Be that as it may, Angora had no idea what the Players were thinking due to the difference in the genre of the game, and did not know much more than the townsfolk did.
From what he could see, even though they were all believers of the God of Games, the Players' brain circuits were completely different from his own. They appeared to be more concerned about the rewards known as EXP and equipment, and were not that concerned about themselves. Most notably, many of the Players who were injured in the battle against the skeleton horde were not in a hurry to be healed, and were instead chatting happily with their companions.
Still, just like the other Players, Angora had also received a System update notification from Xi Wei.
Aside from the blueprint shop that could be unlocked, a new page called the contribution shop had also appeared.
Angora could assign missions such as hunting, repairing houses, farming, and the like to the Players. While the Players earned EXP and game coins from those missions, Angora could also see their contribution points.
As the Players' contribution level increased, Angora would be able to obtain new 'quest clearance' from the contribution store to issue higher-level missions.
Moreover, as the Players completed the missions (basically carrying bricks in the starter village), Angora's Overlord System's original performance points would increase as well. He could unlock new buildings, and the manpower needed to operate the new buildings could be handled by the Players. Prosperity would also increase after the new buildings were built, and the Overlord would gain more territory after leveling up, allowing him to build even more new buildings …
In other words, as long as there were enough Players, this mutually beneficial cycle would continue for a long time!
Apart from that, he also noticed that his System Storage had a free unlockable and free building called the Lifestone.
He had built it in the middle of the town.
At first, Angora had thought that the Lifestone would look like a boulder that resembled a fake mountain, but he realized that it was a rhombus-shaped crystal that floated in the air after he finished building it. Beneath the crystal was a magical altar that resembled a fountain, with a magical circle flickering incessantly.
In the System's description, the Lifestone was a 'wonder', and only one could be built in each city.
If a player died in the wild and their corpse couldn't be retrieved in time, they would be resurrected at the Lifestone after three days. (In fact, they would be resurrected at the Lifestone that was bound to them. If they weren't bound, they would be resurrected at the nearest Lifestone.)
At first, Angora was immeasurably surprised that the Players could be revived, but he soon realized that he was being overly curious. The other Players seemed to have gotten used to it.
Perhaps the reason why they weren't afraid of getting injured or even dying was because they could resurrect continuously.
Perhaps that was why the townsfolk and Angola viewed the Players' actions as idiotic.
For example, Marni, the warrior who had died fighting several skeletal warriors, did not notice the swords sticking out of his back after he was revived by Eleena, the Saintess-in-training, and instead happily scrolled through his System page (although Angora could not see his page, he could tell what he was doing from his actions), saying happily, "I'm finally level three! Wait a minute, why is there a bleeding status on my status bar?! I don't have enough HP to deduct … Ah, I'm dead again. "
With that, he collapsed into a pool of his own blood and died peacefully once more.
Not only did the other Players not feel sad, they were even laughing and saying things like 'Marni died again' or 'how inhumane', filling the Players with a cheerful atmosphere all at once.
By the time he was resurrected, his spirits had dropped considerably, and he was muttering, "I'm such a fool. I only knew that killing monsters could level up, but I didn't think that dying would cause me to lose EXP. Damn it, I'm back to level two again …"
At first, Angora had thought that he might be able to use the resurrection ability since he was a Player as well, but he didn't have the courage to let the others stab him to death. That was why he kept the question of whether he could be resurrected in the first place.
The arrival of the Players had brought many benefits to the townsfolk. For example, the damaged houses could be repaired faster, and there was no need to worry about the lack of farmers. Anyone who had a problem just had to say the word, and the Players would definitely help.
Even the once lifeless town was slowly regaining its liveliness. It seems that even the winter snow could not extinguish the Players' passion for exploration.
Of course, it wasn't all good news. At the very least, Angora was almost annoyed to death by the other Players, who would come to him tirelessly every day, hoping to receive quests from him to earn reputation points.
It would have been fine if it was just one or two, but there were almost twenty of them wandering around him every day, even when he was eating, sleeping, and going to the toilet. Angora was feeling a lot of pressure, and was even suffering from insomnia and constipation.
In the end, he had to grit his teeth and mess up his plans, unlocking and building the notice board to free himself.
Moreover, the arrival of the Players had also put some pressure on the town's previously abundant food storage. It was fortunate that Angora later discovered that the Players had quite a lot of 'bone powder', a material dropped by killing skeletons. It could greatly reduce the ripening time of low-level crops, and after collecting most of the bone powder from the other Players, Angora finally solved the town's food problem for a year.
With the help of the Players, the Unnamed Town was rapidly reborn, turning from a run-down town that was no better than a village into something that looked like it did.
In fact, for the sake of the town's development, Marni, who was the owner of the merchant group, simply took out all the daily necessities that he had intended to trade for free to support the town's development, even trading for the right to pick daily quests. That was how he caught up to the first echelon of players, and became known as the Brick-Moving Boss.
Still, the Players' tolerance for mundane daily life was limited. After all, they couldn't go back after getting a taste of the thrill of leveling up the game …
On this day, the Players gathered on their own. In their center was a party consisting of the five highest-level Players: Eleena, Edward, Joe, Gou Dan, and Marni.
They had all earned enough game coins and reputation points to purchase the Miasma-Dispelling Torches from Angora, intending to explore the Outskirts of the Valley of the Tragic Dead.
It should be mentioned that Jessica, who was also in the first echelon, did not join the party because the other Players had kindly urged her to stay: aside from Eleena who was a Saintess-in-training, the only other person who could resurrect was Jessica who was a cleric support. If both of them died in the Valley of the Tragic Dead, the Players wouldn't be able to quickly resurrect for some time …
The Players only stopped after escorting the party all the way to the entrance of the Valley of the Tragic Dead.
"Let's go!" Marni walked at the front, and as the others looked on in admiration, he raised his torch and boldly walked into the purple miasma.
[Player 'Marni Wilf' has died in battle. Resurrection countdown: 71: 59: 59.]