At first light, Yun Luohe pushed open the door and a blade of cold wind cut across her face, making her shiver.“Why did it suddenly get this cold…?”She reacted at once—autumn was nearly over.Winter was coming…At the same time, the system announcements chimed again. The voice was the same as ever, but this time it carried a strange urgency.[Zone-Wide Notice: Autumn has entered its countdown. Winter will arrive in five days.][Survival difficulty will increase. Before winter arrives, any player whose reef has not been upgraded to Level 9 must submit a shelter application to a player with an island certification. Prerequisite: the target island must have a vacant, habitable house for the applicant, either already constructed or backed by the corresponding deed and construction resources.][Applicants who are approved and move in will become permanent residents of that island. Their conduct must follow the island owner’s basic rules (the island owner has baseline management rights over them, including but not limited to task assignments, resource allocation, behavioral constraints, and the right to expel).][Players who have not upgraded and are not formally accepted by an island territory will be deemed unable to survive and will be eliminated directly!][After winter’s arrival, the survival mode will change. All districts will be frozen over; all districts will merge; the game will enter Frozen World mode.Extreme low temperatures, blizzards, ice-locking of waterways… and other disasters will descend.][All players, use the last of your time to upgrade your reefs or seek shelter from an island owner.]—After hearing the new rules, Yun Luohe’s expression turned grave.So winter would be another hard war. On paper, players could survive by entering someone else’s island; that sounded simple—but think it through and it’s a mess.Leaving aside the requirement for a livable house: players who reach Level 9 get one free House Deed, but those houses are prepared for NPCs. Give one to a player and an NPC’s move-in gets pushed back.The mall did sell deeds now, but only after your reef rating upgraded a tier.Yun Luohe could spend big right now to buy a fresh deed.But in her plan, that deed was reserved for the next NPC.NPC arrivals unlock special buildings and offer exclusive goods and services—things raw player labor can’t replace in the short term.Captain Hilco could bring a Shop; Old Xu could bring a Smithy…If she gave that slot to a player, yes—she’d get immediate labor to accelerate infrastructure and resource gathering, crucial for the coming Frozen World. But Yun Luohe had the Spider Legion; she didn’t need ordinary labor at all.And players consume food, housing, and heat—drawing down island reserves.Giving a precious housing slot to a player meant delaying—or even missing—the chance to recruit the next key NPC.The long-term return from NPCs far outweighed common player labor.Fortunately, Mu Zitang had already upgraded.Cheng Xuening was about to hit Level 9; short a bit of material, which Yun Luohe could easily top up—no need for her to move in.They wouldn’t want to live on others’ islands anyway. It’s renting versus owning. Who doesn’t want their own home?Live on someone else’s island and you’re a hired hand. Freedom dries up, and even your life can sit in someone else’s palm—the island owner has the right to expel.—The announcement detonated across the zone; every chat channel roiled with it.Messages flooded by, line after line—impossible to read.Some panicked, some begged Level 9s to take them in, some cursed the system’s cruelty.“I knew not upgrading meant elimination, but I thought Level 8 could scrape by.”“Why Level 9… how is that possible! I just hit 8!”“Big shots, please take me! I’ll do any job! I can farm, I can mine!”“We’re done—winter’s disasters sound terrifying…”“I’ve got tons of supplies and lots of pets. Any Level 9 willing to give me a spot to live? I’ll hand over everything I own.”“Damn it—forget me getting eliminated—what about my pets? Will they die too? Any whale willing to take me and my pets? Pet contracts can’t be traded!”Very quickly, Yun Luohe saw a new product added to the mall.Huh—new deeds were purchasable.No sooner the announcement than the deeds appeared.But the price wasn’t cheap.One deed cost 100,000 Sea Coins.That wasn’t a price every player could swing.Even if an ordinary player liquidated everything, they might only scrape together a hundred-odd thousand.Yun Luohe had a lot of Sea Coins, but even she couldn’t buy many deeds.From now on, every deed equaled one precious population slot for the island.—“Visitor coming!” Fenfen suddenly screeched.Delight flashed in Yun Luohe’s eyes—should be Captain Hilco.She took the Motorcycle to pick him up.Crafted at the Advanced Workbench, she’d chosen a red-and-white livery with a little cloud decal—flashy and fun to ride.It was smaller than the police bike she’d ridden before, but fast. She streaked across the beach.Fenfen couldn’t keep up, flapping hard behind.Soon she saw Old Hilco, hands clasped behind his back, striding °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° steadily up from the shore.He still wore his deep-blue captain’s coat. He came up to Yun Luohe. “Girl, got that liquor ready? Morning’s too cold—need hard spirits to warm up.”“Of course.” Yun Luohe smiled and stepped aside to lead the way. “But first, a look at your new home. I’ve been waiting on your walkthrough.”“Alright.”“Hop on—I’ll take you.” Yun Luohe swung the bike around and whisked Hilco to the house.“This place looks decent. Yard and garden are good—especially that whiff of wine. Must mean the Brewery Workshop is right nearby.”Yun Luohe nodded. “Please, take a look inside.”In the house, Hilco’s eye went straight to the bar. A stone fireplace crackled warmly, pushing the chill from the room.The bar was carved from a single slab of dark hardwood; behind it, bottle racks displayed Yun Luohe’s fruit wines and spirits in pleasing, staggered order.“This bar’s not bad,” Hilco said, eyes lighting.Yun Luohe led him to the viewing deck—built with top-grade materials, with a superb sightline taking in the whole bay and dock.“Nice! A perfect place to watch the sea and drink!”He patted the railing, thoroughly pleased.“There’s a wine cellar below as well—you’ll love it.”After the full circuit, Hilco’s favorability climbed again.“Good. I’ll move in today.”Yun Luohe had expected as much, but still exhaled when she heard it. “Then I owe you a proper meal—a welcome banquet.”[Congratulations! Your first NPC, Old Captain Hilco, has officially settled on your island.][Achievement ‘Honored Guests’ achieved. Reef rating +800.][Reward obtained: Shop Deed ×1.]Above Hilco’s head, the favorability bar now glowed a full, rich red heart!The Shop Deed listed a reasonable set of materials. With the whole zone scrambling to upgrade, Yun Luohe wasn’t going to the Trade Hub—basic materials would be scarce and overpriced. Not worth it.Better to buy from the Reef Mall, or simply send spiders to gather across the island.If that still wasn’t enough, she’d take the Yacht out, chop timber and mine on other islands.One way or another, she’d get the Shop built within these few days.The weather had turned cold, and the insect surges hadn’t eased, but the Spider Legion kept growing.Yun Luohe sold off another high-priced batch of spiders to several already-Level-9 advanced players and in return received a mountain of supplies.After Level 9, island workload explodes; a single player and a few pets can’t keep up—spiders become far more valuable.And not just here—across districts, players had bred helper creatures akin to spiders—bees, ants…People were even raising snakes and crows to help with work. Ever since the Trade Hub merged, all kinds of animals had begun to appear.Many admitted they were inspired by Yun Luohe. If she hadn’t been first to sell spider helpers, others wouldn’t have found this path so quickly._Hilco settled by the living-room fireplace. “Since I’m eating your food, I won’t come empty-handed. I’ve got plenty of seafood—whatever you want, take it and cook.”He produced a big basin and filled it with a colorful heap of fresh catch.Yun Luohe’s eye went straight to a king crab.She also picked out a coral trout.“You do know how to pick,” Hilco chuckled, stroking his beard.Yun Luohe: “Then please sit tight for the meal. When it’s almost ready, I’ll have Fenfen call you.”She turned back to her own villa and headed for the kitchen.The king crab was big as a washbasin.She split the legs cleanly, pan-seared them in butter to a golden crust, then sweated chopped onion and garlic until fragrant, finishing with freshly ground black pepper and parsley.As for the coral trout, steaming was the only answer.With ingredients like these, heavy seasoning was unnecessary.With top-tier seafood settled, she rounded out the table—red-braised pork trotters and a couple of greens.A quick stir-fry of cabbage, a smashed cucumber salad—plenty generous.Once the dishes were done, Yun Luohe sent Fenfen to fetch Hilco.With a spare minute, she opened her light-screen.Chat channels were ablaze about the forums, so Yun Luohe pulled up the forums too. A few posts had gone nuclear—the titles alone were loud enough.Outside the game, the forums had surged into a tidal wave against high-level players. The winter survival rules were a boulder tossed into a lake—panic fermenting into demands on the “strong.”Hot Thread 1: #Kneeling to beg Level 9 bosses to take in un-upgraded players#Hot Thread 2: #Lists of Level 9+ players by district#Hot Thread 3: #No moral blackmail! If you want to live, level yourself#Yun Luohe’s inbox also brimmed with messages. Many “public figures” had named her specifically—since she was District 2’s number one, they said, she had an obligation to take a few players onto her island. Saving a few is saving a few.If the general forums were like that, District 2’s chat was a total scrollstorm.Even the Mutual Aid Association’s internal channels were noisy.Anyone who couldn’t see their own upgrade path started scheming to cling to a thigh.All the more because, if you lived on Yun Luohe’s island—even as hired help—you wouldn’t be worked to death. Everyone knew how many spiders she had doing the heavy lifting.“@Yun Luohe, look at me! I’ve got Gathering Lv.6, Mining Lv.5, and learned Beast Taming. Whatever you say, I’ll do. Just asking for a place to lay my head.”“My trait is ‘Warmth Aura’! It raises temperature in a small radius. You won’t lose taking me! With me around in winter, you won’t feel the cold.”“@Yun Luohe, the forums are calling you out. Not going to say something?”“You’re dreaming. Yun Luohe’s Spider Legion equals a hundred ordinary workers. Why should she take you?”“Yeah—our Mutual Aid Association doesn’t even have spare slots. Who are you people?”“What, she’s not going to help anyone? Just watch everyone die?”Mu Zitang: “Sister Yun, ignore them. Easy to talk when it’s not their problem. Don’t take a single one.”Cheng Xuening: “Luohe, don’t worry about me. I’ll upgrade soon. Focus on your own development first.”More friends pinged her, asking what she planned to do.Du Ruan-tian said the European Emperor Association would digest internally—those who hadn’t upgraded had already found placements with other association members.For the “lucky” crowd, having a few more high-luck people crack shells and pop chests wasn’t a bad play either.

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