Over the past two days, Player 001 had always struck Ruoshui Sanqian as a cold, aloof big shot who hardly ever spoke.
She barely said anything in Chat Channel. When she did, it was only to share information or sell goods.
Looking at the twenty Wood Fences she'd won, Ruoshui Sanqian opened the comments beneath the red envelope and posted her first comment: "Thanks for the red envelope, big shot! I won the grand prize—so happy (＞y＜)."
On the other side of the island, Monster Slayer had just killed the monster in front of him when a system notification sounded.
Hearing it, he excitedly opened the panel. He'd killed plenty of monsters yesterday and today, and now that the big shot had contacted him, he had meat to offer her, too.
Why was he so sure? Of course, because she was the only person he'd marked for special attention.
To make sure he didn't leave the big shot waiting again like last time, he'd marked her for special attention as soon as they finished their trade.
Monster Slayer opened his Friends list, the smile on his face freezing. He'd thought the big shot had messaged him, but it turned out she'd posted on her social feed.
Although he was a little disappointed that he hadn't sold today's meat, he still opened Player 001's feed.
As soon as he clicked in, a red envelope appeared before him. Its bright red background bore the words "Good Luck and Great Prosperity" in gold lettering.
The moment he saw the red envelope, his brain hadn't even had time to react before his finger honestly tapped "Open."
[Congratulations to Monster Slayer for winning: one Steamed Bun]
Monster Slayer noticed a line above the reward on the red envelope page: [Congratulations to Ruoshui Sanqian for winning: twenty Wood Fences]
Then he looked at the total prizes: twenty Wood Fences, one Steamed Bun, one bottle of water. Total red envelopes: 3.
Monster Slayer's mouth curled into a smile. "See? I'd say my luck's not bad. There were only three red envelopes, and I managed to grab one."
He took a screenshot and saved it in his backpack.
"Next time someone says I'm unlucky, I'll show them this picture. Heh."
Then he opened the comments beneath the red envelope: "Thanks, big shot! I got lucky—out of only three red envelopes, I managed to snag one."
"(Screenshot) The Steamed Bun is delicious."
Ji Xinghe hadn't seen their comments. She was currently deep in the process of learning a skill.
In her mind.
It was still the little girl and the old man with white eyebrows, except the girl now looked two years older.
Without thinking too much about it, Ji Xinghe followed the little girl's rhythm, feeling each of her movements and thoughts...
She opened her eyes again.
[Successfully learned skill: Purification Technique] "Purification Technique: An auxiliary and attack skill." "Skill details: Increases resistance to environments such as mutated areas and poisonous gas. It can consume a certain amount of Spirit to purify spoiled or mutated food. It can also purify living creatures that have not fully mutated (current success rate for purifying food: 90%; current success rate for purifying living creatures: 50%)." "Attack: When facing Dark Creatures or Deformed Monsters, Purification Technique can be used as an attack skill. Damage dealt: 2 × your own spell attack." "Spirit consumed: 10" "Skill cooldown: 120 seconds"
"Huh? So it works as both an attack and a support skill?"
Ji Xinghe took out some Deformed Meat and released a ball of soft, bright white light from her hand.
"Purification Technique."
The next moment, the light enveloped the meat. Before her eyes, the Deformed Meat, which had been giving off gray wisps, gradually returned to a natural meat color.
She excitedly picked it up to inspect.
"White Wolf King Meat (500 g): Meat that has been purified. It's essentially no different from fresh Beast Meat—and may even taste better."
She beckoned to Xiao Xi.
When it came trotting over, Ji Xinghe rubbed its vines. "Take this piece of meat and eat it."
Xiao Xi gently tapped the meat with one vine and began eating at a leisurely pace.
After watching Xiao Sha eat so elegantly earlier, it wanted to do the same. It couldn't let down its big sister's reputation.
But the more it ate, the bigger its bites became. It sneaked glances at Ji Xinghe from the corner of its eye. Seeing no sign of annoyance or impatience on her face, it finally let itself go.
It wolfed the meat down. Why was it even tastier than this morning's meat? It just couldn't stop.
After testing the skill, Ji Xinghe opened the panel to see how her goods were selling on the Trade Market.
She still had a little of her other basic materials left, except for stone.
Maybe she'd listed too much stone, causing prices to drop across the entire Trade Market. Stone that had originally gone for one Wow Coin per four units had now fallen to one Wow Coin per six units.
Uh...
After thinking it over, she decided not to change her price for the time being. After all, she had plenty of stone. If she changed her price, everyone else would have to follow suit, and players who only had stone might be eliminated as the market shifted.
It wasn't that she was being softhearted. The main thing was that she had other materials to sell, and stone wasn't her only source of income. It was just the material she had the most of.
If she didn't lower her price, the others wouldn't be able to lower theirs by much, either.
Besides the basic materials, all 1,500 of her Wood Fences had sold out. She checked the time on the last trade record: 07:36:09.
Looks like there was still a market for Wood Fences. She remembered listing them close to seven, and they'd sold out in less than an hour.
She claimed all the wood in the trade panel and put it in her backpack.
Wood +4,500 units.
She continued making fences.
[Ding! Deducted 4,500 units of wood. Crafted 2,250 Wood Fences.] [Wood Fence crafting completion countdown: 06:18:59]
Another six hours. Looks like she'd only be able to sell fences twice during the beginner period.
Before you continue