January 5th, Sunny
[It is level five. If I remember correctly, you can buy milk now. Are you really not considering buying some for breakfast?]
“5 points a bottle. Too expensive.”
999’s care left Lin Zhaoyang a bit overwhelmed. He had already been living in this game for five days and never ate breakfast, let alone something as expensive as milk.
[Then can you surprise me today by eating something that isn’t made of wheat flour?]
999’s voice reached Lin Zhaoyang’s ears once again, laden with heavy grievance.
This human truly did not know how to take care of himself properly.
Breakfast was skipped entirely. Lunch and dinner had strictly been steamed buns ever since he first switched to them, and even then, only the very first meat bun cost 5 points, while all the subsequent vegetable buns cost 3 points each.
“Huh? I guess I can.”
“This preserved egg and lean pork congee is on sale. It is only 5 points.”
The portion of preserved egg and lean pork congee materialized with wisps of rising heat, placed directly on the wooden cabin’s floor.
Fortunately, the game store had no emotions. It simply delivered items to the player and didn’t care whether the player had tables and chairs. Placing it on the floor still counted as delivering the goods.
[Even though it is on sale, at least you are finally not eating steamed buns, qwq. It is so relieving.]
[Though you are still unwilling to go cut some bamboo to make a table and chairs, so future items will just keep getting dropped on the floor.]
“Stamina has to be allocated reasonably. Doesn’t that well require stones too? I’ll have to haul stones over later. Next time for sure.”
Lin Zhaoyang began his repetitive work with his meager stamina once again. If 999 hadn’t been keeping him company, he would have wanted to quit long ago.
Hauling logs at least meant carrying them in bundles, but hauling stones meant moving them one by one. Building a single well required 50 stones.
Of course, it couldn’t all be finished in a single day, but his current main quest was to expand the wooden cabin, and it happened to require a lot of wood as well. Alternating between the tasks at least kept things a bit fresh.
Lin Zhaoyang couldn’t recognize what kind of trees the material trees were. Once chopped down, they only triggered a notification saying they were wood, but he couldn’t be bothered to ask anyway. Those trees would all end up chopped down by him regardless.
Did he really need to ask for their names before cutting them down?
Trees couldn’t talk either. They only rustled their leaves in response when the wind blew.
Still, that was a conversation between the wind and the trees, and it had nothing to do with Lin Zhaoyang. He just occasionally looked at the trees and listened to them rustling in the wind.
Day in and day out, Lin Zhaoyang chopped wood, hauled stones, and piled all the materials outside the wooden cabin.
In this game, besides working, he didn’t seem to have anything else he could do.
In the blink of an eye, time reached the eighth day.
Lin Zhaoyang felt dazed and hazy. He was almost starting to forget what his original purpose for rebirthing was. True, he needed to earn points, but why was every single day spent either chopping wood or smashing stones?
Though he could have chosen to cut bamboo instead, he refused. Tables and chairs were of no use to him anyway.
The store’s food ingredients either came with their own paper bags or brought their own bowls, and even garbage had a designated recycling station to pick it up.
Lin Zhaoyang didn’t joke around with 999 every single second either. Occasionally, just like now, he would lean against a tree trunk, let his mind go blank, and zone out.
[Zhaoyang, what is your stamina value at now?]
There was a trace of expectation in 999’s tone. Online multiplayer was going to unlock on the eleventh day. The host wouldn’t fail to qualify for multiplayer by then, right?
Hearing 999’s question, Lin Zhaoyang snapped back to reality.
“19.”
“Does this stat really raise this slowly? I feel like I’ve been working really hard.”
Lin Zhaoyang stroked his chin in thought. Although he hauled things slowly, the quantity he moved each day was decent. At least by today, he had gathered enough materials for both expanding the wooden cabin and building the well.
[There are still two days of sunny weather left, so you should be able to reach 20 stamina by then. Even numbers feel much more pleasing to the eye.]
What a clumsy excuse, but whatever. He was afraid the host would want to play multiplayer and explore dungeons when the time came, only to find out he couldn’t enter any of them. That would be too terrifying.
“Actually, I think so too. Work hard for two more days, and then we can start that multiplayer feature, right?”
Multiplayer, multiplayer. According to Lin Zhaoyang’s understanding, that meant other people would be playing along with him by then, right?
Lin Zhaoyang was actually quite looking forward to it. Life alone was truly monotonous and dull.
[Yep, yep, yep, exactly. Multiplayer means you can play together with other people.]
999 knew the other person would definitely want to play this feature, so please, the stamina value just had to reach 20.
“That’s great. In a couple of days, I’ll finally get to see people.”
“I’m going to go expand the wooden cabin first.”
Before multiplayer was unlocked, this “Second Life” served as a period for individual development. There was no world chat, no friends list, and the game system mostly left players to explore on their own.
“Once it’s expanded, I can move the toilet further away from where I sleep. It really was a tiny bit small before.”
The wooden cabin still had nothing inside it. Lin Zhaoyang felt that anything useless was something he refused to buy, and anything craftable that he didn’t strictly need, he wouldn’t make either.
After the expansion, the wooden cabin grew to six square meters. Just as Lin Zhaoyang had wished, the toilet area took up much less relative space, though it made that section look even more compact.
[You sleep on the floor every day anyway, so rolling around to wherever makes no difference. Even after the expansion, you are still just sleeping randomly all over the place.]
[Wait a minute. Have you literally not had a pillow this whole time? Hurry up and buy a pillow, or else I am going to come scare you when you go to sleep tonight. Awooo.]
999 let out a little robotic milky howl, presumably intending to sound fierce, but it was genuinely just funny.
“I’ve clearly been sleeping like this for seven nights straight. How did you only notice today?”
“Every day I’m so exhausted I pass out the moment I hit the floor. Having a pillow or not makes no difference.”
Though he said that, his hands were entirely honest as he purchased a green pillow.
Lin Zhaoyang had originally thought it wouldn’t add that much space while demanding both wood and his precious points. Fortunately, the point rewards were decent, or else he would have reported this game.
Normally, the moment he opened his door, it should have been dirt outside. But when he opened the door today, there was wood outside, some extra space had appeared, stairs were in front of the main entrance, and the entire wooden cabin’s position had been elevated.
“No wonder that main quest said expanding the wooden cabin was mandatory. So it was to raise the elevation. That’s definitely good.”
[Of course. The weather won’t always be sunny from now on. If it rained, you’d end up flooded.]
Lin Zhaoyang nodded obediently. The wooden cabin was done, and the next step was finding a place to put his well.
“Let’s put it right here. I’ll put a couple of water vats next to the wooden cabin later.”
[Yep, yep, yep, putting it here is fine.]
Regardless of what it was, Lin Zhaoyang liked placing everything right against the wooden cabin. After choosing the spot, he watched expectantly as a well emerged right out of the previously empty floor.
However, unlike what he had imagined, it was a stone well, and it genuinely looked like a stone well built out of the irregular stones he had hauled back.
It was very ugly.
Lin Zhaoyang couldn’t believe his eyes, but no matter how many times he looked at it, it was just that ugly.
Touching the rim of the well with his hand, as he expected, an option for upgrading appeared, requiring materials and points.