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Stranded on a desert island, I was the only woman among 100 men. "Spread your legs and let us have our ways, or we'll throw you to the beasts." They tore off my clothes, pulled out their stinking d*cks, and closed in. I shut my eyes in despair, ready to bite my tongue off. Then a robotic voice suddenly rang out in my head— "Combat system activated. For each instance of damage the host receives, current power doubles." The corner of my lips curled up. The fear inside me vanished. "Is that so? Then let's find out who dies first." ********* [Welcome to the Island Survival Game.] [Treasure chests will appear in the sea every day from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Players can use fishing rods to pull up chests and get supplies.] [Players between the ages of 16 and 55 are selected. Family members will be grouped together when possible.] [The beginner protection period lasts for three days. If you die in the game, you die for real.] [The game begins.] [Today's weather: cloudy, 60 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit.] A robotic voice announced. Jane Quinn looked around, completely confused. One moment, she was celebrating a fresh start and planning a barbecue dinner, and the next, she was standing on a deserted island. [Please enter your username. If you do not pick one in ten seconds, your real name will be used.] A blank line and a countdown appeared in front of her. [Ten, nine, eight...] Jane thought, 'What the hell is this?' [Seven, six, five...] Jane barely had time to think. She typed "J.Ivy" as her username. [Scanning player information.] A holographic data panel suddenly popped up in front of Jane. [Player: J.Ivy] [Gender: Female] [Level: 1 (EXP: 0/50)] [Constitution: 7 (above average, not bad)] [Attack: 5 (pretty pathetic)] [Defense: 5 (pretty weak)] [Intelligence: 9 (super smart)] [Speed: 6 (barely faster than a turtle)] [Luck: 8 (pretty lucky)] [Magic attributes: Ice Magic: 8; Light Magic: 9] [All base stats are capped at 10, except for level, which can go up to 100.] [Health Points (HP): 70] [Magic Points (MP): 90] Jane thought, 'Player info? Am I actually in a game? And is that luck stat for real? I've always had terrible luck. The one time I won the lottery is the only exception.' The holographic status screen came from a watch on her wrist. Besides the stats panel, there were tabs for the chatroom, trading section, and friends list. In the bottom right, a display read 100,000/100,000 for players. It looked like the games she used to play. The chatroom was already blowing up. BigDaddy: [Where the hell am I? I was just eating dinner.] Pitviper: [I was on the toilet.] MorningStar: [Didn't you hear that voice? This is a survival game.] Sunset: [I don't want to be stuck in this hellhole. I want to go home.] Rocky: [I want to go home, too.] Southshore: [Looks like we can't go back.] Sunrise: [The beginner protection only lasts three days. We must hurry up and gather supplies, or we'll be dead soon.] Seeing the chat rolling, Jane started to feel uneasy inside, too. [J.Ivy, your parents have been detected in the game. Would you like to teleport them into your area?] Jane bit her lip and picked "No." Jane was the heiress of a rich family who'd been switched with another baby at the hospital after birth. The Quinn family, the one that adopted her, was poor. With a spoiled younger brother, Jane had to do the housework from a young age. She was constantly yelled at and even hit, and her life was miserable. Later, the truth came out, and Jane learned that the Quinns themselves had arranged the switch. The Quinns had abused her not because they favored boys but because they'd known she wasn't their daughter. They had switched her with Eve Goodwin, their real daughter, so Eve could lead a better life. Jane wanted to call the police, but Elena Goodwin, Jane's real mother, couldn't let go of the girl she'd raised for twenty years. After Eve's tearful pleas, Elena forgave the Quinns regardless of Jane's feelings, kept Eve by her side, and ended up being even closer to her than to Jane. Eve was the girl Elena had raised as her own for twenty years, a perfect lady skilled in all the arts, whereas Jane, her real daughter that she'd just met, had grown up in a small town, doing farm work. Desmond Goodwin, Jane's real father, and Elena chose Eve without hesitation. They doted on Eve, and Jane was ignored and left to survive on her own. But Eve always pretended to be pure and innocent, but she was secretly scheming. She kept framing Jane, and the more it happened, the less Desmond and Elena liked Jane. To them, Jane was some uncouth, petty girl. Then Eve pulled the trick again, blaming Jane for breaking Elena's favorite antique vase, worth millions. This time Jane was ready. She had bought a recorder and caught Eve on tape. When Eve went to complain, Jane pressed play for everyone to hear. Jane expected the truth to change Desmond and Elena, but Eve started to sob and said, "I was scared because I'm not your real daughter." Desmond and Elena softened and wanted to let it go. Jane was disappointed. She called the police. Desmond and Elena were furious. They thought Jane was cruel and that she called the cops over something so trivial and tried to get Eve thrown in jail. Jane did not actually want Eve jailed. She knew that unless Elena pressed charges over the vase, Eve would be perfectly fine. Jane only wanted to make a clean break from both families, and she wanted to do it in front of the police. If she stayed, Jane had no idea how much more she would have to put up with. With the police's help, Jane formally changed her residency and signed the papers to cut ties with Desmond and Elena. She was about to celebrate with a barbecue when she found herself dumped into a strange game world. A system prompt hovered in front of her, asking if she'd like to teleport her parents to her side. Jane scoffed. She had already severed the relationship. 'Let Eve, their perfect daughter, take care of them instead,' she thought. Jane couldn't stop thinking about her luck stat. 'Even someone as unlucky as me got an 8, so Eve, who's spoiled rotten and adored by everyone, must have a perfect 10,' she thought. That really made her unhappy. [Treasure chests are now spawning. Players, start fishing.] Jane was dazed for a moment before she snapped out of it. She had no time to get sentimental. She didn't even know where she was. That robotic voice sounded legit. They were here to survive, and if she died here, she'd be dead for real. The voice said the beginner protection lasted three days. What came after that could be lethal. All she knew was, right now, she had to grab as many resources as she could before the protection ended. Jane had checked her gear. She only had a ten-slot inventory, a fishing rod, and a shabby thatched hut that would be useless in a heavy storm. If she wanted to survive, she had to build a proper shelter. Jane walked to the shore, baited her hook, and cast her line into the sea. She waited quietly for a long time until she finally felt a tug. Her eyes lit up. She reeled it in fast. It was heavy, but since she'd been doing farm work and had grown strong muscles, she pulled it up easily. What she hauled in was a knee-high wooden crate. She didn't open it yet, only tossed it into her inventory to check later. Right now, she wanted to fish up as many crates as she could. Chapter 2 Opening Wooden Crates and Exploring Jane threw more bait into the sea. This time, she waited almost an hour before she got another crate. After storing it, she noticed it still took only one slot of the inventory, but the number on the crate now showed two. Good thing same items could stack; otherwise, her ten slots would fill up very soon. Time slowly passed. Jane checked her watch and frowned. It was 11:55, only five minutes left before crates stopped appearing. She'd only caught three crates in four hours, and she wasn't sure that would be enough. It was almost noon. Jane started to reel in her line when something tugged hard, shaking her rod wildly. She pulled up quickly. This crate felt much heavier than the others. Jane struggled to haul it in, her rod trembling. She worried it might snap. The crate landed hard on the sand. It was still wooden but heavier than the rest. Jane stored it in her inventory. 'Hope this one has more supplies,' she thought. It was noon. Jane packed up her fishing rod and headed toward the thatched hut. The hut sat on higher ground, probably to keep it from flooding when the tide came. As she got closer, Jane's lips twitched in disbelief. This was no hut. It was just a pile of weeds tied together into a tiny shelter. Inside, there was only a heap of weeds on the floor and holes in the roof. There was no place to hide anything. Jane pulled out all four wooden crates, ready to open them. Inside the first crate, she found a windproof lighter, a knife, and five units of wood. In the second, there were three units of refined iron and five units of plastic. Jane's mood sank. Neither had any food or water. The third crate gave her 34 fluid ounces of water in two bottles and 14 ounces of bread. 'Finally, some real food,' she thought. Then she eagerly opened the last, heavier crate. Inside were a stone axe, two apples, and two sandwiches. A prompt popped up on her holo display: [Stone axe: Attack: 10; Durability: 100/100; Good for chopping down trees.] 'No wonder it was so heavy. It's a weapon,' Jane thought. 'The supplies aren't much, but at least I have enough to get through today.' The system asked, [You have four wooden crates. Do you want to dismantle them?] 'Wait, I can dismantle these?' Jane thought. She tapped "Yes." The four crates were dismantled into 24 pieces of wood. 'So each crate gives six units of wood,' she thought. Now Jane had a windproof lighter, a knife, a stone axe, three refined iron pieces, 29 pieces of wood, five pieces of plastic, two bottles of water, 14 ounces of bread, two apples, and two sandwiches. Jane looked at the rundown shelter, sighed, and patted it. 'How am I supposed to live in this?' she thought. Just then, a system message appeared. [J.Ivy's shelter: level-1 shabby shelter, can't keep out wind or rain] [Next level: level-2 sturdy shelter, can keep out wind and rain] [Materials needed: thatch ×30, wood ×10] 'So I can upgrade it,' Jane thought. 'But where do I find thatch?' She took out a piece of bread and an apple, drank some water, and barely filled her stomach. Jane decided to look for resources. She couldn't wait for the system to deliver crates every day. Besides, since it was still the beginner protection period, it was the best time to explore. With her stone axe in hand, Jane made her way toward the forest near the beach. The place was deep and eerily quiet, and Jane felt a weird sense of danger. She only dared to stay near the edge. In a patch of bushes, she spotted something like thatch and pulled it up. It was thatch. Jane gathered all thatch she could find in the area, ending up with 36 units of thatch and 36 EXP. 'Wait, I get EXP for this?' she wondered, still unsure what EXP and levels were for. Then there were things like Magic Points, Ice Magic, and Light Magic. From her gaming experience, Jane guessed she'd learn Ice and Light spells someday. But right now, she didn't know how to unlock them. Nearby stood seven banyan trees. Jane pulled out her stone axe and started chopping. Each tree took a dozen swings, but she ended up with 35 units of wood and 35 EXP. [Congratulations. You've reached Level 2 and gained one attribute point for each attribute except Luck and Magic attributes, plus five free attribute points (excluding Luck and Magic attributes).] Jane checked her stats panel, and it had changed. [Player: J.Ivy] [Gender: Female] [Level: 2 (EXP: 21/80)] [Constitution: 8 (not bad)] [Attack: 6 (still not much of a punch)] [Defense: 6 (still pretty fragile)] [Intelligence: 10 (awesome)] [Speed: 7 (decent)] [Luck: 8 (pretty lucky)] [Magic attributes: Ice Magic: 8; Light Magic: 9] [All base stats are capped at 10, except for level, which can go up to 100.] [Health Points (HP): 80] [Magic Points (MP): 100] Jane noticed that when her Constitution was 7, her HP was 70. Now that it was 8, her HP had risen to 80. And Intelligence and Magic Points seemed to be linked. Magic Points mattered, but Jane still didn't know how to unlock spells. She put three free attribute points into Constitution and two into Attack. Now her Constitution was 11, her HP jumped to 110, and Attack reached 8. 'Finally, I'm not so weak anymore,' she thought. The axe's durability had dropped to 90/100. "This axe wears out so fast," Jane sighed. Jane ventured a bit deeper into the woods and spotted some long, slender vines. Her eyes lit up. She chopped one down and tested its strength with a tug, nodding in satisfaction. 'These are sturdy enough to weave fish traps,' she thought. 'I can set them in the sea and catch dinner.' Back in the small town, Jane had often gone hungry. She'd learned to weave fish traps from her neighbor Wayne, setting them in the river to catch food. She never imagined that skill would be useful in a survival game. Jane's fingers moved quickly, and soon she had several well-made traps. She glanced at the time. It was already 3:30 PM. She was surprised she'd spent three hours chopping trees and gathering materials. 'Time to head out,' she thought, taking one last look into the forest before turning toward the beach. She walked along the shoreline for about 30 minutes and finally found a spot with rocky outcrops. She placed her traps at different points among the rocks. Then, to her delight, she spotted three coconut trees growing on the beach. Jane loved coconut water, but she always thought bottled drinks couldn't compare to fresh coconut water straight from the fruit. She grabbed her stone axe and worked on the coconut trees. After some effort, she got nine coconuts, nine pieces of wood, and 15 EXP. 'Coconut trees give less wood than regular ones,' she thought. 'But having coconuts is already a win.' Jane checked the time. It was 4:30 PM, and the sky was starting to darken. 'Better head back,' she thought. 'The night out here feels dangerous.' Chapter 3 Upgrading the Shelter Jane returned to her shelter by five o'clock. The sky had turned completely dark. She started a fire using two bundles of thatch, one piece of wood, and her lighter. Warm light instantly filled the hut. Then, using thirty bundles of thatch and ten pieces of wood, she spent ten minutes upgrading the dilapidated hut into a sturdy one. It was still a thatched shelter, but now it wouldn't collapse. [Congratulations, J.Ivy. You have upgraded your shelter to Level 2 and gained 20 EXP.] Jane checked the materials needed for the next upgrade. [Wooden Shelter: Level 3 (protects against ordinary monsters). Upgrade requires: wood ×80, stone ×30.] 'Ordinary monsters,' she thought. 'So monsters will attack players.' She'd already guessed this world was dangerous, but the thought still unsettled her. Her stomach growled loudly. She really needed to grab something to eat. All she'd had today was some bread and an apple. Jane grabbed her axe and cracked open a coconut. She downed the coconut water, scooped out the meat, and then punched two small holes in the shell with her knife. She threaded some leftover vines through the holes, poured in half a bottle of water, and hung the shell over the fire using the vines as a handle. She planned to heat up a sandwich, saving the bread and apple for breakfast. The fire in the game burned intensely hot, and the water boiled almost instantly. Jane took out a sandwich and used only half of the flavor packet. She didn't like salty food much, so she saved the rest to use as seasoning later. She knew that without enough salt, over time, her health would decline. The warm sandwich helped settle her stomach. As she ate, she reviewed her supplies. Things seemed okay, but she couldn't shake the feeling that food and water were running low. She remembered she was still in the beginner protection period. Once that ended, gathering resources would become much harder. That meant she had to keep scavenging tomorrow. After finishing the sandwich, she felt bored. The day's exertion and the quiet surroundings made it easy for her to drift off to sleep. Jane woke up at 7:30 in the morning. She rinsed her mouth with bottled water and ate a piece of bread, which was just enough to ease her hunger. She checked the weather. [Today's weather: Sunny, 66°F to 86°F.] The treasure chests hadn't respawned yet, and Jane began to wonder how the other survivors in her zone were doing. She opened the chatroom and saw the region tab had 999+ unread messages, all from last night. IronWill: [How many chests did you guys get? I only got two.] Teddy: [Same. Just two. And all I got was plastic and wood. I'm starving and dying of thirst. Can anyone share some food or water? Please.] SpringDrizzle: [Same.] FlyingBird: [Me too.] SuccessfulMe: [I only found a piece of bread and a bottle of water. Not enough to survive.] LongWay: [Honestly, just having food is pretty lucky already.] LuckyKing: [Huh? You guys got so little? I got five MREs, ten bottles of water, and ten apples. That should last me two days.] Jane was surprised. 'This guy's luck is unreal,' she thought. 'But is it really smart to let everyone know he's got so much food?' Sure enough, the chat went wild as soon as everyone saw LuckyKing's message. FlyingBird: [Damn, you're lucky.] Teddy: [Hey, LuckyKing, can you spare me some food? I didn't get anything at all. Please, I'm starving here.] LongWay: [I've got my parents with me. They're both in their fifties. Can you help us out? We'll definitely pay you back once we get some food.] LuckyKing didn't reply after that. He probably realized it wasn't a good idea to tell everyone he had so much food. Teddy: [@LuckyKing, come on. Say something. You can't let us die out here.] LongWay: [Yeah. With your luck, you'll probably find more tomorrow. Share a bit. It won't hurt you.] PrettyFace: [We're all from Centlandia. We should help each other when things are tough.] HazySurface: [How can you ask for that? Why should he share what he worked for?] HungryBelly: [Exactly. If you want to survive, find food yourselves. Stop relying on others. This is a survival game. Only the strong survive.] LuckyKing: [Sure, I'm lucky, but I'm not playing saint. If you want something, trade for it. Nothing's free.] Teddy: [Guys, don't you care about your fellow countrymen at all?] UsTogether: [Survival matters now, not solidarity. If you had food, would you give it away? Don't expect others to do what you wouldn't.] Seeing more and more people criticize them, the freeloaders quickly stopped talking. Jane agreed with LuckyKing and the others. She was willing to trade resources, but if anyone expected free handouts, they were out of luck. 'Why should anyone give away what they worked hard to get? Who do they think they are?' she thought. ***** At exactly eight o'clock, Jane sat by the shore. She cast her hook into the sea, waiting for the next round of supplies. Today she pulled up four wooden crates. Inside she found a stone pickaxe, 5 units of refined iron, 5 units of plastic, 5 units of glass, and 3 bottles of water, 21 ounces of bread, and two ham sausages. [Stone Pickaxe: Attack: 10; Durability: 100; Can be used to gather stone.] Jane felt a bit down. She'd gotten even less food than yesterday, so she'd have to stretch her supplies. Still, finding a new tool made her feel a little better. She dismantled the wooden crates and collected 24 pieces of wood. At the moment, Jane's inventory included: a windproof lighter, a knife, a stone axe with 85 durability, a stone pickaxe, 8 units of refined iron, 86 pieces of wood, 4 bundles of thatch, 10 units of plastic... 5 pieces of glass, 4 bottles of water, 28 ounces of bread, 1 apple, 1 sandwich, 8 coconuts, and 2 ham sausages. Back at the shelter, Jane ate some bread and opened up a coconut. She didn't eat anything else. Good thing she didn't have much of an appetite. She left anything she didn't need for the day inside the shelter, taking only her stone axe, stone pickaxe, a bottle of water, and a ham sausage, just in case she got hungry later. Today, Jane headed to the forest again, but instead of yesterday's spot, she chose the area next to where she'd left her fish basket, so she wouldn't have to trek back later. Chapter 4 First Deal The forest here was much thicker. Jane chopped down three banyan trees, collecting 15 pieces of wood and 15 EXP. Then she decided to move on. Today, her goal was to gather stones and explore further. She didn't want to waste too much time chopping trees. She pushed aside the vines blocking her path and continued deeper into the forest. The plants grew denser, some sprinkled with tiny yellow and white flowers she couldn't name. She spotted plenty of mushrooms with bright red caps and white stems. They looked beautiful, but she remembered an old warning: Red cap, white stalk. Eat them and you'll be laid out flat. That kept her from picking any. Still, with all this thick greenery and so many mushrooms around, Jane figured there was probably a water source nearby. She checked the time. It was 3. If she hurried, it would take about an hour to get out of the forest. She needed to collect her fishing traps, and it would take another 30 minutes to get back. She had to leave now. On her way out, Jane was hungry. She washed down a sausage with bottled water in two bites. Once she stepped out of the forest, the whole world seemed to brighten up. The forest had been so gloomy. It really wasn't a place for people. She hurried over to the shallows and took a quick look. Jane's mouth twitched. Unfortunately, out of the five fishing traps she'd set, only two remained. The rest must have been swept away by the wind. She hauled up the two remaining traps and dumped them onto the sand. The haul was disappointingly small. Just two sea snails, a palm-sized fish, and a few handfuls of seaweed. That was all she got. [Would you disassemble them?] Naturally, Jane tapped "Yes." It was a convenient way. [Received: snail meat ×2, 3.5 ounces of fish meat, seaweed ×2.] Jane didn't stick around. She tossed the two fishing traps back into the sea and headed for her shelter. On her way, she spotted a few large rocks. She pulled out her stone pickaxe and started chipping away, getting 15 pieces of stones and 15 EXP. Jane couldn't help but complain inwardly, 'Seriously? Those rocks were huge, but I only get 15 units of stones? That's stingy.' [Congratulations. You've reached Level 3. You've gained one attribute point for each stat except Luck and Magic attributes, plus five free attribute points (excluding Luck and Magic attributes).] After two days of running around, Jane realized Speed was as important as Constitution. Moving faster meant she could explore more places and gather more loot. So this time, she put 3 points into Constitution and 2 into Speed. Her status panel now looked like this: [Player: J.Ivy] [Gender: Female] [Level: 3 (EXP: 6/150)] [Constitution: 15 (very strong)] [Attack: 9 (not too shabby on the attack front)] [Defense: 7 (could be worse)] [Intelligence: 11 (pretty sharp)] [Speed: 10 (very quick)] [Luck: 8 (pretty lucky)] [Magic attributes: Ice Magic: 8; Light Magic: 9] [All base stats are capped at 10, except for level, which can go up to 100.] [Health Points (HP): 150] [Magic Points (MP): 110] With her Constitution now at 15, Jane was amazed. Her body had been completely worn out from the afternoon's work, but suddenly, it was as if all her exhaustion vanished. And with Speed bumped up to 10, Jane raced back to the shelter much faster than before. 'This is unreal,' she thought. Even with her new speed, it was nearly five o'clock when she made it back. Just like always, Jane started a fire with 2 bundles of thatch and 1 piece of wood. She decided to cook the seafood she'd caught. It wouldn't keep for long, and even though her inventory stopped food from spoiling, space was limited. She couldn't carry everything forever, so she figured she should deal with it now. Jane poured the rest of her half bottle of water into yesterday's coconut-shell pot, added 2 pieces of snail meat, 3.5 ounces of fish, and the leftover half packet of seasoning from yesterday. She set the coconut shell over the fire to simmer. When the seafood was nearly done, Jane took out her last sandwich. She saved the seasoning packet for later and dropped the sandwich into the coconut shell to cook with the seafood. Soon, the mouthwatering smell of seafood and sandwich filled the air. Jane was drooling. It smelled so good. Too bad it was her last sandwich. She finished the seafood and sandwich and slurped up every drop of soup. Finally, she was full. With nothing else to do that evening, Jane started sorting through her supplies. After checking everything over, she felt anxious. There wasn't enough food to last another day. If tomorrow's haul was bad, she'd be in trouble. Jane decided to check the trading section to see what was available. [Wood ×10: trade for any food] [Thatch ×10: trade for water] [Glass ×5: trade for at least 7 ounces of food] [Refined iron ×5: trade for any food] [Stone ×10: trade for food] The list went on. Most of the listings were people trying to swap their supplies for food or water. No one was offering food for other items. 'Guess food is really scarce,' Jane thought. Seeing the listings for stones, Jane felt tempted. She'd only managed to get 15 stones all afternoon, and it was hard work. As for food, she still had a few coconuts to trade. Coconuts weren't super filling, but they were packed with energy. Jane traded four coconuts for 20 pieces of stone, 5 pieces of glass, and 5 pieces of refined iron. She wasn't sure what glass or refined iron were for, but she figured they'd be useful later. [You're making a trade. Do you want to stay anonymous?] Jane hit "Yes." Four coconuts wasn't a big deal, but if she traded them openly, people would know she had extra food. She didn't want anyone eyeing her supplies or getting any ideas. She checked the chat, and sure enough, people were talking about the trades. LittleBlossom: [Someone traded a coconut for 10 pieces of my stone. I thought the stone would never sell. Thanks, anonymous buyer.] SpringFeast: [Same. I traded five pieces of glass for a coconut.] Funster: [I traded five pieces of refined iron for a coconut. Coconut water is so good!] Conqueror: [An anonymous buyer? More like a profiteer. Use your brains, guys. Stone is for upgrading your hut, and refined iron and glass are important materials. Trading all that for a coconut? How are you supposed to upgrade your shelter?] Then, a bunch of people thought Jane was ruthless. 'A coconut doesn't even fill one up, and that buyer's swapping it for so much stuff. We're all Centlandians, all in the same boat. Shouldn't we help each other out?' they thought. Chapter 5 Axe Blueprint But someone quickly disagreed. Funster: [For the past two days, all I've gotten from crates is stone and refined iron. The only food I found was a sandwich and a bottle of water. If it weren't for this coconut, I'll be dead. I owe the coconut seller big time.] SpringFeast: [Yeah. Making it through the day is hard enough. Who cares about the future? At least I can eat the coconut, but I can't eat materials.] HungryBelly: [Food is precious right now. It's already generous for someone to offer it up for trade. If you think they're ripping people off, why not put up some filling food yourself? I'm sure everyone would thank you for it.] UsTogether: [@Conqueror, how about trading 5 pieces of refined iron for 5.5 pounds of wheat? Since refined iron is so valuable, I bet you'll agree, right?] Conqueror: [No good deed goes unpunished. Whatever, I'm not wasting my breath on you guys.] UsTogether: [Wait. Don't go. I'm serious about the trade.] No matter how many people tagged Conqueror, he stayed silent. Watching all this go down, Jane felt totally satisfied. She made a mental note of Conqueror's name. She'd never trade anything valuable with him. Jane had 100 pieces of wood and 35 pieces of stone. They were enough to upgrade her wood cabin. She spent 80 pieces of wood and 30 pieces of stone and jumped into the upgrade. About half an hour later, her new wooden cabin was finished. It was much larger than her old thatched hut and looked solidly built. No wonder it could hold up against ordinary monster attacks. [Congratulations, player J.Ivy, for upgrading your shelter to level 3. You've got 50 EXP.] Jane checked the requirements for the next upgrade. [Stone cabin: Level 4 (can withstand attacks from level-1 monsters). Upgrade materials required: stone ×500, wood ×300, glass ×60.] 'That's a huge amount of materials for level four,' she thought. 'Everything is doubling now.' After the upgrade, Jane was low on supplies. Tomorrow was the final day of the beginner protection period, and she wasn't sure what would happen after it ended. She set her alarm for 5:30 AM. She wasn't going to sleep until seven again. Time was tight, and she needed to gather more resources. 'I should have gotten up early this morning too,' Jane thought. 'I went to bed early and wasted all that time.' With that, she let her thoughts fade and fell into a deep sleep. ***** The next morning, Jane woke up at 5:30 to the sound of her alarm. [Today's weather: Cloudy. Temperature between 57°F and 77°F.] She ate some bread for breakfast, drank a little water, and tossed a sausage into her inventory before heading out. By 5:30, it was already bright outside. Jane returned to the forest she had visited on her first afternoon. When she noticed a bunch of vines, she remembered her trip to the Shallow Bay yesterday. The wind had left her with only two fish traps. Worried they might be gone today, she grabbed some vines and stuffed them into her inventory. Making fish traps took too much time, so Jane decided she would work on them tonight when she was free. She kept walking until she came across a pine forest. 'Time to gather more wood,' she thought. Jane took out her stone axe and began chopping. After about ten swings, the pine tree fell. She collected 5 pieces of wood, 1 unit of pine resin, 17.5 ounces of pine nuts, and gained 5 EXP. 'Chopping pine trees gives me resin and nuts too?' she thought. Pine resin was a sticky substance that seeped from pine trees. It worked well for starting fires and could be used as medicine. It helped relieve pain and itching, reduce swelling, detoxify, and stop bleeding. Jane had tasted pine nuts at her relatives' house during the holidays. They were rich and fragrant. The ones from the system were already processed, and it saved her strength. Seeing how much the pine trees were dropping, she felt motivated. She picked up her axe and started chopping again. As her inventory filled with pine resin and pine nuts, Jane couldn't hold back her smile. By 7:50, she decided to stop. Crate fishing was about to begin, and that was her top priority. All morning, she had collected 80 pieces of wood, 16 units of pine resin, 16 portions of pine nuts (each 17.5 ounces), and gained 80 EXP. Jane felt satisfied. Last time she was here, she only gathered 35 pieces of wood, but that was because she spent too much time weaving five fish traps. Now she knew how to plan better. Since making fish traps didn't depend on location, she would save that for the evenings, leaving daylight hours free for gathering supplies. Jane walked to her usual crate fishing spot. Sitting quietly on the beach and waiting for the crates to appear, she was absolutely famished. She had been doing physical work all morning and only had a small 7 ounces pack of bread to keep her going. She took a sip of water, pulled out her last sausage and finished it in a few bites. At least now her stomach finally settled. Jane got lucky today. She caught six crates, and one of them was a black iron crate, clearly better than the usual wooden ones. She went back to her shelter and started opening the crates. The first wooden crate held 5 bottles of water, 5 packs of 7 ounces bread, and 5 sandwiches. 'I'm on a roll today. That's a lot of food,' Jane thought. The second wooden crate contained 10 units of stone, 10 pieces of refined iron, and 10 units of plastic. The third held 5 apples, 5 bananas, and 10 strawberries. The fourth crate had an 80 inches ×80 inches cashmere blanket and an 80 inches ×80 inches mattress. 'A mattress and a blanket?' Jane thought. 'Maybe I don't have to sleep on itchy straw anymore. It always got cold once the fire died at night.' The fifth wooden crate contained 3 sets of women's underwear and a set of women's autumn outfit. 'New clothes,' she thought. 'I've felt so grimy these last few days. Now I can finally change out of these dirty rags.' Jane stared at the last black iron crate, her face full of anticipation. 'The wooden ones were packed,' she thought. 'Don't let me down now.' [1 blueprint, 5 Inventory Expansion Cards.] Jane's hands trembled slightly as she opened the blueprint. [Axe blueprint unlocked.] [Stone axe: Requires stone ×6, wood ×3; Attack: 10; Durability: 100/100] [Iron axe: Requires refined iron ×6, stone ×3; Attack: 15; Durability: 150/150] [Copper axe: Requires bronze ×6, refined iron ×3; Attack: 20; Durability: 200/200] [Silver axe: Requires silver ×6, bronze ×3; Attack: 30; Durability: 300/300] [Gold axe: Requires gold ×6, silver ×3; Attack: 50; Durability: 500/500] 'There are so many types of axes?' Jane thought. She used 6 pieces of refined iron and 3 pieces of stone and crafted an iron axe right away. Chapter 6 Slaying a Level-1 Monster While waiting for the iron axe to finish crafting, Jane grabbed a quick lunch: an apple, three strawberries, and a bag of bread. In less than ten minutes, the iron axe was ready. [Iron axe: Attack: 15; Durability: 150/150] 'Not bad. This should make chopping trees faster,' Jane thought. Next, she checked out the Inventory Expansion Cards. [Inventory Expansion Card: Use to add one slot to your inventory.] Jane used all five cards, so now her inventory had fifteen slots. She could bring way more gear when she headed out without worrying about space. [You've got six chests. Would you like to break them down?] Jane tapped "No." She'd gathered so much stuff lately that her inventory was full, and dumping everything on the ground made her shelter look like a junkyard. These chests would be right for sorting out all her gear. Her supplies were mostly food, tools, and daily necessities. She stored all of it in the chests inside her shelter. Jane only brought an iron axe, a stone pickaxe, a half-empty bottle of water, and two bananas before heading out. 'Bananas are more filling,' she thought as she grabbed them. Jane returned to the spot she'd explored yesterday afternoon, planning to keep searching for water. On an island like this, freshwater was essential. If she found any, she could trade it for other supplies in the trading section. The jungle was so dense that sunlight barely reached the ground, making the whole forest feel dark and gloomy. Jane held a stick in her left hand to push aside the undergrowth, while her right hand gripped the iron axe, ready for anything. She passed quickly by the cluster of red-capped, white-stemmed mushrooms she'd seen last time without stopping. After another ten minutes or so, Jane thought she heard the gentle sound of water flowing nearby. Her eyes brightened. 'Could this be the water source?' she thought. After another seven or eight minutes, she finally spotted a long stream ahead, with thicket and agaves stretching far along both banks. Jane's eyes brightened. Agave was incredibly useful. Every part of it could be used, and there might even be groundhogs there. The wood here was thick, perfect for making fishing spears to catch fish. She cut down a tree with her iron axe but didn't receive any EXP. She guessed only collecting certain items, like wood, stone, or thatch, gave her experience points. She sharpened one end of the branch into several prongs and headed to the stream with her new spear. The water was clear, and she could see fish swimming. She waited for the right moment and jabbed down, but she missed. 'What's wrong with me?' she thought. She used to be skilled at spear fishing back in the small town, but today her timing was off. She tried again, waited for the perfect moment, and jabbed her spear down. This time, she finally got lucky and snagged a bluegill that must have weighed about 4 pounds. [Would you disassemble them?] Jane tapped "Yes" and received 2 pounds of bluegill fillets. She stared at the screen, confused. 'That fish was big, and the system only gave me 2 pounds?' she thought. 'How could it discard everything else?' Jane kept grumbling quietly, but her hands never stopped moving. Over the next half hour, she caught two more fish. After processing them, the system gave her 2 pounds of bluegill fillets and 2 pounds of crappie fillets. She decided to stop. Fish wouldn't keep long, and her inventory was already filling up. She could come back another day. Now she planned to chop some river cane and make containers to carry water back to her shelter. Each slot in her inventory could hold up to 99 items. She already used six slots, so she decided to use five more for water. After over an hour of work, Jane ended up with 495 river cane tubes. She was exhausted and hungry. Sitting by the stream, she put river cane containers filled with water into her inventory while eating bananas. Once she finished them, her stomach finally felt settled. It took nearly another hour to fill all five slots with water using the containers. Jane checked the time. It was already 3:40 PM. 'Time to head back,' she thought. Just then, she spotted a 6-foot-long green viper slithering through the grove ahead. "Holy crap!" Jane blurted out. 'It looks like a green viper, but could they really get that big?' she thought. But then she thought, 'If I could be in this strange game world, why couldn't there be a giant viper?' The snake didn't attack her, and Jane guessed it was because of the beginner protection period. Jane figured the protection wasn't only about keeping players safe for the first three days. The real point was to give them time to gather as many supplies as possible, so they'd have a chance once the protection ended. If she ran into this viper tomorrow, it would probably strike right away. But right now, Jane could prepare to attack it herself. Fortune favored the bold. She decided to go for it. If she backed down today, she'd be defenseless tomorrow. Jane moved quietly closer to the green viper with the iron axe in hand and then swung it down hard onto the snake's body. The viper recoiled in pain, and the strike took away 24 Health Points. Then Jane saw the viper's stats. [Level-1 Green Viper: Highly venomous; Attack: 30, venom drains 5 HP per second; Defense: 20; Health: 200] 'You're kidding,' she thought. '200 HP? That means I have to swing nine more times.' Before the viper could react, Jane took advantage and hacked at it four more times with her axe. Now the viper only had 80 Health Points left. But then the snake finally struck back, lunging forward and biting Jane's left arm. Jane cried out in pain. The bite took away 30 Health Points, but that wasn't a problem. The problem was the viper was venomous. Sure enough, her Health Points dropped by 5 every second. Within seconds, she had already lost over thirty points. Now she was down to 90 Health Points. She couldn't wait any longer. With the viper's fangs still sunk into her left arm, Jane hacked at it twice with her iron axe. The viper whipped its tail against her stomach, and blood rushed into her mouth. 'Three hits, and this is it. The final blow,' Jane thought. The viper collapsed heavily. Jane had only 40 Health Points left, and they were still dropping. [Do you want to disassemble the Level-1 Green Viper?] Jane quickly tapped "Yes." The viper's gall was the only thing she could think of to counter the poison. It was her last hope to survive. [Receive 11 pounds of level-1 viper meat, 1 level-1 viper gall, 2 level-1 viper fangs, 1 level-1 viper hide, 10 level-1 viper scales, 3 Health Potions, 1 Iron Chest, and 50 EXP]. Chapter 7 Moonshot Crossbow [Congratulations, J.Ivy, on reaching Level 4. You've gained one attribute point for each attribute except Luck and Magic attributes, plus five free attribute points (excluding Luck and Magic attributes).] With the level up, Jane's HP instantly refilled, and the bloody bite marks on her arm vanished. 'So leveling up restores my status. I could use this bug in the future,' Jane thought. She figured Attack was still the most important, so she put two free points into Constitution and three into Attack. [Player: J.Ivy] [Gender: Female] [Level: 4 (EXP: 36/300)] [Constitution: 18 (very tough)] [Attack: 13 (Your Attack packs a punch.)] [Defense: 8 (decent)] [Intelligence: 12 (excellent)] [Speed: 11 (very fast)] [Luck: 8 (pretty lucky)] [Magic attributes: Ice Magic: 8; Light Magic: 9] [All base stats are capped at 10, except for level, which can go up to 100.] [Health Points (HP): 180] [Magic Points (MP): 120] But Jane's HP kept ticking down by 5 points. 'Oh, right. I almost forgot. I'm still poisoned,' Jane thought. [Green Viper Gall: Removes Green Viper poison.] Jane let out a relieved breath and swallowed the snake gall. Instantly, the constant 5 damage notifications disappeared, leaving her HP at 160. With the crisis finally over, Jane's legs went weak, and she dropped to the ground. 'That was insane. If it weren't for that snake gall, I'd be dead meat,' she thought. 'Next time I run into anything poisonous, I'm definitely steering clear.' Jane glanced at the iron axe in her hand. 'If I'd been stuck with the stone axe today, I'd be a goner. Good weapons really are a game-changer,' she thought. [Congratulations on being the first to defeat a Level-1 monster. Reward: 1 iron chest and 100 EXP. A global announcement will be made. Do you want to stay anonymous?] Jane chose to stay anonymous. She didn't want everyone to know who she was. [Congratulations to an anonymous player for being the first to defeat a Level-1 monster. Reward: 1 iron chest and 100 EXP.] The message was repeated twice. People started to send messages in the chatroom. GettingSlim: [Damn, that's a pro move. I only managed to kill a normal monster, and someone's already taking down Level-1 monsters.] FlyingBird: [Pro, please let me be your assistant. I'm super sweet.] Firefly: [Get out, FlyingBird.] CabinInWoods: [Even the regular monsters freak me out. I run whenever I see one. Thank goodness. It never chased me.] Bookworm: [I don't even have a weapon.] Dizzy: [Huh? Monsters? You guys actually ran into monsters? I haven't seen a single one.] HungryBelly: [@Dizzy, you haven't gone into the forest?] Dizzy: [Why go to the forest? I fish for chests every day and stay in the shelter.] HungryBelly: [To get supplies. You can't upgrade your shelter with what's in the chests.] Dizzy: [Wait, we have to upgrade the shelter? I thought as long as I had enough to eat, that was enough.] UsTogether: [The shelter is important. Once the protection period ends, monsters will start attacking at night. If you don't upgrade it, you're toast.] Dizzy: [Seriously? You're not messing with me, right?] HungryBelly: [For real. A Level-3 shelter can hold off regular monsters, and a Level-4 shelter can handle Level-1 monsters. So everyone should upgrade their shelters ASAP.] UsTogether: [Yep. Killing monsters gets you supplies and helps you level up fast. You guys should hunt today. Monsters won't attack us, so we get to make the first move. But after today, they'll start attacking.] Dizzy: [Holy crap. The game never told me about it.] Bookworm: [Same. Where are you guys getting your weapons? My two fists are no match for monsters.] UsTogether: [You get them from chests. Grab an axe. It works for fighting too.] Bookworm: [I don't have one.] UsTogether: [Then how are you chopping wood to upgrade your shelter?] Bookworm: [I just open chests and smash them apart for stuff.] UsTogether: [Poor guy.] Bookworm: [Guess I'm screwed.] After taking a short break, Jane started looking through the rest of her haul. Snake meat and snake skin weren't anything special, so she picked up a Health Potion first. [Health Potion: Restores 100 HP.] Jane's eyes brightened. 'This could save my life. I should carry one every time I go out,' she thought. She was 20 HP away from full health, but she wasn't going to use the potion now. 'It restores 100 HP. That's way too much for now,' she thought. After packing everything into her inventory, Jane realized she was out of space. Two iron chests still couldn't fit. Looking at the chests, an idea came to her. 'Maybe I can put all my extra items into the iron chests first, and then store the chests in my inventory,' she wondered. Without hesitation, Jane opened up the iron chests dropped by the viper. [You found 1 Moonshot Crossbow (blue), 30 arrows (blue), 1 pair of Swift Boots (green), 3 MREs, 2 cans of 10 fluid ounces cola.] [Moonshot Crossbow (blue): Attack: 50, Durability: 300/300] [Swift Boots (green): Speed +10, Durability: 200/200] 'I actually got a crossbow and arrows?' Jane thought. After the Green Viper fight, Jane realized her melee range was way too limited. If she wanted to hurt the enemy, she'd have to get close enough to get bitten herself. 'With this Moonshot Crossbow, I can attack from a distance,' Jane thought. 'Much less chance of getting hurt. The downside is there are only thirty arrows. That's nowhere near enough.' Jane put everything from the Level-1 Green Viper into the Iron Chest and placed the chest into her inventory. 'It actually works. That solves the problem,' she thought. With five slots suddenly freed up, she placed the other iron chest, the one system offered, into her inventory too. But it wouldn't stack with the first chest. 'Looks like once a chest is opened, it can't stack anymore,' she thought. 'The system is shrewd.' If opened chests could stack, the Inventory Expansion Cards would be pointless. After resting for about ten minutes, Jane checked the time. It was four o'clock. Time to leave the forest. Thanks to her boosted speed, she got out in around forty minutes. At Shallow Bay, she found only one fishing basket left. Jane pulled up the basket and found it packed with shrimps and a few crabs. [Would you disassemble them?] She tapped "Yes" and received 7 ounces of shrimp meat and 3.5 ounces of crab meat. As Jane reached her shelter's entrance, the sky suddenly darkened. She turned around instinctively and met several pairs of eerie green eyes staring at her from the shadows. Chapter 8 Ice Halo Jane was startled and rushed into her shelter. Using two bundles of thatch and a piece of wood, she quickly built a fire. The cabin brightened, and the sense of danger faded. 'It's so dangerous out there at night,' she thought. She decided she would always get back before dark, never cutting it close again. She thought, 'It gets dark at five, but will that always be the case?' She wasn't about to gamble on that. As usual, Jane poured the leftover bottled water into the coconut shell pot. She added 7 ounces of shrimp, 3.5 ounces of crab meat, and a piece of seaweed. Seaweed was naturally salty, so she didn't need extra seasoning. She took out 2 pounds of crappie fillets, skewered them on a clean stick, and set them over the fire to roast. While they grilled, she sprinkled on some seasoning. Soon the mouthwatering smell of grilled fish filled the air. Jane munched on the grilled crappie fillets and sipped her seafood soup at the same time. The soup, seasoned only with salt, turned out surprisingly tasty. Then she ate two strawberries for dessert. After she was full, Jane opened up the chatroom. WindowBlinds: [Does anyone else feel like we got way more loot today?] HungryBelly: [Yeah. I fished up more crates than yesterday.] LuckyKing: [Same here. I fished up eight crates today, including two iron chests. Furthermore, a wild chicken dropped dead in front of me.] Dreamer: [Damn. How lucky can you get?] Bookworm: [The difference between us is unreal. I've never even laid eyes on an iron chest.] Dreamer: [You're not the only one.] WindowBlinds: [Same.] Dizzy: [Same.] FallenLeaf: [Can't agree more.] LittlePheasant: [Something feels off. Is the system messing with us or planning something?] UsTogether: [I feel the same way. No way the system is being generous for nothing.] Bloom: [Stop being so dramatic. The system probably noticed we were low on supplies and couldn't keep going, so it gave us more.] RedFish: [Yeah. Why would the system treat us badly? It's been giving us supplies all along. Obviously, it wants us to survive.] Seeing this, Jane was surprised too. Everyone seemed to be having a lucky day. That couldn't be a coincidence. Thinking about how today was the last day of the protection period, Jane suddenly felt a sense of crisis. She didn't believe that the system was being generous. She had a hunch the system was cooking up something big. 'What if it suddenly cuts off our supplies starting tomorrow?' she worried. But the chatroom started blowing up. StreamFlow: [@HungryBelly @UsTogether, you two were egging people on to attack monsters. Now I'm hurt and down to 10 Health Points. You guys screwed me over. If it wasn't for you two, I wouldn't have tried fighting those monsters.] HungryBelly: [Dude, I was just giving advice, okay? It was your call whether to go or not. How is this my fault?] FlyingBird: [He's got a point. If you hadn't suggested it, he never would've even thought about it.] StreamFlow: [I don't care. Each of you owes me the contents of a wooden crate.] UsTogether: [Are you kidding? I told you to gather supplies, not to throw yourself at monsters. If you couldn't handle the monsters, that's your problem. Don't blame. We're adults. Take responsibility for your own choices and stop trying to pin it on someone else.] StreamFlow: [You guys nearly got me killed. Shouldn't you make it up to me?] Bloom: [Just give him what he wants. He's not entirely wrong.] RedFish: [Yeah, we're all survivors. If you can help, do it.] UsTogether: [Guess you guys want to play the saint now.] HungryBelly: [Why don't you go ahead and give him your stuff, RedFish?] RedFish: [It has nothing to do with me. You two are the ones who got him hurt, not me.] HungryBelly: [Why should I take responsibility for someone else's choices? He didn't have to go. That was his own decision.] UsTogether: [@StreamFlow, even if you died, that's not my problem. I'm not giving you any supplies. What are you gonna do about it?] StreamFlow: [That's just heartless.] RedFish: [Yeah. How can you treat your fellow countrymen like this?] HungryBelly: [Say whatever you want. It's not like we're losing anything.] StreamFlow: [You little...] The argument went on. Jane snorted. This was why she never bothered posting in the chatroom. If she gave good advice, nobody cared. But if her advice backfired, and someone got screwed over, they'd drag her into their mess and even demand compensation. That was human nature: selfish. In a survival game like this, trying to play the savior is the worst move. Other people's future wasn't her problem. She could barely guarantee your own survival. Jane ignored the chatroom and started sorting through her supplies. She suddenly noticed she still had an unopened iron chest. That got her excited. After all, the loot from the chest that dropped from the Green Viper had been fantastic. 'I wonder what the system's reward will be. It can't be worse than the last one, right?' she thought. [Ice Spellbook ×1, Stellar Staff (green) ×1, auto flush toilet ×1, Attribute Orb ×3, Inventory Expansion Card ×3] [Ice Spellbook: Ice Halo. A single-target control skill. The target gets frozen for three seconds, taking 5 damage each second. Consumes 30 Magic Points, with a 10-second cooldown. Only Ice Magic players can learn this skill.] [Stellar Staff (green): Attack +30. Can cast magic spells. Durability: 300/300] [Auto flush toilet: A magical toilet that doesn't need a water tank or electricity.] [Attribute Orb: Adds 3 points to a random stat.] [Inventory Expansion Card: Use to add one slot to your inventory.] 'These are all top-tier loot. The system really drops good stuff,' Jane thought. She tried to learn the skill from the Ice Spellbook, but a message popped up: [Available after system update.] 'Update? What's that supposed to mean?' Jane thought. She scratched her head, still confused. 'So the Stellar Staff is what lets me use magic skills? Does that mean even if I learn the Ice Spellbook, I still can't cast the spell without the staff? That's so unfair.' Jane was speechless, but seeing the toilet in front of her made her grin. After days of having to bury her business in the sand, this felt like a luxury. 'But where am I supposed to put it?' she wondered. Her cabin was a single room. She couldn't eat, sleep, and take bathroom breaks in the same space. But if she left it outside, it wouldn't be sheltered. 'What if I need to go in the middle of the night? Am I supposed to hold it until morning?' she thought. After thinking it over, Jane decided to put the toilet inside. She was in a survival game. Survival came first. Tomorrow, she could chop down some trees and make a wall to give herself a bit of privacy. Chapter 8 Ice Halo Jane popped the Attribute Orb into her mouth and instantly gained 3 Defense points, 3 Intelligence points, and 3 Luck points. 'Holy crap! 3 points for Luck?' she thought. The Luck stat that never went up with leveling finally got a boost. She used the Inventory Expansion Card right away, and now her inventory had 18 slots. She still hadn't used the gear that dropped from the Green Viper earlier. Jane equipped the Moonshot Crossbow (blue), Swift Boots (green), and Stellar Staff (green) all at once. But then the system told her only one weapon could be equipped at a time. Jane was speechless. Obviously, she had to stick with the Stellar Staff. Without it, her skills were useless. 'Like I even have a choice,' Jane thought and flashed a wry smile. She carefully sorted through her supplies, making sure everything was in order. Then she remembered she still had 495 tube containers that were full of water. But since everyone seemed well-stocked today, she decided to hold off on selling them until supplies got scarce. Jane grabbed two containers, carved two holes in them with her knife like before, and strung them together with a vine and tied a knot. With one hand, she held a container over the fire to heat it up. She hadn't washed up in three days, and living by the sea made her feel sticky and reeking of salt and sweat. She couldn't take it anymore. Now that she finally had some water, she was determined to get cleaned up today. But without a towel or a bucket, it was definitely inconvenient. 'Maybe I should check the trading section. Since everyone's got plenty of supplies today, maybe someone's selling towels or buckets,' Jane thought. She opened up the trading section and searched for towels and buckets. Sure enough, there were some for sale, and the prices weren't too high. People were willing to trade them for food or water. Jane traded one bottle of water for a towel and three bottles of water for a bucket. As for why she didn't use the collected water, it was still raw water, and drinking it could make people sick. Jane didn't want anyone getting sick because they didn't have a way to boil it. She boiled up twenty tubes of water, and when she poured them into the bucket, it was more than half full. Jane enjoyed a long, hot wash and then changed into fresh underwear and her autumn outfit. The autumn outfit was a three-piece set: long pants, a jacket, and a long-sleeved shirt. Though it was warm during the day, the mornings and evenings by the sea were still pretty chilly, so she could wear the jacket. She gave her dirty clothes a good wash in the bathwater and rinsed them again with ten more tubes of water. She hung the washed clothes over the bucket, planning to set them out in the sun to dry tomorrow. Feeling fresh and clean in her new clothes, Jane felt comfortable. She pulled out the mattress and cashmere blanket she'd scored from the loot box earlier that morning. She laid the mattress on the ground and spread the cashmere blanket over it. Just like that, she had herself a makeshift bed. She flopped onto the bed, hugged the blanket, and rolled around. 'So soft and comfy,' she thought. She'd been sleeping on straw for the past two days, and her bones were still sore from it. All of a sudden, Jane sprang up. She remembered she'd hauled back a bunch of vines that morning and stuffed them in her chests, planning to weave fish basket traps tonight. She'd nearly forgotten about that. Jane couldn't help but sigh. With great reluctance, she tore herself away from her beloved bed and focused on her grand fish basket project. By around ten o'clock, Jane couldn't take it anymore. She'd gotten up way too early, and now she was totally wiped out. Still, she had a pretty good haul tonight: ten fish baskets. Tomorrow, she'd put the fish baskets out in the Shallow Bay, and the rest could wait for another night. Thinking that, Jane dropped the vines, flopped onto her bed, and fell asleep, exhausted. ***** [System update in progress. Please wait.] ***** The next morning at 5:30, Jane's alarm went off as usual, jolting her awake. [Today's weather: cloudy, 59-73°F] [System update complete.] [The Beginner Protection Period is over. Welcome to the main game world. The Magic World and Leaderboard are now open.] [Players with a Magic Attribute can learn one skill every 10 levels, for a total of ten skills by level 100. The Leaderboard resets every seven days, and the top 100 players in the server will get rewards.] [If you die in the game, you die for real. Please keep that in mind.] [Welcome, J.Ivy. System 12138 at your service.] 'System update? So that noise I heard last night when I was half-asleep was actually real? I thought I was imagining things,' Jane thought. 'Main game world? So everything before was the beginner version? 'Players with a Magic Attribute get a new skill every ten levels, but I've got two Magic Attributes, so that's twenty skills in total. 'Magic World and Leaderboard... Oh, yeah. I can finally use that Ice Spellbook now. But what even is this Leaderboard thing?' [Yep, the beginner's protection period was a basic trial version of the game world. A bunch of features were locked. Now that the update's done, you're in the real game world.] It was like the system heard Jane's thoughts. A robotic voice spoke up in her head. 'Shit! What was that?' Jane thought. "12138?" Jane asked, her lips twitching. That number was too long to be a name. [It's me, host. Feel free to ask me anything you want,] said the system. "Is it just me, or does everyone get a system?" [Every player gets their own system to help them out.] "So, since I have both Ice and Light Magic, does that mean I get to learn twenty skills?" Jane was excited. She had so many questions, and finally, she got her own system to answer everything. [Yes,] said the system. "And what's this Leaderboard thing?" asked Jane. [Host, you can check it out on your holo display. Tap the Leaderboard icon on your watch in the bottom right corner.] Jane tapped her watch. Sure enough, there was a new Leaderboard icon in the bottom right corner, right next to the chatroom, trading section, and friends list. She tapped the Leaderboard, and to her shock, her ID was sitting pretty at the very top of the first list.