He Miaomiao had used up 1,200 copper coins to upgrade her safehouse, originally leaving her with only 25 copper coins. However, she had just obtained another 400 copper coins from opening the purple chests, so her balance was sufficient.
She decided to recruit one citizen to test the waters.
On this land, the unknown represented danger. But having already arrived here, He Miaomiao knew that she couldn’t stand still out of fear of the unknown—otherwise, she would lose her life sooner or later.
Therefore, taking the initiative to explore the rules was the better path.
“Recruit.”
Copper Coins -100
As the clink of deducting copper coins sounded, the red flames instantly swelled and swirled.
A few seconds later, a blurred silhouette appeared within the raging fire, growing clearer as it approached from afar.
Knock, knock, knock.
At the same time, the wooden door of the safehouse was knocked on.
He Miaomiao opened the door to look outside, only to see an elderly woman standing there, wearing a navy blue knee-length cross-collared robe, knee-length pants, and cloth shoes, with her hair wrapped in a brown headscarf.
“Greetings, Lord. Temporary Citizen 1 reporting for duty.”
Simultaneously, a new section popped up on the panel before He Miaomiao’s eyes.
[Temporary Citizen]
[Temporary Citizen 1: Loyalty 100% (Locked)]
He Miaomiao studied it for a moment.
100% loyalty meant that temporary citizens would never betray or harm the lord. “Locked” meant that any citizen recruited through this function would be bound by this restriction.
“Hello, my name is He Miaomiao. What is your name? Please come inside.”
“Thank you, Lord. My name is Temporary Citizen 1.”
He Miaomiao brought her inside. Wanting to invite her to sit, she realized there were only a campfire, a carpet laid out beside it, and a storage cabinet in her home.
She hurriedly took out the rabbit fur three-seater sofa she hadn’t been able to place earlier and set it down.
“Have a seat, Grandma.”
Temporary Citizen 1 walked over to the sofa and sat down, remaining completely silent—literally just sitting there.
Curious, He Miaomiao asked, “Grandma, where do you come from?”
“In reply to the Lord: I don’t know.”
He Miaomiao: “What does ‘temporary citizen’ mean? How do you become a formal citizen?”
“In reply to the Lord: I don’t know.”
He Miaomiao: “Which dynasty are you from?”
“In reply to the Lord: I don’t know.”
He Miaomiao: “Have you heard of Flame Seeds Fragments?”
“In reply to the Lord: I don’t know.”
Temporary Citizen 1 spoke in a rigid, formal tone. From the start, she had never met He Miaomiao’s eyes, keeping her gaze continuously lowered.
Sitting there right now, she merely perched carefully on the edge of the sofa, as if awaiting He Miaomiao’s instructions.
“Then what can you do?”
This was He Miaomiao’s first time recruiting, and she didn’t know how the process worked.
“In reply to the Lord: I can do laundry and wipe floors.”
“Can you chop trees, pull weeds, or break stones?”
“In reply to the Lord: I can do laundry and wipe floors.”
Temporary Citizen 1 repeated herself once more. He Miaomiao understood: she could only perform tasks like laundry and floor wiping, nothing else.
“I see. It’s getting late, so eat something first and go rest.”
She pulled out a piece of cooked rabbit meat.
“Thank you, Lord.”
Temporary Citizen 1 stood up and accepted it with both hands, devouring it rapidly with her head lowered. It was clear she had been hungry for a long time, yet her facial expression remained devoid of emotion, appearing somewhat strange.
Once she finished eating, He Miaomiao took out a rabbit fur carpet from the storage box.
“There is no bed, so sleep on the carpet for now.”
Temporary Citizen 1 accepted the rabbit fur carpet, cradled it in her arms, walked to the upper-left corner of the house, laid the carpet flat, lay down, and closed her eyes.
“It seems recruited people can only engage in simple dialogue; they will do whatever they are told to do.”
Their actions were restricted, similar to NPCs with pre-programmed dialogue, behaviors, and expressions in video games.
Only… the way Temporary Citizen 1 had eaten earlier nagged at her mind a little.
Wanting to learn more, He Miaomiao noted she still had 3 recruitment slots available and sufficient copper coins. She reopened the recruitment page to perform another recruitment, only to find that the bundle of flames had shrunken significantly, with a countdown lit up beside it.
It appeared there was a 24-hour interval required between each recruitment.
He Miaomiao turned her attention back to the Flame Seeds Fragments. With the critical hit multiplier, she had obtained 4 fragments in total; after using 1 to unlock the recruitment pool, 3 remained.
Curious about the function of the remaining fragments, she attempted to use another.
[Fewer than 3 citizens; unable to use.]
There was a restriction here as well.
He Miaomiao had no choice but to set the fragments aside for now, shifting her focus to blueprints.
She currently held 4 Stone Spear Blueprints—from the white chests—and 4 Bathroom Construction Blueprints—from the green chests.
The bathroom blueprint had usage restrictions; previously, her safehouse level had been insufficient to learn it, so she decided to try again now.
A flash of green light swept across the workbench.
[Bathroom: Wood 15, Stone 12, Hemp 10, Beast Hide 10, Iron 2, Clay 8, Resin 5]
Success!
However, He Miaomiao had just poured her collected resources into upgrading her safehouse, leaving her practically destitute at the moment. Clay and resin were materials she hadn’t even laid eyes on yet, so construction was out of the question for now.
Stone Spear, learn.
[Stone Spear: Wood 10, Stone 8, Hemp 4]
She was short on materials for this as well.
“A stone spear is obviously a weapon; other people might be able to make use of it.”
Players in the group chat were working with all their might to gather resources, so perhaps some of them could craft it.
Unlike before, He Miaomiao didn’t list her duplicate blueprints directly in the group—the emergence of the recruitment feature made her realize that she might need these blueprints for future citizens.
She opened the Village 4 group chat.
“Accepting Stone Spear crafting orders.”
After posting, He Miaomiao was surprised to find that the platform didn’t automatically generate pricing.
It seemed that the binding mechanism warned during the safehouse upgrade didn’t merely bind her to the house—it also granted her an identity akin to an official player, along with some new system permissions.
[Luo Zixuan]: “I want one! What’s the price? I thought combat power would increase a lot after leveling up, but fighting rabbits is still a struggle. Desperately in need of anything that boosts attack power!”
“13 Wood, 10 Stone, 5 Hemp.”
[Luo Zixuan]: “I have those! I have them all! Placing an order right now! Thanks, Big Boss!”
[Yang Tao]: “Me too! Order placed! Thanks, Big Boss!”
[Wang Fang]: “Thanks, Big Boss! I haven’t gotten a single weapon blueprint; luckily I’m in the same village as the Big Boss!”
[You Hua]: “It feels like blueprint drops have priority tiers. Tool-related ones drop first, and only after basic tools are done is there a chance for weapon and armor blueprints to drop.”
[Duanmu Jing]: “Agreed.”
[Xia Ning]: “Is that so? But I’ve already gotten weapon and armor drops.”
[Wan Zifan]: “What? Envious! I’ve only gotten 2 tool blueprints! Though they’re very needed anyway.”
[You Hua]: “…Sister Ning is not a normal human being; she doesn’t count in our reference pool.”
[Duanmu Jing]: “Agreed.”
Someone who started off right on top of a mountain of rare resources had a massive wall between her and ordinary players like them.
[Shi Hongcai]: “Is everyone buying without even checking the attack power boost? (Don’t hit me, I’m not a hater, I’m just purely curious—I’ve placed my order too)”
[Wan Zifan]: “Judging by our leveling speed, we’re at most Level 2 right now, right? With this little attack power, even if the stone spear adds just 1 point, it’s pretty good!”
Looking at the 6 or 7 attack power listed on their respective panels, the players shed silent tears.
Yeah, even adding just 1 point is fine!
In an instant, even more orders flew toward He Miaomiao.
[Wang Shouyi]: “Why is it 13 Wood, 10 Stone, and 5 Hemp for everyone else, but 26 Wood, 20 Stone, and 10 Hemp for me when I buy?! You’re targeting me!”
[You Hua]: “Yo, the Big Boss is so nice she actually didn’t blacklist you?”
[Xia Ning]: “If you think it’s expensive, don’t buy it, nobody’s forcing you, bleh bleh bleh.”
[Ji Jie]: “We’re all from the same village, and we’ll see each other around in the future. This isn’t nice. Why doesn’t the Big Boss just blacklist him directly? If he can’t buy your stuff, he won’t feel like buying things is more expensive for him, and he won’t feel hurt in his heart anymore.”
[You Hua]: “@Ji Jie Say that any slower and I’m gonna start roasting him.”
[Wang Shouyi]: “You—don’t go too far, all of you! What goes around comes around, how do you know you won’t have a day where you need my help in the future? Don’t burn your bridges completely!”
He Miaomiao stopped checking the group chat after setting up her crafting listing. Upon receiving an order, she got straight to work.
Revenue: Wood 13, Stone 10, Hemp 5
Cost: Wood 10, Stone 8, Hemp 4
Obtained: Stone Spear ×2
Order Delivery Cost: Stone Spear ×1
Next Order Revenue: Wood 13, Stone 10, Hemp 5
Cost: Stone Spear ×1
After completing two orders, He Miaomiao made a net profit of Wood 16, Stone 12, and Hemp 6.
The Stone Spear was white quality, and with sufficient materials, crafting went quickly. After a bout of busy work, He Miaomiao acquired a grand total of—
Wood 432, Stone 324, Hemp 162!
[Lv2 Safehouse Upgrade Requirements: Wood 150 (Completed), Stone 120 (Completed), Dry Grass 200, Hemp 80 (Completed), Iron 40, Beast Hide 35, Copper Coins 3000, Player Level Lv2 (Completed)]
This was far faster than gathering everything by herself.
On the other side:
Yu Qiaoyun received her Stone Spear and was pleasantly surprised.
“It actually adds 10 Attack Power—fantastic!”
After reading the guide provided by He Miaomiao, starting from 7:00 PM tonight, Yu Qiaoyun had been continuously running a cycle of killing rabbits, resting, killing again, resting again, and killing again.
At the start, she was only Level 1 with 6 Attack Power. A single rabbit had 80 HP, requiring her to land 14 hits; every 2 rabbits killed forced her to lie down and rest for a while before continuing.
As the number of rabbits killed grew, she leveled up to Level 2, her Attack Power rising to 7. Landing 12 hits could take down a rabbit, and she only exhausted her Energy Points after slaying 5 rabbits.
Now, Yu Qiaoyun had reached Level 3, possessing 9 Attack Power and a detailed Energy Point display showing 120. Slaying 1 rabbit took 9 hits, and 120 Energy Points allowed her to kill 14 rabbits in a single rotation—significantly faster.
With the Stone Spear equipped as a weapon, her Attack Power reached 19, speeding things up even further.
Just as Yu Qiaoyun was rejoicing, a strange dog bark sounded in her ear.
“A Corrupted Dog is here!”
He Miaomiao’s guide had mentioned this, so she was mentally prepared as she leveled up, hurriedly stepping out to meet the enemy proactively.
Her child was still sleeping inside the house—she absolutely could not let the Corrupted Dog smash her house to pieces!
The Stone Spear was long enough for her to attack without drawing close to the Corrupted Dog. Just as He Miaomiao had described, the Corrupted Dog did nothing but charge forward blindly. Even after taking damage, it didn’t change its trajectory, attempting to pounce toward her position. Standing behind the door with the Stone Spear raised, the Corrupted Dog rammed straight onto the tip of the spear.
After 12 hits, the Corrupted Dog—which posed a massive threat to both her safehouse and herself—exploded into grey mist.
[Raw Dog Meat ×1! Copper Coins ×2! EXP ×35!]
At the same time, Xia Ning also dispatched an ambushing Corrupted Dog.
She had previously pulled a Stone Bow and Stone Armor from white chests and had reached Level 3 long ago. Then, because she was among the top 3 players in Despair Valley to reach Level 3, she had received a green chest, pulling a green-quality bow and arrows from inside.
The green-quality bow and arrows possessed long range and high attack power. Coupled with her green-quality quiver—which started with 100 arrows and automatically generated 1 arrow every minute after usage—she only needed to stand at her doorway and fire continuously as long as her Energy Points held out. Consequently, the moment the Corrupted Dog entered range, she locked onto it, killing it before it could even draw near the safehouse.
[Raw Dog Meat ×1! Copper Coins ×3! EXP ×35! Stone Spear Blueprint ×1!]
“Huh?”