Chapter 15: Day 3 of Frost Season: Cleaning the Cave and Setting Traps...
It was a brand new day. Yu Luowei woke up in the darkness as usual, but the temperature had dropped another 10 degrees. Even with the bonfire, the temperature inside the house was only 10 degrees. Yu Luowei shuddered and put on a cashmere sweater under her gear. However, the sweater could automatically adjust to the size, so it didn't feel tight after putting it on.
After three days, Yu Luowei had roughly figured out the pattern of the falling temperature: lighting a bonfire inside the shelter raised the temperature by 5 degrees, and the temperature dropped by 10 degrees each day. Daytime temperatures were 10 degrees higher than nighttime temperatures, while the temperature outside the base was 5 degrees lower than inside. If this pattern held, the down jacket would come in handy tomorrow, and then he could make a killing on the trading market.
After breakfasting on two steamed buns and a bottle of orange juice, Yu Luowei began planning his work for the day: expanding the area he explored, finding treasure chests, and hunting. He'd also stop by to restock the forest with new saplings. Killing a few monsters would be even better.
As 8 a.m. approached, the temperature suddenly rose as the sky brightened. After once again appreciating the game's ingenious craftsmanship, Yu Luowei couldn't help but think: If the temperature keeps rising and falling so suddenly, I'm bound to catch a cold sooner or later. If I have time tonight, I can make some dandelion tea in advance.
First, they arrived at the spot where they had set their fishing nets the previous night. The rotting meat had completely vanished, and the nets were tattered, with only a few ropes remaining, completely unusable. This level of destruction was definitely not something an ordinary animal could have done; it must have been a night monster. Yu Luowei hadn't expected the lifespan of her painstakingly woven nets to be so short. Reluctantly, she fished them out, intending to toss them in the garbage disposal when she returned.
Just as it touched the fishing net, the few remaining ropes suddenly trembled, and a head identical to the basilisk Yu Luowei had killed the next day popped out, ready to attack. However, Yu Luowei's ice and fire magic had reached level three, so there was no way it would succeed. A single ice arrow ended the basilisk's life.
The basilisk was only level one and very small. Its corpse vanished in an instant, giving Yu Luowei no chance to decompose it. However, it also proved that rotten meat could lure monsters. Yu Luowei suddenly regretted throwing those two pieces of rotten meat into the garbage disposal yesterday. He planned to go to the cave this afternoon to collect some more to set up monster traps.
However, since she still had to go to the forest farm, Yu Luowei didn't set out immediately. She first searched the surrounding area for treasure chests and small animals. In fact, she wanted to find a lamb the most. The meat tasted more like pork, but she liked lamb more.
After three hours of searching, Yu Luowei finally found one white and one green supply chest. This was significantly less than during her novice period. While she didn't find any lamb skewers, she did spot a flock of ducklings swimming across the stream. Instinctively, she drew her bow and arrow and shot down six, collecting 10 duck meat (500g) and 50 duck down. The other ducks fled in panic, and Yu Luowei, adhering to the principle of leaving a way out, didn't pursue them. Well, mainly because she was tired.
Entering the forest farm, the trees in the woodland had disappeared, and the products had been automatically stored in the warehouse. There was nothing temporarily stored in the forest farm. I would have to wait until I returned to the shelter to see the specific products. Yu Luowei did not stay any longer, added 500 saplings, ate lunch here again, the same rice bowl as last night, and then left.
He first ran to the cave. There was still quite a bit of charcoal on the ground. When Yu Luowei picked up two more squares and had almost cleared away the larger or clustered charcoal, a prompt suddenly appeared in front of him: [Do you want to spend 20 saplings to repair it?]
"Repair the burned area?" Yu Luowei chose "yes" and was suddenly pushed out of the area by an irresistible force. A white mist enveloped her. After about five minutes, the mist dissipated, and the empty space before her was no longer pitch black. Instead, it was a meadow with 20 young saplings growing.
[Congratulations! All 20 random saplings are pear trees. They will mature in five days.]
Not bad, not bad. This place will be a resource point in the future. Yu Luowei was very satisfied, especially after seeing an extra grid of stone and 30 charcoal in the bracelet. These should be the "garbage" left in this area, but they are all good things for Luowei.
After touching the sapling that would soon become her regular picking spot, Yu Luowei once again entered the cave. The stench was a bit stronger, so Yu Luowei endured it and walked to the large pile of monster corpses to start decomposing them. Yu Luowei was very grateful that decomposition did not require touching the objects with her hands, but only requiring close proximity. Otherwise, she would not want her hands anymore.
After decomposing about three piles of animal corpses, a supply treasure chest (blue) suddenly appeared in front of Yu Luowei. He didn't expect that there was still a treasure chest here that had slipped through the net. Yu Luowei felt that the stench in the air had become much lighter, and the speed of decomposing the corpses had also increased a lot.
After decomposing a third of the corpses in the cave, Yu Luowei's bracelet now contained 80 pieces of rotten flesh and three pieces of beast meat (level 2). These three pieces of beast meat were likely obtained from the less severely decayed parts. Yu Luowei glanced at the icon on the bracelet page and saw that it was no different from the other beast meats before accepting them with confidence.
There was also a green one in the supply treasure chest, so overall, I had gained quite a lot. When Yu Luowei wanted to continue decomposing, he was stopped by the system:
[The decomposable parts of the survivors have all been decomposed. The remaining parts will be converted into fertilizer at 5:00 PM tomorrow. The fertilizer will last for 10 minutes and will automatically disappear after the time limit is exceeded.]
Well, it’s good to be able to get fertilizer, and I don’t have to use my own garbage disposal. Yu Luowei left the cave with satisfaction.
On the way back, they passed the stream again. Thinking of the damaged fishing net, Yu Luowei collected a lot of vines from the surrounding area and planned to go back and weave another one.
But for now, she wanted to see if she could spear a few fish herself.
Yu Luowei froze a harpoon and stared at the stream, waiting for a big fish to pass by and then he would use the harpoon.
Although Yu Luowei had a lot of experience in various fields, this was her first time to harpoon a fish, so she was not very accurate. However, the harpoon had a freezing property, which froze the lower body of the big fish. The big fish eventually fell into Yu Luowei's bracelet.
After repeating the same method and catching five more, Yu Luowei finally returned satisfied. However, it was a small stream after all, and the fish were not that big, so the system did not pop up a notification to decompose them.
Before entering the base, Yu Luowei dug a hole in the woods and placed two pieces of rotten meat inside, creating a crude trap. It was so crude that the system didn't even prompt him to create a new diagram. There was no other way. For some reason, he hadn't seen any monsters in the past two days, so Yu Luowei had to find another way.
Back at the base, Yu Luowei first checked the planter boxes. The cabbage harvest was still a few hours away, while the peaches and wheat would take a few more days. However, Yu Luowei was a bit puzzled as to how to turn the wheat into flour. He couldn't possibly use ice to create a stone mill. Well, he'd just take it one step at a time. What if a stone mill could be built in the next two days, or even tonight?
With this wish in mind, Yu Luowei added a new step to today's unboxing: a sincere prayer. She placed the four supply chests on the table, clasped her hands together, and prayed in her heart: "Please give me more daily necessities and tools!"
Perhaps her sincere prayers had paid off, as Yu Luowei's unboxing results today were quite in line with her wishes:
[Receive: Primary Planting Box × 2, Scallion Seeds (50 pieces) × 1, Marination Bag × 1]
[Receive: Bath brush × 1, Shampoo × 1, Laundry detergent × 1, Bath towel × 1]
[Receive: Beef Hot Pot Base x2, Fat Lamb Rolls (500g) x5, Shrimp Paste (500g) x1]
[Gain: Ginger (100g) × 1, Sichuan pepper (100g) × 1, Rock sugar (100g) × 1]
The supplies in the treasure chest were small, but the quality was high. The shower gel, shampoo, and laundry detergent were all packed in one-pound bags, with no expiration date. The packaging was also very simple, but the smell was still delicious after opening it. Yu Luowei couldn't think about anything else for the time being. She boiled some stream water, picked up the toiletries, and rushed into the bathroom to take a shower.
After six days, Yu Luowei finally took a complete bath, especially her hair. Yu Luowei washed it four times before she felt it was clean.
After washing herself, Yu Luowei did not forget to wash her clothes. She also washed her equipment and pillowcases. After washing, she put them by the campfire to roast them and tried to dry them before going to bed.
Next, she went to the garbage disposal and retrieved five bags of primary fertilizer. Yu Luowei then placed two empty planting boxes in the base and planted cherry and green onion seeds, using one bag of fertilizer for each. After using all of this, the cherry seeds would take six days to mature, and the green onions two days.
It was only 6:30 when he finished all these things. After some free time, Yu Luowei felt a long-lost feeling of hunger. Looking at the marinade package he had just obtained, Yu Luowei decided to make some braised animal meat with rice first, and then braise some more animal meat. The taste and texture should be similar to braised beef brisket or braised beef.
Yu Luowei immediately started cooking. She steamed the rice, then skillfully heated the oil in a wok and began to braise the beast meat. It still needed to simmer for a while, so she went to the campfire to turn over her clothes and pillowcase.
The braised beast meat was ready, using a pound of level 2 beast meat. Coincidentally, the cabbage was almost ripe at this time, and Yu Luowei harvested 20 cabbages (1000g) and 35 seeds.
After replanting the cabbage seeds, Yu Luowei casually stir-fried some cabbage. Then he brought out five pounds of first-grade beef stew and officially started eating.
With the addition of ice cola, Yu Luowei also had two dishes and a "soup" in the game world. His life was getting better and better. Yu Luowei actually felt a strange sense of satisfaction with the life in this game.
This feeling of satisfaction lasted until she was washing the pot. Yu Luowei slapped her thigh and said, "How could I forget the dishwashing liquid? I'll have to pray again tomorrow."
However, the temperature in the house was still a little low, and two bonfires were not enough, so Yu Luowei made another one and placed it in another corner of the room. When making the fourth one, Yu Luowei received a prompt
[The maximum number of bonfires in a level 3 shelter is three!], she had to stop regretfully.
The third bonfire was also lit using fire magic, but this time Yu Luowei used charcoal instead of wood. With the special flames, one charcoal stick could burn for three hours (normally two hours), so Yu Luowei placed ten charcoal sticks in. Adding the money she'd earned from the trade, she now had over 500 pieces of charcoal, which she could afford.
Once this bonfire was burning, Yu Luowei noticed that the temperature inside the house had risen by 6 degrees. The temperature difference piqued Yu Luowei's curiosity. Coincidentally, the other two bonfires were about to go out, so Yu Luowei manipulated the variables, injecting magic into one and adding a log to the other. The magic-infused bonfire still raised the temperature to 5 degrees, but the log only raised it to 3 degrees.
It was probably the official setting of the game; charcoal was probably the "official" essential for this season's disasters. This also placed a slight limit on Luo Wei's abilities. However, the temperature difference was only one degree, and Luo Wei had a sufficient supply of charcoal, so she quickly accepted the situation, infused the wood bonfire with extra magic to prevent it from extinguishing, and sank into bed.
By this time, the equipment was dry, so Yu Luowei folded it up. Before bed, he opened the manual again to check the forest farm's extra harvest: 120 random saplings, 16 apples, 5 bunches of bananas, and two pounds of walnuts. The extra harvest was a bit small, but it was better than nothing. Yu Luowei was satisfied and ate a banana as a bedtime dessert.
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