Chapter 105: Chapter 105

“He’s a professor from the Imperial Capital, specializing in geology and mineral exploration. He and his wife were only here in Binhai visiting relatives when the apocalypse hit, so they got stuck here. It’s been tough just to fill their stomachs since then, but now it looks like he’s about to hit it big…”

Mu Ying’s eyebrows rose slightly when she overheard this. She hadn’t realized there was such talent in her territory.

She made a mental note about this Professor Su, planning to keep an eye on him in the future.

By now, there were fewer people at the bulletin board, so Mu Ying went over and picked up an ID badge.

“See? It’s not her. What kind of lord would come and pick up one of these generic ID badges?”

“Don’t be so sure. I heard she was one of the first people to show up in this territory. If she wasn’t the lord, how could a high school girl who hasn’t even graduated yet be ranked number one?”

“Maybe you’ve never seen her in action. What, you look down on women? She’s got talent and brains. Honestly, you’re just being willfully blind to other people’s strengths—how ugly!”

“Heh, whose side are you on? Do you even know her, or are you just defending her for no reason?”

“I’m not on anyone’s side. Hmph, can’t be bothered to argue with you!”

“Hey, wait up…”

Mu Ying weighed the dark brown ID badge in her hand. The two people muttering just now clearly didn’t realize what high perception from a divine class meant—she’d heard every word, loud and clear.

Looks like her identity won’t stay hidden for much longer! Quite a few people are suspicious, but no one has any proof, so it’s all just speculation for now.

Still, it seems that the times she showed off her combat power in front of others have, by sheer luck, discouraged some people from getting any funny ideas. That was an unexpected bonus.

Mu Ying wandered around the territory, eavesdropping on plenty of conversations. Most people were satisfied and excited about today’s new features. There were lots of guesses about the lord’s identity, but surprisingly few people actually trying to find out who the lord was.

Satisfied, she returned to her treehouse and summoned the player’s handbook, planning to check the public chat section of the forum for news and locations of nearby territories, so she could figure out where to build roads and how long they should be.

But as soon as she opened the forum, a trending live thread caught her eye.

The thread was titled: “Let’s Spill the Tea on Our Territory Lords!”

Mu Ying had thought there would be lots of territories with lords, but when she clicked in, she couldn’t help feeling a bit helpless—she’d ended up reading gossip about herself.

Original poster: “I’m a resident of Qingshan Village. Until today, I didn’t even know that I, a model villager who pays my entrance fee and rent every day, was only a temporary resident. Seeing the benefits for official residents made me tear up with longing.

Dear hidden village chief, please have mercy! I don’t dare dream of being a star-rated villager, but can’t I at least become an official one? If not, could you at least post more territory tasks? I’m still trying to save up contribution points! Every day I’m not official is another day I have to pay entrance fees—if you round it up, I’m losing money every day!

It’s obvious our village chief is a doer, working hard to solve everyone’s employment issues. She must be a beautiful, kind, amazing person.

I’ve praised you so much—village chief, won’t you notice me?”

1st reply: “Thanks for the invite, but no thanks, hahaha!”

2nd reply: “So the OP just lured us in for nothing? You don’t even know who your own lord is—what’s there to spill?”

3rd reply: “Sorry, what’s a temporary resident?”

4th reply: “Answering above: It’s a new thing in Qingshan Village today. Search ‘Analysis of Qingshan Village’s Seven Bulletin Boards’ for details.”

5th reply: “What a suck-up, ugh~”

6th reply: “Is this the place with entrance fees half as cheap as anywhere else, hemostatic herbs everywhere, a public vegetable garden, dreamy treehouses, and those cute mushroom people who paid someone to make a movie at the original Qingshan camp? That Qingshan Village? Ahhh, I want to go!”

7th reply: “Me too!”

8th reply: “Same here.”

…

An hour later, Mu Ying finally stopped scrolling. The players’ banter online was just too entertaining—she’d gotten completely sucked in.

After reading a ton of posts about her own camp, Mu Ying realized her territory was actually quite popular.

There were very few territories with lords—most were unclaimed.

All these territories followed a fixed template for their facilities. From what Mu Ying could tell online, these were probably the blueprint templates available in the design menu. Although the styles were different from Deep Blue Star and looked fresh at first glance, once people discussed them on the forum, it became clear that many territories were just copy-paste jobs—even the street layouts were identical.

In contrast, the territories with unique styles and strong personal touches really stood out. Even if they weren’t as organized or as big at first, or lacked shops, they developed at a remarkable pace.

Someone had already compiled information about these territories. Within China, there were four known ones:

Ling Tian Territory in the north, Luo Xia Camp in the west, Fei Hong Territory on the southwestern border, and Qingshan Territory on the southeast coast. Of these, only Luo Xia was still at camp level; the others had already reached village level.

Among the four, Ling Tian Territory was on the outskirts of the former imperial capital, run by an official lord and basically under government control.

Ling Tian Territory didn’t charge entrance fees, and had the largest area and population of the four, but living standards were the worst. There were hardly any special facilities—most people lived in makeshift shelters. To protect more people, most of the territory’s income was spent on expanding its area and upgrading its defensive shield."

"The Luoxia Territory doesn’t charge an entrance fee either, but only a handful of people recognized by the lord are allowed in. It’s the smallest of the four camps, more like a private estate.

Feihong Territory’s lord is a merchant. The entrance fee is the same as the unclaimed camps, and the facilities are quite complete. It’s the most prosperous of the four, but rumor has it the lord is extremely powerful and rules with an iron fist.

Then there’s Muying’s territory, known as the most mysterious of all. It’s located in the small city of Binhai, and although it’s second in population among the four, the strange thing is that more than half of its inhabitants aren’t even human.

Yet, the most popular territory is actually Qingshan. The entrance fee is low, the internal facilities are well-developed, and most importantly, no one has ever starved to death there. The atmosphere is great too. In other places, any vegetables planted outside would be stolen before they ripen, but here, the public vegetable gardens are left untouched. It’s safe to say this is the happiest camp for its residents.

Now, with the introduction of identity cards and news that the quarry camp is recruiting, even more people are envious.

Muying couldn’t help but smile proudly when she saw these analyses and praise online. Once the roads are open, her territory surely won’t have any trouble attracting people.

She then searched for information about territories around Binhai City. There were two nearby: one was Linglong Gorge Camp, about fifty kilometers north of Binhai, and the other was Chun’an Camp, about forty kilometers south, separated by half of the Qingshan Forest.

Muying decided to check out Linglong Gorge Camp tonight.

Compared to Chun’an Camp, Linglong Gorge was a bit farther, but the roads were better.

Between Qingshan Town and Linglong Gorge lay Binhai City. Although the intricate web of roads from before the apocalypse was gone, the land was still there—flatter than elsewhere and mostly free of obstacles.

But between Chun’an County and Qingshan Town was half of the Qingshan Forest, filled with wild beasts and monsters, not to mention countless trees blocking the way. Even if you tried to follow the old roads, you couldn’t go in a straight line, so the actual distance was well over fifty kilometers.

Muying opened her window and looked at the sky. It seemed there was still some time before dark.

She thought of the petrified lizard corpse in her storage pouch—this was a good time to visit Copper Coin 559.

“Petrified lizard? That’s a real treasure!” Copper Coin 559’s eyes lit up. God knows how long it had been since he’d gotten anything good—just ordinary beast bones and hides every day, boring as hell.

“You heard about what happened in the territory today, right? There’s a group of petrified lizards in the quarry camp’s rocky forest. Name your price, and I’ll see what I can bring back after the hunt,” Muying said, half-jokingly.

“The most valuable part of a petrified lizard is its blood. The freshest blood, collected within an hour of death, is best. If you can’t manage that, sprinkle some fine lime powder on it and it’ll keep for about a week.

“If you smear fresh petrified lizard blood on your eyelids, you can resist their petrifying gaze. I’ll pay fifty copper coins per liter for the blood.

“Then there are the eyes—one silver coin each for intact ones.

“I’ll also buy the stone spikes from their bodies, one copper coin per jin…”