The quest progress log flickered slightly:
[Moss: 1/10]
“It worked!”
A faint expression of joy surfaced on Song Xu’s face.
Once she mastered the method, gathering it wasn’t hard.
Song Xu stayed crouched with her head down, working tirelessly. In less than half an hour, she had dug up enough moss.
Next came the small twigs.
She went directly to snap them with her hands, but she hadn’t expected these tree branches to be so tough; they wouldn’t budge at all.
Activating ‘See It as Food’ once more.
As the duration of her gaze lengthened, the text popping up over the visible items became more detailed and thorough.
Crowded rows of text appeared everywhere before her eyes.
[Dry Wood: The core still retains a degree of hardness, usable as tinder. Bound with a sharp stone piece, it can be used to craft a simple stone axe handle.]
[Ash-White Gravel Piece: Thin edges, usable as a scraping tool. Bound with a wooden stick, it can serve as the blade of a stone axe.]
These two pieces of information lined up together before her eyes.
A stone axe!
Song Xu immediately swung into action.
First, she carved a notch into the thicker end of a dry wooden piece, which had to be able to wedge the stone fragment in place.
This wasn’t an easy task. Carving a suitable shape into the wood took quite a bit of effort, leaving her palms burning with pain.
Once the notch was formed, she found a length of vine nearby and used it to tightly lash the stone piece to the wooden stick.
A line of text floated over the object in her hands:
[Simple Stone Axe]
[Description: Looks like it could fall apart at any moment, but it is indeed a tool.]
[Effect: Attack +1, slightly increases logging/gathering speed. Durability: 10/10]
At the same time, a prompt popped up on the system panel:
[Crafting successful. Recipe System has been unlocked for you.]
It worked!
Song Xu selected a low-hanging tree branch, raised the stone axe, and chopped down hard twice.
*Crack.*
The branch gave a crisp snap and broke off.
The system page popped up a prompt again: [Obtained: Small Twig x1]
Song Xu let out a breath and aimed at the next branch.
With a tool, her efficiency truly improved.
It was just that the stone axe’s durability dropped too quickly, shattering after just a few chops.
She crafted two more stone axes before barely gathering enough of the 20 small twigs.
Fortunately, having already mastered the stone axe recipe, making new ones no longer required manual crafting.
As long as she gathered the materials, selected the stone axe from the recipe tab on her system panel, and clicked synthesize, a new one would appear instantly.
Extremely miraculous.
Gathering thatch was the easiest.
Picking those wild grasses that were already dried up and yellow, pulling up a large handful counted as one portion of thatch.
In less than an hour, Song Xu had gathered all the quest materials.
The moment all materials were collected, a new prompt popped up on the system quest panel:
[Novice Quest completed. Rewards being distributed.]
[Obtained: Simple Grass Shack x1 (Temporary shelter, slow stamina restoration while sleeping)]
[Obtained: Novice Gift Bag x1, Points +10]
[Warning: Once night falls in the canyon, please strictly remain within the range of a light source or shelter.]
On the empty ground before her, a low, crude triangular lean-to shack appeared out of thin air.
A straw curtain hung at the entrance, and the inside could only fit one person curled up lying down.
It looked like a big doghouse.
Song Xu raised her head, her heart instantly tightening.
The three giant eyeballs in the sky were half-closed, as if sinking into slumber.
The dim daylight, already faint, had noticeably darkened into gloom.
Not daring to delay, she grabbed the gift bag box that appeared alongside the shack and opened it quickly.
In an instant, a pile of assorted items tumbled out.
A somewhat worn coarse-cloth backpack merged right into her panel upon touch, adding an inventory grid display.
It contained ten slots; each slot could store items of the same type, stacking up to a maximum of 99 portions.
A small piece of rock-hard dark bread and a 500ml bottle of clean water.
A box of old-fashioned matches.
And a thin booklet titled “Novice Survival Guide.”
Song Xu picked it up to read immediately.
At the same time, the regional chatroom exploded into chaos.
[Little Wimp: Holy fuck fuck fuck fuck! It’s almost dark! Help, I haven’t built my shelter yet! Someone give me a few spare small twigs!]
[Tonsil Speaking: Coordinates (107, 203), I was bitten on the leg by a toad and I’m bleeding. Someone save me, I’ll give them all my stuff.]
[Brother Dao: What stuff do you have? DM me.]
[Donut: Sob sob sob, I got a huge blister on my hand from pulling grass, and it popped. It hurts so bad!]
[Poop-Scooping Little Fairy: Speaking of which, did you guys see the last page of the Novice Guide? Time flow! The time flow here is ten times faster than outside! Is that real or fake?!]
[Heaven Rewards Diligence: I read it! It’s real! The guide also says after redeeming awake time in the shop using points, we can return to reality!]
[Romeo and Pig Over Night: How are you guys so fast? I haven’t gotten the guide yet! How do you get points?]
The messages in the chat channel scrolled past rapidly; Song Xu had no time to read closely.
Having just finished reading the Novice Survival Guide, she opened the system shop to browse quickly, her heart pounding like a drum.
Ten times time flow speed!
Meaning after 72 hours here, only 7 hours and 12 minutes would have passed outside.
Calculating that out, it would barely be morning, and her daughter might not even be awake yet.
And the shop showed that 10 points could be redeemed for 1 hour.
She had just completed the Novice Quest and earned 10 points; she could choose to go back right now!
Yet looking at those unbelievable goods in the shop, her hands kept trembling uncontrollably.
All kinds of miraculous restoration potions that instantly produced magical effects upon use.
What shocked her the most was a tiny blue bottle inside called ‘Elementary Gene Repair Fluid.’
[Elementary Gene Repair Fluid: Can repair a small amount of human genetic errors and enhance basic constitution. Upon use, Spirit attribute permanently +1. Maximum limit of 10 bottles per person.]
[Price: 80 Points]
The shape of this tiny bottle was like a beam of dawn light piercing through the darkness directly into Song Xu’s mind!
She had seen it in the trash can at home before!
Once while cleaning up the house, she had asked Liang Yan what kind of medicine he was taking for no reason.
Besides, why wasn’t there a single word written on that medicine bottle?
Liang Yan had stumbled over his words, claiming it was some kind of calcium gluconate.
And her daughter’s body had suddenly shown signs of improvement only after that bottle of medicine had appeared at home!
The doctors had long asserted that due to her genetic defects, her daughter suffered from severe developmental delays and multiple organ dysfunction, and keeping things as they were was already fortunate.
An improvement was practically a wild dream.
Yet recently, when her daughter’s frail little hand gripped her fingers, the strength was a bit stronger than before, no longer completely limp.
The most obvious change was in her eyes.
Previously, her gaze was unfocused and struggled to concentrate.
Recently, however, her eyes would follow her movements and turn slightly!
Song Xu had cried in secret over this, thinking heaven had finally opened its eyes, believing that the expensive traditional Chinese medicine had finally worked.
She had even gritted her teeth and decided that next month, even if she had to borrow money, she would keep buying that Chinese medicine.
So it wasn’t… it wasn’t that seven thousand yuan per pack Chinese medicine at all.
It was Liang Yan!