The Sixth Day: Crisis and Gifts

Day six in the Wasteland.

Bang, bang... Crash...

Yu Yuan smashed through the Quick-Drying Cement, exposing the Sewer exit again, then dropped the huge rock he had been holding.

"That was poor planning. I was so focused on sealing the exit tight that I never thought to get a hammer."

He had only realized the problem when he was ready to break the seal.

The Kukri was the only melee weapon he had left. Everything else was a gun, the Folding Crossbow, or a bow.

He had no tool that could break through Quick-Drying Cement. He did have an adjustable wrench and a Pipe Wrench, but both were too small. After a couple of blows, his hands were numb, and the cement had barely suffered a scratch.

In the end, he had no choice but to use two large rocks. That finally did the job.

He cleared the exit. The Typhoon had passed, but water still rushed through the Sewer. Judging by its level, it would drain enough for him to enter in a few hours.

A smile touched Yu Yuan's lips. He was about to return to the Hideout when his gaze suddenly froze. He had spotted something.

A few seconds later, a bloated, pale corpse drifted past with the current.

The body was mangled. Something had bitten away half its skull. Its brain was gone, either washed out or eaten, leaving an empty cavity.

Its neck and shoulder blade had been gnawed halfway through, and chunks of its arms and legs were missing.

Yu Yuan narrowed his eyes as the corpse slowly disappeared downstream. Countless thoughts raced through his mind.

It clearly had not fallen into the Sewer from the surface. It belonged to one of the Scavengers or Survivors hiding down there.

Yu Yuan had long suspected there were people in the Sewer.

Judging by the corpse, the person had died only two or three days ago. But what could have chewed him up like that?

The first thing that came to Yu Yuan's mind was the investigation report he had seen at the East City Water Affairs Center.

He immediately returned to the Hideout, pulled the report from the magazine rack, and read it again.

Miemie came over and took a few looks before walking to the corner Yu Yuan had prepared for it, lined with dry grass, and lying down.

Several minutes later, Yu Yuan let out a long breath. His gaze flickered.

There were many branches along the route the corpse had floated from, but they all ran close to the 15th Block.

And the 15th Block bordered the 10th Block, where the Giant Rat had been sighted in the investigation report.

Approximate layout of East City's fifteen blocks in Green Forest City

"Could that rat really still be alive? Could it have moved from the 10th Block into the 15th Block, or even District 13?"

If so, he was in trouble.

Yu Yuan desperately wanted to think otherwise, but the evidence was right in front of him. He was not the sort to run from reality.

Whether the creature was the Giant Rat or not, it posed a serious threat to his safety.

The Sewer would be his main route to other blocks and his main battlefield. With something so unpredictable down there, how could he rest easy?

A ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.

He glanced at Miemie lying on the ground, then got up and opened a door. Beyond it was a small room of about two square meters, where all his supplies were neatly arranged.

This was the level-one Warehouse he had built during the two days he had spent sheltering from the Typhoon. It was only two square meters, but that space had been added to the Hideout rather than taken from its original floor area.

Small as it was, it gave him somewhere to store all his supplies.

He surveyed the row of weapons against the wall. After a moment's thought, he took out the FN FAL Assault Rifle, along with its magazines and ammunition.

—Caliber was king!

That was the principle Yu Yuan lived by, and why he had not chosen the MP5.

The MP5 had a high rate of fire, but it used 9×19mm pistol rounds. Yu Yuan was not even sure they could penetrate the creature's hide. This was the Wasteland World, after all. A little mutation among its creatures would be no surprise.

He had no idea how big that rat was, but a large enough caliber leveled the playing field.

With 7.62×51mm rounds, there was no carbon-based life-form he could not kill.

Yu Yuan had meticulously cleaned and maintained this gun, along with every other gun in the Warehouse, over the past two days. All it had cost him was a bottle of gun oil for 1,000 Survival Points.

He just had not expected the weapons he had serviced to come in handy so soon.

He loaded every round into the magazines. There were three magazines holding twenty rounds each. Sixty rounds should be enough.

If sixty rounds could not kill that rat, Yu Yuan figured he was as good as dead.

He also packed three M64 Grenades, just in case.

He took out the M500 Revolver as well. Its .500-caliber rounds would be his last line of defense.

Another half day passed before the bottom of the Sewer finally came into view. A layer of silt covered the ground, giving off a rotten stench. It was still damp, but Yu Yuan climbed down to test it and found that it did not hinder him.

He was ready to head out, assess the damage from the Typhoon, and search for supplies to upgrade the Hideout.

The Typhoon had delayed construction by two days. The Beginner Protection Period would end in twenty-four days, and he had to make up for lost time.

Back in the Hideout, Yu Yuan opened the virtual panel for Fate Cards.

"Now that I can leave, it's time to choose a Fate Gift."

Yu Yuan stared at the Fate Card page, anticipation shining in his eyes.

For the past two days, he had wondered what would appear among this round of Fate Gifts. At last, he was about to find out.

The moment Yu Yuan thought about drawing a Fate Card,

the familiar words appeared again.

—Maxim: Every gift from fate comes with a price, marked long before you see it.

The words soon gave way to three options.

[Choose one of the following three Fate Gifts as your gift from fate.]

Yu Yuan took a deep breath.

"Here we go!"

—Stylish Coat Rack

Function: Produces one randomly selected item of clothing in your size each day, with a chance of producing high-quality clothing.

—Resource Recycling Trash Can

Function: Converts the trash inside it into random resources each day, with a chance of producing double or special resources.

—Bountiful Produce Basket

Function: Produces one randomly selected type of fresh fruit or vegetable each day, with a chance of producing high-quality food.

"This..."

Looking at the three Fate Gifts, Yu Yuan found himself unable to choose for the first time.

It was too hard.

He wanted them all!

The clothes he was wearing had practically become a second skin. He had gathered some other clothes, but they were either the wrong size or the wrong cut. He could hardly crawl through the Sewer in a fashionable trench coat!

Besides, it was the wrong season for one!

Resources were what he lacked most. He was desperate for them.

He badly needed vegetables, too. He had been in the Wasteland World for six days, and food had not been a problem. He had Canned Beef, military rations, biscuits, and even a cup of High-Energy Sheep Milk every day.

But he had no vegetables!

He had not gone to the bathroom in days. He was constipated.

Yu Yuan's face twisted in anguish. He raked his fingers through his hair in frustration. He wanted all three!

Taking a deep breath, Yu Yuan pushed down his agitation and forced himself to calm down.

His gaze moved between the three options. He set aside his personal preferences and considered them solely in terms of survival and development.

At last, his gaze settled on...