Icefire Mushroom

"Phew... this feels amazing!"

Pu Shenqi sat up in his 300-square-meter secondary bedroom.

He rolled his neck and stretched his back, feeling as refreshed and energetic as if he had just gotten a full night's sleep.

It was incredibly comfortable.

"Playing Apocalypse OL makes time pass so fast. I barely did anything, and twelve hours are already gone. Mainly because this open-world map is so huge—I spent several hours just running back and forth."

He checked the time. It was exactly six in the morning.

"The game's time runs one-to-one with real-world time, except day and night are reversed. It just got dark over there, while dawn is breaking here. Perfect. It won't interfere with what I need to do during the day."

"Wait!"

Pu Shenqi suddenly realized something.

"If I can play games instead of sleeping, wouldn't that mean my life is basically twice as long?"

"I'll get double the happiness!"

Apocalypse OL currently only allowed twelve hours of play per day. Once night fell, the NPCs would kick them offline, saying that nighttime was dangerous and soldiers needed to rest.

As usual, Pu Shenqi went to the forum to clear his replies and make a few posts. Naturally, he bragged again about how great virtual reality games were, drawing jealous resentment from a crowd of players who could not get a reservation. It had already been a pretty good day. Now it was even better!

"Sure enough, happiness isn't about how much I earn. It's about... whether I earn more than other people."

Happiness came from comparison!

Opening his private messages, Pu Shenqi found Sentinel and asked about the game's monster farming mechanics.

Sentinel happened to be online and replied instantly.

"In Apocalypse OL, there is no setting where minor monsters respawn. Every creature is unique and one of a kind. In other words, you will never kill two identical creatures."

Pu Shenqi was stunned.

"Then what happens if we kill all the monsters? What will newcomers do when they arrive? How are they supposed to level up?"

Sentinel: "We naturally have plans for that later. There's no need to worry."

Pu Shenqi asked again, "All right, as long as you designers know what you're doing. Oh, one more question. Why doesn't this game have a warehouse? We just throw the equipment we get everywhere, and newcomers can pick it up directly. That's pretty unsafe."

Sentinel: "Don't worry. The game we make has logic behind it. We will definitely add a warehouse feature in a reasonable way later on. Rest assured."

Pu Shenqi: "By the way, Brother Sentinel, can you extend my game time? That NPC you made is so annoying, kicking us offline directly. If I weren't intimidated by his authority, I'd have dropped a few rap bars on him."

Sentinel: "Ahem. That's mainly a requirement of the closed beta, to prevent players from suffering adverse effects from using the helmets too long. Also, I strongly suggest that you improve your relationship with the Lord."

Pu Shenqi: "Come on! He's just an intelligent NPC. What the hell does he know about games? I smile on the outside while cursing him out inside. Can he see through me? What a joke!"

Sentinel: "Heh. Then good luck."

Aside from Thin Dog, Sentinel chatted with the other two players for a while longer, gathering all the issues the players had raised and adding them to the next version's development plan.

After quantum surfing for over an hour, Cheng Shaofeng turned his attention back to the base.

"There will be more and more players later. It's time to set up a warehouse for them."

Protecting the players' rights and interests was something he, as the designer, needed to do. Otherwise, players might spend all day hunting monsters only to return home and find that everything they had stored away had been stolen. That would be infuriating.

The current players were fairly decent, but there was no telling what later arrivals would be like.

"So the question is... how do I establish a warehouse system?"

In games he had played before, there would either be a warehouse NPC or just a large chest in the safe zone. Whenever players returned to town, they would sort through their belongings, sell the useless things to the shop, and store the useful ones in the warehouse.

"The shop and warehouse should be set up together. Buy goods from players at low prices, then sell them at high prices to other players, or to merchants from Salt Well Town, or to caravans from Colossus City. After doing that a few times, I'll become the richest person in the base."

Today, watching Thin Dog and the other two slaughter Raiders like crazy, stockpiling Biological Raw Materials and opening loot box rewards, made Cheng Shaofeng green with envy!

Especially Thin Dog!

The equipment the three of them got had all been put on him, boosting his combat power by a huge margin. Most importantly, he even dared to secretly curse the Lord behind his back!

"Tomorrow, I absolutely have to assign him some special tasks!"

After a brief moment of thought, Cheng Shaofeng had more or less figured out what he needed to do over the next few days.

"It worked! It's actually a dual-attribute weapon!"

Xiao Xiao shouted excitedly in front of the Attribute Conversion Tower.

Cheng Shaofeng's hand twitched slightly. "Damn it, the players' equipment got upgraded again?"

Using the base's authority, he checked the properties of the weapon Xiao Xiao had just identified.

Piercing Radiation Stone Spear

Quality: High Quality

Physical Damage: 13–25

Physical to Pierce: 35%

Pierce Damage: 5–8

Radiation Damage: 2–7

15% of Physical Damage converted into Radiation Damage

"Good lord, this weapon's Base Damage includes three types—Physical, Pierce, and Radiation—and it even has damage conversion. Zero, what does this conversion damage mean?"

Zero: "Master, converting Physical Damage into Radiation Damage means that when attacking with this weapon, 15% of all Physical Damage is converted into Radiation Damage. The same applies to Pierce Damage. If the enemy lacks the corresponding resistance, it can easily cause higher damage. However, Raiders have higher radiation resistance in their bodies. Converting Physical Damage into Radiation Damage will most likely have the opposite effect on them."

"Oh, oh, oh, I get it. Still, this weapon's Base Damage is pretty good. The materials Thin Dog and the others found really are useful."

While Cheng Shaofeng was checking the weapon's properties, Forgiveness Hat returned with a small burlap sack on his back.

He poured out a pile of fruits and mushrooms from it.

"Look what I found. There are so many resources in the mountains around here. Just gathering alone will be enough to feed us."

Xiao Xiao stared at the assortment of completely unfamiliar mushrooms, horrified.

"Brother Hat... are you sure we won't die after eating these? We haven't even finished our beginner quests yet. I heard Thin Dog and the others say that if we die without preparing Clones for ourselves, we might not be able to revive!"

"Come on! I've been eating mushrooms for years. I can tell at a glance whether something is poisonous. Don't believe me? Look."

Wild Poison Mushroom

Contains potent poison and may cause death.

Perhaps it can be used as an ingredient for poison.

"See? Poisonous! Toss it, toss it! We're not eating this one!"

Cheng Shaofeng could only marvel from the side.

"So that's what you meant by seeing it at a glance—you were looking at my machine's display! You really are something!"

Still, the Attribute Conversion Tower was indeed useful. It identified all the fruits and mushrooms Forgiveness Hat had gathered, finding thirteen edible varieties and ten types of poison-making materials.

Forgiveness Hat said to Xiao Xiao, "I took a look around the area and found quite a few resource gathering zones. Come gather resources with me when you have time. You get experience too!"

"Gathering gives experience too? Wait, let me check my watch. Huh! Crafting equipment gives experience too! Making one weapon gives eight points! I already have sixteen experience points!"

"Not bad, not bad. I get less experience from gathering. I have to gather quite a few things to get one point. I probably collected lots of useless stuff. Once I get familiar with it, I should gain experience faster. Looks like this game's designers also considered the leveling needs of Life Players. Interesting."

Xiao Xiao said, "Yeah, Sentinel seems like a really nice person. We aren't related in any way, yet he gave me such a precious closed beta slot. It really touched me."

The two chatted briefly.

Forgiveness Hat carried half a bag of poisonous mushrooms and jogged over to Cheng Shaofeng.

"Lord, do you want these?"

Cheng Shaofeng: "?"

You think I can't see your identification results?

You want to poison me to death?

Fine!

The players are rebelling now!

Forgiveness Hat saw Cheng Shaofeng's confusion and quickly explained.

"Lord, I was thinking... maybe you could use them? For example, invite your competitors to an all-mushroom feast, and then there won't be any competitors left. Anyway, just give me some money and buy them off me."

Selling useless things to the shop was common sense among players.

Cheng Shaofeng understood that Forgiveness Hat wanted to sell them for money, not poison him and become the Lord himself.

He opened the bag and took a look.

"Huh? This is... an Icefire Mushroom?"

Cheng Shaofeng pinched out two red-and-blue mushrooms, the kind that looked deadly at a single glance.

But Cheng Shaofeng's predecessor had been a Scavenger and knew that although this thing was highly poisonous, it could become a top-tier medicine after special treatment. Caravans from Colossus City bought them.

Thirty yuan each.

That could buy twenty-five jin of beans in Salt Well Town, enough food for an adult for twelve days.

In other words, Forgiveness Hat had earned fifty jin of beans from one trip outside.

"Where did you gather these mushrooms?"