Chapter 19: Han Sets Out Alone, Officially Becomes a City

During the main city quest, in the real world—

To the north of the Shuixin Empire, in the affluent district, atop the skyscraper of the Magnate Group, inside the chairman’s office.

For a year since the game’s launch, Yuan had kept the queen larva in its solution, constantly worrying it might be discovered, which would ruin all subsequent plans. Thus, he never bred them on a large scale.

Coincidentally, he noticed an article about secret rooms pushed to his phone. Since he’d always imagined needing a closed-off space to hide things, the idea of a secret room piqued his interest—something he could stash things in, tuck them away. The very mention of a secret room caught his fancy.

Clicking in, he found descriptions of how people transformed their rooms—pressing a certain object, and the room would instantly change. Photo after photo was displayed, and Yuan decided then and there: it had to be a secret room.

He spent every day after that researching, and finally, he thought he’d figured it out. But no, he still didn’t get it. What a load of nonsense—a waste of time and hope.

In his frustration, he started smashing things. A book was knocked loose but remained unmoved on the shelf. In his frenzy, Yuan didn’t notice anything odd about the book.

When he felt he’d knocked off every book from the shelf, he slumped onto the most luxurious sofa in his office, gazing blankly at the starlit sky over his hometown.

Rising to look around, he saw the books he’d knocked down. He’d have to call someone to clean up again. But then he noticed—there was still a book left on the shelf? Impossible. If he’d called someone to clean and they saw a book still on the shelf, where would he put his face? No, he had to get it down himself. Besides, hiring workers didn’t cost him anything.

He tried pulling, shaking the shelf, pushing as hard as he could, but the book wouldn’t budge.

If brute force failed, he’d try subtlety. The book didn’t look important… Might as well tear it. He hung his entire weight from a single page, but not even the faintest sign of it tearing appeared, no matter how hard he tried.

What? Was this book made of some incredible material? He picked up an identical book from the floor and tore it easily.

Yuan stared at the ripped page in his hand, then pulled at the book still on the shelf—still no luck. Could it be… a secret room?

He recalled his earlier research—a hidden, inconspicuous object, something out of place. Was this the key to opening a secret room?

He tried pressing it. It moved. Yuan looked around, but nothing happened. Then he tried twisting it.

It rotated. Suddenly, far behind him, part of a long bookshelf slowly rose upward. He went over to look and saw a dark tunnel, the floor sticky and slick… At the end, he entered a space. As he’d guessed, it was a secret room. Exiting, the door closed automatically behind him. He was very satisfied, memorized the book’s position, and carefully replaced all the fallen books. Now, restored to normal, he could enter again. Excitement surged in him—he wouldn’t have to cultivate the larvae one by one anymore; he could save so much time. Grabbing his beloved vial, he tried to open the hidden door again.

Hmm? He twisted and turned, but suddenly it wouldn’t open. Was it single-use only? Was this a joke? He hurried to recall exactly how he’d gotten in before.

Once inside, he arranged everything and prepared for his first large-scale breeding. A cruel red gleam lit up his eyes. Humanity, prepare for the baptism of my bloodworm army!

…

In the game world, half a day after the quest ended, at dawn—

In Han City, inside Han Qianyun’s rest room.

“We’ve obtained permission to expand the city. Should we use the walls to enclose all our territory, or keep the original area and turn the expansion into a player marketplace? I’m not really sure about this,” Han Qianyun said. Hua Tian, who was standing by, waited for her to finish.

“Captain Han, with half a million troops—and possibly more in the future—we should do both! Transform the original small area into a special zone for allied troops, but leave a one-meter-wide, S-shaped corridor with several intervals of over a hundred meters at the northern end for zombie traps. Lay traps everywhere outside the corridor to guard against stray undead from the Star Scar Forest. In the southeast, elevate the terrain near the city wall, arrange it in a double V-shape so the further you go, the lower it gets, and set up spike traps at the lowest point of the wall to stop anything from climbing up. This will make it easier for us to use fire, explosives, or poison, and then finish with allied tactics. The city’s foundation must be very high.”

Han Qianyun nodded. “Why raise the terrain? Can’t we just keep it flat?”

“We can’t. From what I saw, the Holy City’s firepower was stronger than ours, but they still failed—they were wiped out by you—by the dashing Kraken. They’re in the most vulnerable spot on the coast, with flat terrain that’s easy to attack but hard to defend.”

“Our terrain is already higher than some places, so let’s make that advantage absolute,” Han Qianyun said, glancing at the only flat land in the southeast, and at the official forums, where people criticized her and called Han City a mere village.

“This time, I’m leaving the city-building to you. Don’t let me down. I don’t want to hear anyone calling Han City a village or any of those infuriating nicknames again.”

Hua Tian nodded and left. Under her full command—

Seven days later, Han City was complete.

In the north, millions of zombie traps were set, embedded in the soil, stretching to cover the city’s northern and western flanks.

From the outside: standing at the westernmost elevation, the west rose in a slanting sky ladder, with firepower emplacements at every turn—seven in total. At the top, two massive characters read: Han City.

Beside each firepoint, a cannon tower faced west, covering the entire western battlefront. There were eight cannon towers just on the sky ladder.

To the northwest, a section of zombie traps jutted out, forcing attackers to choose either the west or north; access from the northwest was impossible.

The north, while lacking any visually shocking features, was densely covered with countless zombie traps—spike pits. Lightning attacks would paralyze enemies, causing them to fall into the traps. Monsters refusing to descend would be struck by tens of thousands of lightning bolts from above. Poison arrow launchers targeted any available egress, and a special weapon provided wide-area firepower.

The south had been cut into a vertical cliff, with zombie traps placed along the edge. Peering down, one saw that the cliff’s base was also lined with traps. From southwest to northeast, the cliff’s base was a sea of zombie traps.

Aside from the single patch of flat ground with zombie traps, all other terrain sloped downward, ideal for pouring fire, lava, or other fluids.

On the southern wall, at every central point, countless flamethrower traps were aimed at the lowest battleground, with endless wind cannons below, always ready to assert their presence.

The original flat area had become a double V-shaped pit, the east and west largely similar in design.

From above, the city’s four gates had become three: north, west, and east. The south, the main battlefield, had no gate.

Such was the city’s layout!

Inside—

The walls were twenty meters thick, one hundred meters high, and the highest point overlooked a two-hundred-meter drop to the battlefield. Along every meter of wall, lightning projectors were installed for anti-air defense, flanked by poison arrow launchers to counter invincibility skills, and a wide-range automatic machine gun for mass slaughter.

Flamethrowers, wind cannons, zombie traps, lightning projectors, poison arrow launchers, automated machine guns, cannon towers, firepower emplacements (Gatlings)—these were the city’s defensive weapons!

At the heart of the city stood Han City’s central four-story castle.

Surrounding the castle were houses as grand and dazzling as those of the main city—a resplendent residential district. Game rules forbade any building named “palace,” so players’ houses strove for maximum grandeur, each more extravagant than the last.

Encircling the castle were the Twin Han Palaces (the sisters’ residence), the vast, shadowy, yet unassuming warehouse district (rows upon rows of gigantic storage buildings), the lavish and imposing four-story Team Commandery (the meeting hall for the battle team), the uniquely charismatic Candidate Hall (quest display hall), and an auction house as magnificent as any palace.

Such was the face of the new city!

Now, Han City measured twenty-five kilometers long and twenty kilometers wide—a tenfold expansion. (The original Han Village was about 2.5 km by 2 km; Central Saint Village was 2.5 km by 2.5 km; Great Fortune Village was 3 km by 3 km. Later, land plots of 1 square kilometer could be bought and further expanded.)