[Corrupted Dog (Lv1): HP 120, Attack Power 22, Defense 1, Agility 3.2]
[Special Skill: Biting Bleed. After hitting a player, causes continuous bleeding for 3 seconds, dealing 5 HP damage per second.]
With a Defense of 26, He Miaomiao didn’t dodge for the first time, allowing the pack of Corrupted Dogs to pounce and bite at her without losing a single drop of health.
She observed carefully for a moment and discovered that when her Defense exceeded a monster’s attack power, even if many monsters attacked her simultaneously, their attacks would all miss completely rather than stacking together to breach her defense.
The Corrupted Dogs bared their teeth and lunged forward, yet couldn’t even draw close to her body.
He Miaomiao—who had fought dogs so awkwardly when she first reached Level 1—looked at the dogs barking helplessly at her now. The corners of her mouth curled up bit by bit, until she finally burst out laughing out loud.
As she laughed, a tear rolled down from the corner of her eye.
“He Miaomiao, you never have to be afraid of Corrupted Dogs ever again.”
With that, her gaze hardened, and she raised her weapon to strike.
Following the Corrupted Rabbits, killing Level 1 Corrupted Dogs no longer dropped copper coins or EXP for He Miaomiao either, yielding only the most basic raw dog meat.
She didn’t mind in the slightest, slashing her way through the hideous pack of Corrupted Dogs, then using her upgraded Looting skill to gather the dropped resources effortlessly.
[Raw Dog Meat ×25!]
[Raw Dog Meat ×25! (Critical Hit)]
It had to be said that this was truly far more convenient than picking items up one by one.
The small monster group composed of 25 Corrupted Dogs was wiped clean by He Miaomiao just like that.
Immediately after, she charged toward the pack of Level 2 Corrupted Wolves about 500 meters from her home.
[Corrupted Wolf (Lv2): HP 160, Attack Power 28, Defense 3, Agility 3.5]
[Special Skill 1: Pack Hunt. When 2 or more Corrupted Wolves are present on the field, they will flank the player from both sides to cut off their escape route.]
[Special Skill 2: Frenzy. When HP falls below 30%, Attack Power +30%, Agility +20%.]
He Miaomiao: HP 330, Attack Power 36 (+45), Defense 26, Agility 29
The Corrupted Wolf’s attack power was 2 points higher than her Defense, and it possessed 2 special skills that boosted attack power and agility. It was stronger than the Corrupted Dog and capable of dealing effective damage to He Miaomiao—if it could touch her, that is.
The wolf pack coordinated remarkably well, surrounding her from front, back, left, and right to cut off her retreat.
“Not bad.”
He Miaomiao offered a compliment, then easily dodged two Corrupted Wolves pouncing from different directions, delivering a four-hit basic attack combo in quick succession to harvest and take them down.
By the time she killed the final Corrupted Wolf, having just swapped from the Stone Blade to the Dual Blades, she was already adept at chopping monsters—fast and precise, with zero ineffective attacks and not a single second of wasted hesitation.
Raw Wolf Meat ×24, Beast Hide ×24
Sheathing her blades, He Miaomiao—who hadn’t rested for a single second since rushing out of her small yard—felt she could fight a couple more rounds.
However, she glanced at the time and ran toward home, gathering resources along the route and consuming her 10-piece rabbit meat quota for this timeframe.
Now that He Miaomiao’s total Energy Points exceeded one thousand, she was surprised to find that 1 piece of rabbit meat could still fill her energy pool completely, though the speed was slower than before, requiring her to wait a short moment.
Dry Grass ×5,230, Wood ×6,786, Stone ×6,782
Returning home loaded with goods.
Work at the workbench was already complete.
Loot.
[Bathroom ×1!]
[Bathroom ×1! (Critical Hit)]
He Miaomiao chose to place one of the bathrooms against the inner wall.
After a bout of clatter, the finished bathroom was in place. Set in the corner, it was visually estimated at about 1 square meter—very small.
He Miaomiao walked over and pushed open the wooden door. Without windows, the lighting was quite dim.
She hung her remaining stone lantern on the wall, and the dark interior of the bathroom lit up instantly.
Stepping in from the doorway led straight to a small vanity sink made of stone, with a tiny wooden storage compartment built underneath the sink basin.
Above the sink basin hung a small mirror about the size of four palms.
Catching sight of the person in the mirror, He Miaomiao gasped.
The person in the mirror had messy hair tied in a topknot, wearing a teddy bear gauze pajama set!
He Miaomiao hurriedly looked down—sure enough! It really was her! She had been wearing pajamas the entire time, and she had even met her group member Qi Yi in this outfit!
Her toes curled inside her slippers as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“It’s fine, it’s fine, He Miaomiao! It’s already the end of the world, who cares about this stuff? Besides, didn’t you go to school in your pajamas once before when you were confused? That day was even a Monday, flag-raising day, and the whole school saw you, haha, hahaha.”
He Miaomiao skillfully comforted herself, dispelling the touch of embarrassment.
Over these past days, her mind had been entirely focused on gathering resources, fighting monsters, and recording survival guides, so she hadn’t paid attention to what clothes she was wearing at all.
Or perhaps she had noticed, but because there were far more important matters at the time, she subconsciously ignored it.
“At least pajamas are very comfortable, right?”
They were just a bit dirty.
Right, hurry up and see if there’s water in the bathroom.
Not far to the right of the vanity sink sat a squat toilet, next to which stood the wooden wall. A bit closer to the door hung a simple handheld showerhead.
He Miaomiao’s eyes sparkled when she saw the showerhead.
If this exists, there must be water, right?
She pulled out a Small Clay Jar to catch the flow first, then turned it on.
Splash—
Water actually poured out from the showerhead, and it looked very clean!
“Grandma, we have water!”
The water was room temperature, not hot. He Miaomiao quickly filled the basketball-sized open ceramic tub, then pulled out another one.
Before long, both Small Clay Jars were full.
She had opened 4 Small Clay Jars from chests in total: 2 were used to conduct experiments to see what function the tubs served, and the remaining 2 were now used up as well.
There were some empty bamboo tubes in her storage chest—empty bottles left after drinking pure water before—but their capacity was too small and their openings too narrow, making it easy for water from the showerhead to spill and be wasted.
Use it directly to wash hair and bathe?
He Miaomiao had been fighting before daybreak today, running around outside for almost an entire day, and even visiting the heavily polluted riverbank. Her body was very dirty and smelly, so she ought to give herself a proper wash.
However, she didn’t do so.
Showering and washing hair with a showerhead was completely normal in her original world, yet felt excessively luxurious here.
Furthermore, He Miaomiao didn’t know if the bathroom’s water supply had limits.
With limited conditions, she explored the area, confirming that the water could be used normally but couldn’t heat itself. She plugged the vanity sink in the bathroom, poured out a tiny amount of water from the ceramic tub, and washed her face using her hands.
The sky of Despair Valley was always a dull grey, with neither clouds nor sun in sight. A scent of rotting leaves hovered above the ground, making the overall temperature neither as cold as a normal winter nor as warm as a normal spring, carrying a damp, cool chill. Cold water touching her hands and face felt slightly freezing.
The water used for washing her face looked greyish and very dirty, incapable of being reused for other tasks. He Miaomiao had no choice but to pull the plug on the vanity sink, watching the dirty water drain away with heartache—she had originally wondered if she could use it to wipe her shoes.
Looking at it now, better forget it; it would probably only wipe them darker.
Having done all this, He Miaomiao placed the unroasted raw meat beside the campfire first and ate dinner together with Grandma Temporary Citizen 1.
They had been eating rabbit meat previously; today they ate shrimp meat.
The shrimp meat dropped from monsters was very large; once roasted, the two of them held one each to munch on.
Without any seasonings added, the shrimp meat carried a subtle natural sweetness and was very chewy, tasting far better than plain roasted rabbit meat.
After the meal, night fell.
All players in Village 4 returned to their safehouses.
[You Hua]: “Everyone, make full use of your time to rest, but absolutely do NOT sleep like a log! According to my rich gaming experience, something will definitely go wrong on the first night after the grace period ends.”
[Wan Zifan]: “That’s right! In survival games I played before, a ferocious wave of monsters would definitely arrive after the grace period! Every sister, brother, aunt, uncle, grandma, and grandpa, please be extra, extra careful! Protect yourselves!”
[Duanmu Jing]: “Prioritize upgrading the safehouse if you have sufficient resources.”
Player levels had all increased, so there were fewer communication restrictions than when they first arrived, allowing certain information to be shared free of charge.
[Zhang Na]: “It’s too hard… As long as we keep chopping wood and such, there will eventually be enough, but copper coins are truly so hard to get.”
[Ji Jie]: “Thanks to Brother Hua reminding us not to level up, otherwise we would only earn even slower. I feel this mechanism is forcing us to slay more monsters, and stronger monsters at that, or else we simply can’t earn enough money.”
[You Hua]: “Don’t even mention it. I have the most rabbits on my side, but killing rabbits now only gives a bit of rabbit meat to eat. I regret it so much!”
He had charged ahead too fast and reached Level 4 back then, resulting in getting only 1 piece of raw rabbit meat per Corrupted Rabbit kill—such a massive loss!
[You Hua]: “It’s all the fault of this goddamned Despair Valley and its endless restrictions that prevented the Big Boss from sharing such crucial information! Otherwise, how could I have stepped into such a huge pit?!”
The guide he bought from the Big Boss contained information regarding leveling up, but key details were partially redacted, leaving him knowing only that leveling up might yield chests.
Looking back, that was clearly a deceptive trick by Despair Valley!
[Xia Ning]: “Even so, you must prioritize upgrading the safehouse, okay? Upgrading is super, super, super good.”
That’s right—as the Max-Luck Emperor who started out right on top of a pile of hemp and iron, Xia Ning had already scraped together enough resources and copper coins, upgrading her safehouse to Level 1 just moments ago.
Right now, sitting inside a sturdy 20-square-meter solid wood house, looking at that 1000 Durability and 5 Defense, she wished she could urge everyone to upgrade.
A Level 3 player possessed only 85 HP and 3 Defense. In comparison, the cost-effectiveness of upgrading the safehouse was truly sky-high.
[You Hua]: “Sister, you’re the best (thumbs up). I’ve ground out all the materials, but 1200 copper coins is truly too hard—I’m still short by a huge margin.”
[Wan Zifan]: “I want to make money too, but after grinding monsters hard for 1 hour, I only get a few copper coins. As for selling materials, everyone in our group can gather basic ones themselves. Except for extreme cases like Sister Ning, who would need to buy from me?”
Suddenly, every player’s panel popped open forcibly.
[Desperate survivors, the monster wave will arrive right on schedule at 24:00:00. There is no death exemption. Good luck to you all.]
[Wan Zifan]: “It really IS a monster wave! Help! What difficulty is this?! Can my Level 0 broken house hold out?! And does ‘no death exemption’ mean what I think it means?! Will we actually die if we fail to defend?!”
[You Hua]: “Don’t… don’t panic first! In games, risks and rewards coexist. As long as we can survive this wave of monsters, our strength will definitely increase by a huge margin, and maybe we can even earn those copper coins we’ve been lacking!”
[Yun Cailiu]: “I start trembling the moment I see those monsters. When I went out to mine stone today, I was swarmed by a few Corrupted Dogs and almost lost my life… A monster wave… can I really clear it?”
[You Hua]: “Since the attribute panel assigns us the status of players, this world definitely respects gaming logic! According to game mechanics, there is absolutely no such thing as an unwinnable challenge—we can definitely clear it!”