Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 204: Manufacturing a Plot

Even though George was hungry and thirsty, he made a routine check of the camp first.

The reinforced door on the second floor was shut tight. The concrete blocks piled outside hadn't been touched.

For the past two days, all three of them — George included — had been climbing in and out through the third-floor gap. Slightly inconvenient, but a worthwhile trade for the extra sense of security.

They were now, after all, a family with fixed assets.

He went straight up to the fifth floor. By unspoken agreement, the fifth floor was his territory. The fourth was the storeroom, kitchen, and Li Yue's space. The third floor — Liang Yuzhi loved night watch enough to claim it.

The fifth floor had a useful collection of wood scraps and cloth scraps he'd been gathering — nothing rare, things you could pick up from the ruins outside.

He set the water containers aside to settle further, then retrieved one unit of charcoal from his Resource Card. Once out, it wasn't going back in. He'd use it to purify the water.

He also had a small iron pot — One-Star quality — which hadn't exactly been purchased. He'd brought it from Wind Residence No. 53, shall we say.

Cheerfully and without any guilt, he spent a full hour in productive chaos before he finally managed to drink properly boiled water.

The quality wasn't excellent, but it was far from bad.Ha!

He knocked it back with satisfaction, then put a skewer of dried rat on the embers for good measure. This was actually quite a decent existence.

Then came the sound of Li Yue screaming for help from outside.

Are you serious?

George checked both ears. Did he go deaf?

Still, he moved fast: boots on, Noble Crest Armor buckled, weapons in hand — he went out like a flooding river. And it was exactly what he'd expected.

The Four-Star Mutant Rat King had come back. It had apparently decided that enough was enough.

On the western fringe of the town, it had collapsed an entire new section, but Li Yue had been quick: she'd seen it coming and scrambled up onto the remains of a single-story ruin, where she was now shouting for all she was worth.

And — the Four-Star Mutant Rat King had turned around and vanished back into its tunnel, leaving Liang Yuzhi, who had been lying in ambush ready to hit it, ambushing absolutely nothing.

Infuriating, honestly.

So those two had been trying to take down the Rat King by themselves? Good luck. If that was their plan, he hoped it went beautifully wrong.

George turned around and went back to his skewered meat. He needed the calories.

A few minutes later, Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue both returned. Apparently they had also accepted that the shortcut route was now closed — you can only walk close to the edge so many times before you get wet shoes. The Four-Star Mutant Rat King clearly had a functional brain, and continuing this way was an invitation to eventual disaster.

"Brother! I was so scared, that huge rat — I thought I'd never see you again, brother—"

Li Yue cried in beautifully executed misery, charging directly into George's arms like she'd rehearsed it.

"It's all right, Xiao Yue, I'm here."

George patted her back with genuine warmth, both hands thoroughly coated in charcoal and grease. He couldn't help it — there was no graceful option available, and she was lucky to be alive either way, so the smudges didn't really factor in.

"Xiao Wei, we can't keep being this reactive," Liang Yuzhi said from beside them. "That creature is causing serious disruption to the camp. I don't even dare go near the parking lot anymore, and you know we need a handcart. My suggestion: we kill it."

She and Li Yue had already reached the same conclusion without needing to say it out loud. This month, catching up to and surpassing George was off the table. The shortcut routes had failed.

So what now?

Settle for second and third place. Claim nothing from the first, fight for everything below it. If they couldn't get the top spot, at least deny anyone else the room to grow unimpeded.

Kill the Four-Star Rat King before the month-end influx of new players. Divide the Contribution three ways. George would eat well too, yes — but so would they. Afterwards, they'd develop steadily, cause no trouble, accumulate quietly. Three years was a long time. Even a Rookie King made mistakes. Bad luck came to everyone.

Stay close enough in the score, and the final victor was anything but decided.

There were still so many challenges ahead.

This was why they'd staged the scene just now. We didn't provoke the Rat King. We were just doing regular work, and one of us nearly died. This is your little sister, George. Are you going to do nothing?

"Brother, maybe we should just find a different camp location," Li Yue said, in a pitiful voice. "With that creature out there, I'm afraid to go outside at all."

Agree to kill it together? Everyone benefits.

Refuse? Then they lie flat — or move. Without a Head of Household, a compelling enough excuse could legitimately trigger a camp relocation. A vote system where the minority yielded to the majority. Textbook plot-forcing.

The cost of actually following through was large, of course — especially now that they had invested in a Level 1 Scavenger Camp with fixed assets. Proposing to abandon those meant eating the associated Contribution penalty. But they didn't care. They were willing to burn their own progress to drag down the Seed Player from Internal Affairs.

Because that was, in point of fact, one of their unofficial objectives. Obstruct, delay, undermine — provide indirect support for their own departments' Seed Players elsewhere.

If the mission imploded in month one with them as the cause — they'd likely get bonuses when they returned.

Vicious, from any angle.

And George felt every bit of it landing.

Yes — this was more personal, more concealed, more deliberately targeted than anything in the Rookie Mission.

And he couldn't simply say 'we can't win, let's wait' — the scene Li Yue had just staged had closed that door. The story was now moving.

"All right," George said. "As long as that thing lives, we'll never have a quiet day. Auntie is right — we have to think about finishing it."

"That said, it's strong as an ox and it's not stupid — the moment it senses trouble, it retreats underground and won't come back out. Brute force alone won't finish it. Auntie, could you and Xiao Yue work on setting up some traps? Once we lure it out, cut off its retreat line."

"With its retreat blocked, I'd give myself six chances in ten of killing it on open ground — and with your help, that rises to eight in ten."

George agreed. He wasn't going to be forced to pack up and relocate.

But he'd also just landed his own counter-punch: traps. Until the traps are ready, we don't move. One word: delay.

Not that he was opposed to killing the Four-Star Rat King. It was Four-Star. Only a fool would pass that up.

But — and he wouldn't say this out loud — he privately did not mind if the Rat King happened to deal with Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue on its own terms first.

That was the reality of what was at stake here. Don't talk to him about unity. Unity was a conversation for people sharing interests.

George belonged to Internal Affairs. Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue belonged to other departments. Competing departments. Different interests, different objectives — this entire Pioneering Mission was ultimately five departments fighting for Pioneering Points rankings.

Someone waves a Team Spirit banner and says, 'Let's cooperate and split the gains evenly!' Would Night Owl tolerate that for one second? She'd personally come find him.

Under the rules, you used every legitimate means to accumulate advantage, seize decision-making authority, strike at competitors, advance your department's interests. That was the core objective.

In fact, George was fairly certain both Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue carried undisclosed assignments: disrupt, delay, or undermine the Seed Player for Internal Affairs — even at cost to themselves — in order to benefit their own departments' players elsewhere. That was the kind of backstage arrangement that happened.

And why had George's own days gone comparatively smoothly, while Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue seemed constantly hemmed in — two Three-Star Lords performing like rank beginners?

Because they had farmed too many mutant rats from the start. The Rat King's aggression was aimed at them, not at him.

George could walk two kilometers out to dig a well without a second thought. Those two didn't dare step off hardened road surface.

They knew about wells. They knew about kilns, blast furnaces, fixed-asset building. They just didn't dare. The Sword of Damocles hung over their heads at every moment. Of course they couldn't move freely.

And now someone expected George to bind himself in the name of unity and go cooperate on killing a Four-Star creature at their convenience?

"You're right, Auntie," George said instead, warmly. "This will take some smart thinking. So — you and Xiao Yue handle the trap-building. I'll handle provoking the creature, drawing out rats to study its behavior, observe the details. Once everything's in position, we take it together."

Liang Yuzhi smiled in satisfaction. Fine, boy — as long as you agree to the joint kill, all three of us come out ahead. Without that thing watching over us, she had more than enough ways to gain ground.

"I'll follow your lead, brother." Li Yue added, still looking appropriately fragile.

George smiled at them both with warm affection. They were family, after all.

Shortly after, Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue went cautiously downstairs and toward the parking lot. Building traps meant more vehicle stripping.

George, for his part, had his own plans.

He went back to roasting his skewer, ate and drank his fill, then slept a long-overdue afternoon nap.

Around four o'clock, George stretched himself back upright, feeling genuinely sharp. He climbed to the rooftop and read the sky. Cloud banks were building in the distance. The sunlight had become listless. A southwest wind was coming in at low speed, carrying a particular moisture — silky, the kind that belonged to spring.

Deep in the chest. Spreading through the lungs.

Three days, five at most. There would be rain.

'Let it come,' he thought. 'You're about to find out what a surprise feels like.'