Chapter 14
As Ye Bai opened her high-altitude view once more, she noticed eight small black dots moving toward her central position at the edge of her sight.
From this moment on, her identity as the lord of Bai Ye was truly justified.
**Chapter 10**
After becoming the lord, the first question that confronted Ye Bai was—what should she name her territory?
Given that her gaming ID was simply her name spelled backward, it was clear that she didn’t possess any extraordinary talent for naming.
Ye Bai pondered for a moment… but nothing came to mind. Well, she decided to take the simplest approach.
**[Do you confirm naming your Level 0 territory as ‘Bai Ye’?]**
**[Confirm]**
In an instant, a golden light flashed from the Tree of Creation beside her, and the information transformed into ‘Bai Ye Village (Level 0 Territory)’. At the same time, two new independent pages appeared: **[Development Direction]** and **[Development Strategy]**.
Ye Bai opened the **[Development Direction]** page, where a familiar trident tree diagram reappeared—this was the technology tree for territory development.
Similar to the talent page, the content to be unlocked here was arranged in a circular pattern rather than a linear one. With the center position included, there were ten circular layers in total. Currently, only the initial technologies at the very center were visible, while the rest remained hidden.
Other interstellar players needed to unlock prerequisite technologies layer by layer to access the content behind them, but for Ye Bai, those hidden contents were not hidden at all.
The ten layers corresponded to the ten development levels of the territory—Levels 0-3 were villages, Levels 4-6 were towns, and Levels 7-10 were cities.
If a territory's development level did not meet the requirements, even if the prerequisite technologies were unlocked, the subsequent technologies could not be activated. For instance, if a territory was still a Level 3 village, it could not learn the technologies for a Level 4 town.
Moreover, unlocking the skills on this tree required the consumption of **[Productivity]**.
At the bottom of this page was a productivity bar, which gradually increased over time. Once filled, it would grant 1 point of productivity to illuminate the technology tree.
The recovery speed of productivity was linked to various indicators such as the current population, number of professionals, number of buildings, energy levels, health status, and happiness, making it the most intuitive reflection of a territory's overall strength.
At present, Ye Bai had a total of 4 points of productivity available for use.
This was the benefit of clearing the Nightmare dungeon.
The **Creation Seeds** obtained from dungeons of different levels certainly varied, distinguished by the sole basic attribute of the seeds: ‘Prosperity’.
The prosperity of the Creation Seeds from the Nightmare dungeon was 4/4, while that from ordinary dungeons was only 1/4.
A full prosperity score meant that after Ye Bai claimed her territory, she received four points of initial productivity as a reward, giving her a head start right from the starting line.
**[Weaving]**, **[Planting]**, **[Mining]**, **[Logging]**, **[Adventuring]**… After a brief contemplation among the initial options, Ye Bai chose **[Planting]**, **[Mining]**, and **[Logging]**, and then selected **[Irrigation and Fertilization]** from the second level of **[Planting]** technology.
**[Planting]**: Villagers gain some skills in crop transplantation; receive 100 unidentified crop seeds; receive 20 hoes.
**[Mining]**: Villagers can mine surface iron and copper ores; receive 20 pickaxes.
**[Logging]**: Villagers gain more efficient logging techniques; receive 20 axes.
**[Irrigation and Fertilization]**: Villagers can enhance crop yield and growth speed through irrigation and fertilization; unlock composting technology; unlock building **[Composting Yard]**.
After completing the technology selections, Ye Bai opened another page: **[Development Strategy]**.
On this page, she could see the conditions required to upgrade her territory to the next level: 10 residential houses, 1 professional building, and a population of 25.
In the early stages of territory development, the upgrade conditions were generally similar across all territories. However, as levels increased and territories pursued different developmental paths, these conditions would change based on their specific direction, leading to unique upgrade requirements and exclusive territory tasks that would yield additional rewards upon completion.
But for now, all of this felt far away for Ye Bai.
Aside from the upgrade conditions, the most important aspect of the **[Development Strategy]** page was the various **Territory Policy Cards**. These cards represented the ‘decrees’ issued by the lord, influencing the priority of villagers' work behaviors, essentially acting as buffs that affected the entire territory—its importance was self-evident.
However, the number of policy cards available was not determined by how many were in the pool, but rather by how many slots were available in the **[Development Strategy Slot]**. Once selected, they could not be changed in the short term; each territory level allowed for only one selection, meaning changes could only occur when the territory was upgraded.
This again highlighted the advantages of clearing the Nightmare-level dungeon. With a prosperity score of 4/4 for her Creation Seeds, Ye Bai had four slots available for development strategies!
If she had only cleared an ordinary dungeon, she would have had just one slot.
In her initial Level 0 territory, the card pool only contained four policy cards, and Ye Bai didn’t even need to think twice—she equipped all of them into the slots.
**[Hardworking]**: All villagers have no entertainment needs, no luxury needs, and no personal hobby needs.
**[Strenuous Efforts]**: The speed at which villagers’ basic needs decrease is reduced by 50%.
**[Flourishing]**: Villagers’ basic loyalty and basic happiness will not drop below 60.
**[Pioneer]**: A suitable professional will join the territory.
None of the strategy cards were useless, but if Ye Bai had only one slot, she would have chosen **[Pioneer]**.
With the policy cards configured, the Tree of Creation flashed with golden light once more.
The next moment, Ye Bai heard a rustling sound not far away. Within two minutes, a lithe figure gracefully emerged from the forest.
The newcomer was a beautiful woman in her early thirties, with brown hair and clad in a set of tight-fitting leather armor that looked to be of exceptional quality. Upon seeing Ye Bai, she pushed her goggles up onto her forehead, revealing her brown eyes, and greeted Ye Bai with a bright smile:
“Hello, my lord. I’m Ka Li.”
Ye Bai’s face lit up with joy as she quickly approached, “Ka Li, welcome!”
As the lord, even without activating the **[Identification]** talent, she could see the basic information of any villager within her territory.
With a single thought, Ye Bai accessed Ka Li’s basic information.
**Character**: Ka Li
**Identity**: Villager of Bai Ye Village
**Level**: 40
**Profession**: Senior Engineer, Demolition Expert
**Stamina**: 100/100
**Food**: 100/100
**Water**: 100/100
**Entertainment**: -/-
**Luxury Goods**: -/-
**Personal Hobbies**: -/-
**Loyalty**: 60/100
**Satisfaction**: 100/100
This Level 40 character would be quite impressive even in an NPC town, akin to a prominent professional mentor in a big city.
As for why someone like Ka Li, a high-level professional, appeared in such a Level 0 village, it was undoubtedly due to Ye Bai’s earlier use of the ‘texture principle’ to position her initial territory next to the **Energy Crystal Mine**.
The brilliance lay in the **[Pioneer]** card, which matched a suitable professional based on the best resource available in the current territory.
Professionals were characters who had mastered exclusive professional skills.
For instance, while Ye Bai was currently a **Blood God** and a lord, she was not a professional and needed to undergo a job change to become one.
There was a distinction between life and combat professions, but mastering life skills and becoming a professional were two different concepts. Players could learn basic cooking, sewing, and forging skills in NPC towns, but these skills had levels, and initially, they could only produce ordinary white-grade items.
Only upon reaching a certain level could they add extra attributes to the items they crafted, achieving green-grade items or higher to be considered professionals.
Thus, under normal circumstances, others using the **[Pioneer]** card would match with professions like **Hunter** or **Fisherman**, but Ye Bai matched with a **Senior Engineer** capable of developing the **Energy Crystal Mine**.
Moreover, the profession system in this world was not isolated but interconnected.
For example, a high-level hunter who was poor with a bow would be a joke. Therefore, alongside a life profession like **Senior Hunter**, there would typically be a combat profession like **Archer**.
So, the Ka Li before her was a life profession of the second tier, **Senior Engineer**, while also holding a first-tier combat profession as a **Demolition Expert**.
In fact, under normal circumstances, the **[Pioneer]** card was often considered the least useful among all policy cards in the early stages of city building.
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