“Who…
who are you?”
“My name is Lux,” she said, patting her chest.
“Professional demolition, top-tier efficiency.
I guarantee it’ll be ten times faster than whoever you’d hire.”
The green-clad foxian looked her up and down—maid outfit, wooden clogs, bell belt.
She looked like she was in her teens, with thin arms and legs.
“Little sister, this isn’t a game.
No matter how professional you are, you can’t possibly be faster than a machine.”
Lux smiled faintly and took out a wooden axe.
“Big brother, you don’t understand.”
She rested the wooden axe on her shoulder, her eyes full of confidence.
“In my hands, there is nothing that cannot be demolished.”
The green-clad foxian looked at her wooden axe, then at her small frame, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
“Your axe…
it’d be a struggle just to chop firewood with that, right?”
Lux didn’t waste words.
She walked over to a wooden wall, raised her axe, and struck it several times.
“Snap.”
The green-clad foxian widened his eyes.
To him, that wooden wall had simply lost a piece, perfectly and neatly.
Lux bent down to pick up the wooden plank, then put it back.
“How about it?
Do you want to try?”
The system interface blinked silently—
[Shock from Hu Er, Emotion Points + 0.03]
…
Lux stayed in Aurum Alley for five days.
In those five days, she went from a penniless stray foxian to the extra-budgetary #1 demolition specialist for the Aurum Alley renovation team.
Over the next few days, Lux followed the renovation team everywhere.
Others had to use all sorts of machinery and tools, banging away for half a day, and still couldn’t finish the job cleanly.
She would just walk up and go “click-clack” with a few pickaxe strikes.
The wall bricks would disappear one by one, only to be neatly stacked aside by her, without even any waste.
The foreman of the renovation team didn’t believe it at first and insisted on inspecting it himself.
He discovered that the materials Lux dismantled were undamaged and could even be reused, saving at least half the material costs.
“What’s the deal with this little girl?” the foreman asked, pulling the green-clad foxian, Hu Er, aside.
“I don’t know either,” Hu Er scratched his head.
“And I’ve never heard of any Pathstrider having this kind of ability.”
The next day, the foreman raised her pay.
It’s great to have stellar jades.
The second day, she used 50 stellar jades to buy raw iron blocks online, added a furnace she made from round stones swiped from the gambling stone market, and after burning them in the furnace, she directly produced a stack of iron ore.
That very night, she crafted a set of iron tools—an iron pickaxe, an iron axe, an iron sword, and a full set of iron armor.
However, after putting it on, she discovered a very awkward problem: the iron armor didn’t display on her character model at all.
She was still in that maid outfit, with her fox ears and fox tail fully visible, though the armor value on her attribute panel had increased significantly.
“Fine, not showing up is better anyway, saves me from being treated like a freak.”
Lux accepted this well.
As long as the stats were there, it was fine.
As for appearances, her maid outfit wasn’t bad-looking either.
It was just a pity she couldn’t see herself wearing a netherite set.
By the fourth day, the renovation team’s foreman, Old Zhang, specifically sought her out.
“Little Jiu,” Old Zhang took out a white jade abacus the size of a palm and handed it to her.
“It’s inconvenient for you to communicate without a jade abacus.
I bought this for you, take it and use it.”
Lux was stunned for a moment.
“This…
isn’t it too expensive?”
“Take it, take it,” Old Zhang waved his hand.
“How much material cost have you saved us these past few days?
A jade abacus is nothing.”
Lux took the jade abacus, feeling a bit warm inside.
She fiddled with it and found that it was similar to a smartphone, just with a flashier interface.
“Thanks, Uncle Zhang.”
“Don’t mention it.”
On the fifth day, after finishing the last job, Lux found Old Zhang and said she was leaving.
Old Zhang was squatting on the construction site smoking, and upon hearing this, his cigarette almost fell to the ground.
“Leaving?
Where to?”
“Haven’t decided yet,” Lux said honestly.
“But I can’t do demolition forever.”
Old Zhang was silent for a while, then stubbed out his cigarette.
“Little Jiu, let me be honest with you.
In the days you’ve been here, our construction schedule has been cut by nearly half.
If you’re willing to stay, I’ll raise your pay.
Double, how about that?”
Hu Er, who was nearby, also chimed in, “Yeah, Lux, stay!
With you in our team, taking on jobs has become much faster.
If you think the pay is too low, we can discuss it.”
Several coworkers also gathered around, persuading her in a clamor.
“Stay, Little Jiu!”
“Our team can’t do without you!”
“Oh my god, as long as you don’t leave, Lux, I’ll do anything!”
Lux looked at the circle of people, feeling quite touched.
She had only been in this world for five days, and these people had treated her well and taken care of her while working.
But she still shook her head.
“You guys, you really only think about yourselves.”
Lux puffed out her chest, and her tail stood up proudly.
“I am a foxian who will punch Jing Yuan in the face and kick the Aeon of Elation in the future.
How could I stay in a renovation team forever?”
The scene went quiet for two seconds.
Old Zhang opened his mouth, wanting to say something but stopping.
Hu Er’s expression looked like he had swallowed a fly.
A coworker whispered to the colleague next to him, “The white-haired General she mentioned…
is that our one?”
“Is there a second white-haired General on the Xianzhou?”
Another silence.
Old Zhang sighed and patted Lux’s shoulder.
“Little Jiu…
having ambition is a good thing.
But that…
Jing Yuan, he…”
He weighed his words for a long time.
“When you go to fight him, can you please not say you came from our renovation team?”
“Don’t worry, Uncle Zhang, I won’t implicate you all!”
Lux patted her chest in assurance, then carried her belongings—which were actually just a crafting table and a pile of tools—and left with a flourish.
Old Zhang watched her back and lit another cigarette.
“This kid…
is there something wrong with her brain?”
Hu Er scratched his head.
“I think she’s quite normal, actually.”
“A normal person says they want to fight Jing Yuan?”
“…”
Hu Er was silent.
Old Zhang exhaled a smoke ring.
“Forget it, young people, it’s good to have dreams.”
He paused and added, “Anyway, it’s not us who will be unlucky.”
…
After leaving the renovation team, the first thing Lux did was look for a place to live.
For the past few days, she had been living in a “Matchbox House”—every night, she would find an unoccupied corner, build a 2x2x2 small space using wooden planks, stuff a bed inside, and sleep.
When she woke up during the day, she would dismantle it immediately before anyone saw, leaving not even a trace.
But that was when she had no money.
Now she had several hundred stellar jades in her pocket.
While not wealthy, renting a decent place shouldn’t be a problem, right?
“Although the Matchbox House is enough for me to live in, I shouldn’t mistreat myself now that I have money.”
Lux thought to herself while walking toward the Central Starskiff Haven.
“Brother Hu from the renovation team said the Central Starskiff Haven is one of the most prosperous places on the Xianzhou.
There should be real estate agents, right?”
The Central Starskiff Haven was indeed prosperous.
Lux stood at the entrance, looking up at the starskiffs flying across the sky, her mouth open wide enough to fit an egg.
There were quite a few starskiffs in the Exalting Sanctum, but compared to this, it was like comparing a small puddle to the ocean.
The sky was densely packed with flying vehicles, weaving through lanes at different altitudes in an orderly fashion.
In the distance was a massive starport, with countless points of light taking off and landing on the platforms, like something out of a sci-fi movie.
“This is too exaggerated…”
Lux, a bumpkin from Earth, had never seen such a scene.
She stood there for a long time before remembering why she had come.
Just as she was about to find an agent, she suddenly saw a circle of people gathered on the bridge ahead.
There were quite a few people, layered three deep inside and three deep outside, with cheers erupting from time to time.
Lux’s curiosity was piqued.
It took her a while to squeeze in, standing on tiptoe to look inside—
In the empty space in the center of the crowd, a Cloud Knight girl was lying on a thick wooden board, with a large stone slab on her chest, estimated to be at least several dozen jin heavy.
Beside her stood a girl in red, holding a large hammer in her hand, with a jade abacus floating next to her.
Comments were flying across the screen, clearly a live stream.
“Take a look, everyone!” the girl in red shouted at the jade abacus.
“My good friend is going to perform ‘chest-crushing rock’ for you all!
Dear family, please follow, if you have money, support with money; if you don’t, support with your presence!”
Lux was stunned.
Chest-crushing rock?
Wasn’t that something only seen on TV?
After the girl in red finished speaking, she leaned over to the lying Cloud Knight girl and whispered something.
Lux’s fox ears twitched; her hearing was much sharper than a normal person’s, and she vaguely heard—
“Sushang, I’m going to smash it, I’ll treat you to a meal afterward.”
The Cloud Knight girl called Sushang stared at the hammer in her hand, swallowed, and her voice sounded a bit shaky.
“Guinaifen, are you sure it’ll be okay?
I’m a little scared…”
The girl in red—Guinaifen—gave her a thumbs up with a brilliant smile.
“Don’t worry, leave it to me!”
Then she straightened up and shouted loudly at the jade abacus:
“Family!
If you have money, support with money; if you don’t, click follow!
Watch closely now—”
She swung the hammer in a full arc.
“Eighty!”
“Bang!”
With a muffled thud, the stone slab shattered into two pieces.
Lux was startled, showing the surprised expression of a kitten.
“So strong?!”
The surrounding audience erupted in cheers and applause.
But the Cloud Knight girl named Sushang clearly didn’t look so good.
Lux had sharp eyes and vaguely saw something translucent slowly drifting out of Sushang’s mouth, like a soul leaving the body.
“…Is she really okay?”
Lux’s mouth twitched.
“No, I almost forgot my business.”
She remembered she was here to look for a house and quickly squeezed out of the crowd.
…
Lux wandered around the Central Starskiff Haven for quite a while, asking for directions and searching on her jade abacus, and finally found a shop called “Kong Jiyi Real Estate Agency.”
The shop wasn’t big, but the decoration was quite refined, with two neatly trimmed potted plants at the entrance.
Pushing the door open, a foxian staff member walked up to greet her.
“Welcome, is there anything I can help you with?”
“I want to rent a house,” Lux said.
“Something cheaper.”
The foxian staff member smiled and invited her to sit down, handing her a cup of tea.
“My name is Liuyun.
How should I address you?”
“Lux.”
“Okay, Ms.
Lux.
May I ask what your budget is?”
Lux thought for a moment.
“A month…
two or three hundred stellar jades?
Is that enough?”
Liuyun’s smile didn’t change, but his eyes flickered slightly.
“With this budget…
may I ask what kind of house you are looking for?
A one-bedroom apartment?
Shared housing?”
“A one-bedroom is fine, as long as I can sleep and store things.”
Liuyun nodded, swiped a few times on his jade abacus, and then turned the screen toward her.
“Currently, a one-bedroom apartment in the Central Starskiff Haven generally rents for between eight hundred and fifteen hundred stellar jades per month.
The Exalting Sanctum is cheaper, around five hundred to one thousand.
These are a few listings, you can take a look.”
Lux leaned over to take a look, and her expression gradually changed.
“So expensive?”
“The Central Starskiff Haven is a commercial district, so the rent is indeed on the higher side,” Liuyun explained patiently.
“If your budget is limited, you can consider shared housing, which will be much cheaper.”
Lux looked at the few hundred stellar jades in her pocket, then at the numbers on the screen, and her ears slowly drooped.
“No way…
does Lux have to live in a disposable Matchbox House again?”
She looked dejected, her tail drooping as well.
The reason she called it “disposable” was because her Matchbox House was an illegal structure.
It wasn’t allowed to build things casually in the Xianzhou city, so every time she would find an unoccupied corner just before going to sleep to build one, and dismantle it immediately at dawn before anyone saw.
It was like being a thief, changing locations every night for fear of being caught by the Balance Commission.
Liuyun saw her pitiful appearance and couldn’t help but feel a bit sympathetic.
“Um…
Ms.
Lux, if you don’t mind, we happen to have a shared housing listing here, two spots filled, one remaining.”
Lux’s ears perked up instantly.
“It’s in the Exalting Sanctum.
It’s a three-bedroom apartment, and the other two tenants are girls who have already paid the deposit.
You just need to discuss the rent split with them.
It should be within your budget.
What do you think?”
“Really?” Lux bounced up from the chair, her tail starting to wag frantically.
“Absolutely!”
“Then I’ll help you contact them.
You might need to wait a little while.”
“No problem, no problem!
I have plenty of time!”
Liuyun picked up his jade abacus and made a call, which was answered quickly on the other end.
“Hello?
Is this Guinaifen?
Yes, it’s me…
You mentioned earlier that you were looking for a roommate, now there’s a candidate.
Is it convenient for you to come over and take a look?”
A lively female voice came from the other end of the phone, chattering away, sounding very energetic.
Lux always felt she had heard this voice and name somewhere, but couldn’t quite remember.
“Okay, okay, okay, then come over.” Liuyun hung up the phone and smiled at Lux.
“They happen to be in the Central Starskiff Haven too, so they’ll be here soon.
Sorry for the trouble, please wait a moment.”
“Mm-hm!”
Lux sat back down, her tail wagging back and forth behind the chair, her mood incredibly good.
After waiting for about half an hour, the door of the agency was pushed open.
“Sister Liuyun!
We’re here!”
A crisp voice came from the doorway.
Lux was lying on the table, lost in thought.
Upon hearing this, she stopped wagging her tail and turned her head to look—
Lux’s brain went “buzz.”
“It’s you two?!”