Give up where you fall.
As time ticked by, Xia Qiu didn’t obsess over these uncatchable wild rabbits. The system had already told her that catching rabbits would leave her panting, so what was the point of trying? Running would accelerate the consumption of her hunger value. Coupled with this inexplicably infuriating debuff, continuing would only lead to a vicious cycle.
Xia Qiu looked at the gray rabbits hopping around not far away, turned around with regret, and continued walking toward the woods.
After walking for about ten more minutes, she finally reached the edge of the woods. Light and shadow completely separated here. The meadow was bright and sunny, while the woods were much dimmer, with only mottled, dancing tree shadows.
As if to give her a little sweet taste of success, a few pinecones were scattered at the junction of the woods and the meadow. Whether they were useful or not, she would pick them up first.
[Obtained: Mature Pinecone * 5]
[Mature Pinecone: Deeply loved by the small animals in the forest. Give it a hard knock and shake for a surprise.]
Xia Qiu was very receptive to advice. She took out her junk box, dumped the clutter on the ground next to her, and then grabbed a pinecone with one hand, shaking it with all her might. After repeating this process several times, she obtained about a handful of pine nuts.
[Obtained: Pine Nut * 207]
After carefully placing the pine nuts into her backpack and stuffing the junk back into the box to store away, Xia Qiu sighed. This handful of pine nuts, even if fully roasted, was only enough for a small snack. However, her hunger value had dropped by another 10 points due to her recent exertion, leaving her with only 60 points now.
What was worse was that Xia Qiu actually felt a bit hungry.
According to the conventions of the survival games she had played, if her hunger value dropped to a certain point, her health and Spirit Values would probably start dropping as well. Once all three values were depleted, she would drop dead right here.
Earlier, the system had referred to the players as survivors... Did that mean she had only survived the massive earthquake because she was selected by this game? If she died here, could she resurrect and return to the Blue Star? The answer probably wouldn’t be what she hoped for.
Xia Qiu took a few deep breaths and stepped into the woods. As soon as she entered the shadows, two lines of prompts suddenly appeared before her eyes.
[Warm Reminder: The player has entered the Dark Forest.]
[Various magical creatures lurk in the dense forest. It is both a danger and an opportunity. Brave hero from the Otherworld, bring your courage and strive to explore!]
Xia Qiu looked at the small knife in her hand, which didn’t even deserve to be called a weapon. After hesitating for a moment, she continued inward.
She had no choice. The meadow was empty, with nothing but dry grass and rabbits. Her little knife couldn’t cut much dry grass anyway. If she wanted to gather other resources, walking into the forest was her only current path.
The light was blocked by the tall tree canopy, and the temperature in the dense forest was noticeably lower. Xia Qiu had only taken a few steps when she felt something under her foot. Looking down, she saw a lead-gray stone with a rather sharp edge.
Adhering to the principle of picking up everything to take a look, Xia Qiu made another new discovery.
[Obtained: Flint * 1]
[Flint: A hard stone that can be used to make tools or start a fire. (When used to start a fire, this item is a one-time consumable.)]
Thank heavens! The dense forest was indeed a good place!
Although she couldn’t figure out why there would be flint in a place full of trees, Xia Qiu didn’t care. All she knew was that she could start a fire tonight! In all survival games, nights were dangerous. This game was clearly not some casual resource-gathering vacation game. A night without a fire would probably be very difficult to endure.
What concerned Xia Qiu was that flint was a one-time consumable when starting a fire, which meant she had to find more of it. A fire source was simply too important.
From time to time, one or two "COO COO" sounds echoed from the dense forest, sounding like the call of some bird.
The system had warned of dangers in the forest, and since Xia Qiu currently had no weapons, she didn’t dare to go too deep. Having entered about fifty or sixty meters into the forest, the light was already very dim, but the harvest from this short distance was quite substantial.
Xia Qiu kept her eyes peeled to the ground, rummaging through the piles of fallen leaves to find a total of 25 pinecones and 6 pieces of flint.
[Congratulations to player Xia Qiu for unlocking the achievement: "Whose Rations Did You Steal?"]
"..."
It didn’t sound like a good achievement.
Xia Qiu opened the achievement page on the panel to check the description.
[Whose Rations Did You Steal?: The small animals in the dense forest all love pinecones. Dear hero, so you are also a "small animal"? (Limited achievement. Unlocked by the first player on the server to pick up 30 pinecones.) (Click to claim the achievement reward.)]
Xia Qiu tapped the achievement. A streak of silvery-white light rose from the panel and burrowed into her body.
[Obtained: Unique Title "Pinecone Thief". (The title has been bound and can be manually equipped or hidden. While this title is equipped, the aggro of all Neutral Creatures in the dense forest changes to 100%. Please equip with caution.)]