Chapter 12

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

By the time Tang Yu was done, the sky had gone completely dark.

“Beepbeep! Two hundred and thirteen units of usable Wood have been detected.

“Five hundred and forty-nine units of usable Stone have been detected.

“One hundred and ninety-eight units of usable Iron have been detected.

“Five hundred and thirty-five units of Origin Crystal have been detected.”

Tang Yu smiled. With these resources, he could choose to build either the workshop or the market.

He would have half of the four core buildings.

Standing in the clearing behind the castle, he could see the lights from the nearby castle shining brightly in the darkness. But no demonized beasts were drawn over, as all of the demonized beasts in the surrounding area had been cleaned out over the last two days. There were few demonized beasts left across the entire vacation villa, and he hadn’t seen a red dot on his domain map the entire day.

After some thought, Tang Yu decided to build the workshop first.

Both the market and workshop were extremely useful, but only the workshop could be immediately useful once it was built. As for the market… Tang Yu would venture to guess that with the paltry number of Origin Crystals he had, he didn’t have the money to build a market!

Opening the building menu and browsing to the core building menu, he chose to build the workshop.

“Ding dong! Constructing the workshop costs five hundred units of Origin Crystal, one hundred units of Stone, and one hundred units of Iron. Confirm, Yes/No?”

“Confirm!”

Countless materials flew up from the piles of trash around him, floating in the air. The Origin Crystals in his pocket dissolved into dim lights, a dragon made of fireflies that strung together all of the various materials.

Soon, a building that was five meters high and covered an area of two hundred square meters appeared before Tang Yu.

Though this was his second time witnessing such a thing, Tang Yu still couldn’t help but sigh in wonder at this incomparable power. Where had this system come from? While this thing could speak into his mind, he couldn’t truly communicate with it. He mostly owed the lack of many hindrances with using it to his experience playing the game before the apocalypse.

But the system in reality still had to differ from the system in the game. With the tavern, Tang Yu had already noticed something different from the game. In the future, he could no longer blindly rely on past experience, and there were also some buildings that he had never built in the game. When the time came, he would be completely in the dark.

He shook his head. These things were too far off in the future. Developing a domain was far more difficult in reality than in a game. At the very least, obtaining resources and Origin Crystals in the game was much faster than in reality.

And it wasn’t like he had anything to be unhappy about.

There was nothing special about the workshop from the outside. It appeared like an ordinary workshop from before the apocalypse. Just like the tavern, it was very ordinary, not particularly shabby but also not as luxurious as the castle. It was like everything had been downgraded.

Tang Yu curiously walked into the workshop.

The workshop was entirely closed off, without any windows. It was only when he opened the door and walked inside that he realized that the workshop was lit. The walls and floor were all the same color, and the place was completely empty save for a giant black box in the center.

The black box was square and appeared to be wrapped in a black outer shell. There were openings on the two ends of the box, and after walking around it, Tang Yu finally found an operation panel.

…Probably.

Tang Yu inspected the workshop’s description. It was much simpler than the tavern’s. One simply needed to place materials in the feeding inlet, use the operation panel, and then take the equipment from the outlet.

A Level 1 workshop had the most basic of blueprints, including the basic weapons for the various professions: the basic sword, the basic wand, the basic gun, the basic dagger, and the basic hammer. With regards to defensive equipment, there was light armor, heavy armor, leather armor, and robes.

Besides weaponry and armor, the most important category was the rune category.

Runes were special symbols. Once engraved with Origin Energy, they could be imbued with special powers. Even the most ordinary sharpening rune, when engraved on an ordinary sword, could allow the sword to slice through iron like it was mud.

While the blueprints the Level 1 workshop came with were rather ordinary, it allowed the ability to engrave a single rune, significantly boosting the power of a set of equipment.

In addition, the basic blueprints provided by the Level 1 workshop included several of the most basic runes.

• A basic sharpening rune that could give a minor boost to a weapon’s sharpness.

• A basic magic rune that could give a minor boost to a magic user’s power.

• A basic armor rune that could give a minor boost to an equipment’s defensive abilities.

There weren’t many blueprints, but all the essentials were there.

So long as he had enough material, he could produce a complete set of equipment. Even though this was just the basic new-player equipment in the game, Tang Yu felt that in reality, it would leave things like alloy weapons and stab-resistant armor in the dust.

The material it took to construct equipment was basically the same as the materials needed for constructing buildings: Iron and Origin Crystals. If producing armor, some Fur would be needed, like the fur from demonized beasts.

There happened to be some building materials left, and he had also collected quite a lot of demonized beast fur over the last few days. With no place to use them, they had been placed together in a rather foul-smelling pile.

Tang Yu placed the materials in the inlet and used the operation panel to select the equipment he wanted.

Operation was mindless and simple.

[Producing a basic sharpening rune costs five units of Origin Crystal.]

[Producing a basic magic rune costs five units of Origin Crystal.]

[Producing a basic sword costs five units of Iron, five units of Origin Crystal, and one basic sharpening rune.]

[Producing a basic wand costs five units of Wood, five units of Origin Crystal, and one basic magic rune.]

[Producing a basic armor rune…]

[…]

…

Small shelters would go totally dark at night, but in the Lindong Shelter, many places were still lit up.

Wang Tai, dressed as an ordinary survivor, was watching people walk past, some of them Awakened with excellent equipment, and he internally convulsed with reluctance.

He had once been a shelter chief with several dozen Awakened under his command and countless resources. But now? He couldn’t even compare to some of the mercenaries of the Lindong Shelter!

Just fleeing from the demon flood had lost him more than half of the ten-some subordinates he had fled with. By the time he had stumbled into Lindong, he only had two subordinates left. The other elite mercenary teams had five or six Awakened, all of them with guns and other weapons. He couldn’t get men or weapons even if he wanted them, and as for the Origin Crystals that were extremely valuable in Lindong and often used as currency, in his haste, he had left them back at the shelter.

The shelter had already been wiped out by the demon flood, and he was incapable of setting up another shelter. But if he could get his hands on those Origin Crystals he had hidden in the villa, he still had an opportunity to stage a comeback. However, having just been through the dangers of the wilderness, Wang Tai knew that he and his two subordinates would probably die before they made it back to the vacation villa. Moreover, now that they were in Lindong, if he became destitute, even his two remaining subordinates might leave him.

Wang Tai’s face shifted between a variety of emotions.

At this moment, a middle-aged man with a very ordinary face walked over, upon which a flattering smile immediately appeared on Wang Tai’s face.

The middle-aged man was emotionless as he indifferently said, “The boss has agreed to your proposal. We set out tomorrow at daybreak. I will lead the team. I hope that what you say is true, or else… I am sure you know what will happen.”

Rather than displeased, Wang Tai was delighted to hear this. “Of course, of course. How would I dare to deceive Chief Lin? But I will have to rely on Captain Han tomorrow.”

Han Jing glanced at him. “No problem.” He left.

As Wang Tai watched Han Jing leave, he unclenched his balled fist.

With his strength, he would never make it back to the vacation villa. But if he had someone else to rely on, the situation would be different. Fortunately, in escaping, he had made an important discovery. With this intelligence report, he had been able to establish a small relationship with Chief Lin, who was a big boss that was in the top three of the power hierarchy of Lindong!

This time, in order to verify the intelligence report, Chief Lin had dispatched Han Jing, who was a Tier 3 Awakened, almost at Tier 4, and his team of experts. With this team, getting to the vacation villa was almost a sure thing. No matter how many demonized beasts still lingered there after the demon flood had passed, or what sort of special situations they encountered along the road, they would all be crushed with absolute strength.

Once the intelligence report was verified, he would finally be able to establish friendly relations with Chief Lin, which would give him a backer in Lindong. Moreover, on his return to the vacation villa, he could secretly take the Origin Crystals he had hidden and use them as his start-up capital in Lindong.

He still had a chance to stage a comeback!