An Bai dug up the green wheat, roots and soil intact, and transplanted it into the small cubicle room on the train.
He moved all the miscellaneous items originally stored in the small cubicle carriage into the main carriage, deciding to transform the entire three-square-meter carriage into a planting area.
Thus, the next hour became An Bai's renovation time.
By the time he finished, An Bai was covered in mud from head to toe.
Fortunately, the buff that increased resource abundance had not disappeared. An Bai found a small river within the Safe Zone and used the water to wash himself.
“This Safe Zone is considerably more monotonous, whether in terrain or vegetation.”
An Bai furrowed his brows slightly. This was no good sign. After tomorrow, that buff would disappear.
“I'll start with the plants.” An Bai decided to search this Safe Zone thoroughly. If he found nothing worthwhile, he would search underground.
An Bai had been far more patient than others since childhood. He had a special way of dealing with the restlessness caused by inner anxiety.
He treated whatever he was doing as a marathon and divided it into N small goals.
Rather than caring about how much he gained, he focused on how much he accomplished. Each time he completed a small goal, he encouraged himself, regardless of the results.
With this mindset, An Bai's efficiency was remarkably high.
Before long, An Bai found a plant by the river that looked like reeds.
Using the photograph-based identification function in the manual, An Bai learned that this plant was called “Butterfly Flight,” and that the entire plant was edible.
As for why it was called Butterfly Flight, the manual offered no explanation.
He tried biting into the stem. A crisp, juice-filled sensation flooded An Bai's mouth. This thing made for decent food.
After collecting approximately one hundred plants, An Bai continued searching for other vegetation.
He worked for roughly six hours before stopping due to exhaustion.
Still, the harvest was quite good. Besides the hundred Butterfly Flight plants, he had found more than a hundred other edible plants—enough to last An Bai several days.
When he returned to the train, An Bai slammed the train door shut with a “bang,” then sprawled on the bed like a puddle of mud.
Although night was still an hour away, he was simply too tired.
He slept for an hour, and then night arrived on schedule.
【The silver shop will open in six days】
【The distance between adjacent survivors will be 450 KM one day from now】
Awakened by a series of beeping sounds, An Bai opened the manual and discovered that quite a few people had already sent him friend requests.
Most of them were people from the regional chat channel. There were only nine hundred people online in the regional chat channel for An Bai's area, making it a region with a relatively high death rate.
In fact, even with the help of treasure chests, most people were merely scraping by at the subsistence level.
“Master Andersen, I've seen you speak before. You even replied to me that time, didn't you?” said someone with the ID Cuckoo.
“Could you send me some food? If I find a treasure chest later, I'll send you anything you need as well.”
Hope to Survive: “I didn't expect Andersen to be so impressive. My childhood friend is only Grade A.”
ID Old Xu: “Master Andersen, could you add me as a friend?”
.....
By a rough estimate, at least fifty people had sent him friend requests. They either wanted food or were asking whether he had joined the Survival Alliance.
He rejected everyone who asked whether he had joined the Survival Alliance, then blocked all those trying to get something for free.
After all that, only six survivors remained among those who had added An Bai.
ID Wang Bo: “Three days' worth of food in exchange for two iron blocks.”
“Three days is too much. Two days' worth of food.”
“Deal.”
ID Strange Man: “master, could you give me one day's worth of food? I have an iron pickaxe crafting scroll and can make one for you.”
“Sure. I can provide the iron blocks, but I don't have the remaining timber.”
“That's fine. I have extra timber.”
“All right. I'll send you half a day's worth of food first. Once you've made the iron pickaxe, I'll send you the rest.”
“OK.”
Before long, he had the iron pickaxe in hand—an excellent-grade iron pickaxe made from two iron blocks.
The exchanges with the other three proceeded smoothly as well.
An Bai exchanged half a day's worth of food, three days' worth of water, and ten jin of coal for a set of clothes, an iron pot, and five units of kangaroo flesh essence, respectively.
The last person, whose ID was Zhong Yasong, made An Bai's gaze sharpen. He narrowed his eyes, seemingly recalling something unpleasant.
Zhong Yasong: “Bro, do you have any food? I'll trade glass for it.”
“We can trade. How much glass are you offering?”
“How about one piece of glass for one day's worth of food? This is all I have left.”
“Before this, my train stopped in places that were either snowy mountains or cliffs. I really couldn't find anything worthwhile.” He continued explaining.
“No!” An Bai refused without a second thought.
“Help me this once, please.”
“You can't rely on others.” An Bai's heart was as hard as iron.
Seeing that pleading was useless, the man began threatening An Bai.
“I'm a martial artist. The distance between trains will keep shrinking from now on. You understand.”
A martial artist? An Bai's expression grew increasingly strange.
Could this really be that guy? Back in elementary school, someone had bullied him. Later, that person dropped out of junior high and went to a martial arts school.
“A martial artist? Did you come from XX martial arts school, class of 2016?” After saying this, An Bai even sent a smiling expression.
“I've run into a fellow alumnus? Are you from XX martial arts school too? What a coincidence!” Zhong Yasong's tone changed instantly.
An Bai sneered inwardly. It really was that guy. That gave him even less reason to help him.
“Fellow alumnus, why aren't you saying anything?” Seeing that An Bai had not replied for a long time, Zhong Yasong grew anxious.
“Fellow alumnus, say something!”
“Fellow alumnus, don't tell me you fell asleep. I'm starving to death!”
“Hey, say something!”
An Bai did not block the guy. He simply watched in silence as the person who had once bullied him went insane.
“Fuck, you read it and still won't reply. Did I beat you up at the martial arts school?”
An Bai still did not reply.
“Heh heh, just wait. We're in the same region, and as the distance between our trains keeps shrinking, don't let me catch you.”
Zhong Yasong now knew that An Bai would never give him any food, so he decided to burn all bridges.
Regional chat channel...
Zhong Yasong: “Andersen is shameless. He cheated me out of my glass and iron blocks.”
When no one responded, he continued, “As an S-grade master, Andersen deceives little rookies like us. What a piece of trash.”
After a minute, someone finally replied, “Did he really cheat you?”
“It couldn't be more true. Look, I only have one piece of glass left after being cheated.”
Zhong Yasong even took a photo of the inside of his train and posted it in the chat channel.
“WC, he's literally got nothing.” Clearly, the manual could not be faked. The most conspicuous thing in the photo was that single piece of glass.
“Andersen is kind of dishonorable.”
“I thought he was pretty funny when I saw him speak before, so I assumed he was a morally upright male college student.”
An Bai could only feel that these people had something wrong with their heads.
Among those fanning the flames were several people An Bai had blocked. They clearly did not mind kicking him while he was down.
“Come on, he's probably some creepy guy.” The woman who had previously sent An Bai nude photos also took advantage of the moment to slander him.
“Maybe. And he's calling himself Andersen?”
“The better-sounding the name someone chooses, the uglier they usually look in real life.”
“That scammer has already stopped talking. Hahahaha.”
“As for the person who got scammed, that photo only proves you have nothing. It doesn't prove anything else.”
Some people also spoke up for An Bai, but they were quickly drowned out by everyone else's barrage of insults.
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