Qiyu saw his name mentioned repeatedly in the regional chat.
Of course, he wasn't the only one. All the top-ranked players were frequent topics of discussion. After all, this was the first time a "leaderboard" had appeared in the survival game.
Countless red notification dots had appeared on his friends page, all from players who had sent him friend requests after seeing the leaderboard.
Qiyu had no interest in this kind of socializing, so he cleared them all with a single click.
On his friends page, 【Civil Engineering Brother】 had sent him several messages of congratulations.
Qiyu replied with a brief message.
The other party responded almost instantly.
【Civil Engineering Brother: Boss, are you out yet?】
Qiyu opened the "01 Survival Squad" channel, which was equally lively.
Scrolling through the chat history, he saw that Tranquility Yields Transcendence had also come out of the trial and was still chatting.
【Civil Engineering Brother: Congratulations to our boss "I Love Survival Game" for successfully clearing Round 5! Our little group has another badass boss now!】
【Dare Not Open My Eyes: Congrats, boss!】
【Tranquility Yields Transcendence: Congrats, boss!】
【I Love Survival Game: I just got lucky. I checked the leaderboard, and everyone on it is really strong.】
He genuinely believed he'd been lucky. If he hadn't opened that brass chest earlier and obtained the Heart of the Great Tree Staff, he wouldn't have been able to deal with those Alchemy Puppets. Magic accounted for a significant portion of his current offensive capabilities, and the Alchemy Puppets were a natural counter to him.
【I Love Survival Game: Have any of you entered Round 6 yet? What's the challenge like?】
【Tranquility Yields Transcendence: Sounds like you just got out. Didn't you choose to continue?】
Qiyu admitted that he had been completely exhausted after clearing the fifth round and simply hadn't had the energy to go on.
【Civil Engineering Brother: Those of us who've participated in the survival trials aren't allowed to reveal the details, so none of us knows what the others went through.】
Qiyu tested it himself and discovered that this was indeed the case.
【Tranquility Yields Transcendence: All I can say is that Round 6 isn't just twice as difficult as Round 5. It's the kind of despair where you know you're doomed the moment you step inside.】
【Tranquility Yields Transcendence: Fortunately, Round 6 isn't life-threatening. I found somewhere to hide, and after a while, I was kicked out.】
This piqued Qiyu's curiosity. If there was no danger to his life, he wouldn't mind going in to see what it was like for himself.
The members of the 01 Survival Squad were all quite considerate. None of them pressed Qiyu about what rewards he had obtained.
Only Civil Engineering Brother enthusiastically offered to act as a middleman if anyone in the group had items they didn't need, promising to fetch them a good price.
After chatting with the group for a while, Qiyu closed the channel and checked his friends list. 【God Has No Form】 was still online.
Unsure whether the rules in Zone 88 were the same as those in Zone 01, he left a message to check on him.
Then he began sorting through his loot.
Among the drops from the fifth round, apart from the supplies he had already put away, were 15 Basic Resource Packs and 1 Intermediate Resource Pack.
Qiyu opened all the Basic Resource Packs first.
A pile of items immediately appeared before him.
【Obtained 4 Basic Farmlands, 50 wood x4, Dark Energy Orbs x2, Basic Stamina Potions x2, 1 Basic Healing Potion, 2 Basic Plant Nutrient Solution.】
The contents of Basic Resource Packs were almost always the same, so there were no major surprises.
Still, a lack of surprises didn't make the items any less useful. Qiyu sorted everything and put it away.
Next came the Intermediate Resource Pack.
The previous Intermediate Resource Pack had given him a green-quality Crimson Maple Forest resource point.
Naturally, Qiyu had high hopes for this one as well.
【Congratulations on obtaining the Intermediate Building: Statue of the Goddess of Nature.】
Qiyu: ?
A palm-sized statue appeared in his hand.
Carved from wood, the statue was remarkably lifelike. The goddess wore a wreath woven from flowers and leaves, her gentle smile directed toward the distance. There was something both sacred and tender about her appearance.
【Statue of the Goddess of Nature: Carved by a faithful devotee of the goddess, placing this statue within your territory will cause all creatures within the territory to gain +10% Vitality, and plant harvests receive a 20% bonus.】
The bewilderment on his face instantly gave way to reverence.
Qiyu carefully surveyed his territory, deciding to wait until dawn to choose a suitable place to enshrine the goddess.
Then his gaze settled on the final reward.
It was the reward granted by the survival game for clearing the fifth round of the survival trials.
A silver chest.
Before this, he had only ever obtained one silver chest.
That chest had contained the spirit cultivation manual, which he still hadn't fully mastered.
Just as Qiyu was about to open it, he remembered what had happened last time. Having recovered a little of his strength, he decided to head into the cabin and wash his hands in the bathroom first.
Suddenly, his gaze froze.
In the corner between the bathroom and the bedroom sat a wooden box filled with clear water.
It was the same wooden box that had held the mysterious drifting bottle last time.
The bottle had vanished the moment it touched the water. Qiyu had no idea what it was or whether it would ever return, so he had simply left the box where it was, changing the water once a day.
But now, a familiar bottle was floating in the wooden box that had previously contained nothing but water.
It was a glass bottle filled with fine white sand.
The drifting bottle swayed gently with the ripples, and there seemed to be something new inside it.
Qiyu washed his hands and took the bottle out.
Inside was a brown slip of paper tied with a red string, neatly fastened into a bow.
【From the drifting bottle: Perhaps you need a friend from afar to share different scenery. If you no longer need me, please put me back in the water and let me continue my journey~】
Qiyu fell silent for a full ten seconds.
A question that had puzzled him for a long time finally seemed to have an answer.
It explained how he had somehow become friends with a player from Zone 88.
Still, it wasn't a bad thing.
He placed the glass bottle back into the water and watched it disappear beneath the surface.
I wonder what it'll bring next time?
He was already looking forward to it.
Returning to the silver chest, he selected "Open Silver Chest."
The chest opened, releasing a burst of purple light.
It wasn't golden.
Qiyu felt a twinge of disappointment, but the moment he saw what was inside, his disappointment turned to delight.
There were only two types of rewards in the chest.
【Obtained Advanced Magic Energy Tower x1, Common Energy Tower Blueprint x1.】
【Obtained Tier 1 Magic Crystals x100, Tier 2 Magic Crystals x10.】
【Advanced Magic Energy Tower: An advanced defensive structure that consumes magic crystals to unleash magical energy attacks.】
【Energy Tower: A standard defensive structure that consumes Magic Crystals to unleash energy attacks. Crafting Materials: Green-quality Wood/Stone Materials/Metal x100.】
The newbie period had ended, and Qiyu still had no idea what awaited him tomorrow.
If the safe zone outside the shelter disappeared, he would have no choice but to venture out and explore.
His greatest concern was the safety of his wooden cabin.
A fence alone wouldn't provide enough protection.
With defensive weapons like these, he could finally feel a little more at ease.
As expected, the rewards from a silver chest are amazing!
The Advanced Magic Energy Tower was a complete structure obtained directly from the chest. All he needed to do was choose a suitable location and place it there.
The Common Energy Tower, however, had come in the form of a blueprint.
That meant that as long as he had enough materials, Qiyu could produce as many as he wanted and turn his entire territory into a heavily fortified stronghold.