During the next three days, the system announcement for China rang often. Three more of the Six Tyrants of Handan managed to upgrade their territories to grade 2 villages.
The representative of the military, Zhan Lang, could not unscrupulously use credits to buy the in-game currency like the rest of them and had fallen behind as a result, not managing to upgrade yet.
Ouyang Shuo’s territory was very calm. The workshop he had promised his carpenter, Lu Guangzhi, had already been built. Under the leadership of Elder Dexian, five hundred mu of farmland on the north side of the territory, near the Friendship River, had been successfully opened.
Simple Farmland: Remove the weeds and treat the land, and it can grow all kinds of crops.
As for the saltpan fields being built under General Shi’s supervision, they were also smoothly completed. 40 salt workers were stationed there to begin spreading salt water across the panning field and dry it out to make salt. The first salt field to open was officially named by Ouyang Shuo as the Northern Salt Field.
On the pig breeding side, Zhu Baocai did not disappoint. The 12 piglets, after brief discomfort and panic, had now fully adapted to life in the pen. The development of breeding pigs was a new industry that was just around the corner.
**************************************
On the 14th day of the first year of Gaia, at 8 AM in Shanhai village, all of the core staff had gathered in the Chamber early, waiting for a historic moment.
Gu Xiuwen was calmly registering the day’s newest population of people. Ouyang Shuo did not care about their stats and in his heart all he was thinking about was leveling up the village.
With a hum and flash of white light, in the middle of the Chamber a golden stone that slowly rose from the ground. Ouyang Shuo placed his hand on the front of the stone, and the system notification sounded.
“System Notification: Detecting Shanhai Village’s upgrade conditions…”
“Condition 1: Population 200 people. The Village is over the limit and has met the requirements!”
“Condition 2: All required infrastructure has been completed, and met the requirements!”
“Condition 3: The rank of the Lord has made Second class Baron, and met the requirements!”
“Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi and the established Shanhai Village for meeting all required conditions to upgrade. Would you like to upgrade?”
“Upgrade!”
From the stone, once again golden light spilled out to reach up to the sky and formed a golden halo. The halo spread out to encompass the entire village and swept out to the edges of his territory before disappearing.
“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the sixth Lord in China to upgrade to the Second Grade Village! Reward: 600 merit points!”
“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi...”
“System Notification: Congratulations...”
This time, Ouyang Shuo had beaten Zhan Lang of the Six Tyrants of Handan, and history began to shift.
The announcement in the game caused an uproar. Players were speculating on who Qiyue Wuyi was, defying the hegemony of the Six Tyrants of Handan.
Earth Online had so far been open for only half a month. The identities of the Six Tyrants had been subject to endless amounts of gossip by the players, and gradually their real identities had surfaced, no longer as mysterious as they were in the beginning. Unfortunately, the more players knew of the identities of the Tyrants, the more depressed they had become.
China had never had a lack of ambition in its players, especially with Earth Online holding meaning far beyond that of a typical game. Even those with great ambition, in the face of the status of the Six Tyrants, were afraid to move ahead and defy them.
Now, Ouyang Shuo had succeeded in beating a member of the Six Tyrants of Handan. This shook up the status quo, exciting the players, and suddenly the situation in China became blurry and not as set in stone.
***************************
In Blood Red Village near Jianye City, a determined-looking young man rushed and sat in the office of the village chief.
He was Zhan Lang, and his expression was gloomy. Opposite him sat another young man. “Lieutenant, it’s time to stop being cautious. Get on the line and start buying the game currency at whatever price point is required.”
“Yes sir!”
At the same time, in King Village near Quanzhou, a heavily eyebrowed, middle-aged man heard the system announcement and adopted an interested smile. “Oh, there is actually someone beyond the Six Tyrants! So it seems that they are not invincible! Well, it seems that my King Village could become worthy of the name as well! Hahahahahaha....”
For a time, inside and outside the game, the people were surging with new emotions.
***************************
At this time, Ouyang Shuo didn’t have time to really care what was going on, as he was still going through the operation of upgrading his territory.
“System Notification: Congratulations to Qiyue Wuyi for upgrading to the grade 2 village. The Lord’s Manor is automatically upgraded. In addition, the player may choose one of three random village buildings to establish!
“System Notification: Random buildings selected, please choose: Village level Ancestral Hall, Village Private School, or Village Granary! Please choose!”
“Choose the village granary!”
“System Tip: Building automatically generated, player please check it out!”
With a hum and a flash of white light, the golden heartstone once again slowly sank down into the ground.
Telling everyone to wait for a while, Ouyang Shuo took the opportunity to slowly look over the properties of the village.
Territory Name: Shanhai Village (Grade 2 Village)
Lord: Qiyue Wuyi (3rd Class Viscount)
Title: None
People Sentiment: 80
Security: 75
Territory Population: 200/500
Flow Rate Of Immigrants: 10 * (1 + 50%) = 15 / day
Territory Area: 50 square kilometers
Territorial Specialty: 50% increase in attracting immigrants, 20% increase in attracting special talents, 50% increase in crop production, 20% increase in production capacity of residents, 20% increase in military rank
Treasury: 10 gold coins
Territory Resources: 3100 units of grain, 180 units of wood, 800 units of stone, 300 units of iron ore
Territorial Army: Militia team (10)
Territory industry: Northern Salt Fields (100 mu)
Political index: 25/100 (determines administrative efficiency, relationship with the people)
Economic index: 10/100 (determines the degree of trade prosperity, the ability to pay taxes)
Cultural Index: 10/100 (determines the degree of education developed, the quality of residents)
Military: 20/100 (determines military strength, stable internal relations)
Basic Buildings: Village Level Lord’s House, Basic Market, Simple Fence, Village Canteens, Village Latrine, Wooden Residents Small Courtyard (10), Basic Blacksmith, Basic Grocery, Basic Logging, Basic Quarry, Simple Farmland (500 mu), Basic Barracks, Pigsty, Carpentry Workshop
Special buildings: Ferry, wharf, basic shipyard
Hidden Architecture: Mazu Temple (seal)
List of potential capital construction buildings:
Village Ancestral Hall: For worshipping the ancestors. Construction conditions: ancestral building drawings, timber 80 units, stone 40 units. Build time: One day.
Village Level Hospital: For medical treatment of the villagers. Construction conditions: Basic doctor, medical museum building drawings, timber 60 units, stone 20 units. Build time: one day.
Village Private School: A private education facility for the children of the village. Construction conditions: scholar, private school architectural drawings, timber 150 units, 80 units of stone. Construction time: two days.
Basic Martial Arts Dojo: A rural training building for basic martial arts. Construction conditions: Martial Artists, martial arts architectural drawings, 100 pieces of wood, 100 units of stone. Construction time: two days.
Village Granary: A warehouse for storing grain. Construction conditions: granary construction drawings, timber 400 units, stone 200 units. Construction time: three days. (Note: the building has been generated and awarded.)
Basic Tailor Shop: A shop for sewing clothing. Construction conditions: Basic tailor, tailor shop construction drawings, timber 40 units, stone 20 units. Build time: one day.
Basic Mining Field: Speeds up the collection of ore, increasing average production to 2 units of iron ore/person/day. Construction conditions: timber 40 units, stone 20 units. Build time: one day.
Simple Arrow Tower: A basic defensive structure, with a weak defense. Construction conditions: 80 units of wood, stone 10 units. Build time: one day.
Ouyang Shuo analyzed everything for a moment. To rise to the grade 3 village, he had to meet 3 conditions once again. The 1st condition was the new population limit, which for now he had no good way to accelerate. Based on his current immigration rate, it would take 20 days to reach the new upper limit of the population.
His low population was his biggest weakness, and that was because of the lack of individual players. The 3rd condition, of meeting the rank requirement, was the easiest and he was not worried about it at all.
The hardest to meet would be the 2nd requirement: Infrastructure Construction. That required 3 conditions on its own. The 1st was building materials, which he didn’t need to worry about, as he could easily meet all the storage capacity. He wasn't worried about the 2nd condition, which was the basic needs of talents to staff the buildings, because of his territory’s special trait of +20% in attracting special talents. As long as he was patient, the talents would naturally come.
The biggest difficulty was the architectural blueprints. In the Basic Market, every 2 village blueprints were 5 gold coins. But for the new buildings, such as the ancestral hall, hospital, private school, dojo, and tailor shop, he needed a full 25 gold coins in total. Ouyang Shuo and every other Lord had to worry about where they were going to get the gold from.
After analyzing the stats of the village and going over everything, he had time to take everyone and go visit the upgraded Lord’s Manor. In his home, the courtyards were now larger, and the area occupied by it had nearly doubled.
The courtyards had become much more refined. The original 3 rooms had now expanded to five, the rooms were more spacious than before, and even the grade of furniture had improved by a level. The middle of the hall was still the chamber, but now, instead of a dirt floor, it was covered with slate.
On the eastern side of the room near the chamber was still the head office of the village. The main difference was that now there was a row of bookshelves there, and it was weighed down with new books. On the east side of the new room was the administrative office. Now, Gu Xiuwen and the other officials had their own office space.
On the west side of the building was still Ouyang Shuo’s bedroom, with a dining room between it and the Chamber. From now on, from the courtyard he didn’t have to go to the dining hall and eat with the commoners: there was a small stove with which to prepare food to eat.
On the east and west sides of the Chamber, the number of rooms expanded from 2 to 4.
Taking advantage of everyone being there, Ouyang Shuo began to rearrange everyone’s accommodations. In the east wing, the 1st room was still for General Shi. In turn, Gu Xiuwen, Elder Dexian, and Zhao Dewang were given rooms.
In the west wing, the first room was naturally where Cui Yingyu was living. In turn, Er Wazi and Dr. Song got their own rooms, with the last room temporarily empty. Once the hospital was built, Dr. Song would move in there, much like Zhao Youfang and Zheng Shangun had moved to the logging field and quarry they were respectively overseeing.
*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes
*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap