Looking at the players in the group who, just like her, were trying hard to adapt, He Miaomiao added an extra word of advice.
If someone with a jinx physique like hers could get blueprints, others would only get them faster. There was no need to rush to buy them.
[You Hua]: “Big boss! How do you have so many spare blueprints?! I just got %&* from the Novice Gift Pack. I want to buy them all! But gathering resources is really way too hard!”
[Wang Shouyi]: “See that, everyone?! She’s a total fraud, a saleswoman! Selling one thing after another, endless! She just wants to lie on top of you guys and suck your blood!”
[Chen Wei]: “So many items… Is the big boss really in the same world as us?”
[Xia Ning]: “Wow, sister, you’re so amazing! Huh? Why is it gone already?! How are your hands all so fast! I didn’t even manage to snap one up!”
[Wang Shouyi]: “Are you all crazy? Didn’t she say these items will drop sooner or later? Why spend money to buy them right now?”
[You Hua]: “@Wang Shouyi Do you still not understand what’s going on? It’s survival, survival! Being a step ahead means being a step ahead all the way. Since blueprints are available now, of course we have to snag them fast to craft items early.”
[Wang Shouyi]: “Cut the act. You guys are all in on this together!”
[You Hua]: “???”
[You Hua]: “If it weren’t for the fact that we’re all Chinese, who’d waste breath on someone like you? Listen or don’t! My stamina has recovered, back to work. Good luck, everyone.”
[Xia Ning]: “Sister, do you have anything else you want to sell? I have terrible luck—there are no trees, stone, or grass nearby, only hemp. Do you need hemp, sister?”
He Miaomiao, who had been about to close the group chat, paused, her eyes lighting up.
Hemp!
Someone found hemp!
“I do. What do you want?”
[Xia Ning]: “Awesome! Um… I don’t know what I want either…”
Right now, too little was known, and Xia Ning had barely seen anything.
He Miaomiao realized this too, so she simply listed everything she could offer.
Cooked rabbit meat, stone sickles, stone axes, and stone pickaxes.
[Xia Ning]: “!!!”
[Xia Ning]: “Sister, what do you recommend I choose most? I’ll listen to you!”
“If there’s a lot of hemp nearby, you can choose the stone sickle.”
The stone sickle was suited for cutting grass, and hemp counted as well.
He Miaomiao hadn’t found any hemp yet, proving that hemp didn’t necessarily spawn near every safehouse. To upgrade safehouses, a good number of players would likely need hemp, making it a hot commodity early on.
[Xia Ning]: “Okay! I choose the stone sickle!”
During trades, players couldn’t tamper with the pricing, but they could set preferences.
He Miaomiao listed 1 stone sickle in the group, setting hemp as the only accepted payment.
The automatic pricing system clearly factored in privacy elements like item acquisition difficulty and current rarity. A stone sickle blueprint required 4 dry grass, 2 wood, or 2 stone; a finished stone sickle that required learning the blueprint and consuming 8 wood and 6 stone to make, however, only cost 5 hemp.
[Xia Ning]: “Such a bargain! Thank you, sister!”
“You’re welcome. I need hemp.”
[Xia Ning]: “Then I’ll give all the hemp I gather to you from now on! Do you need anything else, sister? I also have iron and 2 copper coins here!”
He Miaomiao: ???
What kind of luck was this?! Resources she hadn’t seen so much as a shadow of were routine materials right at Xia Ning’s doorstep!
And copper coins! Hadn’t Xia Ning just killed 1 rabbit to get her Novice Gift Pack? How did she already have 2 copper coins!
[Wan Zifan]: “What? There are hemp and iron here too?”
[Yu Qiaoyun]: “I have hemp here as well, but only 1 portion. Big boss, do you need it?”
“Hemp is useful. Sell if you have a lot; keep it if you only have a little.”
Selling it now would mean buying it back later at a high price, which wasn’t worth it.
[Yu Qiaoyun]: “Although I don’t know what it’s used for, I’m slow at gathering resources and probably won’t be able to use it for a long time. Plus, I saw you have cooked rabbit meat. I’d like to trade with you for some—I really need cooked rabbit meat.”
The guide had already stated how to cook rabbit meat, yet Yu Qiaoyun still wanted to trade for it. That proved Yu Qiaoyun believed she couldn’t wait until her campfire was built; even if she did, she wouldn’t have enough time or energy to gather more raw rabbit meat, so she needed to eat right away.
He Miaomiao recalled the situation of Sister Yu, whom she knew—just gave birth, carrying a baby not even a month old—and had a rough guess in her mind.
Looking back at her inventory, after picking up her newly roasted rabbit meat, she possessed 40 portions of cooked rabbit meat in total, with a steady supply incoming. She had plenty to spare.
After the exchange, He Miaomiao received 1 stalk of hemp, while Yu Qiaoyun received 2 portions of cooked rabbit meat.
Inside the dilapidated initial safehouse, tears shimmered in Yu Qiaoyun’s eyes as she quickly ate a portion of rabbit meat.
“An’an, be a good baby. Mommy will be able to nurse you right away, okay?”
She gently patted the tiny baby in her arms, her heart full of anguish.
An’an, formal name Song Sui, was her newborn baby of just over ten days. He had been inexplicably dragged into this Despair Valley alongside her. Capable of consuming nothing besides milk, he had already starved for a whole day yesterday. Once daylight broke today, his health points had been steadily dropping.
But things were good now. She had food. As long as she ate, An’an would have milk.
In the group:
Xia Ning was continuing her trade with He Miaomiao using iron.
4 iron in exchange for 1 stone pickaxe and 1 portion of cooked rabbit meat.
As for the copper coins, He Miaomiao was tempted, but knowing how hard it was to earn money, she declined.
[Xia Ning]: “Thank you, sister! I’m off to keep gathering hemp and iron!”
[Qi Yi]: “Waaaah, so jealous… I want to buy tools too, but I don’t have resources to trade. Waaaah, I want to go home…”
[Wan Zifan]: “Say no more, off to gather resources! Big boss, wait for me!”
[Jia Chang]: “Big boss, look, I’ve been rushing to gather those resources, but it’s still not enough. Could you give a discount?”
[Wang Shouyi]: “Brother Jia, why are you rushing to get scammed too?!”
Jia Chang wanted to cry too.
Who knew that He Miaomiao, whose name sounded so naive and gullible, turned out to be completely unfazed by him leading the group to ostracize her? Even less expected was that He Miaomiao’s strength was so formidable.
Jia Chang had already experienced how painful digging stone bare-handed was; he really didn’t want to suffer that agony again.
Moreover, at his current speed, when would he gather enough resources to build a campfire?
He was so hungry. He wanted food so badly.
After completing her trade with Xia Ning, He Miaomiao closed the group chat and shut her eyes to rest.
The fatigue from staying busy since waking up at 7:00 AM existed not just physically, but mentally as well.
Since there was nothing she could do right now anyway, she might as well seize the time to rest.
Beside her, the campfire burned, making occasional quiet crackling sounds. It dispelled the dampness and decay surging in from all directions, allowing He Miaomiao to sleep peacefully.
When she woke up again, it was already afternoon.
He Miaomiao was full of energy.
[Lv1 Safehouse Upgrade Requirements: Wood 80, Stone 60, Dry Grass 120, Hemp 30, Iron 15, Copper Coins 1200, Player Level Lv1]
Her current resources: Wood 15, Stone 27, Dry Grass 60, Hemp 6, Iron 4, Copper Coins 22.
She still needed to work hard.
Fortunately, He Miaomiao already possessed a complete set of gathering tools and sufficient food supplies. Hemp and iron also had reliable supply channels. Now, she just needed to keep her head down and work.
Target: Wood.
6 rounds passed—
Wood ×60, Raw Rabbit Meat ×12, Copper Coins ×2, EXP +240, Cooked Rabbit Meat -10.
[Current Resources: Wood 75, Stone 27, Dry Grass 60, Hemp 6, Iron 4, Copper Coins 24]
[Lv1 Safehouse Upgrade Requirements: Wood 80, Stone 60, Dry Grass 120, Hemp 30, Iron 15, Copper Coins 1200, Player Level Lv1]
He Miaomiao lay down to wait for digestion, then started another round. Target: Wood, Stone, Dry Grass.
6 rounds passed—
Wood ×5, Stone ×33, Dry Grass ×22, Raw Rabbit Meat ×12, EXP +240, Cooked Rabbit Meat -10.
[EXP: 1060/100]
[EXP overflow exceeded 10x, starting automatic level-up!]
He Miaomiao: Eh?
Player: He Miaomiao (Lv0 → Lv1)
Coordinates: Despair Village 4
[HP +10!]
[HP +10! (Critical Hit)]
[Attack Power +1!]
[Attack Power +1! (Critical Hit)]
[Defense +1!]
[Defense +1! (Critical Hit)]
[Agility +1!]
[Agility +1! (Critical Hit)]
Final stats—
HP: 70/70 (50 → 70)
Attack Power: 7 (5 → 7)
Defense: 2 (0 → 2)
Agility: 7 (5 → 7)
EXP: 960/250 (Upgradeable)
Skills: Appraisal (Primary), Looting (Primary)
[Congratulations to player He Miaomiao for becoming the first person in Despair Valley to level up! True warriors deserve fate’s reward! Congratulations to the player for obtaining: Purple Chest ×1!]
[Purple Chest ×1! (Critical Hit)]
Purple!
He Miaomiao was wildly overjoyed.
Her SSS Crit Talent had been pulled from a purple chest!
“Open!”
First chest:
[Sparks Slash Skill Book (Purple) ×1! Soft Rabbit Fur Carpet (Purple) ×1! Copper Coins ×100!]
[Sparks Slash Skill Book (Purple) ×1! Soft Rabbit Fur Carpet (Purple) ×1! Copper Coins ×100! (Critical Hit)]
Second chest:
[Sparks Slash Skill Book (Purple) ×1! Soft Rabbit Fur Carpet (Purple) ×1! Copper Coins ×100!]
[Sparks Slash Skill Book (Purple) ×1! Soft Rabbit Fur Carpet (Purple) ×1! Copper Coins ×100! (Critical Hit)]
He Miaomiao: !!!
Mom, I’ve made it big!
He Miaomiao took out the skill book first—every time she fought a rabbit before, it took 16 back-and-forth rounds, which was way too hard. Now at Lv1, even with the critical hit boost, her attack power was only 7, still requiring 12 hits per rabbit. She hoped the new skill could boost her attack power further.
Learn!
[Sparks Slash (Despair Primary 1/2): Each use consumes 50 Energy Points, dealing Fire element attack damage equal to player’s current Base Attack Power × 300% to a single target.]
“300%? I’m Lv1 now with a base attack power of 7, so 300% is 21! Meaning if I kick the Corrupted Rabbit once and use Sparks Slash once, I can make it lose 28 HP in one go?”
The Corrupted Rabbit’s total HP was 80; He Miaomiao would only need to land 3 hits to kill it!
However, where in the world was there such a good deal?
Possessing a natural jinx physique, He Miaomiao quickly calmed down and reread the description of Sparks Slash carefully.
“What are Energy Points?”
It wasn’t on her attribute panel; she had to test it out.
He Miaomiao stood at the doorway of the safehouse—which had long lacked a wooden door—aiming toward the furthest distance she could vaguely perceive.
“Sparks Slash!”
Bang!
Before He Miaomiao could even see what the skill looked like when cast, her vision went black, and she pitched forward, collapsing flat on the ground.