To be honest, most of the people still hadn't entirely absorbed the announcements until the bell rang.
And it rang loudly, for a long time.
This new bell was a percussion instrument located inside the sundial-clock tower. It was made by Oslo, a metal elementalist, to the admiration of everyone in there.
From the NPCs, they knew materializing metal that would stay materialized was extremely difficult, and it took Oslo several days just to complete the tiny bell half a meter in height.
However, thanks to Eugene's ingenious design and shape, a small bell could still be heard a kilometer away, and perhaps even further.
It was announced to ring twice a day, at 07:00:00 during dawn, and at 21:00:00 at dusk.
Except for emergencies.
In particular, attacks on the territory.
"Seriously?!" A man sat up from his bed, waking up his dozen roommates in the territory from their daze.
"I told you! They hired guards for a reason!" He said, another one sobbed out of nowhere.
"Oh my god! Am I going to be a refugee again?!"
Lee rolled his eyes. "Don't compare the old territory to Altera. Whether or not it has a lord or it is system-made, it's many times more reassuring than the old one, okay?"
"What do we do?"
"Fight, of course! Didn't you see? Contributions! We basically get twice the amount of coins!"
"There are discounts for the equipment as well!"
"If we buy with contribution points, the discount is even larger!"
"The guards are strong! The weakest one is level 2!"
"Don't you remember how the sentry towers saved our lives so easily? How could you be afraid?"
"Our territory is awesome! Not like those weak chickens! The beast tide is nothing!!"
"Let's go, let's go!"
…
Similar conversations were heard across the territory.
There were some voices of fear and worry, but no one was blind: they had seen how steadily the Territory developed.
A territory that could give a sense of security inevitably gave people a sense of belonging. In the end, more and more people went out and bought weapons and armor, surprising the NPCs.
"The people here… are very optimistic." Clutch said with a smile, that he had followed the Lord's advice to hire someone to handle the sales. Brenda did the same.
"Fortunately, I have been working overtime with my apprentice."
"Did you finish that special weapon of yours?"
"Yes! The best is that he is testing it with his friends. He is very eager to make contributions." She said, not realizing how big and shy her smile was.
Clutch's seasoned eyes saw it though, but he didn't say anything. They should go with the flow.
He then looked at the food shops and stalls that popped up since the grocery store opened.
They were now open again in the middle of the night, ready to provide food for the defenders… and make some money along the way.
Unsurprisingly, they saw Oslo ambling about and eating something on a stick.
"So fast?"
"I love the food here, it's really nothing like I've seen before." As a Level D Architect with his background, he could be said to have seen a lot.
But this place never failed to impress him—whether it was the beautiful, admirable, and unique Lord, the talents that worked for her, the ideas they came up with, and the food—they were all so new that he had sworn to do his best so the lord would keep hiring him.
Brenda and Clutch saw his wistful expression and turned their heads to look at each other. They smiled.
Because they were thinking of the same thing.
…
On the other side of the territory, a group of young adults encircled a weapon, faces flushed from excitement.
"This is itt!!"
"The crossbow!"
"Cool!"
A group of young men and women surrounded several weapons laid out on the table. There were two types of weapons, one was familiar from dramas, and the other not too much.
"And what's that?" One said, pointing at the weapon as large as his hip. That looked super cumbersome to carry.
"That's a Polybolo! Very awesome." Troy said, proceeding to show his friends the cylinder drum and mechanism.
He developed the crossbow first, but someone apparently went ahead of him.
Fortunately, he still remembered the polybolo, also a pretty good ancient weapon. It had a quicker firing rate than the crossbow.
But… it was heavier and less powerful.
So there was that…
Whatever, they still did make crossbows, but it was no longer in his name so they had to give up some share of the proceeds.
His frenemy, Fred, scoffed at this. "I heard you patented it in the village center? Aren't you guilty?" Patenting through the Village Center, they said, was patenting it all over the world.
"That's why I'm using half of my future proceeds to charity." He scoffed back.
"You think this is still Terran? What charity?"
Their mutual friend, Lulu, rolled her eyes at these two man-children. Instead, she smiled at this cousin of hers with a bit of appreciation.
"But I didn't think you'd really learn how to make weapons so quickly." In Terran, this hobby of his was useless and had worried their parents very much.
"My master taught me well." Troy mumbled, cheeks tinted a beet red. Fred gaped at him, before breaking to a loud cackle.
"Oh my, are you blushing?!" He said, "You're like a kid!!"
"I'm not!! You shut up!" The brunette yelled at his red-head frenemy.
Fred's mocking laughter did not stop as he recalled childhood memories. "You were EXACTLY like this with that freckle girl from fourth grade!"
"It's not the same!"
"Hey, although you look like you're the same age, you're soo immature and she's like that hot secretary with a secret agent side job, right?" Totally subject to house-men's fantasies, even with her scar.
"Isn't she an NPC?" Another person asked, but the question offended Troy.
"So what? She's a real person!"
Fred, as always, couldn't help but utter a snide remark. "Women like that like steady men, right? Not a man-child who has pictures of old weapons all over his bedroom wall?"
"..." A pause. "Really?"
Lulu massaged her temples, and just took a crossbow and walked to the walls.
She didn't have time for this nonsense; She had contributions to make!