January 10th, sunny, 8:00 PM.
(From now on, players will draw the weather for the following day at 8:00 PM every evening. Please draw a card from the weather deck to determine tomorrow’s weather.)
The weather card had a black triangle border on the left with a sun pattern, and a golden triangle border on the right with a moon pattern.
Lin Zhaoyang casually tapped on a card.
When flipped over, the top right corner had “Heavy Rain” written in small characters, and the card face showed a video view of the small wooden cabin caught in a torrential downpour.
“Wow, so high-tech.”
Lin Zhaoyang exclaimed in admiration as he looked at the card. Not only was the back of the card good-looking, but the front was also so advanced.
999 was puzzled. 999 kept quiet. 999 silently scratched its head. Wasn’t this just a video player with a different skin?
“999, tomorrow is already the eleventh day.”
Lin Zhaoyang buried half his face into his quilt and chuckled softly. He would finally get to see people tomorrow, and the thought alone made him happy.
Living alone was too terrifying. There were no people, no animals, and not even the ocean had any large waves, just occasional ripples.
[Mm-hmm, tomorrow you can play online.]
[Tomorrow the backpack will also open, so you won’t have to carry things back and forth every day so laboriously anymore. The later stages are truly much better than the early stage.]
999 was also very happy. Lin Zhaoyang’s stamina value had reached exactly 20. That’s wonderful, wuwuwuwu.
For the past two days, it hadn’t dared to let its host push himself too hard with training. It just kept praising him the whole time, and even though the other person couldn’t feel its actions, it still tried hard to fan him with cool air whenever he felt hot.
“999, come sleep.”
Just like usual, Lin Zhaoyang left half the space for 999.
[Coming. Good night ( ω ).]
January 11th, heavy rain, 8:00 AM.
Lin Zhaoyang pushed open the window and watched the unceasing rain pattering down heavily against the firewood he had piled up, feeling a slight pang of heartache. However, he had simply been too lazy to tie them into bundles and place them under the eaves of the cabin last night.
Yet, the moment he thought about how he would get to see people today, he felt nothing but excitement.
It had been so long since he last laid eyes on a human. Even in prison, there are guards, but playing a game could make someone lonely to this extent. Even 999 was invisible and untouchable, and he could only occasionally imagine what the other looked like on his own.
“How do we set up the multiplayer connection?”
With the heavy rain today, Lin Zhaoyang didn’t even want to step out the door. He had thought about making an umbrella earlier, but got busy and forgot all about it. In reality, he couldn’t go out at all right now.
Fortunately, after upgrading the cabin, it had eaves; otherwise, a single glance out the window would get his face splashed with water.
[Isn’t your exploration tab lit up too? Just set the location inside the cabin, and a teleportation array will appear on the floor of your cabin when the time comes.]
Lin Zhaoyang looked around his small cabin and pondered for a moment. Let’s set it in the corner. Even though it looked like he was facing the wall in punishment, his room was completely empty anyway. He needed the widest part of the floor for his bed, and other spots were for miscellaneous items, so the corner was the only place left for a teleportation array.
[Your backpack is unlocked, and the warehouse is open too. You can check them out. When exploring, you can store items in your backpack first and then transfer them to the warehouse.]
[In the game, you have to carry the backpack on your body, and there is a weight limit. It is fine to pack a little lighter; just treat it like going out to play a game, and points can be earned in other ways.]
[I won’t be able to talk when other players are around since I belong to an external cheat, and we can’t let others find out.]
[Get along well with your teammates. If you don’t understand something, just ask them. If your teammate turns out to be terrible, we can just start a new exploration.]
[Your initial dungeon only requires you to bring two steamed buns to start. Failure just means losing two steamed buns, so it’s no big deal.]
Lin Zhaoyang couldn’t increase his weight capacity temporarily; it would scale synchronously with his stamina in the later stages, meaning he could only carry very few items for now.
Normal players would either explore on their own or ask the in-game system, but 999 was truly worried about Lin Zhaoyang, so it had to nag him sentence by sentence.
Lin Zhaoyang stood next to the teleportation array, nodding every time 999 spoke, looking just like a traveler about to set off on a long journey while his “old father” kept giving him last-minute advice.
Obediently, Lin Zhaoyang opened the newly added backpack page in the game menu and selected equip. An earthy-brown starter backpack appeared on his body, offering 30 slots of storage space.
“999, I’m going to start matching with teammates now. I’ll go play a round and come right back.”
[Stay safe and come back early qwq. Go ahead.]
Lin Zhaoyang waved at empty air and then clicked to start matching. As soon as a prompt indicated successful matchmaking, the space around Lin Zhaoyang began to warp, and shortly after, he arrived in a new space.
“Hello.”
Lin Zhaoyang gave a very well-behaved greeting to a strange man standing in the space.
In truth, his heart was blooming with joy. Wuwuwuwuwu, he finally got to see a person! He finally saw a living thing other than himself, and it was even a super handsome guy. Wow.
“Is this your first exploration?”
Liang Shumo looked at the short, slender person with a dazed expression opposite him and silently tapped to open the other’s exploration info.
Lin Zhaoyang: Level 11, exploration count: 0.
“Yeah, first time.”
Inside, Lin Zhaoyang was dancing with joy and excitement over seeing a living person, but on the outside, he maintained an obedient and shy appearance.
“No worries, I’ll carry you through.”
A smile hung on Liang Shumo’s face, and his attitude toward Lin Zhaoyang was exceptionally gentle, though his inner monologue was going wild.
Ahhhhh, why did I randomly match into an advanced exploration map zero times? And this time it’s even a novice dungeon. Am I being treated as an NPC to carry newbies now?
Liang Shumo was already level 88 and had cleared countless dungeons. Someone of his level wasn’t after resources anymore; he just thought certain exploration dungeons were quite interesting.
Yet he had rolled randomly 25 times, and the highest was only an intermediate dungeon. This time, it actually turned out to be a beginner dungeon. The lower the level of the dungeon, the more boring it was, basically just meant for coaxing new players to play.
“Okay, thank you, Brother Mo.”
Lin Zhaoyang had also opened the other player’s panel to check their information, so he naturally included the person’s name when expressing his thanks.
Name: Brother Mo, Level: 88, Height: 188 cm, Weight: 70 kg, Lover: None.
He mainly wanted to know the name, which was why he looked at personal information. He couldn’t possibly not even know his partner’s name, right? This handsome guy was good-looking and had a kind heart. Simply fantastic.
Though the handsome guy’s level left him feeling quite puzzled as to how someone so high-leveled ended up matched with him, he didn’t understand much anyway, so he decided not to ask too many questions.
“You’re welcome. Then I’ll be the team leader. We can start whenever you’re ready.”
Liang Shumo’s irritation was largely dispelled. The one he met today was well-behaved and polite. Carrying a newbie wouldn’t be the end of the world, and good people like him were hard to come by.
“Alright, I’m ready.”
With nothing in his backpack except two steamed buns, and nothing in his mind except “wow, a live handsome guy who is also really nice,” Lin Zhaoyang obediently agreed.