"So, we just harvest these trees?" Jehanne asked curiously.
"Yes," Xu Tao nodded. "Every single tree from here to there needs to be harvested. I'll handle the cutting, you handle the moving," he delegated without hesitation.
"Understood."
To Xu Tao, cutting trees was as easy as breathing. A single swing of his sword could bring down a dozen. He didn't even rush, walking calmly with sword in hand, eyes scanning the surroundings and calculating the best angles for a clean sweep.
Once his mental calculations were complete, he lowered his stance and swung.
BAM!
A phantom slash surged out, slicing through all the trees in its path. But it didn't end there—Xu Tao followed up with a few swift swings, clearing off branches and leaves from each fallen trunk, leaving behind smooth logs ready to be moved.
"Wow~!" Jehanne clapped in awe as dozens of wooden logs appeared instantly. "So now, I just carry them, right?"
But the real spectacle came next.
Jehanne, despite her small frame, effortlessly lifted three logs—each nearly twenty meters long—over her shoulders and began walking. Her steps were light, composed, as if she bore no weight at all.
The contrast between her slender form and the impossible burden she carried made even Xu Tao pause. She looked like some mythical heroine, like Hercules bearing the sky.
Pepe, meanwhile, could only cheer them on from the sidelines.
It wasn't strong enough to carry even one log, and the storage rings it had couldn't hold something that large.
Still, even without Pepe, the duo worked swiftly and with almost rhythmic coordination. Xu Tao cut and trimmed, Jehanne hauled and stacked. In no time, they'd assembled a towering pile.
After about thirty minutes, they'd gathered exactly 200 wooden logs.
"This much should be enough," Xu Tao exhaled, eyeing the neatly arranged pile. "Now we just have to figure out how to carry this all back to the starting point and—"
But before he could finish, Jehanne raised her hand like a model student seeking permission to speak.
"Yes, Jehanne? What is it?"
"Sir Tao... must we really bring all this back?" she asked, tilting her head. "Why not build the house here, instead?"
"That's..."
Xu Tao faltered.
Right... He had placed the blueprint near the mud hut earlier, thinking it'd be a shame to leave it behind. But there wasn't any actual rule saying the construction had to happen there.
"We still have plenty of time," he muttered, glancing up at the sun still high in the sky. "I guess we don't need that backup mud hut anymore... Alright! Let's build the Log House here!"
He opened the Crafting menu, selected the Log House recipe, and hit the Build button.
But as he did—
[Warning! A blueprint is already active. Do you want to cancel the previous one?]
—a system prompt appeared.
He hesitated briefly, then nodded. "Yes," he said, tapping the confirmation.
The large blueprint materialized again in front of him, glowing faint blue. Unsurprising, since nothing was in the way—not even stumps, thanks to Xu Tao's earlier cleanup, cutting everything into fine powder.
"Pui, Puii~!"
"No, this spot is better!"
And so began the debate: Jehanne vs. Pepe on the matter of site selection.
Pepe pointed excitedly toward a nearby cliff, eager to build there. Sure, it was scenic—but Xu Tao had reservations about building something so large near a ledge.
Jehanne, ever the practical one, suggested the clearing they were already in. The ground was flat and fertile, with no signs of sinkholes or threats nearby.
"We'll build it here," Xu Tao said, siding with Jehanne.
"PUI!"
Pepe bounced dramatically, angrily, upset that its proposal was rejected. But its mood quickly flipped as it watched the two move the logs toward the glowing blueprint.
Once all 200 logs were stacked inside the designated frame, the next system prompt appeared. But this time, it showed three task zones.
One marked "Hit! 👊" with a counter of 10,000.
Another read "Hit! 🔨" with the same 10,000 tally.
The last read "Hack!" with a hacksaw icon... and a daunting counter of 50,000.
"Three different actions on three different sides..." Xu Tao sighed. "This is going to take forever..."
That is, if he were alone.
"Jehanne! Take this hacksaw and keep working on the wood in this section," he instructed, pointing at the area marked "Hack!"
She accepted the tool with a nod and walked over. Not a single complaint slipping out of her lips.
Then he turned to his loyal gourd and said, "Pepe! Start punching this spot—ten thousand times if you can!"
"Pui~!"
The little creature didn't even blink. In fact, it looked thrilled to finally have a task.
Xu Tao watched them for a moment, unsure. Thankfully, although the system's panels were invisible to them, their motions were clearly registering into the counter.
"Huh? Strange..." Jehanne noted just as he started on her task. "No matter how hard I saw, the wood stays unmarked."
"That's by design. Just keep going."
Xu Tao waved it off. In truth, he can't even explain it, as even he didn't really understand the full mechanics of the Lost System yet.
Jehanne moved quickly—twenty hacks per second. At that pace, she'd finish her part in a short forty minutes. Pepe, meanwhile, struggled, only managing one hit every five seconds, if lucky.
Seeing them hard at work, Xu Tao finally took up his role.
He moved to the third section, grabbed a hammer, and started pounding with pinpoint precision—just like before.
"UUUUURAAAAGH!"
And as expected of the "expert," he finished his task in under ten minutes.
He didn't just stand there after finishing, however. He moved over to Pepe's side and helped it complete the 10,000 punches. Unsurprisingly, his rapid-fire blows also registered one-for-one, speeding things up dramatically.
In just five minutes, the task was over.
"Just one side left..."
He looked toward Jehanne, still diligently sawing the same "invincible" log.
To his surprise, the counter had already passed 20,000. Still, he grabbed another hacksaw from his ring and joined her, falling into rhythm beside her.
"Oh? Is this a challenge?" Jehanne asked, catching the mischievous glint in his eye. "Very well! God is with me!"
Xu Tao grinned. His arm blurred with speed. "I've defeated plenty of gods in my time. One more won't make a difference!"
Pepe hovered between them nervously, unsure whether to cheer or intervene.
As their friendly competition escalated, the counter climbed rapidly.
25,000... 30... 40...
When it reached 49,999, Xu Tao stopped. He raised a hand to shield his eyes, bracing for the blast of light.
FLASH!
And sure enough, the moment Jehanne completed the final hack, the blueprint exploded in a burst of white brilliance. She and Pepe flinched, late in shielding their eyes.
Moments passed. The light slowly faded, showing the changed scenery around them.
Then a new system notification blinked in front of Xu Tao.
Xu Tao expected it to announce completion of the job... but the message he read made his jaw drop.
"...Seriously?"