Chapter Bonanza (6/10)

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

After the minor commotion, the group continued gathering wood and resources, then returned to the cave to rest, planning to set out again after a short night’s sleep.

Wu Yun said, “You guys sleep; I’ll keep watch.”

Cangshui looked concerned. “Aren’t you supposed to drive? Let’s take turns.”

Mao Tuan interrupted loudly, baring his teeth at Wu Yun: “You’re just trying to show off. What’s so hard about keeping watch? I can take a turn too!”

Wu Yun: “…”

Wu Yun wrapped his arm around Cangshui’s shoulder, leaned close to his ear, and whispered: “Big brother, he’s so mean.”

Mao Tuan: “……”

Mao Tuan: “You!”

Cangshui said gently, “All right, all right. I’m tired. I want to sleep.”

Wu Yun immediately carried Cangshui back into the cave.

Mao Tuan stomped his feet in frustration.

“He’s always like this! Wait, no—is he the only one who knows how to act all cute?”

Meimei looked at the burly man in front of him and said, “…You’d better not try to copy him.”

Jian Xingyi couldn’t help but laugh.

Sparks danced in the campfire before him, and the air was filled with their boisterous chatter. Suddenly, Jian Xingyi thought of Shuixi.

It was sudden, and there was no particular connection.

But he just thought of him.

Jian Xingyi hugged his legs, resting his chin on his knees, feeling a bit downcast.

I wonder what Shuixi is doing right now.

Jian Xingyi thought to himself. When he was with Shuixi before, he hadn’t really noticed anything, but now that he was gone, he realized how unaccustomed he was to it.

It wasn’t just that there was no one to listen to his rambling—Jian Xingyi had just realized that Shuixi had actually been quietly looking out for and protecting him all along.

For instance, whenever Jian Xingyi felt even slightly cold, Shuixi would find a way to help; or when Jian Xingyi was tired, Shuixi would let him rest or finish his tasks for him.

Jian Xingyi suddenly realized that Shuixi had completely spoiled him.

Jian Xingyi was lost in thought.

It was the first time in his life that someone had been so kind to him, though it might also be because Shuixi was one of the few friends with whom he had a close bond.

Now that his social anxiety was gradually easing and he had more people around him, he still really enjoyed spending time with Shuixi.

Shuixi never put pressure on him or made him worry about anything. It was as if, in his presence, he could do whatever he wanted without restraint—even if he was just being selfish and feeling tired or cold, Shuixi would always be there to accept him.

Jian Xingyi lay down, his mind racing.

Before going to sleep, he made sure to check his terminal and catch up on the gossip in the general chat; otherwise, he’d feel like he was missing out on everything.

There was explosive news on the general channel right then.

【Folks, did you know? It’s only been three and a half days, and Grape Mountain Peak has already cleared the guild’s 【Sea of Corpses and Blood】 dungeon…】

【What? Didn’t their raid team take a five-day break earlier? I remember this dungeon can take up to seven days if the firepower isn’t enough!】

【The previous record for this dungeon was four days, set by Grape Mountain Peak, and now they’ve broken it again!! It seems only Grape Mountain Peak can break its own records!】

Jian Xingyi was also a bit shocked.

Broken?

He’d heard of this dungeon—it’s essentially a practice run for the Zombie Tide, a guild hunting dungeon that only unlocks once a guild reaches Level 1 or higher. The gameplay is similar to Zombie Tide, but the waves aren’t as overwhelming, and it lasts longer—more like a steady, unhurried series of battles.

Jian Xingyi scrolled down and saw even more shocking news.

【Rumor has it that after resting for a few days, they plan to run this dungeon again…】

【That’s insane! They must be trying to rack up zombie kills for the wall quest, right? So hardcore!!!】

【Looks like after that Zombie Tide, not only has everyone’s strength skyrocketed, but Grape Mountain has reached a whole new level… Rumor has it they’ve even called Shanhai back to hold the fort! Damn, won’t that Shanhai big shot be even more terrifying? Back in PvP, he was like a human mech—it was totally normal not to be able to beat him.】

Jian Xingyi was thoroughly enjoying the gossip.

The gossip on the public chat channel was all about a few famous top players in the game, like the three max-level players from Grape Mountain Peak—namely Shanhai, Le Ke, and Ms. Bai—or the various couples on Kongtong, or…

Xinghe??

The gossip suddenly hit close to home, and Jian Xingyi perked up instantly.

What’s going on?? How did he get mixed up in this?!

Huh?

【So, have Xinghe and that mysterious guy officially confirmed their relationship?】

【Kongtong Mountain player here—that mysterious guy has vanished…】

【Huh?? No way? This ship ended before it even started? How come Xinghe wasn’t affected by Kongtong Mountain’s vibe? Wasn’t he out with Cangshui and the rest of the Nantong crew? It actually didn’t work out!】

【By the way, the Kongtong Mountain girls scouted around earlier and found out that the mysterious man’s ID is Shuixi. So, has anyone out there managed to dig up any info on him?】

【No…】

【That’s so weird. Any player would have a record, right? How come we can’t find anything at all?】

Jian Xingyi thought to himself, Of course, you can’t find anything—he’s an NPC, not a player!

But… damn it! How did he become the subject of everyone’s gossip?!

Jian Xingyi didn’t dare check the general chat anymore, afraid that seeing his own name there would make him cringe.

Jian Xingyi painfully closed the general chat and opened the guild page instead.

Things were looking pretty good. Lone Wolf and Haihai were leading their teams to collect wood and chop down trees, while Akita and Feiyi were focusing on dungeons or areas with high zombie density.

Wood: 482,000

Zombie Kills: 34,000

Things were looking pretty good.

Jian Xingyi wasn’t too worried about the wood right now; with the help of the Snow Mountain bigwigs, their wood supply was growing pretty fast. It was his Dawn Coins and the guild’s zombie kill count that were the real concerns.

And their guild couldn’t even unlock “Sea of Blood and Zombies”…

Jian Xingyi asked Meimei, “How are you guys handling the zombie kill count?”

Meimei replied, “【Really Cold】 can access 【Mountain of Corpses, Sea of Blood】, but as for us and 【Warm Cotton Coat】, we just have to grind in areas with high zombie density. The far end of every map is packed with zombies.”

“The edge of the map?”

Meimei nodded. “That’s also where high-level players go to grind for stats, but it’s pretty remote, and the difficulty is high. Hmm… you can think of it as a zombie nest. It seems like all the zombies on Grape Mountain come from the edge of the map.”

Jian Xingyi wasn’t quite sure. “So, for example, is the edge of Thousand Bells Snow Mountain the mountaintop?”

“No, it’s actually quite random. Think of it as the point where the game’s 3D model ends. If you’re standing on a mountaintop, you can still see the sky and look into the distance, but at the edge, there’s an invisible wall—you can’t see a thing. For example, the edge of our Snow Mountain is in one corner of the mountainside, so that’s where the most zombies are. As for your Peace Mountain… I heard it’s in the valley.”

Jian Xingyi thought to himself, That’s a place he’s been to—the village with the tombstones of Builder W and Builder C, right? Maybe if he’d kept going from there, he would’ve hit that so-called invisible wall at the end.

“I see.”

Now he understood why everyone in the guild chat was talking about going to the valley to farm zombies.

Meimei laughed helplessly, “You sound just like a casual player.”

Jian Xingyi sighed, “Indeed.”

Before he was transported into the game, Jian Xingyi had focused solely on management. And before the game became everyone’s reality, the features were very rudimentary; Jian Xingyi only needed to tinker around in his own homestead and didn’t need to run around different maps.

Wu Yun carried Cangshui back into the cave and came out shortly after. “I’ll handle the first watch. You guys should go inside and get some sleep—rest up.”

Mao Tuan snorted coldly.

Jian Xingyi was just about to stand up when his eyes widened in shock, and he screamed, “Wah!!!”

Meimei and Mao Tuan were also startled.

Meimei: “Damn it, what the hell is wrong now?!!”

Mao Tuan: “You… what did you see this time?!”

“I… I…”

Jian Xingyi stared blankly at the Long Live For A Hundred Years chat channel.

Heiye: 【Everyone… here’s something totally outlandish yet somehow makes sense. Guess who sent us a merger invitation?】

Lone Wolf: 【Sounds mysterious, but I think all the decent guilds on Peace Mountain have already extended an olive branch to us. Who else could it be? It can’t possibly be Grape Mountain Peak.】

Heiye: 【It’s Grape Mountain Peak!!】

Lone Wolf: 【Huh???】

Heiye: 【Ms. Bai sent me the invitation herself! She said she wanted to invite me for a face-to-face meeting—after all, they’ve returned to the guild, and it’s not far away!】

Baozhu: 【That’s right. To show their sincerity, they even said they could come to our guild for the meeting—without acting like they’re the superior party at all.】

Jian Xingyi swallowed hard, double-checked three times, then said in a trembling voice, “Grape Mountain Peak wants to merge with our guild!!!”

Oh my god!!!

Meimei: “…Ah.”

Mao Tuan: “Tsk.”

The two sat back down, looking as if to say, “Is that all?”

Jian Xingyi’s eyes widened. “Grape Mountain Peak!! With us!! Aren’t you guys surprised?”

Mao Tuan and Wu Yun: “……”

They’d been watching the OOC scenes of Shanhai silently trailing behind Jian Xingyi for days—they were already numb to it.

Meimei wasn’t surprised either. He scratched his head and said, “Is that so strange? You’re a big shot too. If we were in the same region as you, we’d want to merge with you, too, right?”

Mao Tuan and Wu Yun nodded in agreement.

Jian Xingyi: “……”

Huh?

W-well, I guess that’s true?

Jian Xingyi glanced at the exploding guild chat. Everyone had gone from initial shock to gradual acceptance.

【Huh????】

【??? Am I dreaming? Is this real?】

【It really seems unbelievable at first glance—like we’ve been struck by a bolt of fortune. But when you think about it… It’s kind of… well… aren’t we already pretty wealthy?】

【Exactly… I’ve been a noob for so long I haven’t gotten used to it yet, but actually, with Big Shot Xinghe on our side, we’re pretty badass too! We’re the guild that topped the Survival Rankings! If Grape Mountain Peak doesn’t ally with us, who else could they possibly ally with? Unless they’re planning to go solo.】

【No way… I actually get to be neighbors with the big shots from Grape Mountain Peak!! Waaah, hanging out with the big shots from Xinghe this lifetime must mean I saved the galaxy in my past life!】

Heiye also sent a private message to Jian Xingyi.

Heiye: 【It’s a shame you can’t come back to discuss this with us, but I’ll respect your opinion before making any major decisions.】

Heiye: 【Grape Mountain is great, no doubt, but if you don’t want to merge and share resources, I’ll respect that too. I’m sure everyone feels the same way I do!】

Jian Xingyi paused.

Xinghe: 【Alright, then let’s hear what the other side has to say first?】

Heiye: 【Mm-hmm, that’s exactly what I planned. We’ll wrap up our discussion tomorrow morning and then update you on the progress!】

Xinghe: 【Alright】

Jian Xingyi then went to sleep.

The next morning, everyone got into the car early to continue their journey to the mountaintop.

The wind and snow had died down considerably compared to the previous day, but Meimei frowned and said, “This isn’t a good sign. Generally speaking, when the storm suddenly weakens like this, it means an even bigger blizzard is coming—it might last for several days…”

Jian Xingyi blinked, “What’s the science behind that?”

Everyone on the snowy mountain is so skilled and professional…

Meimei gave a dry laugh, “There’s no science to it. Just common sense.”

“Oh…”

Meimei said helplessly, “The good news is, it won’t affect our summit attempt or our return to the guild. But after we finish this trip, the Snow Mountains will likely be engulfed in a massive blizzard for the next few days, making travel impossible.”

Jian Xingyi: “Is this a common occurrence?”

Meimei nodded. “Yeah, abundant resources always come with a price—it just wastes your time.”

Jian Xingyi, however, fell deep in thought. He asked, “I happened to be out when your three guilds merged earlier, so I didn’t witness it. I heard that when guilds merge, players can’t stay in the guild for half a day and get teleported out en masse. Where were you teleported to back then?”

Meimei replied, “We were teleported to a small shop at the foot of the mountain—the one closest to your Peaceful Mountain area. The NPC-run safe zone there should be… Dawn Town, right?”

Jian Xingyi understood.

If negotiations with Grape Mountain Peak went smoothly and they actually merged, then all members from both their guild and Grape Mountain Peak would be teleported to Dawn Town, no matter where they were.

This was also a ceremonial touch by the system.

This allows players to get to know members of the newly merged guild, brings players who’ve been stranded back home immediately, and lets them witness the establishment of their new home and meet their neighbors.

So, just like exploiting the bug before the zombie tide, once the merger happens, Jian Xingyi could quickly return to the Peaceful Mountains. That way, if he happened to be on his way to Snow Mountain or temporarily in another map during the blizzard, he’d manage to avoid it entirely!

Jian Xingyi’s mind was racing with calculations.

The only question was how the negotiations were going…

Jian Xingyi was feeling a bit nervous.

The car continued on its way. Mao Tuan drove carefully, Meimei manned the gun, and Jian Xingyi… chatted with Heiye.

That’s right, Heiye had come to report on the progress.

Heiye: 【Ms. Bai, Shanhai, and Firelight showed up. The atmosphere was great the whole time, and we had a pretty pleasant chat. Firelight is pretty familiar with us now, so he really livened things up. As for Shanhai… wow, I never expected Shanhai to actually come, but he seems pretty invested in the merger and asked a lot of questions. Anyway, after the chat, Ms. Bai successfully convinced us. But after I told her the final decision rests with you, she said she’d talk to you personally—she doesn’t even need me to relay our conversation to you.】

Heiye: 【If you check your friend requests, you should see her ID? Hahahaha, right—don’t call her by her ID; remember to call her Ms. Bai.】

Jian Xingyi: “?”

Jian Xingyi curiously opened his friend request list and, sure enough, saw a new ID.

Player 【Bai Jie】 has sent a friend request to Player 【Xinghe】.

Xinghe: 【What’s wrong with this ID?】

Heiye: 【Sigh… such an innocent kid. Anyway, this ID is just like Le Ke’s—neither of them likes being called out by their real names.】

Xinghe: 【Oh, okay】

So that’s why she chose that ID back then?

But none of that really matters. After Jian Xingyi accepted the request, she started chatting with Bai Jie.

Bai Jie: 【Hello.】

Bai Jie: 【Heiye must have explained the whole situation to you, right? So I’ll just get straight to the point.】

Xinghe: 【Oh, okay!】

Bai Jie: 【After discussing it within our guild, we’ve decided to invite you to merge for the following reasons: (1) Reducing the construction of a wall—this needs no further explanation. (2) Resource exchange.】

Bai Jie: 【First, regarding the resource exchange: I’ve exchanged guild resource data with Heiye. You have 500,000 logs, and we have 100,000; you’ve killed 30,000 zombies, and we’ve killed 600,000. After merging, we can apply to the system for the sharing feature. I’ll send you the details; take your time to read through them.】

Bai Jie: 【/Document/】

Jian Xingyi opened it and found a document explaining the guild’s “Sharing” feature.

It stated that the higher the bond between guilds, the more resources can be shared—a feature that’s incredibly powerful.

For example, if a guild’s bond level reaches 1, they can share 10% of resources. So, if Grape Mountain applies to share wood from Long Live, Grape Mountain would instantly gain 50,000 wood out of the air—that is, 10% of Long Live’s 500,000 wood.

Of course, there are limitations: you can only choose one of the three resources to share—zombie kills, wood, or Dawn Coins.

And the maximum level is 8, meaning you can share up to 80%.

But honestly… 80% is more than enough! Surely you can’t possibly fail to gather the remaining 20% on your own?

Bai Jie: 【People’s energy is limited; it’s hard to juggle all three. My suggestion is that we keep our Dawn Coins separate, but you share your wood with us, and we’ll share our zombie kill counts with you.】

Bai Jie: 【As for the Bond, that’s not hard to level up. As long as members from both sides run dungeons or farm maps together, the level will go up.】

Xinghe: 【Oh, oh! That sounds great.】

Bai Jie: 【Hmm, I’ve already made points (1) and (2) very clear. The next point, (3), is why I need to speak with you privately. I cannot disclose this reason to your guildmates. Also, I hope that after I speak, unless you’re directly involved, you’ll keep this confidential from everyone else. Can you do that?】

Xinghe: 【Okay】

Jian Xingyi also grew serious.

Keeping a secret… he could handle that!

Bai Jie: 【I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors circulating outside the game that several players on Grape Mountain Peak—myself included—are looking for a way to leave the game. I can tell you this is true. We call it the “Human Liberation Project,” and I’m the leader of this initiative. I’d like to invite you to join.】

Jian Xingyi was stunned.

The Human Liberation Project…

It was starting to align more and more with the history he had witnessed.

Xinghe: 【Who’s involved in this liberation project?】

Bai Jie: 【I’m sorry, but I can’t reveal the names of the participants until you’ve joined. However, I can give you a general overview of the project. The purpose of its establishment is clearly to find a way out of the game, and the reason we want to invite you to join is equally clear—because of your resources and privileges within the game. You can unlock many areas we cannot access, obtain information and resources we cannot get, and your food can even ensure our survival.】

Bai Jie: 【If you join us, we’ll be a team, and naturally there will be tasks for you to perform and responsibilities to shoulder—though, of course, these will include rewards. However, if you refuse to join, we won’t force you. Still, we’ll protect you and ensure your safety; for the reasons mentioned above, we simply cannot let you die.】

Jian Xingyi stared blankly at the trees whizzing past on either side, momentarily lost for words.

He wondered if the Holy Son and Snow Spirit had made him play the role of “logistics” in the memory bubble because they had foreseen all this.

But…

Jian Xingyi thought to himself that he had never considered any of this. He had been working hard to secure resources simply to ensure he could eat his fill and survive in peace.

He hadn’t thought about “liberating humanity”; even the so-called Savior System had been forcibly bound to him. Although he also wanted to leave the game, he didn’t know how to do it, so after learning about that history, his first thought was to share the information with the Grape Mountain Peak and see what the bigwigs decided.

But if he joined the plan Bai Jie mentioned, could he really shoulder the responsibility alone and work alongside Bai Jie’s team?

Xinghe: 【Will my joining provide you with more information—in other words, help you find a way out of the game faster?】

Wouldn’t that allow everyone, including himself, to escape this apocalypse sooner?

Bai Jie: 【Yes.】

Xinghe: 【“What if I just share the information I have with you, but don’t join the team?”】

Bai Jie: 【“Although it would be less convenient, that’s also an option.”】

Jian Xingyi thought for a moment.

Xinghe: 【“Can I take some time to think it over?”】

Bai Jie: 【“No problem. You can take your time considering the Human Liberation Plan. So, what do you think about the guild merger?”】

Jian Xingyi thought for a moment. What Bai Jie said made perfect sense—they needed each other.

Besides, Grape Mountain Peak valued trust and fairness; that didn’t need proving. They certainly wouldn’t use their combat strength to bully them.

There was no better partner than Grape Mountain Peak.

Xinghe: 【I’m on board.】

Bai Jie: 【OK.】

Bai Jie: 【Can I ask you one unrelated question at the end? It’s purely out of personal curiosity.】

Xinghe: 【Hmm…?】

Bai Jie: 【Does anyone in your guild know Shanhai? It’s so unusual for him to come to the negotiations with us…】

Jian Xingyi: “……”

Wow, Big Shot, how come you’re so nosy too!!

Xinghe: 【I’m not really sure about that either】

Bai Jie: 【Alright】

After the conversation ended, Jian Xingyi let out a sigh of relief, even looking a bit lost in thought.

What Bai Jie had told him was just too much to take in; he still needed time to process it.

After Jian Xingyi agreed, Heiye announced the merger news in the guild chat.

【Yay!!!!】

【Awesome!! We’ll feel totally safe going out from now on—Grape Mountain Peak’s got our backs!!】

【Wow, does that mean we can skip building one wall?】

【You bet! It’s a win-win—we’ll need half the resources!】

Everyone was thrilled.

After confirming the merger and submitting the application, all that remained was to set the merger date.

Time was of the essence; there were less than two weeks left until the second zombie wave. Grape Mountain Peak was about to run a dungeon run, and since this dungeon allowed them to invite a few high-level players from Long Live to farm bonds together, the sooner the merger was completed, the better.

After consulting with Jian Xingyi, Heiye set the merger date for one day later.

This way, Jian Xingyi would still have enough time to go to the Temple on the Summit to collect the colored flags and rewards; otherwise, it would be such a waste.

A few hours later, the car pulled up in front of a small path. Everyone got out, and Wu Yun brought out Cangshui’s wheelchair.

Meimei said, “Follow this path ahead, and the temple is right up there.”

“Okay.”

Jian Xingyi also told everyone about the merger.

Meimei said, “So that means once you go to the temple, you won’t be coming back down with us? You’ll just wait at the mountaintop for the teleportation, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Then it’ll be a real hassle for you to come back next time,” Meimei said, scratching his head.

Wu Yun and Cangshui exchanged glances. Then Cangshui smiled and said, “Or how about this: why don’t you become a nominal council member of our guild? Nominal council members can apply for the teleportation feature. That way, it’ll be convenient for you to come back later to gather resources or discuss the Wall with me.”

Cangshui’s vine had been given to him by Jian Xingyi. He worried that if there was ever a need to discuss matters face-to-face with Jian Xingyi in the future, the two of them would have to traverse thousands of mountains and rivers.

And…

Cangshui and Wu Yun thought to themselves: Rumor has it that Ms. Bai has also invited Jian Xingyi to join the project.

Who knows, maybe they’ll be meeting often in the future…

Players cannot instantly teleport back to their guild while on a map, and there is no teleportation function between maps.

The teleportation function is only supported in two locations.

The first is “Home,” meaning within the guild, where players can freely teleport to the warehouse, the four gates, and other players’ houses.

The second is between the guild and Dawn Town.

In other words, if Jian Xingyi is a nominal council member of 【Really Cold】, then 【Really Cold】 counts as his home, meaning he can teleport within the 【Long Live】 guild base to the 【Really Cold】 base.

As the saying goes, “Let’s exploit this bug.”

“If that’s really possible, that would be great!” Jian Xingyi’s eyes lit up. “That’s fantastic!”

No sooner said than done, Cangshui immediately granted Jian Xingyi the position.

After Jian Xingyi activated the backend permissions for 【Really Cold】, he felt a bit uneasy.

He had quite a few honorary directors…

“Let’s go!”

Mao Tuan laughed. “If you want to chat, let’s do it inside the temple. Isn’t it cold out here?”

Jian Xingyi snapped back to reality.

Right! He’d heard that the Thousand Bells Temple… was like spring all year round.

It was the only place in the snowy plains where spring never ended.

Jian Xingyi set off, his heart filled with anticipation.