I Am Your Natural Enemy

Wen Yan finally had a good night’s sleep for once. He just slept during the designated time, pure and simple, without even dreaming.

Three hours—right on the bleeding edge, squeezing every drop, left his mind utterly exhausted. But the more extreme the situation, the better the result when making a push.

When the sun began to rise in the east, torrents of Yang Energy washed in like a rising tide, sweeping across the sky and banishing the last traces of night’s Yin Qi, Wen Yan naturally woke up.

He stood on the rooftop, welcoming the first wave of sunlight today. His whole body and mind felt like they’d been freshly tempered, and his spirit soared.

When he came down from the roof, he greeted Old Zhao and the five brothers, who were just getting ready to go rest.

As soon as he made it down, Feng Yao’s call came through.

”Did you pick one from the designs I sent you?”

”I can only make sense of the concept renderings. Structural stuff, how you split up functional zones and all that—why do you think I know more than the specialists?”

”You just need to look at the renderings, that’s all. If you’ve picked, we can have someone start work today.”

”That fast?”

”For the sake of secrecy, just one person’s enough to handle it. The only thing you’ll need to be present for is to confirm the access point under Old Zhao’s road intersection.”

”Don’t need to prepare anything else?”

”Nope, you don’t need to worry about anything else. We’ve got it all covered.”

Wen Yan was also a bit curious about this. Judging from what she said, it really was just one person doing all the work.

No wonder the Scorching Sun Department took him in. What the hell kind of monster is this? One guy can cover what a whole construction crew does.

Actually, maybe even more than that.

From breaking ground, to piling, reinforcing bars, pouring concrete—if one person handles it all…

Wen Yan was curious, so he picked one of the plans and sent it to Feng Yao.

Anyway, the real headache is the later interior work. The main structure is whatever—just needs to be sturdy and spacious.

The official reason for digging this basement wasn’t to expand Wen Yan’s old basement, but to build a buffer zone underground that would wrap around the big intersection beneath Old Zhao’s house.

And while they’re at it, see if they could dig to that road from below.

Wen Yan had breakfast with his family, tossed Sparrow Cat around a bit, and put Sparrow Cat through its morning workout.

Sparrow Cat’s recovery ability was legit. The training results totally outstripped any human’s. After only a couple of days, its flight path was obviously steadier, and its speed noticeably faster.

Not like when he first started out—looked like a big old gas cylinder balloon, just floating aimlessly in the sky.

After working out with Sparrow Cat for a bit, he spotted a young guy approaching from a distance, phone in hand, glasses on, looking studious and very much a college kid.

Next to him, a security guard was leading the way. After Wen Yan waved, the guard relaxed, said something with a smile, and turned to leave.

Wen Yan glanced up at the things dangling from the streetlight, then looked back at the young man.

Good, the guy couldn’t see any of that freaky stuff—thank God, at least he wouldn’t be scared off.

But Wen Yan was still puzzled—this Builder actually came here solo, with nobody tagging along.

The young man strode over, still a few steps away, but he already had a smile and hands stretched out.

”Hi Brother Wen, I’m Guihai Yidong, new Builder at the department. You can just call me Little Dong.”

”So it’s really just you doing this?”

”Uh, well, a colleague dropped me off about three kilometers away. He said he could only take me that far and told me to walk the rest. Lucky for me, I already checked the photos and data for this place.”

”Want to check it out in person first?”

”That’d be perfect.”

Wen Yan led Guihai Yidong around the villa area, starting from his own house.

”Ideally, there’d be an entrance down from my basement. Whatever else you do is up to you.”

”How big you want it, Brother Wen?” Guihai Yidong probed.

”How big did Scorching Sun Department approve for you?”

”They didn’t really say. As long as coverage doesn’t exceed half the villa area and the depth is under a hundred meters, it’s all fair game.”

Going too deep is actually a pain—air circulation, drainage, and so on gets tricky, not to mention power use goes up way too much.

Most importantly, it definitely wouldn’t be as secret.

”Just make it as secret, solid, and safe as possible. That’s all I need. Number one priority is durability—later I might use it for martial training, or maybe some other experiments.”

”Don’t worry about sturdy—it’ll be solid for sure. This main structure, the department isn’t limiting the budget at all. I promise I’ll make you a real doomsday fortress.”

Guihai Yidong’s eyes blazed with excitement, like Sparrow Cat eyeballing a bowl of luxury noodles after three days of hunger, or like a silly kid looking at a stack of soul paintings.

Wen Yan believed right away that Guihai Yidong would put his heart into this job.

”So you joined the Scorching Sun Department just for this?”

”Yep. Otherwise, why else would I join? I tried building something for myself once, nearly died from the hassle. Some stuff is crazy expensive, and that’s if you can even buy it to begin with.”

Now I don’t have to spend my own money and get all the budget I need—no more penny-pinching or juggling limited resources.

The very first thing I did after joining Scorching Sun Department was throw out any worry about costs. Otherwise, it was just a waste of my life.

I studied architecture, civil engineering, water supply and drainage, underground construction, hydraulic and hydroelectric engineering—time is barely enough as is. But then you’re forced to try to get the result with as little money as possible…”