[Wang Shouyi]: “If you don’t want to sell, then don’t sell! Are you playing me?!”
[Xia Ning]: “I’m not! Look, it’s automatic pricing, I can’t change it.”
[You Hua]: “Whoa, so right now only the Big Boss in the group has pricing permissions? Big Boss is mighty!”
[You Hua]: “The Big Boss charged so few resources to craft stone spears for us—she really is doing charity! Thanks to the Big Boss, wishing you peace, safety, and ever-growing strength!”
[Yu Qiaoyun]: “Thanks to the Big Boss, wishing you peace, safety, and ever-growing strength!”
[Zhang Na]: “Thanks to the Big Boss, wishing you peace, safety, and ever-growing strength!”
[Wan Zifan]: “Thanks to the Big…”
At this time, all players in Village 4 were surrounded inside their safehouses by rabbits, unable to step out. Just like He Miaomiao, they stood in safe ranges fighting and pausing to chip away at the rabbits. Whenever they lay down to rest, they chatted in the group, bustling with activity, gradually diluting the fear and despair brought by the end of the grace period.
They even shared their monster-slaying gains in the group.
[Yan Qiwen]: “I can craft stone pickaxes now!”
[Xue Zhirou]: “Copper Coins +2!”
[Xia Ning]: “Rabbit Club Bone +1.”
[You Hua]: “???”
[Wan Zifan]: “???”
[Duanmu Jing]: “?”
[Xia Ning]: “What’s wrong? This is just a white-tier piece of equipment, not a blueprint, and there’s only 1. Don’t you guys have one?”
[You Hua]: “Someone drag her out!”
[Wan Zifan]: “Drag her out!”
He Miaomiao, who only had raw rabbit meat to show for her efforts, silently closed the group chat and lowered her head to slay monsters.
Without comparison, there was no harm! She got 2 pieces of raw rabbit meat per rabbit killed, which turned into 4 pieces of cooked rabbit meat after a quick roast on the campfire—she was the one with the biggest haul!
Yes, that’s right!
Sparks Slash dealt 68 damage, while her basic attacks dealt 37. Before long, the count of rabbits outside He Miaomiao’s yard dropped to zero.
She checked the drops: 200 pieces of raw rabbit meat—this time she killed 100 rabbits in total.
The neat round figure made her certain that this was the initial test after the protection period ended—or rather, a trial they had to pass when facing the true Despair Valley.
The burst clouds of mist had already dispersed, revealing the flat, open grey ground once again.
He Miaomiao turned and walked toward the house, pausing at the doorway.
Grandma Temporary Citizen 1 had already finished wiping the floor and was currently wiping the wooden walls.
Now, the wooden floor inside looked exceptionally clean, without a speck of dust.
He Miaomiao looked at the mud on her own shoes. She patted her clothes down first, then took off her shoes before stepping inside.
She walked over to the campfire, filling the area around it with raw rabbit meat and throwing whatever couldn’t fit into the storage chest.
Now that the home’s storage chest had 44 slots, space was ample, so He Miaomiao no longer had to calculate how to store items most cost-effectively.
Before stepping outside again, she glanced at the group chat.
[You Hua]: “So happy, I leveled up and got 1 White Chest!”
[You Hua]: “There’s a weapon blueprint in the chest! Sorry everyone, I’m about to get stronger!”
[You Hua]: “Fuck! Why did the rabbits *&#! Where’s my #%? Where’s my &? Spit it back out to me fast!”
[You Hua]: “Do not level up! Do not level up! Do not level up!”
[Wan Zifan]: “Don’t scare me! I was just planning to level up, with so many rabbits, my EXP is already enough.”
[You Hua]: “Definitely %￥#”
[You Hua]: “Garbled text again! Do you guys play games normally? Think about video games—what happens if your level is high when you fight monsters from the early game area?!”
[Wang Wanping]: “I haven’t played games before, what does Teacher You mean? Will bad things happen if we level up?”
[Yang Tao]: “No way, right? If it weren’t for leveling up, my attack power would still be super low, making it extremely grueling to slay Corrupted Rabbits. Besides, looking at the safehouse upgrade requirements, it clearly encourages us to level up quickly.”
[You Hua]: “What I’m saying is true! Unless you’re on the verge of dying and must rely on leveling up to restore HP and Energy Points to save your life, definitely don’t rush to level up!”
[Wang Shouyi]: “Everyone, don’t be fooled! I got a chest the first time I leveled up, but no chest the second time. Only those who level up first get chests! He just said he got a chest and pulled something as good as a weapon blueprint, and now he tells us not to level up. Could he want to hoard the chests all for himself?”
[Wan Zifan]: “Impossible, Brother You isn’t that kind of person.”
[Duanmu Jing]: “Level up if you don’t believe him, don’t level up if you do. Up to you, no one’s forcing you.”
[Wan Zifan]: “Exactly! I’ve decided not to level up, I trust Brother You!”
[Xia Ning]: “I almost leveled up too, holding off for now.”
He Miaomiao deleted the warning message she was preparing to send.
They already knew.
Closing the panel, He Miaomiao took out a portion of cooked rabbit meat for Temporary Citizen 1.
“I might not be able to return in time for lunch. If you’re hungry, Grandma, go ahead and eat first.”
“Thank you, Lord.”
Temporary Citizen 1 accepted the rabbit meat with both hands and put it away, her movements carrying an imperceptible layer of care.
“Mm, bye-bye, Grandma.”
He Miaomiao put on her shoes and walked outside. Just as she opened the fence to step out of the safe zone, the somewhat stiff voice of Temporary Citizen 1 sounded behind her.
“Lord, please be safe.”
He Miaomiao turned her head in surprise, only to see Grandma Temporary Citizen 1 standing by the door watching her.
Grandma Temporary Citizen 1 was still expressionless, but He Miaomiao just knew that Grandma was worried about her.
“Don’t worry, Grandma, I’m very strong. You don’t have to be afraid either—if any monsters approach our home, I’ll rush back immediately to chase them away.”
Their home now possessed a 20-meter alert radius. Once a monster crossed the red line, she would know instantly.
He Miaomiao waved at Grandma Temporary Citizen 1, closed the fence, and headed toward the distance.
She wanted to look around to see if there were new resources like hemp, iron, clay, or resin nearby.
With a clear objective, He Miaomiao didn’t gather resources in her usual activity zone, keeping forward momentum instead.
After walking a significant distance and entering unexplored territory, she began cautiously bending down to cut grass.
[Dry Grass ×1!]
[Dry Grass ×1! (Critical Hit)]
With her Stone Sickle, along with high Energy Points and Agility, He Miaomiao harvested very quickly. Before long—
Dry Grass ×120
Raw Rabbit Meat ×28
Being far from the safehouse, the dry grass here was denser than in the patch in front of her house. He Miaomiao didn’t need to waste effort searching for it, though monsters were similarly more numerous here.
After the first round of 5 gathering actions, 2 rabbits arrived.
Later, scenarios where 3 or 4 rabbits charged at her together occurred as well.
Fortunately, the rabbits’ Agility was merely 2.8, while hers was 13. The rabbits couldn’t touch her at all, leaving them only to be slain by her.
Clearing away the final Corrupted Rabbit, He Miaomiao felt a bit emotional.
Thinking back to when she first encountered a Corrupted Rabbit, she had to rely on the safehouse’s cover, hitting once and hiding once to complete the kill with great difficulty. Now she could dispatch small rabbit packs quickly without needing to dodge.
Her Defense sat at 8; against the rabbits’ 18 attack power, only 10 points of effective damage landed. Even with pack buffs, she wasn’t scared at all.
Because her current max HP was as high as 150 and her attack power was high as well. As long as she didn’t actively seek death, small-scale rabbit groups posed no threat to her anymore.
It was just that attracting a wave of monsters every 5 gathering actions was slightly annoying for get-it-done work.
With tool boosts, her 365 Energy Points were plenty sufficient. Throughout gathering and combat, He Miaomiao didn’t munch on a single piece of rabbit meat, continuing forward to search for new resources while letting her Energy Points recover slowly on their own.
After walking roughly a few hundred meters more, she finally spotted upright-growing hemp, though there was only a single stalk.
“Better than nothing.”
[Hemp ×1!]
[Hemp ×1! (Critical Hit)]
He Miaomiao calculated the distance. She was currently a bit too far from home, so she altered her route immediately—no longer advancing in a straight line, but starting a lateral search and pushing back toward home.
Sure enough, where there was one stalk of hemp, a second would follow. A dozen minutes later, she found another small patch of hemp.
Hemp ×14
After this, however, He Miaomiao walked for a long time without seeing any new hemp.
“Xia Ning really is too authoritative.”
Before, He Miaomiao only knew that hemp was rare, but hadn’t expected it to be this rare. She was almost a thousand meters from home and had spent so much time, yet she had only found 8 stalks of hemp in total.
As for resin, clay, and iron, there was not even a shadow of them.
“Thankfully we have Xia Ning in the group, otherwise I don’t know how many years it would take before I could upgrade the safehouse.”
After sighing emotionally, He Miaomiao resumed her gathering-combat-looting cycle.
Dry Grass ×60, Wood ×64, Stone ×116
Raw Rabbit Meat ×56, Raw Wolf Meat ×12, Raw Rat Meat ×4, Raw Dog Meat ×14, Beast Hide ×16, EXP ×1410, Copper Coins ×48
“Rats are so troublesome.”
Corrupted Giant Rats could burrow underground, and after being attacked, they flexibly altered their attack paths. With dense grass and trees out in the wild blocking her sightline, she would be ambushed by rats if she wasn’t careful. Fortunately, He Miaomiao had only encountered 2 so far, and the 2 hadn’t appeared simultaneously.
After taking down the Corrupted Dogs surrounding her, He Miaomiao’s footsteps paused as she passed through a small grove of trees, walking toward a large black tree on her left.
The large tree was very tall, its trunk as thick as three adult men hugging it with arms stretched wide.
He Miaomiao walked around the tree, looking up to observe it.
When she walked over earlier, her peripheral vision seemed to catch something. But looking closely up close, the tree was truly massive, with abundant high branches and dense foliage.
It differed from normal large trees, lacking that rich, comfortable vitality—instead looking greyish, giving off the odor of a summer trash can in a residential complex. Staring at it for too long made her feel dizzy and nauseous, as if the branches might strangle her at any moment.
Not seeing what she was looking for, He Miaomiao didn’t force herself, pulling out her Stone Axe to start chopping.
A few minutes later:
Wood ×40, Resin ×2, Raw Rabbit Meat ×28
“I knew there was something.”
She had already mentally prepared herself not to encounter any new resources besides hemp on this trip, so finding this pleasant surprise along the way was unexpected.
The large tree was grey, but the resin was amber-colored, looking quite pretty.
On the other side:
A tall, thin guy was lying on the ground, wanting to cry but having no tears left.
Beside him was a quietly flowing black river, giving off an odor even more pungent than the absolute stinkiest stinky tofu and river snail rice noodles below his home.
“Waaaah… this world is too terrifying, I want to go home!”
While crying, the tall, thin guy didn’t forget to attempt grabbing the stone spear less than 1 meter away from him. Unfortunately, his body was still in a paralyzed state, completely unable to move.
With great difficulty, his fingers managed to wiggle. Seeing that he could reclaim his weapon in just a short while, the moment he moved, an “arrow” shot out from the river and struck his leg.
His whole body froze in place once again.
“No way, again?!”
After striking him, the “arrow” fell to his side, flopping and thrashing around.
It was a fish, but not in the shape of a normal fish. Its body was only as wide as two chopsticks tied together and half an arm long. Where its eyes should be were two black holes, with no eyeballs inside.
Where fins originally grew were two fluttering wing-like appendages. It was precisely because of these wings that the “arrow” could fly out of the river to strike him.
Even more terrifying, the tall, thin guy’s peripheral vision caught sight of a massive dark shadow—larger than himself—approaching from within the river.
[Qi Yi]: “Waaaah… I might have to take a step ahead, everyone. I hope that after exploding, I’ll open my eyes back home, find out I just had a nightmare, and open the fridge to grab that watermelon I bought before coming here to eat.”
[Qi Yi]: “I also want to go downstairs to buy two spicy rabbit heads, three duck heads, and 6 yuan worth of braised dark duck lotus root and braised dried bean curd. Carrying them, I’ll go to the neighborhood supermarket to pick out a new flavor of ice cream, hold it in my mouth while walking home, and log online to help my sister boost data for her idol.”
[Qi Yi]: “So happy, I’m going home. Wish me luck, friends. (Serene expression)”