A commoner woman gave birth to a nobleman?
Ren Yifei was stunned for a long time. He had thought that this woman could give birth to a worker or even a soldier, but he never expected that she could give birth to a nobleman.
No, wait a minute. If he remembers correctly, this sometimes happens in the ant world: worker ants and soldier ants lay eggs, but unfertilized eggs only develop into male ants.
In an ant colony, only the queen can reproduce, producing both worker and soldier ants. Therefore, in most ant colonies, once the old queen ant dies and a new queen ant is not born, the colony's population will decrease until it disappears.
Ren Yifei's mind was a bit confused. It was like trying to apply the ant's system to humans, which led to a bunch of problems.
The biggest difference between them is that workers and soldiers can reproduce and pass on their genes.
The selfless altruism of worker and soldier ants has a prerequisite: they themselves cannot reproduce and can only rely on the queen. But this cause and effect is broken in humans.
"Hurry!" A group of people rushed in from outside, including workers and soldiers. They carried a small bed filled with soft woven fabric. Every corner of the bed was polished smooth and shiny.
They ran past Ren Yifei, and less than two minutes later they came out of the delivery room again, carrying the baby crib like a star surrounded by the moon, carefully walking past Ren Yifei.
Ren Yifei saw it: a small baby, male, who looked unremarkable except for a few transparent thin wings peeking out from his back.
The laborers and soldiers who carried this minor nobleman were genuinely happy.
Not long after the baby in front was taken away, another figure draped in linen was brought out, carried on a stretcher by two people.
"Throw it outside, throw it far away," said the midwives inside.
As they walked past Ren Yifei, an arm dangled from the corner of the linen cloth, its skin bluish.
As the sun set, the third floor was sealed off, and Ren Yifei's work was over.
This ordinary day passed just like that. When Ren Yifei returned to the second floor, there was no special news or information among the people. The world was so quiet that it was as if the other players did not exist.
Before it was completely dark, everyone was required to return to their homes.
They would inspect all the dormitories, and if a cave had been unoccupied for a long time, its owner would be effectively removed from the list, and the cave would be reassigned.
The hole in the river downstairs might already be on its last countdown to being deregistered.
Ren Yifei sat in a chair, unrolled a roll of sheepskin, and a semi-transparent, three-dimensional virtual map appeared on it, showing caves, metal pipes, and an entire room full of machinery scattered throughout different buildings...
All the routes he had traveled connected to form a golden, winding line.
He rotated the 3D map, revealing all the building structures from the fourth floor down, as well as maps of the outer regions as far as the swamp.
Activity Map: Automatically generates a map based on the route you have taken.
He thought it was just a square meter, but he didn't expect it to be a three-dimensional space with very detailed and clear divisions between different areas.
There are three worker-community nests on the first floor, which divide the first floor into three equal parts, with 'Jiang' at number three.
Based on his visual estimation at the time, there were about five or six hundred people in the No. 3 worker's nest, and the three nests together had more than a thousand to two thousand people who were responsible for labor.
Soldiers and civilians lived on the second floor. Their living space was smaller than that of workers and civilians, but their numbers were only one-tenth. They were responsible for management and guarding.
The third floor was a circular area shared by workers and civilians, as well as soldiers and civilians, for production and childcare. It had a spiral staircase in the middle that led to the fourth floor.
The fourth layer contains machinery that surpasses this civilization; it comprises the fourth layer and the central part of the third layer. It's all clearly shown on the map.
But the biggest discovery wasn't any of that; it was a hidden passageway leading to the fifth and sixth floors.
The fifth and sixth floors are blank on the map, probably because he hasn't been there, but the routes to the fifth and sixth floors are clearly marked.
It is located at the corner between the two soldiers' and civilians' nests on the second level.
"This is the second day of the game," Ren Yifei thought to himself. He put away the map, walked out of the cave, and went down to the lobby.
"Hey! It's time to close the gates. Except for the patrolmen, everyone stay in their rooms and don't move." There was a guard at the door.
Ren Yifei walked straight toward him without expression.
It's time for player 'Gucheng'.
"Get some sleep." He dragged the unconscious Night's Watchman to a corner, and when he turned around, he had transformed into the Night's Watchman's face.
Using the same method, he knocked out one of the night watchmen outside and two guards at the special passage, and obtained the 'key' to enter the fifth floor.
"Wow, this is really high-class. They even have special access cards." Ren Yifei took the access card he found from the guard, swiped it, and the wall pushed open in front of him, revealing a wide stone path.
He put the card away, walked in, and the stone door behind him closed automatically.
Because of his unrestrained use of illusionary abilities throughout the day, Ren Yifei felt his energy was almost depleted and he began to feel a little hungry.
However, he did not remove the illusion from his face; he simply transformed it back into Gu Cheng's face.
The dark stone path was illuminated by a series of eerie blue lights because of his arrival.
One minute later.
"Hey? What's wrong with you guys? Why are you asleep?" Soldiers and civilians on night patrol passed by and noticed the guards sleeping with their eyes closed. "Didn't you rest during the day?"
"Huh? How did I fall asleep?" The night watchman got up from the ground, still a little confused.
"If you're negligent like this again, we'll transfer you to other posts." The patrol team checked you over for safety reasons, but found nothing amiss; it seemed the guards were just sleeping in.
However, they still warned the guards. Although they were harmonious internally, there were still many creatures outside that could threaten them, and it wouldn't be good if something sneaked in.
The other gatekeepers were the same; they woke up one after another, but had no memory of what had happened.
The gatekeeper inside the lair found himself lying in a corner. But he didn't think much of it and went back to the gate to continue guarding it.
Since the tower was built, there has never been any internal conflict or riot, and they did not take their momentary drowsiness to heart.
Ren Yifei approached the fifth floor step by step in the dimly lit corridor. There was no one on the way, and it was very quiet.
In previous instances, players always managed to cause some trouble, whether they liked it or not. But for two days now, the entire anthill has been quiet.
Where have all the players gone?
He thought the fifth floor would be heavily guarded and that it would take him a lot of effort to get in. But when he reached the end, he found there were no guards at all; the interior was brightly lit and decorated in a magnificent style.
As Ren Yifei stepped inside, he felt the soft carpet beneath his feet and was greeted by a rich fragrance. He saw brightly colored paintings on both sides of the corridor, and large statues every few meters, mostly human figures with dragonfly-like scales on their backs.
With smiles on their faces and carrying flower baskets or water bottles, they fluttered or sprinkled water among the flowers, making Ren Yifei feel as if he had entered an art museum.
Suddenly he heard the sound of a group of orderly footsteps, so he hid behind a stone sculpture and concealed himself in the shadows.
Five soldiers and civilians lined up in a row, each holding a spear, and walked in unison from the corner of the corridor.
Suddenly, the person at the very front stopped.
"What's wrong?" the person behind asked, puzzled.
"There's a strange smell, it seems..."
Footsteps approached the statue where Ren Yifei was. He leaned against the statue, and a prop card slid into his hand, transforming into a black crossbow with three steel arrows nocked on it.
As the footsteps drew closer, Ren Yifei tensed all his muscles, and a bead of sweat appeared on his forehead.
"It seems I made a mistake," said the voice outside the statue, and the footsteps stopped.
"Are you too stressed?" his companion asked.
Then, after a flurry of footsteps, the group regrouped and continued onward.
Ren Yifei remained leaning against the stone sculpture, motionless, even his breathing was very soft. Only when the footsteps completely disappeared did he emerge from behind the sculpture.
"There really is someone hiding here." A beam of light shone on Ren Yifei's pale and terrifying paper mask.
Ren Yifei cursed under his breath. He pushed over a stone sculpture next to him and knocked over several more as the group of people chased after him.
"This is the favorite of those lords!" The broken stone carving seemed to have caused these people a great deal of trouble, which greatly slowed them down.
"Now is not the time to worry about the statue!" the man who had found him earlier exclaimed angrily. "He's all gone!"
However, none of the others listened to him; they were all trying to "save" the stone sculpture.
Ren Yifei sensed a subtle sense of unease and couldn't help but look back. Sure enough, he saw completely different expressions on both sides, and he seemed to realize something: "Players."
Then he quickly ran into the corner.
The place is very large, decorated in a unified style, with brightly colored paintings on the walls, carpets on the floor, and jeweled chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.
Ren Yifei ran into a place filled with mist, where he could hear voices talking.
"Hmm, this perfume smells really good. I must spray it on properly; I went down there today and must have picked up the stench of those lowlifes."
Ren Yifei saw the woman in the pink dress who had come during the day through the gap in the carved partition. She was sitting on a sofa with several other people, all of whom were wearing wings.
Their hair was loose and wet, as if they had just taken a bath.
This area should be the rest area after bathing, with the bathtubs on both sides.
Didn't you wear high heels when you went down?
"Of course I wore them. It was so dirty down there. How could I walk without high heels?" the woman in the pink dress said. "Inferior people don't deserve to stand with us."
The nobles over there were talking and had no time to pay attention to what was happening outside. Ren Yifei looked around, grabbed a large bathrobe from the shelf and put it on, listening to the sounds outside as he walked in.
"Oh, can you smell that? That smell of the lower classes?" a nobleman suddenly said.
"Oh my god!" the woman in the pink dress screamed, "I knew it! I knew I'd get that filthy smell on me!"
Ren Yifei had already entered the men's pool. The baths here were divided into individual cubicles, each covered by a light gauze curtain, through which one could vaguely see figures. Inside, white mist floated, obscuring faces from three meters away.
This made things convenient for him.
"Ah—the lowly!"
Loud screams came from outside, along with the crashing sound of things falling to the ground.
The sudden intrusion of the patrol seemed to have startled the nobles.
Ren Yifei sprayed some perfume on the back of his hand in the bathroom and sniffed it: "Not bad." A male nobleman was lying at his feet, seemingly asleep.
Author's Note: Afei: The disguised Liu Fei has disappeared; the player Fei has returned!