78

"That's too easy." Lau Hui laughed, "I'm a Logger myself, so I just need to cut down a day's worth of trees to get my house."

Pang Sun cringed when she heard her boyfriend laugh and pinched him in the side, causing the man to yelp.

This heartwarming scene caused those gathered to laugh, but Lau Hui was too happy to care.

"My Lord, do you think Liu Wei could perform a class change ceremony tonight?" Pang Sun asked after giggling a little.

When Cheng Yang turned his gaze towards Liu Wei, she couldn't help but flinch.

After a long time, Cheng Yang finally said: "She can but not today. Right now, there aren't any open slots, so she'll have to wait until the class change statues level up again. It'll take two days at most."

Liu Wei's heart fluttered with surprise. "Thank you… Lord." Truth be told, Liu Wei was incredibly uncomfortable addressing a classmate as "Lord."

"No problem. Everyone here will become a Professional eventually." Cheng Yang said with a shrug.

"My Lord, what about us?" Zhou Jie asked. Although Cheng Yang had just said all of them would become Professionals, he never said when. This made them uneasy.

"You'll get your chance at the same time." Cheng Yang said.

"Thank you, my Lord!" Zhou Jie smiled brightly.

"Now, I'm sure there's a real reason so many of you came to see me this morning." Cheng Yang asked the group.

"You're right. Those other topics were incidental. there was a fairly important reason we came to talk to you." Liu Hau immediately responded, "General Lee, can you explain it in depth."

Since Liu Hau didn't have the confidence to report the issue, Cheng Yang figured it had something to do with territory management. Brimming with curiosity, he turned to Old Lee.

Old Lee stepped forward, "My Lord, the situation is like this. The number of civilians in the village has grown to nearly twenty thousand, but we only have eight hundred soldiers to manage them. Even worse, most of us don't have time to settle disputes between civilians. No matter how we look at it, there are significant problems in the way we distribute resources to them and their management. We got together last night and have a few ideas to share with you."

"Say it. Don't be polite."

"There were two main parts of the plan we developed." Old Lee began, "The first is to find a large number of people who used to specialize in resource distribution and dispute mediation. We would provide these people the authority to manage the civilians, and when we have the opportunity, allow them to become Professionals. The second point would be developing a way to allow both the civilians and soldiers to own their own houses. As you know, to the people, the word home is something they hold dear. So, a house that belongs exclusively to them is an essential goal to work towards."

"That's a good plan." Cheng Yang complimented Old Lee, "I want you to start implementing your plan by finding people who fit your requirements. Then, once the class change statues level up, they will perform class change ceremonies. However, be careful who you select. People who used to be bureaucrats aren't a good idea. Ideally, we will pick people who have more practical experience instead."

"Yes, my Lord!"

"As for the second part, I already have some things arranged that will achieve that goal. When I upgraded the village, I unlocked the ability to track individual contributions to the territory through donations of materials and Experience Fragments. It will allow us to reward people who contribute enough. Naturally, we can use it as a way to identify who deserves to have a personal residence built for them."

"My Lord, if it only tracks donations, isn't that a bit shallow?"

"We can also award Contribution Points for the completion of quests from the Quest Hall, but I understand what you're trying to say. Most of the actions people can take that would benefit the territory don't have a way of being qualified by the god's rules. Our only choice is to reward those kinds of actions on our own. We'll give them Experience Fragments equal to the number of Contribution Points we think they deserve. Then, they can choose to keep them or donate them to receive Contribution Points."

"Oh! That's pretty smart, Yoko." Liu Hau chimed in.

"I think it's a fine idea, my Lord, but there are too many details left out. It will take some time for me to turn that idea into a concrete policy." Old Lee said.

"We can take our time. There's no reason to rush this." Cheng Yang said with a smile, "We'll just leave it as a big framework for now and fill in the details as we go."

Old Lee sighed. Cheng Yang had made a decision affecting tens of thousands of people so casually. If this were the old world, a committee would have been formed to deliberate for a few months before finally releasing a polished policy. In this new world, however, a decision only needed Cheng Yang's approval. The process had certainly been simplified. "As you wish, my Lord."

"My Lord, what's our primary goal today?" Liu Hau asked once the group had addressed the most important topic, "The Imperial Guard is taking care of the monsters that respawn near the territory, and we can't touch the large monster hordes a few kilometers away, so there isn't much for us to do."

The problem was that when the territory leveled up, more than half of their hunting grounds were now accessible to the Imperial Gaurd. The respawn rate of the monsters in the remaining land wasn't able to meet the needs of eight hundred people. The only other option would be to move three or four kilometers away to fight monsters, exposing themselves to hordes numbering in the thousands.

"Well, it's imperative that those with tools be able to collect resources. Especially stonecutters, otherwise none of the important buildings can be built." Cheng Yang replied.

"My Lord, there are only a handful of people that have tools right now. Only the people who regularly run the Blood-Soaked Church with us have the spare Experience Fragments needed to buy any. Although, I've heard some people have suspended their training so they could afford some in a few days." Old Lee reported.

Cheng Yang nodded. It was to be expected. Although leveling a Profession wouldn't directly help a person survive during the apocalypse, it would allow them to live more comfortably.

Even if you weren't going to focus on the manufacturing half of your Profession, leveling up your gathering skill was just common sense. Precious materials were scattered all over the world, and it wasn't uncommon for them to disappear within a few hours. So, if someone found a high-level material but wasn't able to harvest it, how sad would that be?

Everyone needed to train their gathering skills as soon as possible.

No matter what, Cheng Yang was determined not to buy tools for everyone in the territory. With eight hundred soldiers, how much could give each person? After all, he was a Lord, not a nanny. Having to give up his incredible training speed so that his soldiers could practice their Profession skills was unacceptable.

He wasn't in any rush to build the new buildings, so his soldiers would have to deal with this problem on their own.

"Since the territory spawn-free area expanded, let's go and clear out the monsters that are still there. Pick then soldiers to come out and walk with me. Except for you, Ox, you're soldiers train at noon." Cheng Yang said with a nod.

Lau Hui knew how vital training was, so he didn't insist on joining the operation.

Suddenly Cheng Yang remembered the incident that had happened yesterday. "Ox, you said yesterday that a monster killed one of your soldiers, right? Have they been replaced yet?"

Lau Hui was stunned for a moment. "Not yet. When we got back last night, they spent a while criticizing me, so I didn't have time to find a suitable candidate."

"Don't bother looking for one then. I'm going to have to take that class change ceremony slot from you."

Ignoring Lau Hui's upset expression, Cheng Yang turned towards Wang Lu. "Do you want to perform your class change ceremony now?"

Without waiting for the woman to respond, Cheng Yang left the pavilion. Wang Lu was thrilled and immediately followed after his Lord.

"Koko, you said that Yoko wouldn't… why Wang Lu…" Lau Hui couldn't help but groan.

"You're just overthinking this." Pang Sun said, cutting off Liu Hau's response, "Perhaps Wang Lu got to go first since she has a special ability?"

"That's true…" Lau Hui responded, "but Wang Lu hasn't performed a class change ceremony yet, so how would he know that?"

"Are you being stupid on purpose?" Pang Sun rolled her eyes. "You may not believe that he has foresight, but he was able to predict the apocalypse wasn't he?"

Lau Hui smiled sadly, "That he did."

Old Lee couldn't help but laugh when he watched the young couple fight. "I agree with Pang Sun. Wang Lu must have some kind of special ability. Otherwise, our Lord wouldn't have gone through the trouble of bringing her and Zhou Jie here from Cloud City."

"You mean I have a special ability too?" Zhou Jie asked in surprise.

Old Lee just shook his head with a laugh. "There's no way to tell, but I'm guessing that the answer is yes."