【Want To Drink Milk Tea: Holy crap! “My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens”? Isn't that the big shot who triggered the server-wide announcement? He's actually on my server! Quick, take a screenshot!】
【The More I Involution The Bitterer My Life Becomes: Screenshot time! Big shot, please carry me!】
【Overtime Working Dog: Screenshot! Big shot, take me with you!】
【Crispy Lemon Tea: Screenshot! Big shot, take me with you!】
【My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens: Yes, the area within a 500-meter radius of the wooden cabin is the safe zone. Everyone, make sure to explore it thoroughly. You'll receive a reward chest for exploring the entire safe zone for the first time. @The More I Involution The Bitterer My Life Becomes】
【The More I Involution The Bitterer My Life Becomes: Holy crap, the big shot actually replied to me! @My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens, how did you get the first kill? And what's a Silver Chest? It feels like you're playing a completely different game from the rest of us.】
Qiyu couldn't help chuckling.
He had a good memory, and since the player with the ID 【The More I Involution The Bitterer My Life Becomes】 posted so frequently, he vaguely remembered them.
If he recalled correctly, this was the same person who had initially accused 【My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens】 of being a shill for the Survival Game.
【My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens: It was nothing special. I just got lucky and spotted an animal outside my cabin as soon as I entered the game. A Silver Chest is just another type of chest, a slightly higher tier than a wooden chest.】
The already lively chat channel became even more chaotic following the appearance of 【My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens】. However, there wasn't much useful information afterward. Most people were simply tagging 【My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens】 and begging him to carry them, while others kept asking what rewards he had obtained from the Silver Chest.
Qiyu skimmed a few more messages, lost interest, and closed the channel. There was just one thing that puzzled him. An animal? He had already explored the area surrounding his wooden cabin, but he didn't recall encountering any animals he could kill for a quest.
He finished the remaining half of his steamed bun and drank a little less than half a bottle of water.
His satiety had returned to 50, and his stamina had recovered to 90.
Half a steamed bun was obviously nowhere near enough to fill the stomach of a young man his age. However, he was accustomed to hunger. As long as he had something in his stomach and the discomfort wasn't too severe, he could endure it.
The Survival Game seemed quite generous for now, but he had no idea what would happen once the so-called beginner protection period ended. Unless he had a decent stockpile of food, he couldn't feel entirely at ease.
After finishing his meal, he headed outside again, carrying his axe and dagger.
This time, instead of chopping down trees, Qiyu went looking for stone.
His exploration that morning had given him a general understanding of the surrounding terrain. He remembered seeing quite a few large rocks about three hundred meters west of the wooden cabin.
【Get 1 Stone】
【Get 3 Stone】
【Get 1 Stone】
Gathering fifty units of stone wasn't particularly difficult. It simply took some time. Carrying those fifty units back to the wooden cabin, however, was considerably more exhausting.
Fortunately, there was plenty of sisal grass growing nearby, so he casually gathered a hundred units on his way back.
Unfortunately, by the time he returned to the wooden cabin, his survival panel was flashing red again, warning him that his satiety and stamina had fallen below the danger threshold. Qiyu had no choice but to eat another half a steamed bun, barely bringing his satiety back up to 50.
This time, however, an additional warning appeared on the survival panel.
Survival ID: I Love Survival Game.
Satiety: 50 (Recommended to maintain Satiety above 80)
Qiyu: ……
Is this a dig at me?
Still, based on his understanding of survival games, the system wouldn't issue a warning without good reason.
So, gritting his teeth, he took another bite of the steamed bun and finished the water in his bottle, finally managing to raise his satiety to 80.
Unsurprisingly, his stamina had also recovered completely. Now it was time for the long-awaited construction phase.
Fifty units of wood and fifty units of stone were piled in a corner of the wooden cabin.
【Materials detected. A workbench can be built. Do you want to use the materials to craft it?】
“Yes.”
A hazy white mist materialized out of thin air, enveloping the materials on the ground.
From within the mist came a series of metallic clangs and clatters, as though tools were striking against metal.
Thirty seconds later, a workbench measuring 1.5 meters long and 0.8 meters wide appeared before Qiyu.
A system prompt appeared, allowing him to select the workbench's color and place it anywhere inside the shelter. 1 Qiyu chose the default natural wood color and positioned it in a corner of the cabin. 3
He then brought over the sisal grass.
【Materials detected. Do you wish to consume 30 sisal grasses to craft a basic backpack?】
“Yes.”
The process was familiar. Twenty seconds later, a small, plain, unremarkable cloth bag appeared on the workbench. Qiyu picked it up.
【Basic backpack detected. Do you want to bind it to your personal inventory?】
It can be bound?
Qiyu selected “Yes.”
A small 【Backpack】 icon appeared on his Survival Game interface. All ten inventory slots were currently empty.
【Backpack: You can store items you touch inside the backpack.】
Qiyu placed his hand on the workbench, and a notification immediately flashed before his eyes:
【Shelter-bound functional furniture; cannot be picked up.】
Next, he began testing his belongings one by one.
Apart from the workbench and the wooden cabin itself, all his current “assets” could be stored in the backpack.
Multiple units of the same item, such as his remaining four and a half steamed buns, could occupy a single backpack slot. However, steamed buns and water couldn't be stored together in the same slot.
Interestingly, if he placed the water, steamed buns, and fabric inside a wooden crate, he could then store the entire crate in his backpack, taking up only one slot.
Furthermore, a wooden crate containing items couldn't share an inventory slot with an empty crate. However, if both crates contained items, they could be stacked in the same slot.
Qiyu was beginning to understand how it worked. Although the basic backpack appeared to have only ten slots, its actual storage capacity could be enormous if similar items could be stacked.
For now, because he had so few supplies, he couldn't determine the maximum number of identical items that could fit into a single slot.
But even with what he had discovered so far, this backpack was practically a divine artifact.
The more he examined it, the happier he became. Wasn't this essentially the same as possessing a spatial ability without having to do anything?
To put it simply, whenever he chopped down trees in the future, he would no longer have to carry the wood back to his cabin by hand, making trip after trip. And if he happened to find edible wild berries or other useful items along the way, he wouldn't have to leave them behind simply because he couldn't carry any more.
There was no doubt that his efficiency in gathering resources would improve dramatically.
Although the blueprint description stated that the backpack couldn't be stacked, what if there was some way around that restriction? Since the workbench was available and he still had extra sisal grass, he crafted a second basic backpack. Only after testing it and confirming that he couldn't bind another backpack to his inventory did he finally abandon the idea.
For the remainder of the afternoon, he didn't venture far from the wooden cabin, instead concentrating on chopping down trees nearby.
After felling four trees in succession, he received a notification.
【Player Alert: Nightfall will occur in half an hour. Darkness represents the unknown and danger; please enter a shelter before nightfall.】
Half an hour?
That's enough time to chop down one more tree.
Qiyu quickened his pace.
【Critical hit triggered, obtained 20 pieces of wood】
Delighted, Qiyu stored the wood in his backpack. The display now showed 5:55 p.m. Outside, the sun was still shining brightly, without the slightest indication that night was approaching.
Nevertheless, Qiyu had no intention of taking unnecessary risks. He hurriedly packed everything into his backpack, entered the shelter, and shut the door behind him. A few strands of sisal grass had fallen near the doorway.
The wooden cabin immediately grew dim.
Although the initial wooden cabin had no windows, the roughly constructed wooden door wasn't airtight, allowing a little sunlight to seep through the gaps. Qiyu began taking stock of everything he had gathered that day.
【Sisal Grass X99】—he had originally had 40 units left after crafting two backpacks, but while chopping down trees, he had passed another patch of sisal grass and gathered more, bringing his total to 99. Thanks to the sisal grass, he had discovered that the maximum number of identical items that could be stacked in a single backpack slot was 99.
【Wood X70】—he had chopped down five trees in total. Fortunately, he had triggered critical hits twice, earning an additional 20 units of wood.
【Wild Banyan Berries X70】—he had gathered these along the way, and they could be eaten directly.
【Stone x99】—now that he had a basic backpack, collecting stone had become extremely convenient.
【Low Quality Wood x9】
【Dried Bark x3】—he had encountered a dead tree along the way. These materials had dropped after he chopped it down with a single swing of his axe. Although he had no idea what they were used for, his backpack still had plenty of space, so he had picked them up on a whim.
Suddenly, everything went black.
This wasn't a figure of speech. It was exactly what happened.
The wooden cabin, which had been illuminated just moments earlier, was plunged into complete darkness in an instant. It was so dark that nothing could be seen.
Did day really turn into night so abruptly, without any warning?
Qiyu gave his eyes a moment to adjust. Gradually, the vague outlines of the objects around him began to emerge from the darkness. This was thanks to his experiences in the post-apocalyptic world. Nights had been just as dangerous there, but unlike here, he hadn't always had a safe refuge in which to hide.
Over the years, he had developed the ability to see in the dark. After finishing his inventory, he walked over to the workbench.
【Materials detected. Do you want to use 50 pieces of wood to craft a wooden bed?】
Thirty seconds later, a wooden plank bed measuring 1.5 meters wide and 2 meters long appeared inside the shelter. Qiyu placed it against the wall.
Although his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, he could still barely make out the outlines of objects, and there was little else he could do. He decided to sit on the wooden bed and open the regional chat channel.
The moment he did, he froze. At the top of the chat channel, the player count, which had previously read 99,999/100,000, had changed to 99,987/100,000.
Unsurprisingly, the chat channel was already in an uproar over the matter.
【I Want To Drink Cola: What's going on? How did we suddenly lose more than a dozen people?】
【Silence Does Not Mean I Am Wrong: Help! They warned us it would get dark in an instant, but they didn't give us any time to adjust! Now I can't see a thing!】
【Misty Rain Of Jiangnan: I've got a question. The survival panel is glowing, right? If we spend the whole night chatting in complete darkness, won't we end up getting myopia?】
【Believe In Science: Whatever you do, don't leave your cabin! I received the Survival Game's warning earlier, but I was chopping down a tree right outside my door. I was almost finished, and since the sky didn't look like it was getting dark, I figured I'd finish cutting it down first. But the moment I finished and started carrying the wood back, everything suddenly went pitch-black. I knew something was wrong and sprinted toward the door. Thank goodness I was close! The instant I pushed the door open, I felt something reach out of the darkness and grab my back. My back is still numb even now!】
【Young Master: @My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens, do you know what's going on?】
My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens actually returned to answer.
【My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens: I'm not entirely sure myself, but the Survival Game has already issued a warning. Everyone should avoid taking unnecessary risks.】
【Monkey Number One: There's nothing in this room, and we can't go outside. Are we just supposed to sit around all night? If I sleep on this floor until morning, every bone in my body will ache!】
【Civil Engineering Brother: Didn't you guys chop down trees and gather resources during the day? You should prioritize collecting enough materials to build a workbench. You can find blueprints in treasure chests and use the workbench to craft furniture and other items.】
【Monkey Number One: I spent the whole day chopping wood and only managed to bring down one and a half trees. That shitty axe is absolute garbage! I've got five or six blisters on my palms, and they hurt like hell. My arms are so sore I can barely lift them. And chopping trees drains your stamina. Once your stamina runs out, you get exhausted and have to eat something, but all we've got are plain steamed buns and water. I seriously want to die. Someone might as well put me out of my misery. I don't want to live like this anymore.】1
【Guo Guo: Hey, big shot, do you have any spare wood or stone? @Civil Engineering Brother, I'll pay you back once I've gathered enough resources tomorrow.】
Qiyu continued reading the chat while opening the trading page.
The last time he had checked, the trading section had been completely empty. Now, however, it was packed with listings.
【Item (1 pair of men's socks), trade for 10 wood】
【Item: 10 wild berries, trade for 200ml of freshwater】
【Item: Wood x10, Trade for any meat dish 200g】
***
Qiyu actually spotted something that caught his interest.
【Item: 400g Fresh Fish, Trade for Any Blueprint】
The words “Fresh Fish” made him instinctively swallow.
He had eaten fish once when he was very young. A senior member of the base had caught an enormous mutated fish. As one of the children living at the base, Qiyu had been given a piece of fish no bigger than his thumb.
It had been a delicacy unlike anything he had ever tasted before.
However, an elderly man who had lived through many years had remarked that the mutated fish wasn't particularly tasty. Decades earlier, before the apocalypse, fish had been truly delicious. Its flesh had been fresh and tender, whether grilled over a fire, pan-fried, or simmered in soup…
Just thinking about it made Qiyu's mouth water. He shook his head, forcing himself back to reality.
Fresh fish was certainly tempting, but he had no fire.
And even if he did have a fire, he wasn't currently short of food. Trading something as precious as a blueprint for a piece of fish clearly wouldn't be worth it. Remembering something, he searched the trading section for blueprints.
Unsurprisingly, there were no listings.
He continued by searching for 【Hay】 and 【Cotton】. This time, several listings appeared.
【Hay x10, exchange for wood x5】
【Hay x5, exchange for 50g of any food】
【Cotton x5, exchange for 100ml of clean water】
【Cotton x10, exchange for 20 pieces of wood】