Chapter 10

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

The next day, the weather was clear and fine.

Tang Yu stretched and walked out of the castle. There was another guest in the castle last night, and the castle seemed much more lived in.

After breakfast, Tang Yu and Yilian came to the small garden in front of the castle.

Yilian was wearing a rice-yellow dress with a long skirt. The long skirt lightly drifted in the wind, imbued with the energy of a young maiden in spring.

Tang Yu had found the clothes after searching all night. After all, he was no expert in women’s clothes, and the castle naturally didn’t have any clothes that women normally wore. After taking a bath, Yilian had only been able to find a jacket to wear on the shelf, and even now, Tang Yu couldn’t get that image from last night out of his mind.

Though the summoning result had taken him by surprise, Tang Yu had not forgotten why he had summoned Yilian in the first place.

This was his first follower, an ally that would provide him the greatest assistance.

An A-grade Wizard!

“Did you rest well last night?”

Yilian softly grunted.

She would have never been able to imagine such a life in the past. By now, she was ready for anything.

Soon, Yilian complied with her Overlord’s order and displayed her abilities.

She had learned a total of two spells from that ragged magic book.

One was Icicle and the other was Hailstorm.

As she raised her hand, an icicle formed in her hand and shot out, punching through a distant tree trunk. Icy blue frost crept out from the wound and quickly turned the entire tree into ice.

Tang Yu observed.

Yilian’s current level of strength was at about the peak of a Tier 2 Awakened, which was incredibly rare. And from the contract, Tang Yu had also obtained a simple description of Yilian and knew that she had lived a hard life. Although she had awakened three years ago, Yilian had never been taught magic in a systematic way. Moreover, the world she had lived in did not have anything like leveling up by killing monsters. Strength was obtained through meditation.

Tang Yu had no idea how difficult it would be to reach this level of strength through a meditation method she had developed all on her own, but he knew that it was difficult.

This strength naturally couldn’t compare to that of Number One or Number Two, but Wizards had their own advantages. After all, Number One and Number Two were automatons, and no matter how intelligent they were, they could still only be used as weapons. But Yilian was a living human with A-grade aptitude. She had limitless potential.

Tang Yu speculated that it was precisely because of Yilian’s high aptitude that she had such an affinity with the ice element, that her skin did not have the roughness and tanning from living a hard life. On the contrary, the elements had constantly improved her condition, making her skin as smooth and translucent as crystal.

…

On the other side, Chen Haiping’s group had woken up early in the morning and were getting ready to make some porridge.

In the apocalypse, for ordinary survivors, waking up early was quite a luxury. In any case, ordinary survivors were never able to eat their fill, and there was no such thing as breakfast. Rather than dealing with their hunger, it would be better to sleep a little longer. After all, while in their dreams, they wouldn’t feel their hunger.

But today, they all woke up early with drooling mouths. It was because Tang Yu had given them a lot of food yesterday, and of many different kinds. They could eat porridge and even have it with some dried meat and pickled vegetables. This was a true blessing!

While they had been previously hiding in the freezer where food had been stockpiled, only ordinary rice had been stored there. Moreover, they had rushed to hide inside there without any sort of tools, so it had been quite a feat that they hadn’t starved to death.

But today… they could have a bowl of rice porridge. One of the survivors patted his belly, a satisfied look on his face. “It’s just a bowl of rice porridge, so why do I feel so content?”

“‘Cause you’re fat,” one of his companions said, a look of disdain in his eyes. “Fat people are easily satisfied.”

“Nonsense! Just who was the one who almost shoved their face into the bowl while eating!?”

The group began to argue, but none of them seemed angry.

Only those with energy had the leisure to joke around. As for the Awakened, Chen Haiping, though he had been able to eat his fill, the fact that he wasn’t a close subordinate of Chief Wang Tai meant that the food he had been able to eat every day couldn’t compare to what he was having now.

With something to compare against, they realized just how precious this sort of life was.

Chen Haiping led the survivors to Villa No. 3. Farther ahead was a forbidden zone. Tang Yu had warned them yesterday that the innermost area was forbidden from entry. They naturally wouldn’t be driven by curiosity to explore it.

In the apocalypse, it was a truth that curiosity was lethal.

“Mister Tang still isn’t here?”

“What Mister Tang? Call him ‘Chief Tang’! Starting today, we’re working for Chief Tang. If we work a little harder, given how generous Chief Tang is, he’ll definitely treat us well. If Chief Tang really can build up a shelter, then we’ll even be the founding members.” 

Last night, Tang Yu had already discussed with them what work they would do. It would just be transporting materials, and while it was physical labor, there was no danger, so there was no better job in the apocalypse. The rewards had also been brought up yesterday. Besides food, he would also provide necessary items for daily life. This was already very generous.

They had previously been hesitant, but they had made up their minds now. If they worked hard under Tang Yu, their lives would completely change. Although they still felt that the hope of building a shelter was minimal, no one was saying that Tang Yu was overestimating himself. In any case, they couldn’t leave this place, and if the shelter were actually built, Tang Yu was so generous that they would certainly live better lives than they were living now. 

With this thought in mind, they were anxious to get to work.

“Chief Tang is coming!” someone shouted.

They saw Tang Yu approaching, wearing exercise clothes and carrying a dagger on his waist. Behind him was Number One, which looked the same as it did yesterday.

Suddenly, they spotted Yilian following right behind Tang Yu and froze.

Yilian was wearing the rice-yellow dress and that loose-fitting jacket with a hood. Something like ‘too hot’ didn’t exist for Yilian. On the contrary, living in the slums had made her accustomed to concealing herself, but not even that jacket could completely conceal her.

The survivors were struck dumb, and instantly lowered their heads.

They might have regarded the delicate Yilian as a fragile flower vase, but Chen Haiping could sense some mysterious energy on her.

This energy was similar to an Awakened’s, but it was also somewhat different.

Chen Haiping shook his head and put the matter aside. He came forward to discuss the plans for today.

Plush! Whoosh!

Chen Haiping heard a strange sound and looked up in surprise.

A dark cloud was approaching out of the blue sky. Focusing his vision, he realized that it wasn’t a dark cloud, but countless flying demonized beasts gathered together in a frightening horde.

“Demonized Sparrows!” Chen Haiping blurted out.

These creatures were sparrows native to Earth that had been demonized by the red mist. They were some of the lowest demonized beasts, even weaker than Steel Rats.

But he turned even more nervous. While Demonized Sparrows were individually weak, they would travel together in massive flocks. At a glance, Chen Haiping estimated that there could be as many as one hundred in that flock. More importantly, these demonized beasts could fly!

This was what Chen Haiping was worried about. While the armored expert was powerful, he couldn’t fly and he didn’t have any large-scale killing techniques. He wouldn’t be able to exert much of his strength against this flock of Demonized Sparrows.

This was very dangerous.

In the blink of an eye, the flock of Demonized Sparrows had arrived over the villa area. They had already noticed the humans and plunged downward as a black cloud.

Only fleeing into a sturdy room could escape this, but the flying demonized beasts moved so quickly that escape was impossible.

“Is there really nothing to be done…”

Chen Haiping used his pistol to kill two of the Demonized Sparrows, but it did negligible damage to the flock, and his heart sank.

Tang Yu noticed this, and his eyes shone.

He had already arranged the moving team’s work for the day. Together with Yilian as a key member of his force, the domain would undoubtedly develop much more quickly. However, the key to building the second core building today was still Origin Crystals.

And now, these Demonized Sparrows had delivered themselves to his doorstep. So cute! These Demonized Sparrows were making an enormous contribution to his domain, and he would engrave their deeds on his heart.

Behind him, Yilian stretched out a fair hand, and white mist began to congeal into frost.