Chapter 19

Day nine. System announcement: “Wind has reached record levels. Advise all players to stay indoors.”
“Due to damaged power lines, all electricity on the island is shut off until further notice.”
“In some areas, water pipes have been poorly maintained and tap water bacteria counts are dangerously high. Starting today, tap water is unsafe to drink. (Drinking it anyway will almost certainly get you a negative status effect.)”
Su Han murmured to herself, “If I remember right, in the beginner instance it’s day twelve when water and power get cut. Looks like this time the game’s ramping up the difficulty.”
Still, none of this really had anything to do with her.
Unbothered, Su Han curled up in her room, glancing out the window every so often. The streets outside were nearly empty, one sweep of her gaze was enough to catch the loneliness of it all.
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
Lesson learned from last time: Su Han quietly pulled a dagger from her personal inventory, holding it in a reverse grip behind her back before opening the door.
It was Zhong Rui standing outside.
Su Han let out a breath, her face relaxing a bit, though she kept the dagger hidden at her back. “What’s up?”
“Here to talk loot distribution,” Zhong Rui answered smoothly.
There had been four robbers, each with a weapon. After the fight, all four weapons were left scattered on the ground.
Su Han had to admit she’d been eyeing that Tang sword, the long blade was perfect for attack, while the dagger was best for defense. Together, those two would seriously up her combat game. But honestly, she never would’ve taken down those robbers without Zhong Rui coming to help; no telling how things would’ve ended otherwise. She didn’t say any of this, but deep down, she was genuinely grateful.
“I just want the dagger,” Su Han said quietly. “You can do whatever you like with the rest.”
Zhong Rui looked a little surprised. “Out of a brick, a dagger, a Tang sword, and a cleaver, you’re just taking one?”
“Yeah.” She nodded lightly, and added, “If there’s nothing else, see you.”
With a sharp snap, she shut the door.
“An upright player, principled, and just the right kind of kind?” After a beat, Zhong Rui let out a soft laugh under his breath. “As a teammate, she’s actually reliable, no dead weight, nothing to worry about. Not bad.”
At 9am the next morning, the system’s mechanical voice rang out: “Day 10. The tornado has left, but smaller ones are still ravaging the island.”
“Winds are strong enough that weaker folks could get blown away or injured. (If your Satiety is above 60, you’re immune.)”
“The tornado caused massive destruction. The island is seriously damaged, please help with the cleanup.”
“Note: By 9am on day eleven, if cleanup progress is below 35%, an intermediate debuff will trigger; 35%–70% will give a low-level debuff; above 70% means no debuff.”
“This is bad,” Su Han analyzed quickly.
“We already have two debuffs. If your cleanliness is under 60, you might get sinusitis; if your Satiety is under 60, you could get blown away. Not many players will actually want to step outside and help clean up.”
“Worse yet, it’s already day ten… If anyone just wants to skate by, they can leave the instance after day eleven anyway.”
After weighing her options, Su Han decided to lower her expectations. “Just do my part and hope for the best. Anything’s fine as long as we avoid the intermediate debuff, because that sounds seriously grim.”
After breakfast, she found some clean cloth strips and wrapped them around her hands, layer after layer, she’d read before that cleaning up after a tornado comes with a high risk of injury and infection. Better to be careful from the start.
Stepping out of the inn, Su Han took in the chaos: a compact car upside down at the curb, all four wheels in the air, and several others nowhere to be seen; huge trees fallen across the middle of the road, blocking traffic; flower beds completely ravaged, the plants in a sorry, shredded mess; trash cans toppled, garbage scattered everywhere.
Honestly, she thought, if nobody cleaned this up, there’d probably be a disease outbreak debuff. She wouldn’t even be surprised.
Someone approached, introducing themselves, “Hi, I’m the supervisor for the Volunteer Association. We’re organizing an island-wide cleanup, one free lunch included per day. Would you be willing to join?”
Su Han’s mind worked fast. To be honest, she’d figured cleanup would probably fall to the few people who never had to worry about food and clothes. But if the Volunteer Association was involved and even offering meals, lots more NPCs would probably pitch in.
“I’m in,” she answered without hesitation.
“Great, please join a five-person group to help clear street trash,” the supervisor said, assigning her to a crew.
Su Han nodded. Only after joining the so-called five-person group did she realize her teammates were Zhong Rui, Cai Sheng, and two strangers.
The unfamiliar woman introduced herself first: “I’m Fan Wanyu, twenty-seven, a schoolteacher.”
The young man said, “Last name Fang, just call me Xiao Fang. I’m a college student backpacking on a budget. Didn’t expect to get trapped on an island, huh?”
Su Han paused, expression unreadable. Backpacker? That excuse sounded awfully familiar, was he another player?
Zhong Rui kept it simple: “Zhong Rui.” Nothing more. Not exactly a chatterbox, that one.
Cai Sheng declared, all righteous, “This mess everywhere is a total eyesore. We have to get things cleaned up, no question about it.”
Su Han couldn’t help glancing at him, thinking: You just want people to keep coming to your inn, don’t you? No wonder you’re so fired up to help today.
When it came her turn, she said, “Su Han. Got in a fight with my family, currently on the run.”
Zhong Rui shot her a subtle look, as if to say, Being a player means making up a backstory on the spot, huh? What a pain.
Su Han never batted an eye, acting innocent as could be.
Introductions over, the five split up, sweeping, hauling trash, pulling weeds. Everyone on their own task.
Cai Sheng grumbled, “If it’s all solo work, what’s the point of those self-introductions just now?”
Su Han stayed focused, working quickly. When pay was daily, some people would always try to slack off and kill time. No matter how much you did, you only got one free meal, so why waste energy working hard?
Unable to control the others, Su Han decided to just do more herself, pushing the cleanup progress as much as possible.
Similarly, Zhong Rui seemed to have the same idea, his movements were swift and efficient.
Once the five of them finished clearing one section, the system pinged: “Clean-up progress +1%. Total progress: 7.6%.”
They’d barely finished work and hadn’t even had a chance to catch their breath before the supervisor appeared in front of them with more orders. “There’s a fallen tree blocking XX Street. Please head over and clear it.”
The five trekked to the site, eyes wide at the giant tree sprawled across the road, then exchanged helpless glances.
Fan Wanyu frowned. “That thing’s huge! How are we supposed to clean it up?”
Su Han’s expression didn’t change. “Isn’t that why the supervisor gave us axes?”
Xiao Fang looked positively green. “You mean... actually chop down the tree? Turn it into firewood so it’s not blocking the way?”
“Got it? Then get to work,” Zhong Rui said, already swinging his axe without waiting for further discussion.
Su Han heaved a long sigh and picked up her axe.
Cai Sheng grit his teeth and joined in as the third person to start.
Fan Wanyu hesitated a second but, with no other choice, followed after. Of course, she was cunning enough to deliberately slow her pace.
Xiao Fang’s eyes lit up as he caught on, copying her slow-motion chopping.
No telling how much time passed before the tree was finally hacked into several chunks. System: “Clean-up progress +2%. Total progress: 21.6%.”
“What are we supposed to do with the wood?” Xiao Fang asked.
“Supervisor didn’t say. Guess it’s up to us?” Fan Wanyu replied, a little out of breath. At this point, she was seriously regretting all this heavy labor for just a meal.
Zhong Rui suddenly asked, “Does the guesthouse have a storage room?”
Cai Sheng blinked a few times before catching on, and quickly nodded. “Yeah. There’s a big warehouse.”
“Let’s borrow it for now.”
“No problem,” Cai Sheng agreed instantly.
Zhong Rui looked around and announced, “If anyone wants wood, let’s split it. Otherwise, I’ll take it all.”
Su Han wasted no time. “I want some.”
But on her next breath, she added, “I’m staying at the guesthouse, too. Let’s just store it in the warehouse for now.”
Zhong Rui turned to gauge the remaining three.
Cai Sheng hesitated, but figured a freebie is a freebie, so he answered decisively, “Count me in.”
Fan Wanyu quickly waved her hands. “Not for me, you guys take mine.” Resting sounded much more appealing.
Xiao Fang scrunched his brow, totally confused about what everyone wanted the wood for. But rules were rules, never pass up free stuff. “Then four-way split,” he shrugged.
“Come help me load the wood,” Zhong Rui called out.
Fan Wanyu didn’t budge, giving up her share meant no extra effort required.
Xiao Fang had just reached out when his face twisted in pain and he sucked in a sharp breath. The others looked over to find a splinter wedged deep in his finger, blood already dripping steadily, not clear if he’d gotten it infected.
Xiao Fang groaned. What if this wound got infected? There was no medicine here! Not worth risking his life for a few wood blocks. Resolute, he changed his mind. “You know what, count me out. Do whatever you want with the wood.”
“What about you, Cai Sheng?” Su Han turned to ask.
Cai Sheng immediately took a step back and declared, “On second thought, I’m out too. My health’s worth more.”
Su Han looked over at Zhong Rui, finding him waiting for her answer, too. She gave a rueful smile. “So, you’re not backing out?”
“Let’s just split it,” Zhong Rui replied bluntly.
“Deal,” Su Han agreed.
“Wait here,” Zhong Rui said, jogging back to the guesthouse and returning in a little while with a tricycle, who knows where he snagged it from.
Su Han started hauling the wood onto the vehicle at once.
Xiao Fang eyed them suspiciously. “How are those two not worried about getting hurt?”
Fan Wanyu chimed in, “Look closely at their hands.”
Xiao Fang frowned. “Wait... is that, ?”
“They wrapped their fingers in cloth strips, a professional bandage, only exposing the fingertips. Protects your hands and makes it easy to work.”
The lightbulb finally went on for Xiao Fang. “No wonder!” Then he thought for a second and turned to her. “So why didn’t you wrap your hands?”
Fan Wanyu was exasperated. “Recognizing something and actually being able to do it are two very different things.”
“Besides,” her tone turned wry, “with food and water running low, what am I gonna do with a pile of wood?”
Xiao Fang nodded, totally agreeing. “Exactly. Better off resting while we can.”