Qin Zhiyu still had the Bronze Treasure Chest from killing the mutated rats that she hadn’t opened yet.
Treasure Chests were categorized into “Blank Slate, Bronze, Crimson Iron, Silver, Gold, Dark Gold, Legendary.”
So far, she only knew about these tiers. It was said there were even higher-level Treasure Chests, but during her First Playthrough, the highest she had heard of was only the Gold Treasure Chest.
The good items from opening the Novice Gift Pack made her even more excited about what surprises this Bronze Treasure Chest might bring.
[You obtained “Iron Ore” *1 cubic meter]
[You obtained “Wood” *1 cubic meter]
[You obtained “Stone” *1 cubic meter]
[You obtained “Copper Ore” *1 cubic meter]
[You obtained “Clean Drinking Water” *1 barrel]
[You obtained “Kitchen Blueprint”]
[You obtained “Bathroom Blueprint”]
The Treasure Chest dissolved into specks of light and vanished, and as the light faded, these materials appeared one after another on the ground of the Sanctuary.
“After years of being a non-European, I’ve finally become the emperor!”
When the first resource appeared, Qin Zhiyu was delighted, but as she watched one resource after another appear, she couldn’t hide her shock.
For comparison, during her First Playthrough, ordinary Bronze Treasure Chests usually contained two or three items. Basic blueprints like these were typically only one per chest. But now, not only were there four basic resources, but there were also two blueprints!
In the early stages, resources were scarce. Every additional resource meant that Construction Points would rise accordingly.
Setting aside her joy over the bountiful resources, Qin Zhiyu opened her Cataclysm System—a triple delight! The Cataclysm System had just leveled up to Level 2!
After activating the Cataclysm System, she first cleared out a wave of monsters in the residential area. After encountering Yang Muyi, she killed four human-like monsters along the way. Additionally, exterminating the rats gave her a large amount of Experience Points. On the first day of the Heavenly Disaster, she leveled up to Level 2 in one go.
[Cataclysm System]
[Level: 2]
[Experience Points: 10/5000]
[Function: Replication]
Can replicate items of Bronze quality or lower three times per day, with each item limited to 3 cubic meters or less.
[Function: Reconnaissance (1/3)]
Reconnaissance range expanded to a radius of 500 meters, and Reconnaissance uses increased by +1.
[Bestiary] had newly recorded two types of monsters she had killed. It seemed that even without using Reconnaissance, killing Mutated Creatures could still record monster information.
The first was the “Contaminated Living Dead,” an ordinary monster. Due to exposure to the Transformation Laser Light, or radiation, although they escaped, their central nervous systems were destroyed, turning them into bloodthirsty monsters.
The second was the “Ordinary Rat King,” which overcame radiation and successfully evolved. However, due to the limited potential of the creature itself, its attack power was average.
Even an Ordinary Rat King of common quality already had speed comparable to her own. Qin Zhiyu realized her Agility was far from sufficient and that she needed to hurry and improve it.
[Resources] contained the Two-Dimensional Map of the residential area Qin Zhiyu had scanned, complete with directions and coordinates. Currently, the resources displayed in the residential area included [Wood], [Iron Ore], [Stone Ore], and [Gold].
When Qin Zhiyu saw the word [Gold], her eyes lit up. No wonder Wen Zhiyin had suddenly visited—gold!
As a precious metal, gold had extremely strong ductility, unparalleled forging properties, stable chemical properties, and strong corrosion resistance. It was difficult for it to react with oxygen even at high temperatures.
Among the many blueprints opened, gold was one of the essential raw materials. No wonder it attracted Wen Zhiyin—perhaps the entire city only had gold generated in her own residential area!
It seemed the first step in her pioneering efforts was to mine the gold. She needed to find the right opportunity to visit the residential area.
Not having a storage device was also an extremely troublesome matter.
In the First Playthrough, someone had obtained a storage device from a refreshed Treasure Chest. However, even a Crimson Iron Treasure Chest could at most yield a ten-cubic-meter Pocket Dimension, while a Bronze Treasure Chest could only yield up to five cubic meters.
Reconnaissance showed that the gold amounted to about three cubic meters, requiring at least a bronze-grade storage device.
The resources around Dawn Shelter were also displayed on the Two-Dimensional Map, including common materials like wood, stone ore, iron ore, copper ore, and water resources—all sufficient for the shelter’s upgrade needs.
Qin Zhiyu ate an Oil Cake and drank some water. After eating and drinking her fill, she planned to use the three daily Replication opportunities unlocked today right before the deadline tonight.
These three opportunities should not be underestimated. What did three cubic meters mean?
If it were three cubic meters of iron ore, replicating it three times would yield twelve cubic meters! And that was just for basic resources.
Unfortunately, there was a three-cubic-meter limit. For smaller items, such as blueprints or objects, it would be a threefold duplication.
As the System Upgrade progressed, the resource volume would explode exponentially!
However, Qin Zhiyu did not rest on her laurels. She hadn’t forgotten that the shelter was a colossal “gold-devouring beast.”
Currently, her shelter was still a Novice Shelter. To upgrade it to a Level 1 Shelter, the entire shelter needed a complete overhaul.
Qin Zhiyu opened the Chat Panel to see if there was any fresh news.
Liangzhe Shelter: My Novice Gift Pack only contained ordinary Blank Slate tools. Is there anyone unluckier than me?
My Dream Shelter: Hahaha, I never thought there would still be unlucky ones after the Heavenly Disaster game descended. Blank Slate? I don’t even have one!
BMW Shelter: I suggest the previous commenter gets a 100-year mute ban. Reporting the lucky ones is everyone’s responsibility!
After browsing through, Qin Zhiyu found that no particularly good items had been opened. It was also possible that everyone was keeping their treasures hidden. The cheerful banter on the public screen was merely mutual probing.
Having rested enough, Qin Zhiyu took her Iron Sword and stone axe to go chop wood outside.
To get rich, chop wood first!
Qin Zhiyu chose a forest without monsters. Originally, this area only had some low shrubs, but now they had all mutated and evolved into tall, unknown tree species.
The dense forest made Qin Zhiyu sigh once again—how advanced must their technological dimension be to completely alter a Life form?
After all, compared to the entire lifecycle of a species, these two or three days were but a fleeting moment.
Whether using the Kitchen Blueprint or the Bathroom Blueprint, wood was a basic consumable with high demand and relatively easy acquisition. So, before it got dark, she aimed to chop as much wood as possible.
The stone axe had a durability of 100/100. Through testing, Qin Zhiyu found that chopping a regular tree twenty centimeters thick consumed 10 durability points.
One stone axe could chop ten trees, and ten trees produced one cubic meter of wood.
Going downhill without carrying anything was easy for Qin Zhiyu, but transporting the chopped wood back up—ten meters high—was challenging, as the steps leading up the slope were not easy to navigate.
Qin Zhiyu also had to consider the time spent on the journey, as well as the consumption and recovery of Stamina. Each two trees consumed three points of Stamina, so with her remaining Stamina, she would still have more than half left after cutting down ten trees, avoiding any debuff.
This aspect showed that the Heavenly Disaster was quite considerate, as ordinary activities were entirely sufficient in terms of Stamina.
Her strength allowed her to carry two trees at once, so she divided the task into five rounds of cutting.
While cutting the trees, Qin Zhiyu also paid attention to starting from the middle of the forest and avoiding cutting in clusters.
Aiming the axe at the base of the trunk, her initial attempts resulted in multiple cuts, but after dozens of strikes, she could already land the axe precisely on the same cut.