At this moment, inside a rock crevice within Novice Canyon No. 233.
Lv Le, whose nickname was ‘Vicious Stepmother’, curled up inside the gap in the rocks.
Looking at the twenty bright purple mushrooms in her backpack, her throat felt dry.
She deeply regretted choosing such a brainless, random name.
As a result, whenever she called for help in the channel, she was either ignored or mocked for getting what she deserved; no one was willing to help her at all.
These mushrooms before her eyes were her very last ray of hope.
“Damn it! Dead is dead!”
Hardening her heart, she grabbed a mushroom, closed her eyes, and stuffed it into her mouth.
The strange flavor she had anticipated did not appear.
*Crunch.*
The texture was extraordinarily crisp, like a fresh cucumber, instantly moistening her throat that was smoking from dryness.
This… this mushroom actually tasted pretty good!
After waiting for a while, her stomach did not hurt either.
Below her line of sight, the eye-searing red status in her bar—[Health: 3/50]—flickered slightly, turning into [Health: 6/50].
It was real!
Lv Le was almost moved to tears as she rapidly stuffed one mushroom after another into her mouth.
By the time she wolfed down the tenth mushroom, her status bar had already become [Health: 33/50], and that near-death feeling of starvation completely disappeared.
“I’m alive, I survived…” Leaning against the stone wall, she panted heavily and stowed all the remaining mushrooms into her backpack.
These were all lifesaving rations!
Opening the chat channel, she wanted to thank Bao Bao’s Mom.
However, she saw several newly refreshed messages:
[Prosperity From All Directions: Don’t believe that Bao Bao’s Mom, everyone! I just traded with her to check the mushrooms—they are so purple they’re almost black, definitely poisonous! She wants to scam us out of our gear!]
[Tomato Scrambled Without Eggs: See! I told you she was a scammer!]
[South Wind Knows My Mind: @Bao Bao’s Mom, come out and explain! Using poisonous mushrooms to scam people, did a dog eat your conscience?]
[Prosperity From All Directions: This person is rotten to the core. When human lives are on the line, everyone should be helping each other, yet she still tries to scam people.]
[Weakling: Huh? Are they really poisonous mushrooms? I almost wanted to trade for them just now.]
Lv Le grew anxious and immediately typed:
[Vicious Stepmother: Bao Bao’s Mom isn’t a scammer! I traded! I ate them! They’re really not poisonous! They restore 3 Health points! They can even quench thirst! I almost starved to death just now, it was all thanks to Bao Bao’s Mom!]
However, she was met with even more ridicule:
[Prosperity From All Directions: Heh, you’re in cahoots with her, aren’t you? Putting on a show?]
[God Helps Those Who Help Themselves: Lady, you shouldn’t talk recklessly; eating poisonous mushrooms is no joke.]
[Donut: Sigh, I only have this one decent weapon. If I get scammed, I’ll literally throw up.]
Lv Le’s eyes turned red with anger, and she directly took a screenshot of the mushrooms in her backpack and posted it into the chat channel.
[Vicious Stepmother: Look for yourselves: (Earth Dragon Mushroom.jpg)]
The chat channel fell silent for a moment.
[Weakling: Holy crap! It’s actually real!]
[Donut: Heavens, it really is a health-restoring mushroom! How come I haven’t run into any!]
[Little Cherry Ruined: Bao Bao’s Mom, I want to trade! Can I trade with this small dagger? (Crude Bone Dagger.jpg)]
[God Helps Those Who Help Themselves: Ms. Bao Bao’s Mom, I offended you earlier. May I ask if these mushrooms can be traded for other things besides bows and arrows? I have some timber and stone.]
. . .
At the edge of the forest, Song Xu was practicing her archery while traveling, not looking at the chat channel at all.
Earlier, someone named ‘Prosperity From All Directions’ sent a private message to trade, but the moment he saw the mushrooms, he canceled the transaction before it was even completed.
Right after that, he started sending private messages to hurl insults.
Before long, over a dozen private messages popped up cursing her.
It took Song Xu a long while of studying the interface to add those people to her blacklist one by one.
At this moment, her private message channel began flashing wildly again.
Thinking it was more people coming to hurl insults, she wiped the sweat off her forehead, stopping her movement after seeing the messages clearly.
How did so many trade requests pop up all of a sudden?
She opened the chat channel and scrolled through it quickly.
So that was why.
She had not known earlier that the chat had a screenshot feature; otherwise, she would not have taken all that verbal abuse for nothing.
Filtering through the private messages, bow and arrows were still her priority targets, but she also began paying attention to other useful items.
Soon, she completed several more trades:
Using 60 mushrooms, she traded for three sets of full-durability Beginner Bow and Arrows.
Using 10 mushrooms, she traded for a Turtle Shell Shield with 10/20 durability.
Using 4 mushrooms, she traded for two intact snail shells; now both of her ankles were protected as well.
Then someone else sent a private message, sending a picture upon opening.
Song Xu’s eyes widened!
(Skill Card Fragment.jpg)
[Tonsil Speaks: This is the only valuable thing I have left. If I wasn’t about to starve to death, I wouldn’t bring it out to trade. You also know how important skills are in this game, asking for 500 mushrooms isn’t excessive, right?]
[Bao Bao’s Mom: …It is excessive.]
[Tonsil Speaks: This is a skill! No one has seen one before, mine is the very first one in the entire zone!]
[Bao Bao’s Mom: Yours is just a fragment. Maybe there will be even more fragments in the future.]
[Tonsil Speaks: Then 400.]
. . .
[Tonsil Speaks: Big sister, say something! We can negotiate the price… 300, can’t go lower!]
. . .
[Tonsil Speaks: Big sister, sister! You’re my biological sister! Lowest is 280, I’m truly spitting blood here! If you don’t trade, I’m going to look for the berry seller!]
[Bao Bao’s Mom: 215, that’s all I have left.]
[Tonsil Speaks: Deal! Let’s trade.]
When that light grey skill card fragment appeared in her backpack, Song Xu let out a breath.
Although all the mushrooms she had painstakingly gathered were traded away, she still felt it was quite a good deal.
This fragment was only a single corner without any numbers or patterns, about one-fourth the size of a playing card.
In other words, four fragments could synthesize a new skill; she just did not know what the new skill would be like.
She would hoard them slowly first.
[Bao Bao’s Mom: May I ask how you obtained this fragment?]
[Tonsil Speaks: Heh heh, that’s a different price. I still need to rely on this to make my fortune.]
Song Xu closed the private message channel.
Indeed, if it were her, she would not casually tell others either.
However, his name was quite special.
Song Xu had a very good memory, almost photographic.
Had her family not been poor when she was young, she would not have missed out on going to college.
She remembered yesterday this ‘Tonsil Speaks’ had shouted in the chat channel that he was chased for three miles by a toad right after landing.
Later, he said he was bitten on the leg by the toad, could not move, and was going to die.
After that, someone named Brother Knife said he was going to look for him.
Novice Canyons were not connected, so she guessed the two of them probably never met.
Then how did ‘Tonsil Speaks’ survive?
Song Xu pondered.
This skill fragment was eighty to ninety percent likely related to that toad that chased him.
Thinking of this, she could not help but quicken her pace.
Her Archery proficiency was already at 735/1000; before finishing this set of bow and arrows, she should be able to level up.
However, the sky was already growing dark, and she still had not walked out of this forest.
She had to quickly find a place to light a fire and build a shelter.