Wooden Hut Upgraded to Level 3, Becoming a 'Stone House'

The moment he decided, he acted. He immediately descended the City Wall and headed toward the Wooden Hut outside the city that served as a warehouse.

Once the building "Wooden Hut" had been constructed, it could not be moved.

There was no longer enough space inside the city. If the Wooden Hut expanded after being upgraded and could no longer fit, who knew what would happen? Would it fuse into the City Wall, or shatter outright? He had no desire to experiment.

Upgrading the Wooden Hut to Level 2 required only 10 Eerie Stones.

He crushed 10 Eerie Stones.

Milky-white liquid flowed through the air, and the phantom of a Wooden Hut made of white lines emerged once more. The instant the milky-white liquid flowed into it, the hut did not grow larger. Instead, its wooden structure began to grow, gaining several stone components.

The whole structure looked sturdier and more solid.

A panel also popped up before him.

"Wooden Hut upgraded to Level 2, becoming sturdier."

"Please select an upgrade path."

"1: Peaceful sleep."

"2: Tranquil mind."

"3: Increased chance of pregnancy. Ineffective against Strange Entities."

"..."

Chen Fan gazed calmly at the panel before him. To be honest, he had originally thought this building might be like Farmland, with no upgrade paths.

Eternal Night had descended hundreds of years ago.

Ghost Beings ravaged the human world.

Yet the people of this world had not gone extinct. Perhaps the Wooden Hut had played a part in that too. If one had a fixed territory and a fixed population, choosing the third upgrade path would effectively raise the population's birth rate.

He chose Tranquil Mind.

For a warehouse, this was one of the few useful upgrade paths.

At the very least, it ensured one could be a little more at peace when entering or leaving the warehouse.

He took out another 20 Eerie Stones and upgraded the Wooden Hut to Level 3.

The Wooden Hut changed again. Not a trace of wood remained; it had completely transformed into a Stone House. Its defensive capabilities and ability to shield against wind and rain visibly rose, and it changed from a single floor into two stories.

It had two floors in total, rising higher than the City Wall.

He had been transported into this unfamiliar world for some time now.

From the unease of the beginning, he had gradually adapted.

At least—

He somewhat liked the underlying rules of this world.

As long as you worked hard, you would definitely gain something.

As long as you used Eerie Stones to strengthen a building, that building would certainly improve. The sense of security brought by such certainty was rare. In his previous life, working hard did not guarantee rewards. Many times, he could only stare blankly at the mirror, wondering why luck never favored him.

Then he would fall asleep without finding an answer.

Day after day, year after year.

"Wooden Hut upgraded to Level 3, becoming a 'Stone House,' becoming sturdier."

"Please select an upgrade path."

"1: Increased area, with optional functional rooms such as a kitchen, toilet, bathroom, and more."

"2: Blessed with the 'Dustless Formation,' ensuring the interior remains dust-free."

"3: Blessed with the 'Shadow-Viewing Formation.' The lord may inspect everything happening in every corner of the house at any time."

Three renovation paths.

One was lavish furnishing, one was whole-house cleaning, and one was whole-house surveillance.

All were good choices for improving one's quality of life.

He chose the third upgrade path.

For a warehouse, he did not need dustlessness for now. The Shadow-Viewing Formation might be better.

"..."

He stood outside the camp and looked at the two-story Stone House before him. After reaching Level 3, this Wooden Hut had undergone an earth-shaking transformation. If the camp had looked rather crude before, then with this Stone House added to it, it now looked far more impressive.

More like a human settlement.

There was currently no toilet in the camp.

But on the Wasteland, toilets were like nettles—the most useless things of all.

He did not upgrade it any further.

This experiment had already consumed quite a few Eerie Stones. He only had 269 left. When his supply was a little more abundant later, he would see what a Level 4 Wooden Hut would be like—oh, a Level 4 Stone House.

Just like the Arrow Fort.

It counted as a qualitative transformation.

He was gradually coming to understand the Builder's traits. Most buildings would undergo a qualitative change upon reaching a certain stage. For example, Beast Traps became Ground Spikes, Arrow Towers became Arrow Forts, and Wooden Huts became Stone Houses.

But that stage was not fixed.

Some changed at Level 2, some at Level 3, and some at Level 4.

Each had its own strengths.

He felt himself gradually beginning to like this world. He somewhat liked the idea of slowly building a little piece of heaven for himself here, then happily living out the rest of his life in his own camp.

"..."

Chen Fan walked up to the City Wall, his expression dazed as he gazed into the distance.

For some reason, he felt that his emotions were somewhat unsettled today.

Perhaps it was because—

Ever since arriving in this world, he had constantly been in tense circumstances, with no time to think too much. Today, the thoughts he had kept suppressed could no longer be contained and began to surge.

One of Zhou Mo's men had died yesterday.

He had not even had the chance to ask that man's name. He only remembered a young, dark-skinned boy, whose clean-shaven chin was dark blue-green. He had seen Zhou Mo use a Great Knife to shave that boy's stubble.

No one in the camp mentioned it again. There was no simple funeral, nor did anyone ask about it. The camp continued operating as usual.

Perhaps everyone was accustomed to death.

Or perhaps they all knew they were in the most critical moment of their lives and did not wish to shake morale.

Someone had to die.

No one could live forever.

During the night talks a few days ago, Zhou Mo, Wang Kui, and the others had all spoken of their dreams. He had said nothing. In truth, he... had no dreams. He simply wanted to build a camp safe enough to live in forever.

He had no interest in saving the world or ruling all beneath heaven.

Even if he became the world's sole king, so what? He would still have to manage so many people. He might not even live as happily as he did now.

This world was quite nice.

At the very least, he had found its people rather decent. He felt that he had not really encountered any bad people: the blue-robed man who had first told him key information about the Wasteland, Wang Kui who had delivered the first batch of food and water, Zhou Mo who had wanted to risk his life to protect the camp soon after meeting him, and Crippled Monkey, who had followed him with unwavering loyalty.

He felt that everyone was quite good.

If he had to name a dream.

Then it would be to build a safe camp and protect everyone well. Everyone trusted him so much, and he did not want to watch familiar people die one after another.

That would be enough.

As for Wang Mazi's subordinate, who had secretly hoarded Eerie Stones.

He could actually understand.

When the man had first joined the camp, those stones had been his savings accumulated over many years. Wanting to keep a little for himself was only human nature. Later, when the camp faced danger and he wanted to take them out, there was already no way to do so.

He had been caught between a rock and a hard place.

It was like taking a road that could only be followed into darkness.

That was Chen Fan's guess.

After all, when he had stood atop the City Wall, he had seen Wang Mazi's subordinate struggle intensely. The boy's youthful face had shifted constantly in the rainy night. At the time, he had thought the young boy was agonizing over whether to volunteer to leave the city.

Now it seemed that he had been struggling over whether to hand them over.

Before he could decide, Zhou Mo had leapt out of the city.

Then the Meatworm Wraith Tide had retreated.