The Clones produced by Calamity Base all had random appearances, but overall, none of them looked bad.
Especially Calamity Base's first female Clone player: Ink Dye Sword Xiao.
A textbook beauty.
Fair skin, a pretty face, and long legs. On the wasteland, she was absolutely destined to suffer.
She was smaller than the previous three players, only 1.7 meters tall, with slightly lower weight and strength.
But according to Zero, everyone's total attributes were fixed. If she was lacking in physique and strength, she was bound to have other outstanding traits.
Cheng Shaofeng glanced at Ink Dye Sword Xiao's ample chest and secretly thought, Don't tell me all her stats went there. That would be bad—her work efficiency would drop a lot, and she could easily distract the other players from their work.
The other player, Forgiveness Hat Wholesaler, was fairly ordinary, with roughly the same height and weight as Lin Tang.
The two of them were listening attentively to their Lord.
Cheng Shaofeng continued, "Soldiers, you need to chop wood and build yourselves a small hut to rest in, similar to those four houses over there. When your soul needs rest, you can lie in your own safe hut and ensure your body remains protected."
A quest notification popped up on both of their watches.
100 Merit Points rewarded.
"Also, our base's resources are extremely scarce. Reviving you requires a certain amount of Biological Raw Materials, electronic components, and energy. Before you explore this world, you must prepare a backup Clone for yourselves. Otherwise, after death, your soul may sleep forever. Soldiers who do not cherish their own lives are unworthy of being soldiers of Calamity Base."
Another main quest appeared on their watches, identical to the one Thin Dog and the other two had received.
"Lastly, soldiers, these three machines are the foundation of our base. You can check their displays for instructions and descriptions. If there is anything you do not understand, call upon the base's intelligent AI, Zero. It will answer all your questions."
"All right, go do what you should be doing, soldiers!"
After saying that, Cheng Shaofeng left with a stern expression.
The two new players exchanged a glance and saw understanding in each other's eyes.
"Got it. Beginner quests—one farming task, one resource-gathering task with a little combat. They're mainly for familiarizing us with the game's various mechanics. Nothing new, even a little cliché, but... this game's graphics are fucking incredible!"
Forgiveness Hat excitedly wandered around the base, hopping now and then, sniffing here and there, slapping himself, and giggling foolishly. He looked exactly like a patient who needed a higher dosage.
Ink Dye Sword Xiao was just as amazed, especially by her own body.
"Wow, my skin is so smooth. I feel so strong, and my five senses are so clear... Wait, let me take a look at that... Hiss! Is this game really this realistic?"
Her face flushed red.
Meanwhile, Forgiveness Hat quickly walked over.
"Huh? What good stuff is that? Let me see!"
Ink Dye Sword Xiao immediately changed her expression. "Nothing! Go look at the machines! Oh, right, your name... it's so strange. Does it have some special meaning?"
"Oh, in real life, I do delivery errands. I often help long-distance couples deliver things, so I sometimes see... green content. That's why I gave myself this name. It looks like I'm running errands, but I'm actually handing out Forgiveness Hats. But what can you do when your partner is far away? Of course, you choose to forgive her. Just call me Forgiveness Hat. By the way, I heard you make videos?"
"Oh, Brother Hat, I'm a Bilibili creator in the handicrafts section. Everyone calls me Xiao Xiao. Please take care of me."
The two had logged in at the same time, so they naturally formed a party.
They were both veteran players, so they had no trouble accepting gamified content. After walking around on their own and asking Zero a few questions, they understood the basics.
The two picked up axes from the base and began chopping wood to build a house.
Once she got to work, Xiao Xiao was crisp and efficient. She chopped quickly and carved accurately.
Before Forgiveness Hat had even felled a few trees, she had already begun cutting lumber.
Ink Dye Sword Xiao said, "The body in this game is so strong. Chopping down trees doesn't feel burdensome at all, and I can keep working afterward. This feels great~ This game is ten times better than the best game I could have imagined!"
"If only I could record videos. I could play while recording, edit it when I get back, and post a new feature. Oh, right, I can make weapons in this game too, can't I? Let me try!"
She casually shaved down a wooden shaft into a spear, then used a Wolf Tooth Club lying nearby to smash apart a stone. She selected a palm-sized diamond-shaped piece and began grinding it against a large boulder.
"Bring me some water."
"Oh, okay." Forgiveness Hat, standing beside her, was completely stunned.
He had not even figured out the quest yet, and she was already... making a weapon?
The base had stored water that Thin Dog and the others had previously brought back. He scooped out a ladleful and slowly poured it over the stone as Xiao Xiao instructed, washing away the debris around it and making the grinding smoother.
Xiao Xiao spent a full fifteen minutes grinding out a stone spearhead. It was crude and not particularly regular in shape.
But when Forgiveness Hat touched its tip and sides, it felt hard and slightly sharp.
"Hiss... is this how pros play games?"
Xiao Xiao used mortise-and-tenon joints and hemp rope to secure the stone spearhead. Then she found a piece of iron sheet and hammered it into the wood as a grip. A cold weapon, a Piercing Wooden Spear, was complete.
Forgiveness Hat was dumbfounded.
"Xiao Xiao, were you in the closed beta before? How do you know how to make weapons?"
Xiao Xiao wiped the sweat from her forehead and said with a smile:
"Oh, while chopping wood, I noticed that this game's physics engine was extremely realistic. So I wondered whether I could recreate some simple stone weapons using the crafting methods I normally use for handicrafts. And the result... was this. It's very simple. If you want to learn, I can teach you. Anyone with hands can do it."
Forgiveness Hat said, "...The last time I heard someone say that was when I asked a single young woman how she could stay happy every day. That was what she told me."
Following Zero's prompt, Xiao Xiao placed her homemade weapon into one of the slots on the Attribute Conversion Tower.
"Eh? Why?"
"Ahem! Don't worry about those details. Look at the weapon's attributes!"
The device identified its attributes incredibly quickly. They appeared in a flash.
Thanks to Xiao Xiao's sharing function, Forgiveness Hat beside her could also see the equipment's attributes.
Piercing Wooden Spear Quality: High Quality Physical Damage: 10–20 Physical to Pierce: 35% Pierce Damage: 5–7
A yellow spear now lay before the two of them.
Xiao Xiao looked at it. "These attributes... are they usable?"
Forgiveness Hat picked up the Wolf Tooth Club and crowbar Thin Dog and the others had left behind.
After checking them, he nodded wildly.
"This is way too useful! It's light, and its damage is much more stable than the Wolf Tooth Club's 1–20. It even has Pierce Damage. I don't know what that means, but it sounds a little more advanced than Physical Damage, right?"
"Xiao Xiao, you're fucking amazing!"
Xiao Xiao stuck out her tongue. "Not really, not really. This is only the most basic stone weapon. If I had tools and steel, I could make sharpened iron or steel weapons too, like knives, swords, spears, and so on."
Forgiveness Hat said, "Let's hurry up and finish the first quest. When Thin Dog and the others come back, I guarantee they'll be willing to spend resources to buy weapons you make! Then we definitely won't have to worry about quest materials!"
Behind them, Cheng Shaofeng watched the two and turned to stone on the spot.
"Fuck!? That works too? You can just whip up a high-quality weapon with your hands? Weapon Master, huh?"
"Good heavens... looks like our blacksmith candidate is in place."
He added some steel raw materials to his shopping list for Salt Well Town.
And a few new ideas had already appeared in his mind.
Seeing how capable the people he had recruited were, Cheng Shaofeng revealed a gratified smile.
"Xiao Xiao is a Weapon Master, and Forgiveness Hat is no ordinary person either."
He had made plenty of comparisons before choosing these two players.
Before you continue