Strategy game? Then I'll have to control you properly.

"Listen up, Lillie, this might be our turning point."

Before arriving here, Attila stared at the portal and spoke solemnly to the girl, as if he had already anticipated returning to this place.

This was the decision he made after witnessing his people groaning in pain and injury during the monster attack.

"We can't keep running forever; there's a limit to how long we can keep running. Whether it's monsters, pursuers, or natural disasters like plagues, crises will always come, and we have no power to resist them right now."

"Father, are you saying that the monster from last night might bring a turning point?"

"Yes, it did give us what we desperately needed, and maybe... we'll get something even more amazing. Listen, Lillie, it's a deal, and we have no reason to refuse."

Attila mentioned the life-saving food he had obtained the previous night, food from an otherworldly realm whose reality was hard to discern, which had indeed given his starving people a full meal.

Unable to refute her father's words, Lillie ultimately couldn't stop him from clinging to this lifeline.

Can we really trust that monster?

But the girl was still filled with doubts. As the last warrior of the tribe, the responsibility of protecting the survivors forced her to remain vigilant.

When they stepped into that eerie world again.

The blocky monsters made demands of them, and if they barely managed to complete those tasks, the monsters would provide them with food and tools as a reward.

Attila was actively involved in the deal.

Although he could only obtain food for the time being, he judged that he might be able to obtain something more remarkable from this mysterious being.

Seeing Attila, the clan leader and father, wielding a pickaxe and axe and working diligently, Lillie felt a pang of unease, but ultimately couldn't bring herself to stop him.

The sun sank westward at an astonishing speed, and night quickly enveloped the entire earth.

Lin Miao controlled the cube-shaped figure, which gripped the sword tightly with its angular, cube-shaped hand and slowly pointed it at Lillie.

She stared at the sign indicating the start of the battle, gritted her teeth, and nodded heavily.

Since she also had to contribute, she would fight in the way she was best at.

The two stepped out of the stone house, which was teeming with monsters, and found only two zombies wandering outside the cave entrance.

Holding a stone sword, Lin Miao charged towards the attacking monsters and fiercely attacked one of them.

The remaining one naturally became Lillie's target.

In the instant the zombie closed in, Lillie completely shook off the illusion created by its clumsy, blocky shape and faced the real monster with its fangs bared.

She ducked sharply to avoid the attack, and at the same time drew her sword and swung it fiercely.

"Stay calm. Even with a monster like this, you'll still die if you get hit."

She gritted her teeth and killed the enemy with a single sword strike.

This zombie may have a ferocious appearance, but it's not that powerful compared to any of the opponents she's faced so far.

The zombie's frenzied attacks couldn't even touch a hair on her head, but she precisely seized the opening revealed by its wide-open attacks and slashed down with her sword.

The blade, dripping with splattered blood, brutally severed the head from the body.

At least she knew very well that the enemy tribal general, whose eyes burned with murderous intent and who had once tried to kill her, was far stronger than this monster.

More importantly, the belief that she must protect her tribe still firmly sustains her.

She absolutely cannot be defeated by an enemy of this caliber.

"This is……"

But the changes did not end there.

The moment the zombie's corpse fell, it turned into a wisp of white vapor, from which some invisible substance burst forth and was completely absorbed by her body.

Lillie trembled slightly at the unexpected surprise, then her eyes widened in shock.

The magic power consumed in the battle was not only fully restored, but was even slightly more than before.

She had never experienced anything like this before in her life.

No, she had never even heard of the idea that "magic power can increase in this way".

Lillie subconsciously turned around and looked at Lin Miao.

Lin Miao had already dealt with her opponent and was now quietly watching her.

"Do you want me to follow?" Lillie seemed to understand what the other person meant.

Lin Miao quickly made a hand gesture and turned to move in the opposite direction.

Although two had already been taken down, the howls of enemies continued to echo from all around.

Lillie had a feeling the hunt would continue, and she gripped her sword tighter.

Unlike at first, the fear has largely dissipated.

Realizing that his magic would increase with each enemy he defeated, this confidence even turned into a strange excitement.

Theoretically speaking, this means that as long as you keep fighting, you will keep getting stronger.

"ha!"

Moreover, she was not fighting alone.

In order to allow Lillie to focus on her combat abilities, Lin Miao took the initiative to stand in front, drawing all the enemy's attention to herself and taking all the attacks.

As Lillie gritted her teeth and swung her sword, hacking at the zombies surging from the darkness, she watched Lin Miao's figure, disregarding his own safety and fighting valiantly, and her heart couldn't help but be stirred by waves of emotion.

The initial wariness and distance towards him had unknowingly transformed into curiosity and awe.

"Where did these zombies come from?"

As she relentlessly slaughtered hordes of zombies, she discovered that the more she killed, the more enemies appeared, which sent chills down her spine.

In open areas, it was far too difficult for just the two of them to deal with the constantly spawning monsters.

What's worse is that no matter how badly Lin Miao is injured, she can fully recover her health by eating a few bites of dry food and drinking a bottle of medicine; but Lillie is different. She will be injured immediately if she is not careful and is hit by a blow.

Lin Miao seemed to understand her cries or her expression, and immediately stopped fighting, leading her back to the stone house.

"Lillie!"

When her father Attila and his companions saw her return covered in blood and panting, they surrounded her in alarm.

Lillie simply calmed her breathing and showed her beloved sword, which was now broken and unusable.

Inside the stone house, Attila sighed over Lillie's description of the zombie encounter: "The more you fight, the more magic you have? I don't understand the principle, but it's a good thing nonetheless."

Alan's companion, however, glanced at the mountain of stored grain and shook his head: "But chieftain, although we have enough grain, I hope that lord can assign us more work."

They knew it was greed, but they had no choice, as it concerned their life and death.

Especially after being attacked by monsters for two consecutive days, everyone's nerves were on edge.

"Lady Lillie's sword is completely destroyed. We definitely need more supplies, don't we?" Allen's words made perfect sense. They knew better than anyone how important supplies were to them right now.

"But it's unrealistic to make any more demands. Let's wait and see for now." Attila agreed with him, but he was full of doubts about whether it could really be achieved.

Looking around, there was nothing but wild grass and miscellaneous trees on this wasteland.

Apart from this makeshift stone house, there is absolutely no other infrastructure.

Even if the ruler of the world possesses miraculous powers, he cannot create something out of nothing.

At this moment, Lin Miao left them in the stone house and left alone. No one knew where he went or what he was doing.

"Oh my god...it's dawn."

"Huh? The sun has already risen?"

The morning light seeping through the crack in the door confirmed this.

The perceived time was less than an hour. It was already evening when the sun set yesterday, so we didn't notice, but after staying up all night, the rapid flow of time in the game threw everyone into confusion.

"He's here."

Meanwhile, Lillie murmured to herself as she watched the figure skipping and running towards her in the distance.

◆◆◆

After completing the zombie-hunting mission with Lillie, Lin Miao settled the residents in the stone house and rushed to other areas to mine and explore overnight.

The results were far less than expected, and he couldn't help but complain, "The flow of time has definitely been adjusted."

From the moment the residents were trapped inside the game, it became completely abnormal.

Normally, iron ore can be easily found, but this time only a few pieces were found, which is obviously due to this.

Iron ore isn't exactly a rare resource, so if the drop rate is this low, the game simply won't retain players.

That's all for today.

As soon as the door opened, the residents, led by Lillie, timidly peeked out, secretly observing Lin Miao's expression.

Seeing their expressions, Lin Miao glanced wryly at the already exceeded online time limit and decided not to continue playing for the day.

However, before logging off, Lin Miao planned to give them one last gift as payment for Lillie's help in hunting zombies.

Lin Miao threw the iron ore he had dug into the workbench, and with a few clanging sounds, it was forged into an iron sword.

Compared to the arduous process of mining and sword forging in reality, this is practically like cheating magic.

But it's just a game, so it's normal to simplify the production process. In the end, this iron sword is just a game prop.

"—!"

But if that thing falls into their hands through Lin Miao, the situation will be completely different.

Lillie carefully picked up the iron sword Lin Miao had dropped, and in an instant, a brand new sword with a chilling gleam was in her hand.

The way she stared at the sword, as if she were gazing at a rare treasure, perfectly reflected the heavy responsibility she bore as a warrior.

As the game ended and the residents returned to the village, Lin Miao stared at the screen in her darkened room and muttered to herself, "The atmosphere was pretty good."

It was a stark contrast to the gloomy atmosphere of just a few hours earlier.

The returnees rejoiced after healing the wounded with the achievement points they had earned, while the villagers cheered for the food and weapons they had brought back from the game world.

Lin Miao couldn't help but feel a little proud of himself. He knew that he had played a significant role in all of this.

There shouldn't be anyone in this world who dislikes being thanked by others; Lin Miao only just realized this herself.

"Please, whatever you do, don't let anything go wrong."

In reality, he couldn't stay in front of the computer all day, so he could only silently pray that nothing unexpected would happen before he went online next time.

Fortunately, it's the weekend the day after tomorrow, and I don't have anything else to do anyway, so I can really stay up all day.