Chapter 39: The Blizzard Descends

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: The Blizzard Descends

Ma Xiaoya took two minutes to reply: [I don’t know much, and some things aren’t very clear. I just know they’re from the government.]

’People from the government?’

Shi Zhile was both surprised and delighted.

’Does having people from the government in the game mean the government has noticed there’s something wrong with it?’

’Or were they also forced into the game?’

So far, Shi Zhile hadn’t encountered anyone she knew, so she wasn’t sure if all of humanity had been pulled into the game.

Night fell, and the fire was lit.

A gust of cold wind made Shi Zhile realize she hadn’t eaten dinner.

She decided she would wait until tomorrow to add friends. First, she needed to at least gauge their attitude.

She walked toward the cave holding a torch. Just as she rounded a corner, an icy snowflake landed on the tip of her nose.

She looked up, and in the torchlight, she saw the sky full of snowflakes.

"It’s snowing."

In the chat channel, the players from the former District 3 were the most agitated and afraid.

[Sun Yuanwang: It’s the blizzard! The blizzard is coming again! My legs were frozen purple, and now they’re paralyzed. Does this damn game even want us to live?! Since I’m not going to make it, you all can just die with me! The blizzard will bury everyone’s shelter anyway, HAHAHAHA.]

’He’s gone completely mad!’

[Big Plane: The disaster is here! Those of you with supplies, @Jiang Yuxing @Contentment Brings Happiness... you should share them with everyone. If we all die off, do you think you can get out of this game on your own? We should band together and make them share their supplies.]

[Lan Tian: I remember it seems like Jiang Yuxing has a precognition skill. Can you tell us if this snow will turn into a blizzard? If it does, will the next disaster be a deep freeze?]

[Ji Fanxin: Hand over your supplies! Why should we starve and freeze while you top-ranked players eat and drink your fill? If you don’t give us anything, don’t blame us for what we do!]

The incompetent can only roar in useless rage, while the truly exceptional are already working hard in silence.

The players making a racket were all from Districts 1 and 3. No one from District 2 made a sound.

Shi Zhile ate a quick sandwich for dinner, then got busy making more glass.

Trading for supplies was important, of course, but survival was the top priority.

She smelted the pig iron into 60 iron blocks. Combined with the ones she already had, Shi Zhile now had a nearly unlimited supply.

Batch after batch of yellow sand went into the furnace, and the resulting molten liquid was quickly poured into molds to cool.

One mold wasn’t enough, so Shi Zhile went to the nearby workbench and crafted ten more.

The air was frigid, but the magma in the furnace was scorching hot. The light from the flames washed over her, keeping her completely warm.

Behind her, snow continued to drift down, quickly covering the ground in a thin layer.

She opened an umbrella to shield herself from the cold wind.

To speed up the cooling process, Shi Zhile rotated the molds, placing the ones filled with liquid outside in the cold air.

An hour later, nearly a hundred panes of glass were finished.

She eyed the courtyard, determined to build a greenhouse.

"I’ll use the glass to completely enclose the top of the courtyard and use the iron blocks to build support pillars. That way, it won’t collapse even if the snow gets heavy."

The moment she finished speaking, a prompt appeared from the Mission Hall.

[Materials required to build Courtyard Greenhouse: 100x Glass, 50x Iron Blocks. Proceed with construction?]

"Yes!"

In an instant, all the glass she had made vanished, replaced by a fully constructed glass roof.

The glass, forged with magma, was thick and strong. As long as the snow didn’t pile up too high and the courtyard remained warm, she wouldn’t have to worry about the roof collapsing.

With the roof finished, the cold wind no longer blew through the courtyard. Shi Zhile decided to craft two wooden beds, placing one near a window on the first floor and the other by a window on the second floor.

Outside the courtyard, the ground was a vast sheet of white, with not a speck of green in sight.

The cold wind whistled as it squeezed through the window cracks, an eerie sound in the dead of night.

The sound of the churning sea, with waves crashing, was carried on the wind, sounding unnervingly clear.

Unsure if the sea level would rise with the disaster, she decided to play it safe and sleep on the second floor.

After lowering the furnace temperature to its minimum, she took a torch and returned to the first house.

She wasn’t worried about the cave itself collapsing, but the house—the first one she had built, and the most crudely constructed—gave her little sense of security.

The glass roof was connected directly to the house’s southern wall. Demolishing it was out of the question, so her only option was to reinforce it.

The roof was made of wood. Even though she had coated it with tung oil, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t rot from the accumulated snow.

After a moment’s thought, she used her ten remaining panes of glass to build a small, flat canopy over the doorway. Then, she ran a support pillar up through the canopy to directly brace the main wooden roof.

This way, even if the wood rotted through, the glass canopy would still provide cover, keeping the firewood inside the room safe and dry.

With everything prepared, Shi Zhile headed to the second floor.

First, she placed the wooden bed. Then, she set down the stone basin filled with magma to heat the room.

The fire needed oxygen, but the gaps around the two wooden windows and the main door constantly let in a fresh supply.

She spread her cotton-padded coat over the wooden bed as a mattress and set her soft armor to maintain a constant temperature. Soon, the chill in the room faded away.

She sat back on the wooden bed and, with nothing better to do, started trading supplies with other players.

’Wood for a fire source?’

’Deal.’

’Seeds for a fire source?’

’Deal.’

’Chili peppers for a fire source?’

’Deal.’

As the weather grew colder, the demand for fire sources soared. The intense cold was extinguishing or damaging many existing fires.

Consequently, more and more players were looking to trade for a source of fire to stay warm.

Shi Zhile first targeted trades for rare materials. Then, she gradually lowered her asking price, making sure she still made a profit while trading for everything she needed.

After a dreamless night, Shi Zhile was jolted awake by the cold.

She turned up the temperature on her soft armor before opening the window. A single breath of the frigid air sent a sharp, stabbing pain through her lungs.

She hurriedly slammed the window shut and vigorously rubbed her face.

"I need to replace the second-floor windows with glass, too. At least then I can observe what’s outside while staying warm."

She went downstairs. The rooms without a heat source were even colder.

She didn’t feel any warmth until she crossed the courtyard and got close to the furnace.

A layer of frost coated the glass roof. Peering through it, she could only vaguely make out the thick blanket of snow covering the ground. It was still snowing, and the flakes were growing larger.

After quickly freshening up, she resumed making glass.

Suddenly, she heard chirping from the Breeding Space. Remembering the eggs that had started cracking the day before, she excitedly vanished and reappeared inside.

The moment she entered the Breeding Space, a wave of warmth washed over her. On the grassy ground, little yellow chicks and ducklings were gathered together, pecking at the earth. They showed no fear at her arrival.

Shi Zhile did a quick count: 32 chicks and 26 ducklings. All the eggs that had previously been in the incubator had hatched.

When the Breeding Space was first unlocked, the system had automatically moved all hatchable eggs into it, which was why so many chicks had hatched at once.

She crouched down to examine the nearest chick, and a text box popped up over it. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

[Chick: A young chick. 100% survival rate. Can be fed assorted grains for faster growth.

Special Requirement: To ensure its health, the chick must drink boiled water.]

The wheat and corn in her Planting Space weren’t ripe yet, and she couldn’t bring herself to use her stored grain seeds as feed. Then, thinking of the caterpillars on her vegetable plants, she scooped up a chick and teleported into the Planting Space.