After Qiyu unleashed two waves of Fireballs, the scavenging rats stopped appearing.
Was that it?
Qiyu felt a twinge of disappointment.
He glanced to the side. The swarm of scavenging rats had dropped a total of 6 Basic Resource Packs and 3 emerald crystals.
The emerald crystals were diamond-shaped gems. True to their name, they were transparent, emerald-green crystals that looked quite beautiful.
Qiyu examined them.
【Emerald Crystal: A universal currency.】
There was no further explanation.
Universal currency?
He was currently living alone in a survival game. What use would currency be to him? Although there were 100,000 players in the area, everyone was still relying on barter.
Still, the survival game wouldn't introduce something without a purpose. Qiyu considered the possibilities. Could it be that once the newbie protection period ended, he would encounter other humans? Or perhaps even elves?
Qiyu calmly put the emerald crystals away. Whatever happened, he would deal with it when the time came. He turned his attention to the six resource packs and chose to open them all.
【Congratulations! You have received 2 Basic Farmlands, 2 × 50 wood, 1 Basic Mana Potion, and 1 Energy Bead (Dark).】
Qiyu was delighted.
Clearly, the contents of each Basic Resource Pack were random. The Basic Farmland was an obvious prize. It was an excellent item, and the more he had, the better.
Wood was another resource he could never have too much of.
【Basic Mana Potion: Restores a small amount of mana.】
Qiyu's personal stats panel didn't display a mana value. Even when he practiced casting a dozen or so Basic Spells in succession, he had never felt as though his mana was running low.
The potion's description was equally vague.
Still, it was undoubtedly a useful item. Qiyu put it away with satisfaction.
There was also an energy bead.
Qiyu remembered that collecting five energy beads would activate the energy crystal card, allowing him to have hot water in the bathroom.
After collecting all the dropped items, Qiyu stepped forward to inspect the fence.
【Damage to fence durability detected. Would you like to spend wood to repair it?】
Huh?
Qiyu was delighted. So durability could actually be restored?
He had originally assumed he would have to wait until the fence was completely destroyed before crafting a replacement.
The scavenging rats weren't particularly powerful, but there had been a lot of them. Fortunately, Qiyu had spotted them early, and Fireball was particularly effective against them, allowing him to end the battle quickly.
As a result, the damage to the fence was minimal. Only the sections on the left had been affected, with each section losing roughly a dozen durability points. Qiyu spent 10 units of wood repairing them, restoring the fence to 100% durability.
Including the wood obtained from the Basic Resource Packs earlier, he now had a total of 200 units.
Qiyu's eyes lit up. Didn't that mean he wouldn't have to worry about his shelter's safety until both the fence and his 200 units of wood were exhausted?
Besides, the log cabin itself still had 220 durability points.
Qiyu gazed expectantly into the darkness.
He waited quietly for several minutes, but everything remained perfectly still. There wasn't a sound.
Qiyu looked disappointed.
He opened the interface to see how everyone else was doing.
Channel:
【Ultra Sensitive Skin: Holy crap! What the hell is that thing? Something's gnawing on my door right outside! The system keeps warning me that its durability is dropping!】
【The More I Involution The Bitterer My Life Becomes: It's a mutated creature! Hurry up and grab your weapons to kill them! Once your shelter's durability runs out, you're screwed!】
【Civil Engineering Brother: I've got a whole pack of mutated scavenging rats here. They're not that dangerous, just a little disgusting. Killing them drops resource packs. Don't be scared. Just think of it as playing Whack-a-Mole!】
【Tranquility Yields Transcendence: You can use basic resources to restore your shelter's durability. As long as its durability doesn't reach zero, your shelter will remain safe.】
【I Don't Want to Live Anymore: Easy for you to say! I'm scared of rats!】
【A Handful Of Good Strength: I don't have rats here. I've got a different kind of mutated creature. I killed some and got four resource packs, along with a whole bunch of other drops. Haha, this is way better than working myself to death chopping trees.】
【Little Old Me: Selling wood. It can be used to repair shelter durability and might save your life in a pinch. Anyone interested is welcome to make an offer.】
【I Have A Short Temper: Is that asshole trying to make a fortune off everyone again?】
【Little Old Me: It's a fair trade between willing parties. What's it to you?】
***
Qiyu closed the channel, intending to check the small group chat, but his gaze happened to fall on the friends list beneath the chat window, and his eyes suddenly widened.
He had only ever added one friend: 【Civil Engineering Brother】.
Yet the friends list now displayed 2/2.
Qiyu opened the friends list. Beneath 【Civil Engineering Brother】's ID, another ID had mysteriously appeared.
【God Has No Form】
He frowned, wondering whether he had accidentally pressed "Add Friend" during one of his previous transactions.
Just then, a chat window suddenly popped up.
【God Has No Form: ?】
【God Has No Form: Who are you?】
【God Has No Form: How did you get my contact information?】
Qiyu: ……
【I Love Survival Game: That's what I'd like to know.】
【God Has No Form: Holy crap, I just noticed your ID! Are you some kind of masochist?】
【I Love Survival Game: It means exactly what it says. I love survival games.】
Dan Xingyu had just finished dealing with the mutated creatures attacking his shelter. Sitting on his doorstep, he carefully took out a half-empty bottle of water, intending to reward himself with a drink.
When he read the reply, he choked on his water. He hurriedly grabbed the bottle, screwed the cap back on, and carefully set it aside. Only after coughing several times did he finally catch his breath.
【God Has No Form: …You're actually pretty funny.】
【God Has No Form: But seriously, how exactly did you manage to add me as a friend?】
【I Love Survival Game: Like I said, I'd like to know that too.】
Qiyu casually tapped on 【God Has No Form】's ID.
Clicking on a friend's ID revealed some basic information about them. And by "some," it really meant very little.
The Survival Game had extremely strict privacy protections for its players. Unless a player chose to customize their profile, their personal page would display nothing but a solitary ID and the equally solitary designation "Server 01."
Of course, players could choose to make additional information public, such as their gender, age, occupation, and so on. They were free to display whatever they wanted.
…Wait a minute!
Qiyu's eyes suddenly widened.
The number beneath the ID "God Has No Form"—
As though the two of them had realized the same thing simultaneously, a barrage of messages suddenly appeared in the chat window.
【God Has No Form: ????】
【God Has No Form: !!!!】
【God Has No Form: Holy crap! What the hell? Aren't you from our Server 88?】
【God Has No Form: 01? You're from another server?】
【God Has No Form: Then how the hell did we end up adding each other as friends?】
【God Has No Form: Now this is getting interesting.】
【God Has No Form: What's Server 01 like? Is your shelter a stone house? Is your starting location in the desert too?】
Qiyu watched as the person on the other end somehow managed to fire off a long string of messages in just two or three seconds, typing at an astonishing speed.
The whole exchange was getting a little chaotic.
【I Love Survival Game: Your Server 88 is in the desert? We're in a forest on Server 01.】
When Dan Xingyu saw that reply, he nearly burst into tears of envy.
He was just about to respond when another rustling sound reached his ears.
【God Has No Form: Looks like there's another mutated creature here. Gotta deal with it first. We'll talk later!】