002 First-Class Natural Wonder: Horseshoe Mountain Highlands
The chat channel had long since overflowed with messages—over 999 and still climbing. Yang Jie clicked it open and skimmed through...
“Can anyone tell me what’s going on? I was just taking a shower and suddenly crossed over buck naked?”
“I have no idea either. I just woke up and found myself here.”
“Which race is the strongest? Anyone with some experience care to share?”
“What’s with this freezing place? I’m still in my boxers, is the system messing with me?”
“Is this game pay-to-win? I’m out of wood, food, and stone!”
“My Blackstone tribe feels super strong—there’s not a single worthy opponent around here.”
Yang Jie knew that this was just the regional chat channel—one of forty-one regions in the Huaxia zone. The alliance system and trading post wouldn’t unlock until one’s civilization reached the Dark Age. Even as a beta tester, he understood that plenty of other beta players like himself were rapidly developing their tribes right now.
He ignored the swarm of newbies in chat and closed the channel window in the top right corner.
Then, he opened his novice gift pack...
“Congratulations, player, you have obtained…”
Tribal Camp x1 (Mini Version)
Spring of Blessing x1 (Mini Version, disappears after novice protection ends)
Small Bonfire x1 (Mini Version, disappears after novice protection ends)
Plague Altar x1 (Mini Version)
Lumber Mill x1 (Mini Version)
Quarry x1 (Mini Version)
10,000 units of food
10,000 units of wood
10,000 units of stone
...
The Spring of Blessing was an invaluable early-game building, producing one cubic meter of water per day so that unlucky players stranded in deserts wouldn’t fail right from the start. Likewise, the small bonfire was a lifesaver—at least those in frozen wastes wouldn’t freeze to death during the protection period. After that, survival was up to them.
The so-called mini version meant that, as long as the terrain allowed, you could place the building and within ten seconds it would appear at a 1:10,000 scale, without consuming any resources.
Yang Jie was already familiar with all this and stowed the items into his backpack.
“Let’s see how the scouts are doing.”
He opened the map. A large swath of the surrounding fog of war had been cleared, and to the west, he spotted a river.
Congratulations to the tribe “Advancing Bamboo Rats” for discovering the Tam River Basin—achievement reward: 100 tech points...
Finding a water source so quickly was thrilling news. If they followed the river downstream, they’d discover a lake within half a day.
Yang Jie had split the scouting party into ten teams, each exploring in a different direction. Since there was still time before the scheduled regroup, he busied himself gathering sharp stones and sturdy branches to craft some crude stone axes.
The materials weren’t hard to find—the toughest part was finding vines strong enough to bind stone to wood. Even the best vines would last only a week before needing replacement.
Though this was a game world, such details were no different from reality.
After an hour of trial and error, he finally managed to cobble together three shoddy stone axes.
The tribespeople he’d sent out scouting had also returned, one after another.
He found those with the lumberjack and craftsman talents and handed them the axes.
The early stages were slow and foundational—every detail mattered. Yang Jie knew how tough the game would get, so he treasured each second of development at this stage.
“Tribesfolk, we’ve just discovered a water source to the north. After discussing with Jill, we’ve decided to continue exploring that way and aim to camp there tonight!”
Yang Jie kept up their morale, trying to unite his scant twenty tribespeople.
They voiced their anxieties to him—concerns about food, climate, and potential predators. Yang Jie patiently addressed each one.
After a ten-minute delay, all twenty-one rats lined up in an orderly column and marched north.
After two hours of walking, they reached the edge of the previously explored fog, replenished their food and water, took a brief rest, and pushed onward.
Following the river through the hills for another two hours, their persistence paid off.
At last, upon cresting the final hill, they beheld a vast, open plain.
“Congratulations to the tribe ‘Advancing Bamboo Rats’ for discovering the Northson Plain—reward: 200 tech points.”
The system notification sounded again.
In the endless expanse of the Northson Plain, a prominent elevated plateau stood near the river, about a kilometer away by sight.
“Congratulations to the tribe ‘Advancing Bamboo Rats’ for discovering the Level 1 natural wonder, Horseshoe Plateau—reward: 500 tech points.”
“Wow!” Yang Jie cheered, leaping into the air.
His exhausted tribespeople were likewise overjoyed, their weariness forgotten as they danced with excitement on the hillside.
Loyalty across the tribe increased again, averaging a boost of five percentage points...
The Horseshoe Plateau resembled the Horseshoe Hill from PUBG, but differed in being a 50-meter-high, 200-square-kilometer expanse of fertile land, rather than just a sunken pit.
A six-month safety period was brutally short, especially for the physically weak Ratfolk. In defensive warfare, holding favorable terrain was a key to victory.
The plateau was vast and ringed on three sides by 50-meter cliffs; the western face toward the river was also cliff-bound, leaving only a 500-meter-wide steep slope as access—a natural fortress, easy to defend and hard to assault.
Without hesitation, Yang Jie chose to settle here. Resources were important, but for any civilization in its infancy, survival was paramount.
In earlier games, many beta testers had courted disaster by coveting resources and paid for it with catastrophic losses.
An hour later, the rats, energized as if injected with adrenaline, scaled their new home—the Horseshoe Plateau.
Yang Jie stood at the edge, letting the wild wind buffet his cheeks, with only twenty tribesmen behind him.
High-spirited, full of youthful ambition!
Clenching his fist, he thrust it into the air.
No time for sentimentality. Once he picked a spot, he placed all the mini-buildings from his backpack at once...
Congratulations, player:
Tribal Camp (constructed)
Spring of Blessing (constructed)
Small Bonfire (constructed)
Plague Altar (constructed)
Lumber Mill x1 (constructed)
Quarry x1 (constructed)
A total of 600 tech points earned...
New building unlocked: Rat Burrow
New building unlocked: Wooden Palisade
New building unlocked: Ratfolk Research Well
...
Building: Rat Burrow (Level 1)
Construction cost: 100 wood, 100 stone
Effect: Provides 10 population capacity for the tribe.
At present, Yang Jie’s Ratfolk tribe was in the Stone Age. To enter the next stage—the Dark Age—the following prerequisites were required:
1. Total tribe population surpasses 1,000
2. Complete prerequisite tech: Caste System
3. Upgrade the Level 1 Tribal Camp to a Town
The Dark Age seemed a distant goal. For now, he only had 10,000 units each of food, wood, and stone.
Yang Jie knew the most critical resource now was population—only with more people could productivity rise.
Without hesitation, he queued up ten Rat Burrows and ordered all twenty rats to start building. With such manpower, each burrow could be finished in ten minutes.
He also initiated an upgrade of the Tribal Camp; advancing from Level 1 to Level 2 cost 3,000 wood and stone each.
A few taps on the interface, and 4,000 units of wood and stone were instantly allocated.
Additionally, he spent 1,000 each of stone and wood to build the Research Well—an essential structure, as progress in technology would reset if the well was destroyed, so he placed it securely in the back.
By nightfall, all buildings would be complete. Normally, players would now send peasants to gather resources, but Yang Jie would not—he had something more important to do.
That was digging an irrigation canal. Although water wasn’t a system-tracked resource, it affected loyalty and comfort. Channeling water from the Tam River to the base of Horseshoe Plateau was crucial and would take about a week.
Once the canal was done, he would focus on population growth. In the first three months of Tower Defense & Civilization, new refugees would join the tribe daily—between five and twenty, depending on loyalty and comfort. If comfort dropped too low, some would leave, which was a painful prospect.
The first Rat Burrow was quickly completed. At that moment, Yang Jie gazed at the towering Plague Altar in the center of camp, rubbing his hands in anticipation, unable to contain his excitement.
“Now comes the true test of luck!”