As soon as Gu Su stepped into the tent, he immediately brought up the Graveyard Demon's upgrade panel.
The upgrade requirements appeared before his eyes, clear as day, instantly resolving all his doubts:
Graveyard Demon Upgrade Requirements: Land area of 866 square meters (423/866), all buildings in good condition (4/6), one Level 1 core creature corpse (completed) 3,000 gold coins, 3,000 units of nether energy, 100 wood, 100 stone, 100 metal (up to three auxiliary items or special materials may be added)
Gu Su only needed one glance to reach a conclusion.
He absolutely could not touch the Corrupted Jungle Lion King's corpse.
The panel clearly listed it as the "Level 1 core creature corpse" required to upgrade the Graveyard Demon. Although it was Level 2, the requirement showed as "completed."
It was obviously an indispensable requirement, with no room for substitution. There was no question of it being unimportant.
His earlier hesitation vanished at once, replaced by a hint of relief.
Thankfully, he hadn't rashly turned it into a zombie just now. Otherwise, he would have missed a crucial step in upgrading the Graveyard Demon.
At the same time, the upgrade requirements also told Gu Su what he needed to do next:
Empty graves didn't count toward the buildings required for the upgrade.
Aside from the Weird Tree and Earthbound Vein, which needed to be repaired as soon as possible to ensure they were in good condition, he also had to quickly reclaim the land the Graveyard Demon had lost.
Gu Su understood. Under normal circumstances, an initial Graveyard Demon should occupy one and a third mu of land—about 866 square meters—exactly the area required for the upgrade.
But the Graveyard Demon he had taken over now was only the size of a basketball court, barely half that.
That was hardly surprising. The Graveyard Demon had suffered severe damage before, with buildings torn down or looted, structures left incomplete, and its territory greatly reduced.
By the time it had fallen into his hands, it was already a shabby, pieced-together knockoff.
The fact that he had managed to activate it at all was already a stroke of luck.
But if he wanted to upgrade the Graveyard Demon now, he had to reclaim and restore the lost land bit by bit, bringing its total area up to 866 square meters. Otherwise, he could forget about it.
Then there were the resources, which posed another serious problem.
He didn't need to worry too much about nether energy. The Netherfire Pile had been repaired and upgraded to Level 1, and could produce 500 units of nether energy a day. At that rate, he only needed six days to save up 3,000.
His current supplies of wood, stone, and metal were far from sufficient, but he had already figured out what resources were available in the supermarket ruins.
All he had to do was keep sending skeleton squads to scavenge and haul supplies back. He could build up the stockpile gradually until he had 100 units of each.
But the biggest headache was gold coins.
He currently had only 382 coins, still a long way from the target of 3,000.
Looking back at what he'd earned so far, gold coins had only come from two sources: opening treasure chests and occasionally selling animal hides for a few coins. The returns were meager and nowhere near enough to meet the upgrade requirements.
"Looks like I need to find a steady, efficient source of gold coins as soon as possible." Gu Su murmured, his brows knitted together.
Upgrading the Graveyard Demon couldn't wait. Reclaiming land, repairing buildings, and accumulating resources would all take a great deal of time and effort. Thinking of this, Gu Su couldn't help sighing. "Time waits for no one."
He tamped down his impatience, gathered his thoughts, and walked out of the tent, ready to give the skeletons their next orders.
He would send a squad to keep gathering resources from the supermarket ruins and have them look out for sources of gold coins at the same time.
But as soon as he stepped out of the tent, his gaze swept over the supplies, and he froze. A hint of surprise and confusion crept into his voice as he blurted, "Wait, where are my shopping carts? I brought so many back from the supermarket. How come they're gone?"
He hurried over to where the shopping carts had been piled up. Only a few scattered flakes of rust remained on the ground. The dozens of rusted-shut carts had vanished without a trace.
Gu Su knitted his brows again and looked at the skeletons standing guard nearby, baffled.
They hadn't reacted at all, which meant the carts hadn't been stolen.
So where had all his shopping carts gone?
Gu Su beckoned to a nearby skeleton.
The skeleton immediately bowed. "My lord."
"Where are the shopping carts?"
"My lord, after you entered the tent, the Corruption Mycelium suddenly swallowed all the shopping carts, then vanished just as quickly. Only this rust is left."
Gu Su was taken aback, then understood.
He didn't know why the Corruption Mycelium had swallowed the metal shopping carts. Until now, it had only shown that it could absorb corruption energy and impurities from the soil.
But looking at it another way, this should be a good thing.
As a core component of the Graveyard Demon, the Corruption Mycelium never consumed resources for nothing.
Since it had absorbed those dozens of shopping carts, it would probably give something back in return. Perhaps it would further strengthen the graveyard's ground or improve resource conversion efficiency. There was no need to dwell on it.
Once he'd figured that out, Gu Su stopped worrying about where the shopping carts had gone.
He quickly refocused and began assigning the next resource-gathering tasks.
He pointed at the ordinary skeletons. "You lot, take the pickup and bring plenty of containers. Go to the frozen storage room at the mall supermarket right away. Bring back the rest of the sludge and corpse oil, along with any metal, wood, or chunks of cement you can collect around the storage room.
"Move quickly, keep watch on the way, and don't let anything go wrong."
Several skeletons sprang into action. They loaded empty plastic barrels, wooden boards, and other containers onto the pickup. Then, working together, they pushed it forward with stiff but orderly steps, heading quickly toward the supermarket.
A makeshift supply convoy was ready to go.
After arranging the transport, Gu Su turned to the skeletons he'd previously sent out to scout.
"You two, besides these two Harpy corpses, did you find anything else on your scouting trip? Any supply sites, or anything unusual?"
One of the scouting skeletons stepped forward and bowed as it reported, "My lord, we went in another direction and found an abandoned gas station.
"It was occupied by more than twenty Harpies.
"We killed these two while scouting the area, catching them off guard with a sneak attack. We brought them back specifically to report what we found."
A gleam appeared in Gu Su's eyes as he lightly tapped his palm with his fingers.
More than twenty Harpies was no small number right now.
If he could kill them all, he would gain a large number of corpses to turn into undead and accumulate nether energy. He might even find additional supplies at the abandoned gas station.
More importantly, Harpy feathers and talons might be sellable for gold coins, which would be just the thing to solve his current shortage.
Before you continue