novelraw Chapter 217: Development in Progress
Chapter 217: Development in Progress
This discovery made Li Wei even more eager to explore the sealed underground chamber beneath the Unboxing Building.
From every indication, the place had never been flooded by rainwater.
Once he cracked it open, all of it would convert into Pioneering Points.
Right — this wasn't a newcomer mission or a resource-gathering task, so there was no point in holding anything back. He'd convert everything into Pioneering Points.
Li Wei had no other choice. He had to throw his full support behind Night Owl.
"Little Wei, I'd like to grow some mushrooms on the first floor, and maybe clear a small plot outside for vegetables. When I was digging for wild greens today, I noticed that the land around this town used to be farmland. Hidden among the weeds, there are some feral atavistic plants — quite a few legumes especially. I think we could start domesticating them now. Though I'm not really skilled at that sort of thing..."
After dinner, the new Second Aunt worked up her courage and offered the suggestion in a careful, tentative voice, then quickly lowered her head, maintaining a cautious, deferential manner throughout.
Li Wei said nothing. He gave a slight nod. That was interesting — did she think a Three-Star Farmer like him would overlook something like this? Was she trying to remind him?
In reality, Li Wei had noticed it on his very first day scouting the perimeter of the town. The reason he hadn't acted on it was simple: there had been no time, no energy to spare for such things.
Last month, in the scramble to claim the Head of Household position, he'd taken Thomas as his role model — dig the well first, clear the farmland second, and seize the greatest advantage with all possible speed. If he'd spent time slowly domesticating wild atavistic plants, the moment would have long passed.In a word: pointless.
He was no longer just a Three-Star Farmer. He was the future lord of a pioneering territory. What he needed was more Pioneering Points — enough to hold on for three years — not to be an outstanding farmer.
If his pioneering territory got overrun by mutated creatures three years from now, what would it matter if his Farmer Destiny Grid had climbed to 50? Did he want to end up like Li Ji?
"Second Aunt, I'll leave all of that to you. Grow plenty of mushrooms and vegetables — it'll improve our menu. I've been missing your cooking this whole time."
Li Wei offered a tired smile. On the surface it sounded like casual reminiscing, but it was a command.
【As the Head of Household and true arbiter of this camp, you have ordered Liang Yuzhi to take charge of growing mushrooms on the first floor and cultivating wild crop specimens. She will receive 50 Contribution points at the end of the month.】
Good. That was what a proper workhorse looked like.
Afterward, Li Wei went to check on his poor sister Li Yue — mutual goodwill farming, naturally. Now that the persona front had been established, it was all-or-nothing: the character she was playing would max out her affection for his character, and his character would max out affection for hers. Neither could harm the other. Perfect.
If an opportunity arose, it would be ideal to engineer a "sweep her out the door" Plot Kill against her.
Though this girl didn't seem like the gambling type. Perhaps he could create an opportunity in the future to turn her into one?
After that, Li Wei didn't rest. Together with Leon, Thomas, and Zhao Xuanxuan, under the light of the stars, they continued clearing the ruins — pushing all the way until ten o'clock at night before finally heading back to sleep.
Fourteen-hour workdays were a joke?
Li Wei didn't need to push this hard, but he genuinely couldn't afford to slack off.
Over the following days, the four of them transformed into something like four frenzied Thomases, clearing southward in one unbroken push all the way to the central park of the town. That meant the entire one-kilometer stretch to the north had been cleared.
In the process of opening the underground storage rooms, they gradually turned up a collection of rusty but still-usable tools: shovels, pickaxes, sledgehammers, crowbars, jacks, wrenches, pliers, nails, and claw hammers. Nothing as fine as the Enchanted Sapper Shovel ever appeared again.
There was one unexpected development during the clearing: on the western side of town, a section of ground that had already collapsed continued caving northward by several dozen meters, eventually forming a large pit with a total area of nearly 1,300 square meters — and there was a chance it might keep subsiding.
"This place could easily be turned into a second fortified field. Thomas, you and Leon keep clearing the ruins and looking for usable materials. I'll handle excavating this pit."
Li Wei was pleased. An ordinary field was easier to cultivate, of course, but its resilience was too low.
In the future, he planned to build a larger perimeter wall following the town's paved roads. Farmland enclosed within that wall would naturally be far better protected.
He glanced at Zhao Xuanxuan and said, "Xuanxuan, if I remember right, your major was related to metallurgy. Is there any way you could build an iron-smelting furnace and melt down all that scrap iron? We'll probably need to cast a couple of solid iron gates eventually."
At those words, a flash of delight crossed Zhao Xuanxuan's eyes. Not bad, little George! So her faith in him hadn't been misplaced. She'd been looking for a chance to activate the conspiracy card and catch up for days, but the opportunity never came. Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue both gave her an uneasy feeling, and out of caution she hadn't dared make a single rash move.
Yet here was Li Wei, showing this kind of loyalty without her even asking. No wonder Night Owl from the Ministry of Internal Affairs had tried to transfer her out of the Logistics Department seven months ago — only for the paperwork to get mysteriously stalled for six full months, landing her here at exactly this moment. It had all been calculated.
Besides, she'd been a nobody in the Logistics Department anyway, overlooked and unwanted. Why not find someone she could trust?
This kid Li Wei — she genuinely respected him.
"I can do it. I've already taken stock of the materials, and nothing critical is missing. Leave it to me." Zhao Xuanxuan said sweetly, trying to convey something through her micro-expressions and the simplest possible words — though it seemed rather difficult.
This kid was a bit dense!
"Alright, it's settled then. Oh — Leon, going forward you and the others can haul the concrete rubble over here, and move the excavated soil to the central park. We can set up an orchard there eventually."
Li Wei gave Leon and Thomas their instructions.
"Got it!" Leon and Thomas raised no objections — they didn't have much relevant experience anyway.
They split into two groups. Zhao Xuanxuan went off to build the iron-smelting furnace and charcoal kiln, both firmly within her area of expertise.
Li Wei took a sledgehammer and knocked away all the unstable paved surface around the edges of the pit, ultimately opening up a plot of roughly 2,000 square meters.
Then it was the usual routine: dig down four meters, then fill the base with stones and concrete chunks, packing them into a solid foundation.
This time, to ensure the edges of the pit wouldn't keep collapsing, Li Wei even took the time to backfill and reinforce some of the critical rat burrows.
There was so much construction debris lying around outside — it was an eyesore anyway, so why not put it to use as fill?
As for the territory's future drainage infrastructure — that was a problem for another day. Right now they had exactly four workers. Even if all of them went into overdrive like Thomas, how could they possibly launch that many construction projects at once?
Fortunately, the new Second Aunt truly had skills. Her cooking was excellent — every day she balanced meat and vegetables, keeping everyone's diet from falling apart.
And Li Wei's fragile little sister Li Yue had finally recovered enough to get out of bed and do some work. Starting a few days ago, she'd been helping Leon and Thomas clear the ruins.
Whatever hidden agendas anyone might be harboring, at least for this month the camp was rock solid. Once the foundation was laid, everything else could unfold smoothly.
In the blink of an eye, twenty-two days of the month had passed, and the ruins of the entire town had been essentially cleared.
Zhao Xuanxuan had long since finished building the charcoal kiln and small iron-smelting blast furnace in the parking lot, and had already begun felling trees and burning charcoal.
On that same day, the camp's fifth fortified field was also essentially complete.
At that moment, several lines of text drifted silently past.
【Under your leadership and personal efforts, the Scavenger Camp has achieved a tremendous harvest. A total of 1.5 square kilometers of ruins have been cleared and leveled, yielding 1 square kilometer of paved surface. 124 usable residential foundations have been uncovered. A central park green space covering roughly 8,000 square meters has been restored. 1,650 square meters of One-Star farmland have been newly cultivated. One One-Star iron-smelting blast furnace and one charcoal kiln have been constructed. A total of 271 usable tools, 52 tons of scrap iron, 154 tons of waste timber have been salvaged. Large-scale backfilling of hazardous underground rat burrows has been completed.】
【All of the above will be added to the Scavenger Camp's fixed assets. The maximum Contribution value available to the current household has increased to 3,500 points.】
【Due to the current Autocrat Camp Buff, you have accumulated 500 Contribution points. Current total Contribution: 1,500 points (including a portion of the monthly main quest reward).】
【Provisional temporary camp members Leon, Thomas, and Zhao Xuanxuan have each received an additional 30 Contribution points. This Contribution does not count toward the main quest tally.】
【Provisional temporary camp member Liang Yuzhi has received an additional 20 Contribution points.】
【Provisional temporary camp member Li Yue has received an additional 15 Contribution points.】
—
This wasn't just exploitation — even the most ruthless taskmaster couldn't have squeezed harder.
But it was Li Wei who had won this, single-handedly.
Who told Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue to voluntarily NG last month, effectively resigning from the board?
Autocracy was autocracy. That was exactly what it meant.
If Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue had stayed, they'd at least hold director-level status, and the relatives and friends who came to join them couldn't have been squeezed nearly this hard — it would have turned into a mess all over again.
Nothing compared to this moment, with Li Wei making every decision alone, unchallenged. Glorious.
Still, even after all this, the Scavenger Camp still hadn't leveled up to Tier 2. Li Wei suspected some critical factor was missing.
Perhaps a perimeter wall?
Nothing more to say then — time to open the underground chamber of the Unboxing Building.
It was nearly the end of the month. The time had come.
Li Wei didn't bother hiding this from the others. There was no need to worry about anyone cutting into his share — given everyone's current status, they could only take a tiny fraction of a small piece.
Besides, there was no way to hide it.
On the morning of the twenty-third day of the month, after breakfast, Li Wei made a formal announcement and took the opportunity to observe Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue's reactions. Neither showed the slightest crack.
What followed was a round of preparation work — mainly heating some salvaged old steel chisels red-hot and re-tempering them to make them harder.
The reason Li Wei had asked Zhao Xuanxuan to build the iron-smelting furnace and burn charcoal was precisely for this moment. The entrance to that underground chamber was at least a meter of reinforced concrete. Without proper tools, there was simply no way through.
Trying to dig in from below wasn't an option either — the conditions underground made it impossible to get any leverage.
After a clanging, hammering stretch of work, twelve old steel chisels emerged renewed, and even the sledgehammer's wooden handle had been replaced with a fresh one.