Chapter 371 186: Upgrading to a Fortress (Part 2)

I opened the system interface and pressed the upgrade button again.

...

"Woah, what happened here?!"

Three days later, Liu Xingxing returned from his treasure hunt, pointing at the Undead Fortress with a bewildered cry. He had only been gone for a few days, but the fortress was already unrecognizable.

The spot where the Undead Main Tower once stood was now shrouded in a black mist, obscuring the view inside. An endless cacophony of CRUNCHING and CLANGING filled the air, like a massive construction site in full swing.

Not far from the Undead Main Tower, a colossal black structure resembling a Pyramid had appeared, its height exceeding even that of the previous Undead Main Tower.

Liu Xingxing had known that Li Ziyu was building a Great Tomb and had even asked him about it before, but he never imagined it would be this massive.

"Boss, did you just build a world wonder or something?" Liu Xingxing asked, his tone incredulous. He had followed Li Ziyu to the front of the Great Tomb and was now craning his neck to look up at the towering structure.

"Does building a wonder grant an instant victory? What on earth goes through your head all day?" Li Ziyu said, patting Liu Xingxing on the head. He then took two steps forward, and a gateway opened before them.

"Cool! Are there treasures inside?" Liu Xingxing's eyes lit up at the sight of the gateway. 'A Pyramid! I wonder if there are Mummies inside? Or all sorts of gold artifacts? This is a place no Treasure Hunter should ever miss!'

"I built this, and I'm still alive. Do you really think there'd be treasure?" Li Ziyu said, looking helplessly at Liu Xingxing, whose treasure-hunting fever had clearly flared up.

Liu Xingxing scratched his head sheepishly and followed Li Ziyu into the Great Tomb.

...

"The fortress upgraded?"

「Another three days passed.」

Zhang Peng had returned. Gazing at the Main Tower, which was shrouded in black mist, he instantly understood and asked the question in surprise.

Li Ziyu nodded. 'Zhang Peng's reaction is much better than Liu Xingxing's,' he thought. 'That guy isn't nearly as dramatic.'

'That's more like it,' he thought. 'We're in a Magic World, after all. No need to be so amazed by everything.'

"Come on, let's go check out my Great Tomb first," Li Ziyu said, pointing to the black Pyramid.

"Oh? That's the Great Tomb? It's pretty cool." Zhang Peng looked over at the Great Tomb and raised an eyebrow. 'This is way different from what I imagined a Great Tomb would look like. The black Pyramid is more imposing and solemn than terrifying.'

Captivated by the ongoing upgrade, Liu Xingxing and Zhang Peng decided not to go back out after they returned. Instead, they waited around eagerly each day, anxious to see what the fortress would look like once the process was complete.

The three of them fell back into a comfortable, leisurely routine: chatting when idle and scrolling through the chat channels to check battle reports. Even though Li Ziyu had told them the upgrade would still take several days, both of them felt that their own fortresses would be upgraded sooner or later, so they needed to learn from this experience—a sentiment that left Li Ziyu both amused and exasperated.

'What experience is there to learn?' he wondered. 'Their Races are different from mine, for one. And besides, the upgrade is completely automatic! You don't have to do a thing. What experience could they possibly gain from this?'

In truth, however, he knew they were just worried. With the fortress upgrading to a Fortress, Li Ziyu's Main Tower was out of commission, and they were afraid something might go wrong.

Their treasure hunting and tunnel excavating could wait a few days. They decided to stay by Li Ziyu's side, thinking they might be able to help if a critical situation arose.

The final four days of the upgrade passed peacefully and in the blink of an eye, with no unexpected incidents.

Just as the sun set that day, Liu Xingxing, who had gotten into the habit of peering out, suddenly let out a cry of alarm. "Boss, it's changing!"

[Ding! Friendly Reminder: Your fortress has been upgraded to a Fortress. The Fortress Main Tower has been established and is now fully operational.]

[Please confirm the upgrade promptly!]

[Confirm Upgrade: Yes/No]

[For more information about the upgrade, please consult the system documentation.]

Just as Liu Xingxing cried out, Li Ziyu received the system notification. He instantly closed the battle report he was reading, sprang to his feet, and ran to Liu Xingxing's side to look toward the Main Tower. Seeing this, Zhang Peng walked over as well.

Now that it was a Fortress, the Main Tower had grown again, soaring from over thirty meters to more than fifty meters high. The original outer walls, once constructed of bone, had become black masonry that looked identical to the stone of the Great Tomb. It was far more Solid than before, and its overall shape looked more and more like a true castle.

'It's definitely looking better and better, but why the color change? It's not very coordinated,' Li Ziyu critiqued internally. 'All the surrounding buildings are white, but the Great Tomb and the Main Tower are black. It feels a bit out of place.' Then he suddenly remembered the system prompt from a moment ago—he still needed to confirm the upgrade. He hurriedly opened the system and clicked "Yes."

The moment he confirmed the upgrade, a sudden transformation began.

It started with the Bone Plate Platform. Each Bone Plate rippled and flipped like a vast field of scales. Once inverted, the plates were instantly dyed a layer of black, gleaming with an oily sheen that finally matched the color scheme of the Great Tomb and the Main Tower.

The transformation of the Bone Plates was only the beginning. A wave of black began to spread, rapidly coloring all the Skeleton Undead Architecture. The buildings shifted from white to black, and the Skeletons adorning them changed as well, deconstructing and re-forming into black, bony bricks that composed the new structures.

'Holy cow, this isn't just a renovation for the Main Tower,' Li Ziyu thought. 'Are they redoing my entire Mobile Fortress?'

Liu Xingxing and Zhang Peng stared, their eyes wide and fixated. The scene unfolding before them was more epic than any blockbuster movie from their past lives. Down below, the Tabu Minotaur watched everything with dumbfounded expressions. They didn't know what was happening, but they weren't overly concerned.

After all, it was the Undead. It was perfectly normal for them to cause some kind of commotion. Best to just sit back and enjoy the show.