[Farmland: Once placed, creates a 2 m x 2 m planting area.]
The inside of the cabin was marked as an invalid placement area.
Qi Yu opened the door and tried selecting a patch of empty ground outside.
[Current area is unclaimed territory. Farmland cannot be placed.]
Qi Yu: ?
What did that mean?
He could not place it inside the house, and he could not place it outside either.
Surely the survival game had not created a resource called "Farmland" merely to toy with its players.
Qi Yu put the Farmland away and opened the regional chat channel.
Coincidentally, he saw a familiar ID again:
[Civil Engineering Bro: Everyone, hurry and gather resources to upgrade your shelter. Upgrading your shelter rewards a high-grade treasure chest.]
Based on Qi Yu's observations over the past two days, this person was probably a good man.
But clearly, his words were not well received:
[Another Bad Day: Take your humblebragging and get lost!]
[The Wind Sighs, the River Runs Cold: What the hell? Someone has already upgraded their shelter? I've worked myself half to death and only gathered half the upgrade resources!]
[Charity Scraps: Big shot, since you've upgraded your shelter, you must have plenty of resources, right? Could you sponsor us a little? @Civil Engineering Bro. We're all compatriots. You can't just stand by and watch people die.]
[Tears of the Unlucky: A high-grade treasure chest? Big shot, what good stuff did you open? Can you show the brothers?]
[Civil Engineering Bro: I'm not humblebragging, seriously. You can try killing mutant creatures. After your first successful kill, you unlock your Personal Combat Stats, and they can drop equipment too. Once you're stronger, gathering other resources becomes easier.]
[Harmony Brings Wealth: @Civil Engineering Bro, bro, how is this not humblebragging? I don't even understand half the things you're talking about. If you really care about everyone, why not share how you managed to stockpile enough resources to upgrade so quickly?]
Harmony Brings Wealth's words immediately won agreement from the others.
Civil Engineering Bro did not speak in the regional channel again. Qi Yu did not know whether he had become angry.
Qi Yu opened the Trade section.
Perhaps because mutant creatures had appeared today, there were more goods listed for trade, and the categories had become increasingly strange.
[Selling gorgeous tricolor fowl tail feathers. Exchange for any blueprint.]
[Selling Common Short Sword equipment. Exchange for Leather and Iron Ingots.]
[Selling Mutant Rabbit Meat 500 g. Exchange for Vegetables 500 g.]
…
Suddenly, a whole row of listings refreshed onto the page:
[Selling Common Short Sword. Plastic preferred.]
[Selling Jade Python Meat 500 g. Plastic preferred.]
[Selling Wood x20. Plastic preferred.]
…
When he opened the listings, the seller's ID was anonymous, but the uniform style made them look as though they all came from the same person.
Plastic?
Qi Yu guessed the person had probably obtained some blueprint that happened to require plastic as a material.
He searched the listings for "blueprint," though he did not expect much.
Most items in this game required blueprints before they could be crafted. Everyone understood how valuable blueprints were.
Unexpectedly, there actually were some for sale.
[Selling blueprint: "Barbecue Grill." Exchange for cold medicine.]
[Selling blueprint: "Fence." Blueprints and weapons preferred. Private messages welcome.]
[Selling blueprint: "Fishing Net." Exchange for any equipment.]
A Barbecue Grill would be nice, but cold medicine was even rarer, and Qi Yu did not have any.
As for the Fishing Net, Qi Yu had not seen fish yet. He had not even seen a river.
The [Fence], however, interested him.
[Fence: Common structure. Can expand territory and protect the shelter.]
Expand territory?
Qi Yu opened the trade listing and discovered that the seller was an acquaintance.
Of course, it was the kind of "acquaintance" where only Qi Yu knew the other person.
The seller ID was [Civil Engineering Bro].
[ID4399439: Hello. What does "expand territory and protect the shelter" mean?]
[Civil Engineering Bro: Once the Fence is built, it has Durability. If the shelter is attacked, the Fence has to be destroyed first.]
[Civil Engineering Bro: Any area enclosed by the Fence becomes your territory.]
Civil Engineering Bro was not at all surprised to receive this anonymous inquiry.
After all, phrases like "expand territory" and "protect the shelter" on the Fence description sounded very impressive.
He skillfully sent over a string of supplementary explanations:
[Civil Engineering Bro: But building a Fence takes a lot of Wood. Ten units of Wood make one meter of Fence. Also, the Fence has to completely surround the shelter before it can protect it. Expanding territory works the same way: only areas fully enclosed by the Fence count as your expanded territory.]
Every player who had asked him about the Fence had stopped at this point.
Qi Yu calculated. His current Level-One Shelter was nearly fifty square meters. Assuming he did not expand the territory at all and simply surrounded the shelter, he would need about thirty meters of Fence.
In other words, adding a single layer of protection around the shelter would cost three hundred units of Wood.
And that was only enough to circle the shelter itself. If he wanted to expand his territory, the amount of Wood required would probably be terrifying.
Civil Engineering Bro had opened two Fence Blueprints and used one himself, which was how he knew all this.
He asked himself honestly whether he would buy a blueprint like this if he were in the other person's position. He would not.
So he waited for Qi Yu to refuse.
[ID4399439: I don't have another blueprint to exchange. I'll trade Common Dagger x1 and Mutant Brutal-Tusk Boar Meat 2 kg for the blueprint.]
Now that Qi Yu had the Brutal-Tusk Dagger, the Common Dagger was of little use to him.
As for food, judging from his observations, quite a few players in the region had killed mutant creatures today, but most of the materials being sold came from small animals.
Two kilograms of Brutal-Tusk Boar meat should still be fairly valuable.
[Civil Engineering Bro: Do you have any longer weapons? A saber, sword, staff, something like that?]
He was a construction worker who poured concrete for a living. Aside from being hardened by life into a man with plenty of raw strength, his combat experience was essentially zero. As the saying went, an extra inch of reach meant an extra inch of advantage. He felt safer with conventional weapons.
Qi Yu thought about it. Mutant creatures were not difficult to kill. If equipment attributes were not required and Civil Engineering Bro only wanted an ordinary weapon, it should not be too hard to obtain one.
More importantly, Civil Engineering Bro was very straightforward.
The fact that he had voluntarily explained every drawback of the Fence gave Qi Yu a fairly good impression of him.
[ID4399439: If I obtain one of those weapons later, I'll trade it to you and take the dagger back.]
When Civil Engineering Bro saw the glaring words "Level-Two Mutant Creature" in the description of the Brutal-Tusk Boar meat, his respect instantly rose.
He initiated the trade.
[Civil Engineering Bro: Big shot, want to add me as a friend?]
You could add friends?
The half-primitive apocalypse survivor, who had no idea this function existed, was astonished.
[ID4399439: Mm.]
Civil Engineering Bro thought the big shot was a little aloof and sent over a friend request.
An application popped up on the chat page. Qi Yu tapped Accept.
Once they became friends, their anonymous IDs switched to their real IDs.
What the hell kind of simp-ass ID was this?
What kind of mental fortitude did someone need to be mysteriously dragged into a rotten place like this and still calmly type the words "I Love the Survival Game"?
Civil Engineering Bro was profoundly shaken and felt himself utterly inferior.
In his heart, he quietly put a question mark beside his previous judgment that the big shot was "aloof," revising it to: outwardly reserved, secretly dramatic.
It was obvious from the regional channel that Civil Engineering Bro was a chatterbox. After they became friends, it was even more apparent.
[Civil Engineering Bro: Big shot, is there anything else you need? I opened several furniture blueprints and already learned them, so I can't sell the blueprints themselves, but if you provide materials, I can craft things for you.]
[Civil Engineering Bro: We can also share resources and improve together!]
Enthusiastically, he sent over descriptions of several items:
[Simple Stove: Basic cooking equipment. Can process food.]
[Simple Trap: Basic trap. Perhaps it can catch prey that isn't very clever.]
[Kerosene Lamp: Produces light at night.]
[Lazy Sofa: Comfort furniture. Resting on it slowly restores Mental Power.]
Qi Yu's eyes widened. He seemed to want every single one of them.
[ID4399439: You opened all of these?]
[Civil Engineering Bro: How could that be possible, hehe? I add everyone I've traded with as friends. We got these by exchanging resources among ourselves.]
[Civil Engineering Bro: So, big shot, do you need anything?]
He wanted all of them!
[ID4399439: What are the trade terms?]
[Civil Engineering Bro: Since we just entered the survival game and everyone's resources are limited, it's best if you bring your own materials and pay a small crafting fee. I'll process it for you.]
[Civil Engineering Bro: Anything you want, big shot?]
[ID4399439: I'll contact you tonight.]
[Civil Engineering Bro: Okay, big shot. You go do your thing first.]
The conversation ended.
Qi Yu rummaged through his backpack.
Damn it. He had opened several treasure chests today, so why did he still feel so poor?!
The little bit of satisfaction he had gained from opening the Silver Treasure Chest instantly vanished.
Fuming, he devoured two whole steamed buns.
Only after finishing did he realize what he had done. He froze, his heart aching slightly.
Those were two enormous white steamed buns. Back in the apocalypse, he could have rationed them carefully over an entire week.
But he quickly comforted himself: I now own more than a hundred kilograms of meat. Eating two steamed buns is not wasteful at all.
And besides…
He rubbed his satisfyingly full stomach. Being full really did feel wonderful.
He took out the Fence Blueprint.
After estimating the space, he decided there was no need to protect the shelter yet. He could first enclose a small area and place the Farmland.
He had been curious about his [Planting] talent for a long time.
Two 2 m x 2 m Farmland plots would require twelve meters of Fence to enclose completely.
That meant one hundred and twenty units of Wood.
He had used up all his Wood upgrading the cabin.
At this point, there was only one thing to do: chop trees.
Qi Yu picked up his axe and buried himself in logging.
He now wore the Brutal-Tusk Bracer, Emerald Necklace, and Emerald Long Boots, making chopping trees almost effortless.
On top of that, he had just eaten his fill and had abundant Stamina.
Without taking a single break, he felled ten trees in one stretch.
Three critical yields triggered along the way, giving him an extra thirty units of Wood.
He checked the time. Two hours had passed.
He learned the blueprint.
[Required materials detected. Craft Fence?]
"Craft."
Like the other furniture, the completed Fence first appeared as an icon on the survival interface. It only manifested physically after Qi Yu selected a placement location.
Qi Yu chose the open ground to the right of the wooden cabin.
There was no particular reason. It was simply the largest empty patch nearby.
But once he placed the Fence, he discovered he had worried unnecessarily—the moment the eight-square-meter enclosed area appeared, space itself seemed to extend out of nothing.
The original open ground between the cabin and the jungle remained exactly where it was, with the same distance between them.
Those eight square meters of "territory" were literally additional space created from nothing.
