I Live on the Land in Global Games-Chapter 399 - 389: 3-Year-Old Underground City

After turning three, the true nourishment that allowed the Underground City to continue growing stronger and becoming increasingly unlike a normal city was actually "emotion."

The power of emotions was the real source of strength for the Underground City and the soil from which special buildings sprouted.

Mu Ying wondered when Little Stone would produce its first special building!

As Mu Ying thought about this, her eyes continued scanning until suddenly something caught her eye, and her heart nearly leapt out of her chest.

[Volume: stone brick house (12/55, ordinary), test house (0/5, special), test monument (0/1, special)](Well-fed with emotions, buildings come naturally, special buildings have surfaced, go build them now!)

Special? It really was the special she was thinking of!

"Little Stone, you’re amazing! At three years old, you’ve already grown special buildings, and two of them!" Mu Ying said excitedly, pinching Little Stone, "Mommy’s efforts weren’t in vain!"

Producing special buildings at just three years old was considered excellent for an Underground City baby, according to the "Underground Feeding Guide." Mu Ying guessed this was all thanks to the popularity of the Damage Test House she had designed painstakingly, which provided the Underground City with a lot of emotional power.

With anticipation for the special buildings, Mu Ying opened the introductions for the "test house" and "test monument."

[Test House: A special structure of the Crystal Underground. It can accurately measure physical attack, physical defense, magic attack, magic defense, movement speed, attack speed, among other combat abilities, and gives a comprehensive evaluation based on Profession Level. Construction requires stone, wood, and crystal.]

[Test Monument: A special structure of the Crystal Underground. The back of the monument can split off name tags bound by blood, which perform functions such as serving as identification for entering the test house. The front of the monument can synchronize and sort the test evaluations of those with name tags, and display them on the monument. Construction requires stone and crystal.]

Upon finishing her reading, Mu Ying had only one thought: these were exactly the combat-value-testing buildings she had dreamt of.

Originally, the somewhat crude-looking Damage Test House was primarily designed to harness everyone’s desire to clearly understand their own combat power, attracting them to the Damage Test House, and through the impact of each display of numbers, contributing emotions to Little Stone.

But because Little Stone only naturally possessed the abilities of rapid body recovery and real-time monitoring.

So now, the numbers displayed in the Damage Test House during each attack were roughly estimated by Little Stone based on the damage its walls received, then displayed using its repair ability, essentially adding a crystal pattern to itself.

The leaderboard operated on a similar principle.

Little Stone’s real-time monitoring of events happening to its body allowed it to react quickly and take control of the situation.

This manifested as numbers appearing on the wall with each attack, and if one made the leaderboard, the external wall of the test house would also update simultaneously.

But in reality, the attack power numbers estimated by Little Stone were only relative levels and not very accurate, which was why Mu Ying said it was for entertainment, didn’t restrict players’ methods of attack, and even established a leaderboard with cash prizes to attract people—just because a proper testing capability was lacking.

Now it meant that Little Stone could by itself develop a fully functional Test House, complete with its own Test Monument.

To Mu Ying, the description of these structures was so appealing, she was eager to try them herself.

After all, the attribute panel in the Player Manual only recorded and summarized players’ abilities, but didn’t specify extents.

While it recorded players’ levels and attribute points quite precisely and accurately, other aspects like spells and skills were merely named.

However, the same skill or spell could have varying effects when used and depend significantly on the user, level, proficiency, and other factors.

This led to many people not having a clear grasp of their own combat strength tiers, generally assessed through level rankings and combat achievements.

But levels and combat records cannot fully represent a person’s combat power.

The items related to combat power tested in the test house, however, tended to be more accurate.

"What a dear mommy’s little treasure!" Mu Ying kissed the Underground Core affectionately.

With the test house and test monument, Little Stone no longer had to worry about lacking emotions to feed on!

The pursuit of personal strength is limitless.

This could become a signature structure of the Underground City!

Moreover, she had placed the entrance to the Underground City within her territory, so anyone wanting to enter through official channels first had to pay an entrance fee to Qingshan Town, and then they could proceed, generating additional revenue from valuable facilities within the Underground City—how could earning money not be easy?

Those not wanting to enter through official channels faced another challenge altogether—whether they could breach the Underground City’s defenses was another matter, as long as Little Stone had enough building materials in stock, any damage could be instantly repaired. Primarily, Mu Ying had constructed the Underground City right beneath Qingshan Town, even deeper than the Mushroom Man Underground Cave, but still under the protection of the Territory Shield. Even if breached from below, they first had to break through the Territory Shield.

And the Territory Shield could be upgraded as long as there were sufficient funds and ability.

Wasn’t this a perfect cycle?

No wonder Tongbi 559 said that an unclaimed, newborn Underground Core was coveted by powerhouses both within and beyond Deep Blue Star.

If the special buildings produced by the Underground City were on the level of money-making tools like the test house, then being coveted was completely normal—who could refuse money, after all?

Overjoyed, Mu Ying even postponed her planned trials for the day, deciding to see to the test house first.

She teleported to the Magic Hut, took down the one hanging from the Dingling Flower rack that bore Professor Du’s name, and called her.

She told her to inform the person in charge of distributing the Damage Test House leaderboard rewards that it was time to tally the rankings and distribute this period’s bonus, as the Damage Test House was about to be temporarily closed for upgrading.

Professor Du’s team of territorial business specialists had been unable to expand their activities outside the territory this year due to the Blood Crow and Vampire, so they had to wait for an opportunity while helping her manage some internal affairs of the territory.

After contacting Professor Du, Mu Ying also had Little Stone write a notice of the closure and upgrade on the wall outside the Damage Test House, and she posted an announcement on the Territory Notice Board herself.

Once the announcement was made, combined with explanations from on-site staff, although the players active in the Damage Test House were a bit puzzled, they still left one after another, especially since this period’s bonuses had already been distributed ahead of time.

Once the Damage Test House was emptied, Mu Ying teleported there, used the same method as before to block the underground passage with thick stone slabs, and then began the grand renovation of the Underground City.

Fortunately, the stone houses that had grown could also be re-absorbed and rebuilt, so redesigning them now was completely feasible.