Return to Reality

Using both kindness and severity, it's unclear whether it will work, but these children have never seen anything like it before.

The boys were terrified of the girl who had become a completely different person.

"By the way, my name is Cherry. If you dare continue to call me 'Little One,' don't blame me for being rude." Cherry said, turning to look at the most timid one among them, who used to be the one being bullied in this group. "From now on, you'll keep an eye on them for me. If any of these people dare to run away, or do anything bad behind my back, you must report it. If you conceal anything, do you know the consequences?"

"Waaah." The child nodded fearfully.

"Okay, follow me."

Turning around, Cherry finally came to her senses, still shaken.

All of this was guided by Ye Qian in her mind. No matter who made a mistake, she should focus on beating the ringleader and then find a timid person to monitor these people.

In the future, we can occasionally give a few Copper Coin as a salary to those who perform well.

He led this group of guys to the city gate.

"Where... where are we going?" the leader of the children asked timidly.

"The outpost, that's my home, and it will also be the starting point for our operations from now on."

"Action?"

He clearly didn't understand Cherry's behavior.

"I have pledged allegiance to a very powerful master, and you, when you agreed to follow me, were already being targeted by that master. From now on, you have no choice but to obey me." Cherry turned and stared into the man's eyes. "That master is not as merciful as I am. I saw her cut off the necks of seven or eight people with my own eyes, just because those people dared to lay a hand on me."

Kid King: "..."

Whether they truly believed it or not, these children dared not provoke Cherry.

Interestingly, from this moment on, only Ye Qian could sense that the children had begun to feel awe towards Cherry, and if loyalty could be displayed, it might now have a value of over ten points.

This is a very good result.

The next step is to teach these children how to survive.

At the very least, one should know the consequences of carelessly revealing information such as outpost locations.

Intimidation wasn't enough; Ye Qian had already sent several severed heads to the Skeleton, specifically so that the four boys would see them casually as they passed by.

This implies to them: This is the consequence of betrayal.

Once they are scared enough, slowly give them some benefits they haven't experienced before, so they know that being obedient can lead to a happy life.

This combination should be very effective for these homeless people.

The four children nervously followed them out. They walked through the countryside, taking a long detour, before finally spotting a small attic hidden in the woods.

This area is located in the mountains, so it's usually not under anyone's jurisdiction and is considered wilderness. Ye Qian built a house here, which cost her a total of more than 10 silver coins.

But for Cherry, it was a nice home.

"See this? This will be our base of operations from now on. It's a place that must be kept secret."

"Che... Chelly, you mean, we can...live here in the future?" a boy stammered.

He used to be the leader of the kids' henchmen, but now he has no respect for the leader at all.

Cherry not only demonstrated her strength, but also showed them the house they lived in, which truly shocked them.

You should know that these are homeless children.

In the city, not to mention children, many adults who have lost their homes can only sleep barefoot in the wild and survive by begging.

"Of course, come with me."

Upon entering the room, Cherry, who was also seeing this scene for the first time, was also very excited.

She dreamed of having a warm home, and in her dreams, that home would be much smaller than this—just a small, run-down shack where she could live peacefully would be enough for her. Who would have thought that Ye Qian would provide her with such wonderful conditions?

"That lady said I should try my best to help her, and I hope I can do a good job to satisfy her."

Thinking this, she welcomed the four surprised children in and then turned to close the door.

"Well? Now let me give your master the task: first, to gather intelligence."

"What kind of information does she want? Isn't this dangerous?" The boy's tears had dried by now, but he still asked somewhat timidly.

"Of course, we need to gather information while protecting ourselves. That lord needs all useful information. For example, how many local nobles there are, what their names are, and how many guards they have. Which streets do the patrols go through every day, and what goods the passing caravans buy and sell."

At this point, she put her hands on her hips and said with great authority, "You can record all the intelligence yourselves and then relay it to me. The first task you need to complete now is to take stock of the guards who patrol the city daily. If you complete the task perfectly, you can receive power from the adults as a reward and become as powerful as me."

As Cherry said this, she suddenly lifted a table that was heavier than herself.

But this is obviously very tempting.

The children clearly had their own goals, and these goals wouldn't be too difficult if they were careful.

"Alright, now have dinner with me. This is a reward from that lord."

She opened the cabinet next to her, took out five apples and a basket of dried fruit, and formally invited the group to enjoy them.

"She was bullied so badly by these kids back then, if it were me, I really wouldn't have the mindset to share it with them."

Ye Qian stopped paying special attention to the other party, only checking on them occasionally, and waiting for the Black Shield Warrior to report on the situation there.

The convoy then returned to the plains, and after several hours of driving, she jumped out of the vehicle and had the soldiers unload the chests filled with gold and silver coins.

"A total of over 7,900 silver coins, of which I spent 100 on the way."

Ye Qian told her two teammates about the situation she had encountered.

Chapter 88 Returning to Reality

"So you did this kind of thing. Planning ahead, even if we don't know how effective it will be, it's worth taking a chance."

Chen Ning highly approved of Ye Qian's approach. Although the cost was a bit high, it was not a waste overall.

The amount of gold coins obtained from this sale has largely exceeded everyone's expectations.

This is equivalent to an income of 7800 silver coins.

"With so much money, let's focus on recruiting Elite Black Shield Heavy Infantry. Recruiting just one person costs 8 silver coins. If we include the costs of weapons, equipment materials, and hiring people to craft them, the final cost of one warrior might be around 15 silver coins."

It consumes a very high amount of energy.

The 15 silver coins represent a short-term cost, which includes the cost of food, clothes, and shelter over a given period of time.

This wooden house was certainly not the exquisite house shown in the blueprints, but rather the simple, dilapidated house that was originally there.

Although the conditions were tough, they had no choice but to make do with it.

Ye Qian stood in her homestead, wading through the rain-soaked ground, and arrived in front of her house.

"Luckily, I took a shower at the hotel. After all, I was really dirty after hugging that girl Cherry."

She's very clean now.

Just as she was about to step through the door...

Bite!

The storm has completely ended.

[Calculating your ranking...]

[Calculation complete. Your building's integrity rate is 97.2%.]

Based on your development level and building scale, you are ranked 2320th among all players in the Storm Zone.

[Rewards: 200 Life Energy, 20 Silver Coins]

[Resource Rewards: 200 Wood, 200 Stone, 200 Iron Ore]

"Hmm, is that all?"

I wonder if it's because I've developed too quickly, but I feel unmoved by these rewards.

"If it weren't for my own cheat software making money too quickly, this reward would actually be quite good."

20 silver coins. Thinking back to when I first arrived, it took a lot of hard work to accumulate even a few silver coins.

Looking at her remaining Life Energy, Ye Qian couldn't help but ponder a question: if she split herself in the Main World, would the new body stay here, or would it leave with her?

"Never mind, the answer to this question is actually meaningless."

Because Ye Qian can come over at any time.

The only thing she needed to be concerned about was that when the Main World called the players over, time in the real world was almost suspended.

After the players returned, the two timelines were completely synchronized again.

This situation will not change simply because Ye Qian's clones are in different areas.

"I can't think of an answer to this question right now, but it's worth keeping an eye on."

After taking off her shoes and soaking her feet in a bucket of water to remove the mud, Ye Qian decided to go to bed early and rest.

In the following days, everyone focused all their energy on recruiting new soldiers.

To speed up this process, relying on only 60 Intermediate Rank blacksmiths is simply too slow. An average forging speed of one batch every three days means that even at a rate of 600 people per month, they can only recruit enough for that.

This speed is simply unbearable for everyone.

At Chen Ning's suggestion, Ye Qian spent 500 silver coins to expand the blacksmith shop several times over and greatly increase the number of forging workshops inside.

The end result was that the blacksmith shop could accommodate 300 blacksmiths working together at the same time.

She then opened the shop and began looking for an Intermediate Rank blacksmith to rent.

It took more than an hour to finally gather enough people who needed it.

These artisans from different backgrounds arrived one after another and were introduced to work by Chen Ning.

After finishing everything, the group exchanged smiles.

"In terms of timing, the end of this journey in the Main World will just allow us to add 360 Elite Black Shield Heavy Infantry. Combined with the original 60, our elite human warriors will reach 420, plus units like Skeleton. This is a powerful legion in the early stages of the game."

Chen Ning concluded by summarizing the results of the operation.

Ye Qian counted on her fingers and smiled, saying, "Strictly speaking, it's 419 people, because I sent one of them to the human city to assist Chelly."

"It's alright," Chen Ning said nonchalantly.

As time gradually came to an end, everyone unconsciously relaxed.

They thought nothing unusual would happen, but on the morning of the 10th, an astonishingly large Goblin army emerged from the forest and launched a massive attack on their homeland.

Because there were so many, when Ye Qian saw the dense red dots appearing on the north side of the map, her expression changed slightly. "There are so many."

A rough estimate suggests there must be over a thousand.

The quality is also much higher than the one that was destroyed before.

There are at least a significant number of large Goblin among them.

"These Goblin are a darker color, so they shouldn't be related to the previous ones. If the previous intelligence was correct, then these guys are probably quite malicious."

Chen Ning knew what this meant; it represented a chaotic Goblin tribe that preyed on women from other tribes for reproduction.

Under these circumstances, a sudden battle of resistance broke out.

For Ye Qian, this battle was particularly difficult.

Because his army was scattered across several sub-territories, even with the north as the main focus, he only had 300 Skeleton and 20 black shield infantrymen concentrated there.

Faced with the sudden pressure, in order to protect the forest outpost of Territory No. 2, Ye Qian contacted Lan Xinyu, who was still busy at the main base, and asked her to mobilize troops as quickly as possible. At the same time, she herself led the main force to carry out a difficult resistance.

The Goblin army pressed forward.

A dense, dark mass of enemies. Ye Qian's side attempted to use the Black Shield Infantry as a spearhead to launch a surprise attack on key enemy units, even considering beheading the enemy leader. However, due to their small numbers and the surprise attack by hordes of enemy Goblin, the advance failed.

After a hasty retreat and reorganization of the defensive line, Ye Qian, with the support of several Arrow Tower, waited for Amia after losing 100 Skeleton and 4 black shield infantry.

Mr. Dragon, after several waves of dragon breath, the opposing formation fell into chaos.

The Goblin army temporarily halted their attack, retreated several hundred meters, and then regrouped to organize a counterattack.

After that, they actually resisted the pressure from the dragon and charged repeatedly in several waves until Ye Qian's army arrived in Iron-Skin Train, circled around to the enemy's side and launched a fierce attack, at which point the Goblin army retreated.

The result of the battle was that the enemy left behind 460 corpses.

Ye Qian lost 150 Skeleton and 11 Black Shield Heavy Infantry.