Total Wasteland Points: 485?
Shen Yi's eyes lit up.
He'd already earned so many points on just the first day; it was simply incredible.
The biggest contributor to such a huge profit was naturally Apollos.
[Remember this website's domain name: Read good Taiwanese books and choose Taiwanese novels. 𝒕𝒘𝒌𝒂𝒏.𝒄𝒐𝒎 is awesome!]
Whether it was slaying wasteland lizards, digging wells, or collecting resources like stone and wood, it was all Apollos's work. Upon waking
, Shen Yi felt a little sore.
The temperature had been quite low last night; if it weren't for the lizard skin, Shen Yi would have caught a cold.
After getting up, Shen Yi fetched ten more buckets of water and posted them on the trading channel.
Sales of the barbecue and well water were good.
He sold seven portions of barbecue and ten portions of well water.
Well water and barbecue priced above 15 Wasteland Points failed to sell, and Chen Yi gained a better grasp of prices.
He glanced at the chat channel.
The [World Channel] hadn't yet been opened, and it was completely silent. The [Local Channel], however, was bustling.
However, Chen Yi noticed that the number 10,000 in the lower right corner of the [Local Channel] had unexpectedly changed to 99,996.
He had a vague feeling that the number of people who had decreased might be... four.
This world seemed relatively peaceful, in the novice protection period, but it was still a high-risk world.
Just like the [Black Earth Lizard] that Chen Yi encountered, if he had encountered it alone in the wilderness, he might have died a glorious death.
A few players dying in a single night was normal.
After a day of acclimatization, those who had been transported to the wasteland had adjusted much better. Few people were crying for help in the chat, but more were asking for information.
They were discussing how to survive here,
such as how to obtain food and fresh water.
The food and water provided by the system was only enough for one person for three days.
After that, players would have to find their own way.
The lack of food and water had caused a lot of anxiety.
[Wang Xiaoming: Does anyone know how to get something to eat? I'm almost out of bread!]
[Li Zhengxuan: I just saw a hare, and I couldn't catch it even after running like crazy!]
[Su Mingyu: I'm so lucky! I have several apple trees here, and the apples are crisp and sweet. I've posted them on the trading channel, so hurry up and buy some!]
Upon hearing this, Chen Yi took a look and saw the apples being sold by the player named Su Mingyu.
10 Wasteland Points per apple—so shabby!
While Chen Yi could certainly afford the price, it was a bit steep...
compared to the roasted lizard meat Chen Yi was selling, it was far less cost-effective.
To survive, players were already scrambling to find food and water, to improve their living conditions.
Everyone knew that if they didn't act quickly, they would die.
Many new items had been added to the trading channel.
Chen Yi's focus was on the blueprints for sale.
In the early stages of the game, there wouldn't be many good blueprints for sale; most people wouldn't sell them, preferring to keep them for themselves. So,
Chen Yi, just to give it a try, searched for them.
He actually found a few.
[Bear Trap Blueprint], Price: 1200 Wasteland Points.
[Tricycle Blueprint], Price: 800 Wasteland Points.
Following yesterday's bicycle blueprint, the tricycle blueprint has appeared.
Shen Yi was far more interested in the Bear Trap blueprint than the others, but 1200 Wasteland Points seemed a bit outrageous.
If it were a generator or rifle blueprint, Shen Yi would happily accept the price, but such a high price for a single Bear Trap was completely unacceptable.
Shen Yi estimated that an average player would earn no more than 100 Survival Points after surviving a day.
After deducting daily survival expenses, the remaining balance was even less.
"We're not stupid. We know that blueprints are very valuable, and it's not easy to find them cheaply."
"Hopefully someone will sell them cheaply in the next few days."
Shen Yi wanted to make a Bear Trap to hunt some wild animals for food reserves, but faced with such a high price, he couldn't afford it.
Recalling the roar of the unknown beast last night, Shen Yi spent 30 Wasteland Points on the trading floor to buy an iron block.
Prices in the trading channel were still fluctuating wildly, and relatively rare materials like iron blocks were fetching high prices.
As soon as the interface indicated the purchase was successful, the iron block appeared in Shen Yi's [Warehouse].
This uncanny setting didn't surprise Shen Yi.
He took out the iron block and found a piece of wood.
He opened the crafting panel.
A prompt appeared:
"Do you want to craft a [Bone Chopping Knife]? You need 1 Iron Block, 1 Wood Block, and 5 Wasteland Points?"
"Craft!"
The prepared materials immediately began to move. As if hammered by an invisible hammer, the iron block lengthened and thinned. After a few minutes, it took the shape of a knife, and the wood became a handle.
The blade embedded itself into the handle, and the knife was complete.
Shen Yi took the knife in his hand and examined it.
The bone chopping knife was nearly 50 centimeters long, and the blade weighed about four or five pounds, feeling heavy in his hand.
The blade shone with a faint green light, and his fingertips flicked the blade's back, making a crisp sound.
With the bone-cutting knife in hand, Shen Yi felt like a martial arts master in the movies, powerful and invincible.
Finding a section of tree trunk,
Shen Yi tested the knife's sharpness. Shen Yi chose a knot with twisted grain, where the wood was the hardest and densest.
He held the knife in his right hand to shoulder level, his fingertips lightly touching the blade's back.
"Go!" Shen Yi shouted, and chopped down with his right hand.
"Bang!" A muffled sound echoed.
Shen Yi felt his right hand go numb. The blade had already sunk more than halfway into the tree trunk, leaving only a thin blade on the outside.
Pulling the knife out of the trunk and examining the cut, the trunk was mostly broken, revealing the ivory-colored interior.
The cut surface was smooth and neat.
What a sharp knife!
It wouldn't be said to be able to cut through iron like mud, but it would be no problem to cut through bones.
With a knife like this, going out into the wild would feel safe.
The hardworking Apollos has been assigned to felling wood and mining granite. Although sales of these two resources weren't ideal yesterday, a large number of players will soon be using wood to make furniture, such as beds, tables, and chairs. Stone also has a wide range of applications.
Basic materials like stone and wood are expected to sell very well in the future.
Shen Yi made a scabbard for his bone-chopping knife out of wood, and he always keeps it on his person, never having to worry about facing wild beasts unarmed.
Yesterday's barbecue wasn't ideal.
The newly felled trees, combined with the wind, caused uneven heat, leaving some parts burnt while others were undercooked.
Today, Shen Yi plans to make a batch of excellent fuel: charcoal.
As a barbecue enthusiast, Shen Yi knows how to make charcoal.
Charcoal has many advantages.
It has a high calorific value. Charcoal is primarily composed of carbon, and when burned, it releases a large amount of heat, far exceeding other fuels like firewood.
Furthermore, its long-lasting, stable flame makes it easy to control the heat and evenly heats food or objects.
Charcoal also produces less smoke.
Charcoal was made for cooking purposes, but Shen Yi also intended to use it as a heating fuel.
Charcoal production was relatively simple,
and he planned to use the traditional earthen kiln method.
This method involves digging a pit underground or above ground, which serves as a charcoal kiln, and filling it with wood. The wood is ignited, and the air intake is controlled, allowing it to smolder in an oxygen-depleted environment, before slowly cooling.
Apollo used its robotic arm to dig a large circular pit with a radius of 2 meters and a depth of 1.5 meters.
Shen Yi stacked the cut wood tightly within the pit, minimizing any gaps. He
covered the pit opening with wooden boards and then covered it with soil to minimize air flow.
By the end of this, he was sweating profusely.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Shen Yi felt like he could write a novel titled "My Days as a Laborer in an Other World."
In the side of the pit, Shen Yi had reserved ignition ports to ignite the wood, allowing it to slowly burn in the low-oxygen environment.
The charcoal burning process takes about a week. The temperature is crucial; the fire shouldn't be too high. The color of the smoke indicates the degree of combustion.
Although Shen Yi had never burned charcoal on such a large scale, the process was the same, and it wasn't too difficult for him.
The only hurdle was that the wood wasn't dry enough to burn easily.
While Shen Yi was busy with this task, the diligent Apollos had already cut down over ten trees and transported them to the charcoal kiln.
Every time he saw this scene, Shen Yi couldn't help but marvel at Apollos's work ethic.
Without him, the construction of the safe house would have been a slow grind.
After the charcoal kiln was complete, Shen Yi began his next task.
Last night, Shen Yi suddenly realized that his safe house desperately needed... a toilet. While
he could relieve himself freely in the open air, the smell was unpleasant and negatively impacted the environment.
Furthermore, going out at night was risky.
Shen Yi wanted to build a toilet, but unfortunately, there were no toilet blueprints available, either in the system's crafting panel or in the trading channel.
He could only construct a primitive urinal out of granite.
In the corner of the safe house, Shen Yi dug a small pit and inserted a square stone urinal into it, then cut a drain to the outside.
To ensure smoother drainage, Shen Yi paved the bottom of the drain with stone.
Apollos dug a small square pool outside the safe house to serve as a sewage tank and covered it with stone slabs.
For an urban white-collar worker, this was a time-consuming and laborious task.
Fortunately, the toolbox was well-equipped, but even so, Shen Yi struggled to complete the laying.
After some thought, Shen Yi made a screen out of wooden planks, and a simple toilet was complete.
No more worrying about going to the toilet outside at night...
"Now that we have a toilet, we still need water to flush it."
After completing the toilet, Shen Yi made a large bucket out of wood and placed it inside the toilet. After using the toilet, he flushed it with water, and the toilet was immediately refreshed.
Shen Yi missed his old apartment immensely: running water, electricity, gas, Wi-Fi…
After arriving in this world, he often subconsciously reached for his phone in his pocket, always finding it empty, a feeling of loss.
Shen Yi also missed the water heater at home. After two days of work, he was feeling incredibly dry.
Unfortunately, there was no access to a shower, so he could only scrub himself clean with water from a bucket.
After a long day of hard work, Shen Yi lazily settled into bed.
He pulled out a handful of cookies and chewed them.
He then browsed the trading channel again, searching for suitable manufacturing blueprints.
Unfortunately, blueprints were still scarce and expensive, more than
Shen Yi could afford.
The chat channel was buzzing with conversations.
[Zhang Mingming: I'm almost out of food. Could someone please give me something to eat?]
[Wang Yong: It was so cold last night. I think I have a cold. Do you have any cold medicine?]
[Ma Fugui: I'm worth hundreds of millions and own ten apartments in Beijing. I'll give ten million to anyone who can take me out of here!]
Ma Fugui's words immediately sparked a wave of responses.
Most of them weren't kind.
"What's the use of having a lot of money? You're lucky to be alive."
"You can't go back. Someone else is living in your house, beating your children, and sleeping with your wife."
Each and every sarcastic remark nearly made Shen Yi laugh.
The chat channel was like surfing the internet, with everyone becoming keyboard warriors. If it weren't for the fact that everyone could only speak one sentence per day, this group would probably be in a frenzy.
The wealth gap between people already creates a lot of conflict, but here, with their lives hanging in the balance, there's no need to hide their dislike for others.
Money is useless here!
Just then, a message caught Shen Yi's attention.
[Li Yuanbo: Cement production method for sale. Contact me if you need it.]
Cement, production method?!
Shen Yi's expression changed slightly.
You know, the invention and application of cement is a major milestone in the development of human construction technology.
Cement not only bonds other materials together, making it an excellent adhesive, but once it sets, it also possesses extremely high hardness and wear resistance, making it an extremely important building material.
Its emergence can be said to be the cornerstone of human construction.
If the production blueprints aren't being sold in the trading channel, then this person is likely a technician or scholar specializing in cement production!
Many people barely understand how to make cement, let alone how to use it. How could a city-dwelling professional know the right mix of cement, water, and other ingredients?
Shen Yi's interest piqued.
In this wasteland world, once cement could be produced, it would undoubtedly be a highly sought-after material, far surpassing the likes of wood and stone.
Shen Yi immediately sent a private message to Li Yuanbo.
"Hello, how much is the cement recipe?"
he sent. Unlike the local channel, which had a one-message per day limit, private messages were unlimited.
Of course, to avoid harassment, the system thoughtfully included the ability to block and deny private messages from strangers.
A moment later, Li Yuanbo's reply arrived.
"2000 Wasteland Points."
The number made
Shen Yi's eyelids jump. He had expected the other party to ask for an exorbitant price, but this figure was completely beyond his expectations.
"It's so expensive, can you make it cheaper?" Shen Yi asked, frowning.
The cement-making method wasn't that important to him at this stage.
Whether it is the acquisition of cement ore, the grinding of materials, or the kiln needed to burn cement, Shen Yi currently does not have them.-+ Regarding cement.
A recipe without the necessary manufacturing conditions is useless.
Besides the price, there's another concern: the authenticity of the recipe.
If the recipe he's selling is fake, he'll lose a significant amount of wasteland points.
In this world, moral and legal constraints don't exist.
Chen Yi doesn't even know if the names behind these names are real or fake.
One must be wary.
Li Yuanbo replied, "You can trade for something else."
Although Shen Yi desperately wanted the recipe, and could afford it using wood, stone, well water, and his existing wasteland points, he
decided against it after considering various factors.
Only the naive would buy at such a high price.
If he bought a fake recipe, he'd suffer a heavy loss, which would be detrimental to his future growth and development.
Chen Yi gave a wry smile and said, "Sorry, it's too expensive. I can't afford it."
He ended his conversation with Li Yuanbo, but he still felt a strong desire for the recipe.
Obtaining cement would significantly upgrade his safehouse,
significantly improving its sturdiness and waterproofing.
What a shame...
Shen Yi felt a little regretful.
But there was nothing he could do, so he could only wait and see.
It must be said that selling knowledge really proves the saying: knowledge is the primary productive force.
Shen Yi endured the fatigue and got up from the bed.
It's not time to rest yet.
He focused his attention on the floor, and the system pop-up window popped up.
[Earth floor]
[It's no different from the wilderness. On rainy days, your room will be muddy. (You can now grow vegetables in the room)
[Upgradeable: Solid wood flooring, warm in winter and cool in summer, comfortable to the feet (requires 5 wood, 30 wasteland points)
[Upgradeable: Stone flooring, beautiful, wear-resistant, and stable. (requires 5 stone, 50 wasteland points) Shen
Yi thought for a moment and decided to choose stone flooring. Living in a wooden house is a fire hazard. If the temperature continues to drop, he will light a fire in the safe house. A house made entirely of wood is not safe at all.
"Upgrade to stone flooring!"
After choosing the upgrade, the prepared stones quickly turned into flooring and were laid on the ground piece by piece.
Almost in the blink of an eye, the floor of the entire room was replaced with granite slabs.
The 80*80 large granite block didn't look particularly attractive, with dense blue spots on the smooth stone slabs.
But compared to the previous earthen floor, it was completely brand new.
Hard, smooth, and clean.
The grade of the safe house had been upgraded.
His wasteland points continued to decrease, and the consumption rate was rapid.
Shen Yi wanted to upgrade the building materials of the entire safe house to stone.
However, the prompt he received was that if the entire safe house was upgraded, it would cost 1,000 wasteland points!
Too unfair!
Shen Yi complained in his heart.
So he wanted to upgrade the wooden door to stone door alone, but the prompt he received was "The stone door and wooden house are not compatible and cannot be upgraded."
"Do you want to spend 2 wood and 15 wasteland points to upgrade to a reinforced wooden door?"
"Sure!"
There was no other way, Shen Yi could only choose to upgrade the recommended wooden door to: [Reinforced wooden door]
The quality of the reinforced wooden door has been significantly improved, from the original flimsy small wooden door to a solid wooden door with a heavy feel.
There are several wooden strips nailed diagonally behind the wooden door to reinforce the door.
Of course, the reinforced wooden door still has limited strength and will still break when hit by a strong external force.
After completing the toilet and floor, Shen Yi suddenly felt that the comfort of his cabin has been greatly improved. He
was in a better mood.
Shen Yi did not stop and continued to upgrade his living environment.
He first made a few pieces of furniture with wood: two chairs, a box and a table.
These are simple furniture that come with the production panel and do not require the purchase of blueprints.
After these pieces of furniture were put in, the originally empty safe house suddenly looked warm and more like a single dormitory.
The sun shone in from the window, shining on the wooden table, and a faint smell of wood floated in the room. It felt like returning to nature.
After completing this, Shen Yi visited the charcoal kiln. The flames were burning underneath, and a small amount of blue smoke was rising, indicating that everything was normal. He
counted his food: a small amount of bread, two cans of fish with fermented black beans, and several dozen kilograms of lizard meat.
Aside from the lack of vegetables, this food should last him a month.
Although the temperature here was low, lizard meat didn't keep for long, so Shen Yi planned to process all of it today.
With less than a hundred kilograms of meat, Shen Yi planned to make a small amount into barbecue for immediate consumption and sale, and the majority into jerky for long-term storage.
The charcoal wasn't ready yet, so Shen Yi had to use wood to light the campfire.
The flames were erratic, and the heat was uneven.
The meat was easily burnt in some places and undercooked in others.
Before coming to this world, Shen Yi had often been in charge of grilling skewers at gatherings. He was quite skilled, but under these conditions, he felt a bit helpless.
Soon, Chen Yi had grilled nearly 20 kilograms of meat.
Without seasoning, only the natural flavor of the meat remained.
If the ingredients were good enough, it might be acceptable without seasoning, but lizard meat itself had a slightly fishy and sour taste, so grilling it was just enough to fill a stomach.
Chen Yi wasn't worried about not being able to sell it. Many people, lacking the ability to survive in the wild, couldn't sustain themselves for long, so they bought Chen Yi's barbecue.
Even the initial sales showed that some with good appetites had already devoured most of the food rationed by the system...
Making dried meat is not difficult.
If salt is available, it can be cured and then dried in a cool, well-ventilated place.
Without salt, Chen Yi had to dry the meat over fire to evaporate the moisture and prevent it from rotting.
This usually insignificant item became a valuable commodity in the wilderness.
Shen Yi washed the lizard meat with clean water, cut it into strips 15 cm long and 2 cm wide, and slowly grilled it over low heat.
After grilling, Shen Yi built a wooden rack in his safe house and neatly hung the meat on it.
He then opened the windows to ensure good ventilation.
Food, clothing, shelter, and transportation are the basic necessities of human life.
After a busy day, Shen Yi's accommodations had been significantly improved. Next, once the charcoal was finished, he would consider building a stove in the safe house to burn for warmth when the temperature dropped.
Of these, clothing was Shen Yi's biggest shortfall.
He was wearing a thin spring outfit, which offered little protection from the cold. Worse still, from the intense daily work, not only were they dirty and impossible to wash, but they had also been torn several times.
He could even smell the odor on his clothes,
which was unbearable for the clean-keeping Shen Yi.
However, like salt, no one was selling clothes on the trading channel.
"Time to prepare for another round of wilderness exploration,"
Shen Yi thought.
Some of the items sold on the trading channel, like the trap blueprint, were likely obtained from treasure chests.
And obtaining treasure chests was simple: hunting wild beasts. A
step-by-step approach was the right path.
But at this point, Chen Yi felt like he wasn't getting much beyond selling items on the trading channel.
It was a complete waste of time.
He needed to try his luck in the wild, perhaps to find some new items or development ideas.
This time, he planned to explore further, checking for potential dangers along the way.
It was better to plan ahead, so as not to regret it later when others came knocking on his door.
Based on the local channel settings, Chen Yi was certain there must be other players nearby.
In this unfamiliar world, without the constraints of law and regulation, Chen Yi had no idea how other players would treat one another.
Human nature was unreliable, and in the face of profit, people could lose their inhumanity.
With the crafted bone-chopping knife, Chen Yi was no longer defenseless. With the powerful Apollo, he had considerable self-protection capabilities.
"Upgrading the safehouse's wooden doors and windows needs to be prioritized. Even an ordinary person could break this door. And the windows, needless to say, wouldn't even protect against mosquitoes." Chen
Yi surveyed his safehouse, searching for areas for improvement.
The cabin was called a safe house, but in reality, it was anything but safe. Shen Yi longed to turn it into a solid fortress ,
but the conditions simply didn't allow it.
He could only take it step by step.
His second night in this world didn't seem so difficult to sleep.
Apollos stood by Shen Yi like a dedicated guard.
However, with the addition of a toilet and all the furniture, this small safe house seemed quite a bit cramped.
Apollos couldn't even stretch out in the room.
He didn't know how much luck he had used up to win Apollos as a newbie reward.
Without Apollos, how anxious and uncertain he would be right now. Without
a cell phone or internet, or lights or illumination,
the nights here were exceptionally long and difficult.
Shen Yi felt as if he were back in his childhood, back in his mountain village. Back then, the electricity supply was unreliable, with frequent blackouts. His only nighttime entertainment was lying on the rooftop of his bungalow and counting the stars...
The starry sky was beautiful, the reddish stars radiating a unique beauty.
But the brighter the starry sky, the more loneliness creeps in.
I closed my eyes, then opened them again, and it was dawn.
[January 3rd, Wasteland Era]
[Congratulations, you've made it through the day safely (Wasteland Points +10)]
[You further developed your safehouse, building a toilet, replacing the floor, reinforcing the wooden door, and crafting furniture, further improving your quality of life (Wasteland Points +50)]
[You forged your first weapon: the Bone Cutter, increasing your combat effectiveness (Wasteland Points +25)]
From the daily settlement, you earned 85 Wasteland Points.
You successfully sold 13 well water, 11 wood, 9 stone, and 8 barbecues on the trading channel, earning 365 Wasteland Points.
You earned 450 Wasteland Points.
Your balance from the previous day was 350 Wasteland Points.
You spent 100 Wasteland Points
. Your current Wasteland Point total is 700.
Seeing this, Chen Yi felt a mixture of joy and worry. He
was pleased that, as he'd expected, the Wasteland Points earned from trading had increased significantly.
He was also concerned that the trading channel was showing signs of price manipulation. Both well water and barbecued meat were selling for lower prices than on the first day.
Someone was underpricing the market, disrupting the market...
As more players gained access to a stable source of water and food, prices were likely to fall further.
It was foreseeable that as players' productivity increased, prices would likely fall further.
To achieve consistent profits on the trading channel, Chen Yi needed to secure resources and goods with higher entry points as soon as possible.
These were no easy feats.
The system's daily rewards were also declining.
On the first day, the rewards for placing a safe house and obtaining Apollos were generous, but on the second day, they only yielded 85 points.
"Don't let up."
The advantage Apollos could give him wasn't as great as he'd imagined. He needed to work harder and keep the snowball rolling.
As he pondered this, a system notification suddenly sounded.
[The Wasteland World Map will be refreshed for the first time in 12 days. Players will face increased danger. Please proceed with caution.]
11 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes until refresh…
A small countdown appeared in the lower right corner of the system interface.
Shen Yi's heart trembled.
As expected!
As he had predicted, this world would never remain peaceful forever. The
initial period was merely an acclimatization period for the players.
Once they had become familiar with the ways of life in this world, the difficulty would begin to increase dramatically.
The true test of survival would not arrive until 12 days later.
The current food and water shortages and monster attacks in the wilderness were just appetizers; the real show had yet to begin.
Shen Yi felt a little nervous, yet at the same time, a subtle excitement welled up within him.
The first world map refresh?
Interesting.
A faint smile played at the corner of Shen Yi's mouth.
It was easy to predict that this first refresh meant there would be a second, third, and even more.
The difficulty would continue to increase,
just like in a game.
The players would face increasingly difficult levels until they died or…completed the game.
The system's prompt sparked widespread discussion in the players' chat channel.
Chen Yi has gradually developed a habit of waking up every morning to check the chat and trading channels; these two channels are his windows for obtaining information.
The chat channel, in particular, has become less meaningless as players have lived in this world longer.
Some enthusiastic citizens have begun sharing their experiences and observations in the channel.
Humans are social animals, which leads many to crave recognition and approval.
To gain praise and recognition from others, they can be selfless and enthusiastic.
For example, a person named Wang Dachui shared his techniques for catching small animals in the wilderness to fill his stomach.
Chen Yi has always been a loner, not one to praise others, nor one to need it. Since arriving in this world, he has been unaware of the situation.
And if nothing unexpected happens, he will remain very low-key for a long time to come.-+