Chapter 197: A Visit from Jiuzhou Base

The black mist drifted in mid-air, silently protecting the peace of the island.

The system awoke again.

Shi Zhile walked along a small path. “System, how can you recover your energy? Or, how can I help you break free from Jiang Yuxing?”

The system’s voice was low as it ignored her question. “I know where the energy that supports the game comes from now. They’ve captured many Advanced Systems, converted our energy, and are channeling it into the game through Jiang Yuxing’s system.”

“Like I said, as an Advanced System, I receive regular energy infusions from the main system. If you want to destroy the game, you have to either destroy all the Advanced Systems sustaining it or sever the main system’s energy supply to them.”

“Once the energy supply is severed, the game will be destroyed. I don’t know what will happen after that, though.”

Shi Zhile had already suspected as much. She had guessed it the day the system was speaking and then suddenly vanished.

Her voice was gentle. “Don’t lose hope. There has to be another way. Can you contact the main system?”

‘She couldn’t possibly destroy all the Advanced Systems; she didn’t have the power for that.’

‘So the first method was out of the question.’

‘The only option now was to contact the main system and have it clean up the mess its subordinates had created. That was the only way the players in the game would have a fighting chance.’

The system instantly burst into tears. “WAAAH! I can’t contact it! It blocked me!”

Shi Zhile was speechless. “…Blocked?”

“Yeah! It said I was stupid, I said it was ugly, and then it blocked me.”

Shi Zhile: “…”

‘Good grief.’

‘It’s one thing to be clueless and unable to read the room with your boss, but this was just plain stupid.’

‘Cursing them in your head would have been fine, but you had to go and say it to their face. Who else were they going to block?’

She took a deep breath, her voice growing even softer. “Can you contact any other systems?”

“Other Advanced Systems, yes. But you haven’t encountered any yet, have you?”

Shi Zhile felt a sense of relief. As long as contact was possible, that was all that mattered.

“Also, my energy can be stolen at any time out in the game, and I can be forced offline at any moment. But that won’t happen here in this instance, so try to leave it as little as possible.”

“I’ll save up some energy. You can make wishes to help your base develop as quickly as possible.”

Shi Zhile hummed in acknowledgment.

‘To protect more people, it was useless for one person to be powerful. The entire base had to grow stronger so they could resist the crisis together.’

Three more months passed in a flash. Shi Zhiyi, Jiang Jing, and Tang Yan still hadn’t woken up, and there was no news from Wen Bai or Sun Ci.

After a unanimous vote by the base leadership, the system’s three daily wishes were all used for various pieces of equipment and technological development.

The buildings were simple on the outside, but held another world within. This was especially true for the major research labs, which were fully outfitted with all sorts of equipment.

There weren’t many researchers; they were all stretched so thin they wished they could split themselves into eight people.

With all the necessary equipment in place, Shi Zhile also handed over the sprinkler head she had taken from Jiang Yuxing.

It was made of a substance that none of their instruments could identify. After a system scan and numerous experiments, they determined the material was exceptionally hard and could even resist some energy-based attacks.

This discovery sent the base’s few researchers into a frenzy.

If they could just reverse-engineer it, players would have an extra layer of protection against the invisible, intangible energy attacks, greatly increasing their chances of survival.

They practically lived in the research labs, wishing they didn’t need to sleep or rest.

At the same time, Huaxia Base made contact with Jiuzhou Base.

Jiuzhou Base covered a larger area, with more players and a greater number of researchers in various fields.

Huaxia Base had the equipment but not the personnel, while Jiuzhou Base had the personnel but not the equipment. Every video call left the Jiuzhou Base researchers frantic with impatience.

Some even pressured their base leadership to learn how to perform a spatial migration so Jiuzhou Base could move its entire island next to Huaxia Base.

Advanced Teleportation Gates were too difficult to acquire; even after using the Wish Drifting Bottle to wish for one twice, they still hadn’t succeeded.

The system explained that because the game’s overall energy had decreased, its own power was being blocked by another Advanced System.

This news made Jiuzhou Base even more desperate.

Driven to his wit’s end by the pestering, Base Chief Ye had no choice but to dispatch a team to escort several researchers to Huaxia Base. To ensure their safety, Huaxia Base also sent out a team to meet them.

Whether by coincidence or not, Jiang Yuxing’s island was situated right between the two bases.

To ensure their safety, Jiuzhou Base ultimately decided to take a detour.

As the number of players on the Cursed Island grew, the instance’s area expanded. The seniors’ power also continued to strengthen, and it seemed they were on the verge of awakening more Heroic Spirits.

The tasks of watering, planting, and harvesting in the Planting Space were all entrusted to Mr. Wen and his team.

The work of feeding, mating, hatching, and raising the animals in the Breeding Space was handed over to Elder Guo and his students.

The two spaces were currently the base’s most stable food source, so only players who were one hundred percent trustworthy were selected to enter.

Shi Zhile’s job was to recruit players in the chat group and, once they reached Huaxia Base and passed a screening, send them into the secret base.

As the player population grew, more and more houses were built.

To protect the island’s trees, the seniors and the base commander unanimously decided to build houses on the surface of the sea.

Outside the instance, the frozen sea showed no signs of melting, and the temperature remained at around negative seventy degrees.

Despite the frigid weather, it made travel exceptionally convenient for the players.

As the ice grew thicker, salvaging supplies from the seabed became increasingly difficult, and they were finding fewer and fewer treasure chests.

Shi Zhile moved the supplies from Stone Island into the secret base and incorporated Stone Island itself into Huaxia Base’s territory.

Another month passed. As Shi Zhile opened the Teleportation Gate to bring another group of players into the secret base, she saw a familiar face.

“Ms. He?”

Ms. He greeted her with a smile. Behind her, nearly a hundred players were lined up, filing through the Teleportation Gate in an orderly fashion.

From Huaxia Base to the Primitive Forest, and then from the Primitive Forest to the secret base—after passing through two consecutive Teleportation Gates, a magnificent little city appeared before them.

Ms. He remarked with a sigh, “When I left this place, there were only a few mud huts. In just a few months, you have proper houses, boats, and all this equipment… This is wonderful…”

She hadn’t even finished her thought when the researchers who followed her in dropped their belongings and started frantically making video calls.

“Hello? Where’s the research lab?”

“Where is everyone?”

“Where’s the equipment? And the special material?”

Shi Zhile quickly called over one of the players on guard and told him to find Vice Base Commander Wen.

The moment Wen Changming arrived, Shi Zhile shoved a bullhorn she’d gotten from a treasure chest into his arms and leisurely returned to her room.

She had chosen a house for herself built over the water—a standalone, two-story building in the deep-water section. Shi Zhiyi, Jiang Jing, and Tang Yan were all staying there with her, watched over by two of the seniors.

Shi Zhile had just stepped into the room when she came face-to-face with a beaming Senior Sun.

He stood with one hand behind his back, holding a ceramic cup in the other.

“XiaoShixiao, your sister, Xiaojiang, and Xiaotang are awake!”