Looking down at her dirt-and-dust-stained hands, Xia Qiu set the treasure box aside and poured out a bit of her precious drinking water to wash them. Her luck was already abysmal, and she hadn’t picked up any items that boosted her fortune. If she didn’t wash her hands now, she might end up with some ultimate "cursed looter" debuff.
[Open "Hero’s Box"?]
[Yes] [No]
The moment she selected Yes, a soft CLICK echoed. The box slowly opened, releasing a cluster of dazzling, multicolored spheres of light.
[Obtained: Hero’s Badge x1, Building Material Pack x1, Unidentified Blueprint (Gray) x1, Rations x5, Leather Water Skin x1, Flint x1, Class Card x1]
Since she had plenty of inventory space, everything except for a single golden sphere automatically deposited into her backpack.
[Detected that Player Xia Qiu possesses a "Class Card." Unlock a random class immediately?]
[Yes] [No]
A Class Card! And a blueprint, too!
The lone golden sphere floated over to her, waiting quietly to be activated. Staring at it, Xia Qiu had a sudden realization: her Class Card had been inside this box all along! Just as her fingertip was about to tap Yes, she jerked her hand back and shifted her gaze to the newly unboxed blueprint.
She thought, "If unlocking a specific class makes certain blueprints unlearnable, doesn’t that mean all blueprints can be learned before a class is unlocked?"
After selecting No, the glowing golden card fell back into her hands. Xia Qiu took out the gray blueprint, and a detailed description immediately floated into view.
[Blueprint (Gray): A blueprint of unknown purpose, perhaps hiding an untold secret (Unidentified)]
[Appraise?] Find the original chapter at g.com.
[Yes] [No]
Xia Qiu naturally selected Yes. A crisp DING chimed out, followed by a new system prompt.
[Blueprint successfully appraised: Refined Stone Hammer Blueprint (Gray)]
As expected! The blueprint didn’t carry any "unlearnable" warning. Throwing caution to the wind, Xia Qiu immediately chose to learn it. She thought, "Who cares if this is exploiting a bug? You can never have too many skills."
[Refined Stone Hammer: A practical tool that helps process various materials (Durability: 1000, consumes 1 durability point per use)]
[Congratulations to Player Xia Qiu for unlocking the achievement: "Bright Eyes"]
Xia Qiu was already used to the game’s quirky achievement system. Doing practically anything could inexplicably trigger an achievement. Whether the resulting rewards were actually good or bad, however, was a different story.
[Bright Eyes: Discovering anything requires a pair of bright, wise eyes (Click to claim achievement reward)]
This had to be the achievement for successfully appraising a blueprint. Upon claiming the reward, she was stunned to find yet another gray-quality blueprint! Overwhelmed with excitement, she almost wanted to cry tears of joy. People on the global chat were demanding exorbitant prices in exchange for blueprints, which meant they had to be incredibly scarce at this early stage of the game.
She thought, "Yes, yes, yes! The cursed gamer has finally caught a break!"
She appraised the new item. After another crisp DING, her collection of gray blueprints grew by one.
[Small Smelting Furnace: An apparatus kissed by the Fire God, capable of smelting common metals (Requires any fuel x5 per use)]
A smelting furnace!?
Xia Qiu had assumed this game was strictly a primitive wilderness survival simulator. She hadn’t expected to actually evolve into the Iron Age! Clearly, those ores she had been picking up weren’t just useless rocks.
She quickly learned the new blueprint. Only after triple-checking that there were no more blueprint rewards did she reluctantly pull out her Class Card again. She thought, "I should quit while I’m ahead with this bug exploitation. Who knows how the system might punish me otherwise?"
Selecting "Unlock Class," the golden card dissolved into specks of starlight and melted into Xia Qiu’s body. After a bout of eerie silence, the system prompts finally arrived.
[Detected that Player Xia Qiu has unlocked technology nodes belonging to conflicting branches. Unlocking the server’s exclusive unique class: Jobless Vagrant]
[Congratulations to Player Xia Qiu for successfully unlocking the hidden class: Jobless Vagrant]
[Congratulations to Player Xia Qiu for unlocking the achievement: "Get a Job"]
[Congratulations to Player Xia Qiu for unlocking the hidden achievement: "I Seem Frighteningly Strong"]
"...?"