Apocalypse: My Apartment Has Traits

Chapter 63: Chapter 57: Renovating the Safehouse

The floating house title deed in the void shone with brilliance, its gentle light resembling liquid mercury as it spread and flowed across the mottled walls, sketching out mysterious patterns.

[1000/1000]

The already overflowing Shadow Core at this moment resembled kindling being ignited, transforming into the powerful foundation driving the metamorphosis of the safe house.

Various materials worth more than forty silver coins melted within the light like snow and ice, disappearing without a trace.

Immediately, a deep and steady vibration emanated from beneath their feet, like the earth breathing.

Su Lin and Su Tongxi could clearly feel the ground beneath them moving and expanding.

The brick structure of the house’s four walls, reinforced by the Power of Rules, emitted a slight scraping sound as it pushed outwards firmly and slowly.

The space expanded instantly like a balloon being stretched by an invisible hand, doubling in size. The empty hall felt exceptionally desolate, with only their footsteps causing faint echoes.

This familiar scene, which he had experienced before, Su Lin was already adept at handling, his expression calm and indifferent.

With every upgrade of the safe house, the spatial expansion came with an opportunity to reshape the layout granted by the house title deed.

Last time, to hold on to memories of his past life, he remodeled the house into the likeness of the rental he stayed in for four years.

This time, facing the suddenly spacious first-floor hall of two to three hundred square meters in size, Su Lin fell into deep thought.

Such an expansive space, merely housing him and Tongxi, even if in the future his grandfather might move in, seemed overly luxurious and wasteful.

At his core, he disliked inviting strangers as tenants, so he hoped to maximize the use of every inch of space.

“Tongxi,” he turned to the petite girl beside him and asked, “How do you think we should remodel this house to maximize its effectiveness in resisting beast tides at night?”

Su Tongxi blinked her moist, apricot eyes in confusion, tilted her little head cutely, thought seriously for a moment, and hesitantly replied:

“Uh… adding more wall mechanisms?”

“Walls?” Upon hearing this word, a flash of inspiration hit Su Lin, and his eyes suddenly shone brightly.

“Courtyard! Yes, a courtyard! How about we transform most of the indoor space into an open-air battlefield courtyard specifically designed to eliminate Shadow Beasts?”

His tone carried the excitement of discovering a new continent.

“Courtyard?” Su Tongxi was stunned, her small mouth slightly agape. “Is this… possible? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone remodeling a safe house like this.”

The core of a safe house is “house,” and everyone desperately wants to enclose the space within sturdy walls.

The Power of Rules allows for layout remodeling; why not give it a try!” Su Lin’s eyes sparkled with eager anticipation.

His mind instantly connected with the floating house title deed.

He envisioned a clear blueprint:

Preserving the core living area with a total of about eighty square meters over three floors, enough for two, even three, people to live comfortably;

And the remaining over two hundred square meters of space, fully transformed into an open-air courtyard!

As his thought transferred clearly, the house began to emit a low humming sound, starting its violent structural reorganization.

Visible to the naked eye, the indoor space seemed to be compressed inward by an invisible giant hand. The previously vast hall quickly shrank, the living area compressed even more tightly than before the upgrade, wrapping the living space snugly.

Su Lin was thrilled rather than surprised: “It worked! It really can be done!”

He immediately opened the door and stepped out.

Su Tongxi followed closely, full of curiosity and a hint of nervousness.

Outside, the scene was entirely different.

The entire courtyard was still enveloped by a layer of soft, translucent light from the rule upgrade, resembling a gigantic cocoon.

Under the light, vaguely visible were two three-meter tall thick stone walls rising from the ground, formed by the concentrated power of rules, their surface possessing a rough texture akin to unpolished granite.

These high walls extended parallelly, enclosing and wrapping a vast open-air space close to two hundred square meters, equivalent to two badminton courts merged together!

Su Lin’s heart raced with excitement as he strode swiftly towards the front courtyard gate, the house title deed hovering silently behind him like a loyal sprite.

Su Tongxi, like a little tail, followed him step by step, curiously inspecting the strange space taking shape.

Arriving at the courtyard gate, at this moment the position of the gate was still a blank light screen, Su Lin understood.

Sure enough, the rules wouldn’t leave such an obvious loophole, nor let him have two main gates appear out of thin air.

But that was not his intention.

He carefully examined the sturdy, towering stone walls on either side, contemplating further optimization.

Currently, the courtyard was in the “preview” stage of remodeling and hasn’t finalized its form.

“The width of the courtyard is nine meters now; can it be narrowed further? Only leaving a narrow passage sufficient for Shadow Beasts to pass, forcing them to charge along a path full of trap-filled floors?”

With a mental cue, the courtyard walls responded!

The high walls on either side were pushed inward by an invisible force, rumbling as they contracted.

The house title deed cleverly floated before Su Lin, its pages automatically unfolding, clearly displaying the new dimensions of the courtyard:

The width was compressed from nine meters to an extreme six meters, while its length slightly increased from twenty-five meters to thirty meters.

Meanwhile, the core living area maintained its original size.

Su Lin noticed the numbers changing on the pages, raising his eyebrows slightly:

“Hmm? The total area seems to have shrunk a bit?”

The previously more than two hundred square meters courtyard was now thirty meters long, six meters wide, only amounting to one hundred eighty square meters.

He pondered for a moment, then quickly came to terms:

“Even though the total area decreased slightly, this remodeling fits my tactical design better! The thirty-meter long stone walls are sufficient to install six wall mechanisms enhanced by the ’King of the Garbage Can’! Additionally, the floor traps can occupy two units! Moreover…”

His thoughts became increasingly clear, and another idea popped out:

“Can a short corridor be extended behind the courtyard gate? Like adding a ’vestibule’ to the main gate?”

With another mental signal.

An astonishing scene unfolded:

The blank light screen at the courtyard gate didn’t extend inward as a corridor but instead, the entire structure of the courtyard gate, along with a small section of the walls on either side, was duplicated and pasted forward, extending an additional two meters out of nowhere!

Forming an abrupt short corridor!

The layout of the entire courtyard instantly turned strange, transforming from its original rectangular shape to a structure resembling a ’由’ character, the short corridor protruding as the vertical line of the ’由’, with the narrow rectangular main courtyard behind.

“Brother Kirin, a safe house… can be remodeled like this???”

Su Tongxi was completely amazed, her small mouth slightly open, apricot eyes wide, as the scene before her completely overturned her perception of safe houses.

Su Lin, at this moment, struggled to contain his excitement. Watching Tongxi’s bewildered and adorable expression, he chuckled.

Suddenly, he reached out, effortlessly lifting her one hundred seventy-six centimeters like a child, letting her comfortably sit in the crook of his strong arms.

“Oh!” Su Tongxi exclaimed in surprise, letting out a gentle gasp.

Su Lin grinned, proudly flexing his biceps to support her small bottom:

“This is still thanks to you, reminding me to use the walls! Your reward: a high lift!”