When she finally tried to move the fallen dead tree herself, Jiang Li realized she had underestimated things.
It wasn’t light.
Even a dead tree was not something she could easily lift.
She carefully scanned her surroundings, then calculated the distance back to her shelter. At her snail-like speed, dragging a single tree would take over half an hour.
Persistence is victory.
Gritting her teeth, she hugged the dead tree and dragged it toward the shelter in one go.
When she finally reached the cave entrance, a prompt appeared.
[Decompose dead tree?]
She confirmed.
In the next instant, the thick, withered trunk vanished before her eyes.
And then—
[Shelter: Level 1]
[Type: Cave]
[Storage: 10 units of wood]
Even though she had played the game before, seeing the dead wood transform into raw data still shocked her.
She had thought she would need to saw the wood herself.
She hadn’t expected the system to be this considerate.
She shifted her attention to the workbench blueprint. After selecting “craft,” the system responded instantly.
In the blink of an eye, a slightly crude—and even somewhat crooked—workbench appeared.
Jiang Li stepped closer and saw rows of crafting options appear before her.
[Stone Axe: 2 stone, 1 wood][Stone Pickaxe: 2 stone, 1 wood][Wooden Barrel: 2 wood][Fishing Rod: 1 wood, 1 line (cotton thread, rough string, plastic…)]
And more tools beyond that.
There were also furniture items:
[Simple Wooden Bed: 5 wood][Wooden Chair: 2 wood][Wooden Table: 4 wood]
……
It felt like stepping into a fully immersive game.
Completely different from playing through a computer screen.
The experience was overwhelming in a way that made her want to cry.
Even though she knew this world was dangerous beyond measure, compared to her suffocating, repetitive life as an overworked office drone, she actually preferred this place.
She liked survival.
She liked slowly building everything she wanted from scratch.
……
Jiang Li crafted two wooden barrels.
Each was about the size of a real-world water bucket.
She carried them and headed toward the water source she had found yesterday.
Since she already knew the price of oil lamps, she didn’t plan to go back to Spark Village today.
Tomorrow would be the third day.
Time was running out.
She had to plant the mushrooms today and solve both water and food issues at once.
Planting a day earlier meant harvesting a day earlier.
She didn’t fear hard work—she was already used to grinding herself to exhaustion.
Now, in this apocalypse, she was even more relentless.
If she didn’t work hard during the beginner period, things would only get harder later.
Arriving near the water channel, she crouched slightly, her body tense.
She carefully listened to her surroundings.
At the slightest sound, she would flee immediately.
She had seen the Cockroach Beast guarding this water source with her own eyes.
Even though it had likely been driven away by her fireball yesterday, she remained extremely cautious.
This was not a game.
She only had one life.
If she died, she was truly gone.
After confirming no movement nearby, she slowly approached the stream.
It stinks.
The closer she got, the stronger the foul smell became.
The water channel was murky and filthy, and the mud beside it—mixed with beast waste—was even more disgusting.
She didn’t retreat.
Instead, she stayed alert and crouched down.
One bucket was used to collect water, the other to scoop mud.
She had obtained a simple filter yesterday.
No matter how dirty the water was, after filtering and boiling, it could still be consumed.
Fortunately, the stream was continuous.
Though shallow, fresh water kept bubbling up from below.
Jiang Li felt a surge of relief.
She used her stone axe to scoop mud into the barrel.
She still didn’t dare touch it directly.
Her body was too weak, and she didn’t know how many bacteria or parasites the mud contained.
If she got infected, it would be game over.
Using the stone axe, however, was manageable.
After filling both buckets halfway, she listened carefully once more before slowly carrying them back.
They weren’t full—partly because she couldn’t carry more, and partly because she needed to conserve stamina in case of danger on the way back.
Fortunately, nothing happened.
She returned safely to the shelter.
After closing the door tightly, she began processing the water and mud.
The mud was unbearable, so she immediately used the workbench.
With 1 unit of wood and half a bucket of mud, she crafted a small planting pot.
It could hold two mushroom seeds.
Once crafted, the foul smell disappeared, replaced by the scent of normal soil.
That alone made her happy.
I should place the planting pots in the back of the cave.
The shelter had a front and back section, with the rear being larger.
Perfect for farming.
After planting the mushroom seeds, she finally relaxed slightly.
A line of text appeared:
[3 days to maturity]
Her eyes lit up.
She knew mushrooms grew fast—but not this fast.
And they were renewable.
After harvesting, new cycles would begin again.
A three-day maturity period meant she would never lack food in the future.
As long as she had mushrooms, she could survive in this cave indefinitely.
In a damp, dark environment, mushrooms didn’t even need watering or weeding.
Only occasional replacement of the planting pot was needed, since the mud’s fertility would eventually be depleted.
However—
If I want to keep meditating… this food supply won’t be enough.
She sighed.
Meditation consumed far too much energy.
More than she could currently sustain.
She returned to the front area.
Half a bucket of mud remained—just enough to make a fireplace later.
As for stone, it wasn’t hard to find.
On her way back earlier, she had already seen several large rocks nearby.
Like dead trees, they could be brought back and decomposed into units.
But her body was too weak.
“Ha… ha…”
Dragging trees, carrying buckets—her stamina had completely hit its limit.
She collapsed onto the ground, limbs aching from overuse, and couldn’t recover for a long time.
This was 5 stamina.
Truly frustrating.
She was stuck in a dead loop:
To increase stamina, she needed meditation.
Meditation required massive food consumption.
But she lacked food.
And to get food, she had to grind progress…
A cycle with no easy way out.