At this moment, Zhou Bai and the other two had already entered the Lord Mansion.
The Lord Mansion was like an office hall, just a simple one-story building, about forty square meters, and at the end were two compartments on the left and right, each with a window. Above the left window was "Resident Registration," with an unfurled sheepskin scroll on the table and stacks of blank Tokens beside it. The right window said "Territory Tasks," with a bulletin board above it, but nothing posted yet.
Everything Zhou Bai saw was also displayed in real time on the Lord Mansion section of her territory panel. It was perfectly synced, and Zhou Bai looked at this scene, a bit amazed.
When Zhou Zhengping and Ding Qiurou stepped forward, two Tokens engraved with their names were handed out from the left window.
As soon as they got their Identity Tokens, a name appeared above their heads.
[Hope Village Resident]
"Dad, Mom, can you see a name above my head?" Zhou Bai felt her heart skip. Please don't let it say Lord of Hope Village!
"Yes. It says Lord of Hope Village." Both of them frowned.
Zhou Bai twitched her mouth. "Aren't they just putting a target on my back?"
This name was way too flashy! Really not her style!
She glanced at the sheepskin scroll in the counter, focused her thoughts, then tapped the scroll on her control panel and directly filled in her name.
When she registered, her name showed up on the real scroll too, and an Identity Token appeared for her.
Once she got the Token, Zhou Bai's label overhead changed.
Zhou Zhengping and Ding Qiurou were visibly delighted. "It's changed to Resident."
"Now I can hide my Lord Identity!"
She didn't know how long she could keep it hidden, but at least it'd mean fewer troubles for now.
"Can anybody else mess with that resident register?" Zhou Zhengping asked, trying to walk into the counter, but was stopped by an invisible barrier.
"Only the Lord can!" Zhou Bai confirmed. Everything here was accessible to her as the Lord, except for the system itself. Only she could operate it.
"There's just this one territory around. Nobody knows what's going on, so we can just say the territory's run by the system. No one would suspect anything." With that, Zhou Zhengping's last bit of worry vanished.
He looked at his daughter again, eyes full of awe. Her luck was insane!
Zhou Bai, having unexpectedly solved her identity issue, continued to work the panel in good spirits.
Fully understanding the Lord functions was a massive advantage for her.
She then checked the upgrade conditions.
[Population reaches 100 (Not met)]
[Territory has 4 buildings (Not met)]
[Lord reaches lv.5 (Not met)]
Taking note of the requirements, Zhou Bai's gaze moved to the "to be unlocked" buildings marked *2. She remembered these were system rewards for founding the territory—as soon as she unlocked them, there'd be four buildings, and building conditions would be met.
She tapped, and the screen showed a bunch of building introductions.
[Basic Tailor Shop: Can make simple clothing. Construction requires 10 Gold Coins and some materials]
[Basic Blacksmith Shop: Can forge basic weapons and tools. Construction requires 10 Gold Coins and some materials]
[Primary Grocery Store: Provides various goods. Construction requires 10 Gold Coins and some materials]
[Restaurant: Provides various foods. Construction requires 10 Gold Coins and some materials]
[Level 1 Warehouse: Can store all items. Construction requires 10 Gold Coins and some materials]
[Level 1 House: 30 square meters, construction requires 5 Gold Coins and some materials, can be built repeatedly]
[Level 1 Farmland: Can plant crops]
[...]
Maybe because the territory level was still low, most available buildings were basic, and not too many of them. But for Zhou Bai, it was dazzling all the same.
"Dad, Mom, I can unlock 2 buildings right now," Zhou Bai said, listing a few options and their features.
"Which do you think we need most right now?" Zhou Zhengping smiled at Zhou Bai and didn't give an answer—he asked her directly instead.
Zhou Bai understood Zhengping was training her and answered, "The Blacksmith Shop and Restaurant! The former lets us have weapons; the latter gives us food. These are what survivors need most right now."
"Then let's go with your plan."
Zhou Bai nodded and started unlocking buildings.
[Spend 10 Gold Coins, 1000 units of wood, 1000 units of stone material, 100 units iron ore to unlock Blacksmith Shop?]
"Yes."
[Not enough materials, please purchase or collect]
Zhou Bai chose to purchase.
Soon, the system store popped up, and the page just happened to show wood, stone, and iron ore.
[Item: wood]
[Introduction: Building material]
[Purchase price: 1 copper coin/unit]
[Sell price: 2 copper coins/unit]
*
[Item: stone material]
[Introduction: Building material]
[Purchase price: 2 copper coins/unit]
[Sell price: 4 copper coins/unit]
*
[Item: iron ore]
[Introduction: Building material, weapon material, etc]
[Purchase price: 100 copper coins/unit]
[Sell price: 200 copper coins/unit]
Seeing the difference between buy and sell prices, Zhou Bai paused.
What a rip-off!
Grumbling, Zhou Bai still spent 2 Gold Coins and 60 silver coins to unlock the Blacksmith Shop.
After that, unlocking the restaurant, which only cost 60 silver coins, felt like nothing.
[Dear Host, your territory now has 4 buildings, upgrade condition 2 met.]
[Basic Blacksmith Shop and Restaurant have been unlocked. Please place them.]
The notification came, and two recommended locations appeared on the territory map. Zhou Bai just clicked Confirm.
But that was far from over.
[Blacksmith Shop completed. No Blacksmith present. Auto-mode activated. System selects product: Iron Axe (Bronze Level). Make it?]
[Restaurant completed. No chef present. Auto-mode activated. System selects product: Steamed Bun. Make it?]
"...Yes."
[Making Iron Axe requires blueprint*1, iron ore*10, wood*10. Not enough materials, please purchase.]
[To make Steamed Buns, flour required. Not enough materials, please purchase.]
*
[Item: Iron Axe blueprint]
[Introduction: Essential for making Iron Axe]
[Purchase price: 50 silver coins]
[Sell price: 1 Gold Coin]
[Note: Can be used repeatedly]
*
[Item: flour]
[Introduction: Ingredient for food]
[Purchase price: 1 copper coin]
[Sell price: 2 copper coins]
Seeing these prices—especially for the Iron Axe blueprint—Zhou Bai's little heart trembled a bit, but since she had no materials, she could only buy, buy, buy.
After buying, Zhou Bai made and stocked 10 Iron Axes and 20 Steamed Buns.
Once she confirmed the Blacksmith Shop and Restaurant were operating, Zhou Bai let out a long breath.
Finally done!
She seriously suspected this was a pay-to-win game, always pushing the Lord to spend more money—if you didn't have enough funds, you'd never unlock anything.
Guess I can't rely on the system store all the time—not even rich people should burn money like this.
Every coin spent hurt her heart. Before the apocalypse, her bank account only ever grew, never shrank.
Next, Zhou Bai focused on the territory task bulletin board. She finally realized what it was for.
[Buying wood, 1 unit/1.1 copper coin]
[Buying stone material, 1 unit/2.2 copper coin]
[Buying iron ore, 1 unit/101 copper coin]
[Buying all types of blueprints, 1 Gold Coin]
[...]
The tasks appeared one by one. Zhou Zhengping and Ding Qiurou, waiting nearby, soon noticed—because besides the bulletin board, their own panel also got the notifications. It was perfectly synced!
"What's this..."
"I just unlocked buildings, needed materials, and the sell prices were double the buy prices, so I spent a bunch. I figure we'll need materials for future buildings too, so I'll buy in advance and stock up—can't lose on this." Zhou Bai explained.
"So, the system's goal might be discouraging you from relying on the store? You can get materials yourself or through residents, both cheaper than buying from the store—so it encourages people to go out?" Zhou Zhengping mused.
"...Sounds about right." She just wanted to save money either way—a win-win!
"Then let's wait for others to arrive. Once we get info from them, we'll head out ourselves. On the way just now, we didn't run into any danger, but we missed out on learning opportunities."
"Ugh, I'd rather you guys find out later than have any danger." Ding Qiurou chimed in, glaring at Zhengping, and even twisted his arm—what a thing to say!
"Just talking." Zhou Zhengping quickly begged.
Zhou Bai watched the scene, her lips unconsciously curling up.
She was so grateful to have this territory, to be able to protect her family.
Just then, a notification popped up on Zhou Bai's control panel.
[Lord of Hope Village, refugees have entered the territory. Please prepare for reception.]
The moment the notification appeared, scattered green and red dots started showing up on Zhou Bai's map.
Green dots were survivors—and red dots, demon beasts?
Thinking this, Zhou Bai quickly told the other two: "Survivors are coming! Maybe some demon beasts too."
Their attention snapped back immediately. "Let's go take a look."
The family of three headed straight toward the village entrance. Passing the Blacksmith Shop, each bought an Iron Axe.
Meanwhile, a group arrived outside Hope Village, and as soon as they saw the stone stele, their eyes lit up with hope.