Chapter 100: The Master of Demolition

Chen Xiyi looked at the roster in his hand. The roster was very complete, containing not only names but also notes with addresses, military ranks, companies, and so on. With just a glance, he could tell who the important figures were, and it even included phone numbers. The listed service fees at the end seemed relatively minor in comparison.

It could be said that if this roster fell into enemy hands, it would basically expose all of Dongtai City’s secrets.

However, there was one small flaw: Chen Xiyi knew the addresses but did not know how to get there.

He wasn’t a local, so of course he wouldn’t know where a certain street was or how to find a particular alley.

‘So, wouldn’t it be better to follow the electrical wires?’ Chen Xiyi felt utterly dumbfounded.

After briefly flipping through the roster, Chen Xiyi casually tucked it into his coat.

It wasn’t entirely useless; the roster was clearly organized. Once he found one household, he could easily locate the neighbors nearby.

The concept of residential communities hadn’t really taken shape yet, and those upper-class individuals certainly wouldn’t want to share a piece of land with others.

‘Right, I’ll start by targeting one house tonight and make a bit of noise.’

After assessing his surroundings, Chen Xiyi tried to figure out which path to take.

‘Maybe I should learn some hypnotic abilities. Although illusion art can meet the requirements to some extent, it’s still lacking.’ Chen Xiyi wanted to learn, but the teachings he inherited didn’t seem to emphasize that area.

Apart from a novice Qi Refiner like him who lacked formal training, other Qi Refiners probably didn’t need hypnosis—they were practically bugs themselves.

If he had hypnosis, the reliability of the information he obtained would increase significantly.

Once he decided on a route, Chen Xiyi set off at a jog.

‘If I really take everything away, it will definitely draw attention from Dongtai City’s authorities. It might even draw out the mastermind behind the scenes, so I’ll need to be careful from then on.’

Chen Xiyi knew his plan was no trivial matter. If he actually took action, it would shake the entire upper echelons of Dongtai City.

If it were just a few poor commoners, there wouldn’t be much of an issue.

But how many poor commoners could afford to live in houses with electricity?

Perhaps after tonight, the whole of Dongtai City would not only be panicked but also placed under martial law.

“Holy crap, this covers like a thousand square meters.”

When Chen Xiyi arrived at the first victim’s doorstep, he couldn’t help but mutter. It already looked like a small villa. Even just eyeballing it, he estimated it was about one-tenth the size of his Homestead.

‘This rich scumbag—if I don’t pry up even the cement ground today, I’ll have dishonored my identity as a sandbox Player.’

He was absolutely furious about this wealthy family, mainly because of how much land they occupied.

After looking left and right to make sure no one was around, Chen Xiyi took out his Alloy Pickaxe and immediately dismantled the iron gate in front of him.

【Ornate Iron Gate】

【Durability: 100/100】

【Strength: 100】

【Comfort: 10】

“……”

Durability and strength were normal, but it was the first time he had seen a gate with a comfort stat. That was just insane.

‘Don’t tell me these walls have comfort stats too.’

Chen Xiyi found that utterly ridiculous.

‘My Eternal Peace Hall… well, it seems it did too.’

He had been too busy demolishing before and didn’t have time to check carefully. Now that he thought about it, it seemed all the building materials from the Eternal Peace Hall also had comfort stats.

Later, after packing everything up and arriving in this world, he got caught up in a series of events and never got around to taking stock.

‘Whatever, I’ll just keep demolishing for now.’ Chen Xiyi looked at the brightly lit Western-style building not far away—or more accurately, the villa.

He swaggered right through the hall and climbed straight onto the villa’s roof, then started swinging the Alloy Pickaxe.

With each swing, one unit of building material was collected.

Then, Chen Xiyi placed it into the Wooden Storage Chest.

‘Is it a bit unethical to take someone else’s home apart for no reason?’

After demolishing the entire roof and starting on the furniture, Chen Xiyi suddenly had this thought.

He promptly slapped himself.

‘How dare I—I’m in the middle of work, and here I am distracted by random thoughts. If I can’t stay focused, how will I ever accomplish anything big?’

Chen Xiyi decisively pushed the unethical thoughts out of his mind. He could think about ethics after he finished demolishing this entire house.

As for causing harm to this family?

Wasn’t his behavior similar to rummaging through NPCs’ homes in RPG games?

Except in those games, you could only search through chests and cabinets—you couldn’t demolish houses.

This Home Game was more flexible, allowing him to demolish homes and collect building materials, furniture, and so on.

If RPG games allowed demolition, players would probably leave not even a single chair for the NPCs.

After finishing the top floor, Chen Xiyi was about to go downstairs to demolish the staircase when he suddenly realized: ‘Will doing this shift me from lawful good to chaotic good?’

He fell silent.

‘My Home Game doesn’t seem to have an alignment system, so I won’t shift from lawful good to chaotic good.’

Since the game didn’t have that setting, he could set his own rules. As for whether it was good or not—that was another matter.

It was a bit of a double standard, but Chen Xiyi had no shame, so double standards were normal for him.

“Gulp~”

Behind him, a young man in pajamas holding what looked like a cup of milk swallowed hard.

His face showed an expression of utter shock.

It wasn’t because he saw Chen Xiyi—thanks to his Illusion Art, the man couldn’t see him. It was mainly because the fourth floor of his house had vanished, and he could now see the night sky above.

The cold wind rushed in, waking him from his daze. The drink in his hand fell onto the staircase landing, and he screamed as he scrambled downstairs.

“Well, this…”

Chen Xiyi felt a bit awkward. It seemed he had been exposed.

He just had to speed things up then.

He had just finished breaking apart one section of the staircase when hurried footsteps echoed from below.

Before the newcomers could even stop, they watched as another section of the staircase disappeared right before their eyes, as if swallowed by some invisible force.

Instantly, a chill ran down everyone’s spine.

Chen Xiyi wasn’t about to take the blame for that; he thought the chill was probably due to the frozen sky and earth.

“Go, get out of here! There’s something unclean!!!” a middle-aged man at the front shouted urgently.

Of course, they didn’t need his reminder—the whole group hastily retreated downstairs. If they didn’t, what if they and the staircase disappeared together?

That wasn’t how you were supposed to risk your life.

They came in a hurry, and they left in a hurry.

By the time Chen Xiyi finished demolishing another floor, everything was dead silent.

‘Dammit, they left, but they took the car with them!’

Chen Xiyi peeked outside and saw a car driving away from the small villa, its headlights shining.

‘Where did I go wrong?’ Chen Xiyi couldn’t help but reflect on his actions that night.

‘I see—I didn’t restrain these people in time. If I hadn’t been blinded by greed and gone straight to demolishing, but instead tied them all up first, then I definitely wouldn’t have suffered this loss.’

Chen Xiyi was heartbroken over losing a car just like that.

‘Besides, my efficiency is way too slow. If only I could be faster.’ Chen Xiyi pondered this; his efficiency really was slow.

After all, he was alone. Even if he broke one thing per swing, if he really wanted to dig three feet deep, working alone would be unbearably slow.

But if he brought others in, it would expose him, so he had to find another way.

‘I wonder if I can use the Object Manipulation Talisman to control the Alloy Pickaxe?’ Chen Xiyi considered this idea.

If it worked, given his current Primordial Spirit level, he could probably control five to ten Object Manipulation Talismans at once, increasing his efficiency by five to ten times.

The reason for the wide range was that he hadn’t tried it yet.

At this stage, Chen Xiyi was still in the learning phase, not the practical phase. He handled most things with a very crude, overpowering approach.

But admittedly, overpowering was satisfying. If you could overpower, why bother with careful tactics? Those who used tactics had dirty hearts. Someone like Chen Xiyi, who only read sagely texts like the Spring and Autumn Annals, would definitely not use tactics. Of course, another reason was that he knew with his intelligence, using tactics would only embarrass him.

‘I’ll test it tomorrow. If it works, things will be much easier.’

He couldn’t test it now. Even if he wanted to draw an Object Manipulation Talisman, he didn’t have the materials.

At this hour, he couldn’t buy materials either—the shops were closed, and everyone was asleep. He would have to wait until morning when the shops selling yellow paper, cinnabar, and other materials opened.

Of course, he didn’t know where those shops were, and he was only halfway through this job. It wouldn’t be good to leave now.

So he would have to wait until tomorrow to ask around.

He could also use his Primordial Spirit to control multiple Alloy Pickaxes, but it wouldn’t last long—at most about… 3 minutes.

But if he combined his Primordial Spirit with the Object Manipulation Talisman, the duration would be much longer. As long as the Qi Mechanism in the talisman wasn’t used up, he could keep going.

It wasn’t that Chen Xiyi was inferior to a single Object Manipulation Talisman—it was just a matter of specialization.

The Object Manipulation Talisman was a tool, and with tools, efficiency would improve.

It was like digging soil: Chen Xiyi could dig one shovelful at a time, which was faster than using his hands. But if he brought an excavator, wouldn’t that be even faster?

Although the efficiency of the Object Manipulation Talisman might not match an excavator, it would still be much faster than digging one swing at a time.

After all, he really didn’t have an excavator. If he did, he wouldn’t need the Object Manipulation Talisman for demolition—he could just use the excavator for demolition.

When the last wall was torn down by Chen Xiyi, he stacked the Wooden Storage Chests and placed them into his Inventory, finally breathing a sigh of relief.

‘The efficiency is okay, but it’s tiring. Climbing up and down—if only I could fly.’

Chen Xiyi couldn’t fly. Maybe later, if his Primordial Spirit grew stronger…

‘Wait—can the Object Manipulation Talisman be used on myself?’

If the Object Manipulation Talisman could let him control an object and even make it fly, then what if he used one on himself and treated his body as an object to control? Wouldn’t that allow him to fly?

‘I could try. If it works, it could be used like a flying talisman.’

But Chen Xiyi thought it was unlikely. He had some impression of the Object Manipulation Talisman but hadn’t gotten to that part yet.

This talisman was an important part of the Dragon-Settling Nine Chapters’ methods for reshaping the environment.

After all, you couldn’t always do everything yourself or hire people openly. If you wanted to do things yourself and save effort, you had to research and develop such techniques.

‘I’ll check in the morning. I remember there’s another wealthy family somewhere around here.’

Chen Xiyi quietly took out the roster and checked the addresses, confirming that there was indeed one nearby.

He hoisted his pickaxe, figured out the general direction, and set off.

‘Strange, why is it so noisy this late at night?’

Chen Xiyi watched as a group of patrol soldiers passed by him, heading in the direction of the house he had just demolished.

But that had nothing to do with Chen Xiyi, because he had already reached the second victim’s home.