Chapter Forty-One: The Elite Monster

Night was about to fall, and Lin Ye arrived as expected, bringing not only roasted potatoes but also a generous supply of bread.
These provisions would be enough to sustain the migrants all the way to the Block Kingdom.
Yet Mo Fangyuan felt no relief.
His mind lingered on the pair of white eyes he had glimpsed in daylight, eyes that inspired a deep, unsettling terror.
Mo Fangyuan trusted his own vision; he did not believe it to be a hallucination.
“Could this be an omen?”
He tried not to dwell on that presence, but the harder he tried, the more persistently it haunted his thoughts.
“White eyes… glowing… surely not? Surely not?”
“I’m just a passerby. There’s no reason for anyone to take interest in me, is there?”
Mo Fangyuan doubted it. The Block World was teeming with countless creatures; surely that being would not be so bored as to fixate on him?
“Surely not? Surely not?”
His mind wandered, imagining all sorts of possibilities.
“Your Majesty, after this mission I might need to request some leave…”
Seeing the strange unease in Mo Fangyuan’s eyes, Lin Ye hastily reassured him.
“I’ll only need three days… no, two! It’s really important! Once I’m back, I promise I’ll work overtime!”
The word “overtime” instantly softened Mo Fangyuan’s harsh gaze, which had been clouded by the incident of the white eyes.
“No problem at all! Take as much leave as you need. As king, I care deeply for my subjects!”
He patted Lin Ye’s shoulder and laughed.
“Three days’ leave? That’s fine! When you return, just work an extra week of overtime!”
“What do you think? Isn’t that generous?”
“Ah… well, yes, yes!”
Lin Ye was moved beyond words.
“My dear compatriots, fear cannot make us retreat! The harm monsters inflict upon us only makes us stronger! More resilient…”
Last night, his attempt at an inspiring speech had failed, leaving Mo Fangyuan disappointed. Now, on their final night, he was determined not to let the opportunity slip away.
“Let yourselves be washed in the warmth of encouragement, my people!”
His speech soared from passionate to mournful, far more compelling than his first, faltering attempt.
Sure enough, after half an hour of stirring oratory, the group of migrants from the East felt their morale rise, vowing to stand against the monsters without compromise.
The most impassioned among them was Iron Nose.
His aged father had been killed by monsters—right in Iron Nose’s arms.
As the ancients said, the murder of one’s father is a feud that cannot be reconciled.
Spurred by Mo Fangyuan’s words, Iron Nose knelt in loyalty, pledging to join the army and avenge his father by slaying monsters!
“There isn’t an army, but there is a Field Guard…”
Of course, Mo Fangyuan kept that to himself.

As the only military force in the Block Kingdom, “Field Guard” was far too shabby a name, he thought—it needed something more dignified.
Having spent so much time here, Mo Fangyuan finally realized how tasteless his original naming had been.
“Block Legion? Knights of Vitality… never mind, I’ll figure it out later.”
Naming things for others was always a challenge for him.
By the time his speech ended, it was already deep into the night—the peak hour for monster appearances.
To avoid traumatizing the newly encouraged migrants, Mo Fangyuan sent them off to rest while he and Lin Ye kept watch.
“If only the monsters near the Block Kingdom were as scarce as here…”
Lin Ye pouted, sighing.
“It’s impossible, unless the sun rises in the west!”
Mo Fangyuan understood that ordinary measures were useless against the monsters.
No matter how many they killed, there would always be more.
All he could do was destroy them as they appeared, striving to prevent any harm to the Block Kingdom.
“All right, enough worrying—time for another patrol!”
Truthfully, looking at Lin Ye from behind, if one ignored his face and voice, he really could be mistaken for a girl.
His aura, his figure…
“How can this be? I never felt that way before when looking at him,”
Mo Fangyuan mused, perplexed.
The sun rose in the west, slowly ascending from that direction…
Yes, the Block World’s sun was rather unconventional; sometimes it really did rise in the west and set in the east…
After traversing hundreds of blocks, the distinctive silhouette of the Block Kingdom’s pointed-roof residences gradually appeared.
They had arrived!
“So this is the kingdom!”
“How… how magnificent!”
“Praise the sun!”
“I’m starting to look forward to my new life!”
Some migrants couldn’t help but exclaim in awe.
It was a sight none of them had ever seen.
More beautiful than anything they had imagined.
Tall, elegant houses lined both sides of the broad, handsome stone avenue that led straight through the kingdom…
They struggled to find words beyond “beautiful.”
“Fellow compatriots, this is your new home!”
“Soon, someone will take you to your new residence… Of course, you’ll need to work to secure it permanently.”
Along the journey, Mo Fangyuan had already learned the migrants’ professions.
Accordingly, he assigned them to various jobs throughout the Block Kingdom.

What’s that, you say you need an adaptation period? Why not adapt on the job?
“Your Majesty! You are the beacon of the Block people! You guide us forward! You are the waves…”
Mo Fangyuan recognized Old Fu the moment he opened his mouth—only he would speak in such set phrases.
He had to admit, Old Fu’s “learning ability” was the strongest Mo Fangyuan had ever seen—bar none!
In less than a week, Old Fu had mastered all of Mo Fangyuan’s rhetoric, even surpassing him.
The torrent of set phrases he spouted left Mo Fangyuan, his mentor, a little bewildered.
Yet… it was quite satisfying to hear!
“All right, enough flattery—tell me about your recent achievements!”
Though he was verbose, Mo Fangyuan couldn’t deny Old Fu’s talent for governance.
“Your Majesty, I’ve built three more houses as per your guidance! They can accommodate more migrants!”
“Very good, keep it up.”
“I’ve also updated the maps around the kingdom, removing many vanished terrains and resources…”
“…and I conducted grassroots surveys to understand the hopes and demands of the kingdom’s residents!”
“Excellent, carry on with your work…”
Old Fu and Lin Ye took their leave.
But then Yali arrived, her brows furrowed, clearly bearing troubling news.
“Your Majesty, I believe the kingdom may be facing some danger!”
“What kind of danger?”
When it came to threats against the Block Kingdom, Mo Fangyuan immediately became serious, abandoning the playful gesture he’d been about to make toward Yali.
“You surely recall the record in ‘The Watchers’ about the correlation between kingdom population and monster spawning efficiency!”
“The more Block people there are in the kingdom, the more monsters spawn, and the faster they appear—with a chance of spawning elite monsters…”
Mo Fangyuan suddenly understood what Yali meant by danger.
Elite monsters!
Only an elite monster could make Yali so anxious.
“I never expected it—a probability so small, yet the Block Kingdom managed to encounter it!”
Mo Fangyuan asked Yali for details about the elite monster.
“It was definitely an elite zombie, appearing the day after you left, Your Highness.”
“At the time, it was attacking Field Guard member Li Si. Had we not discovered and intervened in time, Li Si might have…”
“How is Li Si now?”
He’s fine. After a day’s rest and some extra food, he should recover and be ready to rejoin the defense of the fields the day after tomorrow.
“Tell me more about the elite zombie’s specifics!”