25

When Cheng Yang's group exited the instance dungeon, the other people in the station felt intense envy looking at the equipment they wore. Not just the normal people but the other Professionals as well.

"Yu Kai, Old Lee, today we're going to continue saving people from Huimin. This time be on the lookout for any large amount of wood nearby. Otherwise, these people will have no choice but to sleep outside." Cheng Yang said, "Koko, Ox, you two will stay here and guard the village. Clear out any new monsters that spawn and bring the edible ones in for the civilians to prepare."

Yu Kai and the others nodded in agreement. They had no preference whether they went to Huimin or stayed behind since they would be able to gain Experience Fragments either way.

Next, his team Captains went off to organize their soldiers. As for Cheng Yang, he passed off all of those duties to his second in command, Zhao Chuan.

He was the Lord of Phoenix Village. Although he was a team Captain in name, he didn't have time to waste doing menial tasks.

Cheng Yang went over to the class change statues and found that the last one only had two minutes left before leveling up. Cheng Yang stood by the side counting down the seconds.

Two minutes later all of the research options had become Standard Grade. The statue also leveled up to Standard Grade going through significant changes.

Mage Statue

Phoenix Village

Standard Grade

20/50

Research

Body Strengthening Mana Flow (Standard Grade): Increase HP by 20% | Cost: 200 | Time: 6 hours

Extra Mana Node ( Standard Grade): Increase Mana by 20% | Cost: 200 | Time: 6 hours

Ambient Mana Gathering ( Standard Grade): Increase Magic Attack by 20% | Cost: 200 | Time: 6 hours

Passive Ironskin ( Standard Grade): Increase Physical Defense by 20% | Cost: 200 | Time: 6 hours

Mental State Training ( Standard Grade): Increase Magic Defense by 20% | Cost: 200 | Time: 6 hours

The other class change statues underwent the same changes.

After seeing this satisfactory result, Cheng Yang went about selecting the newest generation of soldiers. As promised he prioritized those chosen who didn't get the chance last night and to no one's surprise, he didn't allow Hu Jun or anyone that associated with him to participate.

After choosing just twenty people, Cheng Yang stopped.

These twenty new recruits were evenly distributed to the existing teams bringing their numbers up to twenty one.

After performing the class change ceremonies for the new soldiers, the Experience Fragments they gained from the instance dungeon had nearly been cut in half. This was why Cheng Yang had stopped at twenty as he only needed one hundred total soldiers to level up the village.

Now he just needed to scrape together a thousand Experience Fragments.

Cheng Yang was conflicted, if he used some of his Experience Fragments, he could level up the village immediately. Once he did, he could instantly become a High Grade Apprentice Mage. In exchange, he would have to give up the eight times training speed he had looked forward to. In his previous life, this was a speed few dared to use since they needed to maintain a total of one thousand Experience Fragments and the consumption was horrifying.

These were god's rules and all were helpless before them.

Cheng Yang estimated that the village could earn the needed Experience Fragments by tomorrow morning at the latest. This was only by relying on the respawn rate of the monsters and not including another clearing of the instance dungeon. At this point, he no longer needed to clear it each time personally. He could rely on one of his team Captains to do it for him.

When Cheng Yang made this decision, it was destined that there would be a commotion in Phoenix Village that day.

Compared to the stability of Phoenix Village, Cloud City was in absolute chaos.

Since early morning there had been non-stop gunfire throughout the city. This was the sound of the Cloud City Garrison closing in on the city center.

The military had finally come to the rescue. It took them a while since the disaster put them in danger too, they quickly recovered, military grade weapons were more than enough to shred monsters. Unlike the police force, however, they were able to quickly adapt. Since the barracks they stayed in weren't high rise buildings, they were able to retrieve their weapons with ease.

The reason they were so late was due to a disagreement between the military executives. Many believed that they should immediately rush to Cloud City to stabilize the situation but others opposed that plan since they had not received any orders from the chain of command. It was considered treason for the garrison executive to impose their will over the military thus there was a deadlock for some time.

It was later that day when they realized that none of their weapons that relied on electricity could be used. This resulted in a big scare. Most modern weapons used electricity to some extent. Other than firing pin type weapons, everything else needed electricity to function!

Now they could only use guns, grenades, and rockets leaving them with an uneasy feeling. If only they could use their modern weapons. Especially the tanks which were now useless lumps of iron. If they could use the tanks, what would they have to fear from a few measly monsters?

By the morning of the second day, they still hadn't received word from higher ranked executives. After all, none of the communications equipment worked and messengers would likely be killed. Ultimately, the garrison executives decided to shoulder the crime of treason and move to rescue Cloud City. If they were to wait any longer, there was no telling what damage would be done to the civilian population.

After a final heated discussion, the Cloud City Garrison moved out in full force to secure the city.

The garrison near Cloud City wasn't particularly big. Even accounting for civilian staff, they only numbered around twenty thousand. Even so, a force of twenty thousand armed to the teeth was a force that couldn't be underestimated.

After fighting near the garrison for a day, the army had a rough understanding of how to deal with monsters. Pistols were far harder to kill monsters with as opposed to a machine gun. As long as they can unload a clip into a monster, they would collapse in seconds. Of course, no matter what they used, it would take an enormous number of bullets.

Fortunately, the army had plenty of ammunition, so the consumption was comparatively small.

The barracks were located in the suburbs of Cloud City where there was a fair amount of construction. This meant that the roads were smooth and in good condition due to frequent repairs. After the earthquake, those once-pristine roads became rough and cracked.

The army had to walk into the city and after only a few hundred meters, they were able to experience the tragedy that had occurred. Their view was filled with countless white bones, some from animals, the majority from humans.

The rich smell of carrion had begun to permeate the city. If god hadn't removed the possibility of a normal plague occurring, I'm afraid that all of humanity would have been doomed from the beginning. In Cheng Yang past life, they had confirmed this. No matter how many corpses you left to rot, they would never carry disease.

When the monsters were baptized in bullets and grenades, they were instantly torn to pieces. Even when they respawned, they would only live for a few minutes at most. As the army marched through the streets, a large number of people hiding in the ruins would run out to greet them, begging for food and crying with joy.

The garrison executives weren't fools and knew they couldn't freely open their food storage to the public. They only gave people the bare minimum in rations to pacify them.

As time passed the crowd surrounding the army grew and inevitably some people tried to cause trouble for the army. The army's cruelty was shown to them immediately. Belligerents were executed on the spot if they went too far. The commotion they tried to stir in the public was suppressed. It was only then that they truly understood that this was no longer a time of peace. The army may be rescuing them but they also instituted martial law, those that disobeyed the military would be executed.

Even so, everyone was thrilled that the army had come to reclaim the city since it meant they would have a chance to live. Although the law was a little harsh, it was better than being eaten alive.

But the city was just too big and there were too many monsters. Even with their weapons, it would take the army a long time to secure the city. Especially since the monsters would refresh in areas they already cleared, causing the army to suffer losses from sneak attacks.

For a whole day, the army was unable to reach the city center since they needed to make detours to rescue civilians.

As night fell, their battle became more difficult. In the absence of light, it was impossible for them to confirm a monster horde's position before a battle.

The day passed quickly for those in Phoenix Village. In total, they had rescued another five hundred people from Huimin. After more than tripling the number of people that participated in the rescue, they no longer had to fear smaller monster hordes and were able to take care of them directly. This allowed them to push closer to the city center.

In addition, they were able to find an increasingly large amount of food including rice, flour, and canned meals. For now, Cheng Yang forbade people to eat it and simply stored it away. From now on humanity would face frequent food shortages and preservable food like that could be a lifesaver.

There were now more than seven hundred people in Phoenix Village. Eating the monsters killed near the village every day could sustain the population for now. Compared to Cloud City, where everyone was hungry, the atmosphere in Phoenix Village was much more cheerful.

Of course, not all of the monsters meat is edible. As a general rule, humanoid monsters like the Graveseekers, were generally toxic to some extent whereas bestial monsters had edible flesh. Cheng Yang, of course, knew exactly what parts of what monsters were edible thanks to his past life. He wouldn't need to worry about losing people to poisonous monster meat.