Having eaten steamed buns for three consecutive meals, Duan Lili felt her mouth watering at the sight of the mushrooms.
However, it was difficult to tell whether mushrooms were poisonous or not. Even experienced mushroom pickers sometimes made mistakes.
Duan Lili crouched down for a closer look. Regardless of whether they were edible or not, that cluster of mushrooms looked particularly adorable. She couldn’t resist reaching out to touch the mushroom caps.
Suddenly, a small light screen appeared in her field of vision, hovering above the mushrooms: 【Poisonous, causes diarrhea. Severity varies; severe cases may lead to death.】
Duan Lili’s eyes lit up!
The System even had an identification function—this was great! It would make things much easier in the future.
With this pleasant surprise, Duan Lili headed back.
She hadn’t stored the large tree branch she had broken off into her warehouse. The leaves of this tree were particularly large, and with the sun blazing overhead, it was perfect for holding up to block the sunlight.
By the time she returned to the riverbank, the meat had already changed color, started sizzling with oil, and was emitting a mouthwatering aroma.
Duan Lili swallowed hard.
There were no trees by the river, leaving no shade at all.
Duan Lili tried summoning a wooden rod and placing it on the ground beside the campfire.
The wooden rod was about the thickness of an arm and one meter long. As Duan Lili summoned it, it appeared vertically and steadily on the ground, standing upright without toppling over.
She then tried placing another wooden rod on top of the first one, creating a two-meter-tall wooden pillar standing firmly on the ground.
Duan Lili erected four such two-meter-tall wooden pillars and placed four wooden planks on top of them, forming a small pavilion that provided shade.
The sandbox-style Infrastructure Construction was incredibly convenient.
Under the cool pavilion, Duan Lili placed a Wood Block as a table and took out a cola bottle to rinse the tabletop with water. She plucked a few of the largest leaves from the tree branch, washed them in the river, and laid them on the Wood Block. Then, she broke off two branches of similar thickness and length from the tree branch, peeled off their greenish bark to reveal the creamy-white wood underneath.
The meat on the round stone was already sizzling with oil, its aroma filling the air. She temporarily stored two torches, creating a gap in the flames, and used the peeled branches to flip the meat over. Then, she placed the torches back in position.
Watching the torches burn fiercely, Duan Lili had an idea. She picked up one of the torches and plunged its burning end into the river.
The torch extinguished in the water, but when she stored it in her Personal Inventory and took it out again, it was once again burning fiercely.
No durability loss, forever burning.
This was truly the most cost-effective item the System had given her.
The piece of meat was quite large, and she wasn’t sure whether grilling it this way would cook the inside thoroughly. But Duan Lili had no cooking tools at the moment, so she had to grill it whole.
Duan Lili had developed a good habit: whenever her left hand was free, she would hold the Small Wooden Hammer and Craft things.
From the time she started grilling the meat until now, she had Crafted another 8 Wood Blocks and 8 wooden planks.
Wood Blocks, wooden planks, and wooden rods were currently the most in-demand basic materials, always in a state of “not enough.”
For Duan Lili, “not enough” was an unsettling and uncomfortable state. “Having a surplus,” “having backups,” and “having replacements” were the states she preferred.
The meat was almost done grilling, its aroma making Duan Lili swallow repeatedly.
There were still empty slots in her Personal Inventory, so Duan Lili didn’t need to handle it with her hands. She directly stored the meat from across the flames into her inventory. The icon displayed “Grilled Meat 1.”
Using the warehouse slots as a transfer point, Duan Lili took the roasted meat out of the warehouse and directly placed it on the clean leaves spread over the wood block.
There was no stool to sit on, though. Duan Lili took out five wooden planks, stacked them on the ground, and sat steadily on them.
The meat was too large, and there was no knife to cut it. Duan Lili blew on it a few times, waiting for the meat to cool slightly. She pressed her hands on the wood block, leaned her head forward…
There was no other way; she had to adopt this dog-like eating posture. Fortunately, in this remote wilderness, there was no fear of being seen.
She picked at a protruding corner and tore off a piece of meat with her teeth, chewing it in large bites.
The snake meat had a somewhat coarse and tough texture, very chewy. Without seasonings, it was a bit gamey, and the biggest drawback was the lack of salt.
But Duan Lili had already eaten steamed buns for three meals. On the second day of crossing into the Another World Continent, being able to eat roasted meat was satisfying enough—she wasn’t picky.
The oily aroma of the roasted meat reminded her. She turned and retrieved all the torches surrounding the flat, round stone. The round stone was coated with a shiny layer of oil, still sizzling.
Chewing the snake meat, Duan Lili took out a snake egg, cracked it open, and poured it onto the flat, round stone. The egg white quickly turned white, cooking rapidly in the sizzling snake oil.
Duan Lili also used a warehouse slot to transfer the fried egg onto the leaves on the wood block. The fried egg was glossy and emitted an enticing aroma.
Duan Lili took out a steaming hot steamed bun and began eating, alternating bites of the bun with bites of meat. Though the lack of salt diminished the flavor, it didn’t stop her from enjoying the meal.
After eating half a steamed bun with the roasted meat, she noticed the fried egg seemed less hot.
Duan Lili set the steamed bun aside and looked at the fried egg, unsure how to eat it since it was flat. She tried using a peeled branch as chopsticks to pick it up, but that didn’t work well.
Instead, she simply lifted it with a leaf and brought it to her mouth, which turned out to be much more convenient.
The snake egg was also slightly fishy, but fried in snake oil, it had a unique aroma. It was just a shame there was no salt—food without saltiness really loses its appeal.
Duan Lili took a bite of the steamed bun, then a bite of the fried egg, and suddenly noticed a different flavor. Slightly bitter, slightly salty, it somewhat reduced the fishiness of the snake egg and made the fried egg taste better.
Duan Lili glanced down and realized she had accidentally bitten into the leaf holding the fried egg. It must have been the leaf’s flavor.
Was this edible? Duan Lili paused, hesitating for a moment.
But she recalled that the System had earlier identified a poisonous mushroom. If this leaf contained toxins, the System should have been able to detect it. Since the System hadn’t made a sound, it was probably safe.
Duan Lili tried wrapping the fried egg in the leaf and took a bite.
It was slightly bitter and slightly salty, mixed with the oily aroma—a very unique flavor. After a few bites, she got used to it, finding it tastier than the plain, saltless fried egg.
In fact, human vegetables originally came from natural plants, no different from leaves. It was just that their flavors were acceptable to humans, so they were domesticated, selected, and eventually became “vegetables.”
Some of the plants and trees here looked familiar, while others were unfamiliar. Like this tree with large leaves—she couldn’t even name it. Duan Lili decided to name it the “bitter leaf tree.”
Duan Lili tore off a strip of meat with her teeth, wrapped it in a bitter leaf, and took a bite.
The slightly bitter and salty flavor suppressed the gamey taste of the snake meat, cut through the greasiness, and added saltiness. Deliciousness level: up! up!
Duan Lili finished the remaining half of the steamed bun along with the bitter leaf-wrapped meat.
The grilled meat was less than a quarter eaten, enough for at least three more meals, and it was still warm. Duan Lili stored it in the warehouse, ready to take it out for the next meal, still steaming hot.
On the wooden block were a few bitter leaves stained with meat oil and juices. Duan Lili rolled them up and ate them like a salad.
They helped remove the greasiness and refresh the palate.
With a roof overhead, food in her stomach, and items in the warehouse, Duan Lili patted her belly contentedly during this moment of post-meal satisfaction.
Sitting under the cool pavilion, Duan Lili gazed into the distance.
The river shimmered with ripples, and occasionally, plump fish leaped out as if trying to jump over the dragon gate.
The opposite bank was also open land, with mountains in the distance. They weren’t particularly steep but stretched continuously. As the saying goes, "The mountain looks close, but it can tire a horse to death." The area within sight alone seemed vast and endless.
The scenery behind her was similar, except for the addition of a square, boxy wooden house resembling a matchbox and two toilets.
Yesterday’s and today’s experiences told Duan Lili that although this place was uninhabited, it was rich in natural resources. With the System as her external plugin, her invincibility, and game-like tools, she now felt confident about the "survival" task the System had emphasized.
The cool pavilion was quite useful, so Duan Lili decided not to pack it away.
Checking the System Interface, it was already a little past noon, around 12 o’clock.
Gently stroking her full belly and enjoying the cool breeze, Duan Lili took out the Small Wooden Hammer again. The cool pavilion made of wooden rods and planks, along with the wooden block serving as a table and the planks as seats, gave her new ideas.
She opened the Crafting Interface and, instead of clicking any existing icons in the crafting list, manually dragged raw materials into the "Materials" frame.
Placing Wood Blocks, wooden planks, and wooden rods separately into the frame yielded no reaction.
However, when Duan Lili placed wooden planks and wooden rods together into the materials frame, the System responded. In the finished product frame on the right, Duan Lili had three choices: table, stool, and chair.
Indeed, this approach worked.
Duan Lili’s eyes lit up as she carefully examined the differences between the table, stool, and chair. By repeatedly taking out and placing raw materials, she figured out that the difference lay in the amount of materials consumed.
Wooden plank 2 + wooden rod 4 = table
Wooden plank 1 + wooden rod 6 = stool
Wooden plank 2 + wooden rod 6 = chair
As the midday heat intensified, Duan Lili stood up, collected the wooden block and the five planks she had used as a stool, left the cool pavilion, and returned to the house.
The interior of the house had a ceiling height of 3 meters and an area of 48 square meters, with eight 1-meter by 1-meter window openings. As soon as she entered, she felt a refreshing coolness.
A moist, pleasant breeze blew from the mountains, passed through the house, and drifted toward the river.
It was incredibly comfortable!
Since it was hot at noon, Duan Lili didn’t plan to go outside. With a full stomach, it was the perfect time to sprawl on the sofa.
Duan Lili lounged lazily, opened the Crafting Interface, and first crafted a table.
The finished table was simple—a rectangular wooden table with four legs, featuring a raw wood grain without any carvings or patterns, as plain as could be.
The stool was a square wooden bench, and the chair had the most minimalist design, devoid of any decorations.
The reason stools and chairs consumed two more wooden rods than the table was because the legs of the stool and chair had two crossbeams at the bottom.
This table, chair, and stool, though simple in design, meant that Duan Lili finally had furniture and understood the method of "Crafting." From now on, as long as she had materials, she could make more things.
Duan Lili felt that the future looked bright.