Chapter 11 Frost Blossom
"So why didn't that bamboo pit viper yesterday drop a Spirit Bead?"
[Only monsters with special affinities have a chance to drop Affinity Spirit Beads. The bamboo pit viper has no special affinity.]
[Also, your Luck today is higher than yesterday's.]
Right — Qin Zhen had almost forgotten. Her Luck was now at 11.
It looked like today's chest haul was going to be pretty good.
She glanced at the time. It was only six o'clock.
Qin Zhen decided to keep chopping trees. Her Shelter still needed quite a bit of Wood to upgrade.
Around seven-fifty, she stopped.
This morning's total: Wood ×60, Pine Resin ×12, Pine Nuts 500g ×12, EXP +60.
She hadn't run into any monsters, though.
Qin Zhen headed to the shore to fish for chests.
The food she'd eaten in the morning had long since been digested, so she gnawed on two Bananas to barely fill her stomach.
Today she only fished up three Wooden Chests.
Qin Zhen's brow furrowed. Her Luck was considerably higher than the past few days, yet she'd fished up fewer Wooden Chests than before.
That meant the System had drastically cut back on the supplies it was distributing!
She checked the Chat Channel — it was already flooded with messages, probably all about the System update.
Sure enough, everyone was talking about it.
[Fendie: Hey, did you guys see the new Leaderboard? Wow, these top Players are seriously impressive — already level 4 this fast.]
[SwallowsFlySouth: But they're all anonymous.]
[Blinds: The big shots probably want to keep a low profile...]
Qin Zhen opened the Leaderboard and looked. Aside from one ID — Zhengzhan Tianxia — it was indeed a sea of asterisks.
Zhengzhan Tianxia? Wasn't that the person who'd called her a scammer for trading Coconuts for supplies last time?
This person was so attention-seeking. Qin Zhen didn't think that was a good thing.
[Xiaomihu: What affinities does everyone have? I have Water Affinity, but I still don't have the Skill Book the System mentioned.]
[ImAnRNGGod: I have Thunder Affinity — and I just happened to open a Thunder Affinity Skill Book from a chest yesterday, hahaha!]
[Lazhu: Please delete that post. I've come down with a severe case of envy.]
[SwallowsFlySouth: Same ^^]
[YouMustBeStarving: Having a Skill Book is useless anyway — you still need a staff to actually use skills...]
[Blinds: Seriously? So if you never open a Skill Book or a staff, you just... can't use skills forever?]
[JustGoMarryAGuy: That's right. Though eventually someone will open a Skill Book that doesn't suit them, or end up with an extra staff, and they'll probably sell those.]
[Xinglixiang: ...That's rough.]
[...]
[The Golden House Within Books: Holy crap, guys — has anyone else noticed that supplies are way scarcer today?]
[Xiaomihu: Same here! I used to get four or five chests, now I only got two.]
[SwallowsFlySouth: I only got one...]
[YouMustBeStarving: What's going on? My chests are clearly way fewer than the past few days.]
[ImAnRNGGod: My supplies dropped too — just four Wooden Chests. Yesterday I still had two Black Iron Chests...]
[JustGoMarryAGuy: Probably related to this morning's update. Now that it's the official game world, maybe the current supply amounts are the real baseline.]
[Shuyinxia: But with this few supplies, we can't survive at all...]
[YouMustBeStarving: Natural selection. Survival of the fittest.]
[...]
Qin Zhen felt the System was forcing Players to fight monsters whether they liked it or not.
It was cutting back on the survival supplies that could be fished up, while the loot dropped by monsters was still fairly decent.
But she had no idea what the System's purpose was in doing this.
"System, do you know?"
[Host, I don't know either. I'm just a sub-system — only the main system would know these things.]
"Alright."
Qin Zhen was a little disappointed.
She returned to the Shelter and opened the three Wooden Chests she'd just fished up.
Contents: Mineral Water 500ml ×3, Bread 200g ×2, Stone ×5, Refined Iron ×5, Toilet Paper ×3, Wok ×1.
The supplies really weren't much — not even enough food for a full day.
Still, the Toilet Paper and the Wok were a pleasant surprise.
She'd been using leaves to wipe herself in the bathroom, after all...
With a Wok, she could finally stir-fry things. Everything she'd been eating before was just thrown together in a pot to boil.
She was so sick of it.
Qin Zhen also opened the chest dropped by the Flame Squirrel.
Contents: Crimson Silk Gloves (Green) ×1, Cutlery Set ×1, Rice 1kg ×1.
[Crimson Silk Gloves (Green): Defense +10, Durability: 200/200]
[Cutlery Set: One bowl, one pair of chopsticks, one spoon.]
Sure enough, the chests dropped by monsters had better loot than the ones fished up from the sea.
She equipped the Crimson Silk Gloves, and a pair of gilded gloves embroidered with crimson silk threads appeared on her hands.
A moment later they vanished, as if they had never been there.
But Qin Zhen knew that the moment something struck her hands, the gloves would reappear.
What to eat for lunch?
Qin Zhen eyed the big Wok. She really wanted to stir-fry something, but without a stove there was no way to do it.
She'd go out this afternoon and see if she could find some Stone, bring some back, and build a Stone Stove — then she could have stir-fried food for dinner!
For now, she'd keep it simple and have a Self-Heating Mini Hot Pot.
Honestly, Qin Zhen had been craving this for a long time.
She'd been about to eat hot pot when she got dragged into the game — and she never got that first bite before she was pulled in.
Celebrating now wasn't too late.
She dug into the steaming, fiery-red, mouth-numbingly spicy little hot pot, washing it down with Couch Potato Cola.
Qin Zhen felt there was nothing in life more blissful than this.
After the hot pot, she popped a few Strawberries to cut through the richness.
"Burp."
Full and satisfied, Qin Zhen felt energized all over.
She geared up and headed out to look for Stone.
This time she didn't go toward the forest near the shallow sea area — she set off in a different direction.
That area had a water source, but what she needed most right now was Stone.
Building a Stone Stove required Stone. Upgrading the Shelter required Stone too.
She had no idea why finding Stone was so difficult for her.
Just getting there took Qin Zhen a full hour.
Along this unfamiliar path, though, she did spot a few stone slabs.
Qin Zhen took out her Stone Pickaxe and smashed them apart: Stone ×30, EXP +30.
The vegetation in this part of the forest was sparse and scattered, which struck Qin Zhen as odd.
There seemed to be far less plant life here than near the Shelter or over by the shallow sea area.
And the further she walked, the colder she felt.
She rubbed her arms and kept going.
"Huh? What's that?"
Growing from a crack in a rock was an ice-blue plant, its tip crowned with a small flower of the same icy blue hue.
Qin Zhen stared at the frost flower in surprise. She hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward and plucked it.
[Frost Blossom: Ice Affinity +5 upon consumption.]
This thing gave even more Affinity than a Fire Spirit Bead — but...
"System, how do I consume this? Just swallow it whole?"
[You can swallow it directly, or use it as a crafting material for potions.]
"Make potions? How?" Like a Life Potion or something?
[Host, first, you need to have a Potion Recipe.]
Qin Zhen: "..."