My Online Friend Can't Be This Cute

Xiao Yi: The one on the left is Technology. Check the crafting list. Let's make a hoe and an axe, then gather resources as we go.

Xiao Yi: In the end, we just need to find a patch of grassland with beefalo.

Baibai: Beefalo? This game's art style is so strange. What do they even look like?

Xiao Yi: You'll understand when you see them. I don't know how to explain it either.

He had played for a while, but honestly, he couldn't be called particularly skilled. His reliance on familiar routines was still pretty severe.

At the start, make a hoe, an axe, and a shovel.

The importance of hoes and axes went without saying. Anyone who had played survival games knew that chopping trees and mining rocks were how you got rich.

But shovels were also extremely important. They were essential for transplanting plants.

To transplant large numbers of saplings and berry bushes, the durability of one shovel might not even be enough.

Then they needed to find grassland with beefalo. Where there were beefalo, there was wool and manure.

Wool was a winter resource, while manure was indispensable for transplanting berry bushes and saplings.

When the herd was large enough, they could also occasionally borrow some big meat from them.

Since it was grassland, places like that generally wouldn't lack rabbit holes either.

Rabbit holes spawned rabbits every so often, and rabbits were his main daily source of small meat.

Then, once they transplanted the berry bushes, they would have a stable vegetarian food source too.

All they needed was to set things on fire... Cough, better not do something that could land them in prison forever.

Anyway, they just had to find some charcoal, make a crock pot, and they could start cooking.

Berries counted as vegetables, and rabbits counted as small meat.

Three vegetables and one meat made meatballs. Everyone who used them loved them.

In some versions, you could even stuff twigs and ice into the pot and still make meatballs.

How magical. A crock pot from another world.

Still, he wasn't entirely sure whether this route could support four people.

Although this game was also known as Stuffed to Death, that was only true for veteran players already familiar with it.

For newcomers, the ways to die could be bizarre beyond imagination.

When an experienced player had to look after new players, it wasn't necessarily easy either.

After all, there were several ravenous mouths to feed.

Just keeping the newbies fed was enough to run an old player ragged.

It was fine when he moved together with Baibai, since he could teach her many things directly.

But the other two weren't so lucky.

They started out dying of fear in the dark, then later got chased all over the world by hounds. Before they could starve to death, they had already sampled every other possible way to die.

If they had been playing the single-player version, they probably would have quit long ago.

But when they played online together, these little setbacks were nothing. Even if they kept restarting, they could still have a great time.

Unfortunately, the president and Xiaohuo spent the entire evening experiencing different deaths.

Because they had run in different directions, they were also very far apart.

Even if he could craft revival items, there was nothing he could do.

He couldn't reach them for support, and he couldn't find a Touch Stone, so the game could only restart again and again.

Even when the dorm lost power, they still hadn't found a place to settle down.

Don't Play Holy Slash: Not bad. Even though I died a lot, I feel like I basically understand it now.

Baibai: I feel like I basically understand it too, and I didn't die even once.

A Seductress: That's because you were following Xiao Yi.

Don't Play Holy Slash: Come to think of it, Xiao Yi seems pretty familiar with this game.

Don't Play Holy Slash: When did you secretly play it behind the group's back?

Human-Dragon Unity: Uh, I just watched a few videos.

A Seductress: No wonder. The president and I kept wiping out while you two just watched the show.

Human-Dragon Unity: Objection. I wasn't watching the show.

Flaked Out: So? Is the game fun?

A Seductress: Fun. Get over here now.

Don't Play Holy Slash: We've figured out the basics, but it still doesn't feel like we've officially gotten started. We'll wait for you.

Flaked Out: Okay, okay. Then I'll arrange a computer as soon as possible.

A Seductress: Weren't you supposed to buy a computer when school started?

Flaked Out: Mm... that was what I thought at first too.

Flaked Out: Back then, I wasn't sure whether I could adapt to the dorm environment and my roommates.

Human-Dragon Unity: So have you adapted now?

Flaked Out: Not really. I'm still not quite used to living with roommates.

Flaked Out: So I'm hesitating over whether to buy one. A desktop is pretty troublesome to move around, after all.

Things You Can't Do Can Be Solved by Calling for Help

H City, 10:00 a.m.

Clear skies, not a cloud in sight. Today's high: 38 degrees Celsius. Short sleeves recommended.

Strong UV rays. Outdoor activities not recommended.

On campus, students dressed in long-sleeved, long-legged camouflage uniforms stood in neat formation after neat formation beneath the blazing sun.

At the front of the formations, the instructor held a yellow whistle, his gaze sharp as a hawk.

"Attention!"

The instructor's voice was deep and booming. At his command, the students immediately straightened and pressed their legs together, pulled in their stomachs, thrust out their chests, raised their heads, stared straight ahead, and rolled their shoulders back.

"Dress left and right!"

"Eyes front!"

"Good, hold that posture." The instructor strolled leisurely past them. "Keep it up for another thirty minutes, and then you can rest."

The students struggled to maintain their stance, letting sweat run into their eyes. No matter how much they stung, no one dared move, complain, or speak.

This was already the second day of military training. At the beginning of the first day, everyone would instinctively complain and ask the instructor how much longer they had to stand. But very quickly, those complaints would come back to haunt them in the form of extra standing time.

And it was one person complaining, the entire class getting punished.

If only they themselves were punished, maybe a few people would still refuse to accept it.

But if they dragged their classmates down with them, they would earn nothing but cold looks.

After suffering through that a few times, even the most hot-tempered students learned their lesson.

No matter how bitter, exhausted, or resentful they were, they had to wait until break to complain.

Second by second, time crawled on. Just as the students were about to collapse, a short whistle rang out.

"Alright, ten-minute break."

The second the instructor finished speaking, he was the only person left on the field.

The students formed small groups of three or five beneath the shade of trees, twisting open bottle caps and gulping down mineral water without a shred of concern for appearances.

The girls still cared about their image. They only dared secretly tug at the fabric plastered to their backs or fan themselves with their sweat-soaked camouflage caps.

The boys had simply taken off their training uniforms, yanked their sweat-drenched shirts out from their waistbands, and wrung them out with a little force. Sweat squeezed from the cloth and dripped onto the ground.

"I can't take this anymore. What the hell are these military training uniforms? They don't breathe at all." Zhong Taihong complained. "Standing under the sun in this outfit, I sweat more than I drink."

"I never thought I could drink a whole liter of water in one morning." Xi Shaojie stared blankly at the large empty mineral water bottle in his hand, looking like he was questioning his entire life. He muttered, "And it wasn't even soda."

"That's good. You're so fat, you can lose some weight while you're at it." Zhong Taihong said with a grin.

"That makes so much sense." Xi Shaojie nodded weakly. "I guess that counts as self-comfort."

"What's wrong, Old Xi? You're not talking back?" Qin Yongfeng asked in surprise. "You can put up with that?"

Xi Shaojie let out a heavy sigh. "What else can I do? Go over there and hit him?"

"My feet feel sore and weak right now. They hurt so much that I don't want to move at all."

"Besides, a gentleman's revenge is never too late. I'll spare his life for now."

Mo Xiangwen corrected him, "Last time, you clearly said, 'A gentleman uses words, not fists. But I'm no gentleman—I'm a barbarian.'"

"I can be a gentleman now." Xi Shaojie gave a cold laugh. "Have you not heard? After three days apart, one should view a scholar with new eyes."

Although Xi Shaojie was half a head shorter than Zhong Taihong, he outweighed him by twenty or thirty pounds. He had also somehow learned a bit of grappling, and no one in the dorm could beat him in a fight.

Still, it didn't really matter. Zhong Taihong was the only one in the dorm who liked provoking Xi Shaojie from time to time, which led to Xi Shaojie beating him up.

"Your identity is pretty flexible, huh." Qin Yongfeng shook his head and stood up. "I've finished my water. I'm going to buy some. Do you guys need anything?"

Xi Shaojie said, "Yeah. Just get me a bottle of mineral water."

Zhong Taihong hurriedly added, "Same here."

Qin Yongfeng nodded. "Alright. What about you, Old Mo?"

"I think you should forget it." Mo Xiangwen shook his head. "You only have ten minutes of break. You've already spent several minutes just chatting. There isn't enough time to make a round trip to the commercial street."

"It should be fine, right? Just tell the instructor we're buying water." Qin Yongfeng frowned. "It's not like we'd get punished just for buying water, would we?"

"You tell me." Mo Xiangwen shrugged. "But if you're willing to tell him in advance, it should probably be fine."

Qin Yongfeng glanced at the imposing instructor in the distance and immediately lost his nerve.

"Then forget it."

Mo Xiangwen waved his empty bottle in front of them, sighed, tossed it into the trash can, and looked around.

"Just endure it." Mo Xiangwen said. "If you really want to buy some, I'll go with you during the next break."

Their training area wasn't close to the commercial street, and a round trip would take quite a while.

If they really went, they would probably have to jog there and jog back.

Otherwise, if they ran into a line or some other delay, they could easily fail to make it back in time.

"Ah, if only we had a shop's phone number. We could call and have them deliver it." Qin Yongfeng sighed.

"Even if you had a shop's number, they wouldn't deliver." Zhong Taihong shook his head. "There are so many military training groups. The shop wouldn't know which one placed the order."

Xi Shaojie added, "And most shops wouldn't have delivery riders anyway. You'd have to specifically order takeout. Too much trouble."

"True. Then we'll go later." Qin Yongfeng nodded regretfully.

Mo Xiangwen froze. That reminded him of something.

It was true that he couldn't conveniently go buy water right now, and it wasn't convenient for a shop to deliver it either.

But what if there were someone who could find him and conveniently go buy water? It was time to activate the power of the Face Fruit.

He didn't like owing people favors, but this wasn't the first time he had owed them one.

It wasn't exactly that too many debts stopped mattering, but at least the psychological burden wouldn't be so severe.

He could ask whether they were free. If they weren't, then forget it.

With that thought, he opened his phone, tapped the pinned group chat, and sent a message.

Human-Dragon Unity: @A Seductress, @Don't Play Holy Slash, are you there? Are you there?

A Seductress: What is it? We're in class.