Qi Yu liked glittering colors like this.
He still did not rush to open it. He placed the Brass Treasure Chest into his backpack, where it occupied a slot by itself.
At the moment, his backpack contained:
The Brass Treasure Chest occupied one slot.
The Fine-Iron Treasure Chest occupied one slot.
Three unopened Wooden Treasure Chests occupied one slot.
Food and water: clean Drinking Water 500 ml x4, Steamed Bun x4, half a cake, Wild Banyan Berries x70, all stored inside a wooden chest.
Miscellaneous items: Dagger x1, Cotton Cloth x1, one packet of Sunflower Seeds, Leather x2, Rabbit Fur x10, all stored inside a wooden chest.
The two wooden chests holding items together occupied one slot.
Wood x50 occupied one slot.
Gale Rabbit Meat 500 g x3 occupied one slot.
There was also one empty Wooden Treasure Chest occupying a slot by itself.
Seven of the Basic Backpack's ten slots were already occupied.
He began collecting the drops from the Level-Two Mutant Brutal-Tusk Boar.
Fortunately, one backpack slot could hold all one hundred kilograms of Brutal-Tusk Boar meat.
[Fine Leather x30. Excellent crafting material.]
Qi Yu opened his Personal Interface. He remembered that Leather was among the materials required to upgrade the wooden cabin. He wondered whether Fine Leather would count.
The treasure chest had limited capacity, and the wooden chest holding miscellaneous items could not fit thirty units of Fine Leather. He filled the empty wooden chest instead, then stacked it into the same backpack slot as the other loaded chest.
That freed another backpack slot, leaving three empty.
Two clusters of light remained. At first glance, both glowed white, but a closer look revealed subtle differences.
One had a faint green tint within the white light; the other carried a slight blue hue.
[Brutal-Tusk Bracer: Unique equipment. Equip to gain Attack +3. Can be equipped.]
[Brutal-Tusk Dagger: Fine equipment. Damage +10%. 10% chance to trigger a critical hit. Can be equipped.]
Qi Yu equipped both.
The Brutal-Tusk Bracer was made of black leather. Once equipped, it appeared around his right wrist like a rather cool accessory.
The Attack +3 effect was fairly obvious. Qi Yu felt as though his strength had noticeably increased.
The Brutal-Tusk Dagger, meanwhile, automatically suspended itself at his waist in a thoroughly unscientific fashion.
Qi Yu wore a white cotton shirt, yellow linen trousers, and black cloth shoes.
Naturally, these were not his own clothes. There had been no clothing this clean or comfortable in the apocalypse.
He had originally assumed that they were standard starter clothes issued by the survival game, but yesterday's chat channel had shown him otherwise.
The game's starting outfit seemed to depend on what someone was wearing when they were pulled into the game.
As a result, some people arrived fully equipped, while others complained that they had been dragged in wearing nothing but underwear and slippers.
As for Qi Yu himself…
He thought about it. Perhaps it was because he had been in a state of being dead beyond recognition—or at least half-dead—when the game pulled him in.
So it had simply given him a one-click replacement set.
In any case, his current outfit was very casual and happened to suit the wooden cabin and primitive forest perfectly.
The little Sunflower Straw Hat he had received in last night's trade matched so well that it looked as though it came from the same outfit set.
Qi Yu removed the silver-white dagger and examined it, then hung it back at his waist. It felt very cool.
After that, he continued patrolling the safe zone like an inspector. Unfortunately, it seemed the area only contained two mutant creatures today. He found no third prey.
He returned to the cabin with a backpack full of gains. It was already eleven in the morning, but Qi Yu still had plenty of Stamina.
Then he could not waste it.
He picked up the wooden axe and immediately transformed into a merciless logging machine.
With the boost from the Brutal-Tusk Bracer, he felt stronger and chopped much faster.
After felling six trees in succession, the System warned that his Stamina was too low. He checked the interface and saw that it was exactly twelve-thirty.
Six trees in an hour and a half.
Two critical yields triggered, for a total harvest of Wood x80.
He sat and rested for a while, drank some water, and ate the remaining half of last night's cake for lunch.
Because today's harvest had been so abundant, he extravagantly brought out some of the Wild Banyan Berries he had picked earlier as an extra snack. Each fruit was about the size of his little finger and more sour than sweet. The flavor was not particularly good, but Qi Yu still ate them with relish.
After lunch, Qi Yu rubbed his hands together with great solemnity.
In front of him sat one Brass Treasure Chest, one Fine-Iron Treasure Chest, and three Wooden Treasure Chests.
It was his first time facing so many treasure chests at once, and he felt unusually excited.
Especially about the Brass Treasure Chest. It was the first one he had ever seen, and it had dropped from killing a Level-Two Mutant Brutal-Tusk Boar.
The boar alone had dropped all that edible meat, along with useful things like the Brutal-Tusk Dagger and Brutal-Tusk Bracer.
Surely the chest it dropped could not contain anything bad?
[Treasure chest detected. Open?]
Qi Yu chose to open the Wooden Treasure Chests first.
[Congratulations. You have obtained: Water 500 ml x3, Cream-Filled Bread x3, Flour 500 g, Men's Universal Clothing Set x1, Daily Necessities Set x1, Flint x1.]
Unexpected.
Yesterday's Wooden Treasure Chests had mostly contained basic necessities such as water and food. Today, three Wooden Treasure Chests gave him only three bottles of water and three buns even smaller than steamed buns.
On the other hand, he had gained a clothing set and a set of daily necessities.
Qi Yu picked them up and examined them. He discovered that the Universal Clothing Set looked exactly like the outfit he was currently wearing.
Shirt + trousers + cloth shoes + undergarments.
Good stuff!
The Daily Necessities Set was also a large box. It contained toothpaste, a toothbrush, shampoo, body wash, laundry detergent, and toilet paper.
Qi Yu touched the items carefully and put them back into the box with great care.
In his former world, every single one of these things counted as a luxury.
In an environment where survival itself was a luxury, who had energy left to think about any other need?
He had never expected that after dying once, he would instead gain the chance to live like a human being.
One Fine-Iron Treasure Chest and one Brass Treasure Chest remained.
Qi Yu had a feeling that what he opened this time might be different from what he imagined.
"Open the Fine-Iron Treasure Chest."
[Congratulations. You have obtained: Universal Farmland Plot x2, Plant Nutrient Solution x2, one packet of Gale Grass Seeds.]
Farmland and seeds!
He had wondered before how he was supposed to plant the sunflowers if the area outside the cabin refreshed every day. Now it appeared that planting required "Farmland" supplied by the game.
He was extremely satisfied with the rewards from this chest.
Then he might as well keep the momentum going.
"Open the Brass Treasure Chest."
[Congratulations. You have obtained: Mystery Card x1, Drift Bottle x1.]
Only two items came out of the Brass Treasure Chest.
One was a beautiful, translucent green card, warm and smooth to the touch.
The other was an utterly ordinary glass bottle containing half a bottle of snow-white sand.
[Mystery Card: Under special circumstances, it may have an unexpected effect.]
[Drift Bottle: Throw it into water, and it may appear in any region.]
Qi Yu: ?
He examined the card over and over, even touching it with his ability, but nothing happened.
He had no choice but to put it away for now.
As for that "Drift Bottle" full of sand?
What a joke. Right now, even his drinking water came from treasure chests. Where was he supposed to find water to throw a bottle into?
He would store both for the time being.
Next, he opened his Personal Interface.
Shelter: Starter Wooden Cabin (Durability 100/100), upgradeable. Next level: Level-One Shelter (Sturdy Wooden Cabin)
Level-One Shelter (Sturdy Wooden Cabin), upgrade materials: Wood x200, Stone x100, Leather x20, Iron Ingot x20.
He tried submitting materials:
[Wood 130/200]
[Stone 99/100]
[Fine Leather 30/20 (Requirement met)]
[Iron Ingot 10/20]
Qi Yu brightened. Fine Leather counted!
Wood and Stone were easy enough to obtain. As for Iron Ingots, he could dismantle a Fine-Iron Treasure Chest.
Leather had been the only problem. So far, he had only seen it drop from mutant beasts.
The Gale Rabbit had dropped only Leather x2. If Fine Leather did not count, gathering twenty units of Leather would have been troublesome.
Victory was within reach. Qi Yu felt as though endless strength had surged through his entire body.
He grabbed the wooden axe and went outside.
Two hours later, he returned home with seventy newly obtained units of Wood and fifty units of Stone in his backpack.
[Wood 200/200 (Requirement met)]
[Stone 100/100 (Requirement met)]
[Fine Leather 20/20 (Requirement met)]
[Iron Ingot 10/20]
Only the Iron Ingots were missing.
Qi Yu opened the chat channel.
He discovered that the population had fallen to 99832/100000.
More than a hundred people were gone.
[Civil Engineering Bro: It seems mutant creatures spawned in the safe zones today. Killing mutant creatures drops rewards.]
[I Seriously Have No Idea What to Do: I don't dare! I can't even kill a fish.]
[Another Day of Slacking Off: I dare, but I just saw a ridiculously beautiful wild chicken. After two days of gnawing steamed buns, I was practically drooling just looking at it. The problem is—I can't catch it!]
[National-Level Useless Person: Mutant dog. Chased it. Lost the fight. If I hadn't been close to the cabin, I almost would've died.]
[Peaceful Melody: I encountered one too. Animals are so cute. Why do we have to kill them? It's too cruel. Can't we coexist peacefully?]
[A Cart Full of Bread People: Everyone, don't be too afraid. I've observed them. As long as we don't provoke them first, these mutant creatures won't attack us.]
[Civil Engineering Bro: Those aren't real little animals. When killed, they turn into white light and disappear. Just think of them as strings of data. Treasure chests from kills contain quite a lot. Everyone, keep at it. This is a survival game—we have to take this step sooner or later.]
This Civil Engineering Bro was always very active in the channel and seemed surprisingly helpful.
Judging from the chat logs, all the players must have begun encountering mutant creatures today.
Qi Yu refreshed the Trade interface. Unsurprisingly, he could not find any Iron Ingots.
Of course. They were mandatory materials for upgrading the cabin. Unless absolutely desperate, no one would trade them away.
Qi Yu therefore had no choice but to dismantle one Fine-Iron Treasure Chest.
[Iron Ingot x10 obtained.]
Qi Yu let out a long breath. At last, he had gathered all the resources needed to upgrade his shelter.
