The next day, He Miaomiao woke up slightly earlier than usual, and so did everyone else in the group.
[Wang Fang]: “I originally wanted to hunt rabbits all night, but I got far too sleepy in the second half of the night and kept missing my attacks, forcing me to lie down and sleep.”
[You Hua]: “Tell me about it. After closing my eyes, it was almost like being knocked unconscious with a hammer. I just woke up and am preparing for another round. Based on my years of professional gamer experience, after 7:00 AM, these rabbits definitely won’t be as easy to deal with as they are now.”
[Yan Qiwen]: “Then I’m going too.“
[Xia Ning]: “Count me in too! I pulled something good from killing rabbits last night, back to battle!”
[Qi Yi]: “Waaaah, I don’t want to kill rabbits at all… so tired… miss home so much…“
He Miaomiao stretched her arms and kicked her legs, scrambling up from her “big bed.“
The “big bed” sat against the far wall inside the house, composed of two three-seater sofas pushed together face-to-face—one facing inward, the other facing outward. The sofa backrests formed barriers on the left and right: one side blocked the wall, while the other provided an outer barrier blocking the view of Temporary Citizen 1 inside the house. Paired with an unbelievably comfortable rabbit fur carpet as a blanket and a fully solid, completely windproof, sturdy new wooden house, He Miaomiao felt immensely secure and slept exceptionally well.
Getting up, He Miaomiao didn’t stow the bed away, leaving it right where it was.
Over in the upper-left corner of the house, Temporary Citizen 1 had already awakened, yet she simply stood there dazed beside the laid-out rabbit fur carpet, doing nothing at all.
It wasn’t until He Miaomiao walked over that she opened her mouth to say, “Good morning, Lord.“
“Good morning, Grandma. Did you sleep well last night?“
Temporary Citizen 1 nodded quickly, betraying a hint of excitement, though her face remained completely expressionless.
“Well, thank you for your protection, Lord.“
He Miaomiao: As expected, a bit strange.
“Mm, let’s eat breakfast first.“
She took out rabbit meat—cooked rabbit meat was what she possessed the most of right now, a staggering 293 portions, along with various other meats, leaving her with zero food worries.
“Thank you, Lord.“
Just like last night, Temporary Citizen 1 held the meat and devoured it rapidly, briefly choking at one point. He Miaomiao hurriedly took out a bamboo tube and handed it to her.
“Quick, drink some water.“
Temporary Citizen 1 shook her head while coughing.
“No… cough cough… cannot…”
She spoke haltingly. Only after listening for a moment did He Miaomiao understand: drinkable water was far too precious, and Grandma felt she lacked the right to drink it.
“Drink up, Grandma.“
He Miaomiao smiled and stuffed the bamboo tube into her hands, pulling out a bottle for herself as well.
“Cheers.“
The bamboo tubes clinked together with a light sound.
“Thank you, Lord; thank you, Lord.”
Temporary Citizen 1 repeated it several times before opening the bamboo tube, touching merely a tiny droplet of water to her lips before hurriedly capping it back up.
Watching from the side, He Miaomiao found it truly impossible not to treat her as a real human being.
“Grandma, do you still remember where your home is?“
Temporary Citizen 1: “In reply to the Lord: I don’t know.“
“No need to call me Lord. My name is He Miaomiao, you can call me Miaomiao.“
Temporary Citizen 1: “I dare not, Lord.“
He Miaomiao sighed inwardly and didn’t press the matter.
After finishing the meal, Temporary Citizen 1 stood in place waiting for her to assign work.
“Clean up this place a bit.“
Temporary Citizen 1 walked to the doorway, took a rag from her bosom, knelt down, and began wiping the floor.
The safehouse had just been upgraded last night; it was very new and by no means dirty. Yet the places wiped by Temporary Citizen 1 looked noticeably brighter, much like a window that had just been thoroughly cleaned, carrying a fresh, translucent feel that made people feel comfortable.
He Miaomiao guessed that this was Temporary Citizen 1’s special trait.
With work assigned to her, Temporary Citizen 1 devoted herself single-mindedly to wiping the floor, while He Miaomiao walked out into the yard.
7:00 AM was draw-droppingly close. Not a single trace of daylight was visible in the sky; inside the yard, there was only the campfire light spilling through the doorway, along with the glow of the two stone lanterns.
Outside the fence, Corrupted Rabbits still refused to disperse, packing together tightly and staring with blood-red eyes without blinking, looking into the distance where there was no light, like the ground was covered in red eyeballs.
[You Hua]: “Damn it, why haven’t they left yet? Before, the closer it got to daybreak, the fewer rabbits there were; they seemed to dislike daytime. But why are there more and more of them now?”
[You Hua]: “Fuck! Don’t tell me that when the countdown ends, they’re actually gonna storm in and gnaw us to death!“
[Duanmu Jing]: “Likely not. There are restrictions.“
As their levels increased, many players had personally crossed swords with Corrupted Dogs and Corrupted Wolves, and they could all clearly feel the difference between Corrupted Rabbits and other monsters.
Corrupted Rabbits would not proactively attack players or houses.
[Wan Zifan]: “Right right right, there are restrictions, they won’t charge in! Otherwise I could just lie down and die right now.”
[Du Qiu]: “Mutated rabbits… it is our fault. It was us humans who destroyed your living environment that caused you to become like this. We are guilty.”
[Duanmu Jing]: “Survival of the fittest; nature has always been this way.“
[Qi Yi]: “Waaaah… exactly! If it were rabbits standing in humanity’s position, they would definitely love eating spicy heads too, waaaah… It’s still better at home! Can anyone tell me, if I kill all the rabbits outside, can I go home?”
[Zhang Na]: “Mom, where are you? I hope you didn’t come to this world, I hope only us young people came here, I hope you guys are still living in the normal world.”
[Mu Yao]: “Grandma, Yao Yao misses you so much.“
Messages kept popping up in the group—crying, despair, anger…
In the dark, rabbits continuously ran toward the fence.
Newly arrived rabbits were blocked by the ones in front, pushed forward by the ones behind, squeezed tighter and tighter. Here a rabbit’s eye popped out, there a rabbit’s bone snapped, and some even burst into minced meat on the spot without dying.
The scene was uncanny and bloody.
Time ticked away bit by bit. The countdown reached zero.
In an instant, daylight burst forth.
[Survivors who have passed fate’s selection, welcome to Despair Valley.]
The announcement rang right beside every player’s ear, striking straight at their souls.
Following closely was the shattering of the invisible safe zone boundary. In an instant, a foul stench far stronger than over the first 3 days surged skyward, rushing straight at the players’ faces.
The howls of monsters lingering in the distance grew closer and closer.
[You Hua]: “Fuck! What the hell is coming my way?!“
[Duanmu Jing]: “To survive, we must search for and gather resources to upgrade our safehouses. If the rabbits don’t leave, we can’t step out.”
[Yu Qiaoyun]: “Indeed. Looking at it now, our only choice is to fight our way out.“
[Yun Cailiu]: “I used to face at most 2 rabbits at a time before. Can I really handle such a huge crowd?“
[Wan Zifan]: “I wonder if when our HP hits zero, we’ll explode into mist just like the rabbits. (Serene expression)”
[Qi Yi]: “Waaaah… I don’t want to turn into mist, mist smells so bad, gag—I’m gonna kill them! I want to go home!”
On He Miaomiao’s side, because her safehouse was already Level 1 with upgraded defensive filtration effects, standing in the yard felt alright, without any unbearable stench.
She even tried walking over to the fence to kill a rabbit using basic attacks, yielding—
[Raw Rabbit Meat ×1!]
[Raw Rabbit Meat ×1! (Critical Hit)]
He Miaomiao waited for a moment, confirming repeatedly that she gained no EXP from killing the rabbit.
Killed another one.
Raw Rabbit Meat ×2
Nothing else.
He Miaomiao cast Appraisal on other rabbits.
[Corrupted Rabbit (Lv0): HP 80, Attack Power 18, Defense 0, Agility 2.8]
[Special Skill: Pack Alertness. When 3 or more Corrupted Rabbits appear simultaneously, the attack power of all Corrupted Rabbits increases by 20%.]
No change from before. So why didn’t EXP drop?
He Miaomiao’s gaze landed on the Corrupted Rabbit’s level—Lv0—and then on her current level—Lv4—falling into thought.
If she remembered correctly, in normal video games, when a player’s level was significantly higher than a monster’s, the items dropped by the monster would decrease.
“So in Despair Valley, if a player’s level is 4 levels higher than a monster, killing that monster yields zero EXP?”
The corners of He Miaomiao’s mouth curled up slowly.
If that was really the case, wouldn’t that be fantastic?!
She truly didn’t want to be forced into leveling up so quickly and then forced to face stronger monsters.
To verify her hypothesis, He Miaomiao killed 5 more Corrupted Rabbits in a row. By this point, her cumulative rabbit kills reached 140.
The good news: at Level 4, killing Level 0 rabbits really gave no EXP whatsoever. She didn’t have to worry about suddenly leveling up mid-fight and getting ambushed out in the wild by unfamiliar new monsters.
The bad news: at Level 4, killing Level 0 rabbits dropped only raw rabbit meat. The guaranteed baseline of 1 copper coin per 10 rabbit kills was gone. Meaning no matter how many rabbits she killed in the future, they would never drop another copper coin for her.
“Sure enough, there are no free lunches in this world.“
He Miaomiao accepted this fact swiftly, gripping her Stone Blade to continue fighting—looting—fighting—looting.
When tired, she stopped, hauled out the sofa to sit in the yard, and cast Sparks Slash at the rabbits while recovering her energy.
Every time He Miaomiao killed 1 rabbit, the vacant spot was rapidly filled by rabbits behind it, leaving the area beside the fence perpetually packed with rabbits.
She alternated between basic attacks and Sparks Slash like this. With the recovery acceleration from the rabbit fur sofa and her massive max Energy Point pool of 365, He Miaomiao no longer needed to be forced inside to lie down.
Boosted by 13 Agility, He Miaomiao’s attack speed was extremely fast. Before long, the rabbits surrounding the outside of the yard were reduced by more than half.
Daylight was fully bright. Looking into the distance, no new rabbits were running out from the forest anymore.
She posted this discovery into the group chat.
[Wan Zifan]: “Awesome! Thank you Big Boss for telling me this good news, otherwise being surrounded by so many rabbits feels truly hopeless! As long as they can be cleared out, it’s fine!”
[You Hua]: “Charge! Rabbit feast today!”
[Qi Yi]: “Why do only rabbit meat drop and not rabbit heads? Rabbit heads are so delicious, waaaah… I miss eating the spicy rabbit head from downstairs at my home so much.“
[Wang Shouyi]: “With so many rabbits, how long will it take to kill them bare-handed? Is there no one else in the group who can make stone spears?“
He Miaomiao’s stone spears were twice as expensive for him as for others, so he refused to be that sucker.
[Xia Ning]: “There is.“
She posted the product, and the platform generated automated pricing.
[Stone Spear: 50 Copper Coins]
[Wang Shouyi]: “You—I don’t have that many copper coins on me, can’t I trade with resources?”
[Xia Ning]: “Of course you can.”
The platform pricing shifted automatically once again.
[Stone Spear: Wood 30, Stone 24, Hemp 12]