Chapter 225
Tang Yu’an stared at the spirit insect in Zhou Qi’s hand, letting his thoughts run wild.
“If we extract it after someone awakens an ability and implant it into a second person, wouldn’t that mean we could turn everyone into ability users?”
Abilities were most likely a result of the otherworldly rules invading their world. Since they couldn’t stop this process, the only thing left to do was adapt.
And the best way to adapt to the new world was to awaken abilities and become an ability user.
In a way, ability users were almost like a new species of humanity. After all, those who had been invaded by spirit insects were physically far superior to normal humans—by an overwhelming margin.
Even naturally awakened ability users weren’t as strong.
Of course, this process came with the risk of being devoured by the spirit insect and turning into a monster. But now… they had found a way to reduce that risk!
Hearing Tang Yu’an’s suggestion, Zhou Qi paused for a moment.
He looked down at the obedient Fire Spirit Worm in his palm, thought carefully, and said, “Theoretically possible, but in practice, there are a lot of uncertainties.”
For one, he could only extract a spirit insect when it was in its devouring state.
If the insect was in a dormant state, he wouldn’t be able to sense its exact location—just like the special spirit insect in his own body. He had no way of pulling that one out.
“So once this insect enters a new host, it definitely won’t be possible to retrieve it right away.”
Only when the new host successfully awakened an ability, increased their ability level through training, and then reached the point where the spirit insect tried to devour them—only then could he extract it.
“Even though I’ve absorbed most of the energy from this spirit insect, I can’t be certain whether the remaining power will be dangerous to an ordinary person.”
“Also… spirit insects choose their hosts. There are probably specific requirements.”
Zhou Qi glanced at Tang Yu’an and added, “I can tell—it’s not suitable for you.”
Tang Yu’an leaned in slightly to get a closer look at the insect, but an immediate sense of discomfort made him back away.
Frowning, he asked, “Is it because I don’t have a fire-element affinity?”
“Possibly,” Zhou Qi replied.
“So that means we need to experiment, and the person would have to have a fire-element affinity too?” Tang Yu’an stared at the spirit insect, growing conflicted.
He wasn’t keen on giving up the idea because if it worked, the benefits would be massive—
Not that he was thinking about selling spirit insects for profit. Instead, if they could use this method to turn ordinary people into ability users, it would significantly strengthen their forces.
Forget the general residents of Desolate City Haven—just among his own employees, many weren’t ability users.
Hai Jing, Old Mo, Xiao Cao, Shi Tou, Sister Lin, A’Lian… If they could awaken abilities, their survival chances in the wasteland would skyrocket, and naturally, they’d be able to earn him more points.
Even Grandpa Li and Granny Guo, despite their old age, were still in excellent health—probably because they had awakened abilities.
If this method was viable, Tang Yu’an would definitely prioritize his employees first.
But Zhou Qi was right. The risks were huge…
After wrestling with the dilemma for a while, Tang Yu’an decided to set it aside for now. “I’ll find some time to discuss it with Grandpa Li. He’s seen a lot—maybe he’ll have some insights.”
Zhou Qi nodded and reabsorbed the spirit insect into his body. Then, he turned his gaze toward Hong Li in the distance.
“Did you send out the recruitment invitation?” he asked.
“Not yet. I’ll send it to Sister Hong Li now.” Tang Yu’an hadn’t immediately recruited Hong Li because he was worried about revealing too much—
Xie Chaori and Hong Li were sharp. He felt it was better to be cautious.
Now, he finally opened the system interface and sent out the recruitment notice.
In the distance, Hong Li, who was standing on the newly built concrete road, visibly froze. A moment later, Tang Yu’an received the system notification that she had accepted the offer.
Just then, Xie Chaori rushed out of Desolate City Haven in a hurry.
Tang Yu’an watched him dash toward Hong Li and tilted his head. “Did Sister Hong Li just… teleport here?”
Zhou Qi had noticed it too. He checked the Night Lodging Rules and made a guess: “Maybe she violated the rules and triggered the “Troublesome Customers Begone” effect?”
In other words, violating the Night Lodging Rules counted as hostility toward An’an?
“This ability can be used like that?” Tang Yu’an was intrigued. “But why didn’t it affect Brother Xie?”
“Maybe because he’s not a customer.”
Tang Yu’an glanced at the aura’s description and confirmed that it only applied to customers.
A bit of a shame, but considering that employees had their own set of rules to follow, he figured it was fair enough.
After all, “Mysterious Merchant” was just a persona. Even if employees harbored ill will toward the Mysterious Merchant, it wasn’t directed at Tang Yu’an himself.
Not to mention, he didn’t expect everyone to like him anyway.
“This teleportation method is actually pretty useful. It could be handy for the patrol team.” Tang Yu’an decided to tell Grandpa Li about it later.
At that moment, the residents started moving materials out of Desolate City Haven.
Now that the wall-building and new store construction were complete, the construction team had a new task: building fences along both sides of the newly paved concrete road.
This way, the road itself could be included within the protective barrier.
During the day, customers who weren’t on the Night Lodging list could still launch long-range attacks and damage the fence, so based on Zhou Qi’s suggestion, the construction team would use metal reinforcement this time.
They planned to install a 20-meter-long fence section to enclose the road leading to Desolate City Haven’s main gate.
The moment the fence was completed, the protective barrier activated.
A construction worker tested it by tapping the fence with a shovel—only to find himself pushed outside the barrier. Relieved, he sighed in relief.
The recent floods had stirred up an influx of mutated creatures, and just yesterday, they had barely avoided a raid from Jufeng Town. The residents were terrified of working outside the haven’s safety.
Now that the fence was up and the protective barrier was active, they could finally work in peace.
Thanks to Lin Zhen and Tie Jin’s research, Desolate City Haven had successfully mastered reinforced concrete casting techniques.
In addition to that, they would also coat the fences with mutated metal, greatly improving their durability.
And fortunately, this type of fence didn’t take long to build.
Since it wasn’t meant to be a full wall, they only needed to construct it about 20 centimeters high—
This was also a result of Lin Zhen’s research.
She noticed that when Old Li used a picket fence to enclose an area, the fence was only a little over one meter high.
However, a person standing at 1.78 meters tall inside the fenced passage was still protected by the Guardian Barrier above.
After repeated experiments, she discovered that the height of the Guardian Barrier seemed to be determined by the tallest building within the barrier.
The tallest building in Desolate City Haven was Building No. 1, which was at least over thirty meters high.
So, even if the fence was very low—only a single brick high—the Guardian Barrier would still extend over thirty meters.
Thus, the fence could be built as low as possible, which not only saved materials and construction time but also reduced the surface area vulnerable to attacks.
Although this meant that people standing on the road wouldn’t be protected, as long as they traveled at night, it wouldn’t be a problem.
As for the daytime… they would just have to be more cautious.
However, with the patrol team’s Awakened protecting them, the construction team felt reassured and did not slack off.
In addition to the fences on both sides, the sections of the road meant to serve as closures also needed careful planning.
At this stage, they planned to first create a small threshold only a few centimeters high, using entirely mutated metal.
Since frequent foot traffic would cause wear and tear—even if no one stepped on it, the wheels of transport vehicles would still roll over it—they needed to make it durable.
Once they completed the prototype, they could later find a way to turn it into an archway.
“By segmenting the road into sections, even if one or two parts are breached, the entire road’s barrier won’t be affected!”
Tang Yu’an watched the construction team at work and couldn’t help but comment.
Zhou Qi nodded and said, “Let’s go. We need to keep paving the road and try to reach Jufeng Mountain as soon as possible.”
“Alright!”
With that, the RV set off again, moving much faster on the newly paved concrete road.
Of course, when they reached the middle section leading to Jufeng Mountain, they had to stop again and continue building the road, one section at a time.
During construction, they encountered a problem—
Should they completely avoid the old road?
Although the old road was in poor condition, it was still barely usable. If they paved over it, a problem would arise—
Once the fence was built and the Guardian Barrier was activated, at night, customers who weren’t on the Night Stay List would be repelled.
Even during the day, only those who had no hostility toward the Mysterious Merchant and Tang Yu’an would be able to walk on the road normally.
“Wouldn’t it be too overbearing if we just took over the old road?” Tang Yu’an hesitated. “Maybe we should build a new one instead…”
However, Zhou Qi had a different perspective.
He smiled and said, “Weren’t you planning to incorporate the entire Desolate City into our home? Why are you backing down now?”
Tang Yu’an blinked and continued listening to his analysis.
“Desolate City will be our base in the future. Even though we have the Guardian Barrier, until we unlock full protection against all attacks, the home won’t be completely safe.”
Zhou Qi continued, “So, we still need time to develop, and making it more difficult for hostile individuals to enter Desolate City isn’t a bad strategy.”
Currently, most of the customers from the Jufeng Mountain area had already been added to the Night Stay List, so there wouldn’t be any immediate issue of repelling customers at night.
Taking over the old road wouldn’t cause any major issues in the short term, and it would help keep out people with bad intentions.
“Of course, this only increases the difficulty—they can still find other routes.”
Tang Yu’an was convinced.
“Brother Qi, you’re right!” He nodded. “We’ll build on the old road—no need to make things easier for those troublemakers!”
So, they continued forward along the path Old Li had guided them through.
In fact, there were two routes leading to Jufeng Mountain, the other one being a direct path opened by Chi Hao. It was shorter in terms of distance.
However, after examining the terrain of that route, Tang Yu’an realized that it required traversing mountains and valleys, making it unsuitable for road construction. So, they decided to take the longer route instead.
As Zhou Qi drove forward, Tang Yu’an kept staring at the map.
He suddenly noticed something and said, “By the way, should we visit the abandoned chemical plant to check on Lu Yan?”
With the RV in closed-shop mode, the Guardian Barrier would be at its strongest and should be able to resist the toxic gas.
“I wonder how he’s doing now. Should we go check on him?” Tang Yu’an asked.
Zhou Qi thought for a moment and nodded. “Yes, but let’s finish building the road from Desolate City to Jufeng Mountain first.”
One thing at a time—focusing efforts on a single task made success more likely.
“Alright.”
Tang Yu’an agreed, and just then, as Zhou Qi got out of the vehicle to inspect the road, a system notification suddenly popped up.
[Employee “Chi Hao” has completed a profitable transaction with a new customer. Points +20, Experience +3.]
[Experience points maxed out. Merchant Level +1.]
[Merchant Level increased to 22. New products available in the Wholesale Market: Honey, Chewing Gum, Sausages, Sweet Tea (Bottled), and Aluminum Foil.]
[Storage slots +1, Total slots: 26, Authorized slots +1, Current authorized slots: 6.]
[Forum Message Board now has a search function.]
[New Hard Decoration unlocked: “Elevator”—details available in the “Renovation” section.]
Wow! A level-up!
It seemed that ever since returning to the fortress, Chi Hao had been working hard, bringing in a lot of new customers lately.
Tang Yu’an carefully reviewed the level-up rewards.
This level unlocked three new sweet food items, plus sausages!
Sausages were easy to carry, and since they were system-produced, their quality was guaranteed. In the apocalypse, they should be quite popular.
The unlocking of aluminum foil also caught Tang Yu’an’s attention.
Aluminum foil could be used to wrap Flame Stones. While its heat insulation wasn’t perfect, it could prevent the stones from burning other items—Old Mo and Wen Qingqing would definitely need this.
He decided that next time, he would unlock aluminum foil for these two valuable employees.
Thanks to the newly established connection between two resource-sharing fortresses, Old Mo and Wen Qingqing’s ability to earn points had significantly improved.
Old Mo alone could now earn six or seven thousand points a day, while Wen Qingqing made slightly less, but still around five thousand.
Xie Chaori shifted his gaze away from the message board and replied, “The two young bosses rarely stay in the base. If anything comes up, people usually go to Old Li.”
Hong Li nodded, preparing to have a chat with Old Li.
Seeing Xie Chaori’s strange expression, she asked, “What’s wrong?”
He hesitated before saying, “Your gas canister… Xiao Hao bought it…”
Hong Li was momentarily stunned, then broke into a smile. “Serves him right!”
With that, she went off to discuss business with Old Li.
*
“You want to exchange for a batch of Peace Coins?” Old Li looked at her in surprise. “May I ask what Mountain Lord Hong Li intends to do with them?”
“I plan to issue them in Jufeng Town,” Hong Li stated bluntly. “I need at least 10,000 notes. Of course, I won’t take them for free—we can negotiate the trade materials.”
Old Li thought for a moment before replying, “I’ll need to get approval. The earliest I can give you an answer is tomorrow.”
“Alright.” Hong Li nodded. “I’ll be heading back to Jufeng Mountain tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll hear good news from you before I leave.”
After seeing Hong Li off, Old Li immediately contacted Zhou Qi through the shop communication channel, asking him to return.
Tang Yu’an and his group had just finished paving the road when they received the message, so they rushed back.
By the time they arrived, Old Li was already waiting for them in Room 901. As soon as they entered, he quickly explained the situation.
“Hong Li wants 10,000 Peace Coins?” Tang Yu’an asked in surprise. “Did she specify the denomination?”
“She wants the 10-point notes,” Old Li replied.
He then speculated, “She’s probably interested in the temperature-regulating effect of the Peace Coins.”
After all, this special feature was something only Tang Yu’an and his team had the technology to create.
While Tang Yu’an was pleased that the Peace Coins were gaining popularity, he couldn’t help but wonder why Hong Li needed so many all at once.
10,000 notes of 10 points each—that’s 100,000 points in total!
Old Li studied Tang Yu’an for a moment before asking, “An An, have you noticed that your physical condition has improved a lot recently?”
Tang Yu’an was puzzled but nodded.
Old Li chuckled slightly. “That’s why you haven’t noticed—the weather is getting colder again.”
Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi froze in place.
“…What do you mean?”
Old Li sighed and said grimly,
“In a little while, the Cold Disaster will arrive.”
