[Dear refugees, welcome to Hope Village! The available identities are: Tourist (10 copper coins/day), Resident (10 silver coins/permanent)]
"Resident."
This scene happened to a lot of people. At that moment, they had no time to think and just picked joining the territory.
After entering the territory, everyone immediately turned back to check out the situation behind them.
Not far from the end of the queue, they saw a bunch of half-human-height rabbits. The rabbits had a pair of blood-red eyes, their big front teeth sharpened like daggers, standing on two legs hopping around, claws extended shining with a cold glint.
Who could've imagined that before the apocalypse, these cute and fluffy rabbits would turn into such freaky monsters.
Even one was enough to make a crowd suffer, let alone a whole pack.
Just now, quite a few of them died under those sharp claws and fangs, then turned into white light and vanished.
Thinking back, everyone's faces turned pale.
Finally, the last person stepped into the territory.
But that rabbit pack didn't give up, staring greedily at them, pushing off with their feet to leap into the air, lunging straight at the crowd.
Everyone's hearts skipped a beat.
Could these shabby wooden fences really hold them off?
Soon, "boom boom boom..." sounds echoed around. The rabbits slammed straight into an invisible shield and got bounced back, flying outwards.
Seeing this, a lot of people finally let out a big sigh of relief.
And Zhou Bai, who just rushed over, received a notification about the fence being damaged.
[Fence is being damaged, remaining defense: sixty percent, please repair with 400 units of wood]
[Fence is being damaged, remaining defense: fifty-two percent, please repair with 480 units of wood]
Reading the notifications, Zhou Bai felt his heart bleeding. While patching up the fence, he also took out an iron axe and started hacking at the attacking rabbits, one hit after another...
[Congratulations, Host. Killed lv.2 Magic Rabbit. Obtained: carrots*2, rabbit meat*2, rabbit skin*2, experience points*20, copper coins*20]
When the news popped up, Zhou Bai's eyes lit up.
"Dad, killing demon beasts drops loot, hurry over!" Zhou Bai shouted quickly.
Zhou Zhengping, seeing Zhou Bai rush out, was a little stunned, but on hearing Zhou Bai's next words, he quickly grabbed his iron axe and charged in as well.
As for Ding Qiurou—of course, wife follows husband.
Family's gotta stick together!
The bravery of the family of three was seen by those who'd just survived, and they immediately snapped to attention.
With the fence up, those demon beasts outside weren't an issue anymore.
However... many people's eyes flickered as they looked at the trio's iron axes.
Zhou Bai, busy slaying magic rabbits, noticed something, turned to the group of new survivors, and said, "There's iron axes for sale in this territory. There are 7 left. You can check them out."
Hearing that, a bunch of people immediately ran inside.
A moment later, people came back with iron axes and joined in slaying magic rabbits.
No one knew how long it lasted before all the magic rabbits were wiped out.
The whole crowd suddenly erupted in cheers.
Meanwhile, Zhou Bai discovered he had leveled up.
[Character: Zhou Bai]
[Race: Human]
[Level: lv.1 (100/200)]
[Identity: Lord of Hope Village, Hope Village Resident]
[Life Value: 179/200]
[Attributes: Constitution (4/10), Intelligence (7/10), agility (5/10), Defense (2/10)]
Looking at his panel, remembering the territory required the lord to reach level 5, Zhou Bai suddenly felt more confident: leveling up is way faster by slaying demon beasts.
More importantly, after leveling up, his blood volume thickens too—an invisible bonus.
"Thank you for telling us about the weapons inside." Someone walked toward the family, warmly thanking them. "Oh, by the way, my name is Li Xingteng."
"No problem, one more person, one more strength. If we relied on ourselves alone, it wouldn't have ended so quickly." Zhou Zhengping laughed as well, "Zhou Zhengping, my wife Ding Qiurou and daughter Zhou Bai."
The two were neither warm nor cold toward Li Xingteng.
"Is this territory just you three?" Li Xingteng asked on, eyes sizing them up.
From his novel-reading experience, a territory must have a lord. Could it be one of them?
"Yep, just us three. We were the first batch here, and our home was nearby. Lucky for us, we came in without much suffering." Zhou Zhengping said, pure relief written on his face. "Oh right, you guys probably haven't gotten your identity tokens as residents yet? Once you get an identity token, 'Hope Village Resident' will show above your head, and you'll be able to see demon beast types and levels."
Hearing Zhou Zhengping's words, the nearby eavesdroppers started heading toward the Lord Mansion.
A bit later, everyone inside the territory sported the Hope Village Resident title over their heads.
The first to probe Zhou Zhengping, Li Xingteng, specially looked back at them, made sure they all had resident status, and then went busy exploring the territory instead of paying attention to them.
Satisfied he wasn't suspected, the family relaxed and smiled, ready to settle in as ordinary survivors!
**
The arrival of this group pushed the village population to 21, made things a lot livelier, and Zhou Bai restocked another ten iron axes and 180 steamed buns.
Buying materials in the System Store was pricier, but selling for double helped Zhou Bai earn a lot back—finally experiencing the benefits of a bigger crowd.
After gnawing on steamed buns, many just picked random open spaces in the territory to rest.
After rushing half a day, no one cared about their surroundings anymore.
They just wanted a break, to collect their thoughts and figure out what to do next.
Zhou Zhengping took the chance to ask them about the outside world.
"There are demon beasts, but not too many for now. These magic rabbits were an exception—we stumbled into their nest by accident."
"Besides dropping beast skin, beast meat, copper coins, I've heard of some people picking up items that boost defense or strength."
"Other than that, there are lots of fruit trees out there—you can harvest their fruits."
"Food's got a shelf life, but surplus food and supplies can be sold to the system."
"Wood and stone—I've heard you just chop trees and rocks for them."
"..."
"Thanks a lot, our family just hid in here, never dared go out, so we really don't know much about outside." Zhou Zhengping thanked them sincerely.
"No worries. It's the apocalypse. Got to help each other!"
"Plus, you'll find all this out sooner or later."
"By the way, anyone want to gather wood and stone later? After I got resident status and bought an iron axe, I'm left with barely any money—feels super insecure."
"Same here. Moonlight Clan—no savings. Used to live carefree, but since entering the game... sigh, now it's hardship time."
"Really envy the rich people. Probably eating and drinking without worry after entering the game!"
"..."
As they chatted, everyone's mood started drooping.
"The main thing is to survive. If we're alive, there's hope. We're all still here, and that's already enough." Zhou Zhengping saw the emotion in their eyes and comforted them.
That line really soothed most people's hearts.
Yeah! They're still alive!
"Our family plans to go collect wood and stone as well." Zhou Zhengping added.
"Your whole family? Your wife and daughter too?"
"Yeah. If I baby them too much, it'll make things harder when something happens to me. Better let them get used to things sooner." Zhou Zhengping gave a bitter smile.
The crowd listened, both jealous and sympathetic—jealous of his family being by his side, sympathetic he had two burdens.
Oh wait, not exactly—one isn't a burden.
"Don't worry, your daughter was the first one to charge up earlier. That was pretty brave!"
As he spoke, he gave a thumbs-up.
Zhou Zhengping listened, quietly twitching his lips.
Afterward, he had asked her—the reason his daughter rushed up first was because the fence damaged by the magic rabbits needed wood to repair.
Wood = money.
With doomsday here, there's no way to loaf around anymore; the only option was to build the territory and rake in as much cash as possible!
Yep, that's still the daughter he remembered!