Chapter 7 — The Walking Shelter
Lan Chi dreamed all night, the scenes in his dreams bizarre and ever-changing.
He was busy at the computer in the company, then in the blink of an eye he was at home playing games, and then he was back in a middle school classroom, shrinking behind a textbook while secretly reading a novel. These once ordinary daily moments had now become something he longed for in his dreams.
“Ah…” He sighed, resigned, and sat up from the big bed. He patted his cheeks and encouraged himself. “Work hard. Everything is for a better life in the future!”
Several slender tentacles stretched out from the head of the bed and handed Lan Chi a few dark-red crystals. He counted them — there were eight, even more than what it had eaten yesterday.
“Where did these come from?” he asked. The big eye blinked at him but said nothing.
Alright. Still a kid.
Lan Chi opened the system interface to check the status and found that the information panel was much richer than yesterday:
[Mutated Shelter]: Tier 1, Growth Progress 10%.
[Upgrade Mechanism: Can be upgraded by feeding materials, can also evolve by autonomous feeding.]
[Consumption Record: 5 rotting corpses, 3 fireburst birds, 2 man-eating bees.]
Lan Chi froze. “This log wasn’t here yesterday. Did you sneak out for a midnight snack while I was asleep?”
The dumb-looking big eye continued staring at him.
It could move. It could hunt on its own. After thinking for a while, Lan Chi cautiously asked the shelter, “Can you find food by yourself?”
The simple-minded shelter instinctively repeated, “Find food…”
As it muttered, the entire house suddenly began to shake. The house bobbed up and down, and the scenery outside started moving backward. Lan Chi nearly fell and hurriedly grabbed the nearby wooden shelf.
“Where are you going? Walk steady!” Lan Chi shouted.
“Find food… what does steady mean?” the shelter replied.
“Move the tentacles underneath when you walk. Keep the upper house as still as possible!” Lan Chi shouted at it.
“Oh.” The shelter responded, adjusted its posture according to Lan Chi’s instructions, and moved forward smoothly.
After about half an hour, the shelter stopped. A buzzing sound of bees came from outside the window. Curious, Lan Chi opened a crack in the door and peeked outside.
One look nearly gave him a heart attack.
Outside were creatures flying everywhere, each about half the height of a person. They looked like hornets, but each had three scorpion tails hanging from behind, with long needles embedded at the ends.
The creatures also noticed Lan Chi peeking out and shrieked as they rushed toward him.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
[Scorpion-tail hornets detected.]
“What the hell are these things!” Lan Chi slammed the door shut. “Shelter, lock the door. Don’t let them get in.” The moment he finished speaking, long stingers pierced into the door.
Thick vines extended from the wall beside the wooden door, sealing it tightly. The hornets’ attacks failed to break through.
“Food…” The shelter’s mind-voice carried a pleased tone.
Notifications flooded across his vision:
[Shelter under scorpion-tail hornet attack. Shelter HP -10.]
Lan Chi was scared out of his mind. Before he could even catch his breath, new messages followed:
[Mutated shelter devours scorpion-tail hornet. Shelter HP +10. Upgrade energy +0.1%.]
Lan Chi quietly pulled open a slit in the curtain. He saw tentacles constantly extending from the walls, precisely grabbing the hornets and tossing them onto the roof. He went completely blank. “…It can do that too?”
The tense battle lasted over an hour. The noise outside gradually faded. When everything finally stopped, Lan Chi heard a burp. The shelter’s exhausted voice entered his mind:
“Finished eating… so tired… sleep…”
As soon as it finished speaking, the entire shelter fell silent. The vines blocking the door drooped down. Lan Chi cautiously opened the window to look outside. The scene was complete devastation — fallen trees everywhere, scattered remains all over the ground. The battle must have been brutal.
“They got wiped out,” he muttered. He pushed the axe monster and the pickaxe monster out the door and sent them to scout the nearby area.
The two tool creatures made a quick round and soon transmitted the thought that the surroundings were safe.
Lan Chi stepped out of the shelter and immediately spotted a massive beehive hanging from a nearby tree. It was enormous — almost the size of three shelters combined.
Information popped up on the screen:
[Scorpion-tail hornet hive: Can harvest delicious honey.]
[Effect: Improves physique, improves mental power, increases lifespan.]
“Good stuff!” Lan Chi’s eyes lit up. He immediately returned to the workshop, selected a wooden barrel from the crafting list, and confirmed production. Then he directed the axe monster and pickaxe monster to carry the barrels beneath the hive. He had the axe monster cut a slanted opening at the base of the hive, and thick golden honey immediately poured out, flowing into the barrels.
They worked until near nightfall. Lan Chi filled twenty large barrels in a row, yet the honey inside the hive still didn’t seem to run out.
“What should I do? Throwing it away would be such a waste.” Lan Chi couldn’t bear to lose these treasures. He suddenly got an idea — he had the axe monster cut more trees and process them into small wooden barrels, filled them up, and hung them directly on the trading channel.
The moment the honey went up for sale, trading exploded. His private message inbox was flooded with messages. Besides orders offering various ores and materials, many people even brought out their most treasured items:
[Sackwood Worm]: Wooden body, with folded space stored inside its stomach sac.
[Mycelium Wood Devourer]: Formed from tangled fungal threads. Can attach to objects to negate attacks.
Even more people tried to probe for information indirectly. Lan Chi screened trades while quietly fishing for information in return.
Beastman Adu sent a message:
“Hey bro, where’d you get that honey? Don’t tell me you wiped out the scorpion hornets?”
Lan Chi paused when he saw a familiar name and replied,
“No way. Someone else got it. I’m just the middleman reseller.”
Beastman Adu sighed.
“That’s what I thought. Those crazy hornets live in swarms. Even our group wouldn’t dare mess with them. Your side… must’ve taken heavy losses, right?”
Lan Chi was speechless inside, but he replied in a mournful tone,
“Don’t even mention it. This is all we managed to salvage. Planning to trade for materials and phosphor crystals.”
Beastman Adu responded,
“Understandable, understandable. You guys must’ve lost a lot. I’ll offer 20 phosphor crystals per jar. Give me five jars.”
Lan Chi replied,
“Deal.”
Lan Chi happily completed the trade and quickly sold twenty jars of honey. More and more messages kept coming in, with all sorts of prices, but most offers were low. Lan Chi didn’t bother selling more. He sealed the hive’s cut and planned to continue tomorrow.
He excitedly brought the [Sackwood Worm] back to the crafting room, only to find that the crafting list showed several missing key materials. The most critical one was “Source Crystal.”
The system description showed that source crystals only come from high-level ore veins or elite monsters of tier three or above.
“No wonder they’re willing to trade this for honey. Turns out it’s another massive resource sink,” Lan Chi muttered helplessly.
