I Build a Shelter in the Eternal Night

"On it!"

Xiaoyu scrambled up from the Farmland and tumbled his way toward the open city gate. This time, no more Ghost Objects charged into the camp.

...

When Xiaoyu, covered head to toe in mud, returned panting inside the City Wall and climbed the stone steps to the top, he saw everyone staring at him. The looks in their eyes were incredibly complex—a mixture of admiration, respect, and something more...

He had never been looked at like this before.

Never in his entire life had he experienced a moment like this.

He couldn’t help but puff out his chest. Raising the white-glowing item in his hand, he handed it to Chen Fan with a wide grin. "Lord, I got it."

"You did well."

On the rain-swept City Wall, Chen Fan took the Exotic Treasure from Xiaoyu’s hand, his expression complicated. "Why did you run for the Farmland just now, instead of back to the City Wall?"

"There wasn’t enough time."

Xiaoyu’s throat felt raw, perhaps from shouting so loudly earlier. Now that the adrenaline was fading, his legs felt weak and rubbery. "The Ghost Object was faster than me and it was closer. If I had run for the City Wall, I never would have made it."

"Even if it didn’t catch me, the City Wall would have been breached for sure."

"Brother Wang has been good to me, and you, Lord, took me in during this rainy season. Everyone is struggling to survive. I didn’t want to be the one to get everyone killed. If someone had to die, it was better that it was just me."

"Besides, I figured with the Arrow Towers, the number of Ghost Objects had to be dwindling. If I could just make it to the traps and hold out for a little while, maybe we could survive this crisis."

"..."

Chen Fan didn’t say much more. He simply patted Xiaoyu on the shoulder. "I remember, you’re Xiaoyu, right? That was a decisive call. You did an excellent job."

In reality, the scenario Xiaoyu described—the wall being breached and everyone dying—wouldn’t have happened.

If time had run out, he would have closed the gate.

But...

He just hadn’t expected Xiaoyu to handle it so perfectly. It was a decisive call, but more importantly, it showed a spirit of self-sacrifice. Honestly, very few people in that situation would have chosen not to run for the City Wall, all because they were worried about endangering everyone else.

’I definitely couldn’t have done that.’

He could keenly sense that Xiaoyu’s actions had stirred something new in everyone. It was a visible sign that they had been emotionally moved. If they faced another crisis, perhaps others would now make the same choice.

Humans are social creatures.

Emotions are contagious.

For now, no more Ghost Objects were charging the camp. He narrowed his eyes, peering into the dark, rainy night. ’What just happened probably wasn’t a coincidence,’ he thought. ’Could it really be such a fluke that the Ghost Objects in the darkness attacked the very moment Xiaoyu left the wall and reached the edge of the camp?’

And...

This wave of attacking Ghost Objects, which resembled humanoid mantises, was extremely fast—even faster than the first wave of Bamboo Pole Ghosts.

They were clearly ill-suited for sieges, but perfect for pursuit.

The Bamboo Pole Ghosts, on the other hand, at over three meters tall, were much better suited for storming a city.

He strongly suspected the Ghost Object outside—the one that had let out that eerie laugh at the beginning—possessed some intelligence. It could probably see the camp’s layout and was ready to launch an all-out assault at any moment.

Though its intelligence probably wasn’t very high. Or, at least, the intelligence of the Ghost Objects it controlled wasn’t.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have walked so blindly into the traps.

"..."

He looked down at the Exotic Treasure in his hand, his eyes narrowing. It was a piece of Ghost Skin, as thin as a cicada’s wing. To the touch, it felt somewhat similar to the Ghost Map. Etched upon the Ghost Skin in crimson lines was a building.

A structure similar to an Arrow Tower.

Only it was taller.

And narrower.

It was a Building Blueprint, an exceptionally rare type of Exotic Treasure. Among all the Exotic Treasures, Building Blueprints were definitely one of the rarest. This was the first one he had ever acquired.

-

[Exotic Treasure Name]: Sentry Tower Building Blueprint

[Exotic Treasure Level]: White

[Exotic Treasure Effect]: Allows the construction of a Sentry Tower. The Sentry Tower provides 50 meters of visibility outside the camp.

-

Without a moment’s hesitation,

He crushed the Building Blueprint in his hand. Unlike other Architects, he didn’t need to study it. The moment the Blueprint shattered, a new constructible building, the [Sentry Tower], appeared on the Eternal Night Lord Panel in his mind. It only cost 10 Ghost Stones to build.

He currently had 130 Ghost Stones.

The next moment—

A translucent phantom of an extremely narrow tower, fully ten meters high and composed of countless white lines, materialized in the air. As 10 Ghost Stones in his palm shattered and flowed into it as a milky-white liquid,

the phantom tower gradually solidified, taking its place beside the Wooden Houses within the walls. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Its base was merely a meter square.

It was wider at the bottom and tapered toward the top.

At its peak was an embedded object resembling a Luminous Pearl.

The moment the Sentry Tower solidified, his vision instantly expanded. Before, the area outside the camp had been an absolute, soul-devouring darkness, like an abyss. But now, the 50-meter radius beyond the camp’s edge had shifted from pitch-black to a faint gray.

Beyond those 50 meters, the oppressive darkness remained.

He could clearly see hundreds of Ghost Objects moving in packs through the light gray mist, quickly bypassing his camp and heading deeper into the darkness, like a great animal migration.

They flashed past in an instant.

It was hard to see them clearly.

But...

Four Bamboo Pole Ghosts were carrying a blood-red palanquin. They hadn’t joined the mass migration, but had stopped a steady thirty meters from the camp, surrounded by roughly a hundred other Ghost Objects.

There were three types in total.

Bamboo Pole Ghosts and Mantis Ghosts.

He had named them himself. The third type was the same Monkey Head Ghost he had first encountered. The Monkey Head Ghosts were the fewest in number.

Among this horde of Ghost Objects, one Bamboo Pole Ghost and one Mantis Ghost were noticeably larger than the others of their kind.

"..."

Chen Fan took a deep breath. Standing on the City Wall, he gazed into the gray mist beyond the Ghost Fire. The Sentry Tower had given him a wealth of new information; a fifty-meter range of sight was an enormous help.

He also finally understood what was happening.

’In all likelihood...’

’Those two larger Ghost Objects must be lieutenants. The reason there are so few Monkey Head Ghosts is that I killed so many of them. And there’s no lieutenant among them because I already killed it.’

’After it died, it even dropped two Exotic Treasures for me: the Ghost Ore Vein Seed and the Godslaying Spear.’

’The one in the palanquin must be the creature that laughed at the start. It found out its subordinate died and came looking for revenge.’

’Thankfully...’

A flicker of relief passed through him. The Sentry Tower let him see just how many Ghost Objects were passing by. If that entire horde had charged his camp, he would have been dead without a doubt!

’There’s no way I could have defended against that.’

Only this one group of Ghost Objects was menacingly waiting outside the camp. The rest simply ignored its existence as they passed, as if they were rushing to get somewhere.

Two Level 2 Arrow Towers were definitely not going to be enough.

Back then, the two Level 2 Arrow Towers hadn’t killed the Monkey Head Ghost lieutenant on the spot, allowing it to escape the camp and bleed to death dozens of meters away. Now there were two such lieutenants, plus an even stronger main boss.

The Level 2 Arrow Towers definitely weren’t going to cut it.

’I need a Level 3 Arrow Tower.’

Fortunately, he had saved enough Ghost Stones to upgrade the Arrow Towers.