Chapter 50: Chapter 50

Wang Mazi: “So hungry. I got some pork yesterday—can I eat it?”

Li Ergou: “All you ever think about is eating!”

“What’s this about an evil wizard?” Mu Ying stopped the bickering and pulled Wang Fugui aside.

“The evil wizard controls people’s souls, leaving only empty shells to repeat what they did in life. He chops up souls and imprisons them in the dungeon core, turning them into zombies.

I was killed by him early on, so I saw what he looked like—he wears a weird purple-black robe, a hat that covers most of his head, and carries a stick. He waved it and killed Ergou with a green light, then waved again and I died too.

If you didn’t have our contracts, we’d probably have been captured again.

Chief, you have to keep our contracts safe. I don’t want to be chopped up and turned into a stinky zombie.”

A bunch of pixelated blocks—how did he even know it was a robe? Mu Ying was speechless, but got back to business.

“So you’re saying the stiff villagers in the village are like that because the evil wizard stole their souls?”

Wang Fugui nodded vigorously.

The others seemed to know about it too and all agreed.

No wonder—even for game NPCs, those villagers had been way too mechanical.

Mu Ying looked at her five subordinates. Could the dungeon core she smashed have been controlling their souls?

Were all those zombies actually them?

That evil wizard sure was efficient—five villagers could make so many zombies.

There were still plenty of people in the village, so there must be other dungeon cores. No wonder the chief still had the option to exchange the core for contracts.

Once she rescued all the villagers, could she just lie around every day and have endless materials delivered to her?

Wouldn’t source energy be at her fingertips?

Mu Ying was intrigued. She stopped mining and took everyone back to the cave to ask more about this world.

She’d thought this was a rigid, game-like world, but the five villagers in front of her proved otherwise.

She needed to set aside her old assumptions and get to know this world anew.

Wang Fugui and Zhao Guihua were the smartest of the five.

“In the past, there was never any danger, day or night.

The village always had the same people, but we never lacked food or clothing. We got tired of eating bread, and no one ever experienced death.

Until one day, the village wizard went mad, saying we were all frogs at the bottom of a well, trapped in this tiny world.

Not long after, he said he was wrong—that he alone was the pitiful frog, and we were the well that trapped him.

To escape, he created dungeon cores to control us.

When he tried to steal the chief’s contracts, the chief sensed it and destroyed the wizard’s contract ahead of time.

From then on, the wizard lost the world’s protection, became afraid of the light, and couldn’t resurrect anymore.

But the wizard’s powers were strange—he kept sending zombies to attack the village, and the chief couldn’t escape either.

But he said a new chief would come to save us in the future—and that’s you.

Oh, chief, you haven’t named our village yet!”

“…” Mu Ying was “moved” by Fugui’s persistence. “Let’s call it Greenhill Village.”

“Great, great! Greenhill Village, what a good name!”

“Good name!”

“Nice!”

Faced with a group of villagers who couldn’t even come up with new words to flatter her, Mu Ying could only force a smile and send them off to work."

"A new day began, and as usual, Mu Ying was the first to wake up.

The moment she opened her eyes, she sensed something different.

The rustling sound outside had stopped, and the birds were lively again, chirping nonstop.

Mu Ying sat up with a start and pushed open the window by her bed.

Sure enough, the rain had stopped. Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, casting its glow on the morning mist in the forest.

Counting the days, today marked exactly one month since the apocalypse game went online. The rain had stopped today as well. That time Aisha mentioned the end of the newbie period—could it be today?

Mu Ying shivered with anticipation. She quickly injected some energy into the territory shield, activating its maximum defense.

A few days ago, she had already upgraded the shield to withstand level 5 attacks, but keeping the defense that high cost about 100 energy points per day.

The zombies weren’t even at level 1, so keeping the shield on high was just a waste before.

But today, something might change. It was better to be safe.

Fortunately, her territory’s daily income could easily cover the energy cost.

Mu Ying hurriedly changed into her robe and headed out with Yuan Gungun.

The territory looked completely different from before the rain.

The Ophiopogon seeds she’d sown two days ago had all sprouted, their green leaves carpeting the land, and flower buds were already forming on the new shoots.

Among the Ophiopogon, several small vegetable patches were fenced off with dry branches.

Inside grew all sorts of strange fruits and vegetables: glowing cucumbers, tomato trees, bursting chives, ringed string beans… Each one looked plump and vibrant, truly delightful.

Mu Ying casually picked two large tomatoes, wiped them on her sleeve, tossed one to Yuan Gungun, and took a bite of the other herself.

The sweet and tangy juice filled her mouth, and after finishing one tomato, she was almost full.

As she walked, she observed the trees in her territory. Over the past few days, they’d grown as if on steroids—now each one was so big it would take two people to encircle it.

They were in excellent condition.

Whenever she used Nature’s Sight on them, she saw nothing but jubilant green mist swirling everywhere.

Now that the rain had stopped, they couldn’t keep growing explosively, and the natural energy around them had stabilized a lot.