Chapter 34: Dream Sanctuary

The arrogant and aloof foreman’s words tightened the hearts of the exiles who had just arrived in this world, giving them an unwarranted sense of urgency and oppression, as if they were brick-laying laborers.

As the foreman’s words echoed, the exiles present heard the world mission ringing in their ears. Chen Shijin’s golden gemstone phone vibrated too. Lowering his head slightly, Chen Shijin took out his phone.

[Welcome to the Devouring World—Dream Sanctuary!]

[Automatic detection of world mission message, identified as important information. The golden gemstone phone is at your service!]

[Invisible connection to all guide branches present, allowing for invisible search and use of the guide's marketplace, but free purchases are temporarily unavailable. Please, owner, strive to upgrade and find loopholes.]

[Below is the received world mission.]

[Survival Task: Within five days, build a sturdy house on your own and survive.

Task Requirements: 1# Construction is only permitted during daylight. At night, builders must seek refuge in their own house to avoid disasters.

2# Dwell in your own abode. Exiles may not enter the homes of others for shelter, or they will face concentrated attacks.

3# The final house must have the most basic essential structures—a roof, walls, a door, and windows. Otherwise, it will be deemed an illegal structure and subjected to demolition.

Task Reward:

1# Earn the recognition of the Dream Sanctuary and successfully survive.

2# Construction ability +1. Completion of the task enables a rapid understanding of key building points. The constructed houses will possess special defensive and concealment abilities, making them relatively difficult for monsters of the exile lands to destroy or discover.]

[World Task: The master of the Dream Sanctuary has always longed for the most durable house to reside in. Yet, it has never found a house sturdy enough; all houses crumble easily before it, much to its disappointment.

If your house remains standing and un-demolished in the first five days, then on the fifth day, you may invite the master of the Dream Sanctuary to experience a stay!

If the house is still there after one night, the master of the Dream Sanctuary will open its heart to you. If you are strong enough, the master might make a choice that surprises you even more!]

Mission Reward: The gratitude of the citizens of Dream Haven. One Devourer Core.

[All exiles are urged to start building as soon as possible, wishing you won't become a feast for the Devourers.]

Jin Chen, understanding the rewards for the survival mission in Dream Haven, could see why Feng Tianhuo was so keen on hunting Devourers with special cores.

The rewards offered by these particular types of Devourers are indeed tempting. For example, in the case of Dream Haven, if the houses built afterward come with defense bonuses and effects that conceal them from Devourer monsters, then perhaps the incidents of being suddenly devoured like those that happened in previous gathering places would greatly decrease.

Moreover, both defense and concealment provide the city's exiles with more time to escape and respond. Thus, this "Dream Haven" truly is an essential Devourer for city construction.

It's imperative to capture it.

Just like the Devourers of the Gourmet City, the Devourer of Dream Haven is cunning. After reading the mission, Jin Chen looked around with his Heavenly Eye but saw no signs of energy convergence or anything resembling a core.

So, before completing the survival mission, don't even think about finding the Devourer's core.

Moreover, the core of Dream Haven's Devourer seems a bit different. Jin Chen, reading that last part, "If after one night the house still stands, the owner of Dream Haven will open its heart to you. If you are strong enough, you might receive a surprising choice," couldn't help but feel there was a catch.

But, let's not worry about that for now.

First, let's build a sturdy house.

After all, the survival mission is not an easy task—building a house alone is already a considerable project, not to mention completing it within five days.

If it weren't for their special abilities and enhanced physical fitness, they would be too exhausted to complete this task, akin to a work team's donkey.

Moreover, who knows what dangers await them at night.

Thinking this way, there's an inexplicable sense of urgency as if they were homeless.

Jin Chen put away his phone and rubbed his forehead and the area around his eyes, then looked up, transforming into the appearance of an ordinary passerby A.

As he turned around, intending to seek Feng Tianhuo and ask if he wanted to adopt a masked disguise as well, he saw the madman wearing a black balaclava, laughing wildly—

"Hahaha, it's just moving bricks! I've got the strength to outmove any of you! But, if you're willing to pay with energy points, I can help you move yours after I'm done with mine, hahaha, a real man is just this strong!"

Jin Chen: ...

Jin Chen quickly turned his head, pretending not to know the guy.

Let it be, then. Everyone moves their bricks, everyone stays well!

He hurried towards the construction site mentioned by the foreman, ready to check what materials were available for house building. Passing by the foreman, who had a look reminiscent of a miser, he noticed the tailcoat fork decoration on the back of the foreman's yellow overalls, his mouth twitching.

Chen Shijin: ...

How should I put it, is meeting by fate? Tails tied by a slender thread?

"What are you looking at? Haven't seen such high-end workwear before?" The foreman scoffed arrogantly.

Chen Shijin: "I have a question, don't you get your tail pinched when you bend over to walk?"

The tailcoat foreman's face darkened: "None of your business! Get to work!"

Chen Shijin smiled and turned around, it seems like it would get pinched.

When he arrived at the construction site, other exiles had also gathered there.

Everyone got together for a brief discussion after observing each other.

"Folks, since we've met here, it means we have the fate to be brothers and sisters. There's no competition in survival tasks among exiles, even if we can't help each other, I hope no one pulls anyone else back."

"We are the Ginger Tea Exile Squad, and I'm the captain, Jiang Hong. My ability is [The Older the Ginger, the Hotter the Spice], though it's probably not much use in this world, but I can produce an extra pound of ginger each day, which can help everyone stay alert and prevent colds, haha."

Chen Shijin paused for a moment, then asked with the inconspicuous face of a passerby: "Do you have anyone with tea attributes in your team?"

Just like that silly green tea cousin.

Jiang Hong laughed: "No, we don't, though I wish we had such a member. We haven't met one yet. We're called Ginger Tea because we all like drinking ginger tea."

The six exiles beside Jiang Hong nodded collectively.

Then, two other squads with twenty-one people made brief introductions.

In the end, Chen Shijin found that the only exiles left alone were himself, Feng Tianhuo with his black hood, and another person even more inconspicuous than him, a Bystander B. Strictly speaking, he and Feng Tianhuo were a team, so the real loner was just that somewhat suspicious Bystander B.

The reason for calling him Bystander B was because Chen Shijin noticed this person's sense of ordinariness and presence was even lower than his own face! If it weren't for the introductions, he wouldn't have even noticed there was such a person standing right beside him, who was also quite tall.

“！”

Chen Shijin moved a couple of steps to the side warily, then shared his name with everyone: "Chen Xiaojia. Just call me Xiaojia. I don't have any special abilities, well, just pretty ordinary, with a bit more strength."

Following that, Bystander B introduced himself, glancing at Chen Shijin and smirking: "Xiao Yi."

"I have particularly good taste, especially in food. Oh, and I quite enjoy (watching) the hustle and bustle."

Chen Shijin: ???

Listen to your self-introduction, isn't it way off the mark? I mentally label you as Bystander B and you just boldly copy my name and the random attribute to call yourself Xiao Yi? Who would believe that?!

After mentally complaining, Chen Shijin quickly and frustratingly found that not only did no one believe Bystander B's self-introduction, but they also didn't believe him—obviously, he, the hood-wearing madman, and the crowd-loving Bystander B were being subtly ostracized by everyone.

Even though they weren't a team to begin with.

But the way the other twenty-seven people looked at the three of them was quite peculiar, as if looking at madmen and hidden villains.

Chen Shijin: Damn it!

Only one Bystander A can smoothly blend into the main group! But with one more Bystander B, this group of bystanders becomes fishy!

"Xiaojia, Xiaojia, what are you daydreaming about? Are you upset because everyone's ignoring you? Don't worry! I'm still here! I'll help you move bricks later with my strength!" Feng Tianhuo patted Chen Shijin's shoulder and laughed.

Chen Shijin's incognito face showed a pained expression: "No need, thanks. Please let me move bricks in peace."

What else could he say? Although there were madmen and tailcoats here, at least there were no blue-eyed perverts or flirtatious cats, right?

He took a deep breath and started examining the building materials in front of him, which included foam boards, plastic boards, wooden stakes, wooden planks, cement, red bricks, large green bricks, as well as steel rods and plates, with other auxiliary materials varying.

But just from these primary building materials, one can notice a clear difference in their durability.

A house built by one person doesn't need to be too large; even constructing the simplest house, essentially a square box with a door and windows, would suffice.

In this case, wooden planks would be the preferred building material. Just setting up the frame and nailing these planks together, the faster builders could potentially finish a small cabin in a day.

However, Dream Homestead's first requirement for a home is "sturdiness."

Therefore, compared to the easier-to-build wooden houses, the traditional combination of steel, concrete, and red bricks is more robust. But choosing this means it's absolutely impossible for one person to complete the construction in a day.

This probably presents the first choice to the exiles by Dream Homestead.

After some thought, Chen Shijin decided to mix and match.

He was somewhat concerned about the dangers that might appear at night, so he planned to build both a sturdy cement-brick house and a simple wooden cabin, or perhaps even use some plastic boards.

Thus, he pushed a small cart nearby and started laboriously moving bricks.

Now was the time for Herculean strength!

Chen Shijin bowed his head slightly and declared: [I am a strongman!]

Instantly, he felt a surge of strength throughout his body, capable of carrying three hundred bricks at once!

Unfortunately, a small cart could only hold up to two hundred bricks, so Chen, the strongman, added another dozen wooden planks on top of the bricks.

As he pushed the fully loaded cart to the housing area, other exiles who had chosen their plots watched him with amazement.

Finally, he was no longer ostracized.

"Xiaojia, with such great strength, have you reached level three?"

Chen Shijin smiled naively: "Nope. Still level two, haven't made it to three yet. Advancing to a level three traveler is tough."

"Haha, that's still impressive. After all, it's not easy for anyone to reach level three. So, are you building a wooden or a stone house? Why use both?"

"I'll just take a look at the land first, then decide."

After answering his neighbor Jiang Hong's question, Chen Shijin planned to take a good look at his plot, plan how to build the house, and decide on its size.

But at that moment, a leisurely voice came from his right, "I've heard that there are seven locks within life itself. These seven locks restrain their evolutionary direction and the peaks they can reach.

Every time an exile levels up, they break one of these locks, elevating their strength and physique to a new tier. Otherwise, no matter how formidable the ability, it's just a temporary boost, with the limit staying the same."

Chen Shijin turned his head abruptly, but before he could voice his question, he was metaphorically sucker-punched by the actions of the neighboring Bystander □□—the tall Bystander B, for some reason, had taken off his shirt and was digging with a rather large shovel?!

At this time, just after eight in the morning, sunlight hit his body, making his solid and attractive muscles gleam, and, astonishingly, this person even had an eight-pack and exceptionally long legs.

At a glance, male hormones were off the charts.

Even though he had just an ordinary bystander's face.

I, damn.

Chen Shijin took a deep breath and cursed inwardly.

This seemed a bit indecent, targeting him, a not-so-straight beautiful man, with this Bystander B trying to stir up some □□ mischief?

Moreover, this guy had specific drilling machines for digging but chose to shovel manually, clearly a deliberate move to show off his physique; he definitely was up to something!

With that thought, Chen Shijin immediately scrutinized the side-glancing Bystander B's eyes, checking if they were the flirtatious deep blue. But Bystander B just stiffened slightly, then dug more vigorously, his eye color completely normal.

Chen Shijin still harbored some doubts but didn't speak up, instead turning to the site to fetch a small drilling machine to start laying the foundation.

A few people around him, seeing he actually chose to lay a foundation, appeared somewhat skeptical: "Choosing to lay a foundation, of all things! That's just making more work for yourself! I’ll just weld together a house with steel plates, cut out a door and a window, and in one day, have a super sturdy house built."

Hearing this, Chen Shijin looked over and found that these people were all from one team, mostly exiles with strength-based abilities, which did give them an advantage in building houses.

They were welding steel plates at the moment, each plate two meters high and one meter wide, and quite thick.

Indeed, a house constructed from these steel plates seemed very sturdy.

Chen Shijin pondered, "But without a foundation, wouldn't it be cold to sleep on steel plates at night? And, if a strong wind blows, wouldn't it be blown away?"

Hearing Chen Shijin's comment, the group exchanged glances before bursting into laughter: "The survival task only requires building a sturdy house, not permanently sleeping in this steel plate house. A few cold nights won't kill a big man, right?

As for the wind, a single alloy steel plate weighs hundreds of pounds. Do you have any idea how strong a wind would have to be to blow it away? That would need to be a super, super hurricane, haha."

Chen Shijin raised an eyebrow: "Gentlemen, this is a devouring world. How do you know there won’t be super, super hurricanes here?"

The laughter from the group halted, and the madman laying foundations chuckled: "There might even be super, super tornadoes."

The group welding steel plates fell into thought but resumed their work after a while.

At this moment, Chen Shijin, who was laying foundations, casually asked the sweat-drenched and attractive Bystander B digging nearby, "Where did you hear that rumor about the locks? Is it reliable? Others seem unaware of it."

Xiao Yi stopped digging, turned with a smile that would make any man envious due to his perfect proportions: "I discovered it myself. I can feel where the locks are when the energy flows through my body. And when I direct my strength at those locks, breaking them, I level up."

Chen Shijin glanced at him, then the ground, then back at him and again at the ground.

"I don't know if others can feel it, but that's how it works for me."

"I'm telling you this because we seem to have a destined connection through our names, similar interests, and temperaments. I wouldn’t share this with anyone else."

Chen Shijin's hand paused.

He listened to that voice, its final inflections overly flirtatious.

As he was about to double-check the eye color of Bystander B, the drilling machine he was controlling suddenly stopped, followed by a sharp, angry scream.

The scream was thin, high-pitched, and grating, enough to befuddle anyone.

Chen Shijin: "?" What's that?

He stopped the drilling machine and was astonished to see a... gopher popping its head out of the ground?!

The gopher jumped onto his drilling machine from the ground and angrily screeched at him: "Squeak, squeak, squeak, ahh—"

Chen Shijin was dumbfounded to find the gopher had one deep blue eye and exceptionally smooth, silver-gray fur, looking somewhat special and overly cute.

At that moment, the voice of the tailcoat foreman rang out: "Oh. Congratulations on uncovering a treasure."

"A gopher skilled at digging to assist you. You just need to pay 100 energy units per day, and it will work for you. Friendly reminder, don't drive it away, or you'll face the gopher's screeching retaliation."

Chen Shijin: "..."

Chen Shijin glanced at the sweat-drenched, flirtatious Bystander B, then back at the screaming silver-gray, blue-eyed gopher in front of him, genuinely baffled for a moment.

So, was that Bystander B truly just a random passerby?

A tall, muscular guy with eight-pack abs and long legs, who only shows friendliness to him, is just a random passerby?

"Squeak, squeak, squeak, ahh!" Give me energy units!

The gopher quickly climbed in front of Chen Shijin, extending its paw.

Chen Shijin thought for a moment and decided to perform a "pervert test": "If I don’t give you energy units but give you a kiss, would you work for me for free?"

The gopher with one deep blue eye suddenly stiffened, then bashfully tapped its tail and, without any shyness, eagerly lifted its head, pouting its little mouth, and pointed at it with its paw.

A kiss here will do~

The sweaty Bystander B nearby showed no reaction.

Chen Shijin made his judgment and gave the protruding little mouth a pat: "No kisses, but a pat works too, right?"

Gopher: ????

"Squeak, squeak, squeak, ahh—"

This is emotional deception, do you know? Emotional deception!

Unnoticed by Chen Shijin, the expression of Bystander B nearby turned ugly, and the depth of his shovel digging doubled.

In the end, Chen Shijin still gave the gopher 100 energy units, feeling it very much resembled the pervert, but he couldn't be entirely sure. It would be bad to mistakenly harm a real cutie.

So, he'll keep watching. With his guard up, he won't be bitten again!

Moreover, this time he intends to thoroughly capture that creature to see exactly what sort of beast the pervert really is.

With the gopher's help, Chen Shijin's foundation digging speed doubled, and the time required was more than halved.

This allowed him to finish the foundation of the cabin by noon. After consuming the unpalatable lunch provided at the construction site, he proceeded to place the steel-reinforced foundation pillars and start building the brick walls in the afternoon.

In the afternoon, a few others digging foundations for their houses also unearthed gophers willing to assist. Sadly, almost everyone was reluctant to pay the steep assistance fee of 100 energy units per day, leaving them to tolerate the occasional screeching and disruptive digging of the gophers on their plots.

One exile decided to chase away a gopher, only to suffer from its frenzied screeching retaliation, rendering him nearly unproductive throughout the afternoon.

The rest deeply realized the terror that gophers could unleash.

In contrast, the silver-gray, blue-eyed gopher helping Chen Shijin with moving bricks, digging holes, and propping up pillars seemed incredibly adorable.

Even though it occasionally stared at Chen Shijin’s buttocks, its little paws twitching with the urge to press.

"Ah, Xiaojia, your gopher is really great, so capable," a female exile from Team Jiang Cha commented enviously.

Chen Shijin turned around sharply, saw the gopher innocently digging, and chuckled.

If you knew this guy liked staring at butts, you'd probably turn into a screaming gopher yourself.

Then, he sharply turned to glance at Bystander B, feeling like he too was eyeing his behind.

Bystander B solemnly warned, "Only two hours left until nightfall, and your house is only half-built."

Chen Shijin scrutinized him for a moment, then quickly turned to call the gopher for help, heading to the site to fetch wooden and plastic boards.

In an hour, he swiftly assembled large wooden boards, fitting them into the specially left gaps in the foundation, covered with a layer of foam boards and wooden boards, quickly constructing a 2×3 meter square cabin.

The moment Chen Shijin sawed out the door and windows and installed plastic boards as windows, the sky, which had been bright, suddenly darkened.

A world prompt sounded: [Entering night.]

[Builders, please promptly enter your own houses to avoid the calamities of the night.]

Chen Shijin heard the anxious exclamations of other exiles, along with the sounds of them swiftly entering and closing their doors.

Through the transparent plastic windows, he first looked left, where Bystander B was already lying flat, playing with fire in a quickly assembled stone house. It seemed he had been to Dreamland Gardens more than once but probably never completed a world task.

He thought for a moment and then looked to the right, only to become speechless—

That damned Bystander B had copied him in building a house. He had constructed a temporary little wooden box inside a formal house and was now leaning by the window, waving at him.

"Squeak, spit!"

The silver-gray, blue-eyed gopher disdainfully spat twice at Bystander B, then proactively wrapped its little paws around Chen Shijin's leg.

Just as Chen Shijin was rolling his eyes, thinking about hitting the gopher, suddenly the sound of pitter-pattering rain hit the roof.

Chen Shijin tensed up.

The dangers of the night had arrived.

"My god, how is it raining? It was fine during the day! Damn, my house doesn't have a roof yet!"

"Luckily, I have some wooden boards to shelter from the rain, but I can't possibly hold them up all night, can I?"

"Maybe rigging up a temporary shelter could work?"

Chen Shijin heard complaints from several directions around him. Although they were complaining, they didn’t seem too worried at that moment.

Until the rain grew heavier and heavier.