Chapter 39: New Features

I am sorry, everyone, for not being able to update on time today. Mingming's little nephew had his hand caught in a door, and his fingernail has already come off; it is uncertain whether he can save the finger. Mingming went to the hospital to visit him today, so he couldn't update on time. Please forgive him.

Zhao Hai did not pay attention to how well Merlin and the others were teaching. He knew that Merlin and her group would not disappoint him. Besides, Merlin was an eighth-level Archmage; in the AKS Empire, there were very few mages of her caliber. Merlin had had several students in the past, but they had died in battle while following Adam's father.

Therefore, Merlin was quite experienced in teaching, and having her teach those slaves was the best possible option. Zhao Hai's current headache, however, was the issue of feeding those slaves.

Yes, once the corn matured, they would have firewood, and there was rice and flour in the warehouse, so they wouldn't worry about food. But Zhao Hai thought of a problem: once a fire is lit, there will inevitably be smoke. The space was only so large; if the smoke couldn't be vented out, it would eventually linger inside the space, which would not be a good thing.

Zhao Hai's greatest fear was what would happen if the smoke contaminated the space. However, he couldn't say this aloud—he couldn't exactly make the slaves gnaw on radishes every day. He could only let them try cooking first. If it truly didn't work, he would try to minimize the frequency of cooking and wait until people could leave the space to find a way to vent the smoke out.

But Zhao Hai had another concern: the situation outside. He currently had no idea what was happening with the castle outside. If it had been destroyed by magic beasts, they might not even have a place to live once they went out, which would be even more troublesome.

After pacing around the room a few times without finding a solution, Zhao Hai walked over to the display screen by the bedside. The screen was currently off, looking dark.

Not knowing how to turn the display on, Zhao Hai whispered, "Open."

The display showed no reaction. This made things difficult for Zhao Hai; there were no obvious power symbols on the screen, and he truly didn't know what to do.

Zhao Hai reached out to touch the screen, but unexpectedly, as soon as his hand made contact, the screen lit up instantly. Then, various icons for tools, shops, and warehouses within the space appeared on the screen.

This caught Zhao Hai off guard. He remembered that the last time he opened this screen, there was only a shop icon and a brief introduction to the farm. He hadn't expected so many icons to appear this time.

Zhao Hai didn't pay much mind to it; he could easily control everything on the screen with his mind, so there was no need to stare at it.

However, just as Zhao Hai was preparing to turn the screen off, he suddenly noticed an icon. This icon didn't look like anything from the farm; instead, it looked like a camera symbol.

Zhao Hai was stunned. If this icon appeared on a computer, it wouldn't be strange, but appearing on this screen was quite peculiar.

After a moment of hesitation, he clicked the icon, wanting to see what it actually was. As soon as his finger touched it, the icon emitted a burst of white light that shot into Zhao Hai's forehead, and a vast amount of information flooded into his mind.

Because of the sudden influx of information, Zhao Hai had to close his eyes and lie down on the bed to properly digest it.

It took a while before he finished processing everything. He opened his eyes and said dissatisfiedly, "It's just a monitor. Why was the description so long-winded?"

Zhao Hai finally understood what the icon was for. It had appeared because Zhao Hai had visited more places; it was essentially a surveillance device, though its range was larger than a standard monitor. Because the space's level was currently too low, he could only monitor things within a hundred-meter radius of where he entered the space. In other words, wherever Zhao Hai entered the space, he could see everything within a hundred meters of that entry point on the display. As the space level increased, his field of vision would grow larger.

This was truly a case of "getting a pillow just as one feels sleepy." Zhao Hai had been worrying about how to know the situation outside, and this appeared just in time to solve his urgent problem.

Zhao Hai immediately sat up from the bed, walked to the screen, and touched it again. The screen lit up instantly. He then clicked the camera icon, and the scene on the screen changed. A 3D image of the castle suddenly appeared.

Below the castle image was a scale, which condensed the entire hundred-meter radius view onto this small screen.

Zhao Hai noticed that many small green dots were moving continuously on the 3D display. He couldn't help but click on one of the green dots. The screen flashed, and like a fast-zooming camera lens, a large, rat-like magic beast appeared on the screen in an instant. This rat-like beast was looking around with shifty eyes. It was only then that Zhao Hai realized the beast was standing in the castle's living room. Next to the beast was a pile of rotten wood; looking at the grain of the wood, it was clearly the sofa that used to be in the living room.

Zhao Hai looked more closely at the screen and found that in the upper left corner, the original 3D map was still visible. He figured out how to use it; he tapped the 3D map, and sure enough, the screen immediately returned to the 3D view, with many green dots still moving around.

Zhao Hai concluded that the green dots represented either magic beasts or undead creatures. He clicked on the location of the living room again, but this time he didn't click a green dot. Sure enough, the view shifted, showing the entire living room. Two large rat-like magic beasts were currently standing in the room—one was the one he had just seen, and the other was nearby, gnawing on a sofa. The sofas, small tables, and other items in the living room had all been completely destroyed. Several sofas had vanished entirely, likely eaten by the rats.

As Zhao Hai watched the large rats, his finger accidentally swiped across the screen, causing the view to shift to a room adjacent to the living room.

Zhao Hai was stunned. He hadn't expected it to work like this—simply swiping a finger across the screen could switch scenes. This seemed even more user-friendly than monitors on Earth.

Zhao Hai swiped his finger downward on the screen, and indeed, the scene shifted to the courtyard. The courtyard was quite lively right now; undead creatures and various magic beasts were all making a mess. The woven straw mats or hay were being tossed around by these creatures, covering the entire courtyard.

Seeing this, Zhao Hai couldn't help but sigh and turned off the screen. Now that he knew the outside was still a world of magic beasts, he knew even more that he couldn't rush out.

Just then, the space prompt sounded once more: "The corn has matured. Please harvest it as soon as possible."

Zhao Hai immediately walked out of the house and found Merlin and the others in the middle of a lesson. However, they were all looking at him with confused expressions.

Zhao Hai didn't mind; he knew they had also heard the space prompt. He didn't address the crowd, but simply said softly, "Harvest the corn. Separate the stalks, cobs, and kernels during the harvest."

As soon as he finished speaking, the harvesting basket flew up, and the corn in the field flew toward the basket. In a short while, the corn from the two acres was harvested.

Even though the slaves had seen Zhao Hai harvest radishes once before, they were still extremely shocked to see him harvest corn this way.

Once the corn was harvested, Zhao Hai immediately took out the stalks and cobs, placing them next to the field stove. He then took out some rice and flour before replanting corn in the ground.

Merlin understood Zhao Hai's intention; they could now cook. She put away the papers with writing on them and said to the slaves, "Alright, everyone, come eat. We will study again after the meal."

The slaves looked at the papers Merlin was putting away with regret. To them, being able to learn to write was more important than anything else. Forget having a meal; even if they were told not to eat today, they wouldn't have any objections.

Zhao Hai didn't actually know what these slaves usually ate, but he had been eating bread for the past few days, and he was starting to feel a bit tired of it.

However, there was no oven in the space, so it was impossible to bake bread. Zhao Hai was truly curious to see what Merlin would make for him today.

Sure enough, Merlin glanced at the items Zhao Hai had brought out and turned to him, saying, "Young Master, you will need to bring out some more vegetables, ham, and fruit oil."

Zhao Hai immediately brought out everything Merlin requested. Merlin left the rice, some vegetables, and fruit oil for the slaves, while she took the flour, some fruit oil, vegetables, and ham into the thatched hut. He remembered that Zhao Hai's hut also had a kitchen inside, containing many cooking utensils she had not yet seen.

Zhao Hai really didn't know what Merlin was planning to make, so he followed her into the house. Once Merlin began kneading the dough, Zhao Hai had a good idea—Merlin was likely going to make pancakes.

Pancakes were a food Zhao Hai quite enjoyed. Since he couldn't help with anything, he didn't stay in the room and turned to leave.

As he stepped out of the house, he was stunned. He had thought the slaves were making rice, but it turned out to be something else entirely. The slaves were lighting a pot, pouring fruit oil into it, and then putting the rice in to stir-fry it. Watching them, Zhao Hai felt his scalp tingle; it was his first time seeing anyone eat rice like that.

Meg and the others didn't seem surprised at all; they just stood by watching the people cook. Seeing their expressions, Zhao Hai understood—the people here must eat rice this way frequently, which was why Meg and the others showed no surprise.

(End of Chapter)