At this moment, inside the Lord Mansion.
Quite a few residents were still lining up at the scene, gathered here not for any other reason, but for the proposal someone made last night—to sell all their unwanted stuff to the territory.
Previously, most of what people sold were common resources; the better things, naturally, were kept for themselves. After last night, many people more or less changed their mindset, hence this scene now.
With so many people gathered together, talk was inevitable.
"Still a step too late! I also got the night vision goggles blueprint, but they only accept one copy."
"Didn't you say you'd make it yourself before?"
"Make it myself, my ass! I have no clue where to get all the materials. Rabbit skin is fine, but I still have no idea where to find Shiny Fruit and Mulberry Tree Resin!"
"I think Anti-black hat needs those things too."
"So we'd better just hand them over to the territory! The territory is way more awesome anyway."
"By the way, after last night, I feel like the outside changed a bit. There are more little grass patches, more little trees, and I even vaguely saw a lot of fruit trees!"
"Yeah! If I hadn't been so exhausted last night, I would've gone to take a look for sure."
"Last night was really... unforgettable."
"Speaking of luck, does it count as good luck for me to have slept so dead? I just stayed in the residence and slept, woke up to find out the territory got invaded by Demon Beasts."
"That's thanks to us risking our lives fighting! Otherwise, if the territory had been invaded, the residences would've totally been done for!"
"Seems like we got the better end of the deal."
"..."
The one saying this, Meng Chengzhou, looked a bit emotional. He was a survivor who had just arrived yesterday, bringing his wife with him to Hope Village. Seeing the atmosphere in this territory, he just gritted his teeth and bought a residence—after all, buying one at the very least guaranteed he'd always have a place to stay in the future. Last night, he'd been taking care of his wife the whole time, and with the house's good soundproofing, he genuinely hadn't known what happened outside. Not until morning, when a few others who'd come to Hope Village with him mentioned the Demon Beast invasion last night, about how they'd fought desperately and quite a few people had died.
But he also knew that, as long as you were present last night and survived, both your level and your loot saw a considerable increase.
He came here also to gather information.
Unless something unexpected happened, he'd be in this territory for quite a while. If he wanted to survive and live well, he needed to adapt himself to the territory and know what the territory needed.
Clearly, he'd gained something here.
Just as Meng Chengzhou was mulling things over, suddenly, excited cheers sounded from outside, growing louder and louder.
Then someone rushed in from outside, speaking energetically.
"There are lots of new buildings in the territory, and it looks like some have even been upgraded! Especially the territory wall—oh wait, now it should be called a city wall! Go take a look, you won't be disappointed! Also, the Lord Mansion you're in has been upgraded—there's a whole extra floor now!"
Listening to him, the whole crowd surged outside.
Once outside, seeing the state of the territory left them all a bit baffled.
What on earth happened while they were in the Lord Mansion just now? It felt like the space had been exchanged or something. Was this really still Hope Village?
The wooden fence that used to be outside Hope Village had turned into a city wall, sturdy as could be, with tall watchtowers on either side, obviously there to monitor what happened outside the territory. Having survived last night, this brand new setup gave people a huge sense of security just by looking at it.
Besides that, they could see plenty of new buildings had sprung up in the territory.
The longer they looked, the more excited many of them became.
They all understood well that the territory getting better and stronger was a huge boon for them, the residents who depended on it. No one wanted to go through another night like the last.
"Awesome! Just looking at that city wall's defensive power—it looks insanely strong."
"Yeah, now Demon Beasts probably won't be able to get in."
"If only the territory had been like this last night."
"You wish! It's probably exactly because of last night that the territory developed like this!"
"Lots of people are saying last night's Demon Beast invasion was the territory's trial, since the territory just upgraded from Level 0 to Level 1 yesterday. They say that when it upgrades from 1 to 2, there'll be another Demon Beast invasion for sure. That's just guessing, but it sounds pretty plausible to me."
"But if next upgrade is still a village, would a village have such tall and thick city walls? I played construction sims pre-Doomsday Game, and this doesn't make sense!"
"Who cares if it makes sense, as long as it protects us, that's enough."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah."
"The residential area now has Second-level Residences—two-story little buildings, good for multiple people living together! Just, the price doubled too, 12 Gold Coins."
"There's even a restaurant now—finally it's not just buns anymore, there's also plain congee."
"If everything got upgraded, why not pick something better, like, I don't know—braised pork or something?"
"Keep dreaming, it'll come sooner that way."
"A Heroic Spirit Hall popped up next to the Lord Mansion—the building style is super grand, but for some reason it feels a little chilly inside, and there's an altar-like thing in the middle. No idea what it's for."
"I poked around a bit, but didn't get any quest vibes."
"From the name, maybe it's to attract talents."
"NPCs? Doomsday Game NPCs? Are they finally coming? Maybe we can finally figure out this game world through them?"
"The Blacksmith Shop and tailor shop didn't get upgrades, but the tailor shop now sells three new products. One of them increases the number of inventory slots and even has a special effect!"
"What is it?"
"It's the Anti-black backpack! See, as soon as the blueprint was handed over to the territory, here we are—immediate results."
"But the backpack sells for 50 silver coins—if we could make it ourselves, that'd be a huge profit."
"But can you even make it yourself?"
"True."
"There's also a grocery store over there. Not much in it, just some materials, refreshed daily—not much use for now."
"What's the new building next to the city wall's gate?"
"The barracks! Usually that's where you change profession! After you transfer, you can be a soldier."
"So the territory will probably pick those Guard Team members! Speaking of, it's lucky those guys fought so hard yesterday—they killed a lot of Demon Beasts and saved a lot of people too."
"The territory is really getting better and better."
"..."
As everyone spoke, they couldn't help but smile.
Right now, the territory was truly good—giving them tons of security!
Zhou Bai's family appeared in the territory right around this time.
Seeing the changes, all three of them wore a hint of delight on their faces.
"Xiao Bai, your money was well spent! Instead of letting those Gold Coins gather dust in your account, it's way better to use them to build up the territory and make our life better." Ding Qiurou said to Zhou Bai in a low voice, clearly very much in favor of Zhou Bai's decision.
After the end of the world, Xiao Bai really changed—got better and better, and she was so proud.
"Yeah." Zhou Bai nodded, glancing at the Primary City Wall that had cost her a fortune to upgrade in one go, feeling truly at ease.
With walls like this, even if invaders came, there was nothing to fear!
Zhou Zhengping felt pretty good too, and asked, "Do you still have anything you need to do now?"
"I want to go check out the Heroic Spirit Hall. That's a Special Building—supposedly, you can summon talents there. At Level 1, you can refresh one person daily; I already upgraded it to Level 2, so now you get two people per day. I want to go see if there's anyone suitable to hire."
She also wanted to know what kind of people could be summoned, and what changes they might bring to their territory.
"Let's go together." Zhou Zhengping was interested too.
So, Zhou Bai and the others headed for the Heroic Spirit Hall, and as others in the territory had already checked it out, there happened to be nobody else inside.
As soon as they entered, they could definitely feel a chill coming from within.
Zhou Bai blinked, suddenly getting the feeling that something was off.
Just then, the system detected her presence and popped up a notification.
[Dear Host, would you like to begin summoning?]
"Yes."
As soon as her voice fell, a thick black mist began to appear on the altar in the hall of the Heroic Spirit Hall.
The moment the black mist appeared, the temperature in the hall dropped noticeably.
Gradually, the fog began to dissipate, and a black figure started to appear.
The next moment, Zhou Bai's panel popped up with information about the black figure.
[Name: Harrison]
[Race: Undead (Dwarf)]
[Level: lv.15]
[Identity: Undead Kingdom Resident]
[Profession: Undead Mage, Blacksmith]
[Life Value: 1500/1500]
[Magic Value: 1000/1000]
[Attributes: Constitution (20/20), Intelligence (14/20), Agility (20/20), Defense (20/20)]
[Talent: Master Blacksmith]
[Price: 1 Gold Coin/month]
Leaving aside whether the black figure was good or bad, Zhou Bai was honestly shocked by the so-called "talent" that had just been summoned.
So the Heroic Spirits in the Heroic Spirit Hall were actually Undead???