Chapter 49 Level 5 Camp The higher the camp level, the bigger the target...
The hailstorm came suddenly; in the blink of an eye, the campsite was covered with ice balls the size of eggs.
Fang Zhiyi was hit, and his stamina dropped by one level instantly. He quickly picked up the design blueprints and dove into the shelter.
As soon as the door closed, the sound of the hail became muffled, crackling and clattering, and the roof trembled.
Looking out the window, the campsite was a complete mess, with deep craters in the ground, broken branches and leaves scattered all over the ground, and the campfire extinguished with a hiss, leaving a plume of white smoke.
The temperature in the camp plummeted.
-10℃.
-20℃.
...Finally, the temperature dropped to -60℃.
A creaking sound came from the windowpane as a thin layer of frost condensed and spread.
The shelter seemed to be drafty from all sides. Even with the doors and windows tightly closed, the damp and cold air kept seeping in, making people's teeth chatter.
Fortunately, there was a fireplace in the shelter to keep warm.
Fang Zhiyi stuffed firewood into the fireplace and lit it. The faint flames lit up and quickly turned into a ball of fire that leaped up from underneath. The temperature gradually rose and dispelled the damp chill.
Maintaining the fireplace temperature requires a lot of firewood, but fortunately Fang Zhiyi had stored up quite a bit of wood, so he didn't feel bad about using it.
Outside the window, the hailstorm continued.
Fang Zhiyi could do nothing but sit in front of the fireplace and warm herself by the fire. She picked up a shovel and cleared away the charcoal to allow air to circulate through the woodpile so the fire could burn brighter.
I warmed myself by the fire, and the chill subsided. Listening to the sound of hail falling, I took out the design drawings I had just received.
Ice and Snow Sculpture
Requires 50 stones
【Protective Shield】
[Requires 20 Stones, 20 Iron Ingots, 20 Gold Ingots, and 20 Energy Crystals]
I've learned how to draw the two design plans, but it's hailing outside, so I can't go out to build anything. I can only wait patiently.
The wait was long, and with nothing to do, I took out a handful of chestnuts and stuffed them into the fireplace. The flames scorched and burned, and the chestnuts sizzled in the embers, soon filling the small space with a rich aroma.
I picked up a chestnut, scalding it so hot that I tossed it back and forth in my hand until it cooled down. With a "snap," I peeled off the shell, revealing the golden, plump chestnut meat. It was roasted until it was soft and tender, almost dripping with honey.
The shelter was warm and cozy, even as the hail and rain poured down.
[Area] [Winter Survival] [33678/73000]
The number of players in the channel has decreased to less than half.
A few scattered messages appeared.
Did it hail?
Damn, I wasn't prepared at all, I almost got hit by hail and now I'm shivering in my tent.
My tent was smashed, so I could only huddle around the campfire for warmth.
[Hehehe, I might as well freeze to death]
How can you still laugh?
[...I accidentally typed it wrong because my fingers were too cold.]
I feel like the hailstorm is even harder to endure than the monster horde.
I can kill monsters during a monster frenzy, but when hail comes, I can only run away with my tail between my legs. What should I do?
Just tough it out.
As they spoke, the number of viewers in the channel began to drop again.
The weather was so bad that players were struggling to survive and didn't even have the desire to chat.
The channel fell silent for a moment.
Fang Zhiyi peeled the last chestnut, and the sweet, powdery flavor exploded on her tongue.
The shelter had high defenses, so even hail couldn't break it, and there was a fireplace for warmth. All he had to do was wait for the hail to stop.
Pressing against the window and looking out, a chill seeped up through the glass, the contrast between the cold outside and the warm inside creating a foggy effect.
I wiped the glass clean with my hand, and the hailstorm slowed down. After waiting a while longer, it became completely calm outside.
Pushing open the door, a bone-chilling cold blew in.
After a hailstorm, the campsite was in ruins. The ground was covered with hail and frost, making it almost impossible to find a place to step.
The temperature in the camp is -60℃, water freezes instantly, and the warmth on my body keeps slipping away. After just a few minutes outside, my ears were numb from the cold.
Fang Zhiyi shivered and immediately began to repair the campfire.
The campfire was rebuilt, its flames flickering dimly. Perhaps due to the excessive hail in the camp, the temperature remained stubbornly low.
They added more firewood, and the fire burned for a moment before dimming again; it was still freezing cold.
He rubbed his stiff hands, and seeing that the temperature remained at -30℃, he put down the campfire and began to repair the damaged city walls and buildings.
After spending a large sum of money on basic materials, the dilapidated campsite was finally repaired.
Fang Zhiyi glanced into the backpack.
[115 pieces of wood]
[79 Stones]
Basic materials are being used up too quickly, and our stock has dwindled significantly. We also need to build ice statues and protective shields, and we're running out of stone. Fortunately, there are mining areas and forests right outside the camp, so we don't have to worry about collecting materials.
Fang Zhiyi looked outside the camp. The grove of trees outside had been knocked down by hail, and the wood was scattered on the ground.
He had an itch to pick up materials whenever he saw them.
The outside temperature was even lower than inside the camp, and the snow had frozen into thick ice that crunched underfoot, so you had to be careful to maintain your balance to avoid slipping.
When we got to the grove, we thought we could find at least a few dozen pieces of wood, but we only found a few pieces on the outside.
I silently counted them, and the number of fallen logs and fallen trees was completely disproportionate.
An idea popped into Fang Zhiyi's mind. For the purpose of the experiment, he took out an axe and chopped down the few remaining trees.
Once, twice.
Splash!
The tree fell down with a thud, turning into a lonely piece of wood lying at my feet.
[Wood x1]
It was indeed not an illusion.
The colder the weather, the fewer resources drop. Previously, a tree would drop at least four pieces of wood, but now it only drops one. Harsh weather and scarce resources drastically increase the difficulty of survival.
Fang was unsure if the wood drop rate would decrease further, so he quickly cut down all the nearby trees. After all, it's always better to have the wood in hand.
After working hard all day, all I got in my bag were a dozen or so pieces of wood.
The last tree fell.
Besides the wood, something else quite different also fell this time.
Fang Zhiyi stepped forward and brushed aside the leaves, revealing a bird's nest with several bird eggs inside.
Even a tiny mosquito is still meat.
Fang Zhiyi picked out the bird eggs and removed the bird feathers that had been used to line the nest underneath, and found a small note hidden underneath.
Upon opening it, I saw a line of small print.
Fire can bring warmth, but it can also bring danger.
[Received news of a blizzard x1]
Fang Zhiyi held the small note, somewhat puzzled.
Does that mean he shouldn't light a fire?
But in this freezing weather, it's impossible to survive without a campfire to maintain warmth. Or are there other ways to keep warm?
Fang Zhiyi wasn't going to waste time on the riddle and turned to head straight to the mining area.
The ore in the mining area was firmly frozen by ice, making it extremely difficult to dig. Even after expending twice the usual amount of effort, the yield was only one-third of what it would normally be.
It's a waste of effort for half the result.
Fang Zhiyi was covered in sweat.
They ran out of energy after digging for a short while and had to retreat back to camp.
Not only him, but others in the channel also noticed the problem of the decreased material drop rate.
[Damn, only one piece of wood fell from a tree, are they trying to kill us?]
[Dude, you're only just finding out?]
[Damn, after repairing the camp, everything in my bag is gone. How am I supposed to survive?]
Luckily, I collected a lot of materials in advance. I'd like to ask how much you all stockpiled?
"Will you die if you don't show off?"
[The hailstones might have frozen everything after the rain; let's see if it's better tomorrow.]
That being said, everyone knew that the weather would only get worse and worse, making it increasingly difficult to collect materials.
Most players are destined to be eliminated.
The atmosphere in the channel became somber.
The players were focused on collecting materials, chatting idly.
Fang Zhiyi was waiting for his stamina to recover. After watching for a while, he sent a message.
【fzy: [Note]】
[fzy: Today, collecting materials will drop notes with information about the blizzard]
What is it?
Find a good place to shelter from the blizzard, but can't light a fire... How can I survive without a fire? Are you kidding me?
[This is a lie, right?]
【I also want to move to a safe place, but the problem is I don't have renovation vouchers (Huang Dou cries and laughs)】
Luckily, I had already found a location before building the house.
I don't think the big shots have any reason to lie to us.
What I mean is, could the game be playing a prank on us?
[Probably not, I've also collected the [notes]]
[Why is the information written on the note the same as the expert's?]
【I also……】
With a large player base in the channel, some people gradually gathered information about the blizzard and posted it in the channel.
Fang Zhiyi wrote them down one by one.
The blizzard will reach its peak at night; please proceed with caution.
Please clear away the snow promptly to avoid being buried in it and to keep the area dry.
[Winter is raging, beware of deadly snowstorms]
[After being tempered by wind and snow, things will inevitably turn into their opposites; perhaps materials for keeping warm will drop.]
[...]
Fang Zhiyi wrote down everything on the note, just in case.
Once he regained his strength, he went out to mine again.
A clanging sound rang out.
The ore was chiseled open, creating a crack, and small stones fell down, rolling all over the ground.
They collected the stones on the ground and found an unfamiliar ore mixed in with them.
The ore was the size of a goose egg, smooth all over without a single crack. After holding it in my hand for a while, I immediately felt a bone-chilling cold.
Strange Stone
Even their names are weird.
Thinking that he might need it later, Fang Zhiyi stuffed the strange stone into his bag.
He had almost finished mining the ore, and the sky was getting overcast, so he turned back to the camp.
He brushed the snow off his shoulders, sat down in front of the campfire, and opened the campsite to build structures.
[Consume 50 stones to build an ice statue?]
【yes】
The pile of stones, forming a small mountain, flew into the air and circled an open space for a while. A series of chiseling sounds continued, and a statue more than 2 meters tall gradually took shape.
The main body of the statue is a figure praying towards the sky. The facial features are blurred, and it is impossible to tell whether the figure is male or female, but it evokes a sense of unparalleled holiness and coldness.
Fang Zhiyi looked up for a while and found that the statue's eyes were empty, as if a piece was missing and needed to be filled in.
He glanced at his backpack and, as if possessed, took out the ice crystal that had fallen from the Wild Rock Tiger.
bite!
The ice crystals automatically rose into the air, trembled slightly in mid-air, and then embedded themselves directly into the statue's eyes, fitting perfectly without any visible abnormality.
Ice and Snow Sculpture
[Charging]
[47:59:59]
It will take two days.
Fang Zhiyi touched the tip of his nose, preparing to build another structure.
The protective shield requires even more materials, including iron and gold ingots that must first be forged in a furnace.
When the temperature drops, the furnace needs more fuel, and the forging time doubles.
After taking a look, it seems unlikely that it can be forged properly today.
To save time, he simply stuffed all the iron and gold ore in his bag into the furnace, no matter how much, and smelted it all into iron and gold ingots.
The furnace clanged and banged.
Fang Zhiyi sat in front of the campfire for a while, when he suddenly felt something moving in his backpack.
Upon opening the backpack, I was surprised to find a strange, pulsating stone. Holding the stone in my hand, I could clearly feel it vibrating in my palm, rhythmically pulsating, like a heart beating slowly.
Held up to my face, I looked closely and saw the campfire's flames being blown by the wind, surging towards the strange rocks.
A spark drifted by, landed on the smooth, black surface of the stone, and vanished without a trace.
Fang Zhiyi touched it and, whether it was his imagination or not, felt that the strange stone was slowly heating up.
After thinking for a moment, he placed the strange stone by the campfire, letting it continue to absorb light and heat.
It got dark.
Two snow-capped mountains surrounded the camp, and the valley was silent except for the echo of the wind.
Nothing happened tonight; the furnace continued to scorch the ore. Fang Zhiyi added enough firewood to the campfire and furnace to burn all night before entering the shelter.
The weather was cold, the hail wouldn't melt, and the temperature in the camp remained low; only the shelter was somewhat warm.
The fireplace was still warm; a piece of firewood was stuffed in, and the fire reignited.
Campfires need wood to burn, furnaces need fuel, and the fireplaces in the shelters can't be without firewood.
As a result, the amount of wood consumed increased rapidly, and the amount of wood in my backpack dropped from over a hundred to double digits.
I don't know if it will last until the end of winter.
Fang Zhiyi did the math and wished he could go out and chop wood right now. But after glancing at the hazy night, he had no choice but to give up.
Sharpening your axe won't delay your woodcutting.
Let's rest first.
Since the fire is already here, we should do something with it so as not to waste it.
In this cold weather, my hands and feet just won't warm up; I need to eat something to nourish myself.
Nothing is more suitable than mutton.
A small lamb chop with skin on, along with chunks of crisp white radish, is chopped up and placed in a pot, filling it to the brim, before being placed on the fireplace.
Simmer over low heat, and stuff a few oranges at the bottom.
The oranges were baked first.
The orange peel was charred and curled, looking ugly, but it didn't affect the taste at all. Peeling off the scalding hot peel revealed warm orange flesh inside, with sweet and sour juice splashing out, filling the entire shelter with the aroma of oranges.
It's snowing again outside the window.
All was quiet. Inside the shelter, the mutton soup in the pot bubbled and steamed.
Lifting the lid reveals a bubbling, snow-white broth. The mutton is stewed until tender and flavorful, the white radish is fresh and sweet, and a sprinkle of chopped green onions completes the dish. The moment you take a sip of the mutton soup, your body feels instantly warm.
Not only is the lamb tender and falls off the bone, but even the radish is soaked in broth. Winter radishes are sweet and juicy, melting in your mouth with no fiber at all.
A sip of mutton soup and a bite of radish made me sweat even in this cold weather.
Fang Zhiyi gradually relaxed.
Since entering this new survival world, I've been constantly busy. I've been either gathering supplies to upgrade my camp or dealing with monster hordes. It's rare that I have nothing to do today and can finally have some free time to rest.
Listening to the sound of snow falling outside the window, the fireplace crackled and burned in the small shelter, and oranges were being roasted in comfort, bringing an indescribable sense of security.
But such leisure time always passes in the blink of an eye.
The morning of the sixth day arrived as promised.
After a night, the gold and iron ingots in the furnace were ready and piled up into a small mountain on the side.
Brushing away the snow, Fang Zhiyi retrieved the item into his backpack, opened the camp page, and selected to build a protective shield.
It made a "ding" sound.
A semi-transparent film covered the camp, like an upside-down eggshell.
The eggshell only existed for a moment before disappearing, leaving only a switch to open and close the protective shield at any time to defend against enemies or blizzards.
The protective shield lasts for only one minute and is disposable. It is only used in the most critical moments, serving as a surprise attack to catch the enemy off guard.
[Ice and Snow Sculpture (1/1)]
【Protective Shield (1/1)】
You have met the requirements to upgrade your camp.
[fzy's Level 5 Forest Camp+]
[Building Value: 50]
[Environmental Value: 50]
[Evaluation: Finally reached level 5 camp? Let me see... Oh, perfect architecture, a sufficiently safe shelter and protective shield. I'm sure you're ready for the blizzard. But a word of caution—the higher the camp level, the bigger the target, so watch out for the blizzard!]
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