Main Quest (Day 3)
Because she had a good sleep the night before, Mu Shan got up at 6:30 in the morning.
She stretched in the sunroom and opened the glass roof for ventilation. Now with the outer wire mesh protection, she didn’t have to worry about any large things coming in.
She just had to clean up the fallen leaves and branches that drifted in every day.
The orange tree in the field was already laden with fruit, the oranges emitting an enticing golden glow, almost ripe. The potatoes and carrots planted later were also thriving lushly.
The pot of the magical sunflower sat on the steps, its flower disk facing the sunlight, its leaves twisting gracefully like a person dancing.
Some golden particles had already fallen around the pot’s edge. When she brushed her hand over them, they turned into 【Gold Coins +1 +1 +1】.
While brushing her teeth, Mu Shan took out the card album and flipped through it—a habit just like an office worker doom-scrolling their phone in the morning.
Today, she drew two character cards from the previous instance, both ordinary zombie workers.
The only item card was a specialty from the Humid Heat Forest: [Item Card: A Cluster of Bone-Eroding Fungus].
The card vividly depicted a cluster of purple mushrooms growing on dead branches, their round caps quite cute, but closer inspection revealed several white skeletons buried beneath the branches.
Mu Shan put the card away. After washing up, she took out the jam that had cooled overnight.
The purple-red berry jam was already very thick, emitting a crystalline sheen. She found an empty bottle that was oil- and water-free, filled it to the brim, and placed it in the fridge—it would last a long time.
She didn’t waste the residual jam stuck to the pot’s edge either. She added milk and some water, boiled it, and turned it into a sweet milk drink. Paired with her homemade berry pie, it was a limited-edition tropical rainforest breakfast.
Mu Shan held her small bowl, and the warm food filled her belly, bringing vitality to her body for the day.
The injuries from the past two days had already scabbed over, leaving ugly crisscross marks on her arms. She comforted herself that these were trendy “tattoos.”
Anyway, no one cared about her now.
As she rolled down her sleeve, Mu Shan suddenly remembered something—the shells she had stripped from the giant insect monsters yesterday were still forgotten in her virtual backpack.
She thought this stuff might be used to craft some armor, like a breastplate. But she didn’t want to touch it herself.
Cockroaches had terrifying vitality as a species; maybe there were still eggs in the residual flesh on the shells. It wouldn’t be good if they spread all over the safe house…
For such a tricky matter, handing it over to the Main God System was the safest option.
Mu Shan decisively opened the mall. The Main God System claimed that in its mall, there was nothing players couldn’t think of but couldn’t buy. She searched for [Armor Crafting] and sure enough, found the corresponding function.
[1. Random Armor Crafting: The system will automatically select based on the raw materials provided by the player.
Finished product quality random, type random, style random.
No returns or exchanges.
Cost: 20 gold coins per time.]
[2. Specified Type Armor Crafting: The system crafts the specified type of armor using the raw materials provided by the player.
Finished product quality random, style random.
If materials are insufficient, the player bears full material loss.
No returns or exchanges.
Cost: 50 gold coins per time.]
Mu Shan: You might as well just rob me outright?
Though she grumbled, she still chose Random Armor Crafting. 20 gold was about a day’s output from the magical sunflower, so she could afford it.
【Random Armor Production in Progress
Raw Materials: Blattodea Giant Insect Monster Shell x2
Progress Bar: 1/100】
Mu Shan figured the production progress bar would take over an hour to fill. She simply ignored the system, cleaned herself up, and packed the weapons, medicine, props, and water she needed for going out.
According to the Player Shut-In Must Die Rule, she planned to head downstream along the river to scout the NPC Village today.
Not only because this NPC village was an important quest location, but if the village was still there, she could trade with the locals for supplies. So Mu Shan also brought her long-unused nail clippers.
Yesterday, she had let six insect monsters go, but the system hadn’t judged her quest as failed, which meant the village should still be there—maybe some big-shot player had intervened?
Before leaving, Mu Shan didn’t forget to close the sunroom’s glass roof properly. She locked the door, greeted the zombie worker standing dazed outside the wall, and headed to the riverbank.
Her boots crunched on the fine gravel and pebbles, making “crunch crunch” sounds.
There were two ways to go downstream: by land or by water.
But Mu Shan had spent two days searching for a safe house and had deeply experienced how difficult it was to travel in the tropical rainforest.
So today, she had come up with a quick round-trip plan.
A pink children’s bathtub sat on the river beach.
It was just big enough for her to curl up her legs inside. But she wasn’t naive enough to think she could just float down the turbulent river in a bathtub.
Mu Shan took out her machete. The forest had plenty of trees, the most abundant resource. She could modify the bathtub into a simple raft.
Some logs wouldn’t even float; they sank straight to the bottom when thrown in the river. After testing three kinds in a row, she finally found one that could float.
Mu Shan chopped down a few small trees about seven or eight centimeters in diameter, stripped off the outer bark to reveal the white inner wood.
She crossed and bound the logs securely, placed the bathtub in the center, secured it with rope, and made a simple raft.
It sounded easy, but the actual operation took her nearly two hours.
Her old palm injury hadn’t healed, and now it had new wounds. Even with gloves, the rough logs chafed her palms and fingers.
The raft she worked so hard on was ugly and crude. After two capsizes in a row, Mu Shan finally managed to float on the water surface sitting in the bathtub.
At that moment, she almost cheered.
The little boat still needed a paddle, which was easy to solve.
She had already wasted quite a few trees earlier. Mu Shan picked a lightweight, handy piece of wood and whittled the end into a flat, thin shape suitable for rowing.
The bathtub raft docked at the shore where the current was swift. Mu Shan named it “Sister Won’t Sink.”
After a final check that she had everything she needed, she gave herself a mental pep talk, took a deep breath, grabbed the raft, and bravely launched into the water.
It was already 10 a.m. by then, with perfect sunshine that reddened her cheeks.
Mu Shan’s bathtub raft drifted through the high and low rocky streams, occasionally encountering small waterfalls. Each time she thought it would capsize, the raft stubbornly held on, carrying her forward.
“Splash—”
The bathtub was cramped, and her legs went numb after a while. She had to rest them on the branches on either side.
Under her shoes was the turbulent river water, and at her nose tip was the damp, fishy air. She had never felt nature so directly, marveling at humanity’s smallness.
The riverbanks were lively, with many colorful birds perched on branches, calling “caw caw.” As her raft drifted by, the birds didn’t flee; they seemed to band together to observe this strange intruder.
About half an hour later, Mu Shan entered a wider water area, and the bathtub sailed more steadily, its speed slowing.
The blazing sun burned her face. Without a helmet, she pulled down her cap brim to shield half her face.
She began using the paddle to assist forward movement, occasionally pushing away floating debris on the surface or correcting the raft’s direction to avoid trees or running aground.
Drifting slowly downstream like this, as she passed a river bend, something different from the forest appeared before Mu Shan’s eyes.
She almost thought she was seeing things—it was a player’s safe house.
The house itself was nothing special, a narrow toilet-shaped structure with a wall around it.
But… above the opponent’s sunroom floated the same kind of numbers as hers.
【④】
【Xia Xueqin’s Safe House】
Mu Shan was stunned for a moment. So these numbers were really assigned by the Main God, and they were really for ranking.
What did they signify?
Position order, or entry time into the game?
She guessed it was position…
Safe House No. 4 was also near the riverbank, nestled in the forest, and soon left behind by the raft.
Mu Shan didn’t turn back until it was out of sight. She formed a guess about this instance, but needed more evidence.
If it were the Zombie Siege instance, the safe house numbers given to players would be meaningless, since players could vanish silently at any time: either dying to monsters or to other players.
She was No. 5 and had already seen No. 4, so there were at least three safe houses in the downstream area? She didn’t know how many were upstream.
There were fewer players in this instance than she had imagined.
Mu Shan quickened her paddling. The water surged, making a beautiful “splash splash” sound. The waves sparkled, clear to the bottom, though she had no time to appreciate it.
About twenty minutes later, Mu Shan passed two more safe houses, both close to the riverbank.
【② Zong Rui’s Safe House】
【③ Anbu Chuanliang’s Safe House】
This No. 3, from the name, was likely Japanese.
Which meant that starting from this instance, she would truly face a global player free-for-all.
The further downstream, the gentler the river flow and the wider the water surface. The surrounding forest coverage gradually decreased, and she could see large swathes of man-made fields, interspersed with thatched huts.
She never spotted No. 1’s safe house; it was probably hidden deeper in the forest.
But the appearance of the top four basically confirmed Mu Shan’s earlier guess.
The [Humid Heat Forest] instance wasn’t just a wilderness survival challenge in a tropical rainforest for players—it was a massive tower defense game.
The wide, meandering river was the game map.
Only, what they defended weren’t carrots, but the NPC village.
And the ones handling the monsters weren’t turrets, but individual players.
Mu Shan deeply felt the Main God System’s malicious whimsy.
In its eyes, players were consumable resources, toys that could be given any setting, existences that had to adapt to any rules.
Presumably, the original No. 5 had died in battle, and she had been substituted in.
When attacked yesterday, the six insect monsters she let slip hadn’t vanished; they had been dealt with by the four players downstream, preventing them from reaching the village.
“Bump—” The bathtub raft ran aground on the shore. Mu Shan moved her numb legs and shakily disembarked.
She stood outside the simple, primitive wall, gazing at the small village that abruptly appeared in the forest. Westerners in coarse cloth clothes kept coming and going.