YM778.TV Chapter 31 - 31: Gathering Timber
Even though he rarely played games, Song Jian knew that in a game world, the appearance of a golden light meant something significant.
Treasure! High-quality equipment! Something that could bring about a drastic change in one’s abilities.
As he walked deeper into the woods, Song Jian found a golden pine tree, about ten meters tall and the thickness of a bowl at the base, only a dozen meters away from him, its surface glowing with a faint golden light.
Most of the trees in the forest were easily living willows, but the sudden appearance of this golden pine tree made it seem a bit eerie.
Song Jian took two steps forward and suddenly felt a chilling fear creeping up on him;
Hiss-
From the corner of his eye, he saw a pale green snake coiled around the golden pine tree. It was three feet long and made a strange hissing sound.
LV5 Mutant Snake Creature, Elite, Vitality: 500/500, features: Highly poisonous;
An elite creature at level five with five times the vitality of Song Jian. More importantly, it didn’t have the daytime weakness. In Doomsday City, every monster Song Jian encountered would be weakened during the daytime, with their stats reduced by half.
“Perhaps it’s because of the golden pine tree?” Song Jian speculated.
The mutant snake creature also noticed Song Jian. Coiling around a tree branch, it raised the front half of its body, exposing its sharp fangs to Song Jian, while hissing loudly.
Its name, initially a pale yellow color, started changing as Song Jian approached the golden pine tree;
By the time Song Jian was only seven or eight meters away from the tree, the snake creature’s name had turned pink, indicating it was ready to attack;
Song Jian held a double-barreled shotgun and had a Tiger Fang dagger and a P18C pistol at his waist. As he measured his own strength against the mutant snake creature, he had a feeling that he might not be a match for it since it was an elite creature with 500 vitality points.
Thinking this, Song Jian started to slowly retreat. When he was 15 meters away, the snake creature’s name turned pale yellow again, and it lazily coiled itself around the pine tree, occasionally glancing at the only pine cone at the top of the tree;
Inside the cone, there were more than a dozen golden pine nuts, each about the size of a fingernail. The creature’s eyes were filled with greed as its body slithered and it shot its forked tongue towards the pine cone. Its tongue was as dexterous as a finger, and it plucked a single pine nut and put it in its mouth.
After swallowing the pine nut, the snake creature showed a satisfied expression, slowly retreating and coiling around the branch, remaining motionless.
“Those pine nuts must be treasures as well. Maybe this snake creature became an elite monster by constantly eating them,” Song Jian thought to himself.
In this game, you only have one life, and dying in the game means you die in real life. Safety comes first, so Song Jian didn’t dare to recklessly approach the snake. Slowly backing away, he began to chop down trees in the vicinity to gather wood.
After chopping down only three willow trees, his stone axe’s durability reached zero, and it shattered. Looking at the tree trunk he had only managed to cut down to a small section, Song Jian punched it angrily.
“This game is too hard! You only get one life, and there are so many strong monsters that don’t drop any coins. The things in the game are expensive, leveling up doesn’t even give you attribute points, how can anyone play? This is like starting a game on hellish nightmare difficulty!”
Crack-
The willow tree, which only had a small section left, shattered and turned into a beam of white light, entering Song Jian’s inventory.
“Huh, it works with just a punch?” Song Jian’s eyes lit up, and he hurriedly went to the next willow tree, throwing a heavy punch at the trunk.
“Ouch, that hurts!”
With a fierce punch on the tree trunk, the pain from his fist almost brought tears to Song Jian’s eyes. Clutching his wrist and rubbing it for a long time, the pain finally started to fade. The knuckles on his fist were already broken and red. Gritting his teeth, Song Jian fiercely threw another punch at the tree trunk.
System: You’ve used your fists to effectively attack the willow tree three times, and comprehended the skill [Barehanded Strike (Fist-Palm Category) (Basic)]. [Barehanded Strike (Fist-Palm Category) (Basic)]: Passive, Level 1, Increases the power of fist and palm attacks by 5%
As expected, he comprehended another passive skill. However, this basic skill did little to improve Song Jian’s strength.’
Gritting his teeth and throwing punch after punch at the tree trunk, Song Jian’s vitality also began to decrease slowly. It took him more than two hours to completely gather all the wood from a willow tree using only his fists.
By then, Song Jian’s hands were covered in blood and his vitality points had dropped by thirteen. His face was pale from the pain. As an ordinary person, using all his strength to hit the hard trees with every punch was like a form of self-torture.
Sitting next to the tree stump, Song Jian took out a piece of roasted meat and held it in both hands, tearing into it with his teeth.
“What’s a little pain like this? If you want to stand out, you have to risk your life. I have no chance in the real world, so this game is my only chance. How can I become someone special without enduring pain and hardship?”
Although Song Jian’s hands ached terribly, and the joints of his fingers were even worn down to the bone-white appearance, this was a game where recovery was extremely fast. As long as he could bear the pain, he could still gather wood using his fists.
Over the course of one afternoon, Song Jian chopped down four willow trees with his fists and gathered sixty-seven units of wood. It was already past five in the afternoon, and the sun was setting. He only had less than an hour before the sun set, and he regretfully glanced at the Golden Pine Tree in the distance before heading back towards his villa.
Song Jian returned to the residential area, entered the villa through the first-floor skylight, and saw that Wang Qi was able to stand up and walk slowly.
Seeing Song Jian’s return, Wang Qi hurriedly greeted him with a smile.
“Brother Jian… Brother Song, you’re back.”
“Yeah, I’m back. Your injuries are healing pretty fast!” Song Jian said with some surprise. With two broken legs and three broken ribs, it would take at least a few months to recover fully in the real world. But in the game, Wang Qi was already able to walk slowly after just seven or eight hours.
“I don’t know why, but 1 feel like my recovery speed is particularly fast in the game. I think I’ll be able to remove the cast in an hour or two.” Wang Qi said with a laugh.
Brother Song, have you gathered enough materials to build a shelter?” Wang Qi asked nervously.
“Not yet. Gathering in this game is more difficult than I thought.” Song Jian’s face was a bit ugly. He had originally thought that it would take at most two or three hours to gather all the wood and stone.
“But I’ve gathered more than a hundred units of wood now, so I can strengthen the doors and windows of this villa a bit.” Said Song Jian.
“Really? Being able to gather more than a hundred units of wood is impressive. Brother Song, can you tell me where to gather?” Wang Qi asked somewhat embarassedly.
He had spent the whole day in the shelter nursing his injuries without going anywhere or helping Song Jian. Now he was not only staying in the villa that Song Jian had found, but also wanting Song Jian to share the gathering location. This made Wang Qi feel a bit embarassed.
“In the game map, there is a small forest near the highway where you can gather wood and stone.” Song Jian casually said.
The game map that came with the novice gift pack is a must-have item for every newcomer.
Wang Qi quickly took out the map, unfolded it, and carefully looked at it. After finding the small forest that Song Jian mentioned, he also marked the location on the map.
“Thanks, Brother Song.” Wang Qi said with a smile.
Song Jian nodded and headed towards the kitchen.