Chapter 24: The First Day of Spring (1) A new season, a new atmosphere, Spring...
Yu Luowei spent the latter half of the settlement day collecting materials. Wood was plentiful, iron could be purchased from Zhao Linlang, and cement could be exchanged for material selection cards. The main materials were stone and red brick, which could be obtained from the surrounding environment.
However, based on previous experience, it was estimated that it would not be possible to get so many red bricks, so Yu Luowei focused on the stones. He made as many red bricks as he could, and the rest could be purchased from the points mall.
Running into the cave, Yu Luowei had previously dug up rocks while mining there, so this time he planned to reverse the situation and dig for rocks and minerals. The stone hoe had already worn out due to its durability, so Yu Luowei skillfully made an ice hoe and started digging.
However, the ice pick is not as durable as the ice axe. It broke after digging fifty pieces. This time, Yu Luowei made 15 at a time and then started working frantically.
After repeating the mechanical mining for about five hours, Yu Luowei harvested over 800 rocks and dug a new hole in the wall of the path leading into the cave. Even during the zombie apocalypse, he had never felt this exhausted. If he hadn't reached level 4 and been strengthened by a diet of animal flesh, Yu Luowei would have collapsed from exhaustion.
Since the animal carcasses in the cave had decomposed, the stench had gradually dissipated, a key reason Yu Luowei could persist in mining and stone-mining here. With plenty of time left, Yu Luowei sat down by the hole he'd dug to rest for a while, munching on two large steamed buns. On the way back, Yu Luowei conveniently loaded his fishing net with bait and placed it in the creek.
Arriving at the bushes, the hole he'd dug earlier was almost patched, leaving only a shallow pit. Yu Luowei breathed a sigh of relief, then changed his digging spot and began digging. He continued until 5:50, then rushed back to base, stuffed the 100 pieces of soil he'd dug into the brick-making machine, and entered the shelter.
Back at the shelter, Yu Luowei couldn't rest right away. She planted saplings in the forest, which had been vacant for a few days. She traded six material cards for cement and asked Zhao Linlang for 20 liters of water (half as a deposit, the other half to be paid later). She also traded five portions of level 3 beast meat and some fruit for 400 iron ingots. She chatted with Zhao Linlang for a while; she had also been digging iron all day and was exhausted. Yu Luowei suddenly felt a sense of sympathy.
Zhao Linlang was a little concerned about Yu Luowei's ability to produce so much water so quickly, and asked her if she had melted the snow from the event. Someone in the district did just that on the first day of the snowstorm. The system didn't give any warning, but the next day, they were suicidal and begging for help in the chat room. Two days later, their profile picture was gray. This wasn't an isolated incident; after several similar incidents, everyone realized the melted snow might be toxic and unfit for drinking.
Yu Luowei himself had no shortage of water, so he had never thought of this and hadn't paid attention to this information. But others, especially those like Fang Min who hadn't found an oasis in the desert, would undoubtedly do the same thing and thus lose their lives.
After repeatedly assuring herself that what she was using was definitely not accumulated snow, Yu Luowei sent messages to Zhao Linlang and Fang Min, telling them to try not to exchange water with others in the trading market. If the system did not prompt them, others might use snow water as water resources for trading. If necessary, they could buy it from the points mall or come to her to exchange.
After unpacking boxes this morning, Yu Luowei was now a wealthy lady. She bought 300 red bricks in the Points Mall, raising her VIP level to level five. She also found some new furniture blueprints, and while the brick-making machine was still running, she took the opportunity to browse through them. She then bought a sofa blueprint, a grill blueprint, a pillow blueprint, a large dining table blueprint, and a chair blueprint.
After getting the things, Yu Luowei made a sofa and placed it in the living room on the first floor. Before, she could only sit on stools on the first floor, but now she finally had a new choice. Yu Luowei immediately abandoned the stools and felt the softness and comfort of the new sofa.
After collecting the finished red bricks, Yu Luowei lay back on the sofa and continued to upgrade the shelter.
Congratulations on reaching Level 5 Shelter! Base defense increased by 100. To upgrade to the next level, you'll need: Level 5 Base, Manor Core, 5000 Wood, 2500 Stone, 1000 Iron, 1000 Red Brick, 1000 Cement, and Level 6 Construction Blueprints.
The shelter was being upgraded in the fog, and Yu Luowei was shocked by the amount of materials needed for the next level. He had to think of other ways during this period, otherwise, if he relied on himself, it would take him forever to collect all the materials.
The upgraded shelter has been transformed into a three-story villa, expanding to 200 square meters. The first and second floors remain largely unchanged, while the third floor is now empty, with only a few rooms. The rooftop is now open, allowing for planters and other structures, but not large structures like farmland.
Finally, after completing the upgrade of the shelter and finishing up the other furniture, Yu Luowei finally had time to cook. The kitchen had become a bit larger after the upgrade, and the walls were even tiled. However, the bonfire under the stove seemed a bit out of place in this environment.
Today, we're going to have grilled fish. We didn't have a grill before, so grilling was a hassle. Now that we have one, Yu Luowei took out 10 fish she'd caught earlier, cleaned and marinated them, and grilled a few more to store for later.
Then she condensed a few more ice cubes, melted half of them to fill the water, and placed the other half in the storage room, continuing to use it as a refrigerator, lowering the temperature of the storage room to 3 or 4 degrees.
After the water was filled and the fish were marinated, Yu Luowei placed the grill on the campfire in the living room, took out a box of rice, and ate while grilling. The fish were relatively small, and Yu Luowei was busy all day, but only four of the ten fish were left.
She hadn't used up much mental energy today, but she had definitely used up a lot of physical energy. After sending the item to the buyer and completing the transaction, Yu Luowei went to bed. She fell asleep almost as soon as she touched the bed, completely unable to think about anything else.
Over there, Jin Yu's life wasn't so easy. While he was high on the progress leaderboard, he relied primarily on the resources of his support group. Jin Yu had long ago agreed with the group to collectively support a few high-ranking members, then share the rewards with everyone on settlement day. As of today, five of the top ten members of the district leaderboard are members of the support group.
Jin Yu spent the entire day busy with the reward distribution, fielding inquiries from others, and of course, grabbing a few goodies for himself. Furthermore, since the wood shop only had about 80 employees, and his five self-service logging machines were still operating, the damage to his pristine environment had exceeded 50%. He had to spend a lot of points to buy several plots of land, which was a huge loss.
Most importantly, the members had been trying to bring Yu Luowei in yesterday to provide food, and after learning she was number one on the top five list, they kept urging Jin Yu to bring her in. But Yu Luowei had consistently disagreed, even ignoring his messages. Even now, Yu Luowei hadn't joined the support group, and many in the group began to question Jin Yu's abilities. This escalated Jin Yu's dissatisfaction with Luowei into resentment, and he spent the entire evening trying to figure out how to trip her up.
The first day of Season 2 seemed much the same as before. The temperature hadn't dropped at night, except for the lack of a nighttime drop. Having gone to bed early last night, Yu Luowei woke up early. The first thing she did was use her clue card. She got: Your fire magic will be very useful in the upcoming disasters. You'll face some vibrant new monsters.
This first sentence was almost the same as the last one. If it weren't for the second sentence, Yu Luowei would have wanted to complain. However, this hint proved that this disaster was related to plants. It was very likely as she thought - the plants were growing wildly.
The upper right corner of the manual changed back to "First Day of the Season". At eight o'clock, there was no news from the system, so Yu Luowei set out to explore the surroundings.
The snow outside had completely melted, and the trees were sprouting lovely new buds, their vibrant green. The ground was also dotted with unknown flowers and plants, some even forming buds. From time to time, a gentle breeze caressed my face. The entire forest was vibrant and full of life, a true springtime atmosphere. It was a perfect spot for a spring outing.
Yu Luowei admired the scenery for a while, then thought of the reminder and became more vigilant. Every once in a while, he would strike and attack the various plants nearby. Of course, the plants only shook a few times and dropped some leaves, with no intention of fighting back. They even lowered their heads and looked aggrieved.
Yu Luowei realized that she was a bit paranoid; today was only the first day of Season 2. But the idiom was also quite fitting here; she never knew when the ordinary plants around her would turn into monster "soldiers" that could attack her.
Arriving at the stream, he retrieved the fishing net he'd set out yesterday and, surprisingly, landed a large fish. He weighed it, and it must have weighed over twenty pounds. It must have been attracted by the smaller fish in the net. Yu Luowei arrived at the perfect time; a moment later, the fish would have torn through the net and swam away, but now, Yu Luowei had no choice but to catch it. Its weight finally caught the system, and Yu Luowei chose to decompose it, ultimately yielding ten pounds of cod meat.
Worried that the plants would turn into monsters and he would no longer be able to obtain plant resources, Yu Luowei went to the forest to pick vines, thorns, fruits, and also cut some branches.
As she was picking, a fine, dense rain suddenly began to fall, landing on Yu Luowei's hair and body. Yu Luowei paused. It was indeed spring, and the spring rain had arrived. This was the first time she had experienced rain since entering the game.
Although spring rain is good, it can't keep raining on. Yu Luowei hurried into the cave to take shelter from the rain, dig some copper ore, and eat an early lunch. Dark clouds blocked the "sun", making the cave even darker. Yu Luowei took out a torch and inserted it nearby for lighting, then took out the mutton bamboo tube rice and started eating.
As Yu Luowei ate, her heart suddenly tightened. She looked around and saw several eyes appearing out of thin air in the depths of the cave. Yu Luowei quickly put away her lunch, picked up a torch, took out her ice sword, and entered combat mode.
The owners of those eyes just stood there, not moving. Yu Luowei moved closer to see their true appearance: they turned out to be four wild boars, two large and two small, looking like a family of four. They probably discovered this excellent cave at some point and wanted to take it for themselves, but unexpectedly they ran into Yu Luowei who came to avoid the rain, and were attracted by the sound of mining and the smell of food.
Now that they were here, how could Yu Luowei just let them go? He first condensed several fireballs and threw them at the wild boars. As they panicked and fled, Yu Luowei attacked with his ice sword, creating several ice spikes in the ground. Soon, the wild boars, which were extremely ferocious animals on Blue Star, were all dead at Yu Luowei's sword.
He happily let the system decompose the body. This time, the system was much more user-friendly, with a feature that allowed users to select the parts of the body. Yu Luowei chose six pounds of tenderloin, six pounds of spare ribs, four pounds of pork belly, and four pig's trotters (four pounds).
After collecting this unexpected gain, Yu Luowei continued to eat lunch. The rain came quickly and went away quickly. After a while, the rain outside stopped. Yu Luowei packed up a little and walked out of the cave.
After the rain, the ground in the forest softened considerably, turning directly into mud in many places. Yu Luowei had to carefully pass by to avoid getting her pants dirty. Perhaps due to the impact of the disaster, after just a short while, many mushrooms sprouted in the forest, and most of the mushrooms she had picked last time were eaten. Yu Luowei's eyes lit up, and she transformed into a little girl picking mushrooms and began to wander around the forest.
She wasn't particularly knowledgeable about mushrooms, so every time she encountered a new type, she'd ask the system for a prompt. While there were plenty of mushrooms, not many were edible. After two hours, Yu Luowei had only picked a little over a hundred, most of them shiitake, with a few matsutake and morels. She could make shiitake mushroom sauce tonight.
While picking mushrooms, Yu Luowei also dug out a treasure chest (green). This was the first treasure chest of the new season. She carefully put it into her bracelet.
Yu Luowei spent the rest of the day wandering around, marking a few tall, sturdy trees. It was very likely they would become the main force of monsters in the future. It wasn't obvious now, but to prevent it, Yu Luowei planned to patrol every day and take action if he saw any signs of them.
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