Chapter 32: A Hatchable Egg

Chapter 32: Chapter 32: A Hatchable Egg

From sunrise to sunset, aside from the time she spent eating, sleeping, and taking her medicine, Shi Zhile was busy looking for people to trade with.

Her three cases of instant noodles were now two, and a pile of golden sore medicine, various seeds, and bolts of cloth sat in a corner of the cave.

At sunset, Jiang Yuxing sent a video call request.

After Shi Zhile accepted, she took out a newly-made stone basin of lava for light.

"I caught a lot of lobster today. Want some?"

Shi Zhile pointed to her head. "I can’t. I throw up everything I eat."

If it weren’t a matter of survival, she wouldn’t have taken a single bite of that snake meat.

Jiang Yuxing leaned closer to the panel. "Sounds like you got a concussion from the impact. Stop the bleeding first, then apply medicine. Sprinkle on plenty of golden sore medicine before you bandage it. Apply a cold compress to the swollen areas, avoiding the wound itself. Most importantly, you need to rest quietly. You should also take some anti-inflammatory medicine."

He paused. "Don’t you have coconuts? The water and flesh can increase your Life Value. Try not to let your Life Value drop below 50."

Shi Zhile sat up. "How much can a coconut increase my Life Value?"

He chuckled. "A whole coconut increases it by 20 points."

’What the hell!’

’Then what was the point of her forcing herself to eat snake meat all day?!’

Jiang Yuxing sent over two flopping yellow croakers. "You didn’t know, did you?"

Shi Zhile: "...I really didn’t know!"

He sent a chat screenshot. "Do you know a player from Rainforest Island named Jiang Yaozu? He snuck into the Zone 2 server and is publicizing your supplies. A lot of people have their eyes on you now."

Thinking about the properties of her pharmacy station, Shi Zhile’s head throbbed even more.

She thought for a moment. "There’s something I’d like you to hold onto for me for a few days. It won’t be for free—any supplies you get from it are yours to keep."

She was being incredibly generous, which was completely out of character for her usual thrifty nature.

Jiang Yuxing raised a slight eyebrow. "First, tell me what kind of trouble this item will cause."

Shi Zhile simply sent him the item description for the pharmacy station.

"I’m injured right now, so the islands that periodically spawn are too dangerous for me. But for any uninjured player, they’re a huge opportunity. Great risk, great reward. Want to consider it?"

Jiang Yuxing didn’t hesitate. "Alright, send it over."

After ending the conversation, Shi Zhile took out a coconut.

[Sea Island Coconut: A coconut rich in various nutrients. The water quenches thirst and increases physical attributes. The flesh is rich in fats (Don’t eat me alone; combine me with other foods for an unexpected harvest! And I’m definitely not going to tell you that eating a whole coconut increases your Life Value by 20 points.)]

’Thanks for the tip!’

’I already knew that.’

Without hesitation, Shi Zhile cracked open the coconut and finished it off.

The grogginess lasted for a whole week. When the notification about her continuous Life Value drain being eliminated popped up on her panel, she almost laughed out loud.

Her head still spun for a moment when she stood up suddenly, but the nausea was completely gone.

Her Life Value stabilized above ninety, and her Physical Strength was full.

After a lot of wheedling and pestering, she finally got the system to relax the conditions for distributing the Wish Drifting Bottle.

In other words, she no longer had to go out to sea to salvage for Wish Drifting Bottles.

She used every daily-resetting wish to triple her resources. After a week, the cave was stuffed to the brim.

The sky was just beginning to lighten. It was exactly six o’clock when she walked out of the cave.

A breeze blew through the courtyard, and Shi Zhile couldn’t help but shiver.

"It’s gotten cold. Abnormally cold."

She felt surprisingly cold even in her long underwear set. She opened her panel to check the weather.

Weather: Cloudy, turning sunny. Temperature: 21 degrees.

Players in the chat had mentioned the weather was getting colder, but she hadn’t felt it because the stone basin of lava kept the temperature inside her cave constant.

Thinking of the vegetables in her Planting Space, she worried they might freeze and quickly warped inside.

In just seven days, the wheat, corn, and cotton seedlings had grown to the back of her knees.

The verdant fields were full of tender green plants, and among them, many of the leafy vegetables were already ready to eat.

She plucked the leaves from the nearest mature vegetables. "Vegetable soup, blanched lettuce... if only I had some garlic sprouts and radishes."

"I’ll have vegetable and seafood congee for lunch today."

After picking the vegetables, she watered the plot. The dizzy spell returned as she finished watering the whole area.

Her body hadn’t fully recovered; it wasn’t a good time to go out to sea.

Today’s task was to expand and reinforce her shelter.

She rubbed her hands together and took out the newly refreshed Wish Drifting Bottle for the day.

"For today, triple the materials used for shelter construction will be returned to my inventory."

The light dissipated. When she opened her eyes again, only an empty glass bottle remained in her hand.

’This thing can hold water or oil. I’ll keep it.’

Opening the courtyard gate, Shi Zhile took a look around and decided to start by upgrading the courtyard walls.

"Thicken, heighten, and reinforce the courtyard walls. Upgrade them to Level Three."

[Materials required to upgrade all surrounding courtyard walls: Stone x500, Wood x300. Upgrade?]

The material cost had clearly increased.

"Yes."

[Wall upgrade successful. Current shelter Level: Simple and moderately sturdy Level 3 (Hey there! Your shelter has been upgraded! Congratulations, the Level of the underwater creatures that appear will also increase.)

Note: Level One and Level Two creatures can’t get into a Level Three Shelter~]

’The underwater creatures’ level will increase along with the shelter’s?’

A bad feeling welled up in Shi Zhile’s heart.

The moment the shelter’s Level increased, dozens of new craftable item notifications popped up from the task hall and the workbench.

At the same time, the stone and wood used to upgrade the walls were tripled and returned to her.

[Triple-return bonus acquired: Stone x1500, Wood x900.]

Her stock of stone and wood, which had been about to run out, was replenished.

She scrolled through the task hall and immediately spotted a free-form cave modification quest with a reward at the very bottom.

[Materials required for free-form cave modification: Stone x5000, Wood x3000. Reward upon modification: Hatchable Chicken Eggs x50, Hatchable Duck Eggs x50, Hatchable Quail Eggs x50.]

’Oh, mama!’

’I’ve hit the egg jackpot today.’

She had an incubator. As long as they hatched successfully, she would have achieved meat and egg independence.

’I have to get this.’

"Modify!"

[Modification failed! Current materials: Stone x1710, Wood x1005. Insufficient supplies.]

She returned to the cave and used a shovel to draw a semicircle on the ground on the eastern side.

"I’ll build stairs here. They’ll connect to a second floor above and a basement below."

A message popped up from the task hall.

[Use shovel, hammer, and chisel to modify the basement? This modification will consume 80 Physical Strength and take 6 hours.]

During the modification, the cave would be sealed. She decided to reinforce the stone house in front of the cave first.

An hour later, all the shelter’s stone walls and wooden doors had been upgraded.

The shelter’s Level didn’t change, but its prefix was changed to "Sturdy."

The stone house plus the stone-and-wood bathroom cost a total of 700 stone and 500 wood.

Tripled, that came out to Stone x2100 and Wood x1500.

She still didn’t have enough stone and wood. Gritting her teeth, Shi Zhile chiseled a hole large enough for two people in the ceiling of the cave.

Using the workbench to build a wooden climbing frame and a ladder, she climbed to the top of the cave.

The top was uneven, so she watched her step. Looking around, she found not only was the view wide open, but the air also felt much fresher.

"The height is about one story. Building a house up here is feasible."

She gave a few forceful hops, confirming that the cave roof was solid and wouldn’t just give way before making up her mind.

It was still early, so she sat down and ate a sandwich, then unhurriedly swept away the dust and loose stones on top.

After cleaning up, she placed a stone at the edge and gave it a slight push with her foot. The stone rolled down the slope and fell off.

’This won’t work!’

’Building a house directly up here is too dangerous. Without concrete to bind the stones and boulders, the rocks could easily collapse during an earthquake or a typhoon.’

The house collapsing would be a secondary problem; the real disaster would be if it fell and injured her.

She opened the chat channel: [Trading 50 bottles of drinking water for one bag of cement. If you bring your own bottles, I’ll add two extra bottles of water. Limited quantity, first come, first served.]

There was no other way. She was pretty poor herself right now.