[Shelter upgrade successful]
Bai Yi looked at the newly refurbished wooden hut. The rotting thatched walls had been replaced with crooked wooden planks, and the gaps that once let in the wind were now filled with dried yellow grass stalks. The area had also expanded to 50 square meters.
Though it was still quite shabby, at least it wasn't as drafty anymore. Bai Yi felt content.
Bai Yi opened the journal and flipped to the shelter information.
[Dilapidated Wooden Hut]
[Level: 2]
[Durability: 100/100]
[Capacity: 76/150]
[Traits: None]
[Upgrade: 0/200 Wood, 0/50 Stone]
[Description: A ramshackle house made of thatch and planks, its only advantage is being slightly sturdier.]
New additions:
[Window]
[Wishing Well
Function: Insert items to receive random exchange items (each item can be exchanged five times)
Description: A gambler's favorite, a poor man's blessing]
The newly added window, like a murky eye, was embedded in the east wall. Through the blurry glass, a stone well appeared three meters away out of thin air.
Bai Yi peered through the window at the Wishing Well. He was tempted to go out and take a look, but the thought of the dangers at night reminded him of that "Unseeable" presence that had been so close to him.
A shiver ran down Bai Yi's spine, dispelling the thought. He lay down on his rickety little wooden bed, planning to browse the forum.
At this moment, the chat channel page in the journal was flashing with 99+ red notifications. When Bai Yi opened it, the World Channel messages were refreshing at a rate of thousands per second:
"Help! There's something scratching at my door!"
"Just traded a rotten apple for a golden legend!"
"Fuck, stupid Wishing Well, give me back my Fine Quality axe!"
"Wow, I won!"
"Bastard, what did you win?"
...
The chat channel was filled with a joyful atmosphere.
Switching to the forum section, the previously empty forum was now packed, with a large number of posts, and the number of posts was increasing at a rate of 10 per minute.
Among them, many pinned posts with gilded titles were particularly eye-catching, all of which had over 100,000 likes.
At the top was a post about time.
"Theorem of Day and Night Duration in the Mist World"
Author: Bujue (Players can set their own name)
Likes: 1.37 billion
On the first day, I didn't engage in any strenuous activities and only performed basic eating and metabolism. By keeping my heart rate stable, I calculated that the day in the Mist World lasts 10.02 hours and the night 13.98 hours.
This means the relatively safe activity time is from 8:00 to 18:00. Thus, we can roughly infer the time of nightfall based on the journal's display of morning and afternoon, to avoid players being caught outside when night falls due to exploration or resource gathering.
Below is my proof process...
Due to time constraints, I only conducted a one-day experiment, so the conclusion is for reference only. I will conduct multiple rounds of retesting later to ensure reduced errors.
Here, I share my training method, so others can learn and verify the hypothesis themselves. First, the human heart...
Lastly, I sincerely hope everyone can survive. Farewell!
The post ended, and Bai Yi continued to scroll down. Below were comments:
"Legendary post reserved!"
"Understood the preface, understood the conclusion, understood the epilogue, didn't understand the rest."
"Don't talk nonsense, I'm a warrior, just tell me the conclusion."
"Then let me ask you, let me ask you..."
The comment section was filled with admiration, gratitude, and confusion.
Bai Yi tried to understand the time measurement method, but found it completely incomprehensible. He scratched his head, wondering if humanity had evolved this much after ten years.
Leaving a comment: "Respect to the master!" he continued scrolling.
The second featured post was titled:
"Dangers and Precautions in the Mist World"
Author: Call Me Beiye
Likes: 930 million
The main text was roughly divided into five parts:
1. Within a kilometer of the shelter, the probability of encountering wild animals is extremely low.
2. Beyond a kilometer from the shelter, wolves and Gray Bears appear, and other wild animals cannot be ruled out.
(Attached are photos of wolf and bear corpses)
3. Beyond a kilometer from the shelter, there is a chance of encountering Aberrations.
(A photo taken in the bushes, with a vaguely human figure wandering in the distance)
4. At night, within a kilometer of the shelter, there is a high probability of encountering wild animals and Rotting Corpses (a type of Aberration) (Note: It is not recommended for those with attributes below 8 to solo an Aberration, I learned the hard way)
(Picture 1, Rotting Corpse body, the image has been pixelated)
Bai Yi curiously clicked on the "HD display" in the bottom right corner.
[You witness the hideous Rotting Corpse, Sanity -8]
(Picture 2, a strong man with two deep, bone-revealing wounds on his arm and thigh)
(Attribute screenshot, [Strength 7.5] [Constitution 7] [Spirit 6] [Sanity 51/100])
5. Do not get addicted to exploration, first upgrade the shelter to level 2, as most wild animals and Aberrations hunt by scent. The Thatched Hut leaks scent, and the shelter's newbie protection only works when the shelter is intact.
(Picture, a Thatched Hut with only the roof left, a Rotting Corpse standing outside)
Seeing this, Bai Yi chuckled. Although he was quite unlucky, seeing others in misfortune was genuinely amusing.
At the same time, he learned about the existence of Aberrations. He wasn't sure if the one that had been so close to him was an Aberration, but the appearance of Rotting Corpses made him realize that Aberrations could vary greatly.
Bai Yi didn't read each post one by one, but skimmed through them. One featured post caught his interest.
"Some Conclusions on the Wishing Well (Updated Anytime)"
It analyzed the Wishing Well, which wasn't much different from the journal's description, but the fun part was the comment section below the post:
"Dame it, return my weapon, you montherf**k!"
"*****, Wishing Well I ***, you ***, I ****!"
"I love you, Lucky Well, hahaha, traded a piece of wood for a Fine Quality weapon, mwahaha!"
(Below is a picture of a two-handed sword's attributes)
The curses below were even fiercer.
Bai Yi continued reading. When he saw "A player once exchanged a Rotting Corpse body for a Fine Quality weapon," Bai Yi instinctively glanced at the box of bone fragments.
Scrolling further, the various titles were dizzying:
"How Players Can Efficiently Utilize the Unique Advantages Around the Shelter for Rapid Development"
"A Brief Discussion on the Relationship Between Sanity Deduction and Aberration Danger Level"
"108 Ways to Use the Shelter Journal"
"The Best Exercise Methods for Ordinary People in the Mist World"
"Item Quality Classification (Updated Anytime)"
"Outdoor Cooking Techniques Collection," etc.
After reading for a while, Bai Yi moved on to the Player Plaza.
The plaza was filled with thousands of product listings:
[Anonymous: Selling a worn-out Stone Axe (Common Quality), exchange for 10 units of pure water]
[8848 Titanium Phone: 1 Hemostatic Herb for 5 units of wood]
[Wang Dabao: High price acquisition of armor blueprints, private message with price]
...
Bai Yi's gaze lingered the longest on the post "The Best Exercise Methods for Ordinary People in the Mist World."
This post had just been published, but the likes were increasing particularly fast. The post had dozens of authors, with a long list of names that looked like real names.
The post proposed that a specific breathing rhythm combined with scientific exercise methods had excellent effects, and in the Mist World, a person's physical recovery ability would slightly increase (injuries would still get infected, even more severely).
The post suggested that there might be an unknown substance in the air, preventing exercise from causing various negative effects like on Earth. They temporarily named this substance—Spiritual Essence.
Subsequently, through formula calculations, the post provided over a dozen exercise methods, allowing people with different attributes to directly apply the corresponding method.
The post concluded:
Look at the path we've walked—when primitive humans braved the icy winds of the Ice Age to leave African caves, when the people of the Xia and Shang Dynasties carved the first hieroglyph on bone armor, when Gagarin broke through the atmosphere to gaze at the blue planet, these moments all prove:
Humanity's greatest survival weapon has never been sharp claws and fangs, but the courage to explore and the wisdom to collaborate, etched in our genes.
This crisis may be more dangerous than any moment before, as we traverse into a brand-new world, playing a dangerous yet absurd game.
But remember: when the walls of Troy fell, the "Homeric Epics" were born; in the shadow of the Black Death, the Renaissance sprouted; on the ruins of the East, the Peace Constitution was rebuilt.
Every desperate situation is an upgrade for civilization!
Let us turn fear into motivation, condense wisdom into weapons, and rewrite survival in the mist into the prologue of dawn in a uniquely human way.
Because the moment that defines the end of humanity has always been determined only by humanity itself!
Fear is a biological instinct, courage is the anthem of humanity!
Long live humanity!
Initially, there were some dissenting voices in the comment section.
"Tch, does chicken soup help at a time like this?"
"Messing around, I'm a warrior!"
"AUV, isn't this Warrior Bro?"
But gradually, the comments became unified.
"Long live humanity!"
"Long live humanity!"
"Long live humanity!"
...
Bai Yi silently watched the comments continuously refresh.
"Heh!"
A light chuckle, his expression unclear in the dim room. He had lain on the bed for ten whole years, encountering the most fatal blow at the peak of his youth. He always felt there was a deep generational gap between him and the current humanity.
"Unexpectedly, humans are still so naive after ten years."
Muttering to himself, his hands moved.
"Long live humanity!"