Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 1385: Earning One’s Keep with One’s Hands

“Look at that!” Louisa, standing in the corner, pointed at the opposite wall. She was about to speak but hurriedly swallowed her words, almost letting the word “elephant” slip out of carelessness. After a pause, she continued, “There… there’s an extra line of prompt text on the opposite wall.”

When Lin Sanjiu went around to look, she saw the prominent characters written like this: “Day 1, 9:00 AM. Today, please provide a reasonable explanation for why there are not enough posts in the room.”

“Is this some kind of joke?” muttered Jian Sheng, the typically quiet posthuman. “These posts have gone to hell.”

The line of text still hung on the wall as if it didn’t think this explanation was reasonable enough.

“It’s not hard to explain,” Ji Shanqing said, following Lin Sanjiu like a shadow. “First, let’s get the backpacks.”

“How are we going to distribute them?” Louisa asked, furrowing her brows.

Among the eight people present, Louisa, Horst, and Jian Sheng were the last to join, having hitched a ride. Their relationship was not as close as the others, so this question inevitably brought a bit of awkwardness.

“We won’t distribute them yet,” Ji Shanqing explained. “If we want to work and earn a living in this room, there are definitely more detailed rules, such as how to work, how long it takes to sustain a day’s living, etc. The answers might all be in the backpacks. It’s not too late to talk about distribution after we clearly understand the situation.”

Almost nobody overthought it, and the task naturally fell on Lin Sanjiu’s shoulders. For safety, it would be better to grab several backpacks at once to avoid the game interpreting that she has already chosen her profession; she wrapped three bags with her Higher Consciousness, pulling them out from under the elephant’s belly while hesitatingly asking Ji Shanqing, “Do you need a backpack too?”

Ji Shanqing nodded. “Humans set this game up. So, this body of mine will also be considered a player.”

Then, she should be the one to give up the backpack.

She had Ji Shanqing’s absolute attention, Silvan’s priority concern, and the complete trust of Nu Yue and Han Suiping. Compared to anyone present, she had several layers of safety nets. Only by having her give up the backpack could they avoid rifts within their small group.

As she thought about this, the elephant suddenly turned its head as if attracted by a backpack sliding on the ground. Its trunk turned a few times in the air, and just as it was about to descend, Han Suiping couldn’t help but gasp quietly. All the eyes on the elephant simultaneously turned to focus on him.

He quickly averted his gaze, pretending not to see it.

Many human eyes slowly blinked and turned away. Han Suiping hadn’t spoken aloud or mentioned the elephant, so it seemed he hadn’t violated the rules. When they had successfully brought over all seven backpacks, everyone had gathered around them. Nobody noticed anything unusual at that moment.

The next second, a gray shadow suddenly swept through the air in front of them, brushing past Lin Sanjiu’s nose and shooting out; immediately after, Han Suiping was hit in the chest, flew backward, and slammed into the wall with a thud.

Lin Sanjiu let out a cry of surprise, and in the blink of an eye, she was by his side, catching him before he fell and asking, “Are you alright?”

Han Suiping’s face was as white as snow as if he wanted to cough a few times, but it was all stuck in his chest, his body bent like a shrimp, still unable to breathe. Without needing Ji Shanqing’s examination, Lin Sanjiu knew from a light touch that all his ribs were broken.

She suppressed her fear and anger and said softly, “It’s okay. It’s just a fracture. We can heal you.”

“But he clearly…” Nu Yue cut herself off. “Why did this happen?”

After some deep thought, the answer to this question was self-evident. People sometimes look at empty spaces, which is not strange, but they don’t look at the air and suddenly get surprised—meaning, their words, actions, and reactions must not acknowledge the elephant’s existence.

Everyone hurriedly moved Han Suiping to the corner and carried all the backpacks, trying to keep a distance from the elephant. Not even Silvan had been able to react in time and pull Han Suiping away from the elephant’s attack just now, which showed one thing: their abilities were almost null when facing the elephant.

“So… can he no longer work?” Horst whispered, voicing the thought lingering in everyone’s minds.

“Let’s see what the deal with the backpacks is first, then make a judgment,” Ji Shanqing said, lifting his chin. “Have you noticed? Each backpack has a profession written on it.”

Four of the seven backpacks had the profession “Farmer” written on them. The remaining ones were “Tax Collector,” “Inspector,” and “Worker.”

It must be said, this list of professions was far beyond Lin Sanjiu’s expectations. She had initially thought her [Scrooge McDuck] ability could come into play. She gestured for Ji Shanqing to tend to Han Suiping’s injuries, then said, “There’s something heavy in the backpack. Louisa, choose a profession first and see what’s in the bag.”

Being called first, Louisa seemed a bit surprised. After hesitating, she grabbed the Worker backpack—almost simultaneously, a line of small text appeared under the prompt on the wall, saying, “Once a profession is chosen, it cannot be changed.”

That was to say, it was impossible to work for a few days and then hand it over to someone without a job.

“There’s an instruction manual,” Louisa said, pulling a piece of paper from the bag. Without rushing to look, she took a few small tools out of the bag. “These are… grinders?”

These tools could be used for polishing, grinding, and cutting. They were small but still useful.

Louisa read the large print at the top of the instruction manual, “The payment for work is in the form of survival supplies, which are food balls worth 100 calories each. To survive, each person must consume 300 calories a day.”

[Worker Job Instruction Manual]

The job involves serving farmers by providing services such as grinding and repairing farming tools (the player must actually perform these actions) and receiving payment from the farmers. The more work done, the more payment received, and there is no limit to working hours.

Note: You need to deduct the tax from the payment you received. Only what’s left can be used for yourself and/or given to others.

Seeing the line “given to others,” Lin Sanjiu let out a small sigh of relief.

The relationship between calorie intake and survival: 1000 calories are needed daily to maintain the level of physical ability when first entering the game; 300 calories can only maintain the bare minimum of survival and cannot avoid side effects like physical weakness, dizziness, etc. As calorie intake increases, physical strength and abilities will also become stronger, and it’s possible to exceed one’s abilities.

If one day the calorie intake is less than 300, or if there has been no work for three consecutive days, if any of these conditions are not met, death will ensue. Of course, as long as there is work, taking in 300 calories is not difficult.