Chapter Six: Slim Margins

At noon, Fan Bei rested for only half an hour before dragging himself out of bed—he still had to inspect the few functioning zones left in the shelter that afternoon.

He’d already conducted a full check of the agricultural sector while dealing with an emergency that morning, so he could skip that area for now. That left the generator room and the control center, both of which required a more thorough examination.

As he mulled this over, he left his bedroom and entered the living room.

In one corner, Da Bai was leaning against the wall with its eyes closed, hind legs folded, front legs upright—earnestly mimicking his habitual meditation posture.

Ah, rewards really made a difference; look how well the dog was doing now. In the past, whenever Fan Bei tried to teach it, Da Bai would feign ignorance.

He chose not to disturb the dog. It was rare to see Da Bai so diligent. Hopefully, it would soon master the “Nameless Meditation Technique” and help relieve the current deficit in their mental energy reserves.

He entered the equipment room, slung a toolbox over his shoulder, and quietly slipped out of the living room.

Just as he closed the door, Da Bai cracked open one eye, tempted to follow, but glanced at the newly acquired white wooden dog sculpture beside it. Gritting its teeth, the dog shut its eyes again.

No, I must revive my little companion as soon as possible.

With this thought, Da Bai seemed to sink deeper into a meditative state.

Fan Bei exited the living room and headed into the agricultural sector.

He looked up, then followed a gray path that ran eastward from the front of the rooms. After walking more than fifty meters, he encountered a pale golden, oval-shaped metal door.

He drew out a heavy keyring from his waist, carefully selected a brass key marked “Agricultural Sector,” and unlocked the door.

Beyond lay a blue corridor, no more than three meters wide. Every ten meters along the ceiling and walls, three lamps shone brightly, banishing every shadow.

He entered the corridor, an indistinct fear lingering in his chest.

Every inspection felt like a contest with death.

Continuing along the corridor for another fifty meters, he found another pale golden metal door.

The generator room lay ahead. Fan Bei produced the “Generator Room” key and unlocked the door as before.

Inside was a spacious, silvery-white hall where three blue diesel generators stood in neat rows. One of them was roaring, currently in operation.

Ignoring the active generator, Fan Bei set down his toolbox and donned a safety helmet equipped with a miner’s lamp.

He first checked the generator room’s ventilation shaft, which was covered by three layers of gold mesh so densely woven that not even a mosquito could squeeze through.

Just these three layers of gilded metal mesh consumed over fifty grams of gold—no small expense.

Similar gold mesh protected many essential ventilation points throughout the shelter.

The mesh was intact, showing no damage. He then inspected the generator room’s walls.

The copper walls showed no cracks—everything was in order.

He breathed a sigh of relief. This was the essence of an inspection: to ensure that all defenses against evil spirits—primarily the gold, silver, and copper coatings—remained undamaged.

It was purely passive defense. Should he ever neglect a spot, evil spirits would invade and catastrophe would follow.

But now, with “The Father of Systems” in hand, he finally possessed a way to actively eliminate evil spirits.

Yet, the meager reserves of mental energy made him frown once more.

He left the generator room and continued down the corridor to the east, arriving at the control center.

The control center was small, about the size of his current home—just over ninety square meters. Inside stood two rudimentary control screens, still running WINDOWS2000—a system few people nowadays had ever used.

He checked the management software for the shelter. Three zones—agricultural sector, generator room, and control center—all glowed green, which meant no evil spirits were present.

Most other zones, however, ranged from pale red to deep black, indicating occupation by evil spirits.

After reviewing the software, he conducted his usual inspection of the control center’s ventilation shafts, walls, and doors—any point of contact with the outside world.

This time, he spotted a problem: at the center of one of the control center’s other doors, the gold plating was peeling, scattering gold dust onto the floor below.

He quickly pulled out his tools, collected the fallen gold dust, and repaired the damaged plating.

Only after this did he feel at ease.

But as he put away his tools and wiped the sweat from his brow, suddenly, the freshly repaired gold plate on the door shattered. A palm-sized, gray-white mass—vague and formless—lunged straight at his face.

Its speed was beyond the reflexes of an ordinary human like Fan Bei.

In the past, all he could do was brace himself as this gray-white thing invaded his mind, engaging in a mind-rending struggle. Only by relying on his soul’s merged nature and meditation techniques could he eventually expel the evil spirit.

He would then be bedridden for days.

But now, as the evil spirit pounced, though his body couldn’t react in time, an instinctive thought flashed through his mind.

“Purify!”

A blazing white light shot through the gray-white mass, which vanished instantly. Unlike his previous purification of the mutated cucumber vine, this time a tiny gray-white core dropped to the floor.

A loot drop?

Excitement surged in Fan Bei. Another thought followed—“Store.”

The phantom white book appeared before him, quivered slightly, and the small gray-white core disappeared.

This thing should replenish mental energy, shouldn’t it?

Fan Bei hurriedly opened the phantom white book. With a thought, new content appeared on the first page of “System Creation.”

“Stored items: 32.
Extraordinary items: 1.”

Skipping past the long list of ordinary items, Fan Bei located the extraordinary item.

A detailed description, complete with an image, appeared.

“Evil Spirit Core: Micro. Upon use, increases mental energy reserves by 50 points.”

Excellent—defeating monsters and collecting loot, just as a proper system should be.

He immediately chose to use the item, then checked the stats on the inside cover.

“Mental energy: 851 points.”
“Current total mental energy income: 4.2 per day.”

Previously, he’d had 1,000 points; now it was 851.

Thinking it through: the daily system maintenance had likely deducted 100 points in advance, bringing him to 900. Earlier repairs had cost another 50, leaving 850.

Daily income would only be added after a full day passed.

Using the loot added 50 points, which should bring him to 900, but now he had only 851—meaning purifying the evil spirit must have cost another 49 points!

That seemed pointless—a profit margin of only two percent. What was the use of that?

Fan Bei was thoroughly frustrated, consoling himself that at least he now had a way to actively fight back against evil spirits, instead of relying solely on passive defense.

With his spirits steadied, he turned his attention to another encouraging detail.

Daily income had increased—by one point compared to before.

He pondered, then flipped to the second page.

A line of system logs immediately appeared.

“Da Bai has, through diligent practice, learned the incomplete version of the ‘Nameless Meditation Technique.’ Da Bai’s mental energy has increased.”

He then checked the status of the Celestial Dog System.

“System: Celestial Dog.
User: Labrador Da Bai.
Active time: 5 hours.
Current system status: Operating stably.
Current system income: 1.2 mental energy per day.
Current system expenditure: 100 mental energy per day. Current reserves are insufficient; the system will draw from the reserves in ‘The Father of Systems.’”

As expected, after Da Bai mastered the incomplete meditation technique, the system bound to it could now extract 1.2 points of mental energy daily instead of just 0.2.

A decent yield…

But the base was still too low—a drop in the ocean. Capital accumulation was slow at the outset; relying solely on hard work and thrift could never match the speed of external plunder.

To solve the problem of mental energy reserves, he would have to focus on those evil spirits.

But how to solve the issue of such meager profits?

The image of Da Bai flashed through Fan Bei’s mind. Now that it possessed “Basic Dog Claw” and “Basic Bite,” could those skills be effective against evil spirits?