CHAPTER 175: NEW PROXY

Xu Tao’s design was quite simple.

An inner sanctum for the castle and the Small World Tree with a 100-meter-diameter, 5-meter-tall wall. Then, two more layers, each being 300 meters wider than the previous one. The outermost wall was about 700 meters in diameter, much wider than the initial design.

"So the available objects are moved, while those that need to be crafted are marked by a translucent hologram...?" Xu Tao whispered, nodding to himself.

He was curious as to how the Lost System moved things around, as he hadn’t felt any movement at all earlier. It felt as if after the flash, everything was just moved to their new locations at once.

"S-Sir Tao did all this?" Jehanne whispered, both in awe and shock.

He shrugged casually to her repeated question. "Well, all I did was use the System to change the placement of things. Upgrading them still seems to need manual handiwork, it seems."

To be specific, they needed to fix the walls ASAP.

The outer wall, having a 700-meter diameter, was much longer than the two initial walls combined. Thus, a large section of it was left wide open, with nothing but holograms filling it. Those were just for display too, so if a monster came, it could easily pass through the walls using that long blank space.

"Looks like our schedule has been determined for the immediate future," Xu Tao sighed.

He was half-expecting that everything would be made instantly through the System after he modified the city. However, it seemed that things wouldn’t go as easily as he hoped.

"Jehanne, call Yifa over immediately. We should discuss how to handle the construction together."

Currently, only Xu Tao, Jehanne, and Yifa had copies of the Lost System. Thus, it also meant they were the only ones who could see the System prompts for material gathering and construction.

Jehanne, realizing the urgency of the matter, quickly nodded and ran off.

"R-Right! I’ll go and grab her!"

About half a minute later she returned—with a little girl under her arm, carried like a sack of potatoes.

"W-What’s going on?! I was in the middle of eating lunch, for God’s sake!" Yifa shouted as soon as they came to a stop.

Xu Tao didn’t delay and explained quickly. He told her about the modified city, the upgrades to the structures, and the need for gathering materials and construction based on the System’s instructions. He listed everything to Yifa in just a couple of minutes.

Thankfully, Yifa quickly understood the situation. "I see... So that means as long as we patch up the outer wall, we can work on the rest leisurely, right?"

"Basically, yes."

"Then Miss Jehanne will lead the high-level guys outside to gather the materials for the walls, while Master Tao and I go around checking the blueprints and activating the markers for their materials."

"What?" Jehanne raised a brow at her plan. "It should be me with Sir Tao and you gathering materials with the rest, shouldn’t it?"

A silent war was waged between the two: who would stay and who would go gather materials?!

But Yifa’s next words made Jehanne grumble in dismay. "You have an SSR Storage Ring, and the highest movement speed among everyone. Thus, you can definitely bring back materials faster than I could... right?"

Yifa’s distribution of jobs was based on solid logic. Given the urgency of fixing the outer wall, it was true that speed was of the essence. Thus, assigning Jehanne to it was the best choice.

"Kuh...!" She gritted her teeth, but quickly gave up. "Alright... But after the wall is made, we switch positions!" She still didn’t back down without a fight.

"Alright, I don’t mind."

Yifa nodded, showing the composure of a woman—despite looking like a cocky child with that grin.

"Then I’ll go and gather the high-level ones. Jehanne, you should head to the wall first and activate the blueprint. Head to the material gathering spot quickly and secure the path," Xu Tao ordered.

"Yes!"

Without another word, Jehanne jumped from the balcony and ran toward the outer wall. Despite not having her Bunny Suit equipped, her speed was still baffling.

After Xu Tao watched her go, he turned to Yifa and nodded. "Then, let’s move too."

That marked the start of their one-week-long construction.

The outer wall was finished about three hours after the modification of the city’s structure. Of course, the blueprint that was used on it was the same one the System upgraded it to—stone walls: tough, heavy, and resistant to deterioration.

After that, they continued with their momentum, finishing the other two walls within the next day.

With everyone working together collecting and hauling materials, completing the System-based construction requirements, and chasing away monsters when needed, the city slowly took shape.

By the fourth day they had upgraded every existing building and finished paving the streets with pebbles and stone slabs.

What took the longest was the last day, when they finished the new houses Xu Tao had added during the design phase. In total, they added 30 new houses manually, without using the Quick Build function of the Crafting Panel.

And during noon of the seventh day...

"Done!"

As soon as they finished crafting the last building, Xu Tao raised his voice in satisfaction.

Finally, the city’s upgrade was complete!

[

Quest Complete: Helping the Homeless (2)!

Reward Gained: Unique Title upgrade, Landlord II

]

[

Quest Complete: Let’s Upgrade the City!

Reward Gained: 1,000,000 Gold

]

As soon as it was over, two popups appeared, making Xu Tao’s lips curl up. He had been looking forward to this for a while.

Landlord II.

Although it might sound like just a normal title upgrade, the effects were far from simple.

First, it doubled the land watched over by the System. Xu Tao had no idea just how wide that was, but having more was definitely good!

Second, with the title’s upgrade, the number of Proxies he could assign also increased by one. That meant he could now assign one more proxy who would receive a copy of the Lost System!

Of course, Xu Tao had long decided who to give the proxy to.

He glanced around, looking for someone, until his gaze locked onto a certain blonde, former king.

"Arthur, come here."

"Huh?"

Although confused, Arthur wiped the sweat from his forehead and marched forward. Behind him, the Demon Countess Andromalia followed him as if it were the most natural thing in the world, keeping herself three steps behind.

When he stopped a few meters away, Xu Tao walked closer, patting his shoulder lightly.

"Let’s skip the formality," he said. "From today on, you’ll be the second proxy after Jehanne. Do work fitting of your new position."

Matching the timing, Xu Tao added Arthur as the secondary proxy under the Management Tab.

The next moment, Arthur’s eyes opened wide, staring at something invisible in the air. His lips parted, muttering in disbelief, "W-What... is this thing?"