This Is My World

Zhang Tie, who had always been extremely curious about the "Aura Value" option, opened it without a moment's hesitation. Just like the other two options he had checked yesterday, at the top of the log for this entry was a pinned message regarding the "Aura Value" of the Castle of Black Iron. Compared to the previous two messages about "Merit Value" and "Basic Energy," the information on "Aura Value" deepened Zhang Tie's understanding of this world significantly.

--Plants build the bridge of interdependence between the material realm and living beings. Aura originates from the release of life potential generated by the growth of plants in combination with matter. This is the foundation upon which all living beings rely for survival and evolution, and it is here that the law of harmonious coexistence between the universe and nature is manifested. More Aura can accelerate plant growth, make other living beings more active, and allow them to travel further on the path of evolution.

Just like the previous two, this discourse on Aura shocked Zhang Tie once again. He read it over and over more than a dozen times, finally gaining some insight. He understood why everyone loved the color green: green is the color of plants. Where there are plants, there is Aura, food, water, and everything needed for survival. Places with more green—that is, places with more plants—are also where living beings thrive and multiply the most. Just think about it: between a desolate desert and a lush mountain forest, which is more suitable for human survival and reproduction? Naturally, the latter, because it represents more survival resources and more Aura, or, according to the text above, more life potential.

A tiny seed buried in the soil can turn into a towering tree in a few years. If you think about it carefully, isn't that a magical thing? Without soil, the seed remains just that tiny seed; with soil, the life form of the seed undergoes a earth-shaking transformation. It is the combination of the two that produces the release of life potential. Plants convert matter and energy that cannot be directly absorbed or utilized by humans and animals into visible food, fresh air, and that invisible Aura, nourishing all living beings and building a bridge between matter and life. To Zhang Tie, the law of harmonious coexistence between the universe and nature is a process of positive interaction between the material realm, plants, and all living beings. Plants continuously provide Aura to all living beings, while all living beings must ensure that the process of plants providing Aura is not destroyed and must create suitable environments for them. He remembered a teacher at school saying that the reason the human world before the Great Cataclysm fell into decay and eventually collapsed was essentially the result of humans constantly destroying the laws of nature and the universe. At that time, humans were arrogant beyond measure, viewing everything in the natural world and the universe as resources and objects that could be plundered and destroyed at will, rather than as the home and partners they relied on for survival. People kept taking without giving back, which led to a series of serious problems. This is why, in the orthodox school education system, the Great Cataclysm and the arrival of the Star of God are seen as a disaster for humanity, while in reality, many extremist sects view the Great Cataclysm and the Star of God as the beginning of human rebirth. In the eyes of the latter, the arrival of the Great Cataclysm and the Star of God represents the end of humanity's erroneous path and the beginning of a new one.

After finishing the above, Zhang Tie pondered for a moment and turned his attention to the next message that had appeared automatically.

--On the night of Friday, May 13th, Black Iron Calendar 889, potato seeds began to germinate in the Castle of Black Iron. The spatial Aura Value of the Castle of Black Iron is slowly increasing. Please note, handsome and majestic Lord of the Castle, that the growth rate of the Castle of Black Iron's Aura Value is directly proportional to the quantity, variety, and quality of the plants within the space. More plants, more high-level plants, and more plants of different varieties that can form the different levels of life potential required for a complete ecosystem will provide more Aura to the space per unit of time.

This was the second entry in the "Aura Value" log. As soon as he finished reading it, Zhang Tie felt he had unlocked another secret about this mysterious space and was very happy. A few sprouting potatoes could provide 0.3 units of Aura Value to the Castle of Black Iron in a single night. What if he used other plants? For example, those Purple-Leaf Paulownia trees on the street in front of his house. Although he hadn't studied much about plant taxonomy, Zhang Tie instinctively felt that a tree should provide more Aura Value than a few potatoes. This was a logic one could understand even with their knees. Of course, as for how to distinguish the superiority between different tree species, that wasn't something Zhang Tie could answer at the moment. But what did that matter? Zhang Tie looked up and scanned the empty space, muttering to himself that there was plenty of room to mess around with anyway. As long as it could grow, who cared what it was? With this thought, some strange ideas popped into his head. Since he was still in the Castle of Black Iron and there were many more secrets to explore here, Zhang Tie had to put those strange ideas aside for the time being.

Closing the basic attributes of the Castle of Black Iron, Zhang Tie casually tapped on another branch of the menu tree, opening the "Space and Terrain Creation" function of the Castle of Black Iron. When he clicked this function last time, the system prompt was: "Due to the three major reserves of the Castle of Black Iron all being 0, the Space and Terrain Creation function cannot be used." Zhang Tie wanted to see what kind of surprise this "Space and Terrain Creation" could bring him now that the three major reserves were no longer zero.

There was indeed a surprise. When the "Space and Terrain Creation" button was clicked, three sub-menus appeared before Zhang Tie:

--Surface Layer Options

--Subterranean Layer Options

--Underwater Layer Options

The buttons for "Subterranean Layer Options" and "Underwater Layer Options" were grayed out. Based on experience, Zhang Tie knew these two options were currently unavailable. So, Zhang Tie clicked the "Surface Layer Options" button. As soon as the button was clicked, a three-dimensional image about a foot square appeared before his eyes. After looking closely, Zhang Tie discovered that everything in this 3D image was a miniature version of the current map of the Castle of Black Iron space. The entire image was vivid and lifelike; even the steel bar he had stuck in the ground as a marker was displayed. It felt as if the image in front of him could be rotated to facilitate his observation. Zhang Tie tried to rotate the 3D image in the void with his hand, and to his surprise, the 3D map image actually rotated in the direction of his hand's force, presenting the original appearance of the Castle of Black Iron map from another angle. Zhang Tie was overjoyed and kept flipping the image 360 degrees in front of him, examining his Castle of Black Iron from every spatial angle. Not only that, Zhang Tie also discovered that any part of this 3D image seemed to be zoomable. When he pressed both hands on the map and pulled them apart, similar to opening a curtain, the map would enlarge; when he pressed both hands on the map and made a closing motion like shutting a window, the map would shrink. When he moved one hand in a certain direction, the perspective of the map would also shift. Amidst these arbitrary changes in size and perspective, he could see every detail on this 3D map more minutely or macroscopically.

This is so much fun! That was Zhang Tie's feeling at the moment. Not to mention anything else, operating this 3D map felt just like playing with a fun Rubik's cube or toy, full of joy. Zhang Tie gestured in the air with both hands, enlarging and shrinking the entire 3D map, flipping it back and forth for over ten minutes before stopping, still wanting more, and began to study other details carefully. Since it was called "Space and Terrain Creation," it certainly couldn't be as simple as just letting him feast his eyes.

There were no other function buttons on the entire 3D map. Just as Zhang Tie was wondering how to go about "creating," a line of text appeared before his eyes.

--Handsome and majestic Lord of the Castle, all creation follows the law of "what you see is what you get." As long as you project any terrain image you can imagine and visualize into the map, the Castle of Black Iron can create it for you.

Damn, that's easy. Zhang Tie decided to give it a try. He adjusted the map to a 90-degree vertical top-down view, stared at a spot in the upper left corner of the map, and imagined a pool about ten square meters in size in his mind. Slowly, a pale blue phantom of a pool about ten square meters in size appeared in the area of the 3D map he was staring at. The phantom was a bit blurry, but its shape and general outline were exactly what he had visualized in his mind.

Visualization is a very mentally taxing task. With Zhang Tie's current abilities, he couldn't perfectly visualize all the details of a ten-square-meter pool in his mind, so the pale blue phantom showing the pool's appearance was also somewhat blurry.

Just as Zhang Tie was exerting his "power" in his mind but couldn't "piece together" all the complete details of a pool, another message appeared before his eyes.

--The detail completeness of the terrain visualized and created by the handsome and majestic Lord of the Castle is less than 5%. Do you allow the system to enable the Random Natural Creation Law to compensate for the missing parts? Once the system starts the Natural Creation Law to complete the construction, the handsome and majestic Lord of the Castle can make adjustments manually!

--Agree... Disagree

What else could he say? He had to "Agree." When Zhang Tie clicked the "Agree" button, the pale blue virtual pool image on the map finally solidified. It was exactly as he had imagined, even more natural and vivid than the pool in his "imagination," appearing in the upper left corner of the map. Looking at this phantom, Zhang Tie let out a long sigh. Although it hurt his pride, he had to admit that the system was much more reliable at this job than he was. He had been practicing the Heart-Punishing Divine Calculation these past few days, which also required visualizing an abacus. With his current ability, visualizing an abacus was barely manageable, but visualizing a pool? Forget it.

After the general terrain creation was determined, the so-called "manual" adjustment was much simpler. It was just a matter of operating the map, like kneading dough, to make rough adjustments to the "size," "width," "outline," and "position" of the pale blue phantom on the map. Other smaller details could not be handled "manually." Even so, the fun and convenience displayed by the Castle of Black Iron's "Space and Terrain Creation" function far exceeded Zhang Tie's best expectations by dozens of times. In Zhang Tie's eyes, this function turned the entire Castle of Black Iron into a super fun toy. It was just so damn interesting.

Zhang Tie was overjoyed and almost jumped up again, but before the smile on his face could reach his ears, a line of text appearing on the pale blue pool phantom instantly poured a bucket of cold water on his heated head.

--This terrain creation requires the consumption of the following resources:

Basic Energy Reserve--56879, Aura Value--6878, Merit Value--912--Create?

--Yes... No...

Create my ass. Looking at the basic energy reserve, Aura Value, and Merit Value on the basic attribute bar of the Castle of Black Iron, with those pitiful decimals that were too painful to look at, Zhang Tie almost burst into tears. At the current rate, even if he did all the chores at home—cooking, sweeping, laundry, and cleaning—he would only get about 3 Merit Value points a day. To gather those 912 Merit Value points, he would have to work like this at home for at least two years? The Aura Value was a bit better; those sprouting potatoes gave Zhang Tie a glimmer of hope. If he planted more things later, he shouldn't have to worry about Aura Value. As long as there were plants, this thing would grow steadily. But that basic energy reserve was truly soul-crushing—56879. It took about a pound of Fool's Gold thrown into the Pool of Chaos to get 0.2 units of basic energy reserve. 56879 units of basic energy reserve would mean he would need to throw at least 280,000 jin, or 28 tons, of Fool's Gold into the Pool of Chaos to convert that much energy.

The ruthless "reality" made Zhang Tie realize that the toy-like "Space and Terrain Creation" function of the Castle of Black Iron was not something he could afford to play with right now. The system of the Castle of Black Iron seemed to be following a strict law of "equivalent exchange." If he couldn't save up these resources, the system wouldn't care about him at all. Everything here required consuming various things and could only be obtained through tremendous effort. There was no such thing as a free lunch in the world, not even if he was the "handsome and majestic Lord of the Castle." This big toy was really not a fuel-efficient lamp!

Forget it, let's see what other functions are most reliable for him right now.

Closing the "Space and Terrain Creation" function, Zhang Tie clicked on "Biological and Species Management"...