Chapter 12

After everyone left, Cheng Yang walked up to the altar and brought up the attribute panel of Luofeng Village. He discovered that the spirit energy value of the territory had already reached 311 points, and these spirit energy points were now sufficient to serve some purpose.

Next, Cheng Yang went to the statue of the Mage. These four major profession statues all had their own attribute panels.

Building Name: Mage Statue

Level: Level 1

Profession Research: Life Enhancement (Level 1, Unresearched): Increases the life strength of all Mages who have undergone a profession change under this statue by 5%. Upgrade Condition: 100 spirit energy points

Magic Power Enhancement (Level 1, Unresearched): Increases the magic power of all Mages who have undergone a profession change under this statue by 5%. Upgrade Condition: 100 spirit energy points

Magic Attack (Level 1, Unresearched): Increases the attack power of all Mages who have undergone a profession change under this statue by 5%. Upgrade Condition: 100 spirit energy points

Physical Defense (Level 1, Unresearched): Increases the physical defense of all Mages who have undergone a profession change under this statue by 5%. Upgrade Condition: 100 spirit energy points

Magic Defense (Level 1, Unresearched): Increases the magic defense of all Mages who have undergone a profession change under this statue by 5%. Upgrade Condition: 100 spirit energy points

Number of Profession Changes: 7/20

The upgrade conditions for the four major profession statues in the territory were actually to upgrade all the profession research to Level 2. Not only did the Mage statue have such profession research, but the other three major professions also had similar upgrade options. The only difference was in the attack research: physical attack professions increased physical attack, while magic attack professions increased magic attack.

Such upgrade conditions were not difficult, but they were not easy either. Upgrading all four major profession statues to Level 2 required 2000 spirit energy points. Although they had obtained nearly 400 spirit energy points in just one hour, that was due to the advantage of the occupation challenge.

Under normal circumstances, the spawn rate of mutated creatures around the territory was not fast, and an occupied territory would not attract mutated creatures to attack proactively. Therefore, to quickly accumulate spirit energy points in a short time, one had to venture deeper into more distant areas.

However, Cheng Yang was not bothered by these difficulties, as this was the advantage of occupying an outdoor base. As the territory level gradually increased, the combatants in the outdoor territory would become much stronger than those in the main city. This might also be a way for the gods to encourage humans to develop outdoor bases.

Without hesitation, Cheng Yang immediately chose the Magic Power Enhancement option. Seeing the six-hour countdown that appeared, a smile appeared on his face. During these six hours, no other profession enhancements could be researched on this statue.

This was the advantage of being the first to occupy the base, as the research time could not be shortened. Even if others occupied the base later, it would be impossible to quickly upgrade the territory level in a short time.

Cheng Yang then upgraded the Life Enhancement for Warriors and Summoners, which also required six hours to complete.

At this moment, Yu Kai and eleven others carried several huge logs from a hundred meters away. These logs, which originally required machinery to move, were carried on their shoulders by four people working together. It was undeniable that the strength of Warriors had increased significantly after their profession change.

Actually, this was quite normal. The physical attack power of a normal human was 1, but now it was 5. This physical attack power was most evident in strength, which was equivalent to a fivefold increase. If there were no significant changes, that would be strange.

"Yangzi, what are these logs for? I saw some logs fall into the river during the earthquake," Yu Kai asked as he threw the logs to the ground.

Cheng Yang no longer kept it a secret and said, "These materials are needed to build some structures. For example, the wall that appeared earlier consumed 100 cubic meters of wood. It's very difficult to cut down trees ourselves in a short time, and we don't have the energy for it. These logs are enough for us to do many things."

Yu Kai nodded, immediately understanding. Without professional logging tools, cutting down large trees would be quite difficult.

Next, Cheng Yang opened the territory attribute panel and chose to build civilian houses, and instantly built 10 of them. Ten light curtains rose on the inside of the eastern wall, forming the outlines of ten small wooden houses. After a few moments, the light curtains dissipated, and the civilian houses were successfully built.

The 100 cubic meters of wood he had bought were instantly consumed, leaving Cheng Yang somewhat helpless. After all, he didn't have much money to begin with. Being able to buy 300 cubic meters of wood was already quite good.

The others were no longer surprised by this scene, as the wall had also appeared out of nowhere earlier.

Cheng Yang took the opportunity to walk around the wall and noticed that the frequency of mutated creature appearances had significantly decreased. Sometimes, only one would spawn in a minute or two, and this was the total number of spawns around the entire base, which was about seven to eight times lower than the peak earlier. This left most people on the wall idle.

Helplessly, Cheng Yang asked the people on the wall to come down temporarily. With the wall's 5-point defense, the first-stage mutated creatures that spawned outside could not break through it. They could wait until the number of mutated creatures outside accumulated to a certain level before dealing with them.

It was already around 6:30 PM, and there was only an hour until nightfall. Cheng Yang planned to take the opportunity to explain the next steps and answer the questions on everyone's minds.

"After the battle just now, what are your thoughts?" Cheng Yang asked straightforwardly.

Everyone looked at each other, and Li Wanshan said, "Young man, you said earlier that the entire world has become like this. Is that true?"

Cheng Yang nodded firmly and said, "Indeed! This is not just a disaster for Xiangcheng City or a single country, but a global disaster. At this moment, almost all buildings in the world have collapsed, and the terrain has changed dramatically. Plateaus may have become plains, and plains may have become oceans. These are not the most serious changes. The biggest change is the alteration of the laws of the world, which you have deeply experienced. The abilities you now possess are absolutely beyond what you could have imagined before."

Niu Bing suddenly asked, "Yangzi, how did you know this was going to happen?"

Cheng Yang sighed. He knew someone would eventually ask this question, and it was the one he found hardest to answer. Fortunately, he had prepared for it. "I can't explain it. This morning, a piece of information suddenly appeared in my mind, about the impending apocalypse. It was very strange, as if it was directly etched into my brain. Because of its strangeness, I believed it to some extent, which led to the preparations I made. Some of what happened just now confirmed my information, while others did not."

In fact, Cheng Yang had no choice but to say this. Rebirth was too strange, so he had to come up with a more acceptable explanation.

Although everyone around him did not fully believe Cheng Yang's explanation, it seemed to be the most reasonable one. Although the situation sounded strange, the even stranger global gamification had already occurred, so what couldn't be accepted?

Thinking about the massive disaster affecting the entire world, everyone's faces turned grim. After all, except for Cheng Yang, who didn't have family? They had been facing survival threats and hadn't had time to think about this, but now that they were temporarily safe, their anxiety grew.

Cheng Yang roughly guessed their thoughts and said calmly, "Panicking now won't help. The most important thing for us is to improve our strength. Only with sufficient strength can we stand firm in this new world and even rescue our loved ones."

Li Wanshan frowned and said, "My family is in Xiangcheng City, which is only four or five kilometers away. Based on the situation just now, as long as we stick together, those creatures shouldn't pose a threat to us, right?"

"Yes, we should set out for Xiangcheng City immediately. I can't abandon my family. My son is only five years old," a driver in his thirties said anxiously, eager to return to Xiangcheng City.

Cheng Yang shook his head and said, "With our current strength, we probably don't have the ability to cross this area and enter Xiangcheng City. Although we only see a few monsters around our base, that's because we've killed them. In other areas, as time passes, monsters will gradually gather and form large groups. It's been over an hour since the disaster began, and most of the mutated creatures outside have likely gathered. Small groups of a few monsters are manageable, but if we encounter a large group of dozens, we wouldn't stand a chance."

Seeing the unconvinced expressions, Cheng Yang said, "You might think I'm exaggerating, but I'll take a group out of the base soon, and you'll see for yourselves if what I say is true."

Li Wanshan and the others were overjoyed, thinking that as long as they worked hard, returning to Xiangcheng City would be no problem.

Cheng Yang felt a wave of sorrow for them. Others might not know the difficulty of returning to the city, but he, as someone who had been through it, certainly did.

"Yangzi, just tell us what to do next. We'll follow your lead," Liu Hao said.

Cheng Yang said, "This base will be our foundation and our place to live. Therefore, the most urgent task is to develop this base. To develop the base, we need enough spirit energy points."

He then explained the benefits of developing the base and the sources of spirit energy points to everyone, concluding, "Time is life now, so tonight I'll take half of the people out of the base to kill the mutated creatures in the forest outside. This is a bit risky, but as long as we are careful, there won't be any danger to our lives. The rest will stay in the base to protect it and start training."