Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 240: Family Meeting

Next came family meeting time.

Li Wei swept his gaze across the group, thought for a moment, and turned to Li Yue first. "Little Yue, how much of the underground base is still left to strip? Is it still worth the effort to keep going?"

This was an area Li Wei had deliberately stayed out of. Let the experts handle their own domain — he wasn't suited for it, so there was no point meddling. Besides, with everyone watching, what trouble could Li Yue actually cause?

If she dragged her feet, fine — the scoring system was right there, and headquarters had eyes on everything. If she wanted to coast along, Li Wei would be more than happy to let her.

"Brother, honestly, we've barely finished stripping a tenth of the underground base. It's enormous — there's so much that can be salvaged. Given enough time, I don't think we could clear it out in under a year. But realistically, I think we have two months at most before we need to stop. Based on the Freemen's records and the historical timing of the annual radiation storm, it should hit around late September or early October."

"And in September — roughly when the crops will be ready for harvest — mutated creatures and Ability Users will also be unusually active. So in my view, this month we really need to concentrate our efforts on stripping the base while also rapidly collecting and mining the nearby resources."

"Come next month, we'll need to start building a city wall strong enough to withstand a stone giant's assault. In fact, to avoid the rainy season delaying construction, I think we should start laying groundwork for the wall this month."

"Brother, I'm not sure if you've looked at the wall blueprints from that old engineer Nelson — I think the design is excellent."

Li Yue laid it all out with a perfectly straight face. You gave me the floor, so I'm using it. Sure, in a family meeting, fighting for narrative control rarely amounted to much — but occasionally it yielded unexpected dividends.

Li Wei nodded, expression calm. Li Yue's speech had also made her hidden agenda fairly transparent.In short: the underground base needed a permanent salvage and extraction team stationed there. And wherever a team was permanently stationed, mutated creatures would inevitably show up — which meant a powerful figure needed to be on-site to hold things down.

And who would that be? Why, your beloved little sister, of course.

Once that arrangement was locked in, every monthly main task she received going forward would be captain-tier — meaning a base Contribution of 500 points.

On top of that, Li Yue was also reaching into Liang Yuzhi's territory: the stone quarry and limestone quarry. Since I'm stationed here now, logically they fall under my jurisdiction too. Most efficient that way.

With that understood, Li Wei knew exactly what to do.

"Alright. Little Yue, I'll leave it to you. I need you to stay at the underground base again this month. I'll give you five Freemen, and I'll send Zhang Jinjun and Leon to help."

"Zhang Jinjun handles stripping and loading."

"Leon handles mining the stone and limestone quarries. The specifics are up to them, but safety is your responsibility, little sister. We'd rather work a little slower and make sure everyone comes home in one piece."

Li Wei's last sentence carried weight. You want to be team captain? Fine — we can dial back the production targets. But if anyone gets hurt on your watch, I will impeach you.

"Don't worry, brother. I can guarantee it." Li Yue smiled brightly, full of confidence. Of course she could. She was missing one card and couldn't reach seventy percent of her peak strength — and she could still walk sideways through anything out there.

And this was exactly the effect Li Wei wanted. It was also one of the biggest advantages his branch had over the others.

Though Li Wei suspected that as the difficulty climbed, other branches would gradually attract more four-star professionals — and eventually five-star ones too. Just like the rookie missions: what started with fresh-faced beginners eventually saw four-star veterans showing up by the end.

Li Wei was starting to think the All-Heavens Lord Alliance had a real fondness for killing two birds with one stone.

Was that the core philosophy of cost reduction, efficiency improvement, and sustainable development?

With Li Yue, Zhang Jinjun, and Leon's monthly tasks settled in one go, Li Wei was satisfied. He ignored Liang Yuzhi's gaze and turned to Thomas.

"Old classmate, what are your thoughts for this month?"

His own people came first, naturally. The reason he hadn't asked Leon's opinion was that Leon needed to focus on building up his Mason and Miner Destiny Grids this month. Mining was perfect for him — it let him grind both simultaneously. A heaven-sent assignment.

All Leon needed to do this month was accumulate 300 Contribution points and avoid getting voted out by a Plot Kill. That was enough.

All of this was part of Li Wei's long-term plan to build a core team capable of standing against Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi.

Thomas thought about it seriously for a moment, looking a little uneasy. He understood what Li Wei meant — they had that much mutual understanding.

The question was whether he had the confidence to serve as transport team captain this month.

Last month, Liang Yuzhi had led the transport security detail — which was why she'd gotten a captain-tier monthly main task with a base of 500 Contribution points.

So this month, Li Wei was probably trying to cut Liang Yuzhi out — weakening her through the main task assignments as much as possible.

Ideally, shove her back into the kitchen. Because whether it was two-star mushroom broth or one-star Blood Resistance Potions, those needed Liang Yuzhi to make them — even if she didn't seem to mind the punishment and might even welcome it.

But the transport captain role — Thomas genuinely felt a cold sweat coming on just thinking about it. The more he thought, the more he flinched. It wasn't about his combat ability. It was that the transport captain was also responsible for the safety of the Freemen and the electric buses — and that was a completely different beast from fighting freely on his own terms.

In that moment, Thomas looked at Li Wei with great difficulty, fine beads of sweat forming on his forehead. He was torn. He knew this was an enormously important opportunity — important enough that if he dared to say yes, Li Wei would hand him the Refined Steel Tower Shield on the spot. And in the future, there was even a chance of receiving a Universal Gold Card to upgrade it.

Yes — it sounded far-fetched, but at this level of play, Li Wei needed victory. He needed strategic advantage. He would pay any price to get it.

But — Thomas glanced at Leon, then at Zhao Xuanxuan, then back at Li Wei.

His meaning was clear: Brother, give me Leon as backup, throw in Zhao Xuanxuan, and five Freemen with anti-materiel sniper rifles — then I'd be fully confident. Can you do that?

Li Wei's expression remained flat, unreadable. So that was a no?

Thomas closed his eyes in anguish. He wasn't a coward — he genuinely couldn't pull it off.

Wait — why wasn't Li Wei taking the transport captain role himself?

Let Liang Yuzhi stay at camp as head chef and keep watch — but that was also a captain-tier monthly main task.

Especially before the main camp wall was finished, patrolling and neutralizing threats before they could escalate was an extremely demanding task. And they had to account for the possibility of other pioneering teams coming to raid the camp.

This was the fourth month.

There would absolutely be desperate teams willing to raid.

The rules didn't prohibit it — so it was fair game. In fact, it had happened before in past pioneering missions.

So Li Wei staying at camp with Adai — that was actually more valuable than having Liang Yuzhi there.

Ah, brother — I'm sorry. I'm not strong enough. I can't carry this responsibility.

In the end, Thomas conceded.

"Alright, Li Wei — I think the transport operation needs a real general in command. For that, I only trust Second Auntie. I'd recommend keeping her in charge of transport security. But I can stay at camp and work on the city wall. I've looked at the old man's blueprints — I can follow them. Leave it to me. This month I can at least get the foundation poured."

Thomas was deeply embarrassed, but he'd rather admit it than bluff. Those three electric buses were too important. If they got hit and damaged during a transport run — he had a feeling Night Owl would have him skinned alive when they got back.

So better to lack ambition than to ruin everything.

Li Wei looked at Thomas — practically sweating through his shirt — and let out a quiet sigh. He'd pushed too hard. He'd always thought Thomas was a cut above Leon.

It seemed that for now, there was simply no way to suppress powerhouses like Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue while still maintaining the camp's development pace.

"Fine. Auntie, you're in charge of transport security again this month. I'll give you five Freemen. Same as before — better to go slow than to risk anyone's safety. Especially the vehicles."

Li Wei's tone carried layers of meaning. Captain-tier monthly main task — if you cause a disaster, you're out.

Honestly, if he didn't know Liang Yuzhi was also badly injured and desperate to recover — unwilling to risk mutual destruction — he wouldn't dare play it this way. Too risky. One misstep and everything could fall apart.

"Of course, of course."

Liang Yuzhi smiled faintly. Transport captain? Who else could it be?

But this kid really was a headache.

Without a few tricks up her sleeve, he'd run circles around her.

"As for you, Thomas — stay at camp this month and work on the wall. Follow the blueprints exactly." Li Wei added. He had to account for the rainy season, so the wall construction schedule needed to be planned across three months.

"Zhao Xuanxuan, your task this month is the same as before — smelt the salvaged scrap iron and reforge it into quality steel. Some of the Freemen have seen significant improvements in their physical stats, so start thinking about forging better weapons for them. And if you have time, make me that two-handed sword. If you don't have time, don't worry about it."

Li Wei said it almost offhandedly.

Zhao Xuanxuan looked up in surprise. Li Wei had said this before — but saying it in the context of a monthly main task was something else entirely.

'You really do trust me.'

She nodded without speaking. She understood that Li Wei was giving her a chance to leap through the dragon gate. Under normal circumstances, once you left the rookie mission, an opportunity like this simply didn't exist.

Missions you joined mid-way had too many variables, and there was no chance of claiming the Head of Household position.

But here: abundant iron, abundant coke, abundant time, and abundant task demand — all four conditions for grinding the Blacksmith Destiny Grid, all present at once.

In the entire rookie mission, had she ever spent two full months at the forge?

And the two-handed sword Li Wei wanted — that would become her defining battle.

Forging a true weapon with a special trait — that would be the only proof she needed to earn her core title.