My Evil System

[BONUS]

I thought that after harvesting the grains, they\'d automatically be turned into rice. But lo and behold, I thought wrong. It turned out that I needed a machine to convert the produce into rice and another one to convert the rice into flour.

The Blood Rain was over, and so far, there was no new notification about an upcoming apocalyptic event, so it was safe to focus all my thoughts on expanding my territory.

Until now . . . I still didn\'t have that piece of white sticky rice.

<Host still has the rewards from destroying Roselake Town that you didn\'t check. Maybe it would contain machines for producing rice~>

Right. I didn\'t know what happened to Roselake, but it worked in my favor, so I didn\'t really care.

I checked the rewards my other self refused to acknowledge but also didn\'t have the guts to delete from his inventory.

<Rewards:

❶ +100, 000 EXP

❷ Blueprints (?) x1

❸ Blueprints x 5

❹ S-Grade Token x 1

❺ A-Grade Token x 2

❻ B-Grade Token x 10 >

Why did this one Blueprint reward have a question mark?

<You\'re lucky, Host! It only meant that it is a Blueprint that will give you what you want!>

Really? I skimmed my jawline. That\'s interesting.

I also have a lot of Tokens with me, in addition to Megu\'s Tokens that she surrendered to me. There were also two grade A Tokens from completing the Main Quest [Kill 4 Players].

I think I would set aside the four grade-A Tokens for now in case I needed them for something later. At the current, I needed farmers and ranchers to tend to the animals and crops.

Upon opening the five Blueprints, I was disappointed because they were just a bunch of structures that I couldn\'t use at the moment, like an Inn, Warf, Clinic, and Restaurant. The last was the Teleportation Gate, and it was the only useful among the bunch.

I saved them, nevertheless. Who knew what the future might bring, right?

I decided to use the Blueprint with the question mark.

As much as I wanted rice right now, there was another problem that I urgently needed a solution for, and it needed an Elixir Collector.

With Elixirs, we can finally produce Eternal Sand to grow all sorts of crops that would never wilt regardless of the weather.

Securing food in these troubled times would give me peace of mind.

With that in mind, I used the Blueprint (?) and chose the Elixir Collector among the list of choices. There were a lot of other enticing choices like artillery defenses, but right now . . . I need Elixirs first, and everything could just follow later.

<Right, Host. Some structure requires Elixirs, so you have to prioritize that above your love for rice.>

Now that I finally had the Blueprint, I skimmed through

It and was disappointed at what I saw.

Given that I needed a blueprint to have an Elixir Collector constructed, I expected to see something awesome. It turned out to be just a container with a lot of pipes and a vent.

Then I noticed something on the side.

What\'s this?

It said, Elixir storage. Oh, it came with a storage. How convenient.

The design of the storage was nothing fancy. Just a glass orb that was supported by a post from each side. It even had a cork-looking thing at the top.

To be fair, it had a lot of Hit Points.

<Storages are the second most structures that have a lot of HP next to your Town Hall or TH. And the more you upgrade, the more their HP and capacity increase!>

Good to know.

After getting dressed, I went outside. Breakfast can wait. Anyway, Megu was still busy cooking breakfast, so in the meantime, I headed straight to Athena and Daedalus.

Megu already knew about my Tokens, and fortunately, she didn\'t have any desires for them. She even surrendered her Tokens to me without a second thought, saying that she had no use to her.

As long as she could live with her child in peace with a full belly and a roof over their head, she was fine with anything.

Not to mention that she was good with her hands and knew how to please me.

Maybe I should let her massage the sore muscles on my hips?

The thought didn\'t linger for long when I spotted Athena and Daedalus by the walls.

At this point, my Master Builder had upgraded some of my walls into stones, and only about half were left to be done.

I didn\'t approach them right away.

My eyes caught something odd in the Orchard, so I went and visited Florin there first. During the Blood Rain, I didn\'t have the chance to inspect this area, and now that I did, I immediately noticed a tree that was out of place.

Specifically, it was a Lemon Tree, but there was a carved face on its bark.

And that face was so familiar.

"So this is where he was," I said.

"M-my Lord!" Florin flinched and quickly faced me. She even tried to hide the face behind her to no success.

"Is that Ford?"

Florin clicked her tongue, and she muttered under her breath, "Why did his face have to be carved on the bark?"

It looked like even she didn\'t expect it, accidentally exposing the murder that she committed. No wonder she was often in the Orchard. She must have been looking for a way to hide any trace of Ford\'s disappearance.

"F-Florin can explain!"

I shook my head. "No need. He is better that way, anyway," I said and then proceeded to Athena and Daedalus.

"My Lord." Both of them greeted me, and I reciprocated with a nod.

"I have the Elixir Blueprint with me." I gave the Blueprint to Daedalus and asked, "Can you make it?"

Daedalus nodded, but his serious stony face cracked a bit. "Although I could make it, I fear that I still don\'t understand its technical aspect."

I frowned. "Meaning . . .?"

"Meaning there\'s a chance that it might not work for what it\'s intended for," Athena answered.

I folded my hands and said, "I have an S grade Token with me. What profession is needed?"

Athena and Daedalus looked at each other before answering me in unison, "A Master Engineer or inventor."

And a Master Engineer they should have.

( . . . continuation on NOTES)