【Farmland: Once placed, provides a 2m x 2m planting area.】
The area inside the wooden cabin was marked as unplaceable.
Qiyu pushed open the door and tried selecting an empty spot near the entrance.
【This area is unclaimed and cannot be used for farmland.】
Qiyu:?
What does that mean?
He couldn’t place it inside the house, and he couldn’t place it outside either.
A survival game had introduced a resource like “farmland”—they couldn’t possibly be messing with them, could they?
Qiyu put the farmland away and opened the zone chat channel. As luck would have it, he spotted a familiar ID again:
【Civil Engineering Brother: Everyone, hurry up and gather resources to upgrade your shelters—upgrading shelters rewards you with premium chests.】
Based on what Qiyu had learned about this person over the past two days, he seemed like a decent guy.
But clearly, this message didn’t go over well:
【Today Is Also Not A Good Day: Get lost, Versailles!】
【The Wind Whistles Coldly: What the hell? Has someone already upgraded their shelter? I’m exhausted and only halfway through gathering the resources!】
【Food Handed Out In Contempt: If the big shots are already upgrading their shelters, they must have plenty of resources. Can you spare some? @Civil Engineering Brother, we’re all in this together—you can’t just stand by and watch us die!】
【Tears Of The Unlucky Chief: A high-tier chest? What good stuff did you get, big shot? Can you show the brothers?】
【Civil Engineering Brother: I’m not bragging, I swear. You guys should try hunting mutants. After a successful kill, you can open your personal combat stats panel, and they drop gear, too. Once your strength increases, it’ll be easier to get other resources.】
【Harmony Brings Wealth: @Civil Engineering Brother, isn’t this just bragging? I don’t even understand a word of what you’re saying. If you’re really looking out for everyone, why not share how you managed to stockpile enough upgrade resources so quickly?】
Harmony Brings Wealth’s comment immediately drew agreement from the others.
However, Civil Engineering Brother didn’t say anything else in the chat. Qiyu wondered if he was upset.
Qiyu opened the trading section.
Perhaps because mutated creatures had appeared today, the number of items in the trading zone had increased, and the variety had become quite bizarre.
【Selling gorgeous tricolor chicken tail feathers in exchange for any blueprint.】
【Selling a standard short sword in exchange for leather and iron chunks.】
【Selling 500g of mutated rabbit meat in exchange for 500g of vegetables.】
Suddenly, a row of items appeared:
【Selling a standard short sword; prefer plastic in exchange.】
【Selling 500g of Azure Python meat, prioritizing trade for plastic.】
【Selling 20 pieces of wood, prioritizing trade for plastic.】
He clicked on them. The seller’s ID was anonymous, but judging by the consistent style, they all seemed to have been posted by the same person.
Plastic?
Qiyu guessed that this person had probably obtained some blueprints and happened to need plastic as a material.
He searched for “blueprints” in the item list, though he didn’t hold out much hope.
In this game, most items required a blueprint to craft, and everyone knew how valuable blueprints were. To his surprise, someone was actually selling one.
【Selling the “Barbecue Grill” blueprint in exchange for cold medicine.】
【Selling the “Fence” blueprint. Prefer trades for other blueprints and weapons. Feel free to DM me.】
【Selling the “Fishing Net” blueprint. Will trade for any gear.】
The barbecue grill was nice, but cold medicine was rarer, and Qiyu didn’t have any. As for the fishing net, Qiyu hadn’t seen any fish or rivers yet.
However, he was somewhat interested in the 【Fence】.
【Fence: A basic structure that expands your territory and protects your shelter.】
Expand territory?
Qiyu opened the trade page and discovered that the seller was an acquaintance. Of course, it was the kind of “acquaintance” where he was the only one who recognized the other person.
The seller’s ID was none other than 【Civil Engineering Brother】.
【ID4399439: Hello, what do “expand territory” and “protect the shelter” mean?】1
【Civil Engineering Brother: After building a fence, a durability meter will appear on it. If the shelter comes under attack, the fence must be destroyed first.】
【Civil Engineering Brother: Any area within the zone enclosed by a fence becomes your territory.】
When Civil Engineering Brother received this anonymous inquiry, he wasn’t surprised at all.
After all, the descriptions of the fence—whether “Expand Territory” or “Protected Sanctuary”—sounded pretty impressive.
He expertly sent a series of explanations:
【Civil Engineering Brother: However, building fences requires a lot of wood—10 units of wood can make one meter of fence. Also, you must completely enclose the shelter with fences for it to provide protection. The same goes for expanding your territory: only the area fully enclosed by fences counts as your expanded territory.】
Every player who asked about the fence got stuck at this point.
Qiyu did the math. His current Level 1 shelter was nearly 50 square meters. Assuming he didn’t expand his territory any further and simply enclosed the shelter, he would need roughly 30 meters of fence.
That meant adding a layer of protection around the shelter would require 300 units of wood.
And that was just for a single ring around the shelter. If he wanted to expand his territory, the amount of wood required would probably be terrifyingly high.
Civil Engineering Brother had obtained two fence blueprints. He had used one himself, only to realize this afterward.
He asked himself honestly: if he were the one buying such a blueprint, he wouldn’t want it either.
He waited for Qiyu to refuse.
【ID4399439: I don’t have any blueprints to trade, but I’ll trade 1 Common Dagger and 2 kg of mutant barbarian fang boar meat for this blueprint.】
He already had a barbarian fang dagger, so a Common Dagger wasn’t very useful to him.
As for the food, based on his observations, quite a few players in the area had killed mutated creatures today, but judging by the materials being sold, most of them had killed small animals.
Two kilograms of barbarian fang boar meat should still be quite valuable.
【Civil Engineering Brother: Do you have any longer weapons—knives, swords, clubs, or the like?】
As a construction worker, aside from the physical strength he had built up through years of hard labor, his combat experience was practically nonexistent. As the saying went, “the longer the blade, the stronger the weapon.” In any case, he felt more secure using conventional weapons.
Qiyu thought about it.
He figured mutated creatures weren’t that difficult to kill. If he wasn’t looking for equipment and only wanted ordinary weapons, getting some shouldn’t be too difficult.
More importantly, this Civil Engineering Brother seemed like a down-to-earth sort of guy.
The fact that he had voluntarily pointed out all the drawbacks of the fence alone had left Qiyu with a pretty good impression of him.
【ID4399439: If I get any of those weapons later, I’ll trade one to you in exchange for the dagger.】
When Civil Engineering Brother saw that the mutant barbarian fang boar meat was clearly labeled as coming from a Level 2 Mutant Creature, he was immediately filled with awe.
He initiated the trade.
【Civil Engineering Brother: So, can I add you as a friend, boss?】
You can add friends?
The post-apocalyptic semi-primitive, completely unaware that this feature even existed, was astonished.
【ID4399439: Sure.】
Thinking that the big shot was a little aloof, Civil Engineering Brother sent a friend request.
A request popped up on the chat screen, and Qiyu clicked “Accept.”
Once they became friends, the anonymous user’s real ID was revealed.
Civil Engineering Brother: “……”
Holy crap, what kind of sycophantic ID is that?
What kind of mental fortitude did it take to suddenly be dragged into this crappy place and still type “I Love Survival Game” without batting an eye?
Civil Engineering Brother was deeply impressed and felt that he couldn’t hold a candle to him.
At the same time, he quietly began questioning the “cool and aloof” persona he had assigned to this big shot in his mind, secretly labeling him as a closet show-off.
It was already obvious from the regional chat that Civil Engineering Brother was a chatterbox, and this became even clearer after Qiyu added him as a friend.
【Civil Engineering Brother: Hey, big shot, is there anything else you need? I’ve got a few furniture blueprints I’ve already used myself. I can’t sell you the blueprints, but if you provide the materials, I can craft the items for you.】
【Civil Engineering Brother: We can also share resources and help each other improve!】
He enthusiastically sent over descriptions of several items:
【Simple Stove: Basic cooking equipment for preparing food.】
【Simple Trap: A basic trap that might catch less intelligent prey.】
【Kerosene Lamp: Provides light at night.】
【Beanbag Sofa: Comfortable furniture; lying down to rest slowly restores stamina.】
Qiyu’s eyes widened.
He wanted every single one of them.
【ID4399439: Did you craft all these yourself?】
【Civil Engineering Brother: No way, hehe. I’ve added everyone I’ve traded with as friends—we all got these by exchanging resources.】
【Civil Engineering Brother: What do you think, boss? Is there anything you need?】
I want them all!
【ID4399439: How do we trade?】
【Civil Engineering Brother: Since we’ve only just started playing this survival game and everyone’s resources are limited, it’s best to provide your own materials, pay a small processing fee, and have the item made for you.】
【Civil Engineering Brother: Is there anything you’re looking for, boss?】
【ID4399439: I’ll contact you tonight.】
【Civil Engineering Brother: Alright, boss. Go ahead and take care of your business.】
End of chat.
Qiyu rummaged through his backpack.
Damn it. He had opened several treasure chests today, so why did he still feel so broke?!
The slight sense of satisfaction he had felt from opening a silver chest vanished instantly.
He angrily devoured two whole steamed buns.
Only after finishing them did he realize what he had done. He froze for a moment, feeling a twinge of regret.
Those were two big white steamed buns. Back in the apocalypse, he could have stretched them out to last an entire week.
But he quickly consoled himself: I’m already someone who owns over a hundred kilograms of meat. Eating two steamed buns isn’t a waste.
And…
He rubbed his full stomach.
The feeling of being completely full was truly wonderful.
He pulled out the fence blueprint.
After thinking it over, he decided there was no immediate need to fortify the shelter. For now, he could simply fence off an area to create farmland.
He had been curious about his 【Farming】 talent for quite some time.
Two 2m x 2m plots of farmland required 12 meters of fence to enclose them completely.
That meant he needed a total of 120 units of wood.
He had already used up all his wood upgrading the wooden cabin.
At this point, he decided to start chopping down trees.
Qiyu picked up his axe and began chopping down trees with single-minded determination.
Equipped with the barbarian fang bracers, the jade necklace, and the jade boots, he found chopping down trees to be a breeze.
Besides, having just eaten his fill, his stamina had been fully replenished.
Without taking a single break, he chopped down ten trees in one go.
He triggered three critical hits along the way, earning an extra 30 units of wood.
When he checked the time, two hours had already passed.
He learned the blueprint.
【Materials detected. Do you want to craft a fence?】
“Craft.”
The fence was completed.
Like the other furniture, it appeared as an icon on the survival panel. It wouldn’t materialize until Qiyu selected a location to place it.
Qiyu chose the open space to the right of the wooden cabin.
There wasn’t any particular reason for this choice. It was simply the largest open space in the area.
However, after selecting the spot for the fence, he realized he had been overthinking things.
Once the eight-square-meter fenced area was placed, the space seemed to expand out of nowhere.
The original open space between the wooden cabin and the jungle remained unchanged, and the distance between them was still exactly the same as before.
This eight-square-meter “territory” was essentially an area that had materialized out of thin air.