Chapter 70
The one piece of information that Ye Bai could not afford to reveal in the game was ultimately just one: the "job change time of Bai Ye."
As for the location of Bai Ye Village, even with trade routes opened, it was nearly impossible for players who had yet to enter the inner city to find it.
Players who had not become professionals found it difficult to access the inner city, let alone join the Merchant Guild. If they blindly explored around Mei Luo City, players who had not yet changed jobs would likely be taken down first by monsters above level 20.
The only slim chance of reaching Bai Ye Village at this stage was to enter the inner city of Mei Luo through a quest, spend a hefty sum on transactions of over 5 gold coins in the Merchant Guild, join the guild, and finally obtain a trade route map from Mei Luo City to Bai Ye Village.
Very few players could achieve this, and even if they did spend such a large amount to reach Bai Ye Village, it would be meaningless.
Now, Bai Ye Village was no longer the defenseless place it once was. With the addition of ten newly promoted combat professionals, it had become a formidable presence in the same tier, capable of handling various petty disturbances.
Moreover, it wasn’t just Bai Ye herself; Bai Ye Village would eventually appear before the players... or rather, it would be Bai Ye Town.
Given the current pace of player leveling and the duration of job change quests, Ye Bai estimated that by the time the territory upgraded to town level, it would coincide with the players and the territory beginning to interact.
To prepare for this, Ye Bai had devised a comprehensive plan, focusing on cultivating professionals: potion makers, blacksmiths, tailors... As someone who understood players' needs best, she was vigorously developing the manufacturing industry in her territory, waiting for the moment when the territory would open up to attract players to spend.
Players were the true cash cows, with spending power even stronger than that of nobles; once harvested, they would sprout again.
After browsing through the trending news, which contained little substantial content, Ye Bai suspected that these reports were released by the agents who had suffered losses, testing her reaction.
Confirming that everything was under control, Ye Bai closed the news.
Whether the figure appearing in Mei Luo City was Bai Ye or not was left for various factions to speculate.
...
In the myriad realms, a new game day dawned.
In Rui Lan Village, one of the candidates for the emperor of the Rui Lan Empire, Zeta, was waiting alone by the Tree of Creation.
【Nine refugees wish to join your territory. Do you agree?】
【Yes】
Zeta immediately agreed, and as she looked at the newly joined population, she finally let out a sigh of relief.
Turning her head, Zeta glanced at the villagers who were busy constructing buildings, and a look of anxiety returned to her face.
Zeta's starting point was in the wilderness, and even though she could sense her fellow tribesmen through a mental link, their strength did not allow them to come to this territory to assist her before they changed jobs.
Not only would they face various high-level monsters on the way, but there was also the issue of supplies. Thus, Zeta could only lead the villagers to develop the territory on her own for now.
With three policy slots available, while Rui Lan Village's territory construction was not as "overpowered" as Ye Bai's with her energy crystals, it was still progressing steadily. Now, on the 20th day of territory construction, the population had reached the requirement to upgrade to a level 1 territory.
However, the construction of the required ten houses and one professional building was still in the final stages.
This situation arose not only because they couldn't work overtime at night and lacked efficient tools, but also because Zeta, as a highly advanced Rui Lanian, had fundamentally overestimated the work efficiency of NPCs in the myriad realms. During the territory's construction, she failed to prioritize the cultivation of farmland and the development of hunting technology to secure a sustainable food source, leading to a brief food crisis that lasted two days.
Even with policy cards in play, the villagers' work efficiency plummeted due to hunger, causing the well to take three days to complete.
During the food shortage, Zeta had to allocate more manpower to gather berries and mushrooms nearby. Since berries were a non-renewable resource in the short term, once the nearby ones were exhausted, they had to expend more energy to gather from farther away, creating a vicious cycle.
Ultimately, under the pressure of declining loyalty and satisfaction, she managed to build a fisherman's hut by the edge of the lake surrounding the territory, which alleviated the problem.
Zeta received the title of "Second Lord," which increased the territory's population attraction by 10% and the probability of rare talents appearing by 10%.
A special talent did appear, but without the insight to discern their potential like Ye Bai, Zeta could only assign them a job through trial and error that wouldn’t decrease satisfaction.
“Knock, knock…”
With the final sound of a house being completed, Zeta let out a sigh of relief; she had finally met the requirements to upgrade to a level 1 territory.
Opening the lord leaderboard, the first place, Bai Ye, with a score of 3213, immediately caught her eye.
Every time she opened this leaderboard, Zeta couldn’t help but feel "stabbed" by Bai Ye's score; the vast difference in numbers made it impossible to ignore.
After 20 days of effort, Zeta's score had only reached 46 on the leaderboard.
Fortunately, below her, the lord of the Kain Federation, "Ximo," had a score of 32 for the Lofi Village he built 13 game days ago, which matched Zeta's estimated progress.
It seemed that the only abnormal score was Bai Ye's.
Zeta had been keeping an eye on the score changes of Bai Ye Village daily, from the initial 2516 to a steady increase of 10 to 20 points over the next 19 game days.
Then yesterday, Bai Ye Village's score skyrocketed like a rocket, surging nearly 400 points in one go!
As fellow lord players, both from two universe-level civilizations, representing two major factions, Zeta and Ximo couldn’t help but feel curious about Bai Ye's score. The desire to outscore each other was stronger and more intense than ever.
In their eyes, the force behind Bai Ye represented the Chaos Star Sea. If their two civilizations couldn’t catch up, it would be a huge embarrassment, severely damaging the powerful image of the Star Alliance.
The research group within the Rui Lan civilization held an emergency meeting to discuss the reasons, and they basically confirmed that the merchant caravan that appeared in Mei Luo City a few days ago was indeed Bai Ye. They speculated from various angles that the most likely reason was related to the trade route.
Now that the conditions were met, Zeta immediately chose to upgrade her territory to expedite the opening of the trade route.
However, just as she confirmed the upgrade, Zeta received a system notification:
【The Tree of Creation has attracted nearby beasts with its blooming. Please prepare for defense tonight.】
How could there be such a situation when upgrading the territory?!
Looking at the territory that had no defensive facilities, Zeta felt a buzzing in her head... Shouldn’t they have set aside their pride as a cosmic civilization and purchased a territory construction guide from Bai Ye long ago?
...
【Fifty-two refugees wish to join your territory. Do you agree?】
【Yes】
All set!
With Ye Bai's confirmation, the population of Bai Ye Village jumped from 68 to 120.
The upgrade conditions for a level 2 territory required 30 houses, 4 professional buildings, a market, and a population of 60, all of which Ye Bai had long since met.
At the same time, while the upgrade conditions for a level 3 territory were not currently displayed on the "Development Strategy" page, Ye Bai naturally knew that they included "the territory must have 60 houses, 3 professionals, and a population of 100."
Compared to a level 2 territory, the population requirement for a level 3 territory was not as high, but the need for 3 professionals indicated a clear emphasis on cultivating professionals at this stage.
Originally, Ye Bai would not have met this requirement; counting herself as a Whisperer and the high-level engineer Kali, she still needed to promote the most skilled Lucy, as Dilina was not yet considered a villager of the territory.
However, after successfully persuading the mercenaries to join the territory, this goal was easily exceeded, adding a full 10 professionals to the territory.
This was also the reason Zeta saw Bai Ye's score suddenly soar yesterday; it included the bonus from the opening of the first trade route and the addition of professionals.
As the sky gradually changed, after confirming that the wooden fence and arrow tower had been completed, Ye Bai touched the Tree of Creation—
【The conditions for upgrading to a level 2 territory have been met. Do you wish to upgrade?】
【Yes】
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