Chapter 167 - 166: What? The Sky Has Darkened

Chapter 167: Chapter 166: What? The Sky Has Darkened

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’The Watchtower is upgraded to Level 2, and the cockpit is pretty much built, but it’s not complete.

The Yin Fire Heap has changed a lot, but it’s still a little ways off from being able to upgrade to Level 2...’

Inside the tent, which had now been upgraded into living quarters, Gu Su was checking the latest information on his Graveyard Demon, muttering to himself.

His finger swiped through the air, and lines of text on the system panel scrolled past, reflected in his eyes.

Gu Su’s Graveyard Demon had received a comprehensive upgrade.

Besides the Watchtower being upgraded to Level 2, the most noticeable change was these living quarters. The original tattered Level 1 tent had now officially been upgraded to Level 2 living quarters, with an interior that was significantly larger than before.

It had gone from a cramped space with only a bed and a tattered cardboard box for a nightstand to its current layout: one bedroom, one living room, one bathroom, and one kitchen.

Although no single area was spacious, it was a case of small but perfectly formed. Compared to the previous tent that let the wind in from all sides, it was worlds apart.

In the bedroom, the original bed was still there, covered with the soft, fluffy feathers he had pilfered from the Harpies’ nest. Lying on it, a person would sink right in.

But now there was a thick quilt on the bed, dug out from some corner of the Mobile Castle. The cover was made of coarse, dark gray cloth. Though washed-out and faded, it was thick and warm, folded neatly at the foot of the bed.

The special cardboard box was still by the head of the bed, though it was temporarily empty.

The few books that had once been piled in a distant corner now had a new home. A simple little bookshelf stood beside the bed. Though crudely made from palm-width wooden planks, it was enough to hold upright the few books he had read countless times. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

On the top shelf of the bookshelf sat a small bedside lamp. Its light source was a faint, ghostly green glow powered by Yin Qi. The brightness wasn’t stinging, but it was just enough to illuminate the area around the headboard.

Gu Su reached out and fiddled with the lamp. The light flickered, then stabilized.

He glanced at it, didn’t mess with it further, and turned to walk toward the bathroom.

The bathroom had the kind of compact design common in RVs—pitifully small.

It was hard to even turn around. The toilet, sink, and shower head were crammed together, practically in your face.

The toilet had been salvaged from some corner of the Mobile Castle. The porcelain surface was a little yellowed, but it flushed properly. The sink was so small you could only fit both hands in it, and the faucet let out a CREAKING sound when turned on.

The shower head hung overhead, its flexible hose fixed to the wall with iron wire. On the floor was a wooden drainage rack that CREAKED when stepped on.

’Everything is cramped, but everything is here.’ Looking at the constricted bathroom, Gu Su felt a sense of reassurance instead. ’Now this is more like the apocalypse.’

Across from the bathroom was the kitchen.

To call it a kitchen was a stretch; it was really just a corner countertop that took up an entire side wall of the living room.

The countertop was pieced together from kitchen cabinets salvaged from the Mobile Castle. Some of the cabinet doors were crooked, but at least they could close.

On the countertop was an assortment of cookware: a small iron wok, a flat-bottomed frying pan, two or three enamel bowls, a few pairs of chopsticks of varying lengths, a rusty kitchen knife, and several chipped ceramic plates.

Stuffed under the cabinet were some dry rations and canned goods, all of which came with the Mobile Castle. He didn’t know if they were expired, but they looked intact.

But what surprised Gu Su the most in the kitchen was a pot on the stove that glowed with a pearly white light.

It was a White Quality automatic cooking pot.

[Automatic Cooking Pot (White): From a certain expert who couldn’t cook. Just add water and ingredients, and the pot will automatically activate its heating function to stew them. While it can only make soups and stews and cannot stir-fry dishes, the food it produces is at least enough to fill one’s stomach, so you no longer have to force yourself to eat hard-to-swallow dry rations.]

After reading it, Gu Su couldn’t help but laugh.

"It can only make soup... and it’s somewhat edible." He picked up the pot and weighed it in his hands. It wasn’t heavy, and it felt ordinary. "Well, it’s better than my old, busted pot."

Other than that, Gu Su searched the living quarters but found no other items worth noting.

He had held out a sliver of hope, secretly wishing he might find a few leftover Green Quality items in the upgraded quarters. After all, what if the Mobile Castle’s original owner had actually left something valuable behind?

But after a thorough search, he realized he had been overthinking it. If the original owner of these quarters had truly possessed Green Quality items, they probably wouldn’t have needed to resort to such a gilded method to fake an Earth Type Golden Finger. They would have long since gained greater strength with genuinely high-quality items.

As he was thinking, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

’That Death Knight player from today...’

’Judging by his situation, he probably doesn’t have an Earth Type Golden Finger.’

’That set of equipment, that Bone Horse, and that Ghost floating beside him... it looks more like a companion-type or magic-type Golden Finger.’

’If someone like that dies, what happens to their Golden Finger?’

Gu Su narrowed his eyes, his fingers unconsciously tapping the edge of the small dining table in the living room.

’If I could kill him, could I steal his Golden Finger?’

The thought circled in his mind for only a moment before he suppressed it. ’That guy dared to stand guard alone at a distance; he must have some skill up his sleeve. I can’t act recklessly right now.’

’But...’

’What if the beast tide takes him out?’

Gu Su licked his lips, tucking the idea away in a corner of his mind for the time being.

He stood up, left the kitchen, pushed open the iron door of the living quarters, and walked outside.

The air outside was much cooler than inside, carrying a faint smell of something burnt and the dampness of Yin Qi.

He looked up at the newly-built Watchtower, and its top suddenly lit up.

A pillar of incandescent white light shot out from the top of the Watchtower, piercing straight into the pitch-black sky. The light was dazzling, bathing the surrounding ruins in a deathly white glow.

The top of the light pillar disappeared into the clouds, spreading rings of light across their base like ripples from a stone thrown into water.

Gu Su was stunned for a moment, then turned his head to look at the sky.

Only then did he realize that the sky above had completely changed.

The sky, which had been stained purple by the enemy invasion, had at some point shed its eerie glow and turned a pure, deep black.

It wasn’t the deep blue of a night sky, but a true, thick blackness, as indelible as ink. There were no stars, no moon—only the white beam from the Watchtower, tearing a gash in the darkness.

’It’s dark?’

Gu Su stood frozen, taking a long moment to process it.

’The day... just passed like that?’

He had arrived at his defensive line in the morning, and before he knew it, he had been busy until nightfall.

He looked up at the pillar of light piercing the night sky, then at the surrounding ruins bathed in its pale glow, and suddenly felt a bit dazed.

’Time is passing way too fast.’

So fast that he hadn’t even realized he’d been working nonstop for more than ten hours.