Player: He Miaomiao (Lv3 → Lv4)
[HP +15!]
[HP +15! (Critical Hit)]
[Attack Power +2!]
[Attack Power +2! (Critical Hit)]
[Defense +1!]
[Defense +1! (Critical Hit)]
[Agility +1!]
[Agility +1! (Critical Hit)]
[Energy Points +70!]
[Energy Points +70! (Critical Hit)]
Player: He Miaomiao (Lv4)
Coordinates: Despair Village 4 (69/100)
HP: 150/150 (120 → 150)
Attack Power: 17 (13 → 17) (+20)
Defense: 8 (6 → 8)
Agility: 13 (11 → 13)
Energy Points: 365 (225 → 365)
EXP: 6940/1000 (Upgradeable)
[Congratulations to player He Miaomiao for being the first to reach Level 4! Obtained Green Chest ×1!]
[Green Chest ×1! (Critical Hit)]
[Congratulations to the player for accumulating 10 Corrupted Dog kills! Obtained White Chest ×1!]
[White Chest ×1! (Critical Hit)]
[Congratulations to the player for accumulating 10 Corrupted Wolf kills! Obtained White Chest ×1!]
[White Chest ×1! (Critical Hit)]
A barrage of pop-up notifications hit He Miaomiao, making her head spin.
So many Energy Points! So many chests!
Open! Open them all!
2 Green Chests:
Stone Lantern (Green) ×4, Copper Coins ×80!
4 White Chests:
Stone Spear Blueprint ×4, Copper Coins ×20!
[Lv1 Safehouse Upgrade Requirements: Wood 80 (Completed), Stone 60 (Completed), Dry Grass 120 (Completed), Hemp 30 (Completed), Iron 15 (Completed), Copper Coins 1200 (Completed), Player Level Lv1 (Completed)]
[Upgrade Safehouse now?]
[Warm Tip: Once the safehouse is upgraded, it will be thoroughly bound to the player. As long as the home stands, the person lives; if the home is destroyed, the person dies. Please consider carefully.]
He Miaomiao froze for a moment upon seeing the prompt, but it lasted for only a single second before she said in a firm tone, “Upgrade.”
In the short span of less than 3 days, she had fully realized the paramount importance of the safehouse in survival.
Without the cover of the safehouse, she wouldn’t even have been able to kill the very first Corrupted Rabbit and would have lost her life long ago.
Numerous materials flew out from the storage chests, inventory spaces, and the house itself, swirling around the safehouse.
He Miaomiao’s Safehouse: Lv0 → Lv1
[Durability +900!]
[Durability +900! (Critical Hit)]
[Defense +5!]
[Defense +5! (Critical Hit)]
[Monster Alert Radius +10!]
[Monster Alert Radius +10! (Critical Hit)]
[Storage Slots +20!]
[Storage Slots +20! (Critical Hit)]
[Arable Farmland +2!]
[Arable Farmland +2! (Critical Hit)]
[Interior Area +10!]
[Interior Area +10! (Critical Hit)]
He Miaomiao was wildly overjoyed.
She hadn’t expected that when her safehouse upgraded, it could trigger critical hits just like she did!
Those logs of wood and pieces of stone flew onto the walls. The gaping holes on the walls vanished bit by bit, and the wood on the walls transformed from its original brittle, thin state into visibly solid, sturdy wooden walls.
The roof above her—more than half of which had been rotten—no longer had any leaks, filled in with reassuring, solid timber.
The interior area inside the house more than doubled as well, becoming spacious in an instant.
The campfire light—which previously could only illuminate the interior—spread outward toward the front of the house.
Borrowing the light spilling out from the doorway, He Miaomiao watched a solid wooden fence weave itself into shape in front of the house.
The fence stood over 1 meter high. Measuring roughly, it reached above her waist.
The solid wooden fence enclosed the entire safehouse. The back stayed flush against the outer wall of the house, while the front formed a rectangular little yard about four to five steps long.
He Miaomiao stepped into the yard, looking around curiously.
It was a bit dark, so she took out two stone lanterns and hung them on the wooden walls of the house, one on the left and one on the right.
The green-tier stone lanterns emitted a warm light in the dark. Under the flickering lamplight, He Miaomiao saw that inside the small yard were 4 square soil plots about 1 square meter each. The color of the soil was completely different from other dirt—it lacked any ominous mist enveloping it or lingering decay, looking just like normal soil she had seen in the past.
This small yard, together with the safehouse, was covered by a transparent dome.
In addition, centered around the safehouse at a radius of roughly 20 meters, a thin string appeared. The string drew a circle with a 20-meter radius around the safehouse, with little bells hanging off it.
Logically speaking, at night—and with the sky being so dark—He Miaomiao shouldn’t have been able to see that far, yet right now, she could vaguely sense that line.
Furthermore, she noticed that the Corrupted Rabbits that had previously surrounded her safehouse were now all pushed outside the wooden fence.
The storage chest was still set in its original spot. Its appearance transformed from its initial low shoe cabinet look into a waist-high shoe cabinet of normal height. It was also made of solid wood, perfectly matching the wood color tone inside the house.
Taking another look at her current safehouse attribute panel—
He Miaomiao’s Safehouse: Lv1 (30 sq m)
Durability: 1900 (100 → 1900)
Defense: 10 (0 → 10)
Monster Alert Radius: 20m (0 → 20)
Storage Box: 44 slots (4 → 44)
Arable Farmland: 4 plots (0 → 4)
Defense Structures: 0
“1900! Hahaha, 1900!”
Durability was the safehouse’s health bar; how massive was 1900! Her own current max HP was only 150!
The storage box had also gained a full 40 slots all at once!
“Housey, you’re so strong!”
He Miaomiao immediately stowed the resources piled up in her room into the storage box. After organizing everything, over 30 slots still remained empty—it was finally no longer cramped.
Just as she was planning to take a proper tour of her new home, a tinkling bell sound suddenly rang in her ears.
A new monster was invading!
He Miaomiao felt it instantly: a new monster had crossed that red line.
She grew vigilant at once, reflexively standing by the door to prepare an attack. Seeing the fence outside the house, she realized that she could now walk out into the yard.
Stepping into the brand-new, cozy little yard, He Miaomiao peered into the distance.
The light from the stone lanterns dispelled the nearby mist, allowing her to see the situation a short distance outside the fence clearly.
However, there was nothing on the ground.
Just as she was feeling puzzled, a bulge suddenly formed on the flat ground, vanishing again in the blink of an eye.
The monster was underground!
Alarm bells rang out in He Miaomiao’s mind. At the moment the next bulge appeared, she cast Appraisal.
[Corrupted Giant Rat (Lv4): HP 220, Attack Power 35, Defense 2, Agility 3.0]
[Special Skill: Underground Ambush. Can burrow into the ground to vanish, emerging from beneath the player’s feet 2 seconds later to attack, inflicting 1 second of Stun.]
He Miaomiao: “How come everyone—no, wait, how come every single monster has a special skill?”
And a crowd-control skill at that.
The giant rat’s high HP of 220 was intimidating. Luckily, He Miaomiao was no longer the same He Miaomiao who had first arrived in Despair Valley; after a brief lament, she cast a Sparks Slash toward its predicted trajectory.
[Corrupted Giant Rat HP -66!]
Her damage had also scaled up alongside her level.
However, when He Miaomiao cast her second skill, she noticed it missed.
The giant rat, which had originally been charging straight forward, actually altered its movement path after taking damage!
He Miaomiao’s expression turned serious.
This meant that unlike the earlier Corrupted Rabbits and Corrupted Dogs, the Corrupted Giant Rat possessed a certain level of intelligence and knew how to dodge.
He Miaomiao glanced quickly at her personal panel.
After using Sparks Slash twice, she had 295 Energy Points remaining, sufficient for her to cast 8 more times.
The giant rat, no longer running in a straight line, began taking a roundabout path. The consequence of doing so was that the time it took to reach the safehouse grew longer.
With her 13 Agility and the light from the stone lanterns, He Miaomiao’s eyes could easily keep up with its 3 Agility, hitting it once again.
[Corrupted Giant Rat HP -66!]
The giant rat changed paths once more. He Miaomiao learned her lesson and didn’t attack immediately; only after confirming its direction and movement path did she start blasting.
[Corrupted Giant Rat HP -66!]
“Squeak! Squeak!”
The giant rat’s enraged screech echoed not far away, as if saying, “Come out and fight me if you dare!”
He Miaomiao wasn’t stupid; she continued standing inside the fence to observe.
The safehouse’s current alert radius was 20 meters. With the giant rat’s Agility of 3, covering the distance from the alert line to the safehouse should take only a few seconds; it was only because He Miaomiao had been interfering with it that it was delayed until now.
After screeching, the giant rat didn’t change paths again, charging straight over headlong before crashing into the fence and biting it.
With this strike, He Miaomiao finally saw what the new monster looked like clearly.
It was a grey rat even larger than a basketball! One of its eyes was completely rotted, exposing half its skull.
[Safehouse Durability -25!]
If this had happened before, He Miaomiao’s heart would have leaped into her throat—a Lv0 Safehouse only had 100 total Durability, which would be gone in a few hits.
Now, however, looking at her house’s 10 points of Defense and massive 1900 Durability, He Miaomiao felt zero fear, landing the final hit on the giant rat with ease.
[Raw Rat Meat ×1, Beast Hide ×1, EXP ×80!]
[Raw Rat Meat ×1, Beast Hide ×1, EXP ×80! (Critical Hit)]
No money drop and it dropped this much EXP—bad review.
With the Corrupted Giant Rat slain, an announcement arrived belatedly.
[Congratulations to player He Miaomiao for becoming the first owner of a Lv1 Safehouse in Despair Valley! Purple Chest ×1!]
[Purple Chest ×1!]
He Miaomiao’s eyes sparkled.
Seeing the prestigious Purple Chest again!
“Open!”
First chest:
[Flame Seeds Fragment ×1! Copper Coins ×100!]
[Flame Seeds Fragment ×1! Copper Coins ×100! (Critical Hit)]
Second chest:
[Flame Seeds Fragment ×1! Copper Coins ×100!]
[Flame Seeds Fragment ×1! Copper Coins ×100! (Critical Hit)]
“What’s this?”
To think it would be inside a Purple Chest?
Shifted by a thought, He Miaomiao withdrew one of the fragments to examine it. Unexpectedly, the moment it was pulled out, the Flame Seeds Fragment emitted a golden light that merged into the burning campfire.
[Congratulations to player He Miaomiao for triggering the Flame Seeds Fragment, unlocking the Despair Valley Recruitment Pool!]
[Player He Miaomiao’s safehouse is Level 1, unlocking Recruitment Slots: 2!]
[Unlocking Recruitment Slots: 2! (Critical Hit)]
[Great Lord, you may now recruit citizens!]
He Miaomiao was taken aback. She hadn’t expected to be able to recruit people.
She opened her panel, where a flame-shaped icon had indeed appeared. Tapping it open:
[Spend 100 Copper Coins to perform 1 recruitment?]