Chapter 44

"Tomorrow will be the sixth day since we arrived in this Dream World."

Wu Pifu looked at the Peace Hotel, which was under bustling construction. Even though it was already evening, the torches provided enough light for the craftsmen and villagers to continue working with all their might.

In fact, the craftsmen and villagers had been divided into three teams, implementing a three-shift rotation to build the Peace Hotel.

For no other reason than the pay being too high.

Because Lin Heier and Xu Rongyu had confirmed repeatedly that they could obtain at least ten thousand grams of gold every month. This amount of wealth might not be much for a large organization or a country, but for the Red Lantern Society, it was a massive sum. Seventy percent of it belonged to Wu Pifu and his two companions, and since the three of them had nothing to spend it on at the moment, it was naturally poured into the Peace Hotel.

The wages these craftsmen and villagers received for building the Peace Hotel were over thirty times what they would earn for the same labor elsewhere. Working here for one day was equivalent to working day and night for a month in other places!

If it weren't for Lin Heier's solemn, repeated, and serious warnings not to pay these craftsmen and villagers beyond their limits, let alone thirty times, even three hundred times would likely have been fine.

This was an era where the material poverty of the lower classes and the lower society was unimaginable.

These villagers couldn't even scrape together two meals a day. Their staple food was a thin soup of wild vegetables, which could hardly be called a meal. Every one of them was sallow, thin, and hunched over.

The craftsmen were slightly better off, but only slightly; their stomachs were filled with nothing but thin porridge.

In fact, according to Xu Rongyu, to build this Peace Hotel, they only needed to provide food for the villagers. In this season of scarcity, providing food alone would be enough to make the villagers flock to them, which would conversely avoid attracting outside attention.

But how could Wu Pifu follow such a suggestion?

With the appearance of scanning and screen text, various damage, treatment, etc. information, Wu Pifu finally saw the number he had been looking forward to.

Up to now, he still didn't know what conditions were required to upgrade the shelter, but increasing his influence in this world was never wrong. Since he was building a "Peace Hotel" and he had to play the role of an invincible swordsman, being generous and magnanimous was part of his persona.

"The poor study, the rich practice martial arts." Without money, it was impossible to practice martial arts. If one couldn't even eat their fill, trying to forcibly circulate Qi and blood was truly courting death.

Therefore, having money, being powerful, and being a martial arts expert—once this persona was established, it could save him a lot of trouble in this era, especially trouble from official channels. As for the martial arts world... the leader of the largest bandit group outside the pass and his hundreds of core members were buried right here. Were there any who didn't know their place?

On the contrary, people from the martial arts world were very likely to come because of his reputation. Experts, masters, and even Grandmasters might appear. However, this was actually a good thing for Wu Pifu. He was currently in a period of rapid progress, and battles with these national martial arts practitioners could help him grow stronger quickly. As for injuries, that was not something he needed to worry about.

Therefore, thirty times the wages, full bowls of thick white rice or noodles and steamed buns, plus chopped meat mixed with stir-fried vegetables and wild greens, and one egg per person. What made these villagers and craftsmen the most envious was that they actually had four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and if they worked at night, a late-night snack!

They had never heard of such an employer!

People at this time were simple-natured, and even if they had some small ulterior motives, they were mostly the simple thoughts of farmers. Thus, encouraged by such wages and food, these villagers and craftsmen worked as if their lives depended on it.

As a result, Wu Pifu, Amada, Xu Shilan, and Xu Rongyu ended up with nothing to do. They didn't even need to supervise; there were village elders among the villagers, and if anyone dared to slack off, their fellow villagers would shame them to death.

The idle Wu Pifu and the others found some stones and sat in the distance. Since there was nothing important to do, they chatted and rested. Wu Pifu practiced martial arts whenever he had the time, and Xu Rongyu naturally followed him like a lackey, receiving a few pointers that made him so happy he began practicing the stances himself.

Xu Rongyu was only a half-baked practitioner. Although his father, Xu Zhenshan, had reached the stage of an An Jin Master, he was self-taught and didn't dare to teach Xu Rongyu real skills, leaving Xu Rongyu without even Ming Jin.

At this moment, Xu Rongyu was standing there practicing his boxing stances, while Wu Pifu had just finished a set of Green Python Molting Art, his whole body steaming with heat. He looked at the construction site, then at the night in the distance, and turned to speak to Amada, who was tinkering with some metal parts, and Xu Shilan, who was looking through the account book.

Both of them paused slightly in their movements, then went back to being busy. Amada said casually, "Yeah, tomorrow is the sixth day."

Xu Shilan pondered for a moment and said, "According to your description, will Nightmares attack starting tomorrow?"

Hearing the word "Nightmare," Xu Rongyu's breathing immediately became erratic, and his boxing stance fell apart. He simply stopped practicing, adjusted his breathing, and sat on the ground to listen to the three of them talk.

Wu Pifu shook his head and said, "It just increases the probability of an attack. It's not certain that a Nightmare will attack after five days, nor is it absolutely safe within five days. It's hard to say."

The other three listened to Wu Pifu's words. Amada suddenly blurted out, "Then this shelter... what does the word 'shelter' even mean?"

Taking the name literally, since it's called a shelter, it should have some kind of protective function, right? Moreover, the shelter wasn't a name chosen by maintainers like Wu Pifu, but a name defined by the Main Brain. Yet, looking at its functions, it had no sense of protection and was even their greatest weakness.

A Rank One shelter requires ten days of guarding every thirty days; a Rank Two shelter shortens this to seven days; the guarding time for Rank Three and above is unknown. And after these maintainers stay in the Dream World for more than five days, their location will be sensed by the Nightmares of this world, and the probability of being found by a Nightmare will gradually increase.

During this period, if you are discovered and hunted by a Nightmare, you cannot even expose the location of the shelter, otherwise, the Nightmare will follow the shelter into the real world and hunt you down like a waiting hunter... Thinking about it this way, what exactly does this shelter protect? It's actually their biggest weakness. Wu Pifu also didn't know what this shelter protected, but he still said, "Thinking so much is useless. We know too little about the Dream World, about all these changes, and even about the Main Brain. What is a Nightmare? What is a Bizarre? What is pollution? What is the end of the 'Zhou'? And what does this shelter mean? We know nothing at all, so guessing more now is useless. Surviving, becoming stronger, and living better—that is what we need to do now."

Amada and Xu Shilan nodded in agreement.

That night passed without incident. The next day, Wu Pifu began patrolling and inspecting the construction site and the surrounding land. Another day passed without incident. By the time they reached the seventh day in this world, Wu Pifu was even more cautious. Amada also joined the patrol. The two of them patrolled and inspected for twenty-four hours without sleep, yet they passed the day safely, without even a hint of trouble appearing.

At noon on the seventh day, a countdown reminder from the Main Brain appeared in the minds of all three, telling them that their guarding mission in this world was complete and they could return to the real world at any time.

Wu Pifu breathed a sigh of relief. He looked at Amada and Xu Shilan and said, "Fortunately, our luck was good this time. Not every guarding period will encounter Bizarres or Nightmares. Especially if you don't run around blindly, that is the safest way."

Amada didn't care, while Xu Shilan was lost in thought. Wu Pifu said, "So, have you decided what building to buy? Currently, building a force cannot be achieved in a day or two. Historical events can only be achieved after at least four months, when Empress Dowager Cixi flees west. So, how about we establish a Rank One shelter first and draw a random reward?"

For the first random draw when establishing a shelter, the Main Brain likely has some kind of screening mechanism; it's usually a cultivation technique, and one that fits you. Wu Pifu himself was like this, and his predecessors were all the same.

Amada and Xu Shilan were currently still ordinary mortals; they didn't even have the most basic "Baseline Reality 0.9" cultivation technique, which was a very dangerous thing in the Dream World.

Amada naturally nodded repeatedly in agreement, but Xu Shilan shook her head and refused directly.

"No, we won't establish a shelter in this world. Little Brother Wu, take us to the Mud Buddha Yaksha World," Xu Shilan said immediately.

Wu Pifu and Amada looked at her in surprise at the same time.

!

Xu Shilan asked seriously, "Little Brother Wu, are cultivation techniques easy to obtain?"

Wu Pifu was stunned for a moment, then frankly shook his head: "Not easy to obtain. The Tiger Demon Art and Green Python Molting Art I know now were all obtained through Main Brain rewards. Wanting to find cultivation techniques in the Dream World... difficult, difficult, difficult."

Xu Shilan sighed and said, "A false transmission is worth ten thousand books, a true transmission is just one sentence. Even technology is like this, let alone these supernatural cultivation techniques where great power belongs to oneself. Wanting to obtain them in this Dream World is probably dozens or hundreds of times more difficult than establishing a shelter. And the channel through which we are most likely to obtain extraordinary cultivation techniques is only the first shelter."

This was the reason Wu Pifu proposed establishing a shelter immediately. He looked at Xu Shilan in confusion, and Xu Shilan said frankly, "But it is very clear that the cultivation technique strength of the Baseline Reality 0.7 Dream World far exceeds that of the Baseline Reality 0.9 Dream World, right? If there were no other way, we would naturally only be able to establish our first shelter here. But don't we have you? You can take us to the Baseline Reality 0.7 Dream World."

Wu Pifu was stunned at first, then immediately realized, and at the same time, he was overjoyed and nodded, "Yes, yes, yes, you are right. We really shouldn't establish a shelter here."

Wu Pifu hadn't thought in this direction before, but now with Xu Shilan's reminder, he immediately understood her meaning.

The deeper you go into the Dream World, the more dangerous it is, but at the same time, the extraordinary power is also stronger.

And for the first shelter established by a maintainer, the random draw obtained, due to the Main Brain's screening factors, can basically obtain a set of cultivation techniques from that world that fit you.

Other newcomers naturally have no way to think about it; they either rely on random penetration to gamble with their lives, or they can only establish their first shelter in the Baseline Reality 0.9 Dream World, just like Wu Pifu. Only with this shelter can they continue to penetrate downward smoothly.

But if there are senior predecessors, and they have a shelter in a deeper Dream World, they can take newcomers directly to a deeper Dream World and establish their first shelter there. In this way, they can naturally obtain more powerful cultivation techniques.

Although the danger is also great, because the first shelter is in a deep Dream World, the guarding mission will be life-threatening, especially since you need to guard it immediately within a month of obtaining the cultivation technique. This is actually a double-edged sword.

"... However, Little Brother Wu already has a shelter in this Baseline Reality 0.7 Dream World, so we can also establish our first shelter in this world. We can fight side by side with you and support each other. Isn't this the best choice?" Xu Shilan said with a smile.

Wu Pifu and Amada naturally realized it too.

"That's the way, that's the way!" Amada laughed and agreed repeatedly.

Wu Pifu immediately gave Xu Rongyu instructions on management matters, then took the two of them to an uninhabited area in the wilderness. With a flash, the three of them returned to Gaia, and without stopping, they immediately lay down in the sleep pods again.

"Main Brain, initiate Dream World shelter return, target..."

"Mud Buddha Yaksha Dream World!"

(End of chapter)