This village was just as that old village chief had said—sparsely populated, barely a few dozen people in the huge place, looking quite dilapidated.
Furthermore, most of them were old, weak, sick, or disabled.
Xiao Jie strolled around the village while searching for any potential characters, and when he reached the back mountain, he saw a middle-aged man with a severed hand looking at the trees all over the mountain with a worried expression.
Although there was no quest marker above his head, Xiao Jie felt that there was definitely something to be found here.
"Mister, I am looking for work. Is there anything I can do for you?"
The man looked Xiao Jie over alertly, and upon seeing his attire, his eyes immediately lit up.
Wang Da Niu (Woodcutter): "You're a Returnee, right? I've heard of you folks. You've come just in time. I'm the village woodcutter. A few days ago, I was accidentally bitten by a poisonous snake; I managed to keep my life, but my hand is ruined. The village is in urgent need of firewood right now, but I can't do this line of work anymore. If you're willing, help me chop some firewood.
"The work is a bit tiring, but I certainly won't let you work for nothing. I'll give you ten copper coins for every bundle of firewood. What do you say, want to do it?"
A dialog box popped up in front of him—
[System Notice: Wang Da Niu offers you the errand [Woodcutting]. Do you accept?]
Woodcutting? It didn't sound too difficult either.
Ten cash per bundle chopped, and chopping a hundred bundles would be a thousand cash, which was enough for early-game gear money.
Xiao Jie decisively chose to accept.
"Here, borrow this for now."
System Notice: Obtained temporary profession [Woodcutter].
System Notice: Obtained temporary item [Rusty Firewood Chopper].
[Rusty Firewood Chopper (Single Handed Blade)
Attack: 12 chop.
Weapon Special Effect: Wood Cutting. (Deals 50% enhanced damage to tree-type monsters)
Item Description: A rusty firewood chopper, a tool used for chopping firewood rather than killing. As a weapon, it is very crude, but it's still better than bare hands.]
It actually even came with a weapon. Not bad, not bad.
Wang Da Niu (Woodcutter): "Come on, young man. I'll tell you the essentials of woodcutting.
"Do you see those trees on the slope of the back mountain? You'll chop wood right there. Remember not to walk too far, or you'll easily run into danger.
"Also, pick dead tree branches to chop; green branches can't be burned anyway. Don't chop trees that are too thick either. Woodcutting isn't lumberjacking; regardless of thickness, as long as it burns, it's fine. Once you chop fifty pieces, tie them into a bundle with the mountain vines nearby. If any sticks or pieces are missing and the count falls short, I'll dock your pay. Understood?"
System Notice: You learned [Woodcutting (Novice)]. Your Crafting Manual has been updated.
Xiao Jie couldn't help but smile. According to that black-windbreaker guy's words, life skills could also be brought into reality. This meant he had learned a brand-new skill, even though this skill probably wouldn't be of much use in the real world.
"Got it, mister. Go take a rest, and leave the rest to me."
Once Wang Da Niu left, Xiao Jie started chopping firewood on the slope.
This job was not difficult. First, he had to identify whether the trees were dead. Naturally, he couldn't hack away blindly at the lush, green ones, so he focused only on those withered, yellow dead trees.
Whether due to poor soil or not, such dead trees were everywhere across the mountains, while green trees were nowhere to be found.
Then, he just swung his blade at the branches of the dead trees and chopped away. The gameplay of hugging trees to gather resources was similar in many survival games, and Xiao Jie was entirely familiar with it.
Work progress constantly popped up in the bottom-right corner.
Clack! Woodcutting failed.
Clack! Woodcutting failed.
Clack! Woodcutting successful, Dry Firewood +1.
Clack! Woodcutting failed.
Clack! Critical woodcutting failure, Firewood Chopper durability -1.
Clack! Woodcutting successful, Dry Firewood +1.
These prompts didn't seem to have any discernible pattern; they appeared completely at random. Sometimes a single strike could knock down a piece of dry firewood, while other times several strikes in a row resulted in failure.
Occasionally, there would even be a durability -1 prompt.
Fortunately, this firewood chopper had a full 50 points of durability, so it wasn't a problem for the time being.
After working for over ten minutes, Xiao Jie accumulated a bundle of dry firewood, chopped a mountain vine to tie it up, and just like that, ten cash were in his hands.
Ha, this job was simple. 1000 copper coins were within reach.
Working for a full hour, Xiao Jie had already chopped five bundles of dry firewood. Although the process was a bit tedious, the thought that having money meant he could buy gear and learn skills filled his heart with drive.
He wasn't going to aim too high. Immortal techniques and whatnot were out of the question for now; he would first get an Inner Power Cultivation Method, train some inner power to experience the feeling of being a martial arts master, and then go learn some Light Body Technique to feel the joy of wall climbing and treading on snow without a trace.
Then learn some blade techniques or sword techniques...
He tied up the dry firewood in his bag once more and continued hugging trees.
However, only a few pieces into this round, Xiao Jie noticed that his character's woodcutting speed had slowed down.
Xiao Jie hastily checked his status. He didn't know when, but his stamina bar had emptied out.
Xiao Jie found it a bit strange; stamina values recovered continuously. As long as it wasn't strenuous exercise, the bar shouldn't empty out like that.
He sat on a rock to rest for a while, watching the stamina value slowly recover. The recovery speed was obviously much slower, and once the stamina only recovered by half, it stopped rising.
A ghost-face icon had also appeared above his head.
[Hunger: Your satiety is too low. Maximum stamina decreased by 50%, stamina recovery speed decreased by 75%.]
What the heck, what was this?
Xiao Jie hastily researched it. Turns out this game also had a satiety mechanic. The maximum was 100 points; falling below 30 would trigger the [Hunger] debuff, while exceeding 80 would trigger the [Satiety] buff.
Xiao Jie hadn't eaten anything yesterday when he went out of the village to fight monsters, and today he had chopped firewood for half a day, decisively triggering the hunger effect.
This... Xiao Jie hadn't expected the game to be this detailed, requiring him to eat food as well. He wondered if that Wang Da Niu provided meals.
When he walked down the slope, Wang Da Niu was sitting on a tree stump resting with a troubled expression.
Xiao Jie chose to hand over the chopped firewood, obtained 50 cash, and then asked, "Mister, this is the firewood I chopped. Do you have anything for me to eat here? My stomach is empty. Let me fill my stomach before I continue chopping."
Wang Da Niu (Woodcutter): "You youngster, you don't do much work, but you sure have plenty of demands. My place isn't a charity house; where would I get free food? Go check out the tavern in the village; they sell steamed buns and sesame cakes."
Xiao Jie arrived at the tavern, and sure enough, there were all kinds of food.
Steamed Buns (Satiety +10), 5 cash each.
Sesame Cakes (Satiety +20), 10 cash each.
Wild Boar Jerky (Satiety +50), 25 cash per piece.
Secret Roasted Chicken (Satiety +50, additional buff: Contentment), 50 cash each.
Lao Bai Gan (Satiety +5, additional effect: Dizzied), 15 cash per flask.
Du Kang Wine (Satiety +5, additional buff: Hearty Satisfaction), 40 cash per flask...
Xiao Jie didn't even consider the expensive ones further down; he just bought six of the cheapest steamed buns, stuffed his face until his satiety reached 90 in one go. Watching his wallet shrink by more than half instantly made his heart ache a little.
It wasn't that he begrudged this bit of copper coins, but rather that he suddenly realized he hadn't factored food consumption into his previous calculations of woodcutting earnings.
The more he worked, the faster he got hungry. The initial earnings of 10 cash per bundle of dry firewood weren't high to begin with; now, subtracting the cost of food, how difficult would it be to save up 1000 cash?
However, Xiao Jie soon discovered that eating wasn't the only place where money went.
Returning to the mountain to continue chopping wood, Xiao Jie observed the rate at which his satiety dropped while working. Fortunately, it didn't drop too fast, and with the [Satiety] buff active, his stamina recovery speed was very fast. He could completely mindlessly hack away, and his tree-hugging efficiency even improved somewhat for a moment.
Getting hungry so quickly today was probably because he hadn't eaten yesterday when going out to fight monsters.
Under normal circumstances, these 90 points of satiety were enough to last for several hours.
Yet, after working for only half an hour, a red prompt suddenly appeared again in the bottom-right corner.
[System Notice: Your Firewood Chopper durability is too low and cannot be used.]
Xiao Jie clicked open his inventory, and sure enough, the durability had dropped to 1/50.
A shred of ominous premonition instantly rose in his heart—surely the cost of repairing the blade wouldn't have to come out of his own pocket, right?
He really was afraid of what might happen. Finding Wang Da Niu to tell him the chopper was broken, the other man naturally didn't give him a pleasant expression.
Wang Da Niu (Woodcutter): "I'm telling you, young man, of course you have to repair this firewood chopper yourself. When I handed this chopper to you, it was clearly in good condition. You ruined it by swinging it around recklessly, so you can't blame me. Look at this hand of mine—it's ruined. Hiring you to chop firewood is just for an emergency. The reward the village gives me is ten cash per bundle of firewood, and I gave all of it to you. If you still want me to spend money repairing the blade, wouldn't I be losing money? Where in the world is there such logic?"
What Wang Da Niu said sounded quite pitiful, and Xiao Jie really had no counter.
Fortunately, these two bundles of firewood had sold for another 20 cash. Counting the 26 cash he originally had in his pouch, he had a total of 66 cash, which should be enough.
He headed straight for the blacksmith shop, but that bearded blacksmith wasn't around—only the black, chubby apprentice was there, forging the blade blank of an iron sword.
Xiao Jie thought to himself that it wasn't a major job anyway, so an apprentice would do; maybe it would even be cheaper.
"Hello, can you help me repair this firewood chopper?"
Wang Kai (Blacksmith Apprentice): "No problem, let me take a look. Hmm, fifty copper coins to fix it for you."
Fifty copper coins! Xiao Jie was speechless. All morning he had earned a grand total of 70 cash, spent 30 copper coins buying six steamed buns, and if he spent another 50 copper coins to fix the blade, wouldn't he actually lose money? Good thing he had the 26 cash dropped by the bandits earlier, otherwise he wouldn't even be able to afford to repair the blade. Are you kidding me?
The game couldn't possibly be this ruthless.
Xiao Jie didn't agree immediately. Instead, he thought about it: since the game was designed with mechanics allowing players to do odd jobs for money, logically it wouldn't leave players with no way out, right?
No matter what, it couldn't possibly result in a net loss.
Moreover, he hadn't forgotten the high degree of freedom in this game; perhaps repair fees could be bargained down.
"Brother, can you make it a bit cheaper? It's not easy for a Returnee like me to make a living."
Wang Kai (Blacksmith Apprentice): "You're a Returnee, but am I not a Returnee? This is already cheap enough. If you went to find an NPC to repair it, 50 cash definitely wouldn't cut it."
The other person's words gave Xiao Jie a slight start, and then he suddenly reacted.
"Huh? You're a player too!"
Before you continue