Cyber Blacksmith

With an idea in mind, the next issue was manpower.

The sudden incident here had everyone clustered together, chatting for so long that the people outside still had not been let in.

After obtaining Old Steward's permission, Jiu Cai Rong opened the gates and let the people outside in.

Whoosh!

The crowd outside immediately surrounded the people inside the Mountain Villa and began asking about all kinds of information regarding the place.

They even gathered around Money Boy, discussing the money it had peed out.

"Food goes in, waste comes out, energy cycles, Newton approves! I declare this is the only game that follows science. I stand with Newton."

"Forget logging out for now. Let's build a dry toilet."

"What about toilet paper? Brothers, go pick some leaves. Get them ready. Better to have them than not."

"I'll lead a group to handle it."

"Remember not to pick the fuzzy, thorny kind. I don't want any eye-opening experiences."

"This is way too real. Are we spending day one of wilderness survival here?"

"Damn, starting out on a barren mountain. Are we going to starve nine meals in three days? We should find some protein fast."

Quite a few people felt that they were not playing a game at all, but rather heading into the wilderness for a group picnic, where everyone had to divide the work and cooperate.

However, aside from those discussing such matters, another newly arrived player was being surrounded by a crowd. She seemed to be some famous streamer.

"Stop crowding around me. Go do whatever you need to do. No autographs! Don't step on people! And quit with the 'pretty feet' nonsense. Don't you understand how precious the time in a first test is?"

The little loli surrounded by the crowd snapped, "Still following me? Are you all those useless shut-in Blacksmith nerds who can't find anyone to talk to?"

"Such devastating attack power."

"Keep insulting me, I'm begging you."

"We're your fans. We'll carry you."

The person being surrounded was Su Yu Niang, a major streamer.

She looked like a petite, adorable loli in white stockings. Her voice was sweet and cute, but her temper was explosively fiery and she never stopped talking, born and bred in the toxic streets of the internet.

With nothing but her mouth, she often reduced random passersby to tears. Her sarcastic classics—"Uncle, you really are such a useless little fish~" and "How pitiful~"—had spread far and wide as famous reaction memes, making people desperately want to teach her a hard lesson.

But she was occasionally stream-sniped and beaten to tears by other streamers. The furious expression she wore while looking for a rematch was even more comical.

Recently, though, there had been little entertainment value, and her income had fallen. She had nearly decided to go home and inherit the family fortune when one of her viewers recommended this game, so she rushed in.

The moment she entered, she was completely stunned. This... and you were telling her it was a blacksmith simulator?

As a game streamer, she understood far more than ordinary people did. She knew better what this meant. It was too realistic, too fantastical.

Weeds grew everywhere, snakes and insects covered the ground, and the flock of Crows overhead was disgusting too. Some of the nearby Blacksmiths had already been hit, and complaints filled the air.

She found this harsh ancient rural environment quite realistic.

What beautiful Ancient Style? What wonderful ancient life?

That was all filtered fantasy!

Forget ancient times—even city people complained endlessly when they went into modern rural villages, terrified of stepping in cow dung amid the filthy, harsh environment.

She did not care about such things. It was not as if she were some delicate Fairy maiden. When she was little, she had once fought a whole gang of brats with a mop soaked in cow dung. Why would she fear this?

On the contrary, she had become popular precisely because she was not pretentious. She had an extremely fiery temper, was open and blunt, excelled at cursing people out, and even dared to stream while casually scratching her feet through white stockings. A foot-scratching macho man lived in her heart.

It was just that in today's looks-obsessed society, old, ugly, pretentious people who cursed others were called menopausal shrews, while someone like her—petite, cute, sweet-voiced, and toxic—was called a bratty little demon girl.

Right now, she felt this kind of hardcore farming game was what made it fun. Turning a harsh environment into the beautiful home in one's heart—that was entertaining.

This had to be the game's selling point!

First build toilets and dormitories to secure the basics of life, clear out various monster-spawning points like the flock of Crows, then farm and forge. She felt she had grasped the game's main storyline.

As she thought, she wandered around and looked about. Suddenly, she heard a conversation between Old Steward and Jiu Cai Rong in the distance.

At once, she realized that what she had considered the far-sighted, advanced perspective of a game streamer was still narrow-minded.

Jiu Cai Rong said, "Yes! Sir Steward, I've come up with a new idea for the Blacksmith dormitory we're building! There absolutely must not be beds in the dormitory, because people of our race—love! Wetting! The bed! When they wake up, it'll be everywhere."

Su Yu Niang's eyelids twitched wildly. "..."

Well, damn.

She could only say: well, damn!

Silently, she began recording her screen.

Old Steward said, "Are you really like that? I stopped wetting the bed when I was eight."

Jiu Cai Rong said, "That's why we shouldn't sleep in beds! We only need Iron Netting. Two sheets of iron mesh form a pincer on both sides, with a person clamped in between. These Iron Net beds can be lined up in rows, suspended in the air and rotated for washing, discharging waste on the spot. Water flushes from above, and people relieve themselves below."

"Then we stuff tubes into the mouths of the Blacksmiths in the air and feed them uniformly, allowing them to sleep peacefully on IV drips like vegetative patients for ten years. Even if they don't log in for months, they won't die."

"Then we build a Blacksmith Shop above the dormitory. Ironworking upstairs can also dry their heads from above."

"Don't throw away the hot wastewater from quenching either. Pipe it straight below and spray the Blacksmiths with it for showers."

"This creates a fully automated assembly-line dormitory integrating showering, drying, sleeping, eating, and excretion. After waking up, they'll be clean, and their stomachs won't be empty either."

Old Steward said, "Wouldn't that be terribly uncomfortable? This isn't a dormitory—it's an oversized birdcage. Bird-raising uses this kind of structure too."

What the hell was this design?

Su Yu Niang's eyes nearly fell out of her head.

It was not that she was not smart enough. It was that even if she spent however much time researching, her conscience would never let her think of such a depraved beastly contraption!

This was not a birdcage.

This was a barbecue grill!

The kind that clamped you between two sheets of iron mesh like charcoal-grilled octopus, with the ability to rotate and flip you over. She even suggested adding some dipping sauce.

Jiu Cai Rong said, "It's fine! People of our race are all like this. We love this kind of Pigeon Coop!"

Old Steward said, "Wouldn't it still stink? After all, who sleeps above a cesspit, even with iron mesh in between?"

Jiu Cai Rong said, "That's irrelevant! I suggest making the dormitory into multiple levels of Iron Net dormitories for greater capacity. The very bottom can be sloped, fitted with large underground pipes, and flushed away regularly. Build a septic tank in the distance to collect it all, and everything will be clean."

Old Steward said, "This septic tank..."

Jiu Cai Rong said, "A septic tank can make us bigger and stronger, and create new glory! Whether it ferments biogas for a new-energy cycle or becomes farm fertilizer for a food ecological-chain cycle, it is an excellent Cycle System."

Ning Zheng said, "..."

That mouth of his was truly tough.

In fact, Ning Zheng had hinted that they could take turns logging into a single body.

That way, someone could take turns dealing with the toilet issue. This was also the purpose of Xiao Ai's Queuing to Log In proposal.

Jiu Cai Rong had shown an incomparably furious expression at the suggestion!

It was as if Ning Zheng's words had deeply enraged him.

His mouth spewed incomprehensible mystical nonsense such as, "This is cuckoldry," "Pure Love Warrior," "Green Hat Manor is doomed," "A public bus will be severely boycotted by the public," "Your values have to be right; people can use the toilet, but they can't become a public toilet," and "Don't let Stardew Valley learn this," all in half-understood, bookish phrases.

Ning Zheng did not understand what any of it meant.

But in the end, since the other party resisted so strongly and was willing to make things this complicated, Ning Zheng let them have their way. This also further confirmed that Xiao Ai was truly unreliable. That suggestion had even enraged him.

Then they would not take turns. As for those Queuing to Log In, they could keep watching for now.

If it had been the previous Old Steward, he would definitely have cursed them for wasting resources.

Most of this pile of Blacksmiths would just be sleeping instead of working.

One bed in the dormitory would have been enough. Why make such complicated iron mesh contraptions? Their work efficiency was outrageously low.

But Ning Zheng was gentle.

Seeing their animated, delighted expressions as they touched this and looked at that, the joyful atmosphere spread to him as well. He felt that what mattered most was that they liked it and were happy.

If the construction process was complicated, then so be it. The important thing was that everyone would live comfortably in the future and have a good living experience.

Jiu Cai Rong said, "Also! I suggest building two large dormitories here: a boys' dormitory and a girls' dormitory."

Old Steward said, "There is no need to make it so complicated. You are Money Boys. You may look male or female, but you are actually neither."

Cold and trembling with rage.

How dared you presume my gender?

Of course, Jiu Cai Rong did not dare throw that punch. After all, Respect the old and love the young. It was absolutely not because he feared being stripped of his steward position and replaced by some other livestock scrambling for it.

"Sir."

Jiu Cai Rong gave a sincere suggestion. "Although our bodies have no gender, we have psychological genders. And we sleep without clothes. If we are not separated, problems can easily arise. They'll cause trouble."

Besides.

The starting race did not distinguish between men and women now, but would future races be the same?

In his view, Old Steward clearly looked human.

In the future, they would probably be able to choose a human race to start with too.

Though as Blacksmiths, crazily swinging huge hammers, what race they were did not seem to matter anyway.

Su Yu Niang watched secretly from the side, listening to the endless torrent from this newly appointed Blacksmith steward:

"Fine, fine, fine! So this is how the game is played, huh! I was too young. I misjudged the game's selling point. Why the hell were they making cyber Blacksmiths in an ancient society?"