Chapter 43

Soon after, Zhong Rui came sauntering back, snatched up a fish, and started gnawing on it.
Su Han asked, “Anything catch your eye? There’s three fish left I can’t trade.”
Zhong Rui answered honestly, “Nothing I genuinely want. There are a couple things I could swap for, but honestly? Not worth it.”
“Like what?” Su Han asked, intrigued.
Zhong Rui pointed offhandedly. “Someone has rice, flour, and oil in their personal inventory. Chose a sack of rice so he wouldn’t starve in the instance, but the game didn’t give out any cooking pots. Now he’s stuck with rice and no way to cook it.”
Su Han’s eyes lit up. She deliberately lowered her voice, urging, “Where? Go trade for it, quick!”
“You know how to cook that?” Zhong Rui was surprised.
Su Han nodded fiercely. “We can make bamboo tube rice!”
Zhong Rui stared blankly. “Wait, what now?”
Bamboo tube rice? He had zero clue what that was supposed to mean.
Su Han explained, “Bamboo tube rice is simple, you put rice, water, and some meat in a bamboo tube, seal it, and roast it over the fire. Once the bamboo is charred, the rice is cooked through. Crack it open, and you get soft, fragrant rice with a hint of bamboo. Tastes amazing.”
“Rice keeps forever if it stays dry. If we get enough, we won’t have to worry about meals for the next ten days. Bamboo rice for proper meals, black bread for snacks, meat floss cream balls, chocolate cake, even clearing this game would be a breeze.”
“Sure, usually you’d use fragrant rice, but plain rice will work. It’s a disaster instance, can’t be picky.”
Zhong Rui’s interest was piqued. He immediately went to strike up a negotiation. Not long after, he came back with a bundle, three sticks of grilled fish and a sparrow swapped for a cloth bag and four jin of rice. He looked wry. “That’s all he’d give. Swears he’ll figure out how to cook the rice himself, just needs more time.”
Su Han blinked. “And if he’s about to starve and still can’t cook? Bet he’ll change his tune.”
Zhong Rui nodded. “Probably.”
Su Han sincerely hoped that guy would give in and trade away the rest of the rice.
With all six fish traded and still no willow basket in sight, Zhong Rui went ahead and took the rice back to the cave, then fetched the last five fish.
Honestly, he found all this back-and-forth exhausting. It would be so much easier just to take out a dozen fish and grill them at once. But if he attracted too much attention, someone greedy might try to rob him. That would be game over.
So, as annoying as it was, he had no choice but to play it slow and careful.
As night crept in, the last of the fish were finally done roasting. That’s when Bei Bei arrived, basket in tow.
Su Han let out a sigh of relief. “At last.”
Bei Bei bit her lip. “The fish?”
Su Han handed over three sticks in a heartbeat.
Bei Bei’s tense shoulders finally relaxed.
After the trade, her complexion looked much better. She couldn’t help but ask, “Anything else you need?”
“Not for now. If I do, I’ll come to you,” Zhong Rui answered without hesitation.
“Alright!” Bei Bei grabbed her reward and skipped off, beaming.
“Still got two left,” Su Han announced in the most doomsday tone, she honestly couldn’t imagine what else she could swap with the other players. The satiety meter was nearly topped out, and it would be such a waste to eat them herself.
Zhong Rui was just as despairing. Suddenly, inspiration struck. “Let’s save them for breakfast tomorrow.”
Su Han nodded along, totally onboard.
The two of them picked up their willow baskets, gathered the last of their firewood, and strolled out of the camp as if they hadn’t just bartered away their rations.
Back inside the cave, everything was still where they left it. Su Han let out a long, relieved sigh. But to her dismay, as her stash grew, so did her list of headaches.
If you’ve got nothing, you just keep your tools in your inventory and roam free. Anything you snag during the day, you eat the same day, the ultimate defense against sticky fingers. Flat broke, nothing to worry about.
But now that she actually had supplies, the stress piled on. What could she swap the extra food for? Would someone sneak in and loot her cave while she was away? Should she leave someone on guard? If so, who, and how many?
Questions kept coming, one after another.
Su Han stacked up the firewood and lit it with a flint.
Soon, flames danced in the firepit.
Zhong Rui moved over and started stuffing all their food and water into the willow basket.
Su Han spoke up, “The drinking water hasn’t been opened, should keep for a while. If we get our hands on milk, I’ll hold onto that too.”
“Cured food lasts. If we can, maybe we could trade with An Rongyue for some salt and make salted fish.”
“Without a portable inventory, bread and cake won’t last. Gotta eat those first.”
“And it’s probably best if we don’t both head out at once. Someone should stay to keep watch.”
Zhong Rui had thought of it too. “The first three days everyone’s busy hunting and feeding themselves. No one’s got the spare time to scout. But after day four, we need to start leaving a guard in the cave.”
“Works for me.” Su Han agreed.
After hashing things out, they sat leaned up against the wall and nodded off, not waking until the sky began to pale at dawn.
Zhong Rui took a stick-fish for breakfast, grabbed his tools, and was getting ready to go out.
Just then, Su Han yawned herself awake.
“I’m heading out,” Zhong Rui called.
“Take care,” Su Han replied sleepily.
Zhong Rui exited the cave, carefully camouflaging the entrance and wiping away any evidence that someone had been inside.
In the cave, wisps of smoke curled from the dying fire. Su Han, still half-asleep, drifted off again.
Out of nowhere, the system chimed in, its mechanical voice echoing, “Day 2 of the game.”
The words had just faded when a hunk of black bread and a bottle of milk materialized in front of Su Han.
“Best decision I ever made, picking Nutritionist,” Su Han mused. She stashed the milk, then tore into a grilled fish for breakfast.
As for the black bread, that was lunch today.
Feeling bored, she packed her bag, grabbed her elastic band, and set off hunting.
In the woods, the breeze was gentle and the temperature just right. Every so often a rabbit poked out its head, only to dart away a second later. Sometimes a little deer would flit between the trees and then disappear back into the shadows.
Su Han was too wary of getting lost to give chase.
Suddenly, a flurry of startled birds burst from the trees. Su Han’s eyes narrowed as she swiftly looped her elastic band around her hand, crouched, and scooped up a pebble. She paused, took aim, fired!
“Snap!” A sparrow dropped like a stone.
Su Han hurried over, used a long blade of grass to tie up the sparrow fast. Glancing at the elastic band around her hand, she felt a twinge of awkwardness, she was used to shooting with a slingshot frame, not this makeshift style.
Actually, she’d aimed at a different sparrow, but her shot had gone wide, and hit a lucky bird anyway…
Well, whatever. She had prey; that’s all that counted. No need to fuss over the little things.
The wind rustled softly. The forest was so quiet it felt like she was the only person in the world.
Then, out of the corner of her eye, Su Han caught a tiny flicker, a gray shadow darting through the grass? Looked like it could be a rabbit.
She silently crouched lower, picked up five pebbles, four into her pocket, one loaded onto the band. She aimed, let fly.
A split second later, she heard a piercing shriek. The gray rabbit bolted, tearing through underbrush as if its tail had caught fire, never looked back.
Su Han: “…”
She could only rub her nose, sighing inwardly that pebbles made pretty poor ammo, the killing power just wasn’t there. Once prey was spooked and bolted, all she could do was stand there and watch it go.
The whole morning passed, and Su Han managed to bag a more varied collection, partridges, pigeons, sparrows, bamboo rats, you name it. The downside? Every last critter got trussed up like a roast chicken.
Close to noon, she headed back, gnawing on her black bread lunch as she went.
Just then, Zhong Rui returned, lugging his wooden bucket home.
“Kind of a mediocre haul today, only managed fourteen fish in the net. Got ten to call my own.” Zhong Rui sounded bummed.
Su Han tossed another chunk of black bread his way. “Lunch.”
Zhong Rui caught it in one smooth motion, tore it open and took a big bite, half-muffled. “Let’s cure five into salted fish and try trading the other five?”
“No tools,” Su Han counted on her fingers. “Curing needs coarse salt, a wooden basin to soak them, then you have to air-dry them on a rack. Right now we’ve got: no coarse salt, no basin, no rack, literally nothing we’d use.”
Zhong Rui clicked his tongue, a little disgruntled. Who knew when their dream of endless supplies and enough food to eat for twenty days would ever come true?
And there was one more bit of bad news. They’d been in the game two days, and players were slowly getting the hang of the instance, becoming better at fishing and hunting. If people weren’t desperate for food anymore, they wouldn’t be interested in trading for choice supplies.
After a long silence, Su Han said, “What if we keep two for dinner tonight, and try trading the rest for firewood?”
“Firewood…” Zhong Rui frowned, clearly conflicted. They definitely needed it, but he wasn’t keen on making the trade right now.
Su Han sighed, exasperated. “Look, can you please stop obsessing about hunting and trading for talent skills and items with people? We have a mountain of other things to do.”
“Like what?”
“Setting traps outside the cave so nobody blunders in or ambushes us. Digging pits in the woods, the classic kind for small critters, you know? Anything unlucky enough to stumble in gets stuck, and if we check our traps regularly, we’ll score some wins. Plus, we should stock up on rabbit, tiger, and deer hides; I’ve got a hunch the temperature might drop soon. And if we have any spare time, how about making some tools ourselves?” Su Han ticked off each item on her fingers, meticulous and brisk.
“I’ve already considered all of it.” Zhong Rui pointed at himself. “My plan is to stockpile all the supplies first, then handle everything else.”
Then he pointed at Su Han. “Looks like your plan is stock a bit, then work on other preparations, then circle back and hoard more once everything’s ready.”
He concluded coolly, “Both approaches work, just a different order, that’s all.”
Su Han suddenly suggested, “How about we do things our own way and split up?”
Zhong Rui: “…”
Two teammates going solo, does that even count as a team anymore?
Before he could say anything, Su Han continued, “Look, we’re both capable. Whether we split up or work together, we’ll clear this instance either way. Play it however you want.” The only difference was whether they wanted a bumpy ride or a smooth cruise.
“You’re not actually planning to split up supplies too, right…” Zhong Rui couldn’t resist making a dig.
To his surprise, Su Han answered with total seriousness, “Why not? I could pretend I’ve washed up alone on a desert island, no squad in sight.”
Zhong Rui looked completely baffled: “???”
“Relax.” Su Han tried her best to sound reassuring. “If either of us can’t handle it, we can always help each other out. We’re teammates, after all.”
Zhong Rui’s face was a study in deadpan: As if either of us would collapse first!