Chapter 44 Eternal Night Descends on the Random Swamp

Mao Qindong himself was somewhat unable to resist the temptation of the weapon. After not thinking for long, he immediately made a decision, "Since everyone thinks so, let's head back. I will refund everyone's money later."

"Long live the captain!"

And so, the large group, which had left the territory less than an hour earlier, returned to the territory by the same route.

The outline of the territory reappeared in their field of vision, but before they could get close, they heard a noisy commotion coming from the direction of the forge.

"No way, there are so many people." The young man in the line stood on tiptoe and looked around. He saw that a long line had already formed in front of the blacksmith's workshop, with at least fifty or sixty people.

Some people even brought their own small stools, clearly prepared for a long battle.

Clearly, it wasn't just Mao Qindong's team that discovered the ingenious use of the weapon.

Inside the workshop, the iron tree spirit, seeing how popular its weapons were, trembled with excitement, its branches waving wildly, and the flames in the forge leaped high.

The clanging and hammering sounds rang out in quick succession as newly forged weapons piled up like a small mountain on the display stand, only to be quickly snapped up.

"This is too outrageous." The blond guy in Mao Qindong's team swallowed hard, clearly shocked by the buying frenzy at the forge. He was worried about whether he would be able to buy the weapon he wanted.

Within minutes, Huang Mao's idea came true.

Before they could even get a turn, the waiters who had been temporarily brought in to help announced that the weapons were sold out and that the forge was a long-term buyer of forging materials.

Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice. Lin Nanxing had never thought about selling weapons before, so naturally he had never collected the raw materials for making weapons.

She and her summoned magical plants only obtain food from monsters they hunt, and these past few days they have been using materials that the Iron Tree Spirit has collected over the past ten years.

No matter how excited the iron tree spirit was, it ran out of raw materials.

Although weapons are no longer sold, the forge offers a custom weapon service. If you want to buy a weapon, you can bring your own raw materials and have the Iron Tree Spirit forge it.

Upon hearing this, Mao Qindong, who was at the back of the group, slapped his thigh and turned to his teammates, saying, "We're not doing the escort mission today. Let's go north to hunt monsters. I heard that a batch of high-level monsters have spawned there, and they're sure to drop a lot of materials."

Mao Qindong was not alone in his thoughts; the crowd in front of the forge dispersed like the receding tide, their mouths full of regret.

Just as the iron tree spirit raised its newly forged spear, it suddenly found the shop empty. Confused, it shook its leaves, and the metal branches hung helplessly in mid-air.

Lin Nanxing, who came over to inspect the business, couldn't help but pat the tree trunk and reassure it, "Don't worry, you'll be busy when they come back with the materials."

At noon, on the third floor of the Xingxing Hotel, Lin Nanxing was enjoying a plate of extremely spicy fried rice noodles, so spicy that fine beads of sweat appeared on the tip of his nose.

Just as she picked up a mouthful of rice noodles covered in chili sauce, she saw Zhou Qisheng walking towards her with a notebook in his hand.

"Stop!" Lin Nanxing raised his hand first, almost flicking the chili oil from the tip of his chopsticks onto the other person's sleeve. "It's lunchtime, no business."

She slurped up a mouthful of rice noodles, sticking out her tongue from the spiciness. "You haven't eaten yet either, have you? Want some too?"

Zhou Qisheng pushed up his glasses, looked at the plate of bright red fried rice noodles, and silently ordered a bowl of clear soup noodles on the system panel.

The game world is convenient in this respect; you don't even need to call a waiter to order food.

When Lin Nanxing's lips were red from the spiciness and she put down her chopsticks with satisfaction, Zhou Qisheng, who had already finished his meal, handed her a notebook at the opportune moment.

"Now, the only requirement for the next upgrade of our territory is the addition of one more high-level player. We need to prepare for the expansion plan in advance."

"Based on your experience with previous upgrades, the territory area will double again after this upgrade,"

Lin Nanxing took the notebook, opened the inner pages, and found dense annotations and different colored markings intertwined, with even the corners filled with supplementary explanations.

This diligent employee had clearly revised the plan repeatedly.

“I’ve reorganized the territory into four functional zones.” Zhou Qisheng leaned over and pointed to the drawings tucked inside his notebook, his fingertips tracing the colored lines: “The commercial zone will house the forge, fresh food supermarket, restaurants, and milk tea shops; the water park and hotel will be classified as the entertainment and leisure zone; and the apartment buildings will be designated as the residential zone to ensure the privacy of the official residents.”

His finger moved to the far right of the drawing: "The ecological zone is planned separately here, including farms and breeding farms. Considering the odor and noise issues, I suggest that it be separated from other areas by green belts."

Lin Nanxing noticed that reasonable buffer distances were marked between each area on the drawings, and even the reserved space for future expansion was taken into account.

The shops in the commercial street are arranged in a herringbone pattern to ensure that each shop has enough customers, while the simulated apartment buildings in the residential area are staggered to ensure both lighting and privacy.

This clear zoning not only makes it easier for residents to find their destinations, but also facilitates future expansion.

Sure enough, these things should be left to professionals.

Lin Nanxing nodded in satisfaction, then casually opened the system panel. Her account balance was approaching the 1.5 million mark. She opened the territory information interface, and a familiar notification popped up:

To upgrade a village to a town, the following conditions must be met:

[1. Economy: Has 5 stable sources of income (5/5, currently: water park, bubble tea shop, hotel, fresh food supermarket, blacksmith shop)]

2. Population: Permanent residents ≥ 100 (Completed, Current: 165/100)

[3. Special: The territory has 10 high-level players (Incomplete, Current: 9/10)]

“It’s time to open up a new batch of resident quotas.” Lin Nanxing closed his notebook. The sunlight outside the window was soft, and from the third floor of the hotel, one could see the crowd of people queuing up with raw materials at the entrance of the forging workshop.

She suddenly remembered something and turned to ask, "Do you think that last high-level player might be among these people?"

Zhou Qisheng nodded and said seriously, "There is a 90% probability that it is."

Although there aren't many high-level players in Yunpei Town, there are still twenty or thirty of them. However, currently only six advanced players have come to the Star Territory.

Some players become high-level players because of their pursuit of combat power.

Now that Star Territory has a forge and a master forging expert like Iron Tree Gold, it has no trouble attracting high-level players.

Although Zhou Qisheng guessed this way, by the time the Star Territory actually met the conditions for upgrading to a town, it was already the end of November.

[Game Year 11, December 1st, 07:01, Winter Eternal Night]

[Surface temperature 90 degrees Celsius, frequent swamps, not suitable for travel]

"Boss, wake up!"

Lin Nanxing was awakened by the urgent knocking. When she opened the door, she saw Zhou Qisheng, who was unusually uncomposure, with bloodshot eyes behind his glasses.

"No time to explain, boss, quick! Upgrade the territory."

Lin Nanxing was still not fully awake when his hand instinctively tapped the control panel. "What's going on? Didn't we agree last night to wait until noon the next day to upgrade?"

Territory Name: Stars

[Levels: Village (5 levels total: Shop - Camp - Village - Town - City)]

[Territory Residents: 250]

[Existing building types: 9]

[Existing Building Details: Territory Barrier, Water Park, Residential Building, Bubble Tea Shop, Apartment, Farmland, Livestock Farm, Fresh Food Supermarket, Restaurant, Forge]

To upgrade a village to a town, the following conditions must be met:

[1. Economy: Has 5 stable sources of income (5/5, currently: water park, bubble tea shop, hotel, fresh food supermarket, blacksmith shop)]

2. Population: Permanent residents ≥ 100 (Completed, Current: 250/100)

[3. Special: The territory has 10 high-level players (Completed, Current: 11/10)]

[Territory detected to meet upgrade requirements]

Should the "village" be upgraded to a "town"?

"The situation has changed, and we need to upgrade our territory immediately."

Although Lin Nanxing was still confused, she knew that Zhou Qisheng would not harm her, so she clicked "Yes" without hesitation.

Lin Nanxing was still a little confused when 10,000 yuan was deducted from his balance.

Just as the system began its upgrade, the entire room suddenly shook violently. She stumbled and bumped into the wall, which fully brought her to her senses: "What's going on? There wasn't this much noise during previous upgrades."

Zhou Qisheng straightened his crooked glasses and said in a serious tone, "Boss, at this point, haven't you noticed anything wrong?"

He pointed out the pitch-black window, “Eternal night has arrived ahead of schedule.”

"What is this, Eternal Night?!" Lin Nanxing's eyes widened. Was it what she thought it meant?

She immediately checked the game system's calendar and found that it was already seven o'clock. Logically, it should be getting light, but it was still pitch black outside, with only the automatic streetlights shining.

Not only that, Lin Nanxing also noticed that the season had changed from autumn to winter. Although the temperature had dropped from the constant 100 degrees Celsius to 90 degrees Celsius, what the heck was this swamp?

She and Zhou Qisheng stared at each other, and Zhou Qisheng seemed surprised that she didn't know about Eternal Night.

Lin Nanxing suddenly realized that there was a huge information gap between her and the people here. She hurriedly called out to the system in her mind, "System, system, what is Zhou Qisheng talking about? Why does Eternal Night exist?"

The system immediately explained: "[Host, the reason this post-apocalyptic game is called a game is because of its ever-changing seasons. The more interesting the game, the better the player's experience. Has the host finally discovered this Easter egg?]"

For some reason, or perhaps it was just her imagination, Lin Nanxing detected a hint of schadenfreude in that cold, mechanical voice. She took a deep breath and said, "Explain clearly, what exactly happens in each season?"

In short, spring is the monsters' team-building season, summer offers a free sauna experience, winter features a *** theme with randomly generated swamp hot springs, and only autumn is a peaceful dungeon exclusively for paying players.

After hearing this 'vivid' explanation, Lin Nanxing felt a wave of dizziness wash over him.

This system sounds simple, but all those easter eggs and team-building activities are a disaster for players.

So when she first transmigrated, the autumn she encountered was a newbie protection period, but what followed was a triple whammy of hellish difficulty: the eternal night and swamps of winter, the beast tides of spring, and the extreme heat of summer.

This game is not fun at all!

Lin Nanxing hurriedly opened the system map and, sure enough, saw that the area that had been lit up by the fog dispelled by the big mouth had begun to show a bubbling swamp icon.

One of the dark green spots was close to the edge of the territory and was expanding at a visible speed, about to touch the barrier.