The rotting corpse's blue-gray fingertips brushed past the door gap, its foul stench spraying onto the back of Bai Yi's neck, making his hair stand on end.
As he slammed the door latch shut with a reverse hand motion, the sound of metal clashing and scratching exploded simultaneously.
[Shelter Durability: 99/100]
Through the wooden slats, Bai Yi saw that decaying face pressed against the door panel.
Maggots fell from the hollow eye sockets of the rotting corpse, yet it continued to scratch persistently, seemingly impervious to pain. Each impact every few seconds caused the entire wooden cabin to tremble.
[Durability -1]
[Durability -1]
...
"Damn you, System!" Bai Yi quickly calculated that the shelter could only hold for four minutes at most, cursing in anger, "This novice protection period is useless."
Not daring to delay, Bai Yi stumbled towards the wooden table. He grabbed the stone pickaxe blueprint, prepared all the raw materials, and began crafting.
[Using Exquisite Stone Pickaxe Blueprint, Durability -1, Crafting Countdown: 00:59]
Seeing the countdown, Bai Yi spat blood onto the table in frustration; time was what he lacked the most now.
With each tick of the countdown, the scratching outside the door grew more intense.
Bai Yi tore off a blood-soaked cloth strip and wrapped it around his wrist, his trembling fingertips swiping open the plaza trading interface, where dozens of stone pickaxe offers scrolled past like a waterfall.
"Fine quality... highest 200 wood... not enough..." He stared at a transaction record, constantly pondering.
As the first stone pickaxe solidified in the blue light, Bai Yi didn't even look at it, directly listing it on the plaza with the label:
[Good Quality Stone Pickaxe ×1 for 50 Stones]
Almost the instant he clicked confirm, the system notification popped up.
[Transaction Successful!]
A pile of stones fell from the void, and Bai Yi's molars nearly shattered: "Keep crafting!"
[Durability -1]
[Durability -1]
...
The crafting list popped up continuously, the countdown clock splitting into triple shadows in his pupils.
Bai Yi barely suppressed his dizziness and looked at the journal's prompt.
[Shelter Durability: 5/100]
The moment the second stone pickaxe formed, he immediately packaged and listed both:
[Good Quality Stone Pickaxe ×2 for 200 Wood + 50 Stones]
This time, the transaction notification came even faster, accompanied by a stranger's private message vibration.
"Anonymous User 9527: Brother, do you have direct supply?"
Bai Yi's face was tense, with no time to reply, his fingers sliding continuously.
[Shelter Durability: 2/100]
The upgrade materials piled up in the corner of the room.
"Confirm upgrade!"
As white light engulfed the wooden cabin, the rotting corpse's howl pierced through the walls.
He fell backward onto the brand-new oak floor, watching the composite structure of the mortise and tenon ceiling slowly form.
The crackling of the fireplace sparks was more melodious than any symphony at that moment.
[Exquisite Wooden Cabin]
[Level: 3]
[Durability: 500/500]
[Capacity: 0/500]
[Traits: None]
[Upgrade: 0/300 Stones, 0/30 Mud]
[Description: Great, finally looks like a shelter, barely able to resist the rotting corpse scratching at the door.]
[Unlocked Fireplace, Unlocked Wooden Fence, One Wooden Fence: 3 Wood, 4 Thatch. Unlocked Bathroom, Bedroom, Living Room.]
The scratching outside the door became faint.
Bai Yi propped himself up on the brand-new solid wood table, looking through the double-glazed window to see the rotting corpse still relentlessly banging on the door, but the shelter's durability no longer decreased.
The crisis of the rotting corpse was over, but Bai Yi had no time to breathe. He was too severely injured, having lost a lot of blood, and now his vision was darkening, with a constant buzzing in his ears.
The crafting list was still flashing, and Bai Yi placed the newly produced stone pickaxe aside, continuing production.
Then he began to focus on searching for medical supplies.
[Medical Surgical Knife] [Anti-inflammatory Drugs] [Painkillers]...
The items were varied, but for Bai Yi's severe injuries, they were merely a drop in the bucket.
He kept searching, and suddenly, an item caught his eye:
[Wound Healing Injection]
[Quality: Good]
[Description: A wound recovery-type drug, excellent for cuts, lacerations, and puncture wounds, but this drug can only heal flesh. To avoid infection, please clean the dust from the wound before use.]
"Seller's Note: Private message for pricing, don't bother with random offers, will block immediately."
Bai Yi opened the private chat.
"Lone Wolf: Interested in exchanging for a fine quality stone pickaxe? (Stone pickaxe detailed attributes)"
"Seller: One? No way, medical supplies are more valuable."
"Lone Wolf: Two."
"Seller: Deal!"
Bai Yi made the purchase, and the injection appeared on the table.
He didn't use it immediately, instead continuing to search for disinfectant supplies.
Finally, Bai Yi used a stone pickaxe to purchase a medical kit: [500ml Medical Alcohol + 5 Bandages + 5 Gauze].
Bai Yi soaked the gauze in alcohol, then first pulled out the cloth strip stuffed into his left shoulder, biting down on something, taking a deep breath, and picking up the gauze.
His fingers, wrapped in gauze, delved into the wound, the alcohol's sting making him break out in a cold sweat, and the repeated wound treatment enlarged the wound.
But he already had the injection, now he just needed to clean out the dust and sand from the wound. (Sand brought in when stuffing the cloth strip)
After finishing with the left shoulder and left arm, the most difficult parts, Bai Yi treated the three wounds on his chest and other injuries in sequence.
The entire process was torturous, the drowsiness from excessive blood loss and the clarity from alcohol stimulation constantly intertwining, leaving Bai Yi exhausted.
With his last bit of strength, he injected the syringe into his neck, the icy blue liquid automatically infusing.
Bai Yi passed out.
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[Weather: Clear
Location: Mistland
Time: Afternoon
Temperature: 20°C]
After sleeping for a night and half a day, Bai Yi finally woke up.
He felt parched, his whole body aching as if it were falling apart.
After gulping down some fresh water, Bai Yi felt much better.
"Survived!"
The [Wound Healing Injection] was incredibly effective, all the minor wounds on Bai Yi's body had healed, and the injuries on his left shoulder, left arm, and chest had all scabbed over.
However, the injection only healed without aftercare, leaving Bai Yi's body covered in scars of various sizes, though he didn't mind them.
He got up and moved his body, the most severely injured areas on his shoulder, chest, and arm still slightly sore, with the unfallen scabs marking those terrifying scars.
[Bai Yi: Healthy]
[Age: 30]
[Strength: 3.8]
[Spirit: 9.1]
[Constitution: 3.8]
[Sanity: 100/100]
[Talent: Steel-Spine Will]
Looking at his personal panel, Bai Yi was overjoyed, feeling that his efforts hadn't been in vain.
Moreover, his body was still somewhat sore, and he believed that once fully recovered, his attributes would further enhance.
With his current attributes, if he activated his talent, his strength and constitution would soar to 11.4, surpassing the human limit.
"Strength beyond human limits!"
Bai Yi looked at his hands, lost in thought, then clenched his fists.
"Everything is for survival."
Although it was already afternoon, Bai Yi wasn't worried. He no longer planned to upgrade the shelter by chopping trees and digging stones.
Yesterday's transactions made him realize the current importance of stone pickaxes.
Because from level three onwards, upgrading the shelter no longer required wood, and the use of stones increased significantly later on.
However, since the system didn't provide a pickaxe at the start, mining stones became extremely difficult, with the yield from chopping stones with an axe being very low.
Although some survival experts could craft stone pickaxes by hand, the highest quality was only common, and they were in short supply.
Players on the forum had already calculated that the efficiency difference between common tools and good tools was about double.
In other words, in the same amount of time, a common pickaxe could mine 10 units of stone, while a good pickaxe could mine 20 units.
Currently, good quality tools could only be obtained through the Wishing Well or crafting blueprints, but as time passed, more players would acquire stone pickaxes.
So, while the price of stone pickaxes was still high, Bai Yi planned to upgrade the shelter directly through trading.
Another recent update was that a player had already upgraded their shelter to level 5, but couldn't continue upgrading, which meant this was Bai Yi's chance to catch up.
He couldn't help but feel grateful for the existence of the journal; otherwise, with players each fending for themselves, who knows how many would have died!