Chapter 37: The Constant-Temperature Bonfire

The Wu siblings and the four uninvited guests had already clashed more than twenty meters away. Although the siblings held the upper hand, they were unable to subdue the quartet, who fought with a frenzied, suicidal desperation.

Seeing Liu Hen appear, Wu Yuanming hurriedly shouted, "Sir, they are trying to steal your food..."

*Bang!*

Before Wu Yuanming could finish his sentence, the enemy before him had already been sent flying, his chest caved in, clearly beyond saving. He stood frozen in shock. The other three Wu siblings were equally stunned, as were the remaining three wastelanders.

"Causing trouble on my turf?"

Liu Hen’s voice was icy as he lunged toward the second man. The man’s expression shifted wildly; he instinctively raised his hardwood pickaxe to parry, but before his arms could fully move, a heavy blow landed on his chest. With a sickening crunch of bone, he went flying, vomiting blood, and was clearly dying.

"How is this possible?!"

The remaining two men’s faces drained of color, and they turned to flee without hesitation. But Liu Hen pushed off the ground, instantly catching up to the third man, and swung his All-Purpose Pickaxe, bringing the axe-blade side down with a ferocious strike. "Trying to steal my food?"

*Splat.* The man’s shoulder was cleaved open. A split second later, a heavy kick to his back sent him sprawling forward, and he breathed his last the moment he hit the ground.

"Spare me..."

The last man was paralyzed with terror. Seeing Liu Hen closing in, he instinctively rolled away. But just as he dodged the lethal blow, Liu Hen’s foot connected with his shoulder. Amidst the sound of shattering bone, his shoulder deformed, and he went flying with a shrill scream.

Equipped with his Iron-grade thermal suit, Liu Hen was like a superman; against these ordinary wastelanders, it was one kick per kill. He caught up to the man the moment he landed and slammed his foot onto the man's head, driving it into the frozen earth. The body twitched a few times before falling still.

Having easily dispatched the four, the restlessness in Liu Hen’s heart finally subsided. Knowing that Little Black Stone hadn't died, but had merely fallen into a deep slumber, his mood improved slightly. His agitation had stemmed largely from struggling to process the shift in her identity.

Determined that the four intruders were dead, he began looting their corpses in front of everyone, completely ignoring the petrified Wu siblings. However, the four had nothing of value, yielding only five magic crystals in total.

"Poor wretches!"

He muttered a complaint and turned to leave. "Their clothes are yours. Don't disturb me again."

The Wu siblings snapped out of their stupor and hurriedly bowed. "Thank you, sir."

Wu Yuanming was elated; this was an excellent start. If they worked harder, perhaps they might eventually be accepted by this powerful esper.

***

Returning inside, Liu Hen sat back down by the campfire, staring blankly at the flickering flames.

*So... when she said back then that there were good spirits, she was talking about herself, wasn't she?*

Liu Hen realized the truth. When he had first heard Little Black Stone say that, he had been puzzled—her father was, by all accounts, just an ordinary wastelander, so how could he know so much? Now, he realized those words hadn't come from her father, but from her own lips.

Memories of what he had witnessed flashed through his mind, leaving him with complex emotions. *If she has always been herself, and it was never the Wish Stone in control, but her own lingering obsession driving her life, then perhaps I don't need to change my attitude toward her.*

He only wondered when she would wake up.

*She is still herself. Even if she was parasitized by the Wish Stone, it has no consciousness and does not interfere with her actions. She survived in another form; even though her essence is now that of a spirit, she doesn't know it, remaining as hungry and cold as any ordinary little wastelander.*

Liu Hen sighed, unsure if he was mourning the fact that she had survived as a host to the Wish Stone or lamenting her tragic life. A life worthy of pity—starved to death at only six years old, her final wish being nothing more than to be fed and kept warm.

What a humble wish. Yet, in this world, it was perhaps the greatest wish of all—the shared dream of countless wastelanders.

At this very moment, he wondered how many other children of that age were starving and freezing, living in the darkness of the bitter cold, running about for a morsel of food, digging at the hard frozen earth with frostbitten hands. He didn't even want to consider how many children had been cast into the pot by other wastelanders due to such famine.

For adult wastelanders, Liu Hen felt nothing; whether they starved or were killed by others had nothing to do with him. But for children... as someone from a world of peace, he found it unbearable. Especially after experiencing the process of Little Black Stone’s starvation as if it were his own, he felt it deeply.

For the first time, Liu Hen wanted to do something for the people of this world. And with his own miraculous "cheat," in theory, he should be able to. The problem was, he didn't know where to start. The main issue with this world was the absence of a sun. His ability was miraculous, but it likely couldn't conjure a sun.

*A sun is probably hopeless, but what about a campfire?*

Liu Hen looked at the campfire. His fire was extraordinary—it possessed the power to ward off evil and drive away the monsters of the darkness. Furthermore, the range of that protection seemed to affect the temperature as well. It was just that his current level was too low, and the description wasn't detailed enough.

*I'll try it. I have nothing to lose.*

Liu Hen braced himself, scrambled up, took out a large log, and began harvesting. A minute later, six hundred small logs were produced, and he upgraded the campfire. The upgrade took another minute. While it progressed, he continued harvesting, quickly depleting the large log. He didn't stop there; he pulled out a second log and processed it into small wood.

By the time the second log was finished, the campfire had already upgraded to level six. A level-six campfire had a monster-repelling radius of six meters, with no other obvious changes. Liu Hen consumed another seven hundred logs and seven magic crystals to reach level seven. The radius became seven meters, still with no other changes.

He kept harvesting and upgrading. Because he had stockpiled many large logs, his progress was as fast as a rocket. In just half an hour—including the time he spent daydreaming and harvesting—the campfire reached level ten.

A level-ten campfire had a radius of ten meters. But at this point, the upgrade cost shifted to one large log and one hundred magic crystals. Liu Hen didn't hesitate. Though this upgrade took an hour, it passed in the blink of an eye. Finally, the campfire's data changed:

【Constant Temperature Campfire Lv.1: A campfire with cooking, lighting, heating, evil-warding, and constant-temperature effects. The campfire itself is not consumed; fuel must be added to maintain the flame. Its light drives away monsters of the darkness.】

【Constant Temperature: Beyond two meters, the temperature within the monster-repelling radius will be locked, fluctuating only around ten degrees Celsius. Current radius: ten meters.】

【Limited by the level of the All-Purpose Pickaxe, it cannot be further upgraded.】

*Constant temperature?* Liu Hen was secretly surprised. He stepped away from the campfire and found that, sure enough, the temperature beyond two meters seemed to stabilize.

*What about outside?*

He opened the door and stepped out, moving further away. As expected, the freezing environment—normally twenty degrees below zero even during the shallow night—was rapidly warming up. Within minutes, the temperature within the ten-meter radius rose to about ten degrees above zero. Once he stepped beyond that ten-meter mark, the temperature plummeted, returning to its normal, brutal state.

*This function... it's incredibly useful!* Liu Hen thought, stunned. *I just wonder, as the Constant Temperature Campfire upgrades, how much will the repelling radius increase each time?*