……
“Huff… huff…”
Jiang Li gasped violently, her body pushed to its limit as she forcibly pulled herself out of meditation.
The hunger in her stomach surged instantly.
Even though it was still dark outside the ventilation window, and she had eaten before starting meditation, she now felt as if her stomach had been completely hollowed out.
She fumbled along the cave wall until she found her cloth bag, pulled out the dried meat inside, and shoved it into her mouth.
She barely chewed before swallowing it whole.
It felt like she was starving to death.
That kind of hunger filled her entire mind, as if she were a refugee who hadn’t eaten in days—so desperate she would swallow tree bark if she could.
Why am I so hungry? It’s just like…
Like when she woke up at noon today.
Jiang Li suddenly realized—
She must have unconsciously activated meditation in her sleep last night.
Half a jin of Cockroach Beast jerky was quickly consumed, and only then did the hunger finally ease, replaced by a sense of fullness.
What remained would barely be enough for tomorrow morning.
At this rate, her food simply wouldn’t last.
Meditation was far too energy-intensive.
More importantly, when she opened her status panel, her expression darkened.
[Skill: Soul of Nature]
[Meditation Awakening: 6%]
Only after reaching 100% awakening could she unlock body tempering and soul nurturing.
In other words, she had to “awaken” first before she could truly cultivate.
Awakening was both a gateway and a process of improving her body.
Because her body was too weak, the progress was painfully slow.
If she didn’t improve her frail constitution, she wouldn’t even qualify for cultivation.
Just 6% had already consumed most of her meat supply.
How much would she have to eat to complete awakening?
Jiang Li’s survival journey had only just begun—and she was not from a wealthy background.
She simply couldn’t sustain this level of consumption.
Still, there was good news.
After a short period of meditation, her stamina had actually increased.
[Stamina: 5]
Even this small improvement made her pleasantly surprised.
She clenched her fist and clearly felt her body becoming lighter, no longer as weak as before.
Though still three points below the adult baseline, she was already satisfied.
Spirit didn’t increase… is meditation still not enough?
Her gaze shifted to the mental stat.
The adult reference range for Spirit was 6–9, meaning her current value was already at the upper limit of a normal human.
Without meditation, it might never grow again.
Now that she had it, perhaps it could break past that limit just like stamina.
Thinking this, she felt the future looked promising.
The narrow cave was silent.
The knocking had stopped.
Cold air seeped through the cracks in the door, making the already damp cave even colder.
Her clothes were torn and patched, though at least thick enough.
She wrapped the cloth bag she received during the day around her feet and curled up in a corner.
Please, gods, don’t let me get sick tomorrow.
She silently prayed before forcing herself to sleep.
There was no other choice.
Her body was far too weak.
In this damp, poorly ventilated cave, illness would come easily.
And once she fell sick, her journey in this world would likely end.
In this cannibalistic apocalypse world, even if medicine existed, she couldn’t afford it.
Perhaps her prayer worked.
She woke up just as dawn began to break, feeling only mild soreness from sleeping on the hard ground—no other discomfort.
Today was the second day of the beginner protection period.
After tomorrow, the system’s protection for the shelter would disappear, and she would have to deal with Gray Mist infiltration herself.
Jiang Li ate the last bit of dried meat from last night, even licking the oil from her fingers clean, and finished all her water.
She was now completely broke.
Fortunately, new players received guaranteed rewards for the first three days—the cloth bag.
As long as she survived the night, a reward bag would appear outside the shelter every morning.
But only for three days.
After that, food and water would depend entirely on the player.
That was the game’s mercy.
Good thing I found the water source yesterday.
Today’s task was to fetch water, dig up mud, and plant mushroom seeds—fully securing food and water supplies.
But she also remembered something else.
On the second day, players would unlock the quest system.
Just as she expected, as dawn broke and gray light covered the land, lines of text appeared.
[Congratulations on surviving Day 1. You have obtained: Workbench Blueprint, Simple Fireplace Blueprint.]
[Quest 1: Upgrade your shelter.]
Even though she was mentally prepared, she still felt a surge of excitement.
The workbench was a crucial survival item—many tools required it to craft, including the stone axe she now had.
As for the simple fireplace, she understood its importance better than anyone after surviving last night’s cold.
It could drive away dampness and cold inside the cave, and even cook food.
Fuel wasn’t a problem—this mountain was full of dead wood.
Workbench requires 5 units of wood… fireplace needs 20 units of stone and 5 units of mud.
The game used a unit system.
A medium dead tree equaled 10 units of wood.
The workbench was easy to make.
The fireplace, however, required stone and mud—much harder to gather than wood.
She decided to build the workbench first.
She remembered it could be used to craft wooden barrels and stone picks.
Barrels could carry water and mud, and stone picks could mine stone.
After waiting a few minutes and confirming there was no danger, she opened the door.
A cloth bag was quietly placed outside.
[Congratulations on surviving Day 2. You have received: Cloth Bag.]
Only one bag this time—after all, encountering a “Fake Human Wraith” on the second night was rare for beginners.
Jiang Li wasn’t greedy. The basic reward was already enough.
Inside the bag were half a jin of dried meat and 250ml of filtered water.
The water was still stored in bamboo tubes.
Including the ones she already had, she now had four bamboo tubes in total.
They could hold water—and also be used as fuel for firewood.
She didn’t discard them, placing everything back into the bag.
Then she picked up her axe and surveyed the surroundings of the shelter.
The cave was at the foot of the mountain.
Dense weeds covered the entrance, partially concealing the small door.
The terrain of Crescent Moon Mountain was complex, and thick dead trees blocked visibility, making it impossible to see how large the mountain really was.
I must not cut the trees near the shelter.
Just like yesterday, the trees could slow down large disaster beasts and buy her time to escape.
In fact, she didn’t need to cut them at all.
The Cockroach Beast had already knocked down plenty of trees during its pursuit yesterday.
She could simply take advantage of that.