Infinite Proliferation of Transformed Girls, My Numbers Have Become a Disaster Chapter 4

"Huff."

Heaving a soft sigh, she prepared to continue working.

Ten points of energy—just a matter of time.

When that came, she'd split off a clone first.

Whatever she did in the future, using a clone would make things much safer.

Everyone kept working for a few more hours, and Ye Qian's energy finally accumulated to ten points.

She could try splitting now.

But this kind of thing couldn't be rushed; it was safer to do it after returning, or else if someone saw, she'd have no idea how to explain.

Licking her lips, she glanced at the pool in the distance.

She checked the map range and tried walking over.

[Polluted Water Source]

"Pollution?"

Seeing those words, and then the water so murky it was completely unseeable, the corner of her mouth twitched.

She'd just have to endure it—couldn't drink water of unknown origin.

But just as she was about to leave, a line of text appeared before her eyes:

[Due to your talent, physical contact can purify this water source.]

Her brow lifted.

"Special talent?"

She remembered—this was the effect of that mysterious light from before: her limbs could purify pollution.

"I don't dare drink it, but I can try."

The pool in front was a bit deep, so she knelt beside it, reaching out with effort to touch the water's surface with her fingertip.

Too short, though—she couldn't reach...

A black line crept across her forehead.

She stood up directly, took off her shoes, revealing her calves wrapped in black stockings.

Then, with a forceful stretch, her black-stockinged little foot finally touched the water's surface.

[Purifying...]

The water quality cleared at a visible rate.

"Holy shit!"

It actually worked.

But after just over ten seconds, the water prompted as [Drinkable Water of Purification, beneficial to health].

"The hell is 'beneficial to health'."

Pulling her leg back and putting her shoes on again, Ye Qian couldn't help but complain inwardly, now certain her ability was useful.

Regardless, this ability was pretty good.

Just then, the Tall Man actually came running over.

"How did you get here? This water can't be drunk... Huh?"

Seeming to notice the change, he quickly arrived at the pool's edge, then his eyes lit up. Somewhat excitedly, he crouched down, cupped some water with both hands, and poured it into his mouth.

"Gulp!"

A few seconds later, the man's expression shifted slightly.

"The water's sweet, and I feel a lot lighter. Normally, most of the water in this world is polluted."

He licked his dry, cracked lips, then started drinking heavily.

"Eeep~"

Seeing this, Ye Qian glanced at her own black-stockinged little foot and immediately covered her face.

Just pretend I don't know—this kind of thing can't be said.

He can't tell anyway, right?

But judging by the guy's chapped lips, it seemed he hadn't drunk water in a very long time.

Did that mean this world itself was severely lacking in normal water resources?

What happened next seemed to prove that point.

Around the pool, black matter slowly seeped out, gradually returning the water quality to its pre-purification state.

The man noticed this too.

"This water..."

He thought of something and glanced at Ye Qian.

"I didn't do anything." Ye Qian quickly shook her head, looking innocent.

Watching this petite girl's timid expression, the man swallowed his saliva, shook his head, and said:

"It's fine."

Chapter 4: New Body

Next, the Tall Man simply made a wooden bucket and, while the water wasn't fully polluted yet, scooped it inside.

"As you can see, this world's land is highly polluted, so whether it's food or medicinal herbs, anything edible is especially scarce. And every so often, you have to buy the herbs I gave you earlier from the market to apply externally—it has the effect of removing pollution."

He explained the situation with collecting water, then twisted his neck and sighed, "The water earlier worked pretty well; I feel a lot better."

Ye Qian: "..."

For the rest of the time, everyone built a simple house and surrounded it with a full circle of wooden walls.

Later, new monsters did approach, but under the continuous fire of the Arrow Tower, they were all killed.

This safe environment let them focus on building new facilities.

The goal was a second Arrow Tower.

Ye Qian kept digging the ground.

Her work wasn't without results—she successfully dug a long trench and planted sharp spikes inside it.

Since the width was enough, wolves could hardly leap over, forced to slow down or go around from the sides.

During this process, the Arrow Tower could keep outputting.

By evening that day, Ye Qian had accumulated enough experience to level up.

Ding!

[Your level has increased to: LV3]

[Strength +0.2, Constitution +0.2, Agility +0.3, Spirit +0.2, Intelligence +0.3, Resistance +0.1]

[Remaining unspent energy: 4 points]

"It only goes up this much each time?"

Not only that, but she also noticed that once energy reached the standard for leveling up, it automatically consumed itself to increase.

In other words, if she wanted to multiply, she'd have to do it before leveling up.

As night fell, the group chopped down another pile of wood.

"I'm going to buy the materials for the second Arrow Tower. The iron arrows are up to you."

Ye Qian exchanged a glance with the Woman, then opened the market too.

[Iron Arrow: 20 copper coins / 20 arrows]

"Good thing I have 165 copper coins now."

She exchanged them from the system into 1 silver and 65 copper, otherwise she couldn't carry them.

So she bought 60 arrows in one go and placed them on the stone slab she'd set up in front of her.

The Woman bought 20 arrows.

"80? That's enough."

The man who finished building the Arrow Tower smiled and glanced at Ye Qian, then carried bundles of iron arrows up the ladder and loaded them into the slots.

The Arrow Tower's capacity was 50 arrows, and the current amount nearly filled it.

"Whew, done. Let's get ready to rest. Better take turns keeping watch at night—just in case a monster shows up that the tower can't handle, we might still escape."

He pulled out his phone and checked the time.

8 PM, basically matching the real-world sky.

Of course, there was no signal here.

"Ye Qian, you take the first watch. You look a bit weak, so rest early and call me at 11."

Unexpectedly, this guy was pretty considerate.

Ye Qian didn't stand on ceremony either. She nodded, then climbed up to the top of the Arrow Tower and started enjoying the distant scenery.

She patted the phone in her bag—thankfully, the fierce battle earlier hadn't broken it.

Then she played a single-player game, occasionally glancing at the mini-map.

Before she knew it, it was 11 o'clock.

Several battles had happened in between, pushing her energy up to 14 points.

"Time to sleep."

She slid down from the side and woke the man up.

"Mm, is it my turn?" The woman yawned and sat up.

As the firelight revealed the pure young girl's face, the man froze for a moment, then cleared his throat and stood up. "You sleep."

"Mm."

Ye Qian stretched lazily and lay down right where she was.

Having an Arrow Tower was really nice—experience points came automatically.

They made it through the night without incident until dawn. When she opened her eyes again, she found her level had reached LV4.

"Didn't expect to level up again in one night."

The next level required 50 energy points.

She tested her physical condition.

"Seems like I've gotten a lot stronger."

Unfortunately, the stat increases were small, which only proved one thing—her original body's growth talent wasn't great.

"Guess I really have to rely on proliferation."

The sky gradually brightened.

With the Arrow Tower's protection, everyone's activities became much easier. The group began dividing tasks, specifically building a wall around the guiding Arrow Tower.

After a few hours of busy work, the man glanced at the time on his phone.

"Five minutes until forced logout. Since we're a team, let's add each other as friends offline so we can keep in touch later." With that, he looked at Ye Qian expectantly.

Ye Qian didn't overthink it and silently showed her social chat number.

Since there was no network, they could only save each other's info for now and add each other offline.

After the three exchanged their details, the woman asked, "Will we come back here at the same time next time?"