Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 194: The Contest for Narrative Momentum

All told, Li Wei was gone for no more than five minutes before he quickly returned.

He couldn't afford to linger. Even a brief absence would give the other four family members time to trigger their own plot points through conversation — and while that was unavoidable, Li Wei still wanted to control the pace.

And every one of the other four players would be fighting just as hard to do the same.

Nobody could win over the others with sheer charisma at a moment like this. They were all seasoned foxes. No point in playing innocent.

But when Li Wei returned to the makeshift camp, he found that Second Aunt Liang Yuzhi had already pulled a pile of food and clean water from her Resource Card.

[Family member Liang Yuzhi has donated two units of one-star food and two units of one-star drinking water to the family. Based on the current environment and the family's supply reserves, her donation has received a 50% premium. She receives 10 + 10×50% = 15 Family Contribution points.]

[Reminder: When a family member donates supplies or performs work, the current environment must be taken into account. For example, in an arid desert where the family urgently needs water, donating one unit of drinking water could yield 100 Family Contribution points. However, before the family has a stable supply source for food and water, such donations will be significantly discounted — or even deemed invalid. Warning: three invalid donations will earn the title "Big Chest, No Brain."]

[Likewise, if the family's cultivated farmland already meets the food needs of five people for a full year, any further farmland cultivation will be considered invalid work — not only yielding no reward, but actually deducting Pioneering Points. Three such occurrences will earn the title "Dead Weight," making it far easier to be voted out during the monthly Plot Kill.]

[Reminder: each player may theoretically donate a maximum of ten units of personally carried food and water.]

——Well. She'd drawn first blood.

At this particular moment, it was genuinely the smart move.

Li Wei glanced at his little sister Li Yue — she'd looked like she wanted to donate too, but had held back in the end.

"Head of the house, Jiao, Little Wei, Little Yue — you must all be hungry. Let's eat first."

Liang Yuzhi said warmly, and even Li Wei didn't stand on ceremony. He sat down with the others and they divided the food and water equally among the five of them. This was an unspoken rule: no matter how much food there was, a family shared it equally. Anything less was a minor violation of the storyline's logic.

During the meal, there was no room for long speeches or leisurely eating. Given the current environment, dawdling over food when you needed to replenish your strength as quickly as possible made no logical sense either.

Two minutes later, all five finished eating simultaneously. Li Yue immediately seized the moment and spoke with precise timing: "The weather seems good today. Perhaps we could scout the surrounding area and find a proper place to set up camp."

That was a bid for narrative control.

"I agree. This underground parking lot looks solid, but come summer it might flood. That said, when we go out to scout, we should move in pairs — safer that way."

Older Cousin Li Jiao followed up immediately. They all needed to find new plot points while keeping the storyline logic intact — that was how you triggered work, and how you earned Contribution. Skills honed through countless Rookie Missions.

Li Wei finally spoke, his voice calm and measured. "No need to scout. I suggest we build our new camp right here in the ruins of this town — and use this parking lot as our temporary base in the meantime."

"I have three reasons."

"First: this isn't a large city. It's a small town with a population of no more than five thousand. But ninety percent of the buildings have been violently destroyed, with only a handful of structures and this parking lot still standing. That means if we go out into the open and build a camp from scratch — whether we cut logs for walls or haul stones — it won't amount to much."

"Hardened ground surfaces in particular are something we simply cannot replicate, no matter what we do. The threats we face may come from any direction, at any time, across any terrain."

"Second: in every direction from this town, the terrain is wide open flatland with almost no cover. The only forest of any size is roughly ten kilometers to the north — and we have no idea what dangers might be lurking there. With terrain this exposed, we'd be vulnerable to threats from any direction: from a distance, from the sky, even from underground."

"The ruins of this town, on the other hand, offer us solid cover."

"Third: while most of the town's buildings have been destroyed, we can still salvage useful construction materials from the rubble. That will be critical for building our camp."

Li Wei finished speaking and waited quietly for the other four to respond. He'd rushed out to scout without even changing his clothes or equipment, and had returned in under five minutes — all to seize this exact plot point.

At this moment, anyone who wanted to argue with him would need to produce more detailed, more thorough, more convincing evidence than he had.

But from the moment they'd woken up to right now, not one of them had stepped outside the underground parking lot. They were all completely in the dark about what lay beyond.

Want to argue?

On what grounds?

With what?

"Little Wei, you make a lot of sense. I agree." Li Guilin laughed immediately. Impressive — truly worthy of the Rookie King title. Not that Li Wei knew any of them, but they all knew exactly who Li Wei was.

Entering a Pioneering Mission without even a codename — he was the only one who'd ever done that.

"That's right, Little Wei is so observant. I agree too." Liang Yuzhi smiled.

Three votes in favor. No suspense left.

Li Yue and Li Jiao had failed to claim the plot point.

And Li Wei, having successfully claimed it, could now continue to steer the narrative.

"We don't know what dangers are out there, but I still recommend that whenever we leave the parking lot, we stay alert at all times. Use the surrounding terrain and environment for cover, keep your weapons ready, move in pairs — one person on watch, one hauling materials, rotating as needed. The last person handles assembly. Also, for now I'd advise against chopping down trees or digging up soil. And absolutely no shouting, no making loud noises, no lighting fires — we don't want to attract unnecessary attention."

Another round of clear, well-reasoned recommendations. The other four exchanged glances. These were genuinely good suggestions — not that they didn't know any of this themselves, but someone had to say it first.

"I used to work construction sites. I'll handle the assembly and building." Li Jiao quickly pivoted his strategy. Fighting for control wasn't working — cooperation was the better play. With Li Wei clearly dominating the narrative right now, nobody was going to monopolize the Contribution from building the camp. The smart move was to grab a share while you could.

"Then I'll haul materials," Li Wei said with a nod.

"Big brother, I'll pair with you," Li Yue said quickly.

"Then we'll be a pair," Li Guilin added. At this stage it didn't really matter — what counted was the speed of the work. Whoever collected the most building materials would earn a slightly larger share of the Contribution.

After that, Li Wei said nothing more. He had controlled the narrative pace from start to finish, and while holding the narrative pace didn't come with direct rewards, it was effectively the same as exercising the authority of Head of Household. It looked useless on the surface, but in practice it was enormously valuable.

For instance, if he'd come back even a little later, or hadn't rushed out to scout, the others might have proposed heading further afield to explore — rather than staying here to build a camp. Any change like that would have made the storyline more complicated and harder to manage.

"Big brother, you and Second Uncle were taking turns on watch last night — you must be exhausted. Let me do the hauling. You just keep watch for me."

Li Yue leaned close and murmured this to Li Wei, her expression sweet and considerate — the picture of a devoted little sister.

Her words also fit perfectly within the established storyline. Li Wei had been the first to crawl out of his tent, and Li Guilin had immediately mentioned being tired from keeping watch — which had implicitly established the "fact" that the two of them had taken turns on watch duty the previous night. In this kind of improvised fiction, whoever spoke first held the advantage.

So Li Yue's words were perfectly timed. Li Wei couldn't argue with them. No matter how much he might want to protect his little sister, taking turns to rest was basic survival logic — even a devoted older brother couldn't override that.

"Alright!"

Li Wei nodded and reached into his Resource Card for his Three-Star Cowhide Boots, pulling them on. Plus 6 leg defense, plus 2 Agility, and a 1% reduction in Stamina consumption when worn — not bad at all.

He didn't take out the Noble Crest Armor, though — he stayed in his filthy, lice-ridden winter clothes. Partly to protect the armor from wear, and partly to avoid the glint of metal plates catching the light.

He did take out his Three-Star War Bow, a quiver of twelve one-star hardwood arrows, and the Two-Star Bloodthirsty Spear.

In the final boss battle of the last mission world, he had hurled the Bloodthirsty Spear at the black-robed witch Mixi — but she had dodged it nimbly, so the spear had come back undamaged.

With the Three-Star War Bow equipped, its 4-point encumbrance reduced his Agility by 2, which exactly cancelled out the boots' +2 Agility bonus.

He also equipped the Dog Butcher title, bringing his current base stats to: Life 210, Strength 24, Agility 25, Defense 14, Stamina 250.

Additionally, all the experience he had accumulated in the previous world carried over: 6,850 points of Hunting experience, 300 points of Fishing experience, 850 points of Farming experience, 3,050 points of Woodcutting experience, 152 points of Scavenging experience, 400 points of Scouting experience, 400 points of Dismantling experience, and 400 points of Crafting experience.

Meanwhile, Li Guilin and Liang Yuzhi had quickly worked out their arrangement — who would haul and who would stand watch, taking turns as needed. Nothing to argue about there.

Li Guilin did duck back into his tent to swap out his lice-infested everyday clothes for a fresh set and a deliberately understated set of leather armor. The armor was clearly chosen with care: good flexibility that wouldn't hinder physical work, decent protection, and — most importantly — no metal plates, so it wouldn't catch the light in the sun.

Liang Yuzhi, Li Jiao, and Li Yue had all made similar choices with their leather armor. Their preparation was impressively thorough.

Li Wei's own reason for not switching to the Noble Crest Armor was the same: protecting the armor from unnecessary wear, and avoiding the telltale glint of metal in sunlight.

Details like that could cost you your life.