Chapter 19: Long-Sleeve Sweatshirt

Su Ning carefully studied the long-sleeve loose sweatshirt diagram in the tailor’s manual.

She even went to the mall to buy a ruler and a water-erasable pen, using the standard size indicated in the manual.

Holding the ruler, Su Ning began the first step of handmade clothing: drafting the pattern.

With the water-erasable pen and ruler, she marked, erased, corrected, cut, and sewed on the pure white cotton fabric.

While sewing, Su Ning thought to herself: she didn’t know when a sewing machine would appear—maybe the mall could sell one. Without a sewing machine, mass production of clothes was impossible. This was so frustrating.

At that time, Su Ning thought sewing itself was difficult, but when she finally managed to get the sweatshirt mostly done, the real problems appeared.

The neckline was crooked, sleeves were uneven, one sleeve longer than the other, the bottom hem uneven—left longer than right. There were countless ways the pattern could go wrong.

Su Ning felt like her eyes were about to go blind; it was misery. She silently chanted to herself: patience, focus, dedication—I will become a master tailor, grow rich, reach the peak of life. I cannot be defeated by one piece of clothing.

And so, again and again, she cut, sewed, finished edges, ran into mistakes, ripped it apart, cut, sewed, ran into mistakes, ripped it apart, cut, sewed, finished edges, ran into mistakes, ripped it apart…

Finally, on the edge of an unknown number of breakdowns, Su Ning completed a sweatshirt that looked pretty decent.

“Beep, congratulations, player! Crafting successful. Item detected: Clothing: Long-sleeve Sweatshirt. Assigning attributes.”

“Beep, clothing attributes assigned. Please name the item.”

“First Piece.” The first piece must carry significance.

“Beep, naming successful:
Clothing: First Piece
Quality: Green
Required Level: 5
Attributes: Constitution +3, Strength +2
Crafted by: Su Ning”

Satisfied, very satisfied, extremely satisfied. Su Ning examined “First Piece” repeatedly—indeed, as her own creation, it was perfect in every way.

Having completed the first piece, Su Ning now had the experience to confidently start her second one.

“Beep, Handicraft Shop, new message alert.”
“Beep, Handicraft Shop, new message alert.”
“Beep, Handicraft Shop, new message alert.”

She opened the shop and saw messages—price negotiations, requests for credit, proposals for barter, and even threats demanding crafting methods.

The most eye-catching were inquiries about purchasing or acquiring crafting secrets. Truly a thriving marketplace—Su Ning closed the comment alerts. Beep all you want, no one gets my items without paying.

Meanwhile, in Sanji District not far from Quanfú District, on Yiping Street, Luo Nanchuan’s ears were being tortured by the exquisite headband.

“Luo Nanchuan, we’re brothers who shared one pair of pants, endured hardships together, and lived and died side by side. Now look at this headband: only 3 silver coins. Isn’t it beautiful and inexpensive? Perfect for me! Look once, look twice—aren’t you jealous? Aren’t you upset because you haven’t found a +5 accessory, so you don’t want me to have it either? Luo Nanchuan, that kind of thinking is dangerous—you could be assassinated! Think about the nine years of compulsory education, your high school crush, our eight years of camaraderie, and most importantly, this headband was crafted by someone. I bought it so I could study how it’s made.”

“Someone dares to sell it; why would they be afraid of you studying it? And it’s a woman’s item—are you going to wear it on your head?”

Luo Nanchuan rubbed his ears, looking at Yan Han. He didn’t understand if it was youthful ignorance or bad luck that landed him on this bottom bunk. Others chatted lightly with their roommates, but his entire dorm’s verbal firepower was directed at him, and his reputation for being verbally unstoppable was widespread.

“Women’s items, so what? You want gender discrimination? Luo Nanchuan, look closely: the headband has no gender restrictions. Men can wear it too. Agility +5, a rare headband, well-crafted. It even looks nice on my wrist.”

Luo Nanchuan finished handling the red snake under him, put it away, and restrained himself from kicking Yan Han, who kept yammering.

“Headband, wear on wrist, no attribute points.”

“No problem, as a backup. Think about it: I’m an assassin, moving invisibly. The enemy estimates my position based on my speed. If I suddenly gain Agility +5, isn’t it a one-hit kill? Wouldn’t it catch them completely off guard?”

“How much?”

“3 silver coins.” Yan Han held up three fingers expectantly.

Luo Nanchuan assumed Yan Han was just short on money, but actually, he had no money at all.

“Where’s your money?”

“Accommodation, meals, shopping, buying plants—it all costs money. Besides, I don’t have much.”

Aware of his own weakness, Yan Han’s voice grew quieter. Sigh. On a rare secret mission, he wanted some freedom, but then the apocalypse struck—returning to the team was impossible for now.

He couldn’t live in too much austerity. There were many essential purchases. As a high-agility, high-burst, fragile shadow assassin, he relied on Luo Nanchuan’s high-damage undead mage team with summoned creatures. He just occasionally supported and picked up leftover kills—how could he have money?

Yan Han’s inner grumbling hadn’t even ended when the exquisite headband was already in Luo Nanchuan’s hand.

“Su Ning,” Luo Nanchuan muttered, opened the friend system, and searched for Su Ning. Just in their Jiangnan Hangcheng registration area, there were 12 Su Nings—6 male, 6 female—he couldn’t even tell genders.

In these past days in-game, he had looted fur and cloth and browsed other players’ handmade clothes. Some were more elaborate, but none had attribute bonuses.

So this Su Ning was interesting. He followed her shop and enabled listing alerts. He stuffed the headband into Yan Han’s hand, ignoring his lengthy thanks, and continued fighting monsters.

Meanwhile, Su Ning continued sewing her second sweatshirt.

“Beep, shop alert: item sold.”

“Ah, the fat lambs finally took action! Shop is open, shop is open!”

Su Ning excitedly muttered to herself. She listed five simple headbands at once—since she didn’t need them, controlling quantity might even raise the price.

Feeling delighted, she continued her sewing venture.

“Beep, a new item is listed in the shop you follow.”

Luo Nanchuan frowned—so quickly? Did the seller have too much confidence in their skills, or could they truly mass-produce items? Didn’t they worry about attracting unwanted attention?