Ed was very quick-witted and came up with a solution to the problem in a very short time.
Your home is gone, but I'll just get you a new one, won't that solve the problem?
Of course, this comes at a price. Since I've helped you build new homes, it shouldn't be a problem for you all to add a little vitality to the game environment under the bishop's protection, right?
So when he pointed out the specific location of the proposal, almost half of the villagers turned from worry to joy. Since they had no homes anyway, following the bishop and these seemingly capable and kind Elite Warrior didn't seem so bad.
The remaining few villagers were very hesitant, for a simple reason—their homes weren't yet in ruins, and if they went with Bishop Adrian, what would happen to their current homes?
But Ed didn't give them much time to think. This kind of opportunistic, no, timely help should be dealt with swiftly and decisively, and everyone should be given a unified story as soon as possible.
If these people are given too much time to think, things will inevitably become sluggish due to everyone's hesitation and indecisiveness.
From another perspective, Ed was also confident that he could make these villagers live a much better life than before. After all, the players would bring not only chaos, but also almost inexhaustible energy, which was a rare commodity in this half-dead world.
Ed was confident that if they agreed to relocate now, they would soon be living better than the villagers of Midstream Village.
When the time comes, the villagers in Midstream Village will be the ones who are both afraid that their brothers will suffer and afraid that their brothers will drive Land Rovers. In this comparison, these villagers will be more approving of today's decision.
Ed then glanced at the few hesitant individuals and continued:
"I am only suggesting that everyone relocate. If anyone does not want to go or if their house is still intact, of course they can stay. That is your freedom."
"However... the wilderness is fraught with danger. If monsters were to appear again, and neither Kaping nor my Elite Warrior were here, perhaps..."
Upon hearing this, the expressions on those people's faces immediately became quite interesting.
Because they realized another fact: they actually had no ability to protect themselves.
With the increasing severity of physical Aberration, the villagers of Upperstream Village and Midstream Village no longer have many areas where they can move freely without danger. If most of the villagers were to relocate to other places, the wild animals that were once afraid of human settlements might become bolder.
If monsters like the one they saw today were to appear again, they would truly be left with no one to turn to for help.
After weighing the pros and cons, the group, who had initially hesitated, ultimately decided that their lives were more important.
So when Ed shouted, "Those who want to come with me, pack your things, we're leaving in half an hour!" all the villagers sprang into action.
The villagers who had lost their homes returned to the ruins and began digging, while those whose homes had not collapsed began searching for valuables.
Ed, seeing the players idly watching the game, had a sudden inspiration and assigned a new task:
[Short-term task - Material recycling:]
Quest Description: The villagers of Upperstream Village have agreed to relocate, but we don't have enough materials to build them a new home. There are always some recyclable items in the post-battle ruins; if you can find them, the guide will offer a reasonable price. After accepting the quest, please activate the vision assist function to quickly identify suitable materials and pile them up nearby or bring them back to the castle.
Task deadline: No time limit, until no materials can be recycled from the old site of the Upperstream Village.
Task Reward: 5 copper coins for each piece of qualified material.
After a brief moment of thought, the players immediately understood the current situation.
What's this?
Picking up trash!
As we all know, scavenging is an essential part of this type of game.
Since this was something that had been expected, the players naturally had no resistance to it. After accepting the task, they quickly found the so-called auxiliary function in the player panel.
Some semi-transparent dotted lines appeared in front of me. Although they were not completely filled in yet, I could vaguely tell that they were the types of wood used to build houses and some basic furniture.
The damage the wooden house monster had caused to the village was considerable, and large pieces of wood were now hard to find. The group could only search for not-so-small fragments by following the dotted lines. As long as the fragments were larger than the size described by the dotted boxes, they could be cut up and reused.
Several resourceful players quickly devised a plan: they intended to first stack the suitable timber together, and as for transportation... they all remembered that there was a nearly broken-down carriage at the castle that could barely free them from labor.
Having grasped the general situation, the players threw themselves into the new task of picking up trash. Even [ Pond Fish and Old Abyss ], who had been pretending to be dead on the ground, was helped up to pick up trash together, since she had just missed a task. The atmosphere among the players was very united and friendly.
Seeing that the villagers and players were all busy with their own things, Ed turned his gaze to the few vine-covered rice dumplings still wriggling on the ground.
As the strongest and least injured captain, Duolin was undoubtedly the most active among the zombies.
Seeing Ed looking this way through the gaps in the vines, he once again mustered all his strength and began to wriggle, trying to attract Ed's attention.
And he did achieve his goal; Ed actually came over!
This time, he's determined to make things clear!
The vine stuffed into his mouth was pulled out, instantly relieving Duolin's tense jaw. The soreness caused by the muscle tension surged up, causing his mouth to repeatedly open and close to relieve the pressure.
"Sir... perhaps there's some misunderstanding between us..."
Duolin looked at the boy in front of him. He did feel a sense of pressure from the boy. Although the boy was much younger than him and not much stronger, he still felt a natural awe towards him.
He had only ever felt this way with those at the highest levels of the church, which was why he had never doubted that the boy in front of him was an apostate.
As a devout follower of the Tree Worship Church, Duolin firmly believed that only those who truly believed in the Tree God could exude such an aura, so after saying his first words, he calmly met Ed's gaze.
Is it a misunderstanding?
Ed shook his head, a cruel expression on his face:
"Looks like you're still not planning to say anything."