Zhou Bai was surprised to receive the news.
But Zhou Bai quickly understood that this was something bound to happen sooner or later.
If it happens earlier, maybe that's actually a good thing!
At this moment, Diana noticed Zhou Bai zoning out and asked directly: "Did something happen?"
"A new batch of survivors arrived, some of them robbed others. Now they've all entered the territory, and the robbers were caught by the soldier team. I'm thinking about how to regulate the territory's order." Zhou Bai said. Although she wasn't at the scene, she'd been keeping an eye on the changes in the green dots on the territory map, combined with what she'd seen earlier and the recent system message, it wasn't hard to deduce what had happened.
"Do you have any thoughts?" Diana asked.
"Do you have any suggestions?" Zhou Bai countered. She did have some ideas in her mind, mostly borrowed from laws of real society, but she couldn't copy them completely. What she needed most were rules suited to the current situation of the territory.
"In the territory I was in before, there were some regulations, but those were basically useless for the powerful. I guess that's not what you want." Diana shook her head. Even though she'd only stayed in this territory for one day, she could pick up bits and pieces from the residents' conversations to learn some background, and understood why this territory and Zhou Bai's territory were so special.
She was really looking forward to what Zhou Bai would build in this territory.
Zhou Bai got Diana's meaning—it was probably "survival of the fittest, might makes right" in this world. If you don't get caught, it's not considered breaking the rules; even if you are caught, as long as you're strong enough, you'd be fine.
In their real history, the nobles were just like that—an old tactic!
Thinking about this incident, Zhou Bai decided to set a rule first. Maybe it would trigger a system reward, since that's what the system wants anyway.
[Territory Rule (+)]
[Rule 1: Residents of the territory are forbidden from harming others or infringing upon the interests of others]
[Punishment: Severity to be defined based on circumstances. Serious offenders are stripped of resident identity and expelled from the territory.]
After confirming, Zhou Bai released it directly.
Right after releasing it, Zhou Bai received a "reward" from the system.
[Dear Host, you have established territory rule 1. Please choose a suitable place in your territory to confine criminals. Would you like to purchase a Prison?]
[Item: Prison Blueprint]
[Introduction: A place for confining criminals. Criminals confined here will be monitored by the prison and are not allowed to leave the territory.]
[Purchase Price: 3 Gold Coins]
[Selling Price: 6 Gold Coins]
Zhou Bai selected "Purchase" without hesitation.
[Do you want to spend 5 Gold Coins, 1000 units of wood, 1000 units of stone, 1000 units of iron ore, and the Prison Blueprint to construct a Prison?]
"Yes."
[Prison construction completed—please place it.]
Zhou Bai placed the Prison directly behind the barracks.
After everything was done, Zhou Bai published another task.
[Task: Collecting Territory Rules]
[Type: Long-term collection task]
[Reward: 1 silver coin]
[Executors: All residents]
After finishing the operation, Zhou Bai turned to Diana and said: "I've set the first rule, the rest will depend on whether the residents have better suggestions."
Diana looked at the notice on her panel and nodded in agreement, "Sounds good."
"I just built a Prison, so the robbers have somewhere to go. But aside from confinement, I have another idea."
"Oh?"
"I'm planning to build a road outside the territory, and assign the soldier team to patrol it regularly and clean up. If survivors arrive within the territory boundary, they'll reach it safely without wasting manpower on rescue operations. I used to think the project was too big, but now with so much free labor, it's doable. What do you think?" Zhou Bai asked, eyes shining.
She had always pondered how to make more people outside the territory aware of Hope Village. System notifications were convenient but limited in range. If there was a road, with road signs, it would be easy for survivors to learn about Hope Village early, and even let residents explore outside the territory.
If you want prosperity, build roads first—this saying applies perfectly to territory development.
Before, because there were too few residents, it had never been pushed onto the agenda, but now it could be done.
Diana listened, paused, then laughed: "That's a great idea! Go with your plan!"
"Once the soldier team registers the people into the Prison and leaves the mark on them, I'll publish it!" Zhou Bai said cheerfully.