Chapter 26: Chapter 26

If she kept up this level of strenuous activity, she’d need about five loaves of bread per day.

Wheat seeds could be planted, but the growth cycle was five days, which was a bit long. Bones from zombies could be made into bone meal to speed up wheat growth to just two days.

But if she decided to stop killing zombies, she’d need a much larger wheat field to meet her daily needs, and the seeds she had now were far from enough—she’d need to gather more.

She also wanted to find sheep, so she could collect wool and make a bed. With a bed, she could skip the nights quickly, saving trial time, and sleeping through the night meant her stamina wouldn’t drop.

But all of this required venturing out, which made it easy to get lost.

Mù Yíng quickly decided to abandon this mine and not treat it as a base she had to return to—then she wouldn’t have to worry about getting lost.

This mine was just something she’d dug on a whim, and she didn’t have much valuable stuff on her anyway. It was better to go look for wheat and sheep, gather enough seeds, and then find a suitable place nearby to settle down, relying on mining and farming to survive.

With her plans set, dawn began to break, and her trial time was coming to an end."

"The trial ended, and Mu Ying’s consciousness returned to her body. She sat up and stretched lazily.

The Myriad Worlds Trial was truly magical. Although the first trial world seemed rather ordinary, that didn’t mean all future worlds would be the same.

Besides, while there weren’t many items in the Block World worth exchanging for, as long as you were careful at night, there wasn’t much danger, and you could steadily earn Source Energy.

Once she had saved enough Source Energy, she could open up new trial worlds—surely, she’d come across something good eventually.

Moreover, the time difference between the trial worlds and reality meant it wouldn’t take up much of her real-world time. At worst, if her character died or she ran out of Source Energy to open new worlds, the Myriad Worlds Trial function would simply be disabled—it wouldn’t threaten her life.

It was still early. Mu Ying took out some paper and a pen and started drawing.

“Current: 680 Energy + 56 Silver, 27 Copper, totaling about 6,307 Energy.”

“To-do list:

1. Expand territory: 5,000 square meters costs 500 Energy; 1 hectare, 1,000 Energy; 2 hectares, 2,000 Energy; 3 hectares, 3,000 Energy…

2. Plantation: Add internal partitions and visual barriers to the territory shield—Energy cost: 300.

3. Increase the number of treehouse residences: Plan to add 50, Energy cost: 1,500.

4. Modify treehouse blueprints to allow for expansion—Energy cost: 1,000.

5. Adjust resident screening function—no Energy required.

6. Introduce other shops—Energy cost: ?”

Mu Ying listed out everything she needed to build and the required Energy. She needed to expand the territory again—2 hectares would be enough for now.

But to prevent too many people from gathering outside the territory shield, she decided to include the entire Moon Lake within her territory.

That meant she’d need 3 hectares.

As for the plantation, she’d use the patch of land at the camp entrance that had already been trampled bare—there were hardly any trees left, and even the soil had been compacted.

She planned to add a new function to the territory shield, allowing it to set up internal barriers within the territory to protect her plantation and block others’ line of sight. People inside could see out, but outsiders couldn’t see in.

With these upgrades, the territory would consume 50 Energy per day.

The treehouse residences were for newcomers to the territory. Since many people liked to share, she also modified the treehouse blueprints.

First, she added a function to reduce the overall weight of the treehouses. With this, the restrictions on expansion were much looser—residents could enlarge their homes or add extra floors as they wished.

Uniform treehouses didn’t look great, so, inspired by the territory shield, she added a feature allowing residents to adjust the shape and style of their treehouse without changing its fundamental structure.

These features were very useful, but also expensive. Upgrading the blueprints alone cost 1,000 Energy, but it would save a lot of trouble in the future.

As for the resident screening function, the territory shield already had it—she just hadn’t set it up before. Now, she planned to use it to target those who recklessly destroyed the forest.

Regarding shops, during her recent trip out, Mu Ying noticed that many pre-apocalypse items were decaying rapidly, and the general store’s goods were too miscellaneous and low-quality. She decided to focus on basic necessities. Fortunately, with the camp population reaching 100, many shops now met the requirements for introduction.

Mu Ying brought in a tavern, a bakery, a clothing store, a weapon shop, an armor shop, a furniture store, and a blacksmith.

Luckily, these shops didn’t require extra Energy—just a sufficient population.

Mu Ying calculated she’d need a total of 5,800 Energy. She kept three silver coins and converted the rest into Energy, totaling 6,107 Energy. She set aside 150 for the territory shield as a three-day reserve.

With her plans set, she carried her dinner out of the treehouse, sat on the platform with her legs dangling in the air, and quietly ate.

It wasn’t too late yet. Many people were outside, cooking over fires and chatting. Quite a few, like her, were sitting at their treehouse doors.

Under a distant tree, Nie Ying, who had been coughing from someone else’s campfire smoke, wiped her eyes and suddenly heard Zheng Jing say, “Hey, isn’t that Mu Ying sitting at the door of Treehouse No. 2?”

She quickly wiped her tears and looked over. “I think it is. Let’s go say hi!”

Seeing the two approach, Mu Ying smiled faintly. As she exchanged greetings with them, the mountaineering club group also spotted her. Just as Liu Luoluo waved at her, Mu Ying discreetly opened the territory construction menu and activated all the previously set construction projects.

Now came the real test of her acting skills.

She continued chatting as if nothing had happened. Nie Ying and her friend didn’t linger, just came to thank her and were about to leave when a commotion broke out nearby. They looked around, trying to see what was happening.

Mu Ying paused mid-sentence, puzzled, then seemed to realize something. She jumped down and stared at the dozens of treehouses taking shape, maintaining a look of surprise just like everyone else.

“New treehouses!”

“I want to rent one!”

“Huh? This one says a shop is moving in!”

“This one too!”

“This one’s available to rent, but what does ‘adjust house appearance and expand’ mean?”

The chatter was endless. Suddenly, someone noticed the camp gate had disappeared, and the area that used to be the entrance was now shrouded in white mist, making it impossible to see inside.

This change quickly drew everyone’s attention, and many people ran over to check it out.

Mu Ying joined the crowd, tried touching the white mist, and remarked curiously, “It feels like some kind of barrier? I can’t get in?”

“Where did the territory shield go?”

“I think I hear someone shouting over there?”

“Oh my god! The territory just expanded so much?”

“Hey, did you guys see what happened?”

“Don’t even mention it—we got pushed over here by that wall! So annoying!”

“I still have stuff inside! I need to get in—wait, why did the entrance fee go up?”