When the game shut down, I took my skills with me.

On the beach, Lu Yuan finally sat back down in his deck chair.

The chicken wings on the grill sizzled and dripped with oil, filling the air with their aroma.

Not far away, the robot vacuum cleaner, which was modified from the "cleaner," was working diligently, sucking up the last trace of the battle left on the beach—a crushed Coke can—and then letting out a satisfied "beep."

Everything seemed so peaceful, and life was serene.

"Brother Yuan, your new pet is amazing! It's intelligent! It can even find trash on its own!"

Fatty Wang, his mouth stuffed full of grilled sausages, mumbled his praise, looking at the robot vacuum cleaner as if it were a novel dish.

"Mr. Lu..." Su Muqiu pushed up his glasses, looking at the "Heavenly Enforcer" who once represented the world's corrective laws, now circling the barbecue grill, trying to clean up the fallen charcoal ash. His expression was somewhat complicated. "Is this... safe?"

"Don't worry, I reinstalled the system." Lu Yuan waved his hand lazily. "Now its core instruction is 'Protecting the environment is everyone's responsibility,' making it more reliable than anyone else."

Su Muqiu opened her mouth, but ultimately gave up on exploring the feasibility of "reinstalling the system on the Heavenly Dao." She pulled out a document from her folder, her expression turning serious.

"Mr. Lu, there's something I must report to you. With the widespread use of the 'Amulet of Hope' and your effortless resolution of several world-class disasters, your existence is no longer a secret. Now, survivors from all over the world are gathering in our city."

"That's a good thing," Lu Yuan said casually, flipping the chicken wings.

"But our carrying capacity has reached its limit." Su Muqiu spoke quickly. "Food, water, living space... all resources are running low. More importantly, our current 'Ark' is just an ordinary residential area with no defensive capabilities. If any hostile player forces or powerful monsters manage to bypass the outer defenses, the consequences will be unimaginable."

She paused, then handed over the report: "We need a real base. A super fortress that is large enough, secure enough, self-sufficient, and easily defensible."

Lu Yuan looked at the densely packed data and analysis charts on the report and felt completely overwhelmed.

"This is so troublesome... Isn't this place perfectly fine?"

"It's not good at all!"

A cool but slightly anxious voice broke in.

Lin Wei, carrying her giant axe, walked over from a short distance away. Her red leather armor was somewhat damaged, clearly indicating that she had just experienced a high-intensity battle, but her breathing was somewhat unstable.

"I went to the 'Goblin Spawning Zone' outside the city today and found that the level and number of monsters have increased by at least three times compared to yesterday. Moreover, a new player guild called 'Oracle' has appeared, and they are trying to unite all solo players and block the roads into our area."

She walked up to Lu Yuan, her eyes, which were usually full of fighting spirit, now revealed a rare hint of confusion and a bottleneck.

"My level has been stuck at 99 for a long time. No matter how many monsters I kill, my experience bar doesn't budge. I feel like I've touched an invisible wall, but I just can't break through it. If even I can't get stronger, how are we supposed to protect this place?"

Lu Yuan finally sat up a little straighter in the recliner.

He looked at Lin Wei, his gaze sweeping over her as if he were checking a character in his account.

"You're stuck at level 99 for job advancement, right? Let me see... Oh, there's something wrong with your skill point allocation."

He opened the GM panel, which only he could see, and brought up Lin Wei's attribute page.

"The 'Berserker' class requires both Strength and Agility to exceed 1000 to advance to 'War God'. Your Strength is sufficient, but your Agility is a bit lacking. Furthermore, your passive skill 'Iron Will' and active skill 'Berserk' have a fundamental conflict. Each Berserk will reduce your Mental Resilience, resulting in diminishing returns on attribute bonuses."

Lin Wei was stunned. She understood the individual terms, but when put together, she didn't understand at all.

"Then... what should we do?"

"Simple."

Lu Yuan extended a finger and gently tapped Lin Wei's forehead.

"I'll optimize the code that causes the skill conflict for you, and while I'm at it, I'll recalculate the excess experience points from your last boss kill into your agility attribute. All done."

He withdrew his finger, the movement as casual as if he were pressing an elevator button for a neighbor.

Before Lin Wei could react, a golden beam of light suddenly shot out from her body.

An aura several times stronger than before swept out from her, scattering sand across the beach.

Golden lightning began to flow across the blade of her enormous battle axe, and a blurry phantom of a goddess wielding a divine shield and spear even appeared behind her.

[Global Announcement: Congratulations to player 'Lin Wei' for successfully completing the final class advancement and becoming the world's first player to reach the divine class [Goddess of War]! Reward: Artifact 'Athena's Guardian'! Reward: Divine Skill 'Unyielding Sanctuary'!]

The cold, impersonal system announcement echoed in the minds of every player on Earth.

Lin Wei felt the new power surging within her body and was completely dumbfounded when she looked at her revamped attribute panel.

The bottleneck that had plagued her for months, the boundary that she couldn't break through even after countless life-or-death battles, was just... broken with a single touch?

Su Muqiu and Fatty Wang also gaped, unable to close their mouths for a long time.

"One done, next one." Lu Yuan turned his head and looked at Su Muqiu again, his expression as if to say, "Now it's your turn."

"A base, right? Looking for a place, right?"

He seemed a little impatient and reached into the glove compartment of the black sports car next to him.

Between an ancient painting and a red button, he pulled out the rustic brass compass he had obtained from the flagship of the Ghost Fleet.

"Xiaoya, analyze this 'lost eternal pointer.' Is the abnormal spatial coordinate it records habitable?"

"Sir, analysis complete." Xiaoya's virtual figure appeared beside the sports car. "These coordinates point to a stable demiplane independent of the main world. It covers an area of ​​approximately 960 million square kilometers, with an internal environment highly similar to Earth's old era, abundant energy, stable rules, and no signs of any intelligent life. Theoretically, it is the perfect location to build the 'Ark'."

After listening, Lu Yuan tossed the compass back into the glove box.

"Alright, that's fine."

He waved to Su Muqiu, who was still in a daze, and Lin Wei, who had just recovered from the shock of "ascension to godhood".

"Get in the car, I'll take you to see the apartment."

"Huh?" Su Muqiu was taken aback. "Looking...looking at a house?"

"Yeah," Lu Yuan opened the car door and got into the driver's seat. "Let's buy a new house and test the stability of this car's space jump function."

Before the words were even finished, the black sports car vanished from the beach in a slight spatial distortion.

Only Fatty Wang was left, holding a freshly grilled chicken wing, standing disheveled in the wind.

"Brother Yuan! Wait for me! How can you go house hunting without bringing your future head chef along!"