Chapter 8: Day 3 of Desert Survival (1): Good News – Got Bullets…

After finishing the material trade, Yu Miaomiao headed outside.

By now, the temperature outside had dropped to near freezing, and her thin autumn clothes were nowhere near enough to keep out the cold.

Just as “Pipi” had said, standing next to the roaring campfire was the only way to get a bit of relief.

Standing in front of the crafting table, Yu Miaomiao first combined 2 palm leaves to create 4 fine ropes, then began crafting pickaxes one by one. Her luck wasn’t as strong that night—it wasn’t until the fourth pickaxe that her luck trait was triggered.

Using the materials for four pickaxes to craft five, Yu Miaomiao still felt it was worth it.

After trading with “Pipi,” she glanced at the time. Without realizing it, she had already spent an hour. She hadn’t even noticed the passage of time while making pickaxes.

Her stamina had dropped from 32 to 21. Her stomach didn’t feel especially hungry, so Yu Miaomiao decided not to waste food just to restore stamina. Instead, she simply returned indoors and lay down.

Meanwhile, people in the world chat were still actively trading supplies. Some had even started offering all kinds of food in exchange for items that provided warmth.

Outside, the wind howled against the door. Yu Miaomiao originally planned to continue studying the system’s crafting guide, but after wrapping herself tightly in the blanket, drowsiness overcame her quickly, and she fell fast asleep.

The next morning, Yu Miaomiao once again woke up feeling overheated.

She glanced at the time:

【Desert Survival – Day 3, 8:29 AM】

Since arriving in this apocalyptic world, Yu Miaomiao had been sleeping much better than before. Sure enough, checking her stats showed that her stamina had recovered to 29.

Looks like a good night’s sleep really does help restore stamina.

But how were the other stats increased? And what were they even used for?

Before long, someone in the world chat offered an explanation for one of them.

『SaveFile100%: Wow! I followed a ^[1]Baduanjin (八段锦), also known as Eight Pieces of Brocade, is a traditional Chinese exercise routine that consists of a series of simple, gentle movements and stretches. It is a form of qigong (a … Continue readingBaduanjin (Eight Brocades) exercise video on my phone for two days, and my strength stat increased by 1 point. Everyone, let’s work out together!』

So physical training could increase the strength stat?

『NotAGoodForNothing: Last night I jogged in place for two hours just to keep warm, but my strength didn’t increase at all. Instead, my stamina dropped by 1 point. Toward the end, the bitter cold wind became unbearable, and I had no choice but to light a campfire.』

So that means pure physical exercise might not be effective. Yu Miaomiao speculated—could it require a specific type of workout?

『GracefulLikeAHong: Hey, the classmate practicing Baduanjin, could you share the movements? Maybe we can all practice together.』

The world chat went quiet. How do you even share a sequence of movements? That kind of thing can’t be properly explained through text.

At that point, many people started regretting not saving some training videos on their phones. But that person also mentioned their phone had run out of battery, so they couldn’t continue practicing either.

Soon, people started discussing what the system-given stats were actually for.

From the way they talked, it seemed like no one had a luck trait.

Someone did mention having a mining trait, but most people brushed it off—after all, nothing had been dug up from this desert sand. Still, Yu Miaomiao quietly noted down his username: Explorer.

If someone did have a mining trait, didn’t that suggest digging could actually yield special items? Since the sun wasn’t too strong yet, Yu Miaomiao picked up her pickaxe and started digging away again.

The pit that was once 10 centimeters deep became about 15 centimeters deep. But underneath the ground? Still just dirt.

Yu Miaomiao had originally thought maybe it was just because she was digging at night that she hadn’t found anything. Turns out, daytime digging yielded the same results. Her stamina even dropped by 6 points for nothing—down to 23.

Chewing on a steamed bun, Yu Miaomiao wondered if maybe she was just digging in the wrong spot.

But with so much empty ground around, how could she possibly know where the good stuff was buried? She had no clear answer.

Based on what she’d read in world chat, most people’s personal stats were around 30. Someone even said that when stamina drops below 10, you start experiencing symptoms like weakness and dizziness.

So what was going on with her Intelligence stat being at 15? The thought frustrated her. Yu Miaomiao tossed down her pickaxe in defeat. She couldn’t just dig aimlessly forever in the hopes of getting lucky.

After eating one steamed bun and drinking half a bottle of water, her stamina finally recovered to 30.

It seemed both food and sleep could restore stamina—but buns did so very slowly. In contrast, the hamburger she ate yesterday not only restored stamina quickly, but also boosted her maximum stamina.

Could it be that the better the food, the more stamina it restored?

She glanced at the forum again—still no new posts. Apparently, not many more people had unlocked the forum feature.

Yang Haotian, who had posted that helpful beginner’s guide yesterday, had followed up on his own post today, summarizing some of the apocalypse survival patterns being discussed in world chat.

Most of the content in the forum was stuff Yu Miaomiao had already come across before, so it wasn’t of much use to her at the moment.

Although it was nice that someone was willing to spend so much time and effort organizing all this information, Yu Miaomiao preferred to gather bits and pieces of intel directly from the ongoing discussions.

It was almost noon, and the previously quiet world chat suddenly came alive with excitement—everyone was making wishes to draw something good.

Yu Miaomiao knew today’s supply drop was going to come from yesterday’s card draw. Having waited an extra day only made her expectations grow even higher. Please give me something good…

【System Notification: Please draw your gift card.】

Accompanied by a dazzling visual effect, the card draw screen appeared once again.

Wait—yesterday’s supplies hadn’t even been delivered yet, and now it was making her draw again? She couldn’t find any way to minimize the current interface, so she had no choice but to select one of the cards.

Staring at the three glowing cards, each about half a meter tall, Yu Miaomiao looked at them one by one.

The card on the right gave off a red glow. Well, not so much a “glow” as a light that was slightly brighter than sunlight.

She flipped the card over—it read: “Food Resource Card.”

Compared to the elaborate wording on yesterday’s cards, today’s were downright minimalistic.

The second card was glowing blue and read: “Living Resource Card.”

Both were straightforward and easy to understand. So, what about the third?

When she flipped it over, it read: “Weapon Resource Card.”

Weapons…

Up until now, no one had mentioned actually getting any weapons. Aside from people like her who’d brought real-world utility knives, the only vaguely “weapon-like” things were tools.

Right now, she still had five bottles of water. If she kept trading them for steamed buns, she’d barely survive another three days.

And tomorrow, small wild beasts were expected to appear. Wouldn’t it be better to have a weapon to deal with them?

At this moment, Yu Miaomiao wanted to check what others were saying about today’s card choices. Maybe someone else had drawn the same set, and she could use that to help make her decision.

She was just about to try touching the world chat box that was hidden behind the cards when she accidentally selected the “Weapon Resource Card” and didn’t even have a chance to change her mind.

The system notification icon flashed, and she had no choice but to open it.

【System Notification: Beginning settlement of Mythical Card rewards】

【Failed to trigger luck trait, received: 10 bottles of mineral water, 3 energy drinks, 10 pieces of wood, 5 iron cast blocks, 10 screws, 2 scrap iron blocks, 1 blueprint for basic backpack expansion, 1 fragment of intermediate nutrient solution, 1 dish of spicy stir-fried pork over rice, 2 matcha ice creams, 1 bunch of grapes.】

Yu Miaomiao was stunned by the huge pile of items before her—this was the result of failing to trigger the lucky trait.

Seeing the ice cream beginning to melt, she immediately realized her backpack was full and the items had started to pile on the ground. She quickly took out all the non-food items and stored the food safely.

The rewards weren’t over yet, the red notification dot was still flashing.

With eager anticipation, Yu Miaomiao opened it.

【System Notification: Beginning settlement of Weapon Resource Card rewards】

【Luck Trait Activated Successfully, received: 2 spear blueprints, 2 old bows, 2 arrow set blueprints, 2 shotgun blueprints, 5 shotgun bullets.】

Yu Miaomiao looked at the scattered items on the ground and was silent.

The lucky result was: bows without arrows, bullets without guns.

In a post-apocalyptic world, having guns would be priceless to anyone, but she only had blueprints to dream about—actually, two blueprints.

【System Notification: Player ‘MeowMeowNotLackingWater’ has unlocked Basic Backpack Expansion crafting.】

【System Notification: Player ‘MeowMeowNotLackingWater’ has unlocked Spear crafting.】

【System Notification: Player ‘MeowMeowNotLackingWater’ has unlocked Arrow Set crafting.】

【System Notification: Player ‘MeowMeowNotLackingWater’ has unlocked Shotgun crafting.】

She studied all the blueprints she received. Looking at the scattered parchment scrolls—the blueprints on the ground—they really were a hot potato to handle.

Psychologically, Yu Miaomiao really wanted to trade the blueprints for something valuable. But in reality, if she did that, people would definitely start keeping an eye on her. And if someone with ill intentions got their hands on it and used it as a tool for slaughter, wouldn’t she be the first one to suffer the consequences?

After thinking for a while, she decided it was more urgent to first craft the backpack expansion item and increase her inventory space.

She walked to the workbench. The “Life” and “Tools/Weapons” tabs were glowing, indicating that she had newly learned crafting recipes under those categories.

Yu Miaomiao opened the “Life” tab and found the Basic Backpack Expansion Module.

【Basic Backpack Expansion x1 = Rope (0/5), Cotton (10/10), Fiber (0/3)】

Looking at the question mark explanation behind the item: “Expands your system backpack by six slots.”

Rope was easy—she could craft it directly at the workbench using palm leaves. Fiber could be made from wood. That left cotton as the limiting factor.

She currently only had enough cotton to make one, but she needed 14 more slots in total, so she would need at least two more expansion modules. If something happened tomorrow, she would at least be able to carry enough supplies to run.

Then it struck her—maybe she could try a different approach: do commission crafting. That way, if her lucky trait triggered, she might get extra materials for free.

Thinking this through, Yu Miaomiao posted a commission message in the world channel:

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Offering commission crafting for Basic Backpack Expansion Module. Required materials: 5 rope, 10 cotton, 3 fiber. Commission fee can be a crafting blueprint or other resources. Prices negotiable.』

The advantage was that everyone had seen her trade for blueprints before. So when she eventually chose to trade the weapon blueprints, people wouldn’t necessarily assume she was going to make weapons—since blueprints were considered rare in the first place.

The world message was sent, but the responses were fewer than she expected. Those who did message her were mostly short on materials, asking if she had extra to trade.

By looking through the incoming messages, Yu Miaomiao noticed they were all asking for water, offering wood or screws in exchange. She didn’t respond.

After posting the commission message twice, people in the world chat started to gossip.

『Ma Lou: I asked—this person offering to craft backpack expansions wants me to give her the materials first. She’s obviously planning to pocket everything herself.』