Chapitre 84: 84
In reality, Cheng Yang wasn't sure how he would deal with his friends. Right now, they held four of the village's general positions, but that was only a temporary solution until he found more qualified individuals.
In the future, if they grew into the role, Cheng Yang wouldn't mind leaving them in their current positions. However, if they proved to be incompetent when it came to war, it was better to make them Governors.
Even so, Cheng Yang was going to make Liu Hau a Governor now. Not because his best friend was talented at managing internal affairs but because Cheng Yang wanted him to level up as quickly as possible. Lau Hui's Vice-Governor could do the actual work.
Having made his decision, Cheng Yang quickly returned to the place he had left the rest of the group.
Having been forced to wait for two hours, Liu Hau and the others were feeling impatient. If not for their trust in Cheng Yang's abilities, they would have already tried to follow him.
The moment Cheng Yang walked out of the forest, the whole group came to meet him.
"My Lord, you were gone for hours! Did you manage to find it?" Liu Hau asked.
"Everything's settled. I'll take you there now." Cheng Yang walked back into the forest without explaining himself further.
The group looked at each other and then followed.
It only took them a few minutes to reach the corpse-filled clearing three kilometers away.
"My Lord, is that the altar you were talking about?" Liu Hau couldn't help but ask, "Does that mean this is a village?"
"That's right, welcome to Joyous River Village. Its Phoenix Village's first subsidiary village and you, Koko, will be its first Governor. Think of it as being the Lord of a subsidiary village. Are you satisfied with that arrangement?" Cheng Yang asked.
"Me? As the Governor?" Liu Hau asked in disbelief, "Give me a break! I'm not cut out to be some administrator. Keeping track of all those bits of data and organizing chores would drive me insane!"
"You'll only be a figurehead. " Cheng Yang had expected Liu Hau to say that and immediately assured him. "In the future, your Vice-Governor will be the one responsible for managing the village. You know who I'm talking about, right?"
Liu Hau turned his head to look at the woman standing behind him, Chen Chao.
"Did you mean me?" Chen Chao looked around and saw that she was the only person Liu Hau had brought from the people he controlled. It wasn't something Cheng Yang had told Liu Hau to do but rather was a coincidence and a test. After all, if Liu Hau hadn't trusted Chen Chao enough to ask her to come with him on this mission, the Vice-Governor position would go to someone else.
After seeing Cheng Yang confirm her suspicious with a nod, Chen Chao started to ramble. "My Lord, this is… I managed a small business before the apocalypse, but this is a whole village, and as Phoenix Village's first subsidiary village it's very important that its governed properly and I'm afraid-"
"What are you worried about? This is something the Lord arranged for you." Liu Hau encouraged, "My Lord, since you've recognized her talent, why don't you just give her the position of Governor? I've only been with her for a few days, but she's a very trustworthy person, and although she's a little less passionate than a young person, she's the perfect choice for running a village."
"I won't be changing my mind, so don't shy away from the position of Governor." Cheng Yang replied, "There's a lot of benefits to being a Governor. As soon as you become the Governor, you'll be able to level up, and when the village becomes a town, you'll get another opportunity. Since we don't have many high-level fighters, this is something I won't let you refuse."
Liu Hau listened to Cheng Yang with a solemn expression. He had the chance to get stronger, but he would also become responsible for people's lives. "…Yoko, why don't you give the position to Yu Kai? He thinks things through more than I do, and in terms of balance, he's better than me."
"Don't worry about that. All of the generals will get the chance to become a Governor. Right now, it's about whether you can seize this moment."
Liu Hau thought for a moment. "Alright, I'll accept it. Is there some kind of inauguration?"
Cheng Yang nodded and then laid his bare hands on the Territory Altar behind him. After a few moments of fiddling around, Liu Hau became the Governor.
At the same time, a voice whispered to Liu Hau's souls: "Congratulations. Governor Liu Hau has successfully taken office, opening the way to the village's bright future. As the Governor of the world's first subsidiary village, the gods have prepared a gift for you. A road will automatically be built, connecting Phoenix Village and Joyous River Village."
Although Cheng Yang heard a slightly different message than Liu Hau, the general idea was the same.
Shortly after, near the south side of the village, trees began toppling over. When they hit the ground, their bark fell off in strips, and the wood started rotting at a visible pace. Each tree quickly decayed, turning into a mush that sank into the solidifying dirt. The group watched as a road thirty meters wide willed itself into existence.
It was as big as a two-way eight-lane highway!
Cheng Yang could barely hold back his joy. He knew full well that if Phoenix Village had to foot the bill, the price would be unimaginable. Just the raw materials would be enough to make anyone go crazy!
Once road building was unlocked, every three square meters built would cost the Lord a unit of stone. Thus, taking into account that the distance between the two villages was at least thirty kilometers, it took over 300,000 units of stone to create. It would take over a year for a thousand Miners to gather that much.
As for actually building the road, the Lord would need only press a button once the required materials were prepared, and the project would finish in an instant.
"My Lord, I didn't expect that we'd be the first to get a second village!" Liu Hau said, looking at the new road, "It's going to be so much easier than I thought for the two villages to keep in touch."
Cheng Yang was all smiles. "Koko, this road means a lot more than that. Roads like this represent absolute safety for travelers exchanging goods between stations because the god's rules protect them. Monsters won't spawn near them, and almost all monsters avoid them."
"so, in the future, even ordinary people will be able to travel between villages freely?"
"That's right. Although there's still some danger, compared to before, it's a thousand times better. No, ten thousand times better."
"My Lord, can we build a road to Tianfu City? That way, we can reach the city without any incidents."
Cheng Yang knew that Tianfu was Liu Hau's hometown, which meant his mother and sister lived there. Unfortunately, there was no way for Cheng Yang to fulfill his friend's request.
"You'd better give up on that idea." Cheng Yang said softly, "If we wanted to build a road that long the amount of stone needed would be astronomical. Even if we used the cheapest ten-meter wide option, the distance between us and Tianfu is over 1,500 kilometers away. It will be faster for us to focus on gathering our strength and then fight our way there."
"But didn't we make this road without needing to do much?"
Cheng Yang smiled sadly, "This was a reward from the gods, we wouldn't be able to build it ourselves even if we tried."
"Argh! Those damn rules." Liu Hau sighed.
After that, Cheng Yang appointed Chen Chao to the Vice-Governor position.
When he was finished, Cheng Yang opened the Territory Altar's system pane. There were two main differences when compared to the one in Phoenix Village: there was a new Permissions tab and the Divine Grace button had been replaced with a Divine Blessing button. Other than that, Joyous River Village was also missing something crucial that Phoenix Village had: an Innate Ability that it could give its soldiers.
The permissions tab would allow Cheng Yang to limit the authority of the Governor and Vice-Governor.
After setting the permissions of Liu Hao and Cai Tiancheng, Cheng Yang stepped onto the road and headed towards Phoenix Village.
Without wood and manpower, Joyous River Village would never develop. So, the first thing Cheng Yang needed to do was send some civilians carrying wood to the village to perform class change ceremonies. After that, the vilalge would become more or less self sufficient.
The rest of his group would have to stay behind and defend the village from any monsters that spawned. Since there wasn't a wall yet, it was possible for the monsters to destroy the Territory Altar, turning Cheng Yang's first subsidiary village into a shadow of the past.
As for Liu Hau's usage of Divine Blessing, he had decided to wait a few days. Since he would reach the Standard Grade soon using his own efforts, he could maximize the value of Divine Blessing if he used it to become a High-Grade Apprentice.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone