Chapter 7: Day 2 of Desert Survival (5) – Strange Lulu…

『IsPipiThere: Sorry, my classmate said it takes 3 wood sticks to trade for 1 bundle of cotton.』

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Could you please ask again if 2 wood sticks can be exchanged for 1 bundle of cotton? If that’s acceptable, I only need 3 pieces.』

This was within Yu Miaomiao’s expectations. If the other party had agreed to her first offer, that would’ve been strange.

『IsPipiThere: Okay, I’ll ask.』

Yu Miaomiao didn’t like bothering others, but this was the apocalypse—she had no choice. She silently made a note to return the favor when Pipi needed help.

And since it had taken a while for Pipi to reply earlier, she figured he had spent a lot of time negotiating. This made her feel even more favorably toward him.

Just as Yu Miaomiao finished crafting the wooden sticks at the workbench, Pipi sent her a trade request. Three pieces of cotton were placed in the trade—surprisingly, the other party had agreed pretty quickly.

After the successful trade, Yu Miaomiao eagerly started crafting the campfire.

Once the campfire was made, a new icon appeared in her backpack inventory.

By now, the sky was nearing dusk. The scorching sun was blanketed by shadows, and much of the heat had dissipated. Yu Miaomiao planned to wait until nightfall to light the fire.

A red dot appeared on her system chat window again. She tapped it open—it was a message from Pipi.

『IsPipiThere: Did Lulu trade a blueprint to you for water?』

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Yes, she did. Why?』

『IsPipiThere: Sigh… that blueprint was originally given to her by another classmate to save her life. I didn’t expect her to use it like that.』

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: But trading for water is saving her life, isn’t it?』

『IsPipiThere: That’s true, but the water she got… she gave it all to her brother.』

Giving life-saving water to her brother didn’t seem wrong to Yu Miaomiao, so she didn’t comment.

『IsPipiThere: Her brother already had water, but he was worried he wouldn’t get more tomorrow, so he made her get extra for him today.』

Yu Miaomiao realized that “Pipi” was probably bored. With no one else to vent to, he came to her. Before she could even reply, another message from him came through.

『IsPipiThere: We all tried to persuade her—this is the apocalypse, she should stop spoiling her brother. But she said something like, when she was a kid, her brother gave her a kidney. No matter what, she has to treat her brother well.』

『IsPipiThere: But it’s not like she doesn’t have a sense of limits. She set herself a goal—to repay the favor 120 times. In the real world, she’s already done it 101 times. That’s why she used ’19’ when she traded with you the other day.』

What a strange girl. Repaying kindness in the real world is understandable, but doing so in the apocalypse might actually cost her her life.

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: So she posted that in world chat for her brother to see?』

『IsPipiThere: Yeah. That’s what she told him. But we all feel like her brother doesn’t really care. Or maybe he thinks that once he’s gotten all he can from Lulu in the apocalypse, it doesn’t matter if she dies.』

Yu Miaomiao went silent. She didn’t know how other people’s family relationships worked, but at least she was sure that her bond with Yue Yina was unbreakable—they were true best friends.

『IsPipiThere: Sigh, sorry for saying so much. All of us classmates are kind of speechless about her. I just lost control of my emotions and ended up ranting to you. Oh right, how’s your campfire coming along?』

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: I’m planning to light it when it gets dark.』

『IsPipiThere: Makes sense—it’s still pretty hot now. I saw someone in world chat say that on the first night, when they didn’t have a house or a bed, just having a fire was barely enough to get them through the cold.』

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Don’t you have to craft two items first to unlock the next stage of the crafting guide?』

『IsPipiThere: Yeah, that’s right. I guess someone just traded their campfire away.』

Sure enough, there was plenty of useful information in the world channel. Some people had already started offering crafting services. Yu Miaomiao planned to test out the pickaxe today and wait until others learned the skill tomorrow before she started offering it as a service herself.

As night approached and the temperature gradually dropped, Yu Miaomiao took out her pickaxe and struck the ground five meters away a few times.

A small dirt pit quickly formed—but underneath the soil, it was still just more dirt. There were no other resources at all.

Could it be that her only stroke of bad luck was landing somewhere without a resource point?

Feeling a little disappointed, Yu Miaomiao placed the campfire from her backpack onto the ground by the cabin door just as the sun disappeared below the horizon. A blazing fire sprang to life.

The surrounding temperature, which had dropped, was instantly raised again. Yu Miaomiao dragged a single chair over and sat beside the fire, checking the campfire’s attributes through the holographic interface.

【Name: Basic Campfire (100/100)

Level: 2

Function: Keeps you a little warmer in cold environments, slow fire can be used to cook food

Attribute: Beast Resistance +50】

“Beast resistance”—now that was interesting. The system had already warned that small beasts would appear on the fourth night, so this campfire was likely designed to help defend against those small creatures.

A system notification sound followed.

【System Notification: Congratulations to player ‘MeowMeowNotLackingWater’ for completing the Newbie Mission (2)】

【System Notification: Forum feature unlocked.】

Forum?

Sure enough, when Yu Miaomiao opened the system interface, she saw a new 【Forum】 tab appear in the upper right corner.

But this kind of notification—where only she could hear it—didn’t really warrant a congratulation, did it?

Upon opening it, she saw that ten posts had already been published.

It seemed some people had unlocked the forum feature even earlier than she had.

The first post was titled 【Newbie Guide】.

The author was Yang Haotian, the same person who had helped calm everyone’s emotions yesterday.

The rest of the posts were mostly about trading.

Yu Miaomiao clicked open the 【Newbie Guide】 post.

It was basically a collection of questions and doubts that newcomers might face, and he answered them all. At the end, it said, “Continuously updating, recommended for everyone to bookmark.”

The post did indeed have a 【Bookmark】 button, and the forum interface also had a 【Bookmarks Folder】. But the fact that Yang Haotian had started making such a guide post so early struck Yu Miaomiao as somewhat strange.

She looked through the other trading posts but didn’t find anything interesting, they mostly involved food and basic materials. She figured once more people unlocked the forum, it would become livelier.

One advantage of the forum was its search function, which was much more convenient than reading through batches of world chat messages one by one.

After finishing the basic campfire, primitive workbench, and simple repair bench, the system crafting guide added four new crafting recipes:

Fine Rope 1 + Wood 2 = Basic Trap

Scrap Iron ×4 + Copper Ingot 2 + Screws 16 = Basic Storage Box

Scrap Iron ×5 + Wood ×16 + Screws 8 + Nylon Cloth 10 = Small Cabin Reinforcement Device

Scrap Iron 3 + Screws 4 = Simple Grill

Judging by the latest crafting guide displayed by the system, the small beasts that would appear next were very likely to attack their houses.

So before the newbie period ended, she needed to prepare some basic traps and make sure she had enough materials to reinforce the cabin.

Glancing at the stone pickaxe in her hand, Yu Miaomiao prepared to dig a little more. Her intuition told her there had to be something different nearby.

Just as she was about to close the holographic interface, she noticed a new red dot appear in the chat box.

『IsPipiThere: Are you there? Could you do some subcontracting for campfires?』

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Some?』

『IsPipiThere: It’s colder today than yesterday. Some of my classmates only made beds and are worried tonight will be cold. Would a batch of 3 campfires in exchange for 1 bundle of cotton be okay?』

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Okay. How many do you need?』

『IsPipiThere: 18.』

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: …Do you have a lot of classmates?』

『IsPipiThere: Almost a whole class of classmates came.』

There really were a lot of them.

But in the apocalypse, knowing more people meant having more support, so Yu Miaomiao agreed.

Not long after, the other party traded all the materials to her, including the payment for the work.

Wait a second—this “Pipi” trusted her that much? Wasn’t he worried she might just take the items and disappear? After all, they probably wouldn’t be able to contact each other again tomorrow.

Crafting campfires was quick—it only required eighteen clicks. But by the time Yu Miaomiao had clicked ten times, all eighteen campfires were already made.

Her luck trait had helped her accumulate materials for eight extra campfires.

Oh, and she also gained 6 extra bundles of cotton from the crafting fee. She wouldn’t have to worry about her campfire going out anytime soon.

After the trade was completed, “Pipi” thanked her repeatedly.

Yu Miaomiao replied with a simple “You’re welcome,” then picked up the pickaxe and continued digging the barren land.

After digging for about twenty minutes, she had carved out a pit roughly half a meter wide and ten centimeters deep—still nothing.

Yu Miaomiao completely gave up. She collapsed to the ground, drenched in sweat, and shivered as the evening breeze swept over her.

Her stomach growled. Yu Miaomiao glanced at her personal status panel—her stamina had dropped to 15. Only then did she realize just how hungry she was. She quickly pulled out a white steamed bun and started devouring it.

Watching her stamina slowly rise back up to 32, she had already finished two buns.

Normally, she had a small appetite. A big white bun like this would’ve been enough back in the real world. She didn’t know if it was because she’d wasted so much strength digging earlier or if her appetite had increased in this world, but after eating two buns, she merely felt full—no more, no less.

After recovering a bit, Yu Miaomiao noticed that even while sitting next to the campfire, her body still felt a bit chilly. She glanced at the campfire’s stats—it had dropped from 100 durability to 63.

The small wooden house didn’t have space to place the campfire, so she had no choice but to let the fire burn out naturally. Just as she was about to return inside, the chat box lit up with a red dot again.

『IsPipiThere: You there? Sorry to bother you so late, but could I trouble you to make five more stone pickaxes? I’m afraid I won’t be able to reach you after midnight. I’ll pay 5 screws for the work. Can we still trade one stone for one fine rope?』

Considering that the crafting recipe came from him in the first place, Yu Miaomiao replied without hesitation:

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Sure. But even if it’s tomorrow, I’ll still see your messages in the world chat. Go ahead and trade me the materials—I’ve still got time, I’ll make them for you now.』

『IsPipiThere: Great, thank you so much.』

The campfire outside was still burning, and Yu Miaomiao didn’t want to waste it. The long night needed something to occupy her anyway.