Xia Qiu abandoned the idea of taking her stone hammer to dismantle last night’s campfire. Instead, she turned to the World Channel and exchanged five pieces of stone for one piece of short wood. She only had one piece of short wood left, which wasn’t enough to build a campfire. She had no desire to face a pitch-black night; necessities like this simply couldn’t be skimped on.
Before building the fire, Xia Qiu wanted to go down the slope to wash her hands and face. However, the moment she reached the edge, a cold sweat broke out on her back in shock.
The herd of cows that had spent the entire afternoon leisurely grazing by the river—and had still been there just moments ago while she was installing her fence—was suddenly gone. The sky was still relatively bright, but there was no sign of the herd wandering off into the distance.
Dozens of cows had vanished into thin air, just like a resource point abruptly refreshing in a game. Since this was a game, certain things were bound to follow typical gaming conventions. If those cows truly counted as a resource, when would the resource point refresh?
She realized it must be the transition between day and night.
Figuring this out, Xia Qiu scrambled back to her fence, stumbling and almost tripping over her own feet. The top of the fence was pointed. While not razor-sharp, if she actually fell onto it, she would probably meet a gory end right then and there.
The plot of land Xia Qiu had fenced off was a two-by-two-meter square, barely larger than a mattress. Her basic workbench sat in the corner. Vaulting over the fence, Xia Qiu didn’t waste a single second. She chose to build the campfire on the side closest to her workbench.
Her inventory was now completely out of short wood, but she didn’t feel bad about it. Compared to the unknown terrors the night might bring, two pieces of wood were nothing. If she ran out of supplies, she could always find a way to gather more, but if she lost her life, she would lose everything.
Almost the exact instant the firelight flared to life, the surroundings plunged into darkness.
Xia Qiu opened her interface. The time displayed 17:10. Not only was the sunset a full twenty minutes earlier than yesterday, but there hadn’t been a single system notification! If other players were trying to cut it close before starting a fire, or if combat-class players were in the middle of fighting monsters, this sudden darkness would be fatal.
Xia Qiu’s first thought was of Song Ci’an. She hurriedly opened her friend list and sent a message.
[Xia Qiu: Ci An, are you okay? The sun set twenty minutes earlier today than it did yesterday!]
It had only been one day since they entered this game, and Xia Qiu hadn’t exchanged that many words with Song Ci’an. Yet, she found herself inexplicably worried about this earnest, meticulous, and honest girl. Waiting for a reply was agonizing. Even though Song Ci’an messaged back after just two or three minutes, to Xia Qiu, it felt like two or three hours had passed.
[Song Ci’an: Thanks for caring, Qiu. I’m fine. I was just finishing off a monster.]
[Song Ci’an: I have plenty of grease torches in my inventory. They’re very convenient to take out and use anytime.]
Xia Qiu finally breathed a sigh of relief. On second thought, she had been overthinking out of concern. Song Ci’an’s class was Hunter, after all. Hunters didn’t just hunt during the day; people with that kind of profession surely had skills that allowed them to move freely at night.
[Xia Qiu: I’ve chosen my camp location and built a fence! It’s pretty handy and can be used to enclose your territory. It doesn’t have a door yet, though, so I have to vault in and out... Wait for me to improve the design and figure out a door. If you need one later, I can help you build it!] New chapters come out on novelping(.)com first.
Just as she sent that message, a red notification dot appeared on her private message list. She opened it to find it was from Yan Chi.
[Yan Chi: Hello, do you have any extra vines? I’d like to trade a hand axe for some. It’s not out of a system chest, just a normal hand axe, but it’s enough to chop down trees.]
Trading was all about give and take, true, but items like stone axes were in high demand right now, and she definitely wasn’t the only person who had vines. For Yan Chi to proactively seek her out for a trade under these circumstances meant he was a decent guy. She decided she wouldn’t haggle too ruthlessly with him next time.
She silently sent him a friend request, which he accepted instantly.
[Xia Qiu: Yes, I do! How do you want to trade?]
[Yan Chi: The materials for a hand axe are Stone x4, Short Wood x1, and Rope x1. I’d like to trade it for 15 Vines.]
Xia Qiu took a sharp breath, deliberated for a moment, and began to slash the price fiercely:
[Xia Qiu: You have to go into the dense forest to find vines, and the dense forest is very dangerous. I don’t have many vines left myself, so I can give you 10 at most.]
Swinging this Dragon Slayer Sword of a lowball made Xia Qiu’s face flush, but haggling was all about the back-and-forth. Yet, the very next second, the other party straightforwardly initiated the trade.
[Yan Chi: Deal. We’ll do as you say.]
After taking out the hand axe and temporarily setting it on her workbench, Xia Qiu turned around and searched the World Channel for hand axes. As it turned out, in the World Channel that could hit 99+ messages in a matter of minutes, there were fewer than twenty people selling hand axes in total. Moreover, every single one was priced exorbitantly high.
Xia Qiu clicked open Yan Chi’s profile.
[Gender: Male]
[Location: Unknown]
[Title: None]
[Class: Architect]
!
He was actually an Architect!
Looking around her territory that had nothing but four bare walls... oh wait, she didn’t even have walls. Xia Qiu could have cried out of sheer envy. She immediately resolved to maintain a good relationship with him. An Architect! She would definitely need his help later. At worst, she would swap her Dragon Slayer Swords for nail clippers when haggling with him in the future.
[Song Ci’an: Thank you, Qiu. I should have my camp location picked out before the novice period ends. I’ll have to trouble you then.]
The moment Song Ci’an’s message arrived, Xia Qiu instantly threw Yan Chi to the back of her mind, replying with a beaming smile.
[Xia Qiu: It’s no trouble at all! Hunters can hunt, so I’ll be relying on you to carry me later, Ci An!]
Perhaps because they had chatted a bit more, Song Ci’an’s phrasing wasn’t as solemn and serious as it had been at the beginning.
[Song Ci’an: I’ll carry you for sure~]
Seeing the little tilde at the end of the sentence, Xia Qiu’s mood improved even further. Song Ci’an reminded her of a colleague she had been very close to back on Blue Star, who was also a very cute girl. She wondered if the other party had managed to survive the great earthquake.
Although she didn’t have any family left, she still had a few friends. She also had the house she had just paid off the mortgage for; she hadn’t even lived in it long enough to make it worth the cost.
She sighed, feeling a little homesick.