Chapter 42 - Try
Zhao led the four back into the hut. He then sat on the bed and opened up the screen. Once he touched it with his hand, the screen lit up, and the icons appeared.
Everyone was surprised when they saw the screen. It was truly remarkable.
Zhao pressed the camera icon, and a three-dimensional view of the castle appeared. There were a lot of little green dots.
Pressing one of the green dots immediately switched the screen to show the castle square.
The screen could only display a radius of one hundred meters from the spot where Zhao entered the space, and although that range wasn't small, it was still too far away to show the entire castle square. The square that the screen displayed wasn't very big, only showing the inner courtyard, the part closest to the castle. Even so, they could still clearly see a snake-like spirit beast and an undead humanoid on the screen.
Everyone was paying attention to the situation on the screen, and from what they could see, they couldn't help but freeze for a moment.
After awhile, Meirin said, "Is this the castle square?"
Zhao nodded. "Yes, this is the square. It seems that the spirit beasts are not gone yet, so we can't go out."
Even after hearing that, Meirin was excited. "But this is a good thing. With this, Master, you can be safe. You don't need to be afraid of the enemy."
Zhao gave a wry smile. No matter what, Meirin's first thoughts were always the issues concerning his safety.
Zhao returned the screen back to the three-dimensional map, then he pointed at the green dots for Meirin to see. "These green dots represent spirit beasts. It seems like the density of spirit beasts are a lot less than the last time I checked. A few spirit beasts might have already left."
He then switched the image to the living room. It was a mess. Everything was destroyed. Zhao then flicked through all the main rooms of the castle within his range, and almost all of them were destroyed by the undead spirit beasts.
Meirin made a face that wasn't very nice. When they first came to the castle, there was nothing, but since then they had filled it with household items. Now it had all been destroyed.
After looking through a radius of one hundred meters, Zhao returned the screen back to the three-dimensional map, then he turned to Meirin and said, "Grandma Meirin, the situation outside is dire. We'll have to rest in the space for a few days. Right now all you can do is teach everyone how to read and write."
Meirin nodded. "Master need not worry, I know how to do this."
Zhao then said, "Meanwhile, I'll tidy up my barn. I had brought a lot of seeds from the castle's storage and I want to try to grow them in this space."
Meirin froze, then she shook her head. "Master, those kinds of seeds are nothing. They're just common seeds. Their yield aren't as high as corn and they don't grow any magic vegetables. We only brought them here to the Black Waste because we thought that we could grow it on the mountain. So we didn't buy any precious seeds, only common ones."
"I still want to look at the seeds anyway. It would be a waste to not examine them," Zhao said.
"Master, I don't agree. If you are going to plant any seeds in this space, you should plant those magic radishes. Magic vegetables are better sellers than ordinary vegetables, and right now the Buda clan needs money. If you want to try to plant those common seeds, then you should plant them on the mountain. Those kinds of worthless seeds shouldn't take up the land in this space."
"Grandma Meirin, I'm not going to plant those seeds yet. I just want to take a look. You don't know this, but one of the characteristics of this space is that every time I take something out that could be special, the space will level up, uh, I mean this space will get stronger. Last time, I took the black soil and the lake water into this space, and it gave me two extra acres of land. So if I try to grow those seeds, then maybe the area of land in this space might get larger, and then I would be able to grow more things."
Meirin was stunned by Zhao's words. "If it's like this, then it's possible to try, Master. If those seeds could help make this space stronger, then that's good."
Since that was settled, Zhao continued, "Grandma Meirin, tomorrow morning, tell everyone to clean up the garbage and pile all of it into one place. So when we leave this space, I could just take out all the garbage in the same process."
"Yes, Master. I'll take care of it."
"And Grandma Meirin," Zhao said after looking around at all the furnishings, "if I organize this room a little, I think I can fit in another bed, then you won't have to sleep outside."
Meirin shook her head. "No, Master. Resting outside is fine."
Zhao saw that Meirin absolutely wouldn't budge on this issue, but a part of him already knew that it was impossible for Meirin to rest inside this room, so he said, "Then at least let me get some beds from the barn and put them outside. Yes, I'll move them next to the hut so you and the others can sleep close by."
Meirin had no objections this time. She felt that it was nice to sleep in the open air. But do not forget that this was a closed space. Being crowded around a hundred slaves makes it hard to sleep.
Zhao decided that he was going to take out some wood and make two separate rooms on the side of the hut. Although he couldn't make a roof, he could at least make it so that people wouldn't be able to look inside.
Seeing as Meirin had no objections, he left the hut, followed by everyone else. Outside, the slaves were up, filled with spirit. After eating a meal, they would be very sleepy, but after a period of time they would feel better.
While calling over those slaves, Zhao came up with some wood and told them to build two separate rooms next to the hut. Each room was to have three beds. One was for Meirin, Meg, and Daisy, while the other was for Blockhead, Rockhead, and Ann.
The reason that Zhao let Daisy and Ann stay with the others was, in fact, to show that they were different from the slaves.
Although Daisy and Ann had become commoners and servants of the Buda clan, they still interacted with the slaves. He wanted them to tell the slaves what a change of status could do. Whether it was dinner or their sleeping arrangements, he had to show off their differences in order to nudge the slaves towards the goal of trying to become a free commoner. This was his policy.
Zhao was an otaku, he had no extraordinary management skills. However, he was an avid reader, although he mostly read light novels. But you couldn't deny that you could learn something useful from those books. Everything Zhao knew came from school and reading light novels.
Although the stuff in those light novels might not necessarily be true, those books had been written by people from all walks of life. Those people had put everything they knew into those novels, so it makes them worth reading. Zhao liked those types of books, he had learned a lot of useful things from them.
To an outsider, what Zhao was experiencing might seem like something out of a fantasy novel, but here it was much more real. Zhao was clear on the fact that if he died here, he would really be dead. This wasn't a game or a dream. This was real life.
Everyone would use everything they learned and apply it to their life, and Zhao was no exception. Although he didn't know if what he learned was correct, he would always try to keep on learning, and it was only through this way that people would mature, right?
Translator Notes: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.