What followed was a scene of five burly men in baggy shorts grabbing assorted tools and going to town on the nearby trees!
In just half an hour, these five construction maniacs managed to bring down three strange trees, each so thick it took two people to wrap their arms around it, using nothing but Stone Age methods.
Not only that, Ma Lou put his knack for never leaving empty-handed to work, stripping every last vine from beneath the trees and pulling up all the dry thatch growing nearby.
Ding!
A notification appeared in all five of their fields of vision at once:
[Daily quest 1: The Deity's Sanctuary (material collection phase) completed!] [Please proceed to the designated area at the church to begin construction.]
"We've got enough materials! Move, move, move!"
Like bandits returning from a victorious raid, each of the five shouldered a heavy bundle of timber and vines and trudged back to the church's front entrance, huffing and puffing.
When they dumped the mountain of materials onto the open ground outside the church with a crash, Sivir, the nun who had been waiting there, was utterly dumbfounded.
The young girl rubbed her eyes, staring at the five believers drenched in sweat and covered in dirt and wood chips.
Deity above!
These believers, who could crush monsters so easily, had actually gone into the forest to chop wood for her?
And because they had no tools, they had used their noble hands to smash the wood loose, bit by bit!
Sivir's eyes reddened, and tears spilled down her cheeks like beads from a broken string.
She dropped to her knees with a thud, facing Lin En's statue inside the church as she prayed silently:
O great Lord of Ashes... your mercy shines like sunlight upon this humble servant...
Even if Sivir were ground to dust, she could never repay your kindness!
Lin En, seated on the altar: "..."
As he watched the little nun's hopelessly overblown devotion, the faith points Sivir contributed in the system's backend kept shooting upward, fueled by her overwhelming gratitude.
Lin En sighed inwardly.
Silly girl, what are you so touched about?
You think they're doing masonry work for you?
They're doing it for those ten Ash Coins I'm paying them-the money they need to resurrect!
The five players outside, meanwhile, could not hear a word of Sivir's silent prayers.
All they cared about right now was building a house and getting their hands on those Ash Coins.
"Old Ji, this game doesn't have a one-click building feature! How are we supposed to put this wood together?" Pure-Love Warrior stared helplessly at the materials scattered across the ground.
"What's there to worry about!"
[Ji Luo] slapped his thigh. "Even if we've never done it ourselves, we've seen how it's done!"
"You guys have seen those short videos of people building log cabins by hand or surviving in the wilderness for three hundred days, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!"
Ma Lou's eyes lit up. "I've watched that Bear Grylls guy, and those dudes digging swimming pools out of the mud!"
"It's just stacking blocks, isn't it? Let's get on with it!"
They got straight to work.
These five gaming addicts, who struggled even to change a light bulb in real life, somehow forced their ancestors' construction DNA to awaken in this supposedly one-hundred-percent immersive virtual world.
Without any nails or tools for mortise-and-tenon joints, they could only resort to the most primitive method: lashing everything together.
[Kindergarten Boss] became a human pile driver, clutching a large blue brick and pounding four holes into the open ground beside the church to serve as foundations.
[Passing Pure-Love Warrior], sporting his flashy white fur and muscles, hoisted the thick black wooden poles into the holes all by himself.
[Even Monkeys Have Dignity] made full use of his agility, climbing the trunks like an actual monkey and binding the crossbeams tightly with the tough vines they had pulled up.
As for their resident "fragile heartthrob," [I'm Not Jiahao]...
Having made his body far too scrawny, he stood below and passed thatch up to the others.
As he handed it over, he still found time to flick aside his annoying center-parted bangs and pontificate about the crooked frame:
"While our peers serve as cogs on assembly lines, we're reconstructing spatial order in the wilderness. This rugged aesthetic, brimming with postmodern deconstructivism!"
"It's just so... you know what I mean, right?"
"Know what, my ass! Hurry up and hand me that bundle of thatch! I've got a roof to lay!" Up on the roof, Ma Lou nearly missed his footing and swore in fright.
Time ticked by amid the bustling atmosphere of this "construction site."
By the afternoon, all five grown men were panting with exhaustion and drenched in sweat.
Their starter shorts were smeared with black mud and tree sap.
Just then, Sivir timidly emerged from the dilapidated temple.
In her hands was a rough water bowl that looked as though it had been fashioned from some wild beast's skull, filled with slightly murky well water.
"G-great emissaries..."
Blushing, Sivir carefully offered the bowl to the group sitting on the ground catching their breath, her voice barely louder than a mosquito's buzz.
"Thank you for all your hard work for Sivir. Please... please have some water."
[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] paused, then took the bowl, tilted his head back, and swallowed a large mouthful.
"Holy shit!"
His eyes flew wide open, and he wiped his mouth. "This water actually tastes a little sweet, with a hint of earthiness! This taste simulation is incredible!"
[Ji Luo] leaned over for a sip too, marveling repeatedly. "The real kicker is how insanely smart this NPC is! She even notices our stamina bars dropping and comes out on her own to bring us water?"
"With interaction logic like this, those supposedly revolutionary games on the market bragging about their AI engines aren't even fit to carry its shoes!"
Ma Lou's eyes darted as he sidled up to Sivir with a sly grin. "Hey, little miss, got any other smart interactions? Like handing out a hidden quest or something?"
As Ma Lou leaned closer with that face of his that practically screamed criminal, Sivir recoiled like a frightened rabbit, hastily backing away two steps.
"Get lost! Stop scaring the NPC with that face of yours. What if her affinity drops?"
[Ji Luo] kicked Ma Lou aside.
After resting for a while, they returned to work with tireless enthusiasm!
Toward evening, as the final bundle of thatch was tossed onto the roof, the five-man team's "masterpiece" was finally complete.
A "doghouse-style cabin," less than two meters tall, with all four corners at different heights and a thoroughly battle-damaged look, stood proudly in the wasteland's biting wind.
Its appearance certainly left a lot to be desired, but at least... it really was a shelter someone could crawl into.
[Ding!]
A crisp system chime rang out in all five of their minds at once.
[Daily quest 1: The Deity's Sanctuary completed!] [Evaluation: Although it looks like an illegal building that could collapse at any moment, it can just barely provide shelter from wind and rain.] [Quest rewards issued: EXP +50, Ash Coins +10!]
"Payday!!!"
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