On the first night of the game, it only took three hours to dig the well.
The speed of building construction is directly related to the amount of manpower invested. At night, Ye Bai assigned all nine workers in the territory to a single building, which naturally reduced the time required exponentially.
After the villagers gathered around the Tree of Genesis to sleep, Ye Bai also logged off temporarily.
In the Stellar Network space, Ye Bai glanced at her mailbox, where the number of unread messages had already reached the trillions and was still increasing.
Naturally, these were from people across the universe who wanted to buy guides from 'Bai Ye.' Ever since Ye Bai appeared in the Stellar Alliance, the entire universe had come to know her on the Stellar Network, and they could now send her one-way messages.
Thanks to the unique nature of the Stellar Network, if this were in Ye Bai's original era, her inbox would have been overwhelmed and crashed by the sheer volume of messages.
For now, Ye Bai ignored these messages. Even though she had earned Stellar Coins, she dared not spend them. It would be better to wait until players had grown and developed to a certain level in the game, acquiring in-game resources, before considering trading with major factions. Stellar Coins could then serve as a 'bonus' in such transactions.
From this perspective, the fact that interstellar players could register as official players, rather than being limited to guest accounts, brought greater benefits to Ye Bai—making money in the real world was secondary to her; long-term development in the World of Myriad Realms was the key.
What kind of profit could be squeezed out of a group of 'refugees'? Of course, lords and adventurers were much more lucrative!
In the PC version of the World of Myriad Realms, players could choose between the lord or adventurer playstyles. If one didn't want to manage a territory, they could simply treat it as a casual 'home.'
In the original design, players who seriously wanted to manage a territory would at least aim for a Seed of Genesis with a prosperity level greater than 2. From Ye Bai's starting point, it was clear how much of an advantage an extra policy slot could provide.
Each player initially carried a dungeon key. If they exited the dungeon for any reason before completing it, they could reset the dungeon by consuming resources and even choose a higher difficulty level. However, once the dungeon was cleared, regardless of the level of the Seed of Genesis obtained, the dungeon key would disappear.
Want to try again? Sure, just open the in-game store...
Now, the VR version of the World of Myriad Realms no longer had a store. This meant that in the future, when interstellar civilizations discovered this difference, the game would more clearly distinguish between true lord-type players and individual adventurer-type players who abandoned territory development.
Ye Bai could even predict that in the future, large territories in the game would be organized by civilizations, with most residents being players from that civilization rather than NPCs.
Next, Ye Bai skimmed through some news about the World of Myriad Realms, most of which discussed changes in NPC attitudes, reduced difficulty in obtaining quests, and so on.
After all, only one day had passed in the game. Even with their previous experience from guest accounts, players who didn't challenge nightmare dungeons like Ye Bai had at most leveled up once or twice and hadn't encountered much yet.
Moreover, there was competition between interstellar civilizations. Even if there were new discoveries, they were likely discussed only within the internal forums of each civilization.
For example, Ye Bai didn't find any news discussing the wilderness starting point.
With so many players flooding in, it was impossible that no one had been born in the wilderness. Clearly, this matter had already become an unspoken secret among interstellar civilizations, with everyone quietly exploring and experimenting.
Ye Bai smiled slightly. This was exactly what she wanted—letting the entire universe believe that Bai Ye was a level 20+ class-changed player was her goal.
Logging out of the Stellar Network, Ye Bai returned to reality.
In the morning light, she bought another bottle of nutrient solution from the vending machine at the public seating area. She drank about half of it, planning to finish the rest after spending another day in the game.
Since the nutrient solution was a high-energy polymer with an extremely high absorption rate by the human body, the need to use the restroom was greatly reduced. Its effects were almost comparable to the 'fasting pill' from fantasy novels.
Thus, Ye Bai didn't linger in reality for long. After stretching her body, she lay back down on the seat and logged back into the game.
What was 997 for the villagers? Their hardworking lord was on a 007 schedule!
...
On the third morning since the founding of Bai Ye Village, Ye Bai and Carrie stood at a distance from the tunnel that the villagers had dug day and night.
Carrie asked Ye Bai for instructions, "Lord, everything is ready. Shall we detonate now?"
"Detonate," Ye Bai nodded affirmatively, wisely covering her ears in anticipation.
With confirmation, Carrie snapped her fingers—
"Boom..."
A muffled explosion echoed from the sealed tunnel, causing the ground beneath their feet to tremble slightly.
Ye Bai watched Carrie with admiration. After class-changing, the attribute panel would display 'Psionic Energy,' commonly known as the mana bar. The use of class skills required the consumption of Psionic Energy.
What Carrie had just used was the basic skill of the [Demolition Expert] class—[Detonate]. This class specialized in combat using bombs with various effects, and the ability to detonate them remotely with a snap of the fingers, never looking back at the explosion, was undeniably cool.
Though she admired it, Ye Bai already had a rough idea of her future class path and wouldn't be taking this route.
After the shockwaves subsided, the two approached the tunnel.
The stone wall that had sealed the entrance was now mostly blown apart. Before even stepping into the cave, Carrie's expression changed—she had already sensed the energy fluctuations inside.
As the two walked deeper into the cave, past the layer of hard rock that had been blasted open, a deep, azure glow revealed itself.
This was the highest-tier energy source in the World of Myriad Realms—Source Energy Crystals.
Since Ye Bai hadn't unlocked the prerequisite technology for [Energy Exploration], even though Carrie was a senior engineer capable of building Source Energy Crystal mines, she couldn't confirm the location of the mine. Despite following Ye Bai's orders due to loyalty, she hadn't fully believed that they would actually strike a mine here.
Now, faced with the undeniable evidence, Carrie was thoroughly impressed.
"Lord... you're amazing!"
[Villager 'Carrie's loyalty to you has increased by 5.]
Ye Bai was pleasantly surprised. Gaining favor from a high-level professional wasn't easy. While the other villagers had gained two points of loyalty after a barbecue feast yesterday, Carrie's loyalty hadn't budged. Who would have thought that successfully opening the mine would yield such an unexpected reward?
"Hahaha... Carrie, I'll leave the subsequent construction of the mine to you."
"No problem!" Carrie was full of enthusiasm. Source Energy Crystal mines were rare resources found only in a few major cities. She could already envision the future development of Bai Ye Village and, as one of the founding professionals of the territory, she was sure to achieve greater career growth here.
"Then get to work. If you run out of stamina, I'll use [Energy Shelter] on you."
"Alright..."
Carrie watched Ye Bai's retreating figure with a hint of awe. [Energy Shelter], a rare ability only available to lords, was something that should be used sparingly. Yet... in the past two and a half days, every villager in the territory had experienced it at least once, with some even benefiting from it twice.
This lord's energy was truly terrifying...
...
Ye Bai arrived at the temporary storage area near the Tree of Genesis, where a pile of materials collected by the villagers awaited synthesis.
Aside from stone and wood, there were also some iron ores.
After taking inventory, Ye Bai noted that they were still short by eight iron ores to meet the requirements for building a blacksmith's workshop. It would likely take another half a day to gather the remaining materials.
However, there were enough materials to construct another building.
Ye Bai opened the construction interface and walked along the central axis of the Tree of Genesis to the edge, nearly 600 meters away, where she selected the blueprint for the [Compost Factory].
This was the first secondary technology Ye Bai had unlocked after researching [Agriculture]—[Irrigation and Fertilization]. It was also the first building Ye Bai constructed in the village, highlighting its importance—the well and bonfire were considered 'basic infrastructure' and didn't count as 'territory buildings.'
After finalizing the blueprint, Ye Bai immediately issued orders to arrange for two villagers to begin construction. The building was expected to be completed before nightfall.
Currently, the minced meat Ye Bai had on hand would only last for today. The high-quality beast meat obtained from hunting Ragehorn Beasts was reserved for other purposes. Aside from Carrie, the other eight villagers were assigned various tasks: two were mining iron ore, two were constructing a compost factory, another two were sent to gather berries nearby, and the final two were tilling a small plot of land in the area Ye Bai had designated.
Relying on foraging for berries and mushrooms in the vicinity could only sustain them for a limited time. Soon, they would face a food shortage. Farming, as a stable source of food, was something that needed to start as early as possible.
According to the game's setting, under the protection of the Seed of Genesis, the growth cycle of crops in this world would be significantly accelerated.
From a non-setting perspective, if *Boundless Realms* followed the real-world pace of farming, where crops take a year to mature, players who enjoy the satisfaction of farming and harvesting would find it too tedious. Therefore, in the game, crops typically mature in about a month, and there are various methods to increase yield and speed up growth.
This design was intended to save a lot of farmland space, allowing lord players to have more room for building structures within their territories. Additionally, it ensured that more areas around the territory could spawn monsters, achieving a win-win situation.
However, Ye Bai suspected that this one-month growth cycle might still seem normal to players from the Stellar Alliance, where productivity had already been liberated.
The reason Ye Bai prioritized building the compost factory was simple.
During the first fifteen days of city construction, to prevent large-scale starvation among the lord's villagers, crops received an additional 15% growth speed bonus on top of the one-month cycle. If fertilizers were applied to further accelerate growth under these conditions...
Then, this fertilizer couldn't just be called fertilizer anymore—it would be more like "golden magic dust."
