[Low-Level Wooden Door, upgradable or deconstructable.]
She raised her eyebrows and checked her recipe list.
Using 20 pieces of iron ore, she synthesized a Sturdy Security Door.
Touching the broken wooden door, she selected to deconstruct it, acquiring a few pieces of dry firewood, which she casually tossed to the side.
Feeling the doorframe, she placed the security door out.
With a click, the iron door fit tightly into the doorframe without a gap.
There was a round peephole in the middle, and below it was a solid metal door bolt.
Almost simultaneously, a new system prompt popped up.
[Upgrade detected for primary wooden house defense component.]
[Current Sturdiness: 58/100 → Soon to reach Level 2 Sturdy Wooden House.]
[Upgrade Effect Preview: Space expanded to 8 square meters, a small storage chest can be placed, maximum sturdiness limit increased to 150.]
Song Xu’s eyes lit up.
The walls, roof, and floor—all of these could be upgraded.
Unfortunately, she had exchanged for too much iron ore just now, and her wooden planks were insufficient.
Forget it, she would leave it at this for tonight.
Song Xu exhaled a breath, and a plume of white mist appeared before her eyes.
The temperature was about to drop.
She used four pieces of iron to synthesize a crude sheet-iron fireplace; after placing it down, a chimney opening automatically opened on the roof.
Stuffing in some dry firewood and thatch, she lit it, and the inside of the house grew a bit warmer.
Song Xu sat beside the fireplace, pulled out a bowl of piping hot noodles, opened a can of spam, and ate with big bites.
Sweeping her field of vision across the monitoring screen of the Screen-Peeking Bear, her daughter was holding the little bear, sleeping soundly.
Her tiny feet had kicked off the blanket at some unknown point.
Song Xu couldn’t help but want to smile.
Baobao’s legs had enough strength to kick off the quilt now; that was truly wonderful!
Afterward, she began to worry again.
Heating hadn’t been turned on at home yet; sleeping like this would be cold in the middle of the night.
Glancing at her own body, which lay right beside her daughter, she was actually still snoring softly.
At any rate, the sober duration she had redeemed last time hadn’t been fully used up.
In the end, Song Xu couldn’t hold back; rolling her eyes, she fell backward.
Sitting up, she tucked her daughter in properly under the quilt, then lay back down, opening her eyes after a single blink.
The entire process took less than thirty seconds.
Having finished her noodles contentedly, Song Xu’s stamina points refilled once more.
It was already dark outside, and she felt not a trace of sleepiness.
Opening the house door, she walked to a spot a few steps away outside the small wooden house, built a circle using stones, filled it with thatch and dry firewood, and lit it.
Flames surged up with crackling sounds, and in less than ten minutes, fluttering wing-flapping sounds approached from far and near.
One, two, ten… palm-sized night moths began circling around the firelight.
Song Xu held her dip net, stretching her arms out.
Swish!
Netting one.
Slamming it dizzy, nipping off the head, removing the wings, collecting the meat—the entire sequence of actions was as smooth as flowing water.
The moth meat inside the Large Stomach Bag grew more and more.
While catching them, she opened the chat channel.
[Six-Foot Long Legs: It’s so cold tonight! My straw shed leaks wind on all four sides, and my health points are starting to drop!]
[Tomato Stir-Fried without Egg: Who has a small wooden house blueprint? I’m almost done gathering enough wooden planks! Just missing the blueprint! Buying at high prices!]
[Brother Knife: (Primary Small Wooden House Construction Blueprint.jpg) I still have two copies, those who want them DM with offer.]
[Wealth from All Directions: Holy shit, where on earth did you guys get so many blueprints!]
[Heaven Rewards Diligence: Buying food, trading iron ore for wooden planks at 1:1.]
[Cherry Little Finish: Boohoo, sleeping in a straw shed is probably going to freeze me to death. I plan to sleep next to the bonfire tonight.]
Song Xu moved her fingers and sent a message.
[Baobao’s Mom: Don’t sleep too deeply next to the campfire; replenish the firewood frequently.]
Her remark brought a few words of thanks, which she didn’t mind, clicking open the private chat with [Vicious Stepmother].
She sent over a screenshot of a newly roasted [Phosphorescent Night Moth Skewer (Health Points Recovery +10)].
[Baobao’s Mom: This kind of meat in exchange for the skill fragment in your hands—will it work?]
It was an almost instant reply.
[Vicious Stepmother: !!! Someone got poisoned from roasting these moths the day before yesterday! Your moth meat can actually recover 10 health points! Sister! This is way better than Earth Dragon Fungus! Trade! Must trade!]
[Baobao’s Mom: How many do you want?]
[Vicious Stepmother: Want… is 300 skewers okay?]
[Baobao’s Mom: 100 at most, I’ll roast them done for you.]
[Vicious Stepmother: Deal! Then I can save quite a bit of stamina points! Thanks sister! That… sister, I have a question: why does my fire pit never attract this kind of moth? I’ve lit it for several nights now and have only seen one or two.]
The movements of Song Xu’s hands paused for a moment.
Why did her fire pit particularly attract moths?
She looked at her attribute panel.
A faint guess formed in her heart.
Looking at those people chatting, most people’s initial ‘Luck’ attribute was either 1 or 2 points, with 3 being very rare.
Some even joked that people chosen for the game were basically those facing immense pressure in real life and barely able to go on living, so their luck naturally couldn’t be very good.
However, she had started at 10, plus possessed a skill like Born Gourmet.
It might be related to this, which was why finding anything was so exceptionally smooth for her.
[Baobao’s Mom: Perhaps it’s also related to the location or the fuel. It’s relatively close to the jungle and the swamp near where I am.]
She casually made up a reason.
[Vicious Stepmother: That explains it, it’s all rocks near where I am. Thanks sister! So we trade tomorrow morning?]
[Baobao’s Mom: Okay.]
Closing the private chat, the movements of Song Xu’s hands grew even faster.
Before it was even midnight, the moth meat inside the Large Stomach Bag had already piled up into a small hillock.
After catching so many moths, she had also summarized some experience.
The moths did not refresh continuously; every time, roughly twenty or so would fly over.
Only when the very last one was caught would a new batch fly over again.
For an ordinary person, catching thirty or forty would leave their stamina points nearly depleted.
But she wasn’t afraid.
When her stamina points started dropping, she would slurp noodles.
Three and a half basins out of the four large basins of noodles were still left!
Song Xu swung her dip net with a glowing face, her mind already picturing the scene of herself leading a toad army tomorrow to battle the Scarecrow.
When the morning light faintly dawned, Song Xu finally stopped.
Inside the Large Stomach Bag, the fragrant moth meat was piled into a small mountain, roughly estimated to be nearly five hundred pieces.
This meat was not skewered; she used the cooking pot to roast it all in batches until cooked.
As long as the right recipe was chosen, the flavor cooked out by this magical cooking pot was completely identical to roasting.
She completed the trades with [Vicious Stepmother] and [Master Wang Who Doesn’t Blink When Sleeping], using 200 pieces of roasted moth meat in exchange for two skill fragments.
Now, she held three skill fragments in her hand.
Only missing one corner to synthesize it.
Song Xu packed up her things and extinguished the fire pit.
She spent 10 points to purchase a Storage Rune.
The durability of this rune was 10 points, and it could be stored and retrieved ten times.
Pasting it onto the door of the small wooden house, a pick-up-able state was subsequently prompted.
Song Xu stashed the house into her backpack, grabbed the Hunting Shortbow, and walked briskly toward the Red-Eyed Toad swamp.
The sky was even gloomier than yesterday, and heavy white mist formed with every breath.
A system prompt popped up.
[System Announcement: Extreme Cold Tide will arrive in 71 hours and 59 minutes. Please prepare, all players.]