A vague social form had begun to take shape in the small village as the number of people increased.
There were already more than one thousand people collectively, each with their own greed, hatred, pleasure, good, evil, and beauty.
The villagers were searching for ways to compete at the top of the talent rankings, live in better and bigger rooms, acquire more food and live a better quality of life.
Meanwhile, the leadership was studying to get better results and gain more of Su Mo’s trust in exchange for more authority and to climb higher in their rankings.
Even the research scholars were searching for ways to “resurrect” themselves and regain their human form.
The increasing population caused the people to not only fear the impending disaster but also worry that they would be abandoned in the process of the basin’s advancements.
Despite Lu Kuan and the others knowing that they did not deserve the mark and that it should be given to the villagers who were risking their lives by volunteering to infiltrate the enemy camp.
But in any case, they still chose to take their chances.
This was the first time that they made a request in the basin!
“Uncle Su, you’re not an outsider. Of course, I would consider our people first for the mark. You know what they all say, to win a battle against the enemy, we first need to unite our people!
“You don’t have to worry about the number of marks. As long as our experiments are successful and we perfect the method to cracking the mark, then never mind ten marks, I’ll be able to get one hundred!”
Su Mo smiled warmly and his voice was at ease, but when the consciousness in the heads, including Su Deben, overheard the statement, they were all shocked.
It was evident that compared to the calmness on the surface, everyone’s hearts were much more overwhelmed.
“Su Mo… They, no, we… Thank you!”
“You’re welcome, Uncle Su. It’s not a big deal! Besides, the basin’s future developments depend on every one of you. You all can try to work a little harder! Hahaha!”
After replying, Su Deben lost control of the body because of his unstable mental state, and his consciousness exited the body involuntarily, returning to the brain box.
However, something unusual happened this time. The consciousnesses inside the brain box would usually fight to seize the body, but this time no one was “online”, and the empty body was left still in place.
Su Mo stepped forward and patted the robot on the shoulder, as he looked at the two large, empty eyes and the uncontrollable twitching expression on its face.
He was instantly overwhelmed with emotion.
These people might have been merely passers-by who would have left as soon as the crisis hit the basin.
But now, these people were entirely at ease!
The moment that they got their promise, they handed their “hearts” over and became part of the basin.
This was what Su Mo had wanted to see for a long time. Fortunately, it did not come too late at all!
The real series of disasters had yet to strike, and they still had adequate time to improve the basin’s development by one or twofold.
“Fortunately, if things go as planned, Dad will be able to appear after this round of catastrophe is over.
“When the time comes, I’ll leave the mess here to him, and I’ll just concentrate on external development and resource upgrades!
Su Mo had become significantly proficient in different professions after such a long learning period, compared to when he first came to the wasteland.
However, for Sumo’s adventurous personality, it was little improvement that came with a lot of pain, as if forcing a child to learn something he despised.
Different people acquired knowledge at different times, and one’s specialty could be different from others.
It was best to leave professionals in charge of their expertise.
After clearing his mind of his many thoughts, Su Mo let go of his worries. He arrived on the third floor and did not bother to wash up before jumping into bed, falling asleep soundly.
The tense mental state he was in the night before, coupled with the various emotional ups and downs regarding the resource upgrades, had exceeded an average person’s mental and physical limit.
Despite Su Mo being at the pinnacle of physical fitness, there was still a feeling of fatigue after such extensive energy consumption.
Meanwhile, Su Mo was unaware of what happened while he was asleep.
The basin’s upgrades had unintentionally caused chaos amongst several neighboring territories moments ago.
400 kilometers south along the border of the basin.
This was the territory of the ancient Ent clan.
Unlike the empty Great Plains of the Demon clan, the Ent clan’s territory was full of life and had towering trees ten to twenty meters high that could be seen standing tall from the ground.
Someone unfamiliar with the place would find it extremely difficult to get out of this land without the help of navigational tools.
The deeper one went into the territory, the higher the density of trees was. Different species of trees could be seen, and it gave the feeling of the Amazon rainforest on Earth.
The animal count in this jungle was much higher than in other territories since the Ents did not consume meat, only absorbed nutrients from the land, and ate rice leaves.
From above the 50 square kilometers of jungle, it was visible that no less than 1000 species of animals roamed happily, recklessly, and energetically.
Unfortunately, these animals were not as happy as they used to be today.
As soon as the tremors from the basin spread to their land and the Ents began their riot, the animals trembled in fear and lay on the ground shaking.
The tremors from the Iron Rock Mountain upgrade were not like a typical earthquake.
They spread a long distance. The quakes could maintain the vibration amplitude of a magnitude five earthquake even 500 kilometers away.
The tremors felt more like an electric shock as they traveled through the soil without isolation and caused the Ents rooted in the ground to fall almost instantly.
Woo…
Woo…
The Ent clan lost the majority of their combat power, and they immediately sounded the alarm in the central area of the ancient Ents.
Numerous Ents were dressed in heavy armor as they jumped out of the central bridge like wild beasts. Their eyes vigilantly searched for enemies who might invade their territory.
Even Zhu Ling, the Ent clan’s leader, had equipped himself and stood at the city walls awaiting the enemy.
“The tremors… The direction the tremors are coming from is the territory of the king of humans, Su Mo. However… we didn’t find any enemies coming from that direction.”
“Su Mo again?”
Zhu Ling frowned, and several pieces of wood on his body folded together instantly as he listened to the breathless report of his subordinate.
Three days ago, when Zhu Chuan returned to the territory, he explained vividly what he had seen and heard. During this period, the Ent clan gradually formed into three factions.
The first one was, of course, the pro-war faction.
However, what was different from before this time was that the pro-war faction was no longer hanging onto the thought of launching an attack, but was instead looking for how to gain the upper hand in the next trade.
They were interested in the magical strength of the mystic peach that could improve one’s power, which Zhu Chuan had mentioned before. They did not want to trade too much in exchange for it.
Therefore, their means were to use brute force.
The second was the reconciliation faction led by Zhu Chuan.
Their goal was to establish long-term and stable trade with the basin and strive to open up a supply route of commodities to make steady and timely trades.
Thus, through trade, they sought to deepen the connection between the two territories and join forces to resist the surrounding enemies.
Lastly, the neutral faction was led by the Ent leader, Zhu Ling.
Zhu Ling was in a somewhat similar situation as the Demon King. Although Zhu Ling rose to his position due to his overwhelming power, he had yet to completely gain acceptance from everyone.
However, because of the previous social structure of their clan, he was unable to make decisions on his own like Su Mo.
He would have to seek the approval of more than 60 percent of the people before implementing a decision. Otherwise, his decision would be refused on the pretext of asking for the gods’ blessing.
The current vote count was the pro-war faction with 30 percent, the reconciliation faction had about 35 percent, and approximately 35 percent of the votes were in Zhu Ling’s hand.
Whichever faction he chose would determine the order to be executed instantly.
Prior to this, Zhu Ling wanted to wait until the people from the basin approached, so he could make a decision based on their performance.
However, the vibrations that had just subsided started to break out again right at that moment.
It was rare, but Zhu Ling, he… hesitated!
…
On the other side, the Demon clan’s reaction was similar to the Ent clan’s.
Despite being the largest authority in the law enforcement team, they did not send spies to monitor Su Mo after his departure and instead gathered information through signals from the mark.
They would be able to track his approximate location as long as he was inside the Demon clan territory.
The law enforcement team was relieved after ensuring that the mark on Harl had entered the basin territory, unaware that it was Su Mo under disguise.
However, their relaxed manner was instantly shaken again when they felt the tremors coming one after another, watching the walls chip off and the tables shaking madly.
They quickly assembled several well-equipped law enforcement teams and gathered outside the tall walls of the enforcement office.
It did not take long for the initially noisy city to gradually quiet down because of the neat footsteps of thousands of law enforcement teams.
However, similarly to the Ent clan, when all the guards closed the city gates and climbed the city walls, they could not identify their enemies and were confused.
“That human Su Mo’s territory had such a great secret weapon?
“It seems we made the right decision to keep Harl alive. We can rely on him to bridge the trade links with the human territory. We might even acquire a…
“Weapon to fight against the gods!
“When the time comes, even if the territory lord returns, I’ll be able to…”
The commander, who was hidden behind his armor, looked in the direction of the basin with faint eyes.
Then, afraid that others would discover the flames of desire in his eyes, he quickly flicked his cloak and was the first to get down from the city walls.
Little did he know that the person that he was thinking about was standing right by his side!
Moreover, the chubby figure beside him also shared the same thoughts in his heart!
“It’s necessary to involve more people to cause great chaos for today’s plan. There isn’t enough conflict between the domain exchange and the law enforcement team!
“Harl was my first step in this chaos!
“It seems that if the situation calls for it, I must find this Su Mo and seek his assistance!”
…
In the Light Empire, countless transformed people walked out of the city.
In the Dwarf tribe, more than 1,000 ambush soldiers who had left to prepare for war returned with alarmed expressions.
While Su Mo was in deep sleep, the neighboring territories of the basin had become restless without exception.
However, under the protection of the basin’s extremely strategic defense and being covered by a mysterious coat, Su Mo slept until six-thirty in the evening.
Even so, none of the foreign races thought or dared to approach the basin to find out about the current situation.
Su Mo sat up and drank half a glass of psychic energy water. Next, he opened up the game panel and system panel as usual.
“Well, well. This game is being lenient. I’ve already upgraded a lot of resources, yet it still hasn’t responded!
“But it’s better that it doesn’t respond. I’m afraid that it’ll end up giving me more sh*t!”
Most of the functions in the game panel were still at an indefinite unavailable stage.
Su Mo nodded with satisfaction, then closed the game panel after going through it for a while and ensuring that the resource upgrade had not affected the game operations.
Most of the functions in the game panel are still in an indefinite stagnation stage at this time.
Afterward, he took a sip of his remaining psychic energy water and turned his attention to the system panel.
“The boiler room needs to be built as soon as possible, followed by laying out the basic heating pipes with the protection of the basin’s strategic defense and the mysterious coat. The task wouldn’t be too difficult.
“However, for the outside territories, I’ll have to pay a visit to the Ent clan and the Demon clan to make arrangements to bring back as many marks as possible.”
“As for the important construction tasks in the basin…”
Su Mo shook his head after looking at the several upgrade methods in the system interface and turned his attention to the civilization upgrade.
The civilization upgrade for the primitive era had five requirements.
1. Three stone weapon crafting techniques
2. Skilled stone cave opening technology
3. No raw food consumption whatsoever
4. A population of at least 50 people
5. Build a stone statue with a height no less than 20 meters, and the precision error cannot be more than 50 centimeters (monument requirement)
They had already achieved the first four requirements before the ocean disaster. It was only because of the last monument requirement that the civilization upgrade had been delayed for so long, and it was difficult to advance.
Su Mo had not paid too much attention to the mastery of stone crafting techniques that was rewarded by the advancement of civilization in the primitive era.
Unfortunately, the system did not have a skip option, and if you wanted to advance to the subsequent civilization, you would have to upgrade step by step.
“The twenty-meter tall stone statue is a big problem. The risk of relying on manpower to build it in the absence of large-scale engineering equipment is high.
“As for the fifty-centimeter margin of error, it wouldn’t be too complicated. There are carving specialists within the basin, so it should be easy to achieve.
“Why don’t we build the monument over the next few days?”
After pondering the feasibility of the monument construction and going through the options one after another, Su Mo concluded that with the current abilities of the basin, they had enough time and were capable of building it.
Suddenly, Su Mo was excited!
There was a saying that monuments were made in prosperous times and destroyed at the fall of a generation.
According to history, only when a country was strong and had surplus food can one see a marvelous monument standing tall from the ground.
And amid war, never mind constructing a monument, it would be even more challenging to preserve it.
However, that was not the case with the monument requirement.
According to the civilization upgrade hints, civilization attributes would be upgraded to a certain extent, including but not limited to physical fitness, comprehension ability, learning ability, pressure resistance, and so on, after the monument was constructed.
This was similar to the overwhelming magical power that had Su Mo in awe in the Demon clan territory.
It may seem that basin would be building a useless monument at the expense of the citizens’ labor and it was a waste of money. However, it was actually a bonus in disguise.
Once the hidden bonus accumulated to a certain extent, it would have a valuable impact!
“Build it! We must build it!”
“We have to build it before the heavy snowfall no matter what!”
After getting dressed and taking a shower in the hall, Su Mo walked out of the shelter neatly and went straight to the village’s interior with wet hair.
“Hmm? Shelter leader, you’re awake already? Dinner will be ready soon!”
The chef in charge waved the spoon in his hand and greeted Su Mo with a smile as soon as he approached.
Every time Su Mo came back from a trip, the village would serve a meal consisting of meat to thank fate for looking after Su Mo.
Today, of course, was no exception.
The pots were already burning with beef mixed with potatoes that had been purchased earlier. The stew had already been boiled into a mushy consistency.
Surrounding the pot were also sheets of noodle cakes that had been prepared, wantonly absorbing the soup that was boiling inside.
Moreover, along with the steam was the aroma of pepper mixed with the aroma of green onions that spread throughout the room.
With only 20 to thirty 30 left till sunset, the villagers working outside gradually returned from the outside in groups of three or five with their agriculture tools.
The initially deserted basin in the daytime was now lively. There were no signs of an apocalyptic atmosphere glooming over the territory.
Su Mo was slightly anxious and dazed while sitting at the table, looking at the peaceful scene.
In his slightly blurred vision, he could see the light radiating from a torch, and his line of sight grew longer, as if he had passed through time and traveled into the future.
He saw that basin’s walls were no longer thin iron rods more than a meter tall but a thick alloy wall spreading a few hundred meters.
Their light source was no longer a torch but a 360-degree ceiling light.
The citizens who lived here could have fun, laugh, and be grateful for their exciting lives.
Even the children would be able to acquire knowledge and continue the relay race of their ancestors.
“It’s too good to be true. I don’t even dare to think about it. If there were five thousand, ten thousand, or even a hundred thousand people in the basin and it became a large city…
“What a wonderful scene that would be!”
Su Mo sighed, and he noticed Oreo, who was carrying Su Chan, appear in his field of vision, and Moore, who was chasing behind them.
Su Mo gradually calmed down his wandering thoughts and smiled again.
Su Mo’s heart was filled with a seed.
A seed called ambition.
It was silently “planted” within him.
