Chapter 15
Because the professionals are highly skilled, their living requirements are correspondingly high.
Loyalty affects how villagers execute the lord's commands, while satisfaction influences their willingness to stay. If the various demands of the professionals are consistently unmet, their loyalty and satisfaction will decline rapidly. When loyalty drops to zero, they will no longer heed the lord's orders; when satisfaction hits zero, they will leave the village outright.
However, Ye Bai was clearly not in a normal situation. With the three policy cards providing buffs, the factors affecting loyalty and satisfaction were effectively banned, leaving no room for decline.
Before the policy card "Hard Work and Endurance" disappeared, Ye Bai only needed to meet the food and water requirements to keep a high-level professional willingly working in his territory!
At this moment, Kali had a loyalty of 60 and was highly cooperative. After exchanging greetings, she proactively asked Ye Bai, "Is there anything you need me to do, my lord?"
Ye Bai pointed to the location of the energy crystal mine not far away. "Kali, I’d like you to mine the energy crystals beneath there. What resources do we need to prepare?"
Kali's eyes widened in surprise. "Can you confirm that there’s an energy crystal mine there, my lord?"
"Of course... If I couldn't confirm it, you wouldn't be here."
The NPCs in this world had already reached a groundbreaking level of intelligence, and this holographic version felt just like conversing with real people. After dealing with countless civilizations in the Star Alliance, Ye Bai's psychological resilience and acting skills had undergone a qualitative leap. Since there was no difference in feeling, he decided to treat them as real people in conversation.
Adjusting his expression, Ye Bai replied seriously, "Yes, I can confirm."
Kali surveyed the currently empty territory, hesitated for a moment, and chose to trust Ye Bai. She nodded, "I understand. I can use explosives to open the mine, but the lord will need to find someone to dig the tunnels and the powder room, and clear away the rubble... Lastly, we’ll need to gather stones and clay to build a sealed stone wall."
The materials Kali mentioned were not difficult to obtain; the most important explosive she could make herself. Ye Bai would mainly need to invest a lot of manpower in the early stages.
At that moment, footsteps approached, revealing the other eight villagers who had also arrived.
Ye Bai raised an eyebrow: this was perfect timing!
The villagers, both men and women, lined up to greet Ye Bai.
"Hello, my lord."
"Hello, everyone! Welcome to Bai Ye Village," Ye Bai replied politely, then added sincerely, "Well, it’s getting late. Let’s get to work!"
"…"
It was unclear whether the NPCs were cursing internally, but with an initial loyalty of 60, they all began to carry out the tasks Ye Bai assigned.
Ye Bai calculated that with the manpower of the eight villagers, plus himself, they could manage to meet Kali's requirements within three days, even without building houses first.
As for why Ye Bai was in such a hurry to mine the advanced energy materials for the later stages—
In a normal technological world, internal combustion engines require other machinery from different tech trees to function. However, "Wan Jie" is a fantasy world where low-level energy cannot power high-level items, but high-level energy can easily be compatible with low-level items.
So, how about an internal combustion engine shovel?
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**Chapter 11**
In the barren Bai Ye Village, the newly arrived villagers immediately began working under the lord's direction.
The villagers lined up one by one to approach the Tree of Creation, retrieving the tools Ye Bai had received when he unlocked technology.
In the early stages of building the territory, the Tree of Creation could barely serve as a one-way storage. The items rewarded for unlocking technology were stored within the tree's space, and villagers could access them by touching the trunk. However, once taken out, the items could not be returned.
The difference in work efficiency between having tools and not having them was like night and day, highlighting the importance of the initial four points of productivity.
Although Ye Bai was the lord, he didn’t sit idle. He also took out an axe and joined the villagers in chopping wood. Even Kali, the high-level engineer, picked up an axe; every bit of labor counted during this critical early development phase.
The energy crystal mine was about five hundred meters from the Tree of Creation. Ye Bai divided the villagers into two groups: one group of seven, led by Kali, went to the mine to chop down trees and clear surface resources in preparation for the upcoming excavation.
Ye Bai and two remaining villagers stayed near the Tree of Creation to clear away the trees and rubble around their "base camp."
In any construction game, a lack of town planning modules would make it utterly unenjoyable.
The layout of the territory also had its intricacies. Buildings with different functions placed close together would receive efficiency bonuses. The location of warehouses would affect logistics, thereby influencing the overall production efficiency of the territory.
Additionally, there was a factor of environmental value in residential areas, which tested layout planning. Certain buildings could enhance the environmental appeal near homes, while others could detract from it. The higher the overall environmental value of the territory, the greater its population attraction, after all, no one wants to live in a poorly maintained area.
From the very beginning, when using the seed of creation, Ye Bai had consciously planned the future construction of the territory, leaving space for different areas.
The Tree of Creation was not only the most important base and spiritual symbol of the territory but would also play a greater role as the territory upgraded. In Ye Bai's plan, this was the central point around which the entire territory would radiate outward in concentric circles.
For now, there was no rush to build houses. The basic protective energy around the Tree of Creation could serve as a temporary shelter at night, so Ye Bai planned to use this area as a makeshift camp for the time being.
"Clang, clang... Boom!"
Obtained [Wood] X2.
Using gathering tools to chop wood was not only more efficient than attacking with weapons, but it also had the potential for higher yields, of course, this was also related to the level of the raw materials themselves.
Ye Bai glanced at the durability of the axe in her hand. Since the tools provided by technology were only the most basic, ordinary quality, in pristine condition, chopping down a mature tree consumed 2% of the axe's durability, while her stamina decreased by 4 points.
However, specialized tools were definitely more effective than weapons, and now that she was out of the instance environment, using weapons would also consume durability. Until the blacksmith shop was built in the territory, Ye Bai was very protective of her basic equipment. If the durability ran out and she encountered a situation requiring combat, she would be left to fight barehanded.
The other two villagers were using pickaxes to gather nearby stones.
Mining technology required a level 1 territory to unlock production capabilities. Before that, resources like stone and iron ore were mainly sourced from scattered distributions on the map. They could suffice in emergencies, but were completely inadequate for long-term use.
Half an hour later, the two villagers returned from gathering stones and asked Ye Bai:
"My lord, we have enough stones, forty in total. Should we turn them into building materials?"
"No need! Let me handle it!" Ye Bai immediately set down her axe and said to the two, "You go ahead and chop down these trees."
"Oh, okay." The two villagers, puzzled, turned to follow Ye Bai's instructions and picked up their axes.
Meanwhile, Ye Bai quickly walked over to the pile of stones—time to craft!
【Would you like to spend 2 'stones' to synthesize?】
【Yes】
Spending 20 stamina, Ye Bai quickly synthesized all forty stones into twenty building materials, [Stone Blocks].
Of course, the villagers could do this work too, but Ye Bai couldn’t bear to expend their stamina like that. The NPCs' upgrade panels were different from the players'; they could only replenish stamina through food and sleep, unlike Ye Bai, who could fully recover through leveling up.
For the same stamina cost, it was better to let them clear trees. Ye Bai's efficiency in chopping wood alone was not as high as the combined efforts of the two villagers, and she could operate faster in her inventory for crafting.
Adding in the previous wood-chopping consumption, Ye Bai's stamina had now dropped to 47 points, entering a state of fatigue.
Ye Bai felt her body grow heavy, her movements slower than usual. However, this time, unlike in the instance where she had to rush, she wasn’t in a hurry to level up. Instead, she turned and walked to the Tree of Creation, touching the trunk.
With all the villagers now in the territory, a new villager page appeared, allowing Ye Bai to view the basic information of all villagers without needing to meet face-to-face.
Additionally, next to each villager's name was an option—[Energy Protection].
Ye Bai found the two villagers with the highest stamina consumption and selected the option.
In the next moment, Ye Bai felt a pulling sensation from the Tree of Creation, her body enveloped in a feeling of weakness.
Her stamina began to decrease continuously: 47, 46... until it stopped at 1.
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