Chapter 8 Glacial Ring
Qin Zhen's heart lurched. She dashed into the Shelter and quickly crafted a campfire using Thatch ×2 and Wood ×1. The Wooden Cabin lit up with a warm glow, and that eerie sense of danger finally faded.
The outside at night was truly terrifying!
Qin Zhen made up her mind: from now on, she would always return to the Shelter well before dark — no more cutting it so close.
It was getting dark at five o'clock right now, but would it always be five o'clock?
Qin Zhen wasn't willing to gamble on it.
As usual, she poured the leftover Mineral Water from the day into the Coconut Shell Pot, then added the Shrimp Meat 200g ×1, Crab Meat 100g ×1, and kelp ×1 she had just obtained.
Kelp already contains salt, so there was no need for extra seasoning.
She then took out the snakehead fish meat 1kg ×1, skewered it on a clean wooden stick, and held it over the campfire to roast.
She sprinkled some seasoning as it cooked, and before long the savory aroma of roasted fish filled the cabin.
Qin Zhen ate the roasted fish while sipping the seafood soup.
The seafood soup, seasoned with nothing but salt, was surprisingly rich and delicious. She finished off the meal with a couple of Strawberries for dessert.
Once she was full and satisfied, Qin Zhen opened the Chat Channel.
[Blinds: Everyone, does it feel like we got way more supplies today than usual?]
[YouMustBeStarving: Seems like it — I fished up more chests than yesterday.]
[ImAnRNGGod: Same here. I fished up eight chests today, including two Black Iron Chests, and then a wild pheasant just randomly ran into a tree and died right in front of me.]
[Fleeting Dream: Holy crap, ImAnRNGGod, that's absolutely insane.]
[The Golden House Within Books: How can there be such a gap between people? I still haven't even seen what a Black Iron Chest looks like...]
[Fleeting Dream: You're not alone...]
[Blinds: +1]
[Xiaomihu: +2]
[...]
[Fallen Leaf: +10086]
[Little Pheasant: Am I the only one who feels like something's off? Is the System up to something?]
[JustGoMarryAGuy: I feel it too. The System can't be this generous for no reason.]
[Liufang: Stop being so dramatic. The System probably just noticed we didn't have enough supplies to survive, so it gave us a little extra.]
[Red Carp: Exactly. Why would the System do anything against us? It keeps handing out supplies because it wants us to stay alive, right?]
[...]
Reading this, Qin Zhen was genuinely surprised. It seemed everyone had gotten lucky today — that couldn't be a coincidence.
Then it hit her: today was the last day of the Beginner Protection Period. A sudden sense of unease crept into her heart.
She wasn't naive enough to believe the System was being kind. She suspected it might be holding something back — what if starting tomorrow, supplies dropped off drastically?
Just then, the Chat Channel erupted into an argument.
[Endless Stream: @YouMustBeStarving @JustGoMarryAGuy, you two spent this afternoon egging people on to attack monsters. I'm injured now — my HP is down to just 10 points. You're both menaces! If it weren't for you, I never would have gone after a monster on my own!]
[YouMustBeStarving: Bro, I only made a suggestion, okay? Whether you actually went or not was entirely your own choice. How is that my fault?]
[SwallowsFlySouth: He does have a point though — if it weren't for your suggestion, he never would have gotten the idea in the first place.]
[Endless Stream: I don't care. You two each owe me one Wooden Chest worth of supplies.]
[JustGoMarryAGuy: What kind of nonsense is this? I told you to go get supplies, not to throw your life away. If you couldn't beat the monster, that's on you — how is that anyone else's problem? We're all adults. Own your choices and stop trying to pin the blame on others.]
[Endless Stream: You two nearly got me killed. Shouldn't you at least compensate me?]
[Liufang: Just compensate him — he's not entirely wrong.]
[Red Carp: Yeah, we're all in this together. Help each other out when you can.]
[JustGoMarryAGuy: Ha. You two should go be saints somewhere.]
[YouMustBeStarving: Oh, then why don't you give him your supplies?]
[Red Carp: What does this have to do with me? You're the ones who got him hurt, not me.]
[YouMustBeStarving: Why should I be responsible for someone else's choices? He could have just not gone — that was his decision.]
[JustGoMarryAGuy: @Endless Stream, even if you actually died, what would that have to do with me? I'm simply not giving you any supplies. What are you going to do about it?]
[Endless Stream: You... you're both horrible people!]
[Red Carp: Exactly. How can you treat your fellow survivors like this?]
[YouMustBeStarving: Say whatever you want. It's not like it costs us anything.]
[Endless Stream: You...]
[...]
Qin Zhen let out a scornful laugh. This was exactly why she never posted anything in the Chat Channel.
If you said the right thing, people might not even thank you. But if something you said led to someone else getting hurt, they'd drag you into it — and maybe even demand compensation.
This was just human nature: selfish and self-serving. And in a survival game, the last thing you could afford to be was a bleeding heart. What did other people's lives and deaths have to do with you? Whether you yourself could survive was already an open question.
She closed the Chat Channel and began sorting through her supplies.
That's when she noticed she still had an unopened Black Iron Chest. Her heart filled with anticipation — the loot from the chest that the bamboo pit viper had dropped had been so satisfying.
She wondered how the System reward chest would compare. Surely it wouldn't be worse.
[Ice Affinity Skill Book ×1, Starlight Staff (Green) ×1, Auto-Flush Toilet ×1, Attribute Orb ×3, Inventory Expansion Card ×3]
[Ice Affinity Skill Book: Glacial Ring — Single-target control skill. Targets struck are frozen for 3 seconds and take 5 damage per second. Costs 30 MP. Cooldown: 10 seconds. Can only be learned by Ice Affinity players.]
[Starlight Staff (Green): Attack +30. Enables the casting of magic skills. Durability: 300/300]
[Auto-Flush Toilet: A miraculous toilet that requires neither a water tank nor electricity.]
[Attribute Orb: Randomly adds 3 points to an attribute.]
[Inventory Expansion Card: Upon use, expands your backpack by one slot.]
Oh wow — all top-tier items. Worthy of a System reward indeed.
Qin Zhen tapped to learn the skill book, but a message popped up: [Available after System update].
An update? What did that mean?
Qin Zhen was puzzled. And the Starlight Staff could enable magic skills — did that mean even if she learned the skill book, she couldn't cast magic without the staff? That seemed like a terrible design.
Qin Zhen was at a loss for words — but then she looked at the toilet sitting in front of her and broke into a delighted smile. Only she knew what she'd been through these past few days, burying her business in the sand every time nature called.
But where to put the toilet? Her Wooden Cabin was just one room. She couldn't possibly Eat, drink, sleep, and defecate all in the same space, could she?
But putting it outside meant no shelter from wind or rain — and what if she needed to go in the middle of the night? Hold it?
After thinking it over, Qin Zhen decided to keep the toilet inside. She was in a survival game, after all — no point being picky. As long as she could survive, that was good enough.
Besides, tomorrow she could chop some bamboo and make a bamboo partition to screen it off.