"Excuse me, who is Sun Chen?"

Wu Zhen and Ding Yu followed Ye Miao's instructions and found the campfire, and asked carefully.

Sun Chen was eating the lamb skewers his friend had given him. He looked up when he heard the voice and asked, "I am...what's up?"

"Well, that's it..." Wu Zhen quickly phrased himself and explained the whole story. Sun Chen was delighted: "Boss, you bought new farmland so quickly?!"

"It looks like that." Ding Yu said.

"Great!" Sun Chen was overjoyed, and then said, "If you want to farm, let's come together! We can also go picking in a group. But I have to warn you up front, picking can be dangerous. You'd better have some combat skills, or increase your agility. Otherwise, it will be difficult to deal with high-level monsters."

"Yes, yes, yes." The couple nodded and showed the attribute panel. Sun Chen took a look and saw that one of them had combat skills level 46 and the other had combat skills level 42. Not only were they better fighters than him, they could even be ranked at the top in the entire settlement.

As for planting skills, Ding Yu's level 37 is quite acceptable, and Wu Zhen's level 6... It's about the level that the system will judge a primary school student to be after he or she has planted some flowers and plants at home with a relatively serious attitude.

But since there was some basic farmland suitable for beginners to level up, Sun Chen didn't mind taking him with him. Out of kindness, he couldn't help but persuade him, "Your monster-killing yield will be higher. Are you sure you want to farm with me?"

"If it's convenient for you here, we would like to farm with you." Wu Zhen said firmly.

Ding Yu explained softly, "I have a child. Fighting monsters is too dangerous. What if something goes wrong..."

"I understand." Sun Chen understood and stopped persuading them. He agreed to let them join and discussed the wages.

Previously, their picking team consisted of only him, Su Xinran, and Lu Weiwei, all veterans who had joined the territory when it was first established. They had a simple and friendly relationship, sharing the harvest equally, whether it was picking or farming. Su Xinran and Lu Weiwei, knowing they were not as good as him in rank, would sometimes ask him to take more, which he accepted. Everyone was very amicable.

But as the team grew, Sun Chen knew he couldn't rely on such "harmonious" behavior forever. It would be better to negotiate the price directly to avoid unnecessary conflicts. So he said, "The farming wages are 30 gold per person per day. If we have more farmland later, we can increase it. As for picking, if you come along, the wages will be increased by 20 per person, but you have to hand in what you pick. Is that okay?"

"Sure, sure!" Ding Yu agreed repeatedly.

50 gold coins wouldn't be enough for a meal outside, but here, prices are low, so 50 gold coins is a lot.

Sun Chen nodded. "That's it, then. Let's meet at the farmland tomorrow morning. First, plant the fields, then go out to pick the fruits. Remember to eat well, as both tasks require a lot of energy."

"Okay, thank you!" The couple walked away contentedly with light steps.

Sun Chen smiled at their backs. Su Xinran, who was sitting next to him, asked, "Let's discuss Yi Hua's wages. You've been doing most of the work, so we've been taking advantage of you."

"Hey, it's okay. You even gave me a sika deer." Sun Chen shrugged nonchalantly. "From now on, the two of you will be shareholders of our small team. We'll pay the others their wages, and the remaining profits will be divided equally among the three of us."

He paused and said, "But... the boss has bought some new land, and just the two of them might not be enough to help. I'm planning to hire a few more people. Is that okay with you?"

"Okay, hiring more people will help the farmland be taken care of faster, which means we'll have more time to pick the fruits. It's worth it," Lu Weiwei said. "You make the decision."

"Okay." Seeing that they had no objection, Sun Chen began to think seriously, and quickly calculated in his mind how many more people to hire.

Wu Zhen just said that Ye Miao bought 50 pieces of primary farmland and 10 pieces of intermediate farmland, each piece of farmland is 1 square meter, adding up to a total of 60 square meters.

If it were before the end of the world, 60 square meters of farmland would be nothing to worry about. It could be quickly managed with the help of various modern agricultural equipment.

But after the apocalypse, the first thing that happened was that all the modern equipment was useless. On the one hand, many things had been directly destroyed by monsters, and on the other hand, everyone moved to the territory with their families, and it was lucky to be able to bring pots and pans with them. Who would think of stuffing a farm vehicle in their backpack?

Secondly, farming in the end times seems to be the same as before, but it is actually completely different.

Similar to farming in the apocalypse, you also need to sow, loosen the soil, water, and remove insects. Previous farming experience also directly affects your planting skill level, which in turn directly affects your planting success rate, harvest, and operation speed. However, when you actually do it, you feel like you're being controlled by your body. The operation methods are fixed, and a progress bar will appear above. When the progress bar runs out, the operation is complete.

Sun Chen's observations over the past few days show that each task in the primary farmland takes between 5 and 10 minutes, with the specific duration varying depending on the farmland's level. Assuming a 7-minute count, since sowing only takes place on the first day and can be ignored, loosening the soil, watering, and pest control take 28 minutes. For 50 plots of primary farmland, that's 1,400 minutes, or about 23 hours.

If the work is divided evenly among five people, each person will have to work for about four and a half hours, or possibly even longer, which means there won't be much time for picking.

This time must be shortened by at least half, so Sun Chen decided to recruit five more people first. If everyone's planting skills are very low, he will add two more.

Settlement reception hall.

After Ye Miao treated the business team to a meal and cleared the farmland and built houses, he went to the reception hall to issue an announcement, informing everyone that the newly built houses were available for purchase.

Shortly after the announcement was made, a series of notifications popped up, announcing the successful sale of the house. A few minutes later, Ye Miao saw another pop-up window.

"Player [Sun Chen] has applied to publish an announcement. Is it approved?"

Scroll down to see the details of the announcement:

[Sun Chen] Recruiting gathering team members, daily salary, 20 gold/day, priority given to those with gathering skills above level 20; recruiting farming team members, daily salary, 30 gold/day, priority given to those with planting skills above level 20.

Not bad.

Ye Miao pressed "Allow Publish" and smiled with relief. The members, each leveraging their strengths to build their own industries and teams, was exactly what she wanted. This way, in the later stages, the members wouldn't need her to worry about them anymore, and the various functions needed for the territory would become increasingly complete.

Sun Chen's announcement unexpectedly triggered a chain reaction. Many players only remembered that the reception hall had such a function after seeing the announcement. After suddenly realizing it, they ran to the reception hall and posted their needs.

[Zhang Tingting] Recruiting combat team members for joint operations. Loot distribution is negotiable. Warriors and priests are preferred.

[Xinlu] Recruiting logistics members (pharmacists, chefs), price negotiable.

[Tan Kening] Recruit combat team members, the drops are evenly distributed, and long-range mages and assassins are given priority.

Ren Guoqing is recruiting members for a business trip. Commission is negotiable. Please bring your own stamina potion and backpack.

…

Without exception, Ye Miao pressed the "agree" button, and then returned to his residence to think about Chu Cheng's idea.

Chu Cheng said that there is an unwritten rule among the territories that caravans cannot be killed. Even territories that regard hunting players as their main way of survival cannot take action against caravans. Otherwise, once the news spreads, they will easily be regarded as mortal enemies by other territories.

This rule makes sense, as most territories are primarily focused on combat, rather than developing comprehensively like Ye Miao. Over time, due to the limited number of members, it's difficult to shift gears and address shortcomings, leading to a shortage of supplies. Merchant players are a crucial way to replenish these supplies.

However, traders were rare. Ye Miao was striving for balanced development, and Ren Guoqing seemed to be the only full-time trader in the territory. Therefore, traders were a rare resource, more precious than pandas.

Chu Cheng suggested that she send the passing merchant groups to the Fearless Settlement to spread the good news about her place, and attract the non-core members of the Fearless Settlement. This would weaken the Fearless Settlement's strength, and on the other hand, avoid accidentally killing innocent people who did not want to be her enemy.

Ye Miao thought this idea was not feasible at first, because the Fearless Settlement was very powerful now, so why would their members want to come here?

Chu Cheng pointed in the direction of the market and said to her: That market alone would be like a paradise if it were placed anywhere else.

Ye Miao opened his mouth, but was unable to refute.

Indeed. Her small market now boasts a rich selection of products at affordable prices, and every night, a warm, bustling atmosphere fills the air. Such a beautiful and comfortable life is rare in the apocalypse; it truly is paradise.

Seeing her wavering, Chu Cheng struck while the iron was hot: "If you're willing, leave this matter to me. I'll go talk to the merchant team, how about that?"

Ye Miao lay on the bed in the bedroom, thinking deeply for a long time, and finally sent him a message: "I agree with your method. Let's complete it as soon as possible while the Fearless Settlement has not yet recovered."

In another brick house a few meters away, Chu Cheng felt relieved upon receiving the news and replied casually, "Okay, don't worry."

After receiving the reply, Ye Miao closed the dialog box, touched the blind box on the bedside table, opened it, carefully placed it on the ground, and pressed "Activate".

After a flash of white light, a young girl appeared in front of him. She had pale skin, chestnut hair tied into a high ponytail, and was wearing a set of dark red tight-fitting soft armor. She looked very capable in fighting.

The panel displays:

[Name: Brave and combative female NPC (players can change the name)]

[Quality: Purple (Drop Rate 14%)]

[Health: 3000, Mana: 4700]

[Battle Skill: Level 60, Animal Taming Skill: Level 21, Alchemy Skill: Level 19]

[Skills already possessed: Red Fire (You can use skill cards to learn more skills)]

[Description: If the enemy encounters her, it is their bad luck...]

This is a combat NPC. Judging from its attributes and skills, it should be a ranged mage.

Ye Miao smacked his lips.

If this attribute was placed before upgrading the settlement, she might be very excited. Because at that time there were not many players in the territory who could fight, it would be very cool to go out and kill monsters with such an NPC.

But after upgrading the settlement, not only did the five powerful archers from Chu Cheng's team join, but there were also new members with high combat skills. At this time, a purple-quality NPC dropped... Ye Miao felt that he was lucky, but not completely lucky.

So Ye Miao lazily told the new NPC: "Your name will be Xiaomei."

Then he let Xiaomei live with Sister Jin first, and planned to build a house for Xiaomei tomorrow.

The night passed silently. According to Ye Miao's previous inference, the next day should be the day for the event switch, but when he woke up the next morning, he didn't hear any system notifications from Panpan. Instead, there were several more notifications about the successful sale of the house.

So everything in the settlement was normal. After breakfast, the members went to buy medicine and food, and then went out together.

Ye Miao was as leisurely as ever. He bought a bowl of wontons at the small market and asked Sister Jin for a glass of orange juice. After eating slowly, he went to build an "elegant purple cottage" for Xiaomei as a residence, and then planned to find a team of archers to go out and kill monsters together.

However, before she reached the door of Chu Cheng's room, she heard a heart-wrenching scream coming from the direction of the settlement's gate: "Help! Aaaaaaaaah!!!"

The scream was so shrill and terrifying that not only Ye Miao stopped to look, but the members who had not left yet also looked out.

Everyone's eyes passed through the light blue barrier and saw a wizard stumbling towards the gate, with countless huge insects chasing after him.

At first glance, these bugs all look the same, about half a person's height, with segmented shells similar to those of mantis shrimp. However, if you look closely, you will find that there are actually two types. One has sharp teeth and a strong bite force, while the other has a weak bite force but can spray thick green sticky venom. Once the player is hit by the venom, not only will he lose blood, but his movement speed will also be reduced.

The attribute panels of the two bugs are shown as follows:

【Name: Small Biting Insect】

【Quality: White】

Level: 12

[Health: 800, Mana: 100]

[Attack: 300, Agility: 4000, Defense: 1000]

[Skill: Primary Bite]

[Other descriptions: Afraid of fire skills. Using fire skills will cause critical hits, weakening effects, etc., the probability depends on the level.]

[Name: Small Spitting Bug]

【Quality: White】

[Level: 15]

[Health: 500, Mana: 900]

[Attack: 300, Agility: 3000, Defense: 1000]

[Skill: Primary Poison Spray]

[Other descriptions: Afraid of fire skills. Using fire skills will cause critical hits, weakening effects, etc., the probability depends on the level.]

No matter which attribute they have, they are actually not good enough now. With only a few hundred health points and equally not-so-high defense, any player with a good understanding of combat skills can easily kill them with one blow.

But the fatal thing is that there are too many of them and they are quite agile.

Ye Miao roughly estimated that there were at least a few hundred bugs chasing the mage, and even if the mage could use a group attack, it would be difficult to wipe them out. After the front row was killed, the back row would seize the opportunity to cast skills and use their agility to pounce and attack, tearing ordinary players to pieces in just a dozen seconds.

Seeing that the distance between the swarm of insects and the mage was getting closer and closer, Ye Miao took a deep breath, stretched out his shoulders and ran towards the gate quickly.

Outside the door, the fleeing wizard was still more than ten meters away from the fence door when he suddenly felt a pain in his waist and was bitten by a biting insect.

-180

The mage turned back in horror and hastily unleashed a few skills, trying to repel the nearest bug. However, this was undoubtedly a wrong decision, because the damage caused by the biting bugs was not very high. Stopping would only allow more bugs to catch up, making the situation even more unfavorable for him.

Cold sweat dripped down the mage's face. He was trying to escape in a panic when a ball of green sticky liquid sprayed towards him and enveloped him completely.

He suddenly felt unable to move and tried hard to shake off the venom, but the swarm of insects seized the opportunity and pounced on him frantically.

【-190】

【-210】

【-160】

-200

…

The numbers above the mage's head, symbolizing the drop in health, jumped violently. Each number was not high, but the total health still plummeted by half within a few seconds.

The venom's slowing effect hadn't ended yet. From a distance, the mage had been wrapped into a small hill by the biting bugs.

"Hit hard!" Ye Miao ran out of the fence gate, jumped lightly, and smashed his fist hard on the ground.

"Bang--" The cracks in the ground quickly spread out like vines, and wherever they passed, the swarms of insects died instantly.

The mage suddenly felt relaxed, and his vision, which had been blocked by the swarm of insects, suddenly became clear. He looked around blankly, and the ground was littered with the rewards dropped by the dead insects.

The mage couldn't help but stare in amazement. He raised his eyes a few inches and saw the girl standing calmly in the center of the crack in the ground.

Although she is small and has two ponytails, she looks like a god-sent soldier at this moment, exuding the aura of a big boss from head to toe.

Ye Miao ignored the reaction of the rescued person and looked coldly at the place four or five meters behind him.

[Heavy Attack] is a ranged attack, dealing damage to enemies within a 10-meter radius, with damage decreasing from closest to farthest. Therefore, there were a few scattered, low-health Biting Bugs at the edge of the 10-meter radius, still relentlessly closing in.

Ye Miao silently chanted "Shadowless Sword" and flashed forward, killing the last few annoying bugs in the blink of an eye.

As she struck the final blow, she used the last second of the Shadowless Sword's acceleration to flash back a few meters to avoid casting [Advanced Healing] at the mage.

In an instant, the pale green holy light symbolizing life enveloped the surroundings. The mage watched his health points instantly recover, and the negative effects of the venom disappeared, as if the siege he had just suffered was just an illusion.

His knees gave way and he fell to the ground.

"Are you okay?" Ye Miao asked softly. The mage looked at her and opened his mouth, but nothing came out. After a long moment of daze, he said blankly, "Boss, you can still heal..."

Ye Miao: “…”

Well, it wasn't his fault. Only the first wave of veterans in her territory had ever seen her cast a healing spell after the night raid on Fearless Sanctuary. After that, she almost always fought alone, so it was normal for the subsequent members who joined to not know that she was actually a max-level priest.

The mage was stunned for a long time before he remembered to get up from the ground. Ye Miao calmly picked up the fallen items and asked, "What's going on? Where did the swarm of insects come from?"

"Nearby... that orchard nearby..." The mage followed her closely, explaining the whole story with a hint of fear. "Our team goes to the orchard every day to hunt black bears and brown bears. Today, we were suddenly sprayed with poison halfway through. We couldn't find what it was at first, but then we discovered that in the ground..."

"Sandworm." Ye Miao said.

"Right, right, right!!!" The mage nodded frantically. "Damn, that thing looks like beef marrow in a three-grain stew pot, white and soft, buried in the ground with only a small part sticking out, spewing venom all around!"

Ye Miao frowned deeply.

Biters and Spitterworms do often appear together, but Sandworms are quite unique. Buried in the ground and unable to move, Sandworms are generally only found near nests, acting as a sort of defensive fortification for the nest.

She stopped and looked at the wizard: "Have you seen the insect nest?"

"An insect nest?" The mage was stunned and shook his head. "No. We just...had just killed that ox marrow, and the insects came swarming over us."

Ye Miao asked again: "How many people are there in the team? Where are the others?"

The mage lowered his head, his expression darkening. "There were five of us in total. We were suddenly attacked and scattered. I don't know if the four of them can survive."

He felt a little sad. There were many unexpected things happening in the end times, and not everyone could be saved by the big boss like him.

Ye Miao sighed, "Go to the reception hall and post a notice asking everyone to avoid the orchard. I'll go look for them and take a look at the insect nest."

"Okay..." Just as the mage agreed, Chu Cheng led the archer team out of the fence gate: "We will go find someone, you go directly to the insect nest."

"Okay." Ye Miao nodded to express his gratitude, and they walked towards the orchard together. The rescued mage looked at the backs of the six big men and sighed again at his good luck. Thinking of the dense swarm of insects just now, he shuddered again.

Soon after the six entered the orchard, insects began to appear on the ground. Players must have killed the insects while fleeing, but were too late to collect the rewards. They quickly dispersed in unison. Chu Cheng led his men in pursuit of the scattered drops, while Ye Miao followed a route with significantly more drops. Sure enough, they soon spotted sandworms hidden in the ground.

This insect nest was significantly larger than she'd imagined. In the game "Fantasy World," the main structure of the insect nest was underground, with knee-high mounds of earth above ground. But the mounds in front of her were nearly three people tall, dotted with holes, and the vague shapes of insects swaying within them were visible.

Around the slope, sandworms were lurking in the ground, poking their heads out. They were most numerous close by, and fewer and fewer as they got further away. There were only two or three scattered where Ye Miao was, over a hundred meters from the nest.

Such a large insect nest could contain tens of thousands of insects. Ye Miao did not attack rashly, but left silently and carefully.

Shortly after she returned to the settlement, Chu Cheng and his companions also returned. Of the four members of the mage's team, two were found, while the remaining two were missing. However, they did manage to retrieve some equipment and potions.

Equipment dropped means the player has died.

The mage's eyes suddenly turned red, and he stared at his teammates' equipment for a long time, unable to recover. A sad atmosphere also filled the settlement.

Ye Miao didn't care about being upset, and strode to the reception hall. He opened the panel and started a series of operations:

[Do you want to spend 5000 gold coins to upgrade the "Fence Wall" to a "Wooden Wall"? ]

【yes. 】

[Do you want to spend 8000 gold coins to upgrade the "Wooden Wall" to a "Brick Wall"?]

【yes. 】

[Do you want to spend 15,000 gold coins to upgrade the "brick wall" to a "concrete wall"?]

【yes. 】

[Do you want to spend 5000 gold coins to upgrade the "Arrow Tower" to "Cannon Tower"? ]

【yes. 】

[Do you want to spend 10,000 gold coins to upgrade the "Cannon Tower" to a "Mortar Tower"?]

【yes. 】

The author has something to say:

Notes:

① The hive, sandworms, biting worms, and spewing worms are inspired by the Steam game "Factorio".

====

Ding ding ding (gong ring) it’s December! Let’s talk about the new update plan!

Basic update: Still at 21:00 every night, 6,000 words.

*I may take one day off within a month to adjust my status. I will not make up for the updates I missed due to the leave. Please understand.

——I think I can pay it back tomorrow, humph, watch me pay 9,000 tomorrow night!!!

Let me give you a red envelope first. All comments on this chapter before the next chapter comes out will receive red envelopes.