Chapter Twenty-Five: No One! Is More Conscientious! Than Me!

Red Name, Colin: “How much are you planning to sell it for?”

Xu Xiangdong: “This name... Are you Mr. Colin?”

“Uh, I didn’t expect you to be the one selling water... I’m kind of touched, I’m your fan. Look, how about this: one Bramble for three liters of water, what do you say?”

Colin was quite interested in the Bramble in his pocket, but he rejected the offer without hesitation.

“Not interested.”

Of course, the main reason was that the other party was too greedy. Whether he was truly a fan was anyone’s guess—a single Bramble in exchange for three liters of water? Did he really think Colin had never seen such a thing before?

After replying, Colin immediately put up an offer of one hundred milliliters of water for one Bramble of Suffering on the trading market.

Just as he expected, there were plenty of people who possessed these Brambles. After all, thanks to Colin’s “revelation” yesterday, a significant number of people had survived; some lucky ones naturally had these items.

Colin was now reaping the rewards of his earlier act of saving others by sharing secrets.

At this moment, the person from before grew anxious upon witnessing this scene.

He hadn’t had a drop of water in a whole day, and had eaten two pieces of bread. Without some water soon, he felt he would die of thirst.

When he saw Colin put up the Brambles for 100ml each at auction, and realized he hadn’t managed to snatch a single one, he couldn’t help but regret it deeply.

“If I’d known, I wouldn’t have set such a high price...” His throat was burning with dryness, and as he regretted, he cursed Colin secretly for ruining the market with such a loss-making deal.

He sent a request offering fifty milliliters of water for one Bramble, but received no response. Frustrated, he lost his temper: “What kind of savior is this? Just a worthless nobody!”

After his useless bout of rage, he realized Colin no longer needed the Brambles...

“Am I really going to have to trade this for a little water...”

He took a blood-red gem from his backpack, his expression wavering.

...

Meanwhile, Colin had already gathered all the required materials, including those Mist Points.

Following the prompt, he placed everything into his backpack, then lit the lantern and stepped out of the cabin.

[Do you wish to upgrade to Level 2 Territory?]

Yes!

Without hesitation, Colin made his choice.

In an instant, the materials in Colin’s backpack vanished rapidly.

Then, the parchment scroll in Colin’s hand unfurled on its own and floated in midair, emitting a series of dazzling yet gentle white lights.

The light shone down upon the wooden cabin.

The next moment, the cabin, bathed in the glow, dissipated into the air like dandelion fluff scattered by the wind.

His home was gone.

Colin stood stunned for a moment.

But soon, in the glow cast by the parchment scroll, the gray-white foundation of a house began to take shape, sketched into being from thin air.

It looked just like a 3D printer at work.

From nothingness, the walls, doors, windows, roof, and even a fence gradually emerged.

Starting from the base, a single-story house covering more than a hundred square meters was steadily created before Colin’s eyes.

Colin was awestruck.

Such a means of creation, akin to an advanced civilization, was truly astonishing.

Even when he consulted the prompt, all he got was: “You cannot comprehend.”

But whether it was the prompt itself that didn’t understand, or just Colin himself, was impossible to tell.

Now, the outline of a glowing house had taken shape.

Next came the more intricate detailing, as the internal structure was swiftly drawn into existence.

“What kind of being could have created the parchment scroll?”

Colin was dazed.

With just a few materials, it could create a house as easily as an ordinary person might sketch with a pen on paper.

But unlike an ordinary person, this unknown advanced civilization—or higher being—was drawing directly in reality.

Roughly three minutes later.

The one-story house stood completed.

The white glow faded gradually, like molten steel cooling in the open air...

At that moment, a “ding” sounded in Colin’s mind.

The Level 2 Territory was complete!

[Ding dong: Congratulations, Survivor “Colin,” on successfully expanding to a Level 2 Territory!]

[Notification: Congratulations to Survivor “Colin” for becoming the first lord to possess a Level 2 Territory!]

[Notification: Rewards will be distributed shortly!]

[Notification: Rewards have been distributed!]

With this flurry of announcements, not only Colin, but the entire world channel was thrown into chaos.

Those notifications marked with “announcement” were broadcast to all players, just like the message Colin had “heard” that morning.

“Damn! I heard the system say someone has a Level 2 Territory—did you guys hear that?”

“It’s a global announcement, it seems—everyone heard it. There’s going to be a new monster in this world!”

“Wait, did you notice? The bulletin said ‘Colin’—the same ‘Colin’ who taught us how to light the lantern yesterday!”

“Colin is a legend! Standing ovation.jpg.”

“No wonder someone was just trading water for basic materials. I thought, who could be so foolish? Turns out, the clown was me!”

“Anyone remember the list of required materials?”

“I do! The big guy just traded for 2,000 units of stone, 26 Brambles of Suffering, 1,000 units of wood, 500 units of clay, and 30 Mist Points. Those must be the materials for upgrading to Level 2 Territory.”

“How do you remember so clearly?”

“Probably because I wasn’t able to snatch a single drop of water from the first batch, so I kept track. Otherwise, why remember it so well?”

“Stop it, my mouth’s getting dry again...”

“What’s the use of remembering, though? Can you even find that many materials? Who knows if Colin had other key materials in hand? Instead of worrying about this, we should dig more mines. If nothing else, there’ll be a ton of people trading water for materials soon.”

“Sure enough, people are already trading water for basic materials again!”

“Damn, 100ml of water for 500 units of stone—what an idiot, he should drop dead!”

“Unbelievable—someone’s offering 100ml for thirty Mist Points. Are they brain-dead?”

“Even the 100ml-for-500-stone offers are being snapped up instantly—are people insane? See, another one got upgraded; this is just helping the villains!”

“I’m selling! 1ml of water for 100 units of stone—don’t let me find out who you are, or I’ll use my mom’s slipper to smack your ass!”

“Boo-hoo, I miss Colin. He gave 200ml of water for 200 units of stone, not a single price hike. He was truly kind!”

...

After Colin successfully upgraded to Level 2 Territory, many people figured out how the upgrade system worked.

Those with surplus resources, especially water, immediately copied Colin’s approach and started trading for materials on the market.

Since many had just prepared materials in hopes of getting water, now, so long as you had water, you could buy whatever you wanted.

This, however, also led to some unscrupulous individuals posting outrageous prices.

For a time, chaos reigned on the leaderboards.

Ironically, Colin, compared to these people, suddenly went from being seen as a heartless profiteer to a symbol of conscience.

He found this both amusing and exasperating. As for the so-called rewards, they were nothing special—“99 pieces of hard black bread,” “1 compass,” “1 watch.”

These things meant little to him; with his prompts, he could get the information he needed anyway.

With a flurry of deals on the trading market, some players rapidly advanced.

Then, a new system announcement appeared!

[Notification: Survivor progress detected... ‘Leaderboard’ will be opening soon!]