“Below! Below—” Tongque gasped, out of breath, her finger trembling as she pointed at the ground beneath her feet, lingering terror still visible in her amber eyes.
“We were digging out the warehouse when suddenly it lit up above us! A huge hole appeared! We thought we had caused a cave-in—”
“But we were digging so carefully!” Tiechui chimed in hurriedly. “We only planned to dig one level first and map out the rest once we got more people! The dirt was piled up neatly, and the ground was completely cleared. We were just about to sit down and rest when—”
“It lit up right above us,” Tongque said, her voice shaking. “And there was a really strange mana fluctuation...”
The two goblins stood before Wu Yao, sweat mixed with dirt leaving pale streaks across their faces, making their gray skin look even more mottled.
Wu Yao cast a Cleaning spell on each of them. “I'm building the Moon Well.”
“The... Moon Well?” Tiechui's ears perked up half an inch. “The one you mentioned before, the one that can absorb moonlight and convert it into mana?”
“That's the one.”
The two goblins exchanged a look and swallowed hard at the same time.
The needle on the detector in Tongque's arms was still spinning wildly. She immediately stuffed the detector back into her Inventory to prevent any damage to the needle, which would have required her to write a damage report.
“But, Your Excellency...” Tongque's voice was still trembling slightly. “This mana fluctuation... it's very unusual.”
“Yes!” Tiechui nodded vigorously. “When that power passed through the bedrock, we felt really—”
She sputtered, unable to find the right word for a long moment, so Tongque took over.
“It was very strange,” Tongque said softly, as if afraid of disturbing something she shouldn't. “When it passed through, I felt something. It was like a very, very old scent... a very ancient feeling.”
Wu Yao didn't react much after hearing her description.
Of course she knew the Moon Well wasn't an ordinary building, but it was just a game setting.
What Tongque was describing was probably just background lore written by the game to enhance immersion.
Like the whispers of NPCs in major AAA games to flesh out the worldbuilding—it sounded impressive, but it was really just there to give the player a sense of immersion.
But looking at them now, Wu Yao felt they had a much bigger problem.
The Cleaning spell had washed away the dirt and sweat on their faces, making their dark circles even more prominent. They weren't just noticeable; it looked as if someone had drawn thick rings around their eyes with a heavy marker.
“You two,” Wu Yao said, her gaze scanning their exhausted faces. “How long has it been since you last slept?”
Tiechui blinked, instinctively looking at Tongque.
Tongque was also stunned, seemingly trying hard to recall when she had last closed her eyes.
She counted on her fingers for a while and replied uncertainly, “About... two days and two nights? We spent a whole night counting inventory at the company, and then we hit the road. I think we took turns sleeping a bit on the way...”
“And then we ran into the corrupted creatures,” Tiechui muttered, scratching her messy hair, looking a bit embarrassed. “After that fight, we couldn't fall asleep at all. We were too wired.”
“Alright,” Wu Yao said, tilting her head toward the bedroom. “Go get some rest first.”
Going without sleep for two days and two nights, combined with a fierce battle and territory planning discussions—even though goblins had far more endurance than humans, they were clearly reaching their limit.
“Then... we'll go rest for a bit.” For once, Tiechui didn't try to act tough.
“Wait,” Wu Yao suddenly called out to them.
The two goblins stopped in their tracks and turned to look at her.
Wu Yao's expression was a bit subtle. Her lips pursed, and her eyes dated away for a brief moment before settling back on the two goblins.
“I'll build you a house.” Her tone was uncharacteristically guilty.
She had turned on the daily report notifications in the system settings earlier. Every day at midnight, the newly generated report would automatically pop up.
A notification for the Territory Management Daily Report had just popped up.
She opened it casually, scanned the text, and her eyes locked onto the final line.
【Notice: The residents of your territory are homeless and currently wandering!】
The line of text was red, with a flashing exclamation mark right next to it, as if afraid she might miss it.
Only then did Wu Yao remember that the territory currently had nowhere for anyone to live.
They were the residents of her territory, after all. How could she let them sleep out in the open?
“B-Build a house?” Tiechui's large ears perked up instantly, her wide eyes filled with disbelief. “You mean... you're building a house for us?”
Tongque's eyes welled with tears. “Your Excellency, you are too kind to us.”
Wu Yao opened the Territory Management interface directly and selected two adjacent empty spots in the designated residential area.
When the construction confirmation box popped up, she clicked confirm without even looking.
She had plenty of Moon-Silver Wood and had accumulated a good amount of Refined Wood. The materials needed to build two small wooden cabins were barely an expense to her.
Before the two goblins could even finish being moved, they felt a familiar, scalp-tingling wave of energy.
The fluctuation was exactly the same as when the Moon Well was being built.
It was as if it surged from the very marrow of the earth, passing through the bedrock and soil, through the Moon-Silver Wood floor, through the ground beneath their feet, and rushing all the way from the soles of their feet to the backs of their heads.
Tiechui's smile froze on her face.
Tongque's tears were frightened right back before they could even fall.
The two goblins froze in place, their ears pinned flat against their heads, their fur standing completely on end in an instant.
The force they had just felt underground was now right in front of their eyes—and in more than one place!
Silvery-white patterns of light emerged from the ground, outlining the complete shapes of two wooden cabins.
A low hum vibrated through the air as the Moon-Silver Wood pieces automatically slotted and locked into place within the light, at a speed incomparably faster than normal construction.
“Your Excellency—” Tiechui's voice cracked. She squatted on the ground, holding her head with both hands, her gray face flushing red with sheer panic. “W-What is this now—”
Tongque forgot all about crying. She held her older sister tightly, the two goblins shrinking into a ball.
“I'm building houses for you,” Wu Yao answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world, completely failing to understand why they were so terrified.
Wasn't it just the standard system construction animation?
Wu Yao exited the construction interface. Just as she was about to say something, her peripheral vision caught a small red dot glowing on the Resident Management interface, and her finger clicked on it by reflex.
She had zero resistance to red notification dots; if she saw one, she had to clear it. There was no room for negotiation.
Three of the five tabs at the bottom were glowing with red dots: 【Labor】, 【Taxation】, and 【Satisfaction】. Next to them was 【Assignment】, which didn't have a red dot but had a gray exclamation mark hanging over its icon.
Rate on N.U.
