Chapter 163: The dog planner updates too slowly, why don't we update it ourselves

"Long time no see, dear student Luo Yan, Demon King of the Grave. Before mentioning business, please let me send you a congratulation at the beginning of this letter—congratulations on becoming the lord of the Black Wind Valley Barony; from now on, you finally have a place to stay near the Magic Capital!"

"Of course, the current situation there is completely a wasteland, and there is nothing except the ruins of a castle, hehe. If you intend to live there, I'm afraid you'll have to prepare a tent yourself, hehehe. I heard that there are wandering vampires, werewolves, and the like outside the Magic Capital; it wouldn't be good if you were bitten by them by chance. Also, next time you come back, you can't go to the temple to disturb again, right? You are a Demon King with a fief after all; you can't go and grab a bed to sleep with homeless children again, right?"

"Let me guess, you must be very panicked right now, right? But don't worry, how could I let dear student Luo Yan sleep in the wilderness? For the sake of us being classmates for many years, letting you come to our house to disturb is also possible, at least we won't bite people, hehehe."

"Alright, let's stop the jokes here; my father has already arranged the matter of the War Workshop, and the entire factory is being constructed completely according to the blueprints you provided. Although I don't understand the specific details, the construction team's statement is that it will be completed by the beginning of next year at the latest."

"In addition, after my father heard about your affairs, he is very interested in you and asked me to ask if you have time to meet him. Don't misunderstand, he has no other meaning; it's just from the standpoint of the family head, wanting to meet the partner of the Padriqi Family."

"Of course, this is not a prerequisite for cooperation; if you don't want to meet, it doesn't matter, I'll just turn it down for you. However, if you have time, I still hope you can satisfy his curiosity. You don't need to make a special trip back; the library in our house will do... I have already put the key in the letter."

"That's all I have to say; finally, I wish you well and hope you don't get involved in any trouble again. Of course, if you accidentally get involved, you must tell me immediately; the Demon King Management Department will always be your strongest backing. As your superior, I will never leave you alone."

"By the way, there is one more thing: who wrote the letter you sent back to the Magic Capital before? That is not your handwriting, and why does it have a woman's scent? I didn't care, just asking casually... who exactly is that guy? What's their background? How far have you developed?! And why didn't you mention it at all in the previous report?! How many things are you still hiding from the organization?!"

"..."

Luo Yan: "...?"

In late December, the howling cold wind became increasingly biting; the snow in the Silver Pine Forest could already submerge the calves, and the monsters active in the forest had almost disappeared.

In such cold weather, even the bravest adventurers could only sit around the tavern's fireplace rubbing their hands at this time, whiling away the time with alcohol and bragging.

The only ones who would appear at this time were the undead.

If they weren't really out of money, no one would be willing to go out to work at this time.

Not just adventurers.

The residents of Silver Pine Town were the same.

However, unlike the adventurers who cursed the bad weather, they didn't dislike winter; they even liked it a bit. After all, this was the longest holiday of the year; during this period, they didn't have to do anything. Those with pursuits would go to the docks of Thunder Sound City to help, and those without pursuits would be busy making babies at home.

Actually, most of the residents here had no pursuits.

Although they had no money and were poor as church mice, the other side of the coin was that they actually didn't need much money.

The land they rented was paid for with the harvest, and the remaining grain was stored in the lord's granary; although it couldn't be sold for much money, it was always enough for them to eat.

Most of the things that needed to be bought with money in the town were to earn money from outsiders, such as those adventurers.

And farmers like Old Abel, except for the shoes on their feet and their clothes, basically everything else, including the house, belonged to the lord... even the hoe for tilling the land and the stew pot on the stove.

This feudal contractual relationship had continued for hundreds of years, dating back to the Isaac Dynasty. Even compared to rural nobles like Baron Gess, who increasingly disliked the smell of soil on his body and wanted to squeeze into the upper class, countless Old Abels were even less willing to break this order and even more hoped that this contract would continue.

After all, why not?

Working for Baron Gess wasn't bad; although everyone had no money, no one had starved to death.

On the contrary, it was those outsiders wandering in the slums of Thunder Sound City who were always heard to have starved or frozen to death.

Looking at them, they not only had warm beds and hot pumpkin porridge, but occasionally could even eat a few meals of meat.

Especially whenever heavy snow fell, the lord's manor would send over some geese that couldn't be finished.

They would pluck the goose down and take the foie gras, and the goose meat they didn't want to eat or couldn't finish would naturally go to the servants. And for the tenant farmers of Silver Pine Town, that was considered a rare delicacy.

Looking at the group of unscrupulous merchants in the city, they would rather pour the milk shipped from the colony into the river ditches of Thunder Sound City than let the poor people of Thunder Sound City taste a mouthful of milk. They opened their doors to refugees in the name of the Holy Lord and mercy, but refused to look at their suffering compatriots in the slums, and even tried every possible way to deprive them of the land in their hands.

On the contrary, although the lord was a bit harsh to the refugees, he was relatively good to his own people.

Although adventurers always mocked them for having no freedom, guarding that piece of land for a lifetime, and not being able to drink two bottles of wine a year, they could also mock those adventurers back for having cold beds every day when they returned home, let alone hot pumpkin porridge, not even having someone to roll in the sheets to keep warm.

Talking about dreams, for Saint Xisi... they were nothing but slaves to money and honor.

In the tranquility of mutual dislike yet unable to leave each other, the people living in Silver Pine Town entered the season of hibernation.

And just when everyone was fast asleep, the "corrosion of the Grave" was spreading silently...

At the foot of the Beifeng mine cave, on the open space next to the abandoned hotel, a group of skeletons with bare frames were working with a creaking sound.

After multiple versions of attempts, the vast majority of players discovered that compared to those flashy but flawed races, the return-to-basics skeletons were their true love.

First of all, skeletons don't need to eat; they can "charge" by squatting in a cool, dark place. Secondly, they can be revived in seconds after death, and the resurrection cost and maintenance cost are almost zero.

There is also a merit that is not a merit: the side effects of playing an undead character are the smallest.

This was only discovered by some players recently.

After playing a little devil for a long time, one will also become heartless in reality, as well as having urgency, frequency, and endless urination. And those who played spiders for a long time will subconsciously reach out with their hands when walking...

Of course.

Not everyone encountered such a situation.

Regarding this, the explanation of the full-server t0 player "One Ye Ye Zhiqiu" is that highly simulated virtual reality games have an impact on the behavioral logic in reality... He himself will also subconsciously recite spells when he wants to light a fire.

And unlike One Ye Ye Zhiqiu's random explanation, the explanation given by Hearing You You is more precise.

This is actually the reverse mapping of the soul mirror to the soul body; it's nothing big, and one won't get sick, let alone replace the consciousness of the self, really treating oneself as a skeleton or a spider.

Some people with heavier influences are purely because it's their first time being a person; even without the influence of the game, they live in a muddle, and they will be fine after being reincarnated a few more times.

Back to the topic.

Skeleton soldiers have so many advantages that they can be said to be the best choice for new and old players.

Although low initial attributes are a problem, lack of strength can be made up for with equipment, which does not affect leveling up.

Once the soul level goes up and one can change jobs to a succubus, it won't be too late to make up for the game experience.

Just like this, under the unremitting efforts of a group of skeleton soldiers, the Grave not only had coal and iron ore piled up outside the mine cave, but even the felled logs were piled into a small mountain at the foot of the mountain.

In order to deal with these woods, Luo Yan had to issue more tasks, but no matter how many tasks there were, they couldn't solve one problem, which was that there was no demand.

One couldn't transport these woods to the Magic Capital to sell them.

Using the teleportation array to flip diamonds could still earn some money, but flipping such bulk commodities would lose everything to the grandmother's house!

As for Thunder Sound City...

Smuggling these things is also not very cost-effective.

In comparison, various "silk fabrics" with higher added value are easier to cash out.

The problem of overcapacity in the Grave is still continuing to worsen.

Fortunately, Nether coins have no cost, so the Demon King's finances are not on the verge of bankruptcy.

But this is not a way to go on like this.

Just when Luo Yan was pondering how to solve this problem, things suddenly took a turn for the better.

As more and more newcomers entered the game, the number of capable players gradually increased, and the current game content could no longer satisfy the players' increasingly expanding desire for exploration.

Especially recently, combat-class players were having a great time in the colony on Planet Kao, while life-class players were waiting for their own spring, so a group of life-class players with ideas united and initiated an initiative on the official website—

Emotionally Stable: "The development team of this game is too salty! At this rate of updating, it will take until the year of the monkey for life-class players' game experience to come up!"

Company Extra: "That's right, that's right! This group of dog things is too lazy! Is there no one working?!"

Urban Slave: "xdm! Since the dog planner doesn't work, let's do it ourselves! Revitalize the Grave!!"

Sooner or later the potato is in the office: "Awoo awoo awoo!"

Want to be a corpse: "Oli-give! Just do it!"

Looking at the posts on the forum, Hearing You You, who was peeking at the screen, couldn't help but sigh.

"It's truly incredible... Demon King, your leeks seem to be more anxious than you."

"I can actually understand their thoughts." Luo Yan, who was also peeking at the screen, said with interest.

They had been fighting all the time recently, and he had indeed neglected this group of life-class players, so it was no wonder they were bored.

Hearing You You, floating in the sea of consciousness, looked at Luo Yan and said with some worry.

"But in this way, won't it attract the attention of the Campbell Principality? It's fine in the labyrinth... but the surface is controlled by human lords, right?"

Luo Yan nodded and said.

"There is indeed this risk, but since their enthusiasm is so high, it doesn't hurt to let them try."

At first, he indeed didn't approve of players exploring too much outside the labyrinth.

However, just recently, he heard shocking news from Father Matt—the Grand Duke of Campbell was dead!

Not only that.

There were rumors that before the Grand Duke died, he did not pass the artifact "Light of Praise," which had been passed down through the generations of the Campbell Family, to the successor of the principality, but handed it to his youngest daughter.

This approach undoubtedly cast a shadow over the legitimacy of the new Grand Duke, Edward Campbell.

Luo Yan could actually guess the thoughts in that old man's heart.

Although the Demon King was dead, a new Demon King had popped up, and coupled with the erosion of Chaos appearing in the labyrinth wave after wave, seeing that this artifact that hurt others and oneself had to be used again, it was hard for the elderly Grand Duke not to feel worried about the fate of the principality.

If he followed the custom of hundreds of years and passed this artifact to his eldest son, then the Campbell Principality was destined to welcome a short-lived Grand Duke, and it might even shake the foundation of the Campbell Family.

So this elderly Duke "had a flash of inspiration" and passed this artifact that hurt others and oneself to his youngest daughter.

When she stabbed that "sword of destiny" for the people of the Campbell Principality, the "Light of Praise" would eventually return to the hands of the master of the Campbell Principality.

In this way, the problems faced by the Campbell Principality would be solved.

This elderly man even played the game until after his death.

However, this plan seemed perfect, but it also brought new problems to the principality.

Luo Yan was not interested in the power struggle of the principality, but he smelled the taste of opportunity from it.

Now that the Campbell Principality's power was changing hands and the new Grand Duke's foundation was unstable, when would it be if not now to rub against the bottom line of the neighbors?

Thinking of this, the Demon King no longer hesitated, immediately waved his hand, had Hearing You You pin the initiative of the life-class players to the top, and referring to the suggestions made by the players, drafted more than 20 major construction plans, and contracted a series of projects including road repair, wall repair, and toilet repair to various life-class players as public facility projects for Beifeng City.

Regardless of whether they could be used or not, build them first.

What if there were people after building them?

Besides that, Luo Yan also started selling land based on the city planning sketches he picked up cheaply from the official website.

Starting from the current version, players can purchase land grids ranging from 50 square meters to 500 square meters according to their soul level, used for building residences or workshops and shops.

He promised to provide raw materials at the cheapest price and let players freely exert their creativity to build their own land... as long as the things built could indeed fulfill the purpose declared, rather than occupying the latrine and not pulling.

And for residential land, if NPCs move in, players can also get a rental income.

If they can help NPCs solve work problems, they can also get contribution points!

Luo Yan didn't care who the residents in this settlement were, or whether they were human or not.

For him, as long as they could contribute faith value, it was fine!

After tasting the sweetness of faith power, his motivation to expand the faith map became stronger and stronger. Following a series of orders, there was the scene of a group of skeleton soldiers working hard at the foot of Beifeng Mountain.

Under the support of the Demon King, these tireless skeleton soldiers were working in full swing, with the posture of swearing to build a city on this flat ground!

Even though due to lack of experience, these enthusiastic little players often had to restart.

However, even so, the enthusiasm in their hearts was not extinguished, but rather they fought more bravely as they fought.

As they persevered in clearing snow, firing bricks, moving bricks, laying foundations, building houses... this simple little town was also growing wildly in this heavy snow.

Even if it was just a ghost town now.

And it was the kind that lived up to its name...

Just when the cattle and horses of the Grave were busy, in the depths of the Silver Pine Forest not far away, three little devils ordered to patrol the forest were flapping their wings, jumping up and down in the heavy snow.

Looking at the heavy snow filling the sky, Shark-Drop-Things was shouting excitedly, and hadn't stopped since they came out of the cave.

"Ooooo... such big snow! Is this a special effect?! Why isn't there any in the labyrinth?!"

Whale-Fall-South-North, who was flying beside her, was the same, also shocked by this heavy snow filling the sky.

=9+Book_Bar

However, even so, she didn't forget to complain.

"Is your brain frozen? How could it snow in the labyrinth..."

"Goose goose goose..."

Shark-Drop-Things' eyes dodged, whistling in an attempt to muddle through, but couldn't whistle for a long time.

Looking at the two who were making a fuss, Little-Late-Not-Full couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"It's just snowing, is it worth being so surprised?"

Shark-Drop-Things said excitedly: "Of course it's surprising! I've never seen such big snow in my life!"

Whale-Fall-South-North also nodded and said.

"Yeah... it's my first time seeing such big snow too; I didn't expect this game to fulfill my wish of many years."

She was from Yuezhou, and the northernmost place she had been to in her life was probably Shark-Drop's hometown in Minzhou.

That was also a place surrounded by mountains where it didn't snow all year round.

At this time, Shark-Drop suddenly remembered something and asked excitedly.

"Speaking of which, Little-Late's home is in the north, right?"

"Hmm." Little-Late hesitated and nodded.

Watching the nodding Xiao Wan, envy appeared on the faces of the two lively characters.

"Then don't you see such big snow every day?"

"Are there penguins? Do you take a sled when you go out there?"

Little-Late was choked by saliva and almost didn't hit the tree leaves frozen into ice sculptures.

"... I live in the north, not Antarctica."

Shark-Drop-Things: "Hahahaha! That's true!"

Whale-Fall-South-North: "Just kidding, please don't mind... speaking of which, are you from Jinmen?"

Little-Late looked at her unexpectedly.

"Why do you say that?"

Whale-Fall-South-North tilted her head and smiled with pursed lips.

"Because... I feel like you also have the talent for crosstalk?"

Little-Late: "... Actually, I'm from Jiamusi."

"Really or fake?!" Shark-Drop widened her eyes, "Wait, where is that?"

Little-Late didn't know how to describe her hometown either; after all, she hadn't looked at it carefully, so she said generally.

"... Anyway, it's very far north."

Seeing that she didn't want to talk about things in reality, Whale-Fall-South-North changed the topic with high emotional intelligence.

"Let's not talk about things in reality."

"That's right, that's right!" While speaking, Shark-Drop-Things had already made a snowball in her hand and suddenly smiled and said, "Rare opportunity, let's have a snowball fight!"

"... Snowball fight?"

Little-Late was stunned, not knowing why the topic suddenly cut from the story of her hometown to a snowball fight.

And by the time she came back to her senses, a snowball had already hit her forehead with a slap, solid and firm.

Although it didn't hurt, it froze her enough.

"Hey! Why did you suddenly sneak attack... Little-Late, are you okay?" Glaring at Shark-Drop, Whale-Fall then looked at Little-Late and said with concern.

"I'm fine." Rubbing her cold forehead, Little-Late, who had recovered, looked at Shark-Drop, who was grinning, and was also aroused to a competitive spirit, so she reached out and shoveled some snow from the frozen pine needles nearby, made a white ball, and threw it at Shark-Drop.

Dodging the incoming snowball, Shark-Drop let out a Jie-Jie-Jie laugh, just like a villain.

"Ooh! Quite energetic! Then try this move—"

At the same time the words fell, she dived and hit the tree nearby, shaking the frozen pine tree.

Whale-Fall: "Damn—"

Little-Late: "?!"

Large pieces of snow fell from the sky like an avalanche, hitting the heads of the three little devils flying at low altitude solidly, almost burying them alive.

Struggling to crawl out of the snow pile, Whale-Fall dusted off the snow on her wings, looked at Shark-Drop-Things, who was poking her head out of a snow pile nearby, and couldn't help but complain.

"Is that how you have a snowball fight?!"

The latter grinned heartlessly, and in the blink of an eye, made another snowball in her hand.

"All's fair in war! Take this!"

A snowball hit Whale-Fall-South-North's chest, successfully pulling her into the battle as well.

Facing the joint attack of Whale-Fall and Little-Late, Shark-Drop soon fell into a disadvantage, running away while holding her head, giggling and begging for mercy.

However, Shark-Drop's disadvantage didn't last long.

A snowball in Little-Late's hand accidentally hit Whale-Fall's back, successfully sucking away the latter's firepower.

As the mixed doubles of the two turned into a three-way melee, the situation of the "battlefield" became confusing again.

Snowballs flew back and forth in the air.

The three went from playing blindly at the beginning to a competition later, agreeing that whoever was hit by a snowball ten times first would be eliminated first, and the winner would gain the power to order the two losers for a whole day.

As long as it wasn't an excessive request, the losers had to unconditionally satisfy it!

Under the temptation of that expensive booty, Shark-Drop and Whale-Fall both burned with boiling fighting spirit in their eyes, took out 120% of their spirit, swearing to drown the other in the vast ocean of snowballs.

However, what no one expected was that the first one to be eliminated was Little-Late, whose home was in the north!

Looking at Little-Late, who had almost turned into a snowman, Shark-Drop suddenly felt a bit sorry and asked in a low voice.

"You wouldn't be having a snowball fight for the first time, would you?"

She felt that the other party should be better than her, which was why she started this "war."

Being looked at by those concerned eyes, Little-Late said embarrassedly.

"Before... no one played with me."

Whale-Fall and Shark-Drop looked at each other and suddenly cast loving eyes at Little-Late.

"I feel like the atmosphere suddenly became sad."

"+1."

"If you want to cry, Shark-Drop can lend you her shoulder."

"That's right, that's right, cry if you want to—wait, why not your own?!"

"Because it's troublesome to get snot on it."

"Am I not troublesome!!"

Looking at the two who suddenly started bickering, Little-Late couldn't help but laugh out loud.

I don't know if it was because of reincarnating into a little devil, but she felt that her mood was more or less influenced by the character, becoming heartless.

This is actually not a bad thing.

In fact, that is the state of life she wants most—

Happy one day is one day, no need to worry about tomorrow endlessly.

Just when she was sighing in her heart, a rustling movement suddenly came from the bushes not far away.

It wasn't just her who noticed it.

The two who had turned from bickering to playing also noticed the movement not far away and stopped their actions in unison.

"Who's there?" Whale-Fall shouted, and at the same time took a crystal from her waist and held it in her hand, preparing to cast a spell.

Seeming to realize that their tracks were exposed, a crackling sound came from the bushes not far away, just like soles stepping on ice dregs, hurriedly fleeing in the opposite direction.

Whale-Fall and Shark-Drop looked at each other, flanked from both sides, and with Little-Late approaching from the front, intercepted the uninvited guest who suddenly appeared in the forest.

However, what exceeded their expectations was that the one hiding there was neither a human adventurer nor a hunter from the nearby town, but two children, a boy and a girl.

They seemed to be a pair of siblings, the boy about fourteen or fifteen years old, and the girl slightly younger. Both were wearing tattered clothes, their noses were frozen red, and their hands were even more purple.

It could be seen that these two children had been wandering in the snow for a long time.

However, compared to the fear of the cold, obviously they were more afraid of the wings and horns that marked the identity of the demons in front of them.

The three flying in mid-air looked at each other and saw the look of interest in each other's eyes in unison.

The player's intuition told them—

A hidden quest has been triggered!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 164 =====