Raw Wolf Meat ×2000, Raw Rabbit Meat ×2000, Raw Dog Meat ×2000, Raw Rat Meat ×300, Feather ×4000, Beast Hide ×2300
[Congratulations to the player for clearing the Extreme Monster Wave! Obtained Copper Coins ×4000, Wood ×1000, Stone ×1000, Hemp ×500, Iron ×500, Clay ×200, Resin ×200, Pure Water ×200, Safehouse Primary Protective Shield ×1!]
[Copper Coins ×4000, Wood ×1000, Stone ×1000, Hemp ×500, Iron ×500, Clay ×200, Resin ×200, Pure Water ×200, Safehouse Primary Protective Shield ×1! (Critical Hit)]
[Player He Miaomiao’s safehouse did not collapse, citizens suffered 0 casualties: Full Stars.]
[Congratulations to the player for being the fastest to clear the Extreme Monster Wave with Full Stars! Extra reward: Copper Coins ×10000, Detoxification Pill ×500, Despair Valley Monster Illustrated Handbook ×1, Safehouse Advanced Expansion Item ×1, Mutual Aid ×6, Fountain of Life Fragment (Purple) ×2, Random Skill Book (Purple) ×1!]
[Copper Coins ×10000, Detoxification Pill ×500, Despair Valley Monster Illustrated Handbook ×1, Safehouse Advanced Expansion Item ×1, Mutual Aid ×6, Fountain of Life Fragment (Purple) ×2, Random Skill Book (Purple) ×1! (Critical Hit)]
[Congratulations to the player for becoming the first person to clear all modes—Simple, Hard, and Extreme—of the Monster Wave! Obtained Purple Chest ×1, Monster Wave All-Mode Rubbing Copy (Full Death Exemption Edition) ×1!]
[Purple Chest ×1, Monster Wave All-Mode Rubbing Copy (Full Death Exemption Edition) ×1! (Critical Hit)]
[Congratulations to player He Miaomiao for accumulating 1000 Corrupted Rabbit kills and achieving the Public Enemy of Rabbits achievement! Rewarded with Blue Chest ×1! Warrior, please continue fighting!]
[Blue Chest ×1! (Critical Hit)]
[Congratulations to player He Miaomiao for accumulating 1000 Corrupted Dog kills and achieving the Public Enemy of Mad Dogs achievement! Rewarded with Blue Chest ×1! Warrior, please continue fighting!]
[Blue Chest ×1! (Critical Hit)]
[Congratulations to player He Miaomiao for accumulating 1000 Corrupted Wolf kills and achieving the Public Enemy of Wolf Packs achievement! Rewarded with Blue Chest ×1! Warrior, please continue fighting!]
[Blue Chest ×1! (Critical Hit)]
[Congratulations to player He Miaomiao for accumulating 1000 Corrupted Crow kills and achieving the Public Enemy of Crows achievement! Rewarded with Blue Chest ×1! Warrior, please continue fighting!]
[Blue Chest ×1! (Critical Hit)]
He Miaomiao watched as her copper coin balance surged past ten thousand with clinking sounds, feeling a dizzying rush of happiness.
What was meant by getting rich overnight?
This was getting rich overnight!
However, the pressing priority at hand was crawling back home first.
The conclusion of the monster wave didn’t mean the night became safe; rather, it grew even more unpredictable—without the difficulty constraints of the monster wave, who knew what creatures might emerge in the wilderness?
As a newly minted rich woman with over ten thousand copper coins, He Miaomiao dearly wished to walk back home with dignity. Regrettably, real physical conditions didn’t permit it: only her arms could barely function, forcing her to lie flat on the ground, inching forward toward the only illuminated spot in the dark.
Behind the tall, reassuring double-layered wooden wall lay He Miaomiao’s grand yard, which had expanded to 3 times its original size. 12 arable soil plots with completely distinct earth colors lay quietly toward the left.
Further inward sat her new home, expanded by a full ring.
The original solid wood door had become even thicker and sturdier, with an additional lock installed.
From the moment she entered the yard, the discomfort across He Miaomiao’s body began diminishing slowly, though crawling to the doorway still took a bit of time.
Pushing the door open and entering, the campfire caught her attention first.
Previously, the campfire had been a crude assembly of several logs burning together. Now, the log count appeared far greater, the flames shone brighter, and a circular stone pit had been added underneath.
The storage cabinet beside the campfire was gone, replaced by an independent storage room featuring a layout somewhat akin to a walk-in closet—floor-to-ceiling storage cabinets lined the walls, totaling 92 slots.
A step elevation difference had been added between where He Miaomiao placed her sofa bed and where the campfire burned.
The floor by the bed sat one tier higher, cleanly delineating her bedroom from the living room area.
Within the 70-square-meter interior, the layout distributed a storage room, a small bathroom, a bedroom, and a living room, appearing thoroughly presentable.
Grandma Temporary Citizen 1 was still lying in the upper-left corner, maintaining her sleeping posture.
Before heading out to fight, He Miaomiao had specifically instructed Grandma to go rest—or she would have sat dazed in her original spot without going anywhere.
However, He Miaomiao noticed Grandma’s breathing was far from steady, likely because the terrifying monster wave outside kept her awake.
Only after she entered the room did Grandma truly fall into deep sleep.
After entering, He Miaomiao lay on the spot for a short while, resting for half an hour before crawling over to lie beside the campfire.
The campfire possessed a magical power: as long as its light bathed a person, they would feel significantly more comfortable.
When she could finally prop herself up to sit, she retrieved the meat that had been roasting before her departure first, setting a new batch of raw meat in place one by one.
She had obtained tons and tons of meat from this monster wave—plenty to roast. Hopefully, the storage slots were dependable and wouldn’t let the meat spoil.
Midway through placing the meat, the recruitment page popped up.
[Temporary Citizen 1]
[Formal Employment] [Cold-Hearted Eviction]
This was a choice: if she selected Formal Employment, Grandma Temporary Citizen 1 would stay with her; if evicted, Grandma Temporary Citizen 1 would depart.
“Employ.”
The wilderness was desolate, and player encounters were rare. He Miaomiao liked the feeling of having a companion at home—even if Grandma was somewhat strange and human-like NPC-like, it was still better than doing everything completely alone.
Having made her choice, Temporary Citizen 1 transformed into Citizen 1, with no other visible changes beyond that.
He Miaomiao didn’t dwell on it either. Seeing the recruitment countdown reach its end, she prepared to recruit immediately.
“Wait a second, why did the price change?”
The recruitment originally listed as 100 copper coins per pull had now become 200 copper coins per pull.
Flipping through the bare-bones interface repeatedly, she found zero explanations, leaving her to guess that it might be connected to her safehouse level upgrades.
“Generally, the more expensive the recruitment, the better the baseline occupation—maybe it’s a good thing.”
Muttering to herself, He Miaomiao paid 200 copper coins.
Knock, knock, knock.
The wooden door was knocked on. Regrettably, He Miaomiao truly didn’t want to move, calling toward the door: “Come in.”
A young woman stepped inside, wearing a light-green straight-collared crossover short shirt and a red pleated skirt, with a shoulder strap tied around her neck, a rag and a chopstick basket hanging from her waist, her hair tied in a bun atop her head, secured with a hairband matching her skirt’s color.
She offered a slight bow.
“Greetings, Lord. Temporary Citizen 2 reporting for duty.”
Her voice possessed an emptiness completely at odds with her attire, making her appear even stranger than Grandma Citizen 1.
How to put it—He Miaomiao got the uncanny impression of facing a mannequin, carrying a touch of Chinese gothic horror.
“Come, sit down and eat something, then go rest first.”
Anyone who arrived was one of her own. He Miaomiao invited Temporary Citizen 2 to sit by the campfire and handed her a portion of cooked shrimp meat.
Temporary Citizen 2’s eyes flickered slightly. Accepting it with both hands, she ate earnestly.
Her eating speed matched Grandma Citizen 1’s rapid pace—clearly having been starved for a long time.
He Miaomiao seized the opportunity to engage in small talk, learning that she could tend fires and cook. Thus, she instructed: “When you wake up tomorrow morning, go to the storage room to fetch some raw meat to roast. Once roasted, leave it there—don’t collect it yourself, I’ll do it.”
He Miaomiao possessed critical hit multipliers on looting, whereas her citizens likely lacked them; having her handle collections was far more cost-effective.
“Yes, Lord.”
After finishing her meal, Temporary Citizen 2 walked over beside Citizen 1, sharing a single rabbit fur carpet with her, and lay down.
“I wonder when we’ll get real beds.”
Muttering under her breath, He Miaomiao opened the group chat.
Members in the group were conducting a roll call, and she scrolled up to read.
[You Hua]: “Cleared Simple mode, still alive, 1.”
[Yi Feiyi]: “2.”
[Yun Cailiu]: “3.”
[Qi Yi]: “4.”
…
At first, everyone tactfully refrained from casual chatter, anxiously awaiting the roll call chain that popped up periodically.
Toward the end, however, as more and more survivors emerged, everyone began chatting away.
[Wan Zifan]: “Where’s my Big Boss? Where’s Sister Ning? Why haven’t they said a word?”
[You Hua]: “Maybe they’re challenging Hard mode?”
[Wan Zifan]: “(Thumbs up) Deep respect! To be honest, when the first wave of monsters arrived, I felt it was nothing special, pretty easy to fight. Who knew so many rats would show up at the end! Made me furious! Thank goodness the Big Boss gave a heads-up, and I happened to pull a skill that counteracted them, plus a Lv0 Safehouse special buff—otherwise I would definitely be toast tonight. When that Hard mode popped up, I slammed the reject button out of sheer terror.”
[You Hua]: “With Death Exemption, it’s actually worth trying. But at the time, my house’s durability had zero left and my buff was gone, so I couldn’t even hold out for one wave.”
[Luo Mingxuan]: “No matter what, it’s great as long as we made it through. Grateful that we’re still alive!”
[Wan Zifan]: “Exactly! The clearance rewards were super sweet too. Once I save up a bit more, I can upgrade my house.”
Having survived a near-death ordeal, the players in the group were deeply emotional.
Many remained awake, chatting in the group while lying down to rest.
An hour passed, and Xia Ning joined the chain.
[Xia Ning]: “Why was it so hard? Even I almost couldn’t pass it. Hard mode is so terrifying; I wonder what Extreme mode looks like?”
[You Hua]: “There’s an EXTREME mode too?! How terrifying must that be! How did you clear Hard?”
[Xia Ning]: “I had a secret magic weapon.”
Xia Ning’s safehouse was Level 1, possessing a certain amount of Durability and Defense, but still insufficient to let her clear the Hard Monster Wave with ease.
However, her luck was exceptional: after clearing Simple mode, she obtained a special item—Rat Poison.
The quantity wasn’t huge, but just enough to deal with the Corrupted Giant Rats in Hard mode.
Without rat interference, she used other minor items like sleeping powders, combined with the purple-tier weapon obtained from upgrading her safehouse—plus proactively upgrading her safehouse at a critical moment to restore health and boost combat power—barely clearing the mode in a thrilling finish.
Having witnessed the ferocity of the Hard Monster Wave firsthand, Xia Ning truly couldn’t imagine how anyone could clear it without using specialized items. She was just about to discuss a few words with the Big Boss, only to notice the Big Boss hadn’t joined the roll call yet.
[You Hua]: “Don’t tell me the Big Boss is… challenging Extreme mode?”
[Wan Zifan]: “As expected of the Big Boss—so powerful!”
[You Hua]: “Extreme has Death Exemption, so we don’t need to worry.”
Failing Hard or Extreme carried no penalty, and with the Big Boss’s strength, failing the very first wave was impossible. Thus, they felt zero need to worry about He Miaomiao encountering danger, their attention gradually shifting elsewhere.
[Wan Zifan]: “Strange, why does the group member count keep flickering?”
Other players looked up one after another.
At first glance, it read the familiar “Despair Village 4 (64/100)”.
At second glance, it shifted to “Despair Village 4 (56/100)”.
Looking again, it reverted to “Despair Village 4 (64/100)”.
At final glance, it read “Despair Village 4 (53/100)”.
[You Hua]: “What does this mean? Why is it high one second and low the next? Are these dozen-plus villagers playing flash-step in front of the King of Hell?”
[Wan Zifan]: “First time seeing this situation. Can’t make heads or tails of it. When is the Big Boss coming out? She might know.”
He Miaomiao was the very first person to notice the group name flickering, because at the exact moment it flickered, a prompt popped up before her—
[Fellow villager player Yu Qiaoyun has sent you a request for help. Would you like to use Mutual Aid?]