My lord, spare his life!

Something is wrong!

One in a hundred is completely wrong!

Zhang Yang's anger came quickly and went quickly.

Realizing something quickly, he stopped pacing and looked up at the map screen—the homestead map showed countless NPCs who had established kingdoms in this area. If players wanted to reclaim their homesteads and build their own world, they had to eliminate/subdue all these forces. This was the main homestead questline!

Now, this has also become Zhang Yang's task.

Only by completing the tasks can you build your own home as you wish!

Zhang Yang quickly recalled some more details.

No wonder she often saw human observation samples waiting on the home map, staying there for ages, constantly logging in and out and fiddling with something in their home. Zhang Yang invited them to go out into the wild to rob players/capture beasts/fight zombies/explore dungeons, but they all politely declined.

Back then, I wondered if the game was really that fun.

Wow, so that's the truth.

Zhang Yang appeared focused, as if trying to memorize the entire landscape above, but in reality, he was daydreaming.

All of these behaviors were observed by the woman.

As he lowered his head to drink tea, a meaningful smile curved his lips.

Although Zhang Yang acted quite strangely, trying to deceive others by feigning madness, she was not easily fooled. She did not lie to Zhang Yang either; the map on the screen was indeed from more than twenty years ago and was no longer applicable, so there was no use in Zhang Yang memorizing it.

"Young friend, you seem quite focused on this; have you grasped something from it?"

Zhang Yang snapped out of his daze and pointed at the map.

"Is this world truly vast?"

"Looking out to the four corners of the earth, surveying the geography below. Rivers flow mightily and branch out, mountains rise majestically and stand in rows. The vast ocean surrounds us, and the towering cliffs stand tall and unique." The mysterious woman sighed softly, "How can we, mere ants, possibly glimpse even a fraction of the immensity and grandeur of heaven and earth?"

Zhang Yang only heard a long string of gibberish and the phrase "the world is vast and boundless," and nodded in agreement.

Can't it be big?

This is a land deed worth 888,888 billion Alliance Coins! What a treasure! A subtle sense of pride rose within Zhang Yang—someone was praising her home, and as its owner, she was naturally happy. As long as she completed the mission, the world would belong to her!

"Young friend, you haven't answered my question yet."

What is she thinking as she looks at this map?

Zhang Yang paused, glancing out of the corner of her eye at the text conversation in the system log. The other party asked her what insights she had gained. She truthfully replied, "I know from the map that I will be the ruler of this world!"

NPCs are really audacious to establish a country on her territory!

Zhang Yang was plotting how to get back everything that belonged to her.

Slaughter all the NPCs one by one?

This method is too much of a project; the NPCs will keep respawning, she could never kill them all in a lifetime. Zhang Yang remembers that the human observation samples didn't take long before they retired to their homesteads, so the solution definitely isn't to kill them all. Besides, the homestead side quests are so extensive, they need some moving NPCs to add some life and make the place more interesting.

Zhang Yang was the first to reject the idea.

The safest way is to just keep doing the missions. She plans to investigate Shen Zhi and trigger the next mission as soon as possible.

Sigh, Shen Zhizhen is such a disappointment!

He's not very bright. When faced with a choice between Jianxing and Tianbian, he always manages to pick the wrong one, and he's so slow and indecisive when issuing tasks.

Zhang Yang mentally gave Shen Zhi a thorough dressing-down.

Little did she know how deeply her words shocked the woman, who tried to find a trace of joking on her face, but found none. Her words were resounding, and her attitude was matter-of-fact, as if stating something perfectly natural.

The mysterious woman clapped her hands: "Young man, the younger generation is truly formidable."

She uttered words of praise, but only she knew what she was really thinking. Any normal person would have known that these were just polite words spoken out of desperation, but Zhang Yang was different: "This is called 'the younger generation is formidable,' and it's only natural. However, I've run into a problem now, and you might want to give me some advice?"

The mysterious woman smiled and asked, "What's the problem?"

"Those villains stole my empire. Tell me, which path should I take to reclaim everything?" Zhang Yang crossed one arm over his chest, propped his chin on the other, his expression filled with distress. "Killing everyone is definitely out of the question. How about killing all the leaders?"

Zhang Yang treats each faction as a separate instance.

The leader of a faction, regardless of its size, is naturally the boss in the instance.

Just as defeating the BOSS clears the dungeon, defeating the leaders of these factions, big and small, can subdue this faction.

Mysterious woman: "..."

She was certain that Zhang Yang was mentally ill.

Moreover, he was quite ill.

Zhang Yang waited for a while but the mysterious woman didn't speak. He sighed, a look of pity, sympathy, and helplessness on his face as he squatted down in front of her. He waved his hand in front of her eyes and muttered, "Am I asking too much of a planner?"

The observed samples all said that the game designers were brain-dead.

How intelligent can an NPC be designed by someone with a brain-dead IQ?

Judging from the conversation just now, the mysterious woman is indeed not very smart.

The mysterious woman didn't understand Zhang Yang's mutterings, but she subtly interpreted them as him considering her a fool. Realizing this, the mysterious woman felt a discomfort in her chest again: "Young friend, this is inappropriate. Who has ever used slaughter to intimidate the world?"

"You won't submit?"

"Are NPCs really that tough?"

"I don't believe that even if you grind it into bone-strengthening powder, it won't work."

The three sentences in a row were all about his pride in his own fighting prowess.

There are reasons why Zhang Yang doesn't believe it.

To make her disguise more convincing, every time the game raised a new level cap, she would select a human observation sample image from those she was close to and invite them to team up for quests and leveling up. Zhang Yang only needed to pretend to follow along to get away with it.

Many of the tasks involve beating up thugs and hooligans.

Once the thugs' health bars are depleted, they'll scramble to their knees, begging for mercy, and disappear without a trace. Some will be terrified even by a few threats. This shows that physical strength can make even the most infamous thugs docile.

The mysterious woman closed her eyes, her voice weak with exhaustion: "...Yu became king of Xia, and Jie perished with Xia. Tang became king of Yin, and Zhou perished with Yin. Xia Jie and Yin Zhou were all tyrants. If killing and subjugating them could secure the world, how could there be any talk of changing dynasties? It's impossible."

Zhang Yang listened to a lot of things, but didn't understand much of it.

However, she grasped the key point: simply killing the various faction bosses, big and small, wouldn't be enough to win over the community; the homestead quest couldn't be done that way.

It's so complicated, I really want a guide.

Zhang Yang squatted down, tilting his head and resting his chin on his hand.

"If this one won't work, then which one do you think will?"

The young man's peach blossom eyes were dazzling and bright in the candlelight.

When she stared intently at the mysterious woman, the sincerity and earnestness in her eyes were as if she were looking at the most precious treasure in the world.

Mysterious woman: "..."

The boy had little patience; when he didn't get an answer after a long wait, he got frustrated, pouted, and mumbled some incomprehensible nonsense.

However, the mysterious woman understood one thing.

"So you didn't know either? But Shen Shude said you're a strategist. Isn't a strategist a clever person who gives advice to others?"

Clearly, the mysterious woman was not very clever.