A Bountiful Harvest

Bai Yi waited, but Wang Ziyi did not send another message.

He did not mind. After sending "Keep in touch," he set down the journal and began his daily training.

All ten exquisite stone pickaxes had sold during the conversation, bringing him exactly 1,200 units of stone.

However, there was not enough water in the shelter to mix mud, so the shelter upgrade would have to wait until tomorrow morning. For now, Bai Yi planned to train first.

During his workout, an idea suddenly struck him. What would happen if he activated his talent and trained at the highest difficulty—or even beyond it?

Unfortunately, he had already used his talent today. Still, it would be fine to try tomorrow.

After training, Bai Yi was drenched in sweat. He collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep.

[Weather: Heavy Rain

Location: Misty Land

Time: Morning

Temperature: 10–13°C]

"Achoo! Achoo!"

Bai Yi sneezed twice and woke himself up. "Is someone thinking about me?"

Muttering, he got out of bed, grilled a small piece of meat to fill his stomach, and then did some basic warm-up exercises.

Afterward, he opened his personal panel:

[Bai Yi: Healthy]

[Age: 30]

[Strength: 4.2]

[Mentality: 9.1]

[Constitution: 4.2]

[Sanity: 100/100]

[Talent: Steel Spine Will]

"My strength and constitution increased by 0.2? Was it because of the training, or something else?"

Bai Yi looked at his increased attributes with delight, then began considering the cause.

"It probably wasn't the training. The effects of training are stable; it only goes up by 0.1 each time. Could it be the wolf meat?"

Bai Yi suddenly remembered how warm his entire body had felt after eating meat yesterday. That was probably the reason. He picked up the journal and searched.

"Just as I thought!"

There was a forum post analyzing it. Eating the flesh and blood of animals from this world could slowly strengthen one's physical attributes.

Although the post was featured, there were not many players capable of hunting independently yet, so it was not especially popular. Bai Yi gave it a like and exited the forum.

"Huh? It's raining outside?"

As Bai Yi prepared to head out, he saw drizzle falling outside through the window.

"The rain isn't too heavy. I can go out."

[Shepherd's Mercy (Damaged), Durability: 5/5]

The revolver had long since been fully loaded.

Bai Yi held the gun in his left hand, a stone axe in his right, and tucked the journal at his waist.

The stone axe was already battered beyond recognition. Dark red bloodstains that could not be wiped away clung to its wooden handle, while the axe blade had become pitted from excessive chopping.

"Let's go!"

Bai Yi planned to check on the wolf carcasses from before that morning. If the bodies were still there, he would drag them back, though he himself did not hold much hope.

Following his memory, Bai Yi found the site of the previous battle. As expected, the six wolf carcasses were gone. Deep drag marks covered the ground, stained with wolf blood.

"Something dragged the bodies away."

Bai Yi thought for a moment and decided to follow the tracks.

At that moment, he was in peak condition. The revolver had not fired a single shot, and his talent had finished cooling down. Even if another ten wolves appeared, Bai Yi was confident he could wipe them all out.

After following the tracks for roughly seven or eight hundred meters, Bai Yi saw a massive stone wall. At its base was a cave, now nearly two kilometers away from his shelter.

At the cave entrance, a huge black bear was dragging a wolf carcass inside.

Bai Yi felt an urge to make a move. He wanted to hunt the bear.

"I can't go into the cave. It's too dark inside; who knows who would kill whom? And I don't know whether the bear will come back out after it goes in. The safest method is..."

The black bear was happily dragging the carcass along. As it wandered through the forest, it had suddenly come across a pile of corpses. It was truly a free feast.

Now, it only wanted to hurry home and be alone with its feast.

Suddenly, its ears twitched. A faint sound came from the grass behind it.

It immediately became alert, rising onto its hind legs and turning around. There was nothing there?

"Roar—"

The black bear let out a threatening roar, accompanied by rapid clacking of its teeth.

The grass shook even more violently. A strange-looking creature stumbled out and ran into the distance. It was so panicked that it tripped and fell, then scrambled frantically back to its feet.

Fresh food delivered right to its door for free?

The black bear perked up at once. Though the feast had been free, it was not exactly fresh anymore. Now, a fresh prey animal had suddenly presented itself. Today really was its lucky day!

Without another thought, it charged toward the prey.

That creature was truly stupid. It could not even run properly, falling after just a few steps. Was it too frightened?

The black bear quickly caught up. The creature was facing it, sitting on the ground as it kept scooting backward and making strange cries.

The black bear smelled it—the scent of fear. It did not rush to tear apart its prey. Instead, it stood on its hind legs, intending to display its powerful and terrifying size.

But after it stood up, it discovered that the prey had suddenly stopped screaming and taken out something that it pointed at it.

Bang! Bang!

The black bear's head and chest were instantly blasted open with two large holes. Its body went limp and collapsed.

"Are black bears really this stupid? Were you afraid I wouldn't be safe just shooting your head, so you stood up and let me shoot both your head and heart?"

Bai Yi was somewhat surprised, but the result was good. He had to admit, this bear was huge. It must have been nearly three meters tall when it stood up.

While marveling, Bai Yi dragged the bear to the cave entrance. He intended to go inside and take a look.

The cave entrance was not small. The moment he entered, a thick stench rushed at him.

"Ugh—"

Bai Yi dry-heaved several times, then forced himself to endure the nausea and walk farther in.

The cave was not deep. He reached the end after only a few meters. It was not large, and five wolf carcasses were piled to one side. Three had already had more than half their bodies eaten away. The other two were still relatively intact, though they had begun to rot.

Beside the carcasses was a pile of bones. Bai Yi kicked them around a few times and actually found something.

He quickly kicked the bones aside. It was a book.

Bai Yi picked up the book and casually flipped through it. Most of the pages were damaged beyond recognition, making the contents impossible to read. After searching, he found that only half a page was still relatively clear, and the words on it could barely be made out.

Bai Yi held it up to the light, trying to identify the text. "ΘΝΣΑΘΝΣ..."

"What is this?"

He was certain it was not a human language. "Could there have been another civilization here?"

Unable to understand it, Bai Yi stopped dwelling on it and scanned it with the journal.

[Tang Dao Crafting Blueprint (Damaged)]

[Quality: Fine]

[Durability: 3/3]

[Description: 1 Wood, 5 Crude Iron. This is a tool-forging book that gathers the essence of an entire civilization. Unfortunately, only half a page remains.]

"Good stuff!"

He had struck it rich! Bai Yi grew excited. Fine-quality weapons were currently even rarer than medicine, let alone a blade that was perfectly suited for beginners.

"It's a pity this book is already damaged. I can't imagine how high its quality would be if it were intact!"

After sighing over it, Bai Yi stopped thinking about such things and eagerly began searching the cave. This time, he searched extremely carefully, nearly turning the entire cave upside down. Unfortunately, there were no other gains.

"I've already made a huge profit. Time to go."

Bai Yi consoled himself as he began transporting the corpses.

He first spent a great deal of effort hauling the black bear back to the yard of his shelter. Then he made another trip and brought back the three wolf carcasses as well.

"Whew! I'm exhausted!"

After finishing, Bai Yi sat panting at the entrance of the shelter. But he did not dare rest for long, because the rain was gradually getting heavier.

Following the same process as before, Bai Yi began dismantling the black bear. Before doing so, he took a photo of it.

Due to its enormous size, the black bear yielded a full 200 units of meat. Bai Yi processed it the same way and made dried meat.

His roof was now practically covered with it. He was hoarding food like a hamster.

Because the wolf carcasses had already rotted, Bai Yi threw them into the well to gamble for loot. As for what he drew up, it could only be called decent.

[Large Plastic Barrel]

[Iron Canteen]

[Wood ×1]

[Gray Wolf Exchange Attempts: 2/5]

The items were not precious, but they were useful. Before the rain turned into a downpour, Bai Yi carried the barrel and canteen out to fill them with fresh water.

By the time everything was done, it was already noon. Bai Yi looked at the increasingly heavy rain outside and muttered, "Looks like I won't be able to go out this afternoon."

He placed the canteen on the fireplace to heat up, grilled bear meat, and picked up the journal.

World Channel:

"It's raining heavily where I am. I can't go out now."

"It's raining here too!"

"I was halfway through chopping down a tree when the rain drove me back. What am I supposed to do about upgrading my shelter? No, I have to chop trees in the rain."

"Don't do it, person above. If you catch a cold in this weather, a few trees won't cure you."

The entire World Channel was discussing the sudden heavy rain.

"Looks like it isn't just raining here!"

Bai Yi spoke to himself. Suddenly, he noticed a forum post rapidly climbing the rankings. Its title was the content itself:

<Confirmed personally: Mud soaked by rain can be used to upgrade shelters. Hurry and collect it!>

"Right, how could I forget that?"

Bai Yi slapped his thigh. He had originally planned to use the water he collected to mix mud, but now there was ready-made mud everywhere. He had to gather it quickly.

He wolfed down the bear meat, which was only half-cooked, then immediately got up to look for tools.

After looking around, Bai Yi stopped awkwardly. His entire fortune consisted of dried meat, a battered stone axe, a gun, a bed, a plastic barrel, a canteen, a stone pickaxe, and the Tang Dao Crafting Blueprint. Oh, and the 1,200 units of stone outside.

He had been busy upgrading the shelter and simply had no spare resources to build a bedroom or bathroom. He also did not have common tools such as a shovel.

After thinking about it, Bai Yi took out the stone pickaxe blueprint and materials.

[Exquisite Stone Pickaxe Crafting Blueprint]

[Quality: Good]

[Durability: 3/20]

[Use Exquisite Stone Pickaxe Crafting Blueprint, Durability -1, Crafting Countdown: 00:59]

After it was crafted, he opened the trading market, edited the listing, and sent it:

[Fine-Quality Stone Pickaxe ×1 in exchange for Ordinary-Quality Stone Axe ×2 + Ordinary-Quality Shovel ×1]