Rejecting the Wonder

Lu Yao leaned back in his chair, crossed one leg over the other, and drank Ice Cola while looking down at the Pixel World on his computer screen.

From the Salt Pool Tribe in the western Mountains to the East River Tribe by the eastern river, from the deepest and most dangerous part of the forest in the north to Ghost City Sanilo in the south, everyone knew his name.

He could be considered a somewhat famous local God.

After taking control of Sanilo, Lu Yao had upgraded from a rifle to a cannon. Both his faith and population had exploded.

He was already considering his next opponent.

Should he annex the East River Tribe first?

Or should he directly subject the Salt Pool Tribe to sustainable Lightning and Earthquake sanctions?

He stroked his chin.

Just as he was thinking, a new prompt appeared on the screen.

[Population is the vessel; faith is power.]

[You already possess a considerable number of believers and have gained a great deal of faith in this region. Your divine power spreads throughout the surrounding area, and your miracles have become even more apparent.]

[Please construct your own Wonder. It will be the stairway that takes you beyond Novice God and into the Pantheon.]

A Wonder?

Lu Yao was no stranger to the term.

When Isabelle had subdued Lisa, she had mentioned it too.

"I once made it to the Crawling Zone, but some bastard destroyed my Wonder, so I fell back into the Safe Zone."

In other words, the place he was in now was called the Safe Zone. Only after constructing a Wonder could he enter the next stage and advance into the so-called Crawling Zone.

Just as the prompt described, he would leave the ranks of Novice Gods.

Lu Yao opened the Temple and found something new under the [Miracles] tab.

A brand-new usable miracle, [Wonder], had appeared.

The new miracle's icon was a blurry building. [Wonder] required 5,000 faith.

Just like [Lightning] and [Earthquake], [Wonder] had no detailed description after it.

Lu Yao pondered it. No wonder Lisa had been so desperate.

Five thousand faith was an enormous expense. If one developed steadily, only a tribe with at least a thousand people could amass that kind of reserve. Considering the need to deal with unexpected situations and harsh environments, it would take quite some time to save up.

Lisa did not have that patience, so she robbed other God players of their faith everywhere in order to build a Wonder and return to the Crawling Zone.

Now Lu Yao had to consider whether he should activate [Wonder] right away.

After thinking for a while, he made his decision.

[Wonder] could wait.

He was currently in the Gods' Safe Zone, which was probably something like a Novice Village, so it was relatively safe. But once he activated [Wonder], he might face wars with other God players, just as Lisa had. The pressure could become immense then.

Anyone who had played old games knew that before leaving the Novice Village, you had to grind levels and monsters as much as possible and strip the place clean of equipment.

Playing it safe was Lu Yao's style.

Before he was sure, there was no way he was leaving the Novice Village!

It was decided!

His first goal was to dominate the nearby Safe Zone!

After making that crucial decision, Lu Yao felt much more relaxed.

"Little Fire. Cook me a bowl of noodles. Two cloves of garlic, and add a fried egg."

"Yes, my lord."

The cactus rose from the flowerpot, shook the dirt off its spines, hopped down from the table, and went outside to cook noodles.

Lu Yao stood and stretched.

A startled cry suddenly came from outside.

"Fuck! The cactus turned into a spirit! What the hell is going on?!"

Oh no. Lu Yao shoved the door open and saw a flat-haired young man with severe dark circles standing outside. The cigarette in the man's mouth was stuck to his lower lip as he stared at the floor in shock.

On the floor, the Cactus Follower had already reverted to its cactus form and lay perfectly still.

"What are you doing here, Old Zhou?"

Lu Yao greeted him with a smile.

"No, Lu Yao, that cactus on the floor had arms and legs earlier. It turned into a spirit! Fuck, this is insane!" Zhou Qiang continued staring at the cactus on the floor.

"You must have been seeing things. It rolled out of the flowerpot in my room." Lu Yao picked up Little Fire from the floor and handed it to him. "Look if you don't believe me. It's just an ordinary cactus."

Zhou Qiang carefully examined the cactus, then poked it with a finger. A puzzled expression appeared on his face.

"I clearly saw this thing with arms and legs, like matchsticks... Maybe I've just been too tired lately."

Zhou Qiang rubbed his face with both hands.

"By the way, why did you come over tonight?" Lu Yao changed the subject. "And didn't I deadbolt the door? How did you get in?"

"Deadbolted? No, it wasn't."

Zhou Qiang and Lu Yao checked the front door and discovered that the lock cylinder on the old-style security door was faulty. Whether it was deadbolted or not, the inner bolt would not pop out. It was purely decorative.

"Old houses always have these annoying problems. I'll mention it to the landlord later, though he probably won't fix it. We'll just make do."

Zhou Qiang stubbed out his cigarette and said, "I came to see you today."

"My online shop really couldn't keep going, so I shut it down."

Lu Yao froze. "You'd run it since college. You just closed down a five-year-old shop like that? What a shame."

"Small businesses are getting harder and harder to run."

Zhou Qiang gave a bitter smile and pointed at his forehead. "See this? My hairline keeps receding. My hair falls out every day—I grab a handful at a time."

"Back in college, your brother was Gongda Shun Oguri. Now I've become Online Shop Pan Changjiang."

From Zhou Qiang's dark circles and haggard appearance, Lu Yao could tell that he was indeed under a lot of pressure.

When he had first graduated, Zhou Qiang had been full of confidence. At gatherings, he had talked about expanding the business and creating a glorious future... Now life had beaten him dark and thin. He was always smoking, his brow constantly furrowed.

"I'm planning to close the shop and work as a temporary employee at the community office."

Zhou Qiang stubbed out his cigarette and smiled. "Two thousand eight hundred a month. The money isn't much, but the pressure is lower. I'm going to rest for a while first, then figure out what to do next."

"I'm moving in today, but I'm not moving in alone."

Zhou Qiang called outside, "Come up. Why are you hiding?"

Only then did a woman walk in from outside.

She looked to be in her early twenties, with delicate features. She wore a white short-sleeved shirt and black straight-leg pants. Her hair was casually tied behind her head, and her eyes wandered as if she had something on her mind, or as if she was slightly distracted.

Lu Yao noticed that her shoulders and waist had excellent lines, with barely any excess fat. She clearly worked out.

"My girlfriend, Yu Yao." Zhou Qiang introduced them. "This is my college roommate, Lu Yao."

Lu Yao nodded with a polite smile. Yu Yao seemed a little reserved and nodded as well.

"We'll only stay here for about a month at most," Zhou Qiang explained. "Once we find a suitable place, we'll move out."

Lu Yao nodded.

He also felt slightly relieved inside.

If you don't move out, I'll have to.

Because of the Simulator, it was truly unsuitable for anyone else to be in this house.

Now that Zhou Qiang and Yu Yao had moved in next door, he had to be even more careful and could not let Little Fire reveal itself in front of them.

That night, Lu Yao kept hearing someone groaning next door. At first, he thought it was nighttime interaction between a young couple, but the sounds gradually became more and more wrong.

Was someone... humming a song?

But Lu Yao could not determine whether the sound was coming from next door or upstairs.

In the latter half of the night, he was awakened again by the chop-chop-chop sound of vegetables being cut.

Who the hell cooked in the kitchen in the middle of the night?