Chapter 19 Warehouse Blueprint
5:30 in the morning, the next day.
[Today's Weather: Cloudy, 57°F ~ 70°F]
Qin Zhen woke up, only to find that it was still pitch dark outside.
What was going on?
She opened the Chat Channel, and others were already talking about it.
[Caterpillar: Guys, why is it still dark out?]
[YouMustBeStarving: Maybe the sunrise time has been pushed back by half an hour too.]
[Xiaofeixia: So annoying — sunset comes earlier at night, sunrise comes later in the morning. In a couple more days there won't be any daytime at all, will there?]
[JustGoMarryAGuy: There's a good chance Polar Night is coming in a few days. Everyone get ready — stock up on Wood for lighting.]
[Wuzhetan Suannai: Ugh... this is awful...]
[...]
Qin Zhen did the math. At the rate of sunrise being pushed back half an hour each morning and sunset arriving half an hour earlier each evening, Polar Night would hit around the thirteenth day of the official game.
Today was the fourth day of the official game, so she still had plenty of time to prepare.
Qin Zhen rinsed her mouth, couldn't be bothered to cook, and just ate a bag of Bread and an Apple.
Then she started crafting Iron Axes while waiting for daylight.
But to her surprise, it was still dark at six o'clock.
[Wuzhetan Suannai: Huh? It's six already and it's still dark?]
[YouMustBeStarving: The sunrise delay might be more than half an hour...]
[Bimozhi Yan: Help, I think I'm going to lose my mind...]
[JustGoMarryAGuy: It's all the same, really — just a bit less daytime. That's all.]
[Caterpillar: But that means even less time to gather supplies...]
[The Golden House Within Books: True, but there's nothing we can do about it. You absolutely cannot go out after dark, so stop dwelling on it.]
[Caterpillar: I know, I know — I'm just anxious...]
[...]
She waited and waited — all the way until ten o'clock.
Qin Zhen was stunned. That was a massive jump.
By this calculation, Polar Night would arrive on the ninth day of the official game — meaning she only had five days left to prepare.
This wretched System was absolutely ruthless!
During that time, Qin Zhen had crafted 54 Iron Axes, consuming Refined Iron ×324 and Stone ×162.
She listed them in the Trading Zone as usual.
This time, however, she adjusted her prices.
The new listing was: [Iron Axe ×1: Trade for Refined Iron ×10, Stone ×10] ×54.
She still needed a large amount of Stone to upgrade her Shelter, while Refined Iron could wait a little longer.
Not wanting to venture too far, Qin Zhen headed to the spot where she had previously found pine trees.
Pine trees were more cost-effective than other trees — besides yielding Wood, they also dropped Pine Nuts and Pine Resin.
Naturally, Qin Zhen preferred chopping pine trees.
She chopped straight through until 2:45 in the afternoon, not returning to the Shelter at noon.
She just ate a bag of Bread and an Apple to fill her stomach.
The main reason was that daytime was so short now — making the round trip would waste too much time. Better to just eat something quick on the spot.
There would be plenty of time to eat properly once night fell.
Today's haul was: [Wood ×270, Pine Resin ×54, Pine Nut 500g ×54, EXP +270.]
She also ran into a Black Snake along the way — a Common Monster.
After killing it, she received: [snake meat 1kg ×2, snakeskin ×1, Snake Fang ×2, Snake Scale ×10, EXP +30.]
Unfortunately, the Black Snake didn't drop a Wooden Chest.
She arrived back at the Shelter right at three o'clock, just as darkness began to fall.
Qin Zhen lit a campfire inside the cabin.
Then she strapped the Flashlight to her forehead, held the Starlight Staff in her left hand, and raised the Lianyue Crossbow in her right, standing in front of the Wooden Cabin to wait.
She didn't have to wait long before five monster silhouettes appeared.
[Black-tusk Wild Bull: Tier 1 Monster. Attack Power: 40; Defense: 50; HP: 350.]
One was a Tier 1 Wild Bull, and the other four were Common Black-tusk Wild Bulls.
There was actually one extra Common Monster this time.
Qin Zhen was quite pleased about it, though.
Because bulls meant she'd be eating beef very soon.
The Common Black-tusk Wild Bulls were already enormous, and the Tier 1 Black-tusk Wild Bull was twice the size of the ordinary ones.
Just how much meat would that be?!
Besides, Black-tusk Wild Bulls were the type of monster with short reach — they were melee attackers.
She, on the other hand, relied mostly on ranged attacks.
That meant she could kite all of these Black-tusk Wild Bulls to death without letting any of them lay a hoof on her.
Qin Zhen kept her distance from the Black-tusk Wild Bulls while making use of the Glacial Ring and the Lianyue Crossbow.
In just a few minutes, all five Black-tusk Wild Bulls crashed to the ground.
Qin Zhen shook her head — monsters with large bodies and short reach were just too dumb.
[Tier 1 Monster Black-tusk Wild Bull detected. Disassemble?]
[Yes / No]
Qin Zhen tapped Yes, and received: [Tier 1 Black-tusk Wild Bull Meat 1kg ×100, Tier 1 Black-tusk Wild Bull Hide ×1, Tier 1 Black-tusk Wild Bull Horn ×2, Tier 1 Black-tusk Wild Bull Fang ×10, Black Iron Chest ×1, EXP +50].
Disassembling the four Common Black-tusk Wild Bulls yielded: [Black-tusk Wild Bull Meat 1kg ×200, Black-tusk Wild Bull Hide ×4, Black-tusk Wild Bull Horn ×8, Black-tusk Wild Bull Fang ×40, Wooden Chest ×3, EXP +120].
Opening the Wooden Chests yielded: [Mineral Water 500ml ×5, Bread 200g ×5, Cup Noodles ×5, Wooden Stool ×1, Toothbrush Set ×1].
Opening the Black Iron Chest yielded: [Blueprint ×1, Crimson Gold Round Hat (Green) ×1, Attribute Orb ×10, Inventory Expansion Card ×5].
[Blueprint: Warehouse Blueprint — a static space with 100 slots, each slot holding up to 999 items. Required materials: Refined Iron ×100, Wood ×100, Glass ×50]
[Crimson Gold Round Hat (Green): Defense +10; Durability: 200/200]
Qin Zhen's grin stretched nearly to her ears. She had just been worrying about where to store all that bull meat, and now a warehouse had dropped right into her lap.
And it was a static space, too — nothing inside would expire.
Though she was still short on Glass. Come to think of it, upgrading the Shelter probably required Glass as well — she had almost forgotten.
She consumed the Attribute Orbs.
Constitution +6, Defense +3, Attack +6, Speed +3, Intelligence +9, Luck +3.
She used all the Inventory Expansion Cards as well. Her backpack now had thirty slots.