Chapter Eighty-Five: The Base’s Current State

It had not been long since Guo Lang and his group returned when Laura, dressed in a long black gown, hurried over at the news and flung herself into his arms. Feeling the softness pressed against his chest, Guo Lang’s face grew warm.

Everyone around them wore a different expression, except for the impassive Cang Mingyue.

Jiang Liuying looked disgusted. “So he really is just a kid. He likes mature women.”

Xie Lin nodded. “Western style.”

Ye Zhiqiu said, “Big-chested, good taste.”

Guo Lang rolled his eyes. “Shut up, all of you.”

Laura did not understand much of their language, but she could tell they were probably teasing Guo Lang. Her cheeks reddened, yet she stepped forward with graceful composure and took the initiative to shake hands. “Hello, I’m Laura, Guo Lang’s girlfriend.”

Her introduction was brief and clean, very much in the style of the capable career woman she had once been.

Jiang Liuying muttered, “Damn, she’s the high-powered type too.”

Xie Lin nodded. “A Western office lady.”

Ye Zhiqiu said, “She has personality. Does she have any sisters?”

Though everyone had been fitted with a language system upon arriving in the new civilization, they still joked in the language of Planet D. Guo Lang curled his lip and did not bother with them anymore. He knew exactly what kind of spectators they were: the more attention you gave them, the more excited they became.

“Where’s Alice?” he asked with a smile.

“She went to the front lines. I’ve already had someone notify her. She’ll be delighted once she hears you’re back.”

“Who’s Alice?” Jiang Liuying asked in the local tongue, tilting her head with open curiosity. Inside, she was thinking, “So this brat has built himself a harem in this world? What a disgraceful thing!”

At that, Laura laughed. “My daughter...”

Everyone stared. “Your daughter...” And from the name alone, she did not seem likely to be Guo Lang’s biological child, so a strange set of looks turned toward him.

Jiang Liuying said, “So he’s into married women after all. Maybe he even stole someone else’s wife.”

Xie Lin stroked his chin. “Mm, a Western married woman.”

Ye Zhiqiu nodded. “Not bad.”

Even the usually silent Cang Mingyue added coolly, “A kid’s taste.”

“Shut it, all of you gossipy women!” Guo Lang roared in the language of Planet D.

“Report!” came a familiar voice from outside. Guo Lang nodded and released the permission lock. Only then did Thomas step in, after seeing the gelatinous mass outside shift from yellow to green.

The moment he entered, Guo Lang’s eyes lit up. “Biological level up to Lv. 2? Good progress, Thomas.”

“Heh.” Thomas scratched his head. “I’m the training officer. If I’m not a cut above the rest, how am I supposed to train others? Besides, if I’m not better than them, the other soldiers won’t be convinced, will they?”

Guo Lang laughed and shook his head. “Fair enough. This place is small. Is there somewhere larger?”

“There is.” Thomas smiled. “An administrative hall has been built outside. Old Wick is in there preparing tea and fruit for you.”

“An administrative hall already?” Guo Lang was somewhat surprised. “There are people among the survivors who know architecture?”

“Yes, two of them.”

“Who’s in the Ancient Tree of Technology?” Guo Lang asked as he led everyone forward.

Thomas replied, “There are six in total now. Anderson is taking microbiology and cell biology as electives. Anderson’s father was an excellent carpenter in his hometown, and he’s learning elven carpentry and the making of bow limbs. There’s a blacksmith named Jack, currently being trained in elven forging techniques. Two architecture students are learning Dark Night construction theory. And lastly, my ex-wife Mary is being trained in more advanced biomedicine.”

“Not bad.” Guo Lang nodded. There were indeed a few nuggets of gold among these refugees...

“Wow!” Once they came out, everyone looked astonished. Only then did they realize that the room they had just been in was actually that blob of gel-like matter. Jiang Liuying exaggerated dramatically. “Isn’t that kind of cheating? How long has this tree been growing? And it’s already this big? Just this one tree could house how many people?”

Guo Lang lifted an eyelid. “A bit over ten days, maybe. And that’s after I deliberately slowed it down. As for how many people it can house—if fully opened up, a population of a million or so is no problem.”

“That’s way too convenient,” Ye Zhiqiu said, scratching his head. “Back when I was leading Blackie and dozens of believers, we spent more than half a month digging out a cellar. It looked like a pigsty, ugly as sin. How can yours be so complete? Especially that wooden table—it looks classy at a glance.”

“Exactly, this is so unfair.” Jiang Liuying sounded sour.

Xie Lin also stroked his chin. “How many energy points does a tree like this cost? The construction speed is ridiculous. It saves so much time.”

“You mean the seed of the Tree of Life?” Guo Lang blinked. “It’s free. A must-have early resource. I’ve still got another one.”

Everyone: “Damn.”

Not far after Guo Lang and the others descended, they spotted the administrative hall Thomas had mentioned. Guo Lang took one look and nodded in satisfaction. The building was highly consistent with the Dark Night style. It seemed the two architecture students had learned quite well. Although the help of little spirits and living wood technology greatly accelerated construction, to design something of this caliber in such a short time still took real talent.

The Dark Night architectural style was somewhat distinctive. It was neither like the Blood Elves’ deliberate pursuit of gilded splendor, nor like the Naturefolk’s purely wooden construction. Take this administrative hall, for example: it was supported by living trees, with a modest amount of stone as ornamentation. The floor and the spiral staircase were made of translucent white jade, while the edges were inlaid with cloud-like motifs matching those on the roof. Beneath the thick shade, the purple eaves carried a classical grace, and inside the hall, a few low saplings were wrapped with silver-blue glowing orbs—exquisite, yet full of substance.

The Dark Night style had always been a favorite among the upper nobility of all races, especially humans. In Guo Lang’s previous life, human players in the Federation would often spend energy points to have Dark Night players hire two Dark Night architects to build them villas and the like. Some especially wealthy and extravagant types would even use energy points to buy an architect and have an entire Dark Night-style capital city built for them.

That was a considerable windfall for Dark Night players, enough to help them develop earlier. Guo Lang quietly made his calculations in his mind.

After entering, the refined and elegant style once again drew admiration from everyone. Looking at the exquisite Dark Night fruit arranged on the table by Old Wick, they could only marvel at the quality of life here.

Sigh... Ye Zhiqiu was stunned for quite a while before letting out a long, deep breath.

“What’s wrong, big guy?” Jiang Liuying asked.

Ye Zhiqiu wore a mournful expression. “I suddenly remembered my Hall of Glory, which was like a dog kennel. Now that I think about the words I had engraved on the Hall of Glory and hung over that shack, I feel even more ashamed.”

At that, Jiang Liuying lowered her head in silence and continued eating fruit. The world she had experienced was a cold-weapon era. She had fooled a bunch of believers in a poor district and set up base on an island overseas. Aside from the main base, which looked somewhat presentable, everyone else lived in crude tents. It wasn’t that their architectural tastes were poor—there simply wasn’t enough time to build properly. In order to construct the main base as quickly as possible and raise their strength, most of it had been done in a rather shabby manner.

Guo Lang ignored the others’ gloom and focused on the important matter. “So, how is the front line now?”

Thomas reported, “No casualties for now. Abel’s command ability is pretty good, and with Alice there as well, whenever they run into a level-three walking corpse, she handles it herself. It’s basically an easy win. But because the tree roots are spreading wider and wider, our manpower is getting more and more dispersed. Abel keeps asking me for more people, but new recruits can’t be trained into anything useful in just over ten days.”

Guo Lang nodded. “Then from tomorrow on, I’ll speed things up. The roots of the Tree of Life will spread at a rate of two hundred kilometers a day. We’ll do our best to seize control of Lan Island within a month. I want every inch of this island under the roots’ control. Not a single walking corpse is allowed to appear here.”

“What?” Thomas stared in shock. “But boss, even at our current pace we don’t have enough manpower, and if you speed it up and expand that much...”

“It’s fine.” Guo Lang waved him off. “I brought help.” As he spoke, he pointed to the group busily devouring fruit. “Each of them is worth an Alice.”

“Oh?” Thomas’s eyes lit up. He knew exactly how strong Alice was. Especially now, he had no doubt that even if more than a hundred men surrounded and besieged her, they still might not be able to beat her, because that girl’s rate of evolution was simply too fast. He had not seen Alice go all out for a very long time.

And Guo Lang had brought back four people of that caliber.

Thinking of that, he suddenly felt the mission was not nearly so difficult. So he nodded. “Good. Then if we add you to the mix—”

“I can’t.” Guo Lang shook his head. “I have to enter the class hall for my advancement. It’ll probably take about a month, maybe more, and it’s not even certain.”

“The advancement takes place in that purple class hall? And it takes that long?” Thomas asked carefully.

Guo Lang frowned. “Hm? Alice has already advanced successfully? That fast? It’s only been ten days. How long did it take her?”

Thomas hesitated. “Uh, two days... probably...”

“Two days?” Guo Lang, and even the three who had already advanced behind him, all had their pupils shrink at once.