfully repelled the darkness. The distant shadows tremble and fear your unity and strength, and will not attack the territory again for a while… But darkness will never disappear. Dark creatures will always exist on the continent. They will not give up, but will bide their time, waiting for another chance to snuff out the flame…]

…

Looking at the flood of system messages, Su You felt her head buzzing, as if hundreds of flies were buzzing around her ears.

“Dolly, Yousen, you two help clean up the battlefield. Put everything into the chests.”

“Yue, just like this morning, go heal those two. If you’re low on mana, just do a basic treatment for now.”

“Everyone else, go get some rest.” Su You quickly assigned tasks to everyone, then turned to head for her lord’s manor—she needed a quiet place to process all this information.

But she’d barely taken two steps when she felt someone tugging at her clothes. She turned and saw it was Buguo.

What was she doing here?

Although almost everyone had stayed up tonight—including Wang Yi and Wang Er, who had only temporarily joined the territory to seek shelter and had each volunteered to man an arrow tower—Buguo was not among them.

She was just a teenager. Not only Su You, but everyone else felt she should rest. Defending the territory was a job for adults… More importantly, Buguo didn’t have any combat ability.

If she did have combat skills, Su You wouldn’t have minded letting her join the fight tonight, as long as she could keep her safe.

But clearly, Buguo didn’t see it that way. She tugged at Su You’s sleeve and said, “Is there anything I can help with? I’m really capable!”

Su You was taken aback, then reached out and patted her head. “You go get some rest and recharge. That’ll be a huge help to me.”

She wasn’t just brushing Buguo off—there was another reason. But Buguo didn’t pick up on it. She just thought Su You saw her as a child who couldn’t do anything, so she wasn’t being given any work.

“Lord, you shouldn’t look down on kids. Kids can do a lot too!” Buguo didn’t dodge Su You’s hand, but earnestly protested against ‘child discrimination’.

“What are you talking about? When did I ever look down on kids?” Su You was both amused and exasperated. If only everyone could see Buguo’s stats—her innate skill would make her the target of every major trading house.

Her skill level might not be high, but her talent was!

And she was still young!

Being young meant she was highly adaptable, with lots of room to grow. So being young wasn’t a bad thing—on the contrary, with such high talent, it was a huge advantage!

“What I mean is, get some rest. Starting tomorrow, the territory will be open to outsiders. Lots of people will be coming, including merchants and trade caravans… You get what I’m saying?” Even with skills, social abilities depend on how you use them in the moment.

If you don’t perform well, even a high-level trading skill might lose out to someone with a mid-level one.

Rather than having Buguo waste her energy on trivial tasks, it was better for her to rest up and help Su You make a big profit in a couple of days!

“Is that so?” Buguo wasn’t stupid. She just didn’t understand why Su You was arranging things this way, but now that Su You had explained, she quickly understood and obediently went back to her room to rest.

“Lord, make sure you call me when there’s a deal to be made! I’ll definitely help you fleece those people!” Buguo shouted to Su You before closing her door.

Su You: …Kid, you don’t have to be quite so blunt about it.

Watching Buguo close her door, Su You rubbed her temples and headed toward the lord’s manor.

…

…

“I’ll hold off on submitting the quest for now.” Back in the manor, Su You sat down and began sorting through all the information.

The first message was a prompt that the last system quest on the bounty board had been completed, but Su You wasn’t planning to submit it right away. Otherwise, she would have done it as soon as she got back.

Her reason for waiting was the same as before—she didn’t want too many quests to refresh at once.

Dealing with a monster cage and a forest ruin was already enough for her. There might still be issues at the creek, and with so much piling up, she needed to handle things one at a time.

Besides, once the territory opened up and the population started flowing in, she’d only get busier…

“One thing at a time…” Su You took a sip of water to clear her head, then continued reading.

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

159. The Secret of the Numbers

The second message was about the recent Dark Creature attack. Su You extracted the key information: “Because the attack was repelled without any injuries, a territory aura has been granted.”

This was actually within her expectations. In the previous game, there was also such an aura, obtained in the same way—by repelling a Dark Creature attack with zero casualties.

It absolutely had to be flawless; any casualties at all would disqualify you.

Seeing this, Su You opened the territory information panel to check the effects and duration of this aura—

[Renowned I]: While this aura is active, the territory’s reputation will steadily increase, attracting many visitors. In addition, all social system success rates are boosted, including but not limited to recruitment, trading, bounty tasks, merchant transactions, territory diplomacy, etc. (Duration: 71 hours, 55 minutes, 8 seconds)

Simply put, this is a three-day “promotion aura” and “social aura.” The former continuously raises the territory’s reputation, letting more people know about Sunset Territory and drawing them here. The latter increases the success rate of various social activities.

In short, this is an aura that’s extremely helpful for territory development in the early stages.

It was precisely because she knew about this aura that Su You was willing to give up a bow made from the tendons of a Black-striped Tiger Beast, just to have Yun Li help promote the territory.

Advertising with nothing to promote is indeed useless, but now that the Dark Creature attack was over, Sunset Territory finally had something worth advertising.

And with this aura in effect, Yun Li’s promotional efforts would be much more effective.

...

After checking out the aura, Su You also looked over some other territory information.

[Sunset Territory]

Lord: Su You

Territory Level: Advanced Camp (Can be upgraded to Small Village when population reaches 50 and prosperity reaches 500)

Territory Status: Open (Open territories can attract visitors from everywhere)

Territory Security: 98 (Max 100. The lower the value, the worse the security, and the higher the risk of riots. Stronger combat and defense, and higher resident loyalty, increase security; more unfamiliar visitors and lower loyalty decrease it.)

Territory Social: None

Territory Happiness: Good (From worst to best: Terrible → Poor → Average → Good → Satisfied → Excellent)

Territory Prosperity: 91

Territory Reputation: 23

Territory Population: 11/13

Territory Aura: [Renowned I]

Territory Events:

I: [They have sensed the strength here. Their fear of power has made them retreat. The battle record of this place will intimidate them, and for a while, they will avoid disturbing this place out of fear. But they will never give up. Next time, they will only come back stronger...]

II: [The plants are restless, the beasts agitated. The whole forest has fallen into a strange, gloomy mood. Every night, a mysterious energy radiates from a tall tower, and the area shrouded in this energy seems to be affected in some way...]

...

It was obvious that three new pieces of information had appeared on the panel: [Territory Status], [Territory Security], [Territory Social], and [Territory Happiness].

Territory Status needs no further explanation; it’s just “Open” or “Closed,” as mentioned before.

Territory Security and Territory Social only appear when the territory is set to “Open.”

As for Territory Happiness, this is a special value. It’s determined by the average happiness index of the residents and has a significant impact on their behavior.

When happiness is too low, residents are gloomy every day, and the whole territory falls under a cloud. In this state, all productivity, activity, and efficiency are reduced.

Conversely, if happiness is high, residents are cheerful and get along harmoniously, creating a warm and pleasant environment, which naturally boosts productivity and efficiency.

In a way, this is also to prevent players from recruiting a large number of people at once while ignoring basic development, thinking they can solve everything with sheer numbers.

The more people you have, the harder it is to raise happiness. So for steady development, you have to gradually increase the population, making sure everyone feels happy and has a sense of belonging, rather than recklessly recruiting a dozen, dozens, or even hundreds at a time.

Doing so would just cause the territory’s happiness to collapse completely, and... well, that would be the end of the territory.

There are six happiness levels in total. Normally, most territories are at “Average” or “Good.” These two levels have neither positive nor negative effects—they’re the most balanced state.

If happiness drops to “Terrible” or “Poor,” you get the aforementioned drop in efficiency. If it rises to “Satisfied” or “Excellent,” efficiency increases.

...

Since all this information was the same as before, Su You accepted it easily, quickly reading through everything before focusing on the last, more important piece of information—the rankings.

Before checking the rankings, Su You stared at the code “A1-16” several times.

This wasn’t the first time she’d seen this code. She could guess it belonged to her; the system assigned a code to every human who entered the digital world.

As for what the code was based on, or whether it had any special meaning, that was still unknown.

But Su You believed she’d find out one day...

“Time Ranking, Kill Ranking, Loss Ranking, Comprehensive Ranking.” Su You wanted to open the rankings, but found that she could only see her own ranking and information. All other players were hidden—she could only see their codes, which were very similar to her own “A1-16.”

For example—

[Kill Ranking]

1. B1-11

2. B2-13

3. D1-12

...

1-16

...

Su You couldn’t decipher these codes, but she did notice some patterns. For instance, the first letter was always A, B, C, or D—she never saw any others.

Also, the numbers after the dash never repeated—at least, after checking the entire top 100, she didn’t see any duplicates.

She also noticed that after the dash, there were no single-digit numbers.

In other words, there were -11, -12, -13... all the way up to -100, but she never found -10, -9, -8, and so on.

She had a feeling this wasn’t a coincidence, but intentional.

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

160. Traces of Darkness

Combining the rankings from these four leaderboards and the pattern in the numbering, Su You had a vague guess in her heart.

She suspected that the letters at the front represented the identities they had chosen, while the numbers at the end indicated their rankings.

For example: A, B, and C actually stood for Lord, Warrior, and Merchant, respectively.

These three identities were the only ones in the Sunset Continent with main storylines. The game’s identity introduction interface had described them like this—

Builder (Lord): Specializes in infrastructure, develops territory, builds the royal city.

Adventurer (Warrior): Loves adventure, self-improvement, invincible in the world.

Trader (Merchant): Skilled in trade, develops caravans, richest in the world.

The Lord’s main questline was to build and develop the city, leveling up the territory until it became the top territory on the continent. The Warrior’s main questline was to fight monsters and level up, adventure everywhere, grow stronger, and become the most powerful person in the world. The Merchant’s main questline was to establish caravans, trade far and wide, and become the richest person on the continent.

As for D, she guessed it might represent other identities, because it had been said from the start that there were many, many identities in this game. Without further numbering, it could only mean they were grouped together.

Given that three of the top five on the kill leaderboard had codes starting with ‘B’, Su You reasonably suspected that B stood for Warrior. This was easy to deduce, so she didn’t dwell on it.

Since B was Warrior, and she was A, the Lord, then C must correspond to Merchant.

As for the true meaning of the code ‘A1-16’, Su You boldly interpreted it as: “Ranked first in potential value among human Lords, and sixteenth in potential value among all humans.”

After all, the system itself had said she was the human Lord with the highest potential value. The highest is naturally first, A stands for Lord, and the number 1 naturally means first.

…

After thinking so much, Su You felt she had probably guessed correctly, but then she realized that guessing this didn’t really matter much.

Rather than worrying about this, she might as well calculate how many treasure chests she could get at the mission hall tomorrow.

Seventeenth on the first leaderboard, one iron chest; eighth on another, a silver chest; two first places meant she could get two more of every chest… Wait, that’s not right!

“Except for the comprehensive leaderboard…” The reward for this chest was for all but the comprehensive leaderboard, which meant she was missing out on five treasure chests!

So what’s the point of being first on the comprehensive leaderboard?

Su You rolled her eyes speechlessly, then flopped onto her bed, pulled the covers over herself, and went straight to sleep.

…

…

Day eleven of the digitized world.

People from all the territories surrounding Sunset Territory had heard from various sources that a nearby territory had flawlessly repelled an attack by dark creatures without a single injury…

“Hey, didn’t you tell me yesterday that you thought something was off to the south?”

“So, do you know what happened over there?”

“I just found out myself. This morning I heard from some bounty hunters returning from missions that when they passed by yesterday, they saw traces of dark creatures in that area!”

“You mean… the dark creatures targeted that place?”

“What else? Must be another unlucky territory…”

As the two were discussing, another person nearby overheard and came over, looking a bit puzzled.

“If the territory you’re talking about is the same one I know, then it’s anything but unlucky—it’s actually pretty impressive!”

Although none of them knew each other, gossip is human nature, and no one cared about introductions at a time like this. That wasn’t important.

“Brother, breakfast is on me. Why don’t you tell us more?”

The stranger didn’t stand on ceremony, pulled up a chair, and sat at their table. “Getting targeted by those things isn’t exactly good news, but this territory is no pushover. Not only did they force the dark creatures to retreat again and again, but they didn’t suffer a single casualty… You know, those things are tough to deal with, but killing them can drop all sorts of rare materials.”

In other words, for territories without power, a dark creature attack was a disaster; but for strong territories, these dark creatures were basically ‘delivery boys’ bringing free loot to their door.

The two original discussants were a bit skeptical after hearing this, so one of them asked, “How do you know all this? Don’t tell me…”

The stranger saw they didn’t quite believe him, so he explained further: “You know the Haitian Bounty Group? I’ve got a friend in that group. A few days ago, they took a beast-hunting mission and only got back late last night. I ran into him this morning, and he told me they’d noticed traces of darkness there a day earlier. But when they came back last night, all those traces were gone! Not a single mark left!”

So-called traces of darkness were actually a kind of mark left behind after dark creatures attacked a territory—a means of dark pollution and invasion of the continent.

If the attack went well, the traces would be deep, proving the creatures had been there and won. It was also a declaration of war and provocation against humanity.

If the attack failed, there were two types: ordinary failure and total defeat.

Ordinary failure would still leave traces, marking the spot for future attacks.

But if it was a total defeat, not a single trace would be left, because the creatures knew they couldn’t win and feared the power there, so they wouldn’t dare leave any sign of provocation.

In fact, after most territories were attacked by dark creatures, there would always be some traces left in the area. To avoid the trouble of being marked, territory managers would usually pay to hire the church or light-element mages—who were naturally opposed to darkness—to help erase the traces. But this took a lot of time and money.

“In less than a day, there’s no way that territory could have hired someone to erase the traces. So the only explanation is that the territory is strong enough to have completely repelled the dark creatures, so thoroughly that those things didn’t even dare leave a mark!” As he finished speaking, their noodles were served.

The stranger looked at the two still deep in thought and smiled. “Since you’re treating, I won’t be shy… Oh, and I guarantee everything I said is true. If you don’t believe me, just go check for traces yourself!”

After all, traces of darkness were pretty obvious—there was no way to miss them.

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

161. Regional Bounty

In places tainted by traces of darkness, not only does the soil turn pitch-black as if soaked in ink, but the surrounding plants gradually wither as well. What’s more, all living creatures nearby grow increasingly weak… These are just some of the negative effects brought about by the traces of darkness.

If these traces aren’t dealt with quickly, they will continue to spread outward.

The wider the area affected, the greater the impact. Over time, the land will become a “dead zone”!

That’s why, even though everyone knows it costs a fortune to hire someone to deal with these traces, nobody is stingy about spending the money—some expenses simply can’t be avoided!

That said, this issue affects the entire continent, not just a single territory. Because of this, the church will also take the territory’s actual situation into account when setting prices, rather than charging exorbitant fees. After all, it’s part of their responsibility.

…

Conversations like this have taken place in nearly every territory nearby. When it comes to spreading news the fastest, though, it’s got to be the territory where Yun Li lives.

At first, she’d doubted Su You’s claim that “she could lead her people to repel dark creatures without a single casualty,” and wondered if Su You was just using the incident to boost her own reputation. But as soon as she returned to her territory with her caravan, she overheard several people along the way discussing the matter.

Yun Li, not understanding what had happened, was about to send someone to investigate when she heard yet another piece of news—

“The territory that repelled the dark creatures without any injuries just posted a regional bounty!”

Yun Li: …Lord Su, you certainly move fast.

She’d hurried home as quickly as she could, but before she’d even reached the city gates, the news was already everywhere.

With a sigh, and thinking at least of those bows and arrows worth a gold coin each, she said a few words to some members of her caravan.

“…You guys handle it.”

The caravan members, though unsure why, had always been obedient to their captain’s orders, so they didn’t ask any questions.

Following Yun Li’s instructions, they went to the mission hall and began searching for the regional bounty posted by Sunset Territory.

[Regional Bounty Board]

[Mission Number: 74165]

Mission Issuer: Sunset Territory

Mission Description: The new territory is recruiting people from all walks of life to join, with no restrictions except loyalty to the territory. Those with special skills will receive better treatment. Additionally, Sunset Territory welcomes merchants and caravans…

Mission Item: Map x1 (Map of Sunset Territory)

Mission Reward: None

Bounty Duration: Three days

…

One of the caravan members immediately spotted the newly posted bounty. He squeezed out of the crowd and quietly shared the details with the others.

“Is Lord Su recruiting?” Member A thought about the situation in Sunset Territory and added, “Actually, their planning over there is pretty good, and the lord is decent too. If my family weren’t here, I’d probably want to settle there myself.”

Short-sighted people might think a newly established territory has nothing and would just mean a hard life, but anyone with ambition or vision wouldn’t mind joining a new territory.

After all, new territories need people, and those with ability will be valued more and have greater opportunities to contribute. Once the territory develops, even if someone more capable arrives later, they’ll still be newcomers.

By then, you’ll already have your roots in the territory. Later arrivals may surpass you in ability, but they can’t erase your contributions.

Of course, this all depends on having a good eye for potential—if the territory has no future, you’re just wasting your time.

“Who doesn’t think that way…”

Member B glanced out of the corner of his eye at a few people who thought they hadn’t been noticed as they edged closer. He didn’t call them out for eavesdropping; in fact, he even spoke a little louder: “Think about it, this territory has only just started developing, but they’ve already killed a wild boar, then a tiger—no less, a Black-striped Tiger with impressive combat power… They even managed to recruit a mage!”

“A mage?” Member C looked at them blankly, as if he had no idea there was a mage involved.

“Didn’t you hear that explosion a couple of days ago? That was a mage fighting. Not sure what happened after, but that mage ended up joining the territory… I told you to get out more! You’ve seen that mage plenty of times, haven’t you?”

“Me…? Have I?” Member C looked even more confused, as he had no recollection of any mage.

He did remember the explosion, though—he’d been so startled by the noise that he’d fallen right off his chair.

“It’s the tavern owner!” Member B said, a bit exasperated. “All you ever think about is eating. Didn’t you realize the owner was a mage?”

Member C: “…Honestly, I didn’t.”

Member A: “Did you know the roast meat you’ve been eating lately was cooked by that fire mage using fire magic?”

“?!”

“Seriously?”

“Grilled with fire magic? That’s way too extravagant!”

…

As soon as Member A said this, surprised exclamations erupted all around them… from people they didn’t even know.

These were folks who’d quietly edged closer to eavesdrop after overhearing their conversation.

But what Member A said was so shocking that they forgot they were supposed to be sneaky, and couldn’t help but cry out in surprise.

With their eavesdropping exposed, things got a little awkward for a moment.

The eavesdroppers looked embarrassed, but luckily, the caravan members didn’t seem to mind.

“Sorry, we didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but we were just so curious about that territory that we got caught up listening…” The eavesdroppers all apologized, and the caravan members shook their heads, indicating it was fine.

They really didn’t mind being overheard—in fact…

Member A: “It’s fine. It’s not like it’s a secret.”

Hearing this, the eavesdroppers, who’d been about to leave after apologizing, paused in their tracks.

One middle-aged man pulled a handful of copper coins from his pouch: “Take this as my treat for drinks, to make up for eavesdropping.”

The caravan members exchanged glances, pretended to refuse a bit, then accepted the money.

It was clear the others wanted something from them, and it was obviously related to Sunset Territory. If they didn’t accept, the others would feel awkward about asking further.

“Well, since you’re buying us drinks, we won’t stand on ceremony…”

(End of chapter)"

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

162. Opening the Chests

“All of us are part of a trade caravan. If you ever need anything in the future, just come find us.”

A trade caravan?

No wonder they knew so much detail. It seemed likely they’d been to this territory before, maybe even dealt with the lord directly, which would explain why they were so well-informed!

If that’s the case, then what they said is probably true.

“Well then…” The middle-aged man rubbed his hands together a little awkwardly, his eyes flickering with a complicated emotion. “I just wanted to ask if you could tell me a bit more about that territory you were discussing earlier?”

“To be honest, I originally wanted to join XX Territory, but luck wasn’t on my side. They recruited once before, but now they’re full. I heard it’ll be a long time before they expand again… I have a whole family to look after, and I can’t keep dragging them around with me, so I’m hoping to find a good place to settle down.”

“I see…” Member A nodded in understanding. “No problem. Ask me anything you want to know—I’ll tell you everything I can!”

“I’ve been to quite a few places myself. If you’re really looking for somewhere to settle, I can give you some advice too.”

The two sides fell into a lively Q&A, chatting happily.

Since they hadn’t moved from their spot in the quest hall, more and more people gathered around them as they talked.

The middle-aged man managed to learn a lot about the territory from the caravan members, and seeing the growing crowd, the caravaners realized their mission was pretty much accomplished.

Thanks to the caravan’s efforts, Su You noticed by mid-afternoon that the territory’s reputation had shot up significantly.

It had been at 23 points, but now it was up to 29.

“Captain Yun really is something,” Su You thought, a little impressed.

She didn’t know exactly why the reputation had increased, but she could guess it probably had something to do with Yun Li… Of course, it might not be related to Yun Li at all—it could also be from the regional bounty she’d posted.

The bounty card was a reward from her first system quest, and she’d been holding onto it because she hadn’t found the right time to use it.

Now, with the social bonus aura active, Su You decided to post the regional bounty. This way, she could take advantage of the next couple of days to recruit more people, and also use the opportunity to trade with merchants and caravans, exchanging her money for much-needed supplies.

…

On the first day the bounty was posted—the eleventh day of the datafied world—there were no visitors to the territory.

Not only that, but Wang Yi and Wang Er, who had only stayed to save their own skins, also left that day.

As for the other traveler, he’d already left with Yun Li and the caravan, so he was long gone.

With those two gone, the population of the territory dropped from eleven back down to nine… But as luck would have it, not long after they left, the tavern’s recruitment refreshed.

Before heading to the tavern to recruit new NPCs, Su You stopped by the quest hall, planning to open up the pile of treasure chests she’d accumulated and see if there was anything good inside.

There were seven chests in total: one wooden chest, one bronze chest, two iron chests, two silver chests, and one gold chest.

None of the chests were very large, but with so many of them, they nearly filled up the cabinets behind the front desk in the quest hall.

“Let’s test my luck first,” Su You thought, pulling out the wooden chest at the bottom.

The moment she opened it and saw the familiar contents, Su You couldn’t help but tug at the corner of her mouth in exasperation.

[Obtained: Basic Wood Pack x1, Basic Stone Pack x1, Basic Fiber Pack x1, Animal Hide x10, Random Seed Pack x5]

The wood, stone, and fiber packs were collectively known as the three basic resource packs.

The Basic Wood Pack gave 100 wood when used; the Basic Stone Pack gave 100 stone; and since fiber was usually needed in larger quantities, the Basic Fiber Pack gave 1,000 fiber scraps.

All in all, this wooden chest just provided basic resources… Not a lot, but better than nothing.

Still, the animal hides and random seed packs were decent.

Thanks to Dolly, animal hides were always in short supply. Doya was skilled, but hunting depended on luck—if there were no animals around, even the best hunter couldn’t do anything.

As for the random seed packs, they could help diversify the crops in the territory… assuming she didn’t get duplicates.

[Random Seed Pack]

Category: Special

Quality: None

Description: Use to obtain a random plantable seed. High chance of white-quality seeds, small chance of green-quality, and a very small chance of blue-quality or higher.

Looking at the five palm-sized cloth pouches, Su You didn’t hesitate and untied the strings—

[Obtained: Wheat Seed x1]

[Obtained: Corn Seed x1]

[Obtained: Cotton Seed x1]

[Obtained: Pasture Grass Seed x1]

Su You: …Great.

Four seed packs, three duplicates, and the only new one was pasture grass, which wasn’t even useful.

Pasture Grass: A plant used to feed herbivorous animals.

The key point: humans can’t eat it, and aside from being made into “grass feed,” it couldn’t be used for anything else.

Looking at the last seed pack in her hand, Su You didn’t hold out much hope… She was already used to bad luck—she wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be a berry seed or something equally useless.

So, when she untied the string on the last random seed pack, she received a notification—

[Obtained: Spice Seed x1]

Su You: Well, that’s actually pretty good.

It really was! She didn’t get a duplicate!

Although, to be fair, it wasn’t especially useful either.

“Oh well, I’ll give it to Meike—he’ll probably like it,” Su You muttered, tossing the seed into her backpack.

Here, “spice seed” didn’t mean perfume or incense, but “seasoning.”

On Sunset Continent, seasonings weren’t as varied as oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea. Even the spices she’d bought from the caravan were actually just the fruit of this spice plant, ground into powder.

The only real benefit to having this seed was that they’d never have to buy seasoning again—they could produce their own.

…Forget it, no point in trying to comfort herself. It was basically useless. A few silver coins could buy enough seasoning to last for decades—what big use could it possibly have?

…

After opening the wooden chest, Su You felt she could pretty much guess what would be in the other chests.

(End of chapter)"

"163. Space Pouch

Inside the copper chests, Su You found some copper ore, marble, cotton, and some copper ore slag.

From the two iron chests, Su You got some iron ore, glass, clay, wooden planks, stone slabs, fabric, and some iron ore slag.

Just as Su You had expected, all the items from these first three types of chests were basic materials—nothing worth mentioning.

Since there were quite a lot of materials, Su You could only carry these along with the remaining three chests to the warehouse.

She planned to open the last two silver chests and the one gold chest inside the warehouse.

Silver chests were at least the second-best kind, so when Su You opened the first silver chest, she finally saw something that wasn’t just a basic material.

[Intermediate Blacksmith Skill Book]

Category: Skill Book

Quality: Blue

Description: After learning, instantly raises blacksmithing skill to intermediate level.

Looking at the skill book, Su You nodded in satisfaction. She rummaged through the now-opened silver chest and found that, aside from a pile of miscellaneous basic materials, there was nothing else inside.

“…So what’s the point of having so many different chests? Aren’t the contents basically the same?” Su You was genuinely speechless.

She’d thought the silver chest would have something good, but in the end, it was just this one skill book—and only an intermediate one at that. And then… nothing?

After confirming there was nothing else in the chest, Su You opened the second silver chest.

Her luck was a bit better with the second silver chest: it also contained skill books, but this time there were two.

One was an intermediate farming skill book, which would be perfect for Yousen; the other was a beginner fishing skill book—not particularly useful, but better than nothing.

Besides the two skill books, Su You also got a non-duplicate building card: a Quarry card.

[Quarry] (Can be fully dismantled and recovered)

Category: Resource Building

Cost: Unknown (Unlocks after learning the “Quarry” blueprint)

Description: The quarry can automatically link to the territory warehouse. Stone (including regular stone, marble, sandstone, etc.) and ore stored in the quarry will be automatically transferred to the territory warehouse. This feature can be toggled on or off. If the warehouse is full, resources will be temporarily stored in the quarry’s own storage, which has 100 slots and a stack limit of 100 per slot, and only accepts stone-type resources.

…

Previously, there was a lumber mill, and now there’s a quarry. With these two buildings, the territory’s resource collection speed will only get faster and faster… Su You was even more satisfied with the quarry than she was with the intermediate farming skill book.

Compared to the previous chests, Su You would rate this one an 85 out of 100.

“The last one… the gold chest.” Before opening it, Su You hesitated, because this gold chest looked… pretty valuable.

Here’s the thing: wooden chests are made of pure wood, copper chests are pure copper, so naturally, gold chests are made of pure gold.

But once a chest is opened, it disappears instantly, so she wouldn’t have a chance to do anything with it. Su You was now debating whether to melt the gold chest down to make gold coins, or to try her luck opening it.

You have to understand, even though the chest isn’t that big, gold coins aren’t that big either—about the size of an old one-yuan coin. This one gold chest could be melted down into at least several hundred gold coins!

If an NPC with a high blacksmithing skill did the smelting, maybe they could extract even more gold!

That’s the beauty of a high-freedom game—if you can think of it, you can do it.

Of course, the gold chest could also contain something really valuable, maybe even worth more than a few hundred gold coins, but Su You really didn’t trust her luck…

Just as Su You was struggling with her decision, someone appeared at the warehouse door, holding a bundle of things, and knocked.

“Is the Lord here? I’d like to show you something.”

The only one who called Su You “my lord” was Dolly.

Su You didn’t know what she wanted, but she put the chest aside and went to open the door.

The moment she opened the door, Su You saw Dolly holding a big pile of things that looked like waist pouches. If she guessed right, this must be what Dolly wanted to show her.

Before Su You could get a good look, Dolly started explaining: “This is a pouch that can hold things, but not in the ordinary way—it’s more like a wooden cart…”

A wooden cart?

Su You immediately understood what she meant, and picked up one of the pouches to check its information.

[Level 1 Space Pouch] (Can be upgraded with materials)

Category: Item

Quality: Green

Description: A backpack made from space stones, usable by anyone. Has three slots. Except for tools and special items, all items have a stack limit of 10. (Note: No carrying limit, but only one space pouch per person can benefit from the weightless effect. Items in extra pouches will still add significant weight, and the weight increase is not 1:1. Use with caution.)

Usable by anyone… doesn’t that mean even NPCs can use it?

Three slots might be a bit small, but that doesn’t diminish how powerful this space pouch is—especially since it can be upgraded!

The only drawback is that basically everyone can only carry one; carrying more makes them too heavy to lift.

Extra pouches can still store items, but the weight remains, and it’s not a simple 1:1 increase… meaning you might put in a single stone, but when you pick it up, it feels as heavy as a mountain.

This is probably to prevent people from exploiting loopholes, and Su You could understand the reasoning.

Still, what she cared about most was where this space pouch came from.

“Did you make this?” Su You couldn’t think of any other explanation.

But she’d never heard of a space pouch before, so it was probably a newly added item.

Hearing Su You’s question, Dolly nodded. “Yes… here’s what happened: you asked me to help organize the chests, and yesterday while I was sorting, I found a few recipes pressed under some stones in the corner.”

And one of those recipes was for the “Space Pouch.”

Recipes for special items like this are usually extremely rare, but somehow this precious thing had been left forgotten in a corner. If Dolly hadn’t been so careful, it probably would have been thrown out as trash.

(End of chapter)"