"Tomorrow will be the sixth day since we arrived in this dream world."
Wu Pi Fu looked at the Peace Hotel, which was being constructed with great enthusiasm.
Even though it was already evening, the craftsmen and villagers were still working diligently, illuminated by torches.
In fact, the craftsmen and villagers had been divided into three teams, working in shifts to build the Peace Hotel.
There was no other reason; they were being paid too much.
Lin Hei Er and Xu Rong Yu had confirmed multiple times that they could earn at least ten thousand grams of gold each month.
This amount might not be significant for large organizations or countries, but for the Hong Lantern Society, it was a fortune.
Among this, seventy percent belonged to Wu Pi Fu and his two companions.
Since they had little to spend, it naturally piled up for the construction of the Peace Hotel.
The wages for the craftsmen and villagers building the Peace Hotel were more than thirty times what they would earn for equivalent labor elsewhere.
Working here for a day was equivalent to working day and night for a month in other places!
If it weren't for Lin Hei Er's serious and repeated reminders not to pay these craftsmen and villagers beyond their limits, it wouldn't be surprising if they were offered three hundred times the usual pay.
This was an era where the lower classes and society were so impoverished that it was hard to imagine.
These villagers could barely afford two meals a day; their staple food was a thin soup made from wild vegetables, which could hardly be called a meal.
They were all emaciated, with sunken cheeks and bent backs.
The craftsmen were slightly better off, but only slightly; they too had only thin porridge in their bellies.
In fact, according to Xu Rong Yu, feeding the villagers was all that was needed for the construction of the Peace Hotel.
During this transitional season, simply providing meals would be enough to attract the villagers, which would avoid drawing attention from the outside world.
But how could Wu Pi Fu heed such advice?
He was already worried about not attracting enough attention from the outside.
Up until now, he still didn't know what conditions were needed to upgrade the shelter, but increasing their influence in this world was always a good idea.
Since they were building the Peace Hotel, he had to play the role of an invincible swordsman, and being generous was part of that persona.
One cannot practice martial arts without money; if one cannot even afford to eat, trying to forcibly move their qi would be courting death.
Thus, being wealthy, powerful, and a martial arts master would eliminate a lot of troubles in this era, especially troubles from the official level.
As for the Jianghu level... the largest bandit leader outside the borders, along with hundreds of his core members, were buried here.
Who would dare to be blind to that?
On the contrary, those in the martial arts community were likely to come seeking fame; experts, masters, and even grandmasters could appear.
However, this was a good thing for Wu Pi Fu.
He was currently in a period of rapid advancement, and fighting these national martial artists would allow him to grow stronger quickly.
As for injuries, that was not something he needed to worry about.
So, with thirty times the wages, ample bowls of white rice or noodles, along with stir-fried diced meat mixed with vegetables, and even a chicken for each person, what made the villagers and craftsmen most envious was that they had four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and if they worked at night, a late-night snack!
Such a generous employer was unheard of!
At this time, the people's nature was simple.
Even if they had some small thoughts, they were mostly the innocent ideas of farmers.
Thus, under the motivation of such wages and meals, the villagers and craftsmen worked as if their lives depended on it.
As a result, Wu Pi Fu, Ya Ma Dai, Xu Shi Lan, and Xu Rong Yu found themselves with nothing to do.
They didn't even need to supervise; among the villagers, there were village elders.
Who would dare to act slyly at this time? Fellow villagers could easily expose them.
With some free time, Wu Pi Fu and the others found a few stones to sit on at a distance.
There was nothing particularly important to discuss, so they chatted and rested.
Whenever Wu Pi Fu had free time, he practiced martial arts, and Xu Rong Yu naturally followed him like a loyal dog, receiving a few pointers, which made him scratch his head in delight as he began to practice his stances.
Xu Rong Yu was only half-competent.
Although his father, Xu Zhen Shan, had reached the stage of Dark Strength Master, he was self-taught and did not dare to teach Xu Rong Yu any real skills, resulting in Xu Rong Yu not even having Bright Strength.
At this moment, Xu Rong Yu stood there practicing his boxing stance while Wu Pi Fu had just finished a set of Green Python Shedding Skin Technique, his body steaming with heat.
He glanced at the construction site and then at the night sky in the distance, turning to Ya Ma Dai, who was fiddling with some metal parts, and Xu Shi Lan, who was flipping through account books.
Both of them paused slightly in their movements before getting back to work.
Ya Ma Dai casually said, "Right, tomorrow will be the sixth day."
Xu Shi Lan pondered for a moment and said, "According to your description, will the Nightmares begin to attack tomorrow?"
Upon hearing the word "Nightmare," Xu Rong Yu immediately became flustered, his boxing stance falling apart.
He simply stopped practicing, adjusted his breathing, and sat down on the ground to listen to the conversation between the three.
Wu Pi Fu shook his head and said, "It's just that the probability of an attack will increase. It doesn't necessarily mean that after five days, Nightmares will definitely attack, and it’s not absolutely safe within those five days. This matter is uncertain."
The other three listened to Wu Pi Fu's words.
Ya Ma Dai suddenly blurted out, "Then what does the shelter... the term 'shelter' mean?"
Literally speaking, since it was called a shelter, it should possess some kind of protective function, right? Moreover, the name "shelter" was not chosen by Wu Pi Fu and the maintenance personnel themselves, but defined by the mainframe.
However, looking at its functions, it had no protective meaning at all; it was even their Achilles' heel.
A Level One Shelter required guarding for ten days every thirty days, while a Level Two Shelter was reduced to seven days.
The guarding time for Level Three and above shelters was unknown.
After the maintenance personnel stayed in the dream world for more than five days, they would be detected by the Nightmares, which would gradually increase the probability of being found.
During this period, if they were discovered and chased by Nightmares, they couldn't even reveal the location of the shelter.
Otherwise, the Nightmares would follow the shelter into the real world, lying in wait to hunt them down...
Thinking about it this way, what exactly did this shelter protect? This was indeed their greatest weakness.
Wu Pi Fu also did not know what the shelter truly protected, but he still said, "Thinking too much is useless. We know too little about the dream world, about all these changes, and even about the mainframe. What are Nightmares? What is the bizarre? What is pollution? What does 'week' mean? And what does this shelter signify? We are completely in the dark, so speculating now is pointless. Surviving, growing stronger, and living better is what we need to do now."
Ya Ma Dai and Xu Shi Lan nodded in agreement.
That night, there was nothing more to discuss.
The next day, Wu Pi Fu began patrolling the construction site and the surrounding land.
Another day passed without incident.
By the time they reached the seventh day in this world, Wu Pi Fu was even more cautious.
Ya Ma Dai joined the patrol, and the two of them patrolled tirelessly for twenty-four hours, yet they passed the day safely, without even a hint of trouble.
At noon on the seventh day, a countdown reminder from the mainframe appeared in the minds of the three, informing them that their guarding task in this world was complete and that they could return to the real world at any time.
Wu Pi Fu let out a sigh of relief.
He looked at Ya Ma Dai and Xu Shi Lan and said, "Fortunately, this time we had good luck. Not every guarding period will encounter anomalies or Nightmares, especially if we don't run around recklessly. That is the safest approach."
Ya Ma Dai was indifferent, while Xu Shi Lan seemed to be deep in thought.
Wu Pi Fu then said, "So, have you thought about what buildings to buy? From the looks of it, establishing a force is not something that can be accomplished in a day or two. Historical events can only be achieved after at least four months, during the time of Cixi's escape to the west. So, how about we first establish a Level One Shelter and draw a random reward?"
The first random draw for establishing a shelter; the mainframe likely had some filtering mechanism in place.
Generally, it was a cultivation technique, and it would be one that suited you.
Wu Pi Fu himself had experienced this, as had several of his predecessors.
Currently, Ya Ma Dai and Xu Shi Lan were still ordinary mortals.
They didn't even have the most basic baseline of Reality Zero Point Nine techniques, which was extremely dangerous in the dream world.
Ya Ma Dai nodded repeatedly in agreement, while Xu Shi Lan directly shook her head in denial.
"No, we won't establish a shelter in this world. Wu Xiao Ge, take us to the Mud Buddha Yaksha World," Xu Shi Lan immediately said.
Wu Pi Fu and Ya Ma Dai looked at her in surprise.
Xu Shi Lan asked seriously, "Wu Xiao Ge, are the techniques good there?"
Wu Pi Fu was taken aback for a moment, then candidly shook his head and said, "Not easy to obtain. The Tiger Demon Technique and Green Python Shedding Skin Technique I know are all rewards from the mainframe. Finding techniques in the dream world... is very difficult."
Xu Shi Lan sighed and said, "A false transmission of a thousand volumes of books, a true transmission of a single sentence. Even technology is like this, let alone supernatural techniques that rely on one's own power. Obtaining them in this dream world is likely dozens or even hundreds of times more difficult than establishing a shelter. The only channel we might obtain extraordinary techniques from is the first shelter."
This was the reason Wu Pi Fu had proposed to establish a shelter immediately.
He looked at Xu Shi Lan with confusion, and Xu Shi Lan straightforwardly said, "But clearly, the technique strength in the baseline Reality Zero Point Seven dream world far exceeds that of the baseline Reality Zero Point Nine dream world, right? If it's not possible, we can only establish the first shelter here. But isn't there you? You can take us to the baseline Reality Zero Point Seven dream world."
Wu Pi Fu was first stunned, then immediately enlightened, and joyfully nodded, "Yes, yes, yes, you're right. We indeed shouldn't establish a shelter here."
Wu Pi Fu had not thought in this direction before, but with Xu Shi Lan's reminder, he immediately understood her meaning.
The deeper one goes into the dream world, the more dangerous it becomes, but at the same time, the extraordinary powers also grow stronger.
The first shelter established by the maintenance personnel would have its random draw influenced by the mainframe's filtering factors, allowing them to obtain a set of techniques that suited them in their respective worlds.
Other newcomers naturally had no options; they either had to gamble their lives on random penetrations or could only establish the first shelter in the baseline Reality Zero Point Nine dream world, just like Wu Pi Fu.
With this shelter, they could continue to penetrate downwards smoothly.
However, if there were senior predecessors with shelters in the deeper dream world, they could take newcomers directly to the deeper dream world and establish the first shelter there, thus obtaining even more powerful techniques.
Although the danger was great, because the first shelter in the deeper dream world would have a guarding task that could be life-threatening, especially since they would need to guard it immediately within a month of obtaining the technique, this was indeed a double-edged sword.
"... But Wu Xiao Di already has a shelter in this baseline Reality Zero Point Seven dream world. So, we can also establish the first shelter in this world, fighting alongside you and supporting each other. Isn't that the best choice?" Xu Shi Lan said with a smile.
Wu Pi Fu and Ya Ma Dai were naturally enlightened.
"Yes, yes!" Ya Ma Dai laughed heartily in agreement.
Wu Pi Fu immediately instructed Xu Rong Yu about management matters, then took the two of them to the wilderness, and with a flash, the three returned to Gaia.
Without delay, they lay down in the sleep pods.
"Mainframe, activate the return to the dream world shelter, target..."
"Mud Buddha Yaksha Dream World!"
(End of Chapter)