Still lacking experience—who would recklessly shout while hunting?
To bolster her courage, Duan Lili charged forward with a loud "Ahhh!" The deer herd was instantly startled and bolted into the forest.
After reaching Level 1, with 10 Strength and 7 Agility, Duan Lili truly felt lighter on her feet, running noticeably faster than before. Yet, she still couldn’t catch up to the deer herd.
She sprinted madly after them, reaching the edge of the forest just in time to watch the deer disappear into the woods. At night, the forest was filled with eerie green eyes. Duan Lili reluctantly halted her pursuit.
Since she was already at the forest’s edge, Duan Lili decided to pull out her Small Wooden Axe and chop some trees. After exhausting one Small Wooden Axe, she harvested 36 raw woods—not a wasted trip for those hundred or so meters.
As she turned back, her mind wandered to the issue of food.
Hunting was a skill she’d need to practice more to master. The fish in the river seemed like a more reliable option than catching deer…
Aside from these, what other food sources were available right now?
Absentmindedly, Duan Lili kicked aside a clump of knee-high wild grass and suddenly remembered a sandbox game on her phone where cutting grass could yield wheat seeds!
Duan Lili immediately started pulling the grass by hand.
This type of wild grass had long, tough fibers and deep roots. The old Duan Lili would never have been able to pull it out, but now, at Level 1, her Strength was twice what it used to be. With a few forceful tugs, she yanked the grass out, roots and soil intact, nearly stumbling backward from the effort.
As she staggered back and steadied herself by squatting, the wild grass in her hand vanished. Duan Lili eagerly opened the warehouse Interface, hoping to see something like wheat seeds… but all she found was a new entry in the warehouse grid: 【Dry Grass 2】.
Duan Lili was deeply disappointed.
Of course, turning wild grass into wheat seeds made no logical sense. Only in a game could such a thing happen.
Although she now possessed the System, she was in a real, existing world. Such a mutation from wild grass to wheat was impossible.
Turning wild grass into dry grass was the logical outcome.
Duan Lili consoled herself: Dry grass was still very useful, especially for survival in the wild. It could be used for bedding or as fuel…
Speaking of fuel, she paused and took a closer look at the dry grass in the warehouse, then glanced at the torches stored there. Last night, she had observed the torches—they were simply wooden rods with something wrapped around the top. The burning part was the material wrapped around the head.
She took out the Small Wooden Hammer and opened the Crafting Interface, clicking on the 【Torch】 in the list. Sure enough, dry grass was the raw material for torches!
Crafting a torch only required consuming 1 wooden rod and 1 dry grass—truly cost-effective and a must-have for any household!
Duan Lili looked around, specifically searching for large clumps of knee-high wild grass. Pulling by hand was too tiring, so she tried using the Small Wooden Knife and Small Wooden Axe.
Harvesting a knee-high clump of wild grass required two swings with either the Small Wooden Knife or the Small Wooden Axe. However, the Small Wooden Knife only yielded 1 dry grass per clump, while the Small Wooden Axe yielded 2 dry grasses.
It seemed that specialization mattered—this fell within the Small Wooden Axe’s area of expertise.
As for this "Small Wooden X" series of tools, Duan Lili couldn’t help but complain about their size—they were all the dimensions of children’s toys.
Harvesting wild grass this way forced her to bend over and swing the axe at the tips of the grass. It wasn't particularly strenuous—just two touches of the Small Wooden Axe against the grass tips were enough to harvest them.
But it was hard on the back.
Aching.
The tool's critical hit rate was low. Most clumps of wild grass yielded 2 pieces of dry grass, with only the occasional 3. Smaller plants might even give just 1 piece of dry grass.
Duan Lili rubbed her sore back as she walked around her new house, clearing the weeds in the surrounding area until her Small Wooden Axe wore out.
She collected 108 pieces of dry grass.
While gathering the dry grass, her left hand wasn't idle either. She kept holding the Small Wooden Hammer, Crafting wooden rods in the Crafting Interface. In half an hour, she used up 3 pieces of raw wood to Craft wooden rods, and now there were 56 wooden rods in the warehouse.
Duan Lili massaged her back as she returned to the house.
Living in a big city before, light pollution was so severe that even blackout curtains couldn't block the piercing nighttime lights that kept people awake. She had never realized how important lighting was.
After experiencing a night in the natural world without electronic lighting yesterday, the importance of "illumination" had risen several notches in her mind.
Slumping on the sofa, she drank half a bottle of water before starting to Craft torches.
Only when she began Crafting did she realize that although each Crafting session for torches also took 10 minutes, it produced 10 torches at once.
Nothing was more cost-effective than torches.
Duan Lili had too many urgent needs right now. After resting on the sofa for just ten minutes, her back no longer ached, so she picked up the Small Wooden Hammer and headed outside again.
As long as she held the Small Wooden Hammer, it wouldn't interfere with the progress in the Crafting Interface. Duan Lili had already grown accustomed to holding the Small Wooden Hammer in her left hand while doing other things with her right hand.
Dual-tasking in parallel.
The most basic human needs are eating, drinking, and relieving oneself.
Yesterday, she had hastily built a temporary toilet using 3 Wood Blocks and 1 wooden plank, arranged in a triangular shape, to make do for the time being. Today, Duan Lili planned to upgrade and improve it.
Standing outside the house with her hands on her hips, she surveyed the area and recognized several issues with yesterday's temporary toilet.
The main problem was its proximity to the house. Yesterday, in a hurry, she had chosen a spot less than twenty meters from the sofa. But today, Duan Lili had swiftly built a large wooden house around the sofa, measuring 10 meters wide and 8 meters deep. This made the temporary toilet too close to the house.
This was a dry toilet, after all. Waste couldn't be flushed into a sewer, and there were no sanitation workers to clean it for her.
No, this wasn't even a proper dry toilet—at best, it was a rudimentary prototype. It was essentially an open-air return to nature.
Untreated waste would inevitably attract bugs and flies, severely impacting hygiene.
Duan Lili tapped the small hammer in her left hand against the palm of her right hand as she turned in a circle to observe her surroundings.
Her drinking water came from the river to the north, so the toilet had to be far from the river to prevent contaminating the water source.
Duan Lili then headed south, behind the house, away from the river, walking straight back until she reached the edge of the forest. Originally, there were sparse trees here, but after Duan Lili gathered them, only tree stumps remained.
The toilet didn't need to be too large. Duan Lili planned to build one measuring 4×4.
Wood Blocks were cubic with 1-meter sides. When constructing buildings, Duan Lili only needed to consider the number of blocks, and she could even omit the unit "meter."
But the tree stumps on the ground were a bit of a nuisance.
Just then, another 10 torches finished crafting. Duan Lili had made 20 torches in this short time, which should be enough for now.
She wandered around the tree stumps a few times, thinking about how to deal with them.
This was wood, and wood-related matters still required the Small Wooden Axe. But all the Small Wooden Axes she had on hand had been used up, so she’d have to craft new ones if she needed them.
Duan Lili felt that from yesterday until now, she had been like a headless fly, only scrambling to make what she lacked. The problem was, she lacked too much, and even if she hurried, she couldn’t keep up.
The main issue was tools—the crafting time was too long, and they were consumed too quickly.
Holding a Small Wooden Hammer in her left hand to craft a Small Wooden Axe on the spot, Duan Lili took out the Small Wooden Knife with her right hand.
Since the Small Wooden Knife could hack away at weeds, theoretically, it should also be able to hack at wood. Compared to the Small Wooden Axe, the only difference should be the amount harvested.
Without a Small Wooden Axe, Duan Lili swung the Small Wooden Knife at a tree stump. At the same time, she started crafting wooden planks, as her warehouse was now completely out of them.
After swinging the Small Wooden Knife ten times, the tree stump disappeared. Duan Lili checked her Personal Inventory—the raw wood count hadn’t increased, and she hadn’t gathered anything.
As expected.
The pleasant surprise was that a ready-made pit appeared on the ground.
Duan Lili had originally planned to dig one herself after dealing with the tree stumps, but now she was spared the trouble. Using the Small Wooden Knife as a shovel, she slightly reshaped the pit. By the time she finished tinkering, she had just crafted 8 wooden planks.
Duan Lili placed two wooden planks over the pit, leaving a gap of about ten centimeters in the middle—this was now the latrine.
She tested it by stepping on it. Thankfully, the planks didn’t flip.
Though called planks, they were at least 10 centimeters thick, made of solid wood, and quite heavy.
With the pit covered, Duan Lili used 22 Wood Blocks to enclose the latrine. It was 4 blocks wide, 4 blocks deep, and 2 blocks high, with an opening left and no roof.
Since each Wood Block had a side length of 1 meter, the internal space was 2 meters wide and 2 meters deep.
However, the wooden planks also had a side length of 1 meter, and with the ten-centimeter gap left for the latrine, the outer edges of the two planks overlapped with the Wood Blocks. The overlapping parts fused together as if they were originally one piece.
It seemed wooden planks could be used as flooring.
That was great. Earlier, when she went back to the house to rest, she had seen bugs crawling out of the earthen floor.
Later, she would…
With this vision in mind, Duan Lili glanced at her warehouse: 【Wooden Planks: 6】.
Duan Lili: “…”
Forget it. Luxuries like wooden flooring could wait.
She jumped a few times on the latrine. The planks and wooden walls had fused into one solid structure, making it even less likely to flip into the pit.
An open-air dry latrine was now complete. Though open-air, the wooden walls were 2 meters high and 1 meter thick, providing a strong sense of security. Moreover, the wood surface was smoothly cut, with clear grain patterns, giving it a naturally rustic yet sophisticated feel.
With a proper place to address one of humanity’s fundamental needs, Duan Lili felt a great sense of relief.
Just as she was about to put her hands on her hips and sigh with satisfaction, she suddenly froze.
The latrine was ready, but what about the toilet paper?