[Welcome to the Global Survival Game.]
When that voice sounded, Qi Yu was lying on the ground with both hands folded over his abdomen, looking exceptionally peaceful.
A second earlier, while searching for clean water, he had accidentally fallen into the nest of a Rift-Maw Monster.
His last memory was of countless monsters swallowing him up.
He figured he was probably dead.
What a rotten world. Living was suffering; dying was fine too.
He quietly waited for his consciousness to sink into eternal sleep.
Yet instead of fading into oblivion as he expected, his mind grew clearer and clearer, and sensation gradually returned to his body as well.
Qi Yu smelled the crisp chill of the air at the tip of his nose. It was cold and clean, without that clinging stench of decay that had always been like maggots gnawing at the bone.
He could feel four whole limbs and warm blood flowing through every part of his body.
The wounds and illnesses that had plagued him for years were gone!
[Welcome to the Global Survival Game.]
The voice sounded again, clearer this time.
Qi Yu's eyes flew open!
Before he could assume any sort of defensive posture, the calm mechanical voice spoke again:
[Blue Star has been selected to participate in the survival game.]
[For every player, the small wooden cabin you are currently in will be your one and only shelter.]
[The newbie period lasts three days. During the newbie period, shelters are absolutely safe. Once the newbie period ends, shelters may come under attack. Make good use of your time and upgrade your small wooden cabin as soon as possible.]
After delivering those few sentences, the mechanical voice fell silent.
Blue Star?
Was that the name of a planet?
Qi Yu's gaze rapidly swept across the wooden cabin before him.
The entire cabin was about twenty square meters, with four plain wooden walls and no windows. Directly in front of him stood a wooden door that did not look particularly sturdy.
To the left of the door was a crude wooden table, the only piece of furniture in the cabin.
Something on its less-than-smooth surface was blinking and giving off light, irresistibly drawing the eye.
Qi Yu did not rush over. Instead, he lowered his head and looked at his left hand.
An intact arm, with a thin layer of muscle covering the bone.
It had never been broken. There were no wounds.
Fascinated, he examined his body from head to toe and confirmed that none of this was an illusion. It was as though some divine power had fished him out of certain death and granted him a whole, vigorous body.
Just then, the little object on the wooden table suddenly flared with brilliant light.
Qi Yu walked over and got a clear look at it. It was a water-blue badge shaped like a five-pointed star.
This time, he did not hesitate. Something capable of bringing him back from the dead and even regenerating severed limbs probably had no need to plot against him.
If it really did want to do him harm, then he could just die again. He thought this with perfect calm.
The moment his finger touched the badge, the blue star melted like snowmelt, breaking into specks of light that sank into his palm and became a tattoo-like pattern.
At the same time, a voice sounded in his mind:
[Congratulations to player "My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven's" for becoming the first player to register an ID. Reward obtained: Silver Treasure Chest x1.]
Another voice followed immediately afterward:
[Congratulations to player "My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven's" for achieving the first kill on the entire server. Reward obtained: Silver Treasure Chest x1.]
Qi Yu: ?
He did not really know what a Silver Treasure Chest was, but he certainly understood the word "reward."
He stared at the blue star pattern in his palm. As though sensing his thoughts, pale-blue streams of information gathered in his mind and formed a virtual screen.
Several lines of text appeared on it, providing supplementary information about the survival game:
[Players are advised to take the game seriously. You only have one life.]
[A newbie gift pack will be provided during the newbie period. It contains clean food and water. Players, explore carefully.]
Qi Yu thought this game was actually pretty nice.
Not only had it resurrected and healed him for free and given him a safe shelter, it even provided clean food and water.
All right, those were the advantages. What about the drawbacks?
After going to all that trouble to save him, surely it wanted something in return.
As though it had read his thoughts—or perhaps by sheer coincidence—the next line of text slowly appeared on the screen.
[The survival game's only requirement of its players: survive.]
[Danger is also opportunity.]
[Please enter your survival-game ID.]
.
After a brief silence, Qi Yu solemnly entered the six-character ID [I Love the Survival Game], his heart full of gratitude.
The ID was confirmed successfully. No one had taken it. He felt even more grateful.
With the ID confirmed, it was as if some mandatory step had been completed.
Several new sections soon appeared on the screen.
The most prominent were [Personal Information], [Chat], and [Trade].
Personal Information:
Survival ID: I Love the Survival Game
Age: 19
Shelter: Starter Wooden Cabin (Durability 100/100), upgradeable. Next level: Level-One Shelter (Sturdy Wooden Cabin)
Skills: None
Hunger: 20/100
Stamina: 50/100 (Having 20 Hunger and 50 Stamina is, it must be said, quite unusual.)
Health: 60/100
At the top of the chat channel was a number: 01.
The player count read 99999/100000.
Countless messages were scrolling past like a snowstorm, but perhaps because of some special ability granted by the survival game, Qi Yu could still clearly make out their contents.
[Money Comes From All Directions: Where the hell did I end up? Am I even still in the country?]
[Old Farmer: Holy crap, a survival game? The novels I've read came true? I know this trope, folks. Hurry up and grind like crazy while the newbie period lasts!]
[Heartthrob: I just finished renovating my new place and was supposed to move in next month. What kind of bullshit game is this? Fuck your *****!]
[Tranquility Leads Far: There's a wooden chest in the corner of the cabin. That's the newbie chest the game mentioned. It has steamed buns and water inside, plus an axe.]
[The More I Endure, the Angrier I Get: Isn't this kidnapping? This is kidnapping! Fuck, I want to go home! I want to go home!]
[The Harder I Grind, the Worse My Life Gets: Who is My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven's? You're telling me that isn't a plant working for the game?]
[Miserable Senior-Year Student: Holy shit, my eight-hundred-degree myopia is gone. So this is what the world looks like without glasses!]
[Civil Engineering Bro: Is 01, the name of our group chat, our region number? The first region? How are the regions divided? Is everyone here from the Huaxia Federation? I'm from S City in the southeastern district.]
…
Qi Yu rapidly filtered through the information and soon realized one fact: he and these people did not come from the same place.
They must be the people of Blue Star mentioned by the survival game.
Most of the messages were expressions of panic, anger, and a desire to go home.
There were also plenty of complaints about the shabby cabins and terrible food.
A rough picture formed in his mind: Blue Star was probably a beautiful, peaceful, prosperous planet with no virus, no zombies, and no monsters.
He could not imagine what such a place was like.
As far back as his memories went, he had known only the apocalypse, where humans struggled desperately to survive in a harsh and dangerous environment.
So, unlike the other players, he felt secretly delighted.
He had no idea what bug had occurred in the survival game to mistake him for someone from Blue Star and drag him in.
He would treasure all of this properly.
There was nothing in the Trade section yet.
Qi Yu got up and carefully circled the inside of the cabin first, but he did not see the newbie chest mentioned in the chat. Apparently, the chest did not spawn in a fixed location.
He opened the door halfway.
What met his eyes made them widen.
A jungle.
Countless unfamiliar plants filled his field of vision. On pure reflex, he took a sharp step backward and slammed the wooden door shut with a bang.
Two breaths later, the pale young man muttered to himself, "Forgot again."
He had died and come back to life. He was no longer in that hell.
The plants here were just plants, not monsters.
Besides, even if that were not the case, he was still within the safe newbie period.
Qi Yu pulled the door open and stepped outside.
As he approached a tall tree, his body instinctively tensed.
[Adult tree detected. Can be felled.]
Qi Yu grabbed a handful of leaves and put them in his mouth.
Slightly astringent, with almost no flavor.
Pretty tasty.
He waited quietly for a little while longer. His body showed no abnormal reaction.
His eyes suddenly lit up. He surveyed the vast forest as though he were looking at countless treasures.
Every. Single. Thing. Here. Was. Edible. Food!
He had the urge to start stripping leaves off the trees on the spot.
Fortunately, reason stopped him.
No rush. The trees were not going anywhere.
His first priority was finding the newbie chest.
And, equally important, upgrading the wooden cabin.
He clearly remembered the survival game saying that shelters were absolutely safe during the newbie period, but once the three days were over, that would no longer necessarily be true.
The newbie chest was not particularly well hidden. After walking through a patch of harvestable trees, he spotted a wooden chest tucked in the grass.
[Newbie Treasure Chest detected. Open?]
Qi Yu silently chose Open and stared at the chest expectantly.
As the lid lifted, a faint white light shone from within.
[Congratulations. You have obtained: Steamed Bun x6, Drinking Water 500 ml x3, Wooden Axe x1, Workbench Blueprint x1, Basic Backpack Blueprint x1, Common Talent Skill Book x1.]
In addition to the physical items, there were two thin blueprints and a palm-sized booklet with a blue cover.
[Blueprint detected. Learn?]
Qi Yu chose Learn.
[Workbench: A structure used to craft all kinds of tools. Construction materials: Wood x50, Stone x50.]
[Basic Backpack: Grants 10 basic backpack slots. Cannot stack. Construction materials: Jute Grass x30.]
[Wooden chest can be dismantled. Dismantle?]
Qi Yu looked at the chest packed full of water and steamed buns, swallowed, and chose No.
He crouched down, habitually wiped his hands on his clothes, and picked up a steamed bun.
Unexpectedly, yet somehow not that unexpectedly, the plump white bun was actually hot, as though it had come out of the steamer a second ago.
He took a bite.
Even his soul seemed to let out a satisfied sigh at that moment.
Qi Yu devoured half the bun at astonishing speed, drank two mouthfuls of water, then carefully placed both back in the wooden chest and gently closed the lid.
Half a steamed bun raised his Hunger to 50, his Stamina to 90, and restored his Health to full.
He picked up the little blue booklet.
A talent skill book?
Was it what he thought it was?
The moment he woke up, he had checked his body. Although it had been restored to an astonishing state of health, his ability was gone.
He had even consoled himself: if that was the price of being reborn into a wonderful world, he could accept it.
Now, however, perhaps there was still hope?
[Common Talent Skill Book detected. Learn?]
"Learn."
