Chapter 49: Chapter 49

A purple-black figure was slowly fading away in the sunlight.

When did this person get here? And how did they disappear so suddenly?

He was clearly not a zombie—zombies disappeared in flames, burned up by sunlight. This person seemed to vanish on his own.

His head shape was different from others, probably because he was wearing a purple-black hat.

There was an ID tag above his head, proving he was a native of the block world, but the tag was just a jumble of garbled text, impossible to read.

Muying pushed her questions aside and continued running toward the village."

"The village was as lifeless as ever. Mu Ying handed the shattered dungeon core to the village chief.

This time, the chief did something he hadn’t done before.

He pulled out five bloodstained villager contracts from who-knows-where, placed the dungeon core on top of them, and soon, the core fused into the contracts.

The contracts became clean again.

Mu Ying took the contracts.

[Villager Contract (Wang Fugui)]

[Function: A contract containing the soul core of ordinary villager Wang Fugui. Can be used to manage and control villagers. If the villager dies, they can be resurrected from the contract, up to once per day.]

[Physical Conversion: Not convertible]

[Source Energy Conversion: Not convertible]

[Villager Contract (Li Ergou)]

[Villager Contract (Zhao Guihua)]

[Villager Contract (Qian Daren)]

[Villager Contract (Wang Mazi)]

With a whoosh, five blocky villagers appeared beside Mu Ying.

Li Ergou: “Chief, chief, I’m hungry. Is there anything to eat?”

Zhao Guihua: “Me too, me too! Once I’m full, I can go farm. My wheat always yields ten percent more than anyone else’s.”

Wang Fugui: “Hehe, chief, what’s the name of our village again?”

Qian Daren: “I want to eat meat.”

Wang Mazi: “Meat!”

Mu Ying: “…”

The previously quiet block world suddenly became noisy, and she was a bit unaccustomed to it.

“You’re calling me chief?”

“Of course! Whoever holds our contracts is our chief. As long as you keep us fed, we’ll do whatever you say!”

Mu Ying looked at the five nearly identical blocky villagers. They seemed much livelier than the others, no longer repeating stiff, mechanical actions—they could even talk now.

With five more mouths to feed, she soon had to share a good chunk of her bread.

While the villagers ate, Mu Ying went to the librarian and exchanged 20 gold ingots for another enchanted book.

[Enchanted Book (Strength)]

[Function: Enchants tools or weapons to reduce stamina consumption during use.]

[Physical Conversion: 100 source energy per book]

[Item Description: Use on equipment to add a “Strength +3” effect.]

[Source Energy Conversion: Not convertible]

The strength enchantment book was useful whether she used it in the block world or converted it for use elsewhere.

But she was reluctant to use it here—after all, stamina could be replenished with food, and now she had five villagers to help her. All the wheat seeds she’d been saving could finally be planted.

With proper arrangements, food wouldn’t be a problem.

The real issue was the scarcity of gold ore—who knew when she’d have enough for another exchange.

Mu Ying led her villagers home.

Once they reached her mine, she carved out five rooms for them inside the hollowed-out mountain.

Then she sent Zhao Guihua and Qian Daren to farm—the wheat fields needed expanding—and Wang Mazi to chop wood in the forest.

Li Ergou and Wang Fugui followed her underground to mine.

The long tunnels near the dungeon’s stone house were filled with exposed ore—a true mining paradise.

Coal blocks were everywhere, there was plenty of iron, and she even found a few pieces of gold ore.

As the day drew to a close, Mu Ying set down a single bed and went to sleep.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw that purple-black figure by her side once more.

Still lying in bed, Mu Ying didn’t move. The purple-black figure lingered even longer than the day before before finally disappearing.

It seemed, like the zombies, it couldn’t appear during the day—not just because of sunlight, but sunlight did speed up their demise.

Only the room where the dungeon core had been was an exception.

The dungeon core seemed able to protect the zombies through the daylight hours.

“Huh? Where are Ergou and Fugui?”

The two miners were gone from the tunnel. Mu Ying had wanted to see if they could keep mining while she slept.

She checked the contracts—her five villagers were all dead.

She quickly revived them.

Wang Fugui: “Waaah, that was terrifying! The evil wizard came again!”

Zhao Guihua: “I was just walking to the cave with Daren, then suddenly I didn’t know anything.”