After expansion, the domain’s radius reached nineteen meters—roughly the height of a six- or seven-story building. The area was much more spacious.

…It’ll be more than enough to build a small gray-tier house in the future; at least he won’t have to feel so restricted when fighting monsters anymore.

Map Exploration 0.01%……

Yining stared at this statistic on the game interface.

He did the math by comparing it to the size of his own territory, which meant his area wasn’t very large after all.

But if the map exploration rate referred to the size of his own server, Yining would have to ask other players about their numbers.

Regardless of the true meaning behind the numbers, one key contradiction remained.

Once a territory expands to a certain size, encounters between players become almost inevitable.

When that happens, a bloody battle is inevitable.

The materials required to expand a Level 3 territory are now available for viewing.

【Any Gem ×1, Wooden Planks ×8, Rope ×10, Stones ×10, Lumber ×20, Hemp ×20.】

Not only have the requirements doubled, but a gem has been added.

The only gem in Yining drops from zombie monsters; it’s unclear if future express blind boxes will contain one.

Within the newly expanded area, there are several clumps of low shrubs, two graves without headstones—one of which has a metal brazier in front of it—mushrooms and bloodflesh flowers growing on the mounds of earth, several large stones welded into the ground, and finally, a burrow whose inhabitants remain unknown.

【Contaminated Bushes: Not edible】

【Singing Mushrooms: You can hear them singing if you get close; edible; taste similar to porcini mushrooms】

【Stone Bricks: 3 units of stone bricks (each unit requires 3 stones to craft)】

【Old Mouse’s Lair: One Old Mouse spawns daily. It is edible but tastes a bit dry and isn’t very tasty.】

【Paper Money Burning Brazier: Fuel 0, consumes 10% fuel per hour. While burning, it grants the 【Summon Soul】 effect, with a chance to summon the soul of the grave’s owner】

The brazier is kind of interesting. Maybe he’ll use a replication card to make a duplicate—it might let me trade for something better. But the top priority right now is to get a shovel; I need it urgently to open the grave blind boxes.

Before Yining opened the 【Trading Market】 to check the price of a shovel, he opened his express blind boxes as usual—he needs enough resources to make trades.

The joy of saving up a dozen or so parcels to open all at once is simply indescribable.

He had good luck this morning—he got a bottle of fresh water, a can of salt, and a bottle of vitamin C. The rest was all paper ingots, paper funeral wreaths, paper money, and paper horses.

But after getting a brazier, Yining discovered that these funeral items could be used as fuel!

Paper gold ingots ×8, paper white flowers ×5, paper money ×16, paper funeral wreath ×1, paper horses ×2.

He filled the brazier with as much joss paper as possible; one piece of joss paper could replace 8% of the fuel, so Yining filled it up to 96%.

The problem that followed left Yining at a loss.

【Summoning Spirits】 What if he actually summons something? Would he be able to handle it…

Is there a tutorial on exorcism in this world? Or does anyone sell black dogs’ blood or something like that?

He’ll just have to see how things go.

Yining checked the other supplies he could trade.

Compressed biscuits ×2, sugar ×9, chocolate ×1 (it seems to have melted a bit in the heat), 500ml bottled water ×2, 300ml bottled water ×1, large loaf of bread ×1, salt ×1 can, bone meal ×2, shadow skin ×1, soul-summoning brazier ×1.

He has 7 hemostatic bandages left, one bottle of Vitamin C (80 tablets), 4 remaining replication cards, and 70 remaining synthesis cards. Excluding the gold coins Yunzhou lent him, he has 5 gold coins, 1 gem, and a Rock-Cutting Axe with 79 durability.

The basic resources for expanding my territory were calculated to be just right, but now I don’t have a single piece of wood left. This morning’s express blind box only yielded 1 unit of hemp and 1 unit of stone.

He was already wearing his clothes, pants, and boots, and the tapes won’t sell for much without a player.

Gold coins, gems, and weapons must be saved for the New Year; they must never be used unless it’s a matter of life and death.

After checking his inventory, Yining realized that only the Soul-Summoning Fire Bowl was worth as much as a shovel; trading anything else would involve haggling and be a huge hassle.

Yining listed 【Soul-summoning Brazier (consumes 10% fuel per hour) for 1 shovel】 on the trading marketplace. Refreshing the trading page, he saw that his listing had quickly sunk to the third page.

Trading volume on the Marketplace grew exponentially every day, but there was one convenient feature: players could choose to sort listings by “Time” or “Views.”

Yining clicked 【Sort by Views】 and found that his brazier was still lost in the sea of listings.

He then searched for keywords like “lighting,” “light source,” and “fire” using the search engine. Fortunately, the 【Soul-summoning Brazier】 appeared on the first page. Now all that was left was to wait for buyers to come.

While waiting for a buyer, he contacted Yunzhou to borrow some Attack Coins and Critical Strike Gems, and casually brought up the matter of map exploration.

【Yunzhou】: If we go by the information provided by the tipster—that the ratio of players in the desert to those in the town is 7 to 3—do you believe there are 30,000 players in the town, or 300,000?

That’s true; 100,000 and 990,000 are both six-digit numbers.

Players believe the total number of survivors exceeds 100,000 simply because the player IDs are six digits long.

【Yunzhou】: If there are more players, they’ll encounter each other sooner; conversely, if there are fewer players, the time it takes to level up will be longer.

【Yining】: The optimal strategy in small towns is to capture a house and use it as your stronghold, which is completely different from the desert, where players have to build their own houses.

The desert terrain isn’t actually a desert; it’s more like an arid, water-scarce plateau with low vegetation coverage, exposed sand and rock, high temperatures, and difficult farming conditions.

【Yunzhou】: So with fewer players, competition is fierce early on but relatively peaceful later. With more players, competition is intense throughout the early, mid, and late game.

【Yining】: I have a bad feeling about this.

【Yunzhou】: (laughs)

【Yunzhou】: I heard skills usually unlock after killing the first monster. I hope I get a competitive one.

【Yining】: If you don’t want to get caught up in the grind, I hope you get a healing skill.

Playing a healer is the safest bet early on. Before factions have solidified, no one in their right mind would want to cross a healer. Especially since this game encourages monster hunting.

【Yunzhou】: I’ll take your word for it.

To be honest, Yining is really curious to see what kind of skill Yunzhou will get—but he won’t find out until after 3:00 PM.

There’s still no activity in the trading market; perhaps players are wary of that eerie-looking 【Summoning】 spell. With nothing else to do, Yining decided to go find YuYuYu to ask about expanding the domain.

【YuYuYu】: Currently, the exploration rate for the desert map is 0.027%.

That’s different from your data. The reference is to the map of the terrain where we’re located—the exploration rate for the desert region is 0.027%, not the map for the entire game server.

【YuYuYu】: I did the math. If there are 700,000 players in the Desert and the radius increases by 5 meters with each level-up, then once all Desert players reach around level 60, the exploration rate will exceed 98%.

But that’s just a rough estimate; there are many variables in the leveling process.

【Yining】: Based on your calculation, 300,000 players in a small town would only need to reach levels 10–20 to unlock 98%.

How big could the total area of a “small town” be, especially since player density there is higher than in the Desert? Unless this “small town” isn’t actually a small town, but Tokyo, New York, or Shanghai.

【YuYuYu】: I think Desert players should pool their resources and actively focus on a single area, expanding that specific scale—building defensive systems like castles or city-states—which would allow more people to survive, right?

【YuYuYu】: Too bad I already have a partner. I can only hope this happens a little later, so at least I get a chance to reach your level first.

【Yining】: Look on the bright side.

【YuYuYu】: Boss, are you in a small town or out in the desert?

【Yining】: I think I’m near a small town.

After all, cemeteries are only built where people live.

After ending the conversation, the brazier business still drew no customers. Yining realized he’d been aimlessly wandering the trading market for quite a while and felt quite guilty.

So he decided to check the grave mounds to see if his status had changed.

There were mushrooms and bloodflesh flowers on the grave mound; he picked a few on a whim but found the mushrooms wouldn’t fit into his skill slots. The bloodflesh flowers were old friends and could still help him fight the 【Contamination】 status.

As for the grave mound blind boxes, he couldn’t sell the brazier, couldn’t get a shovel, and digging up dirt was a waste of time and effort.

If I trade food and fresh water for a shovel now, the brazier would just become a useless item—it’s no good keeping it for myself.

This type of fire bowl with special effects must be used while the player is awake.

After all, players who buy them are looking for reliable nighttime lighting to prevent dying in their sleep from being devoured by the darkness.

He pondered for a moment, then looked up at the sun hanging high in the sky above the realm. If only the fire basin could work during the day as well.

If he actually summoned a ghost, it might just be purified by this powerful hydrogen fusion energy. With that in mind, Yining lit the brazier to test it out.

While he was at it, he might as well grill some mushrooms—that way, he won’t be wasting matches or fuel.

Ever since the express blind box delivery contained a packet of salt, Yining’s quality of life has steadily improved—the flavor of grilled food has definitely taken a leap forward. Before long, the aroma of grilled mushrooms wafted through the air.

Yining chewed on the roasted mushrooms. Chew, chew, chew.

Delicious!

Days of survival in the wild had left Yining’s mind completely blank; now, that single word was all he could think of to describe his current state of mind. Meat, eggs, dairy, dietary fiber, and trace elements—Yining was doing his best to maintain a balanced diet.

Even trapped in a graveyard, one should make the best of life.

Not spending money doesn’t necessarily mean wasting your youth, but merely getting by is a waste of life.

Right after eating the roasted mushroom, he faintly heard someone singing in his ear—the sound was a jumbled mess that didn’t form a melody. No big deal; as long as it tastes good. Next time, maybe he should roast it a little longer; who knows, it might reduce the auditory hallucinations.

After lunch, Yining went to pack the items he wasn’t currently using into a separate shipping box. He felt it wasn’t safe to leave them on the ground, and it wouldn’t do to put them directly into the coffin pit, so he went to the trading market to see if there were any waterproof or moisture-resistant fabrics for sale, but unfortunately, he came up empty-handed.

Before he knew it, it was 3:00 PM, and Yunzhou sent a message saying he was ready to start the expansion.

Yining stayed glued to his private message panel, waiting for Yunzhou to finish his current tasks.

Meanwhile, on the game forum, more and more players were finishing their territory expansions, and everyone was discussing possible future directions. Yining’s paper money burning brazier burned joss paper fuel all by itself.

【Soul Summoning Successful】

【Monsters Near You: Shadow Phantoms ×2】

A system notification suddenly popped up!

The brazier really can be used during the day!

Yining jumped to his feet. The joss paper in the brazier was burning fiercely, smoke rising upward, and there was truly something moving within his own shadow, as if some kind of insect had burrowed under his skin, sending a chill down his spine.

Could it be because of the 【Clairvoyance】 attribute?

Drawing the 【Mountain-Splitting】 Blade, Yining slashed at his own shadow three times in quick succession. If anyone unaware of the situation had been present, they would have likely thought the guy was out of his mind.

【Defeated shadow phantoms ×2】

【Obtained shadow skin ×1, bone meal ×2, Your Spirit ×4】

It seems shadow skin isn’t a guaranteed drop.

Yining stared at the paper money burning in the brazier, and suddenly a flash of inspiration struck him. He immediately updated the message on the trading market.

【Monster Spawner ×1, summons minor monsters, consumes 10% fuel per hour, in exchange for a shovel】

With this new idea, the listing’s views skyrocketed.

Only then did he realize that sellers could see how many players had viewed their listed items, and that only buyers who possessed a shovel had permission to send private messages to sellers.

After changing the title, business came pouring in.

Player 【Desert Daniel Wu】: What kind of minions can it summon?

【Yining】: I’ve summoned a shadow phantom before. It hides in the shadows and feeds on creatures’ mental energy. It’s level 0 and drops shadow skin and bone meal—the bone meal can be used as fertilizer.

Player 【Desert Wu Yanzu】: That’s so powerful—and you’re only asking for a shovel in exchange?

【Yining】: Um, try not to use it at night.

Player 【Desert Daniel Wu】: That puts my mind at ease.

Sure enough, players gradually realized that fighting monsters was their ultimate destiny, which made Yining’s brazier practically a divine artifact at this stage. The two completed the trade: Yining gave up one chance to use a replication card to duplicate the brazier in exchange for a brown-grade shovel with 200 durability. Clutching the shovel, Yining sat on a rock, gazing at the two mounds not far away. It was as if an old man were gazing out at the sea as the waves began to rise. About an hour later, Yunzhou returned to hand over the gold coins and gems.

【Yunzhou】: Town exploration progress is 4.71%.

【Yunzhou】: The skill I acquired is 【Vampirism】, which grants a 0.1% lifesteal effect on every attack. I also returned the crafting blueprint for the blood knife.

Yining wondered to himself, “Is this what they call healing with offensive power?”