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

Without further delay, he headed down from the City Wall and walked toward the Wooden Hut outside the walls that served as a warehouse.

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

There was already too little space inside the walls. If upgrading the Wooden Hut inside made it too large to fit, he had no idea what would happen. Would it fuse with the City Wall, or simply shatter? He had no intention of experimenting.

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

He crushed ten Eerie Stones.

Milky-white liquid flowed through the air, and the phantom outline of a Wooden Hut formed from white lines appeared again. The moment the liquid flowed into it, the Wooden Hut did not grow in size. Instead, its wooden structure began to expand, with some stone components appearing.

Overall, it looked sturdier and more solid.

A panel also appeared before him.

-

"Wooden Hut upgraded to Level 2. Sturdiness increased."

"Please select an upgrade path."

"1: Peaceful sleep."

"2: Peace of mind."

"3: Increased chance of pregnancy. Ineffective on strange entities."

-

"..."

Chen Fan calmly studied the panel before him. Honestly, he had expected this building to have no upgrade paths, just like the "Farmland."

Eternal night had descended hundreds of years ago.

Ghost beings had ravaged the world.

Yet the people of this world had not died out. Perhaps this "Wooden Hut" played a part in that, too. With a permanent territory and a settled population, choosing the third upgrade path would effectively increase the birth rate.

He chose peace of mind.

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

At least it would ensure a little peace of mind when entering and leaving the warehouse.

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

The Wooden Hut changed again. Not a single wooden component remained; it had completely transformed into a Stone House. Both its defenses and its ability to shelter against wind and rain had visibly improved, and it had gone from one story to two.

It now had two floors and stood taller than the City Wall.

Some time had passed since he had crossed over into this unfamiliar world.

From his initial unease, he had gradually begun to adapt.

At least...

He rather liked the underlying rules of this world.

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

As long as you spent Eerie Stones to strengthen a building, that building would definitely improve. The sense of security that certainty brought was precious. In his previous life, hard work had not always paid off. Often, he could only stare blankly into the mirror, wondering why luck never favored him.

He would fall asleep without finding an answer.

Day after day, year after year.

-

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

"Please select an upgrade path."

"1: Increased floor space, with optional rooms such as a kitchen, toilet, and bathroom."

"2: Apply a 'Dustless Formation' to keep the interior free of dust."

"3: Apply a 'Shadow-Viewing Formation,' allowing the lord to view what is happening in every corner of the house at any time."

-

Three renovation options.

One offered deluxe fittings, one offered whole-house cleaning, and one offered whole-house surveillance.

All were good choices for improving his quality of life.

He chose the third upgrade path.

For a warehouse, he had no need for dust prevention just yet. The Shadow-Viewing Formation might be a little better.

"..."

Standing outside the Camp, he looked at the two-story Stone House before him. After reaching Level 3, the Wooden Hut had undergone a complete transformation. If the Camp had looked rather shabby before, the addition of this Stone House made it look considerably more respectable.

It looked more like a human settlement.

There was currently no toilet in the Camp.

But out in the Wasteland, toilets were just like nettles: utterly useless.

He did not upgrade it any further.

This experiment had already cost him quite a few Eerie Stones. He only had 269 left. Once he had a few more to spare, he would see what a Level 4 Wooden Hut could do. No, a Level 4 Stone House.

Just like the "Arrow Fort."

It had undergone a qualitative change.

He was gradually coming to understand the characteristics of a Builder. Most buildings would undergo a qualitative change when upgraded to a certain stage, such as a "Beast Trap" becoming "Ground Spikes," an "Arrow Tower" becoming an "Arrow Fort," or a "Wooden Hut" becoming a "Stone House."

But that stage was not fixed.

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

Each had its own merits.

He felt himself gradually growing fond of this world. He rather liked slowly building a little haven of his own here, then happily spending the rest of his life in his Camp.

"..."

Chen Fan walked up onto the City Wall and gazed absently toward the horizon.

For some reason, he felt a little emotional today.

Perhaps it was because...

Ever since crossing over, he had been in such tense circumstances that he had no time to think about much else. Today, the thoughts he had kept suppressed began to surge beyond his control.

One of Zhou Mo's Subordinates had died yesterday.

He had not even had the chance to ask the man's name. All he remembered was a dark-skinned young man whose clean-shaven chin had a bluish-black tinge. He had seen Zhou Mo shave the young man's stubble with the Great Knife.

No one in the Camp mentioned it again. There was no simple funeral, and no one asked about it. The Camp continued to function as usual.

Perhaps everyone was used to death.

Or perhaps everyone knew they were at the most dangerous point in their lives and did not want to undermine morale.

Someone always had to die.

No one would live forever.

During their nighttime conversation a few days ago, Zhou Mo, Wang Kui, and the others had all spoken about their dreams. He had said nothing. In truth, he... did not have much of a dream. He only wanted to build a safe enough Camp, then keep living there. That would be enough.

He had little interest in saving the world or conquering it.

So what if he became the world's only King? He would still have to manage all those people. He might not even be as happy as he was now.

This world was pretty good.

At least he had found the people decent. He felt he had hardly met anyone bad: the Green-Robed Man who had first told him crucial information about the Wasteland, Wang Kui who had brought the first batch of food and water, Zhou Mo who had been ready to sacrifice himself to protect the Camp shortly after they met, and Crippled Monkey who had followed him loyally all along.

He thought they were all good people.

If he had to name a dream...

Then it was to build a safe Camp where he could protect everyone properly. They all trusted him so much, and he did not want to watch familiar faces die one after another.

That would be enough.

As for Wang Mazi's Subordinate who had hidden his Eerie Stones...

He could actually understand him completely.

When he first joined the Camp, those had been his savings from years of effort, after all. Wanting to keep a little for himself was only human. Later, when the Camp was in danger and he wanted to hand them over, he could no longer do so.

He had backed himself into a corner.

It was as though he had no choice but to keep going down the same road.

That was Chen Fan's guess.

After all, while standing on the City Wall, he had seen how deeply conflicted Wang Mazi's Subordinate was. The young man's boyish face had shifted repeatedly in the rainy night. At the time, Chen Fan had thought the boy was struggling to decide whether to volunteer to go outside the walls.

Now, it seemed he had been struggling to decide whether to hand over the stones.

Before he could make up his mind, Zhou Mo had jumped out of the city.

After that, the meatworm wraith tide had retreated.