After the war, Freedom City still maintained its elegance and civilization in the wilderness.
Glancing at it from the vast Great Plain, the outer walls were still extremely thick and released a cold light that made people feel in awe.
The constant flow of people going in and out of the city gates, and the large and small carriages that passed by, made it impossible for the demon souls who had just returned to realize that there were any changes in the city.
However, the moment they entered the city, it was hard to not notice the differences despite the city guards’ great efforts to cover up the traces of last night’s battle. Everything was almost back in order and restored by six o’clock in the evening.
The civilians, oblivious to the truth, eventually discovered the covered-up tragedy that had befallen their city.
“My God! Every exchange center in the city sustained at least 70 percent damage and had their goods taken from them. We’ve lost big time in this battle!”
“What have you lost?! You should be glad that you weren’t even in the city yesterday. Or else you would be gone by now and wouldn’t even be able to think about losses!”
“Ugh. Some people are just really unfortunate. An acquaintance of mine had recently bought a house near the inner city with great difficulty so that he could access the inner city immediately to save his life in a crisis. Who would’ve thought that the inner city gates weren’t even opened last night!”
“They weren’t open? Didn’t the city guards say that they opened the gates for an hour? Now it turns out that they never opened the gates?”
“Shh. You should be careful what you say, brother! The city guards are watching really closely. They said that they opened the gates for a long time, and you…”
“One is one, and two is two! Do you think I would make up such nonsense?! Who are they going to arrest if they opened the gates?”
“Tsk! I just went to the Fire Exchange, and it was gone. What am I going to do? I just topped up a thousand contribution points at their place two days ago! Do you think my points have gone to waste?”
“There’s not much you can do at this point. Check your membership agreement. Doesn’t it clearly state that compensation would not be guaranteed in the event of a natural or man-made disaster? However, I did hear that the Fire Exchange is going to have a discount event after its reconstruction. Not sure if it’s true!”
“It’s true! I heard the shopkeeper announce it himself! You know, the Fire Exchange is the only one that wants to share the burden during such times. The other exchanges, including the top ten, are only eager to suck us dry to feed themselves!”
“…”
The law does not punish the public for their right to freedom of speech.
Despite the vigorous supervision of the city guards, most of the demon souls in the city were unscrupulously spreading rumors about the incident of the closed gates last night.
Su Mo watched the crowd that had just gathered but quickly dispersed in fear of the law enforcement officers that were approaching from a distance and smiled as he lowered the curtains of his carriage window.
“Lord Harl, we’re about to leave the city gates. Please prepare for your identity verification.”
“Okay, go ahead and pass through!”
Su Mo was resting as he leaned against the luxurious and empty carriage. He glanced at the demon soul who peeked inside with an obvious intention to please him, and nodded gently.
This time it was different from when he had to rush back to the basin for more than ten hours.
He was lucky enough to get a ride before he left the city.
After the dwarves were connected to the demon clan, the demons’ business gradually spread, which allowed the caravans to head in the direction of the basin.
It would cost 300 contribution points to travel with the caravan to seek opportunities in unfamiliar territories. To board the caravan’s carriages and save you the trouble of traveling in your own transportation would cost 700 contribution points. Of course, you would also be able to receive luxurious services if you were to pay 3000 contribution points.
The single-person carriage that Su Mo enjoyed and the extra services along the way, with foods and beverages served, were the special privileges for paying 3000 points.
The estimated time of arrival that they had announced was about twelve hours for the caravan to arrive approximately 100 kilometers away from the basin’s boundaries, which was extremely convenient.
Whoosh!
The stone door flashed with a blue light and completed the verification of the caravan that consisted of six large vehicles, and permitted their exit.
The carriages passed through, and after their vision went dark momentarily, a bright and familiar wilderness appeared in their field of vision.
“Next, we will embark on an eight-hour journey. Everyone has ten minutes of free time.
“Please return to your respective posts and carriages immediately on time.
“Do contact me if you have other requests!” The man spoke as if he was a tour guide in a civilized era.
The free time began when the fleet had completely left Freedom City and arrived at the refugee camps, which were well-preserved.
Su Mo took advantage of the ten minutes and did not remain idle. He sneaked into the crowd to observe as if he wanted to join in the fun.
It was as he had expected. The exchanges in the outer city attracted a huge crowd which consisted mainly of cyborgs.
Compared to the abundant supplies in the major exchanges of the city, a rundown refugee camp was not very popular and did not attract many people.
Naturally, the facilities here were better preserved and had been restored faster than in the outer city.
Su Mo could not see even a glimpse of sadness on the faces of the refugees because of the war.
On the contrary, it was those few items and materials that they grabbed during the day that made them excited, and they shouted in celebration as if at a festival!
‘They’re a really strange race. It’s not that they don’t have focus. They do have their specialties, and twere very motivated to be able to profit from the misfortune of their own city.
‘Hopefully, the next time I return, Turner, Hao Qiang… and the Fire Exchange will surprise me with what they’ve achieved!’
The time was now in the evening, and the sunset on the horizon was almost gone, making the whole sky dim.
Unlike the usually brightly lit Freedom City, only a few lights on the city wall could be seen from a distance, making the city seem very gloomy.
Su Mo glanced at the wall with a bit of sentimentalism in his heart and recalled the things that happened these days.
The leader of the caravan urged the passengers, and Su Mo shook his head as he returned to the carriage with a smile and lowered his curtain.
Jingle, jingle, jingle…
The crisp bells of the lizards that pulled the carriages rang and were like a hypnosis spell.
Hearing the sound of the bells, most people took the chance to rest for the night as soon as they got in the carriage.
Meanwhile, Su Mo, who was in his personal space, did not remain idle.
A smile kerosene lamp was lit. He took out a small notebook and started to quickly calculate the results of this trip under the light from the lamp.
In terms of injuries…
The terrifying injuries from the previous night had improved by 70% in an instant after he had ingested a liter of psychic water.
The remaining 30% of unhealed wounds did not affect his daily activities or comba,t and would be healed without any side-effects after sufficient rest.
In terms of materials…
Unlike previously, the harvest this time was unbelievably massive!
First of all, Su Mo was able to upgrade his mark from a blue to purple grade, which gave him the authority to load any template below Level 6 onto his mark.
He could rely on the templates that he stole from the top ten exchange base and use any one or two of them for combat. Hence, if his demigod body was not able to reach its best capacity, he could still depend on the templates to display extraordinary strengths.
Secondly, there was a whole storage space filled with the loot from the import exchange, and even if they were not able to help with the development of their technology, the items could still provide considerable development ideas for the basin.
They could use these development ideas and achieve mass production to expand their scientific and technological knowledge.
Most importantly, the underground shelter would be able to quickly get rid of its previous dilemma and revive technology with these items.
Thirdly, the marks stored in the special container from harvesting a small massacre during last night’s battle had now exceeded 150.
They could fuse these marks to those who were compatible in the basin and greatly increase the the basin’s mobility.
As for the template selections, Su Mo deliberately had his eyes on the least valuable Level 1 marks.
They could be unlimitedly mass-produced and were not supervised by the city guards because they were cheap single-function templates. There would be no problem if they wanted to mass-produce as many as possible.
Su Mo was not afraid to waste contribution points, so after a bit of consideration, Turner headed out to purchase more than 500 templates.
He bought both marks and templates.
Despite being the most worthless Level 1 templates, Su Mo believed that the abilities would be able to help them at critical moments and they would definitely be useful to the development of the basin!
Aside from the surface benefits, the rewards from the system panel were also significant!
Su Mo placed his notebook aside and opened up the daily harvest tally!
[Doomsday Calendar Month 4 Day 10… Sunday]
[Territory lord: Su Mo (Host)]
[Territory status: A small self-sufficient territory. The territory can accommodate 3000 people to survive normally with the perfect internal ecological cycle and a small number of residential buildings. However, due to some natural disasters, the current development potential of the territory had decreased significantly. It is advised that the territory lord should be aware and prepared for the coming disaster.]
[Territory area: 150 square kilometers (Not too small or too big. You have enough living space, but lack strategic options and depth.)]
[Territory resources: Iron ores, oil, geothermal steam… agricultural land… (Consists of basic industrial development resources and has minimal survival resources to support agriculture, which is enough to supply the survival needs of a small population.)]
[Territory development potential]: 13.83 (The average score in the New World is 6.17, and the highest score is 976.67)
[Weather forecast]: The snow will clear up tomorrow within the territory, the temperature is predicted to be -15 to 9 degrees, and there will be no wind. (The weather will be chilly, it is recommended to avoid outdoor activities to prevent influenza.)
…
[Territory residents]: 1405 (expand +)
[Territory residents’ loyalty level: 100% (Stable loyalty indicates that the policies implemented will not face any resistance.)]
[Territory residents’ attitude: Boredom (The satisfaction of domestic needs is unable to support the workload of more than 1000 people due to the natural disaster. The majority of the population has lost their way forward and is idle every day.)]
[RTerritory residents’ health level: Very poor (76% of the subjects have a health score of 40% to 50%, 14% of the subjects have a health score of 50% to 60%, 16% of the subjects have health of 60%-70% and 4% of the subjects have a health score of >70%)
[Territory residents’ work efficiency rate: 15% (The majority of the citizens have lost their opportunity for physical labor and can only stay indoors to wait for sunny days to come due to the bad weather.)]
[Territory residents’ needs: Work, meat, warmth]
[Tips: When more than 20% of your residents are idle for a long time, the enthusiasm to work for the remaining residents will also decrease. Please arrange corresponding work to adjust the negative trend.]
…
[Economy: Early stage (Your territory has simple trading allies and consists of a simple trading environment that is limited by the circulation within the territory. The territory’s economy remains at an early stage.)
[Technology: Machinery (Main), medical treatment, energy]
[Medical care: Skin trauma (The territory has a small amount of basic medical equipment, a professional doctor, and three trainee nurses. Due to the lack of medicine, only simple wound treatment is available at the current stage.)]
[Law enforcement: Good (Good law enforcement does not equal strict rules and regulations. The subjects would not obey good laws enforced if their territory had nothing. When a territory develops rapidly to a suitable stage, everyone will happily corporate even if you have only one law enforced.)]
[Infrastructure: A primary village, heating boilers, broken “Cradle of the Mechanical Master” (Consists of the most basic residential buildings and basic heating facilities to resist natural disasters, “Cradle of the Mechanical Master” is also in the process of repairs due to the mechanical expert inside the territory.]
[Special attributes: Little Blessed Land]
[Civilization level: Primitive era (Upgrade requirement: Not satisfied)]
[Voices of the Wind:]
“Ah woo, woo woo, woo woo!”
[Points Acquisition Rating: Excellent (Expand +)]
…
Su Mo’s attention was immediately drawn to the territory development potenial of the basin, which had dropped by two points. This proved that the impact of the snow disaster on the basin was significant.
Fortunately, the average potential development score that rose by 11 points a few days ago had also gone through a great decrease. The highest average value, which was 1500, had already dropped by nearly 600 points!
Su Mo looked further down the list and could not hold back his astonishment and smile when he saw that the people in the territory were bored because they had nothing to do due to the snow.
In the doomsday wasteland, everyone had a sense of urgency and anxiety, fearing that they would die in an unknown disaster because they missed an opportunity to develop and fell behind if they took a rest.
This caused people to work extremely hard to fulfill the large amounts of physical work every day in order for them to sleep peacefully at night.
On days when they had nothing to do and were allowed to rest, they would have a sense of crisis and fall into a gloomy state all day.
Su Mo knew it would be easy to adjust their mental state.
It was a simple solution like what the system had suggested, and they needed to have work arranged for them. The problem would be solved if they were busy with something to do in their rooms.
‘Fortunately, the system panel can detect in real-time, which reduces a lot of management problems.
‘Otherwise, I would have to deal with all these troublesome little things every day!’
Su Mo glanced at the changes on the system panel and heard the familiar voice of Oreo through the wind’s whisper.
He smiled with satisfaction and expanded the point panel.
The system panel would reward survival points and territory points according to the degree of “braveness,” just like how the dangerous adventures would lead to bountiful harvests!
[You had successfully completed the seventh day before winter and refreshed your lifeline (Survival points +500).]
[You successfully completed the first kill against a new hostile force and increased your own loot storage column (Survival points +1,000).]
[Some people are stubborn because they know that the stage for them to shine has yet to arrive. Some people are stubborn because they are timid and fearful that their safety will be threatened. As an ordinary person, you are very wise. As a lord, you are brave, and you have learned how to shoulder more responsibility (Survival points +5,000).]
[You have made a friend of a foreign race. Foster good relationships and the reputation of your race will spread far and wide (Blue survival points +40).]
[Milestone: Expert Burglar (You have completed a perfect theft and participated in three stages, before, during, and after the crime; survival points +1,000).]
[Milestone: Survivor (You’ve sustained an attack from a high-level creature and miraculously survived; survival points +10,000).]
[Milestone: Status Upgrade (You have used legitimate and compliant methods in a foreign territory, and your prestige has exceeded 80% of the population; survival points +3,000).]
[Milestone: Bystander (You’ve participated in a war between hostile forces and gained a lot of benefits; survival points +500)]
[Analyzing the status of the host’s territory. The territory has been evaluated. 1.8 territory points acquired today.]
…
[Final settlement: Survival points +21,000, blue survival points +40, territory points +1.8
[Total Points: Survival points: 23300, blue survival points: 100, territory points: 11.4]
‘20,000 plus survival points and 40 blue survival points! This adventure was totally worth it!’
