"Swoosh—CRACK!"
"Do I seriously need to whip you before you remember how to move faster?"
"To get rich, you start with chopping wood—ever heard of that?
If you don't work, how am I supposed to afford a proper house?"
"Don't give me that look!
If you won't work, plenty of Hilichurls will!"
"Swoosh—CRACK!"
Another lash landed.
The Hilichurl flinched, baring its teeth in pain, but didn't dare loosen its grip on its tool.
It understood too well—
If it looked like it couldn't keep working…
The next moment, it would be shoved into that strange machine and evaporated on the spot.
Thud—thud—thud…
The axe in its hands slammed again and again into the tree.
The Hilichurl had entered a frenzy-like working mode, chopping as if possessed.
The young man holding the whip nodded in satisfaction and stepped away.
His name: Liang Chuan.
Twenty years old.
Height: 185 cm.
A tall, muscular build sculpted from years of fitness training—
nearly perfect lines of definition.
Even with absurdly handsome features, his broad, powerful frame kept him from looking the least bit delicate.
He had barely left the lumber area when a "drop" sound came from the quarry.
A Hilichurl chiseling stone had collapsed from exhaustion.
"Oh?"
Liang Chuan smiled and walked over.
The fallen Hilichurl saw him coming and instantly turned pale with terror.
It weakly raised its stone mallet, babbling desperately—
trying to convey that it still had strength…
that it could still work.
"I understand, I understand…
You're tired of working.
Let me put you out of your misery."
Liang Chuan spoke with an expression of false sympathy.
Hilichurl: "!!!!!!"
He grabbed the creature and dragged it toward the massive canister-like machine.
The closer they got, the more frantically the Hilichurl struggled.
Feeling the resistance, Liang Chuan raised a brow.
The Beginner Supervisor Collar around the Hilichurl's neck crackled—
a surge of electricity knocked it unconscious on the spot.
He tossed it into the device and, with a thought, activated it.
A flash of blinding light.
The Hilichurl evaporated instantly.
Only the collar remained at the bottom of the chamber—
proof that something had actually been there.
A panel appeared in Liang Chuan's mind:
[Bio-Energy Terminal]
Level: 1
Conversion Efficiency: 10%
Bio-Energy Stored: 8 → 9
Players Summoned: 0
Bio-Energy Required to Summon (Revive) a Lv.1 Player: 10
Upgrade Task: Accumulate 1000 Bio-Energy (9 / 1000)
Upgrade Materials:
Wood ×100
Stone ×100
Metal ×100
Upgrade Effects:
Conversion efficiency: 10% → 20%
Can construct two player bodies simultaneously
Unlocks creation of a second Bio-Energy Terminal
"Just one more point of bio-energy…
Then I can finally summon my first player."
After reading the terminal information, Liang Chuan let out a slow breath.
"With a player's help, I can try capturing monsters with higher bio-energy.
That'll let me finish the upgrade task sooner.
Once the terminal upgrades, I can summon faster.
And the Workbench can reach Level 2—
meaning mid-grade Supervisor Collars can finally be produced."
As he spoke, his eyes swept over the working Hilichurls,
carefully evaluating which ones were close to collapsing.
Liang Chuan was meticulous to an extreme.
His philosophy regarding Hilichurls was:
Use them to their fullest; drain all their labor first.
Only after they're used up do you convert them into bio-energy.
Throwing in a Hilichurl that could still work?
That would be a waste.
His eager, calculating gaze scared the Hilichurls half to death.
All of them used every ounce of strength they had to chop wood and mine stone,
not daring to slack for even a second.
Since he had just converted one Hilichurl, the workforce was short by one.
Liang Chuan walked to a metal cage and released a healthy Hilichurl.
The creature shrieked and attempted to fight back—
but in a one-on-one fight,
a small Hilichurl had no chance against a trained adult man.
Especially not someone like Liang Chuan.
The moment it tried to attack—
SLAP!
Liang Chuan struck its face with a sharp, ringing blow.
Its vision cleared instantly.
He fitted a Beginner Supervisor Collar around its neck and kicked it toward the quarry,
assigning it to the stone-mining post without pause.
After finishing general base maintenance, Liang Chuan returned to his crude wooden hut.
He ate a Sunsettia gathered by the Hilichurls and muttered:
"Being a regular human in this world sucks…
If players don't show up soon, I'm definitely going to die here in Natlan…"
A month earlier, Liang Chuan had been lounging at home, casually playing Genshin Impact.
When the new Natlan banner dropped, he immediately pulled a ten-roll.
Five golds.
His vision went black.
When he woke up again, he was in Natlan—
a Natlan overrun with monsters
and trapped in a permanent state of Abyssal Invasion.
For someone who couldn't wield elemental power—
a mere "ordinary human"—
this was basically nightmare difficulty.
Thankfully, he'd also received a transmigrator's standard equipment:
a system.
His system, the Fourth Calamity System, could use "game mechanics" to construct physical bodies and summon real players into Teyvat.
He also gained a full upgradeable interface.
And 99% of all player improvements flowed back into him.
In other words—
Players were his labor force.
His workers.
His employees.
But the system required energy to construct player bodies.
That energy came from monsters—
Bio-Energy.
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on P@treon if you're interested:
https://www.patreon.com/Mindsmithstudio