Chapter 58: Fortress Benefits (Extra)

In the meeting room of the earth dragon fortress.

The first group of Eternal Heart family members gathered together.

Everyone's face was filled with excitement, joy, and relaxation, showing various degrees of smiles when looking at both familiar and unfamiliar companions sitting around them.

"Hehehe... I don't know why, but I just feel so happy. It's not the first time we've had a meeting or found a gathering point. But this time, I feel especially at ease and joyful," said the motorcyclist with a head full of blonde hair, unable to stop smiling as he looked around.

He had been wandering in the land of exile for nearly three years, experiencing the construction and destruction of dozens of gathering points. He should have been accustomed or even numb to these experiences by now.

But this time was different from before.

Even though this gathering place wasn't the biggest he had seen, and the companions here totaled less than a hundred,

It still felt reassuring.

"I have a feeling! Our little earthworm will surely grow into a colossal being that shakes the exiled world!"

The motorcyclist spoke earnestly.

"Pfft, stop with the 'little worm, little worm' talk. It's already comparable to skyscrapers! And it's not just a colossal beast; it will surely devour all the Devourers that hunt humans!"

Another giant man from the Thunder Squad, eyes shining, surveyed the surroundings, "The earth dragon will triumph!"

Moto rolled his eyes, then happily continued discussing their new stronghold with the others.

However, the discussion quickly ceased— the boss stood up.

Chen Sijin felt somewhat uncomfortable as he saw everyone eagerly, even desperately, looking at him.

He coughed, "Let's skip the formalities among ourselves. Let me share the next steps that I've discussed with a few team leaders and Feng Tianhuo."

As soon as he finished speaking, a bald man with a scar on his face started clapping madly, and his action triggered everyone to start applauding.

"The boss is right! Well said, boss!"

The bald, scar-faced man kept loudly agreeing!

Chen Sijin glanced at him, "...What did this brother do before?"

"Reporting to the boss! I used to work in administrative services with a specialty in flattering! Now, my ability is [Bootlicking (Advanced)], perfect for communicating with citizens and generally, any boss who understands human speech can be flattered by me!"

Because of this skill, he survived several high-level team wipeout worlds.

Chen Sijin: "..."

Well, this is talent.

And looking at his expression, he's quite proud of it too.

Chen Sijin: "Alright, that's indeed a valuable skill. But apart from practicing, try not to use it on our own people."

The bald man immediately smiled broadly: "Got it, boss! Don't worry, boss! I'll definitely practice on others, get them all dizzied up with praise, and then contribute to our boss and our home!"

Chen Jin felt it was best not to continue this conversation and moved straight to the main point:

"First off, let's talk about the benefits for those who join Eternal Heart."

"Everyone, please take out your phones."

"Your phones should have automatically downloaded three apps."

"They are Chat Group, Group Buying, and Shake, which is used to find people nearby."

"You should already be familiar with and have used Chat Group and Shake. The charging standards are automatically prompted on your phone, so I won't elaborate on those."

"Now, please open the Group Buying app."

Everyone did so eagerly, since the last time they opened Group Buying, it was empty, and now they wondered what treasures might lie inside.

Upon opening, Group Buying wasn't filled with the expected barrage of promotional images and ads but rather had a clean interface with three vertical columns of bold, large text in the center.

The leftmost column is titled "Lord's Benefits."

The center column is labeled "Family Trade."

And the rightmost column is called "Task Trade."

The center and right columns are self-explanatory, designed as platforms for intra-city aid and trade.

Within "Family Trade," members can post items produced through their unique abilities, such as Jiang Hong's daily ten pounds of ginger, Lu Jun's fresh tea leaves, or the durian ability user's daily large durian. These are sure to become popular trade items among members.

It's not just those with plant evolution abilities who have treasures to offer; Bear Brother's fur provides defense and warmth, and Moto Guy's steel ability can be marketed for building materials or steel tools.

This feature clearly serves as an important means of mutual benefit.

Those without animal, plant, or other special outputs can earn energy through "Task Trade."

Unlike verbal agreements, accepting tasks here means that failure to complete tasks or intentional deceit could result in collective resistance from the entire Eternal Heart family, or even pursuit from the city's lord, deputy lords, and senior team leaders.

Finally, there's the "Lord's Benefits."

Lu Jun eagerly opens the "Brother's Benefits," curious to see what goodies his dear cousin has in store for him.

Upon opening the "Lord's Benefits" link, there appeared a "Gourmet Cookbook," a small bowl made of pure gold, a "Construction Maniac's Manual," and a luxurious little mirror.

"You can flip through the gourmet cookbook, which contains perfect methods for converting energy into various delicious foods, even those with added benefits, using the least amount of energy."

"This way, you won't have to suffer from the constant struggle of eating more than you can afford."

Just this cookbook alone brought collective joy to the other sixty-six citizens present, prompting spontaneous applause without any need for a lead from Baldy.

"Boss, you're truly our savior! We struggle to eat enough every moment of our existence, and now you've ensured we can fill our bellies! Boss, you are our god!!"

Baldy, the bootlicker, couldn't help himself and sincerely laid on the flattery.

Chen Jinkun felt overwhelmed by the praise: "Alright, you can be quiet now."

"Be aware, the cookbook won't unlock all recipes at once. Since ownership isn't yours, this is a copy."

"Everyone can gradually unlock the perfect conversion methods for various foods based on contribution points within the city. It's also a way to encourage city citizens to strive in battle and not just lie around."

"After all, this world has no room for any slacker. At least, not now."

After saying this, Chen Jinkun suddenly thought of a dog, a cat, a mole, and a bird, his expression twisting slightly.

Well, this world does have one fish enjoying the show, but this creature of unclear species doesn't count.

Yuxi Dujia

"The gourmet cookbook has twenty basic recipes unlocked, which should meet everyone's daily needs."

"Then there's the 'Infrastructure Maniac's Manual,' a gift of gratitude from the citizens in Dreamy Homeland. It unlocks all basic construction material conversion methods.

Everyone is encouraged to practice and remodel their homes according to their own ideas."

"Next are the golden bowl and the small mirror."

"These two are thank-you gifts from the City of Gourmet and the City of Beauty, given by Chen Ming. The golden bowl can automatically gather energy to produce a bowl of gourmet food every day, and the small mirror can reveal the weaknesses of Devourers and minor monsters in the Land of Exile.

Both are quite practical auxiliary tools.

However, these two are still replicas, their abilities are half as strong as the originals, and using them also requires a significant amount of energy. So, if any family member wants to exchange for them, make sure to prepare enough energy points."

"Copying these two items cost me ten thousand energy points each.

To take them, you'll need a hundred family points. I'll restock them regularly."

"That's all for the [City Lord's Benefits] for now, as there hasn't been much time, so I only have these.

But City Lord's Benefits aren't just for the city lord. Anyone who has special items from completing world battles can come to me for copies, not only to enhance everyone's capabilities but also to earn family points and energy points for themselves.

I won't charge extra energy points for copying my own items, but if it's special items provided by others, apart from family points, a certain amount of energy points will also be rewarded to the person providing the special items."

"In short, there's strength in numbers, and as long as we're alive, things will only get better for us."

There's no need for Chen to emphasize; everyone here knows they will inevitably improve—

No other refuge has ever connected all ability users and conducted trade outside the network of the sensing gods like Eternal Heart has.

And once a reliable and solid platform for communication and trade is established, those scattered and exiled in this sunless dark world will quickly come together like flowing water.

And they will be unbreakable.

"We can discuss trades and internal benefits privately later on; any suggestions or opinions can be gradually implemented.

Next, let's talk about what we're going to do moving forward."

Chen's expression became serious: "Simply fleeing or waiting in one place makes it difficult to advance, and our energy levels cannot grow."

"So, we need to take the initiative."

"Everyone will be divided into groups according to their abilities. From 8 AM to 11 AM and 2 PM to 5 PM daily, totaling six hours, will be our hunting time."

The young man stood there, his demeanor calm, as if what he was discussing wasn’t hunting monsters and devourers in the land of exile, but rather slaughtering chickens.

"Actual combat is the best way to enhance abilities and the best method to gain energy.

This is a world of mutual devouring, so, we must do as the Romans do."

"Before, we were the small fish that couldn’t catch the big fish."

"But when piranhas the size of a palm gather together, they can also swallow a whale. Let's start with the low to mid-level devourers we can directly confront."

"The goal is to take down at least two devourers a day."

After a moment of silence, the meeting room erupted with incredibly enthusiastic and excited responses: "Yes, boss!!"

Even the devourers hiding in their pink spiny shells couldn't help but shake their whiskers.

It was part excitement and part pride in their wise decision to join!

Thus, in the following half a month, the low to mid-level devourers of the land of exile faced unprecedented ambush and assault.

One moment they were chasing panicked humans, the next second they were ambushed by monsters wearing conch hats that suddenly emerged from the ground and turned the tables on them.

What made the devourers die with lingering resentment was that the ones counter-killing them weren't the gigantic monsters, but various humans with weapons screaming and running out from the monsters!!

To their dying breath, these devourer monsters couldn't understand how humans could cooperate with devourers and then gang up to rob them!

Unfortunately, the land of exile is too vast, and the screams of these low to mid-level devouring monsters, even in their dying rage, could only make the devourers in that area more vigilant.

In the end, they were rapidly depleted at a rate of two kills a day.

In this half month, the fat earthworm, originally the size of a twenty-story building, had grown like a feeding snake to thirty stories tall, its surrounding black alloy steel faintly shimmering with energy light.

And the citizens and family of Eternal Heart had exploded in number from the original sixty-eight to nine hundred and eighty.

However, aside from the original sixty-eight, the second batch of exiles had to undergo a six-month trial period before officially joining.

After all, in the land of exile, aside from devourer monsters, the most terrifying thing is the human heart.

It was then that Chen Sijin constructed a mini spider mobile fortress. This fortress is essentially a movable small house, accommodating up to five people and even allowing for vegetables to be grown on its back.

He then drove his little spider away from the main troop.

Facing the puzzlement and concern of Feng Tianhuo, Lei Hu, Chu Tiankuo, and others, Chen Sijin pointed at the pale-faced Radish.

"This guy has been casting fortunes for me since ten days ago, and every time, it's ominous, with divinations showing I'll be hunted."

"From three days ago, the divinations turned extremely ominous, even affecting everyone in our Earth Dragon Fortress. I also started feeling as if we're being watched."

Chen Sijin smirked, "Probably did too many big jobs, those guys can't stand it anymore."

"They will definitely try to kill me in the next devouring world, possibly even descending directly to kill me without reason."

"But with my current abilities, they're unlikely to kill me in one hit in the exile world. So, the place where they can play tricks is the devouring worlds where they can set the rules."

"You wouldn't survive in such a devouring world. Better I go out and lay low for a bit."

The other captains showed disapproval, but they knew Chen Sijin was right; if it were a devouring world specifically targeting Chen Sijin, they'd likely be doomed.

However, Feng Tianhuo was not pleased, "Ignoring those weaklings, what about me? Can't I go with you?"

Chen Sijin rolled his eyes at him, "Shouldn't either the city lord or the deputy city lord stay in the city? We can't just ignore the lives of these thousands of Level 1, 2, and 3 citizens, and there will be even more in the future."

"With you here, and the other captains, as long as it's not a dominion-level devouring monster, you all can handle it and even counter-kill as usual.

And with Pink Snail and Radish here, their cooperation can detect the presence of dominion-level devouring monsters in advance. This way, our base is basically secure."

Chen Sijin concluded, "Don't act rashly; we're still in the early stages of development. Let's lay low and develop quietly."

Feng Tianhuo, visibly annoyed, thought it over and realized it indeed wasn't the time to be reckless and reluctantly agreed.

Thus, Chen Sijin swiftly took off in his mini spider fortress.

However, before he left, he was forcibly stuffed with countless gift packages of special plant and animal products by a fan club led by Lv Jun.

He could drink red sugar ginger tea until he vomited.

Durians and Isatis roots were also plentiful.

On the third day of Chen Sijin’s escape at noon, the sky of the exile world still lacked stars, sun, and moon.

When his mini spider stepped onto a piece of land, he suddenly felt a force specifically targeting him, with oppressive energy coming from all directions!

Special formation energy glows also appeared beneath the eight-legged spider fortress.

It was as if someone had long known he would take this path and come to this place.

Chen Sijin smirked. Good, he wanted to see what kind of beast was scheming against him this time.

He immediately changed his appearance.

Then, a familiar voice resounded in his ear:

[You have been precisely targeted by a Devourer!]

[Precise targeting cannot be escaped.]

[Forced entry into the Devourer's world in three minutes!]

……

[You have been devoured by the Devourer!]

[Welcome to "Silent Hill Estate"!]

Upon hearing the name of this town, Chen Sijin's eyebrows raised.

Interesting.