[You Hua]: “A purple-tier carpet must have a special buff, right? Judging by this price tag, it’s probably super rare. Right now, only the big boss in the entire world has one. Want it, but I’m broke.”
[Wan Zifan]: “Want it, but I’m broke.”
[Chen Feiluan]: “Want it, but I’m broke.”
[Xia Ning]: “Want it, but I’m broke. Sister, I can’t afford this QAQ.”
He Miaomiao: You guys might not believe it if I say it out loud, but honestly, I can’t afford it either.
She looked again at the rabbit fur carpet she was currently sitting on, feeling that it was glowing with pure gold.
Carpet, you are truly loaded.
Just as He Miaomiao was planning to pull the carpet off the listing, she noticed a prompt pop up behind its price display.
Soft Rabbit Fur Carpet (Purple): Priced at 50,000 Copper Coins / 2,000 Hemp / 1,000 Iron. Installment plans available.
Well then. The automated pricing system knew no one could afford it right now either.
[Xia Ning]: “Installments! I’m gonna go check out what’s going on!”
[You Hua]: “Even though I’m broke, I’m going to join the fun too. After all, there’s no way I’ll stay this broke my whole life!”
[Wan Zifan]: “If you guys are going, then I’m going too.”
In an instant, many group members who had free time rushed over to check out the commotion.
[Qi Yi]: “Waaaah… Why is it discriminating against me saying I’m not eligible… I’ll have money in the future!”
[You Hua]: “No worries, brother. Next time we return at our peak, we’ll slap its face until it swells!”
[Duanmu Jing]: “The automated pricing involves hemp, iron, and copper coins. The answer was laid out right on the surface from the very start.”
[You Hua]: “Don’t say it, really don’t say it! How come I didn’t notice just now? The system thinks only Sister Ning has the strength to buy it!”
In the whole group, only Xia Ning had the potential to pull together that much hemp and iron in the future.
Soon enough, He Miaomiao received a notification that Xia Ning had purchased the rabbit fur carpet.
Paid 20 Hemp, 10 Iron, and 6 Copper Coins.
[Xia Ning: After passing the asset verification, I can view the carpet’s special buff. I really need it, thank you sister! I’ll work hard to cut hemp and mine iron to pay it off as fast as possible!]
Was the buff that significant?
He Miaomiao stroked the soft carpet.
This was a purple-tier item. Her Primary Appraisal could only view its name, yielding no other useful information.
However, she could feel that every time she sat on the carpet, her Energy Points recovered exceptionally fast.
[You Hua]: “As expected of Sister Ning, she actually bought it. Is there a time limit on the installment plan?”
[Xia Ning]: “Yes, the rules are very complex and intelligent. It adjusts the price based on the current rarity of resources, so the price we see now isn’t equal to the final price we need to pay.”
[You Hua]: “No wonder! I was wondering how a young master like me, bound for greatness in the future, couldn’t even pass asset verification.”
After a round of trading, He Miaomiao’s hemp requirement was fulfilled. She had 38 portions in total, whereas the safehouse upgrade only required 30.
Now, she only needed to focus single-mindedly on making money.
“Current copper coins: 432. Required copper coins: 1200. Shortfall: 768. He Miaomiao, charge at those Corrupted Rabbits and Corrupted Dogs!”
Loot.
[Cooked Rabbit Meat ×6!]
[Cooked Rabbit Meat ×6! (Critical Hit)]
Except for the rabbit fur carpet He Miaomiao laid out beside the campfire for personal use, the remaining 2 carpets were stuffed into the storage chest, leaving one inventory slot free for backup.
Preparations complete, afternoon had arrived. He Miaomiao, set off!
Round 1.
Stone ×8, Wood ×2.
Run!
“Woof! Woof!”
A Corrupted Dog charged out.
[HP -20!]
[HP -20!]
[Special Skill Triggered! Player He Miaomiao received a 3-second continuous bleeding debuff, losing 3 HP per second!]
In a single encounter, He Miaomiao lost 49 HP.
This was even with her current 2 points of Defense, which negated 4 points of direct attack damage and 6 points of continuous skill damage.
Fortunately, her level was now 1, giving her a total of 70 HP, so she could temporarily take the hit.
Money was hard to earn. Having returned indoors, He Miaomiao evaluated her condition—her Energy Points were barely sufficient, so she didn’t rush to munch on rabbit meat. Instead, she stood at the doorway and launched a skill at the Corrupted Dog attacking the safehouse.
Sparks Slash!
[Corrupted Dog HP -27!]
Cooked Rabbit Meat -4
Kill successful!
Raw Dog Meat ×2
EXP +70
Remaining edible cooked rabbit meat quota for this timeframe: 6.
Round 2.
Wood ×6, Stone ×4.
“Woof!”
Why was it a Corrupted Dog again? Didn’t it and the rabbits take shifts?
Raw Dog Meat ×2
EXP +70
Remaining edible cooked rabbit meat quota for this timeframe: 2.
“Killing 1 Corrupted Dog consumes 4 pieces of cooked rabbit meat; otherwise, it’ll keep attacking the safehouse, dealing 22 damage per hit. In 5 hits, the safehouse’s 100 Durability will be completely drained, and the safehouse will definitely collapse then.”
He Miaomiao calculated her remaining quota of 2 pieces of rabbit meat and helplessly realized that even if she could chew 2 more pieces, she couldn’t continue.
“Sigh, didn’t earn a single copper coin. Hard, so hard.”
She did gather some resources, though.
He Miaomiao looked at the countdown on the wooden wall.
It looked like there was still plenty of time, but Despair Valley went pitch black at 7:00 PM sharp. After dark, players couldn’t step outside to gather resources or slay monsters to earn copper coins; they could only huddle inside this dilapidated hut of less than 10 square meters.
Therefore, out of this 15-plus hour countdown, a full 12 hours were dead time.
The time they could actually take action in was down to just over 3 hours.
When 7:00 AM arrived tomorrow morning, the 3-day novice protection period would end right on schedule. What would be awaiting them then?
He Miaomiao had to wait for the next timeframe to arrive. Since she was idle anyway, she listed her extra resources in the group.
Wood 10, Stone 12.
She had extra hemp and iron too, but considering realistic circumstances, He Miaomiao didn’t list them—even if she listed them, others could only offer wood and stone in exchange, which she didn’t need.
This small amount of wood and stone wasn’t much, but it would allow some players to craft gathering tools first, greatly boosting their efficiency.
Even if it was too late to upgrade during the novice protection period, from a long-term perspective, it had only benefits and no downsides.
Before long, the items sold smoothly, yielding He Miaomiao 15 pieces of raw rabbit meat. Flipping them onto the fire, they turned into 30 pieces of cooked rabbit meat.
“Sigh, my strength is still too weak.“
Otherwise, she would have stormed straight into the nests of the Corrupted Rabbits and Corrupted Dogs, going on a wild slaying spree—wouldn’t copper coins be hers for the taking?
“Wait.“
A flash of inspiration struck He Miaomiao’s combat-ready mind, and she thought of the Corrupted Rabbits.
The rabbits’ attack power wasn’t low—it was 18—but they didn’t attack the safehouse.
And her Sparks Slash was a ranged attack.
A bold idea formed in He Miaomiao’s mind.
It wasn’t that she insisted on taking risks; if she could, she would love nothing more than to huddle inside the safehouse and go nowhere. But she knew all too well how unlucky she was. If the protection period was already this grueling, who knew what terrible scenario she might face once it ended?
Danger was bound to come sooner or later—she might as well take the initiative and strike first!
By now, He Miaomiao’s Energy Points were fully restored. She immediately swapped her large quantities of wood, stone, and dry grass with her smaller quantities of hemp, iron, and copper coins, storing the former in the chest while stacking the hemp, iron, and copper coins in the corner of the safehouse, freeing up 3 inventory slots.
Set off.
The difference this time was that as He Miaomiao passed small trees and stone piles, she made no stop whatsoever, stepping forward step-by-step toward the unknown area further from the safehouse that she hadn’t dared visit before.
She walked resolutely yet cautiously, using trees as cover every stretch of the way to observe her surroundings carefully.
The further from the safehouse, the taller the trees grew, the more abundant the stones became, and dry grass patches could be seen everywhere.
Because of this, He Miaomiao’s line of sight was obstructed.
Fortunately, while a monster attack wasn’t a good thing, her jinx physique was very effective, allowing her to spot rabbits before long—a whole crowd of them, visually estimated at 7.
He Miaomiao held her breath, pulled back to the maximum distance from the rabbits, dropped a Sparks Slash, turned on her heels, and bolted.
With the range advantage of a long-distance skill and her agility being 4.2 points higher than the rabbits’, she avoided getting rammed at all under prepared conditions, successfully pulling all 7 rabbits back to the safehouse.
The moment He Miaomiao entered the safehouse, the Corrupted Rabbits lost their target. Their eyes went blank for a second before they lowered their heads on the spot to eat grass.
There were too many rabbits, and the dry grass she had harvested many times was rather sparse, forcing the 7 clustered rabbits to spread out.
He Miaomiao aimed at the lone rabbit closest to the house, rushed out, and whacked it with her Stone Pickaxe.
[Corrupted Rabbit HP -7!]
Corrupted Rabbit enraged → Corrupted Rabbit wants to attack → Corrupted Rabbit finds no attack target → Corrupted Rabbit bewildered → Corrupted Rabbit lowers head to eat grass.
He Miaomiao was overjoyed: The plan works!
Just like that, she hit once and ran once, successfully killing a Corrupted Rabbit without taking any damage or consuming any cooked rabbit meat.
Of the remaining 6 rabbits, one group had 2 and another had 4. He Miaomiao targeted the pair first.
Whacked once, rammed by the other rabbit once, taking 21.6 damage.
He Miaomiao kept count and kept whacking. When her HP ran low, she sat on the rabbit fur carpet to rest for a bit, resuming once it recovered enough.
2 Corrupted Rabbits, deceased.
The group of 4 rabbits carried risk; He Miaomiao only charged in to attack once, losing 64.8 HP.
She cast another Sparks Slash before sitting down to rest—she could still chew two pieces of rabbit meat during this timeframe, but chose not to, intending to save the quota to handle emergencies.
What if a Corrupted Dog showed up?
That thing destroyed her safehouse and wasn’t nearly as easygoing as a Corrupted Rabbit, which would quietly nibble grass while waiting for her to recover.
He Miaomiao ground them down bit by bit. After running back and forth and resting an uncounted number of times, she finally finished off all 4 rabbits.
“So tired…“
When it was over, He Miaomiao collapsed flat on the rabbit fur carpet, panting heavily.
Her attack stat was truly too low. Sparks Slash had high attack power, but her Energy Points couldn’t support continuous offensive casting.
Should she level up?
The moment the thought surfaced, He Miaomiao shook her head immediately.
No way, no way! Corrupted Dogs appeared the moment she reached Level 1. If she hit Level 2, even more formidable monsters would definitely come. If they teamed up with Corrupted Dogs to smash her safehouse, what would happen if her house collapsed?
Better wait until she was forced into a passive level-up.
For now, keep slaying rabbits!
During her break, He Miaomiao put rabbit meat on to roast and listed 8 pieces of cooked dog meat in the group, setting them to accept only copper coins.
Copper coins were a critical resource, harder to obtain than hemp or iron. Normal players would definitely be reluctant to part with them, but what if someone actually had some?
Getting even 1 extra copper coin meant she could slay several fewer rabbits.
[Wang Shouyi]: “I advise certain people not to treat others like fools. Who would trade precious copper coins for useless dog meat? Are you crazy or am I crazy? Don’t you know that as long as you rest inside the house when tired, you won’t feel hungry?”
The message was barely sent when all 8 pieces of meat were cleaned out in seconds.
[You Hua]: “I didn’t really need it that badly, but seeing a certain dog bark wildly annoys me, so I must support the big boss! I’m buying, buying, buying! Bite me if you can! (Middle finger)”
[Xia Ning]: “Just happened to be hungry, thank you sister.“
[Qi Yi]: “Waaaah… chew chew chew…”
[Yu Qiaoyun]: “Thank you big boss for taking care of us, I really need food.”
[Duanmu Jing]: “Not bad, got any more?”