Chapter 40

When she got back to camp, An Rongyue still hadn’t returned, so Su Han grabbed a branch from the woods and started whittling it into a spear.
By the time her weapon was ready, An Rongyue was still gone, so Su Han headed to the seaside: scaling and gutting the fish until they were clean and proper. When An Rongyue finally came back, arms full of firewood, the two fish were already strung on a stick, prepped and ready for the grill.
An Rongyue: “……”
She’d actually come back with fish! Meanwhile, An Rongyue hadn’t even had a chance to make fresh water yet.
For some reason, it always felt to An Rongyue like she was stuck playing sidekick, clinging desperately to the boss’s thigh to repay her debt.
“Let’s light it up,” Su Han said, unfazed.
“Hang on, I should figure this out first.” An Rongyue stacked the firewood and glanced around, clearly trying to remember how to start a fire by friction.
Before she could begin, Su Han popped open her pack, produced a magnesium rod and a piece of flint, gave them a single scrape, and presto, sparks flew.
“We’re set,” Su Han announced.
An Rongyue: “……”
Yep, she was 100% being pampered by a big shot.
The flames soon roared to life, and Su Han went to work grilling the fish.
An Rongyue made small talk, “Where’s Zhong Rui? Weren’t you two supposed to be together?”
Su Han hesitated for a split second, then replied breezily, “Haven’t seen him since I entered the instance.”
The system had announced their team-up, and while they were both in the same server, it was up to them to actually find each other. But after linking up with An Rongyue, Su Han had been having too much fun to bother looking for anyone else.
An Rongyue thought, Guess they really trust each other to be so chill about splitting up.
While they chatted, a burly guy hurled his firewood down in a fit and roared, “Screw this! I quit!” After half an hour of trying the old-school fire-drill method, he’d made zero progress, his sanity was hanging by a thread.
An Rongyue edged subtly closer to Su Han. When everyone else was sweating blood to get a flame, they’d lit a fire in seconds with a flint. Honestly, it was just begging for trouble.
A teammate whispered something in the big guy’s ear. Soon, he stomped over to Su Han, gruff and impatient. “Hey, lend me some fire.”
“Sure, grab a stick and help yourself,” Su Han said, not even pausing her grilling, totally unbothered by his attitude.
The guy blinked, genuinely stunned, it was that easy? He’d expected her to up the price, maybe squeeze some supplies out of him. He’d only tried to act tough so she wouldn’t get greedy.
He stuck a branch in the fire, and in no time it was burning. Su Han just kept minding her own business, not even a hint of blackmail.
Weirdly, this made the big guy feel kind of awkward. After a moment, he glared fiercely around at the other players, barking, “These two are under my wing now! Nobody lays a hand on them!”
Truth was, the second Su Han brought back those fresh fish, plenty of people started coveting them. But seeing how laid-back and fearless she was, and with zero clue what her background was, nobody dared cause trouble.
And now, having been publicly warned, most folks dropped their schemes.
An Rongyue shot the big guy a few surprised glances, turns out, he was actually a decent person.
Su Han kept her cool, nodding her thanks to him. With a stamina stat of 360, she wasn’t the least bit afraid of anyone picking a fight. In fact, if someone tried it, she was half looking forward to giving them a “surprise.”
Before long, more players, sick of trying to rub sticks together, came over begging to borrow fire. Su Han was easygoing and let everyone have a go.
Most people had overestimated their survival skills and wanted to save their one item slot, so hardly anyone chose flint, lighters, or matches to bring in. When reality hit, that making fire from scratch was a nightmare, it was too late.
Su Han, just lending out fire for free, earned everyone’s gratitude.
Some folks, embarrassed to take advantage of the little lady, brought over firewood as thanks for the favor.
An Rongyue figured the boss probably didn’t need her gratitude at all.
Su Han flipped the skewers over. Little by little, the smell of roasting fish wafted through the camp.
“Do we have any salt?” she asked.
“Not yet…” An Rongyue said, inwardly fretting that she hadn’t even gotten a chance to boil water. Once she started, though, they’d have both brine and fresh water in no time.
“Fine, let’s just eat it plain for now,” Su Han said lightly.
The fat sizzled and popped in the fire. An Rongyue’s mouth was absolutely watering at the aroma of grilled meat.
Around this time, the fishermen started returning one by one.
"Why'd you get back so late?" someone in their group complained.
One of the weary fishermen gave them a look. "You think it’s easy to catch fish? I had to strip down and practically wrestle one into my shirt. Took ages to get just one, alright?"
Their teammate: "…"
A few others had gone to hunt in the woods, soon returning with sparrows and partridges in hand.
Some people opted for gathering wild fruits and mushrooms. But the fruits were such vibrant colors that no one could tell if they were poisonous. After bringing them back, everyone just stared at them, too scared to actually eat.
"If you ask me, we're all gonna starve sooner or later," someone sighed, sounding half-way to giving up hope.
Amidst the collective moans and groans, Su Han finally finished grilling the fish. She handed a skewer over to An Rongyue with complete composure. "Here you go, eat up."
Maybe she was just being paranoid, but An Rongyue couldn't shake the feeling that someone was burning a hole in her back with their gaze. That stare was so hot, it made eating almost impossible.
An Rongyue lowered her voice and asked in a whisper, "Aren’t we making ourselves a bit too obvious?"
Su Han replied quietly, "Trust me, I’m keeping it as low-key as possible."
If she went all out fishing, their haul would have been way more than this. But right now she was carefully testing the other players’ limits and patience. If, on day one, everyone was ready to fight over barely two grilled fish, Su Han would have to re-evaluate her opinion of these fourth-instance players and leave camp to go solo, no questions asked.
An Rongyue froze. When it finally hit her, tears welled in her eyes, how could she keep forgetting? The genius in front of her was a total big boss, with survival skills off the charts!
Meanwhile, she was just a normal person… An Rongyue nibbled at her grilled fish with a heavy heart, feeling more and more down.
The smell of grilled fish drifted on the air, pulling in more and more hungry glances. Maybe it was because no one knew each other’s bottom lines, or maybe it was the warning from the burly guy who kept others in check, or maybe, on day one, nobody really felt the survival pressure yet. Either way, all eyes were on them, but no one made a move.
A while later, someone’s furious shout echoed across camp: "I finally managed to catch a fish and you burnt it to charcoal?!!"
His teammate squeezed his eyes shut in pure pain. "I told you I couldn’t do it! But you insisted on making me try!"
"But I can’t do it, either!"
The two of them just stared at each other, about to lose their minds.
"Hard enough to get a fish, and then we can’t even cook it. Clean water's a nightmare to find. Is this dungeon trying to wipe us all out?" The player who’d used his shirt as a net looked like he was about to collapse, couldn’t help griping aloud.
An Rongyue wolfed down her last bite of fish, then said firmly, "I’m going to make fresh water. Catch you later." She slipped away in a flash, the staring was driving her up the wall.
"Okay, go ahead." Su Han's gaze turned thoughtful, maybe she should grill some fish to trade?
Wiping her mouth after the meal, Su Han grabbed her stick and headed back to the shore for more spear-fishing. Wanting to spare the sensitive egos of her fellow players, she limited herself to just two fish again, not daring to catch more.
An hour later, golden, crispy grilled fish came sizzling off the fire.
Then, Su Han cleared her throat and called out: "Fresh grilled fish! Looking to trade for innate skill items, who wants to swap?"
She barely finished shouting when someone dashed over from the distance. "Trade with me!!"
Su Han looked up as he approached and asked calmly, "What are you offering?"
"Honey!" The guy instantly dug five packets of bagged honey from his inventory, 10g each, restores +5 satiety per pack.
Su Han ran a quick calculation. With her skills, she’d never have to worry about going hungry under normal circumstances. But if the system pulled a fast one and made normal gathering impossible, she’d need easily stored, portable foods. Honey wasn’t amazing, but it was better than nothing.
"Deal." Su Han handed him a skewer of grilled fish and took the five packets of honey.
"Awesome!" The first customer left absolutely delighted.
"Will you trade for Coke?" Before long, someone else came to ask.
Su Han perked up. "What kind?"
"Canned, 250ml each," the person replied.
"Deal," Su Han answered without hesitation.
"Sweet!" The guy was thrilled. He pulled out a can of Coke and immediately reached for the fish.
But Su Han snatched the stick first, deadpan. "I said we'd trade, but I never agreed to one-for-one. If you want grilled fish, it'll cost you two cans of Coke."
"Wait, didn’t we just agree on this?" The guy looked panicked.
Su Han rolled her eyes, who agreed with you? She held firm: "Two cans or no deal."
While they haggled, another person came running. "How much for your grilled fish?"
Su Han started to answer, but customer number two whipped out a second can and shoved both into her hand, then declared with complete calm, "She’s sold out."
Su Han was speechless.
The newcomer could only walk away, dejected.
With the trades done, her customers went off happy. Su Han debated grilling another batch.
Suddenly, cries of surprise rippled through the crowd.
"Look over there!"
"Holy crap! What's that?"
"That’s wild!"
Turning to follow the commotion, Su Han saw a young man carrying two fish in his left hand, three more in his right, strolling calmly toward camp.
It was Zhong Rui!
Su Han was honestly happy to see her teammate, though with the current vibe, she wasn’t exactly eager to greet him in public.
Zhong Rui, having spotted her from the corner of his eye, grinned and headed straight toward her. Only, just as he raised his foot to step forward, someone cut him off.
A trio blocked his way, every one of them built like linebackers. The leader was bald, and cracked a nasty grin, beckoning Zhong Rui over. "Look, we’re starving here. Hand over those live fish if you know what’s good for you."
With the three-on-one odds, Baldy was feeling mighty confident.
"Move," Zhong Rui said with tired impatience. "It’s only day one. I’d rather not start swinging yet."
Damn, he sounded more like it was three-on-ten than three-on-one.
The bald guy let out a derisive laugh. "Oh yeah? Try me if you’ve got the guts!"
Zhong Rui could only sigh helplessly. "You've only got yourself to blame."