After everyone left to do their assigned job Cheng Yang opened up the System Panel of the Territory Altar. The number territory Experience Fragments had reached 311 after the many battles. This number would quickly decrease since Cheng Yang had a use for them right now.
Cheng Yang then moved towards the Mage Statue and pulled up its System Panel. In fact, all of the class change statues had System Panels.
Mage Statue
Phoenix Village
Low Grade
7/20
Research
Body Strengthening Mana Flow (Low Grade): Increase HP by 20% Cost: 100 Time: 6 hoursExtra Mana Node (Low Grade): Increase Mana by 20% Cost: 100 Time: 6 hours Ambient Mana Gathering (Low Grade): Increase Magic Attack by 20% Cost: 100 Time: 6 hours Passive Ironskin (Low Grade): Increase Physical Defense by 20% Cost: 100 Time: 6 hours Mental State Training (Low Grade): Increase Magic Defense by 20% Cost: 100 Time: 6 hoursIn order to level up Phoenix Village to a Standard Grade Village Cheng Yang needed to level up all of the class change statues. Additionally, to upgrade the Mage statue all of the Low Grade research must be completed. Each statues had similar research options, the only difference being the attributes the research set focused on.
Funding all of this research wasn’t particularly difficult but it was a time consuming pursuit. In order to upgrade all the statues to Standard Grade it would take 2000 Experience Fragments. Although that may not seem like a lot since they had gained nearly 400 Experience Fragments in an hour this was only because of god’s trial.
Under normal circumstances the respawn rate around territories is lower and they aren’t attacked by small groups of monsters very often. So, in order to obtain a large number of Experience Fragments in a short amount of time you need to go farther than one kilometer from the Territory Altar.
However, Cheng Yang did not mind the difficulty of creating a strong territory since when it was complete any random soldier from a territory would be able to compete with an elite that obtained a class in a main city. This was the incentive god had given humanity to push out past the main cities safe zones.
Cheng Yang did not hesitate to research the Extra Mana Node. When he did the System Panel greyed out causing Cheng Yang to smile. When doing research the class change statue would be unavailable for the research period but when it finished he would be even more powerful.
That was the advantage Cheng Yang gained by claiming the territory so quickly, even if other began to occupy the other nearby territories in a month it would take them a long time to catch up to Phoenix Village. Since the research time cannot be decreased to surpass Phoenix Village would be impossible.
Cheng Yang then researched Heart Overclock and Beast Blood Transfusion to increase the HP of the Warriors and Summoners. These upgrades would also take six hours to complete. Since there wasn’t enough Experience Fragments the Rangers would have to wait to receive research bonuses.
At this time Liu Hau and the other Warriors strolled over carrying a single huge log each. Originally the only way to efficiently move these logs was to use a machine or have no less than four people carry it. It was clear to see just how much strength you gained by becoming a Warrior.
In fact, this was very normal since the average Physical Attack attribute was a measly 1 but all Warriors would have at least a 4. Physical Attack was a measure of all things to do with ones body and naturally this included strength.
“Yoko, why did you want this wood anyways? Ah, also, I saw a few logs roll into the river during the earthquake.” Liu Hau said setting the log he was carrying down.
“We need wood to create buildings. Just like the wall you saw being created earlier. ” Cheng Yang answered flatly, “The wall alone consumed one hundred cubic meters of wood which is an amount that is very difficult to obtain right after the apocalypse. Luckily what we have here is enough to complete many important buildings.”
Liu Hau nodded, enlightened by Cheng Yang’s words. It would indeed be difficult to cut down large trees without professional logging tools.
Next, Cheng Yang opened up the Territory Altar System Panel and decided to build some Meditation Halls. He purchased ten instantly causing ten log cabins to build themselves in a ring around the Territory Altar.
Another hundred cubic meters of the wood he had bought was consumed causing Cheng Yang to feel slightly helpless. What could he do? He was originally quite poor and buying 300 cubic meters of wood was way beyond his means already.
Although they had already seen the phenomena before everyone watched in awe as the buildings constructed themselves.
Cheng Yang took advantage of the time it took for the buildings to be created to patrol the walls. He found that the respawn rate had already reached its lowest point, taking one or two minutes for a single monster to appear. This was seven or eight times lower than the rate at the height of the trial. As such, those on the fence were idle.
Cheng Yang sighed and let the people come down from the wall. Since it was impossible for Low Grade monsters to break down the wall he might as well wait for a large number to accumulate and kill them all then, letting his followers rest.
It was now 7:15, the last good minutes of twilight were coming to an end ushering in the night. Cheng Yang decided to give a speech telling everyone present what the plan moving forward was and to answer the questions he had ignored until now.
“How do you feel now, after a couple battles?” Cheng Yang asked after gathering everyone near the Territory Altar.
Everyone glanced at each other before Old Lee stepped out and said, “Mr. Cheng, you said before that the whole world has become like this, like a game. Is that true?”
“It is true!” Cheng Yang declared, “This is not a disaster limited to Cloud City nor is it a national disaster but a global one! At this moment nearly every building across the world has collapse and the terrain has shifted. Plateaus have become plains and plains have become oceans. The most important change is the new rules god created, rules you have experienced today. The power you have now is something you could not even imagine in the old world.”
“Yoko,” Lau Hui suddenly interjected, “How did you know this was going to happen?”
Cheng Yang internally sighed. He knew this question would be asked and it was a hard one to answer truthfully. Luckily, he had already fabricated a story.
“I do not know why I knew this.” Cheng Yang started, “When I woke up yesterday my mind was filled with omens and visions of the apocalypse. It was very strange information but it was engraved directly into my memories. It was impossible for me to ignore so I prepared just in case what I foresaw happened. As of now, I can confirm many of my visions but there are some that I have yet to confirm.”
Cheng Yang knew that he should keep his reincarnation a secret so he created the image of himself as a prophet.
Although not everyone believed Cheng Yang’s story, how else could they explain why Cheng Yang knew about the apocalypse in advance? It even seemed fairly reasonable. If the world could become like a game why could there not be prophets?
Knowing that this was a global disaster caused everyone to have an ugly expression. After all who didn’t have a family? They hadn’t had time to consider that danger that their families were in but now that they did everyone grew restless.
“Your anxiety is useless,” Cheng Yang said sensing their emotions, “what matters now is getting stronger. Only with strength do you have even the slightest chance of saving your loved ones.”
Old Lee furrowed his brow, “My family is in Cloud City which is only a few kilometers from here. If we stick together we can easily kill any monsters we encounter and reach the city.”
“Yeah! We have to go back to the city. I can’t leave my family behind. My son is only five years old, how can he survive?” A man in his thirties cried out, anxious to hurry out.
Cheng Yang only shook his head sadly, “With our current strength I’m afraid there simply isn’t a way for us to reach Cloud City. Although there are only a few monsters surrounding my territory the tendency of monsters is to form large herds. It has been a few hours since the apocalypse so it wouldn’t be impossible to encounter a group of dozens of monsters. Do you have the confidence to win against such a group?”
Seeing that the crowd was still anxious Cheng Yang continued, “I know none of you want to believe my words but they can be easily proven. I will take some people outside the walls to verify what I have told you.”
Old Lee and the other adults were ecstatic, hopefully the situation wasn’t too bad yet and they would have a chance to break through to Cloud City.
Cheng Yang felt a pain in his heart seeing their hopeful expressions. They didn’t know how bad it was in Cloud City but how could Cheng Yang not know?
“Yoko, just tell us what to do next. We will all listen to you.” Liu Hau proclaimed.
“This village will be our saving grace so we must work to develop it. To do that we need Experience Fragments, we need to kill as many monsters as possible.”
Cheng Yang planned to use this excursion to gain as many Experience Fragments as possible in addition to dampening their desire to rush to Cloud City. “The time is ripe. I will immediately take half of the people here out with me to scout the woods between us and Cloud City. Although it will be risky to do so at night as long as we are careful we will be safe as the moon is bright. The rest of the people will stay here at the village to protect it and begin practicing.”