Each day when she opened her eyes, she would see the system report bad news. She was almost used to it.
Yun Ling closed the window, and got up to start a new day.
“Rice balls! Delicious rice balls! You can add preserved vegetables, tenderloin, ham, and dried radish!”
“Pine egg and meat porridge, pumpkin porridge, red bean porridge, millet porridge, mushroom and green vegetable porridge. You can get anything you want, come buy!”
Yun Ling suddenly wanted rice wine. “I want a bowl of rice wine.”
“Okay, sit and wait for a moment.” The owner of the stall took the money, and handed a full bowl of rice wine to Yun Ling.
The rice wine was also called sweet wine rice, and made from fermented sticky rice. It had the fragrance of the sweet rice, and also an alcoholic fragrance.
Yun Ling took the wood spoon, and tasted a bite.
She found that this was pretty good. The sticky rice had been fermented perfectly, and was both fragrant and sweet, but not causing drunkenness.
Rising Cloud Town’s name as the foody town was confirmed again. Yun Ling thought inside.
When eating breakfast, there was a team of six eating tofu pudding.
She heard the only female player of the team sigh. “It is Day 149 already! In two days, when the calamity days end, the spring beast waves may also finish. By then, we cannot stay in the territory to hunt, we have to go out and roam.”
“That is so true?” One of her fellows agreed. “After so many days, I am used to many monsters coming to the door. I do not know if I will be used to it when it goes back to the previous days.”
Another person said, “I feel that the gains after this will not be as good as now.”
Recently, they only had to wait in the territory, and the monsters would come to the door.
When there were no monsters, they could sit and rest, eat and drink, chat and live well.
Thinking back to the good times, everyone had reluctant expressions.
“I heard during the monster siege, a large team went out secretly, and killed monsters on their way here,” one person suddenly said.
The female player was shocked. “No wonder there are fewer monsters attacking the territory in the last few days. I thought the system had adjusted it.”
“Fight them halfway? This is something normal players can do?” one person muttered.
“Rising Cloud Town has all kinds of players with deus ex machina, I am almost used to it,” one person said coldly.
“All the residents worked together to fight monsters, and the spoils were split equally. Would something like this happen in another territory?”
“The monsters are attacking, and everyone is happy to fight monsters, pick up drops, and not feel anxious at all. Are these normal people?”
“When I saw close combat players wearing bamboo hats, straw rain coats, and going out to fight monsters in the rain, I understood back then that I could not treat Rising Cloud Town like normal.”
In the end, he concluded, “If the game knew that Rising Cloud Town’s residents played the game like this, maybe it would cry.”
“If your guess is true,” the female player was expressionless, “I hope that it will cry louder.”
As the game went on, the players grew cold-blooded and ruthless, their hearts harder than steel.
The other people laughed. “The tofu pudding is getting cold, eat it when it is hot.”
After this, they stopped talking.
Today, the income of the residents skyrocketed, and even the territory earned a lot. Yun Ling hoped from the bottom of her heart that the beasts would keep coming until the territory was upgraded.
But the things were contrary to her wishes.
Day 151, spring, peace day. The monsters retreated, and no longer attacked. The players recovered their usual life.
**
During the defense battle, Yun Ling had gotten a lot of game materials.
Now that it was a spring peace day, she sent the NPCs to forage and hunt. She stayed in the camp, and made purple equipment.
[Name: Brown Leather Backpack]
Quality: Rare
Durability: 70/70
Equip Effect: 8 storage slots. Each slot can hold 99 of the same item, and is weightless when carried. Does not take up an equipment slot.
Price: 1000 copper coins.
[Name: Crimson Flame Quiver]
Quality: Rare
Durability: 70/70
Equip Effect: Each minute, it automatically refills an arrow. At most, holds 35 arrows.
Special Effect: After the arrow forms, 20% chance of special effect “Burning.” Once successful, +12 arrow attack power. Creates extra fire spell attack.
Price: 1200 copper coins.
[Name: Ice Quiver]
Quality: Rare
Durability: 70/70
Equip Effect: Each minute, it automatically refills an arrow. At most, holds 35 arrows.
Special Effect: After the arrow forms, 20% chance of special effect ” Ice.” Once successful, +5 arrow attack power. Creates extra ice spell damage. After hitting the target, the target’s speed is reduced by 50%, and lasts 2 seconds.
Price: 1200 copper coins.
[Name: Moonlight Robe]
Quality: Rare
Durability: 70/70
Equip Effect: +12 Intelligence.
Special Effect: Each time, when casting, decreases MP used by 15%.
Price: 3000 copper coins.
[Name: Nimble Shoes]
Quality: Rare
Durability: 70/70
Equip Effect: +12 Agility.
Special Effect: When dazed, slowed, or trapped, decrease effect time by 15%.
Price: 2000 copper coins.
There was cheap and expensive equipment, for the players of different levels to buy.
Yun Ling had once pondered selling the backpacks for more. But this was basic equipment for going out. If most teams could not afford to buy, it would affect the work efficiency.
In the end, after thinking it over repeatedly, she set the price of 1000 copper coins.
After setting the price, she went entirely into the work, and ignored everything else.
[The Tailor Shop has sold 1 x Brown Leather Backpack. Congratulations, you have received 1000 copper coins.]
[The Tailor Shop has sold 1 x Moonlight Robe. Congratulations, you have received 3000 copper coins.]
[The Tailor Shop has sold 1 x Nimble Shoes. Congratulations, you have received 2000 copper coins.]
Right now, there were many life skills players, most of them were elementary level, and not many were intermediate or advanced.
Purple equipment would only be in boss drops. If one was unlucky and could not find a boss, they could only buy through the system shop.
Because of this, when rare equipment was put out, the tailor shop had very good business, and a lot of money came in each day.
Day 151.
[The warehouse is upgraded to level 3.]
[2000 square meters in area, can store various resources, and extend the shelf life of food by 60 days.]
Day 158.
[The Tailor Shop is upgraded to level 3.]
[The area taken up is expanded, the workshop is enlarged. You can employ 10 workers at maximum.]
She looked at the conditions to upgrade the town to a city —
[1. Unlock 8 different buildings. (Completed)]
[2. Upgrade 4 buildings to level 3. (Completed)]
Yun Ling motivated herself. “Work hard! You will get there soon!”
**
Day 160 was still a spring day, with a light breeze and warm sunlight.
When it became Day 161, the sun suddenly grew poisonous. When people stood in the sunlight, they would feel dizzy after a while, like they were going to faint from the heat.
After the first year’s autumn, winter, and the second year’s spring, there was a lot of ice stored in the ice house. Yun Ling was not thrifty, and immediately notified the restaurant to put out summer food.
[Name: Iced Watermelon Juice (Heat Relieving Drink)]
Quality: Premium
Use Effect: Base recovery speed +3 HP per minute (lasts 3 hour)
Price: 200 copper coins.
[Name: Vanilla Ice Cream (Heat Relieving Food)]
Quality: Premium
Use Effect: Base recovery speed +3 MP/minute (lasts 3 hours)
Price: 200 copper coins.
[Name: Mung Bean Soup (Heat Relieving Drink)]
Quality: Normal
Use Effect: Base recovery speed +1 HP per minute (lasts 1 hour)
Price: 50 copper coins.
[Name: Silver Fungus Soup (Heat Relieving Drink)]
Quality: Normal
Use Effect: Base recovery speed +1 HP per minute (lasts 1 hour)
Price: 50 copper coins.
[Name: Iced Milk Tea (Heat Relieving Drink)]
Quality: Normal
Use Effect: Base recovery speed +1 MP per minute (lasts 1 hour)
Price: 50 copper coins.
**
Stone house.
You Qing Wen flipped through the box and shelves without stopping.
“What are you doing?” Zheng Ming Yue saw this and asked in confusion.
You Qing Wen said without looking up, “Searching for my clothes.”
“The cotton clothes made in the winter can be worn during the spring, but not in the summer. If I keep wearing them, I will sweat, and may even get heatstroke.”
“I want to find the clothing from before the apocalypse.”
Zheng Ming Yue walked close. “I will help.”
You Qing Wen murmured as she searched, “Strange, where are clothes?”
“I think they were at the bottom of the shelf,” Zheng Ming Yue said uncertainly based on his blurry memories.
“I looked, and did not see them.” Saying this, You Qing Wen searched again.
There were only a few scraps of cloth at the bottom, like they had been used to stop clothing from getting dirty.
Zheng Ming Yue was silent. A long time later, he asked, “Did you put the cloth scraps there?”
“No.” You Qing Wen shook her head and then said strangely, “Did you?”
“Why would I put these on the shelf?” Zheng Ming Yue flipped through the surrounding items, and suddenly had a guess. “Last summer, the food rotted. Do you want to guess if the clothing made from non-game materials will rot in this summer?”
“You mean……” You Qing Wen shuddered.
Zheng Ming Yue pointed. “The scraps of cloth may be the clothing you wanted to find.”
You Qing Wen immediately lost the ability to speak.
“The clothing from before the apocalypse cannot be worn, it seems that we need to find people to make cotton and linen shirts with game materials.” Zheng Ming Yue was speechless for a long moment. “If we go out in the summer with winter clothing, won’t we faint from the heat?”
You Qing Wen shouted depressedly, “Trash game, be more humane! If you drive the players insane, they will give up on the game!”
**
In the span of a night, the tailors grew busy again.
“I want to make a linen piece of clothing, linen pants, do you have the time?”
“Do you have cotton cloth? Can you help me make a cotton shirt?”
“Do you make cloth shoes? 40 copper coins, I am in a hurry to use them, please make them quickly.”
The customers came in waives. Qiao Qiao and Grandmother Qian were busy receiving them and talking.
After, Qiao Qiao would shout when she saw the customers, “We are not done making summer clothing, and temporarily not taking orders!”
This was very useful. Some customers heard this, turned and left without any delay.
Others asked, “How long will you be busy? When will you have the time?”
Qiao Qiao guessed the work time. “Fastest will be 5 days.”
As strength increased, the team led by Xiao Fan quickly expanded, and there were more and more members.
Preparing summer clothing for all these people was a lot of work, and they could not finish in less than 10 days. But they had estimated wrong, and underestimated the work amount. It had been too late when they realized it.
“Have to wait 5 more days…” hearing this, the customer’s eyes dimmed, and they helplessly left.
The weather was hot to start with, and there were many bothersome matters. Qiao Qiao’s sight blacked out, and she almost fell.
“Qiao Qiao? Qiao Qiao? Do not scare me!” Grandmother Qian held her and fed her water, her voice panicked.
Qiao Qiao was helped to a chair, and then took a few mouthfuls of cold water before she felt better.
She looked at the sun above, and murmured, “Is this a false feeling? Why do I feel that this year is hotter than last year?”
**
The sun was burning, and the entire territory was like an oven, giving off heat everywhere. The residents sweated, their heads feeling swollen, and they wanted to close their eyes and just faint.
“Nan Yun!!” Mo Qi shouted at the top of her lungs, feeling like she was about to die.
“Coming, coming.” A mage walked close. She raised her staff, and then recited to the prepared well water. “Ice formation.”
In the next second, the water formed into ice, and gave off threads of coldness.
Mo Qi crushed ice to put into water, and took a few hard gulps. She was immediately more refreshed.
“I am finally alive.” She sighed softly.
“Luckily I have the C-rank skill ‘Ice Formation’.” Nan Yun rejoiced inside.
In the past, she had disliked that the first skill she had picked up in the game was only C-rank, and did not have high offensive power, taking up a skill slot for nothing. But by coincidence, she found that she could use the skill on water and form ice.
After this, her worth increased, and she was recruited by a team.
The summer was hard, and ice was needed. She had the exact skill to make lots of ice.
“Lucky that you are here,” Mo Qi said,” otherwise, the days would be unlivable.”
Nan Yun smiled faintly, and was not proud.
**
“Why is it so hot?” Leaving the stone house, after walking a while in the territory, Yun Ling felt a fine sweat form on her forehead.
For a moment, she almost thought that the plants in the territory had been stolen, the wells filled up, and so the temperature was so abnormal.
But looking around, the trees were in their place. The well water was still clear and sweet, having never been closed up.
“Could it be……” Yun Ling had a bad feeling.
She walked out of the territory, and found the ground was stunningly hot to the touch. The temperature of the wilderness was far higher than in the territory.
“In other words,” Yun Ling sighed, “the plants and the wells are normal, and are moderating the temperature. But this year’s summer is very hot, and even after the temperature is moderated, it is still very stuffy.”
She thought, she had added all her points to stamina, but still felt slightly uncomfortable. Would the other players be fine?
She feared they could only stay in the territory and take cold baths in order to live……
“Now, even without the monsters laying siege, the residents have to stay in the territory.” Yun Ling felt a headache thinking about it and turned to go into the tailor shop.
“How is the summer clothing?” she asked.
Tailor A stopped working. “Right now, there are 100 linen shirts, and 80 linen pants. Because they are made from linen, the clothing is absorbent and breathable, and when worn, they would feel cool.”
The clothing from before the apocalypse had already rotted, and could no longer be worn.
The clothing made in winter was for winter, and not suitable for wearing in the summer. Because of this, Yun Ling had started people on making summer clothing long ago.
But she had never thought that the summer this year would be this hot. It was like without ice, without linen clothes, without sun protection equipment, without special buildings to moderate the temperature, people would die of heat……
“This is barely enough.” Yun Ling refocused and said, “I will take a few sets. Each of you gets a set, and have the combat professionals split the rest.”
“Yes,” Tailor A said warmly.
Before leaving, Yun Ling said again, “Stop doing the other work for now, and focus on making summer clothing. You have to make more to stock up.”
“I understand.” Tailor A nodded.
**
“Damn! Are there nine suns in the sky? How come it is like this?” a male player complained.
He had taken off his shirt and still felt it was hot.
He could not help but walk to the center of the territory, planning to get water and have a bath.
But before he could reach the side of the well, he saw a long line. Everyone had their sleeves rolled up, and were so hot they were yawning, like they would faint at any moment.
“How come the line is so long?” The youth felt very irritated.
The weather was absurdly hot, and he did not know how long it would take to get water. Nothing was going smoothly!
“Just wait,” a man said depressedly from the side. “You have to line up to get water in the four directions as well, it is better to be patient and wait.”
“If you are really in a hurry, you can go out of the territory to the stream to get water. But if you go, you may not return. Some people were too lazy to line up, and went out of the territory with buckets. In the end, they fainted because of the heat halfway, and were just carried back.”
“I heard they have heatstroke, and now they are ill.”
The youth, “……”
These days were unlivable!
No matter how discontented the players were, they could not win against the game. The youth furiously walked to the end of the line and obediently lined up.
Time slowly passed.
The youth felt that he had become a piece of beef on the grill, and was slowly being cooked.
Forty minutes passed.
Before he was fully crisp, it finally became his turn to get water.
He threw in the water bucket, and shook it as well. When the bucket was full of water, the youth pulled the bucket up.
The youth did not hesitate to use the wood scoop and pour water over his head.
Even in the summer, the well water was still cool like it had just been taken out of the fridge. When the water came down, his feeling of heat immediately disappeared.
The youth felt lighter and more refreshed, exclaiming in joy.
**
“Trash game wanting to bake us to death. We cannot let them win!” You Qing Wen murmured, and led her team to the restaurant. She waved her hand. “Get the ice drinks you want, today, it is my treat.”
“Long live the Deputy Leader!” The members cheered and went to order.
Zheng Ming Yue did not mind You Qing Wen paying. They had earned a great amount selling the salt, and did not worry for food. He was just worried about something else. “The game is harder and harder. We are almost half dead, won’t the players of the other territories almost all be dead?”
“Who cares?” You Qing Wen twisted her mouth. “I can no longer guess what the future will look like. I just want to live each day well.”
Yes.
Zheng Ming Yue changed his way of thinking. Other than dealing with things as they came, there was no solution.
They were players.
When the game gave hard problems, they were forced to accept, and then think, furiously think, of solutions.
If they thought of one, they could drag out their existence. If they could not, they were dead.
The apocalypse game was so cruel.
After thinking it through, he sighed softly. “Let’s go and buy iced drinks.”
If in the end, they could not escape death, at least, they would enjoy life when it was possible.
Right now, the restaurant seemed to be selling summer specialties.
The iced watermelon juice was very comfortable to drink. Like soda, he could drink a large cup in a short while.
It removed the heat, was clean and sweet to the taste, and felt very good after being iced.
The vanilla ice cream was sweet and milky to the taste. But there was not a lot, and it was eaten in a few bites.
The mung bean soup relieved the heat and healed heatstroke. The color of the soup was a crisp and clear green. When one took a drink, the heat faded.
The silver fungus soup was smooth and fragrant. You would want to have a bowl after you ate.
The milk tea was made from milk and tea, and the tea smell was very thick. After the drink was made, ice cubes were added. It was sweet, fragrant, and also very refreshing.
Everyone ate quickly and so much their bellies swelled out, until they could no longer eat.
Zheng Ming Yue looked at his girlfriend, his expression helpless. “Do not eat too much, careful that you don’t get too full.”
You Qing Wen was very persistent. “The trash game is inhumane, maybe players will die at any time. I need to prepare early, and be a sated ghost.”
Zheng Ming Yue, “……”
The words somehow made sense and he was convinced.
**
By the black pine, some children were playing.
Suddenly, one person suddenly fell down, their eyes closed, and their face red.
The children gasped. “Help! Ah Sheng has fainted!”
The call attracted the adults.
Grandfather Zhao came to look and realized. “Heatstroke? Go get some water.”
Someone immediately ran home to get water.
Grandfather Zhao held a fan in one hand and gently waved it for the child on the ground.
“Water is here, water is here!” A child rushed in with water.
Grandfather Zhao took a handkerchief, soaked it in the water, and then placed it on the patient’s head.
Then he wetted his fingers with water, and scattered it on the other’s face.
After the measures to lower the temperature, he kept on waving the fan.
“I……what is it?” After a while, the child slowly woke up.
The other children talked over each other. “You fainted, but Grandfather was passing by and rescued you.”
“Are you okay? Are you dizzy?”
“How come you suddenly fainted? You gave me a fright.”
“It is hot, and he has heatstroke.” Grandfather Zhao taught the group of children. “It is very stuffy recently, and do not run around if you do not have to, be careful.”
The children knew they had made trouble, and accepted the lecture, not daring to fuss.
Ah Sheng looked at the window, and frowned. “I have received a system notification.”
He showed everyone.
[Because of excessive activity under the hot sun, you have heatstroke. -3 strength, -3 agility, -3 stamina, -3 intelligence, -3 spirit.]
[Your Base Recovery Speed has changed to: 1 HP/5 minutes, 1 MP/5 minutes.]
[Rest for 2 hours (avoid the sunlight for 2 consecutive hours, and do not work) to recover your health.]
Grandfather Zhao read the notification and urged, “Stop playing, and go home. If you faint outside and your parents cannot find you, they will be panicking.”
The children looked at each other, and nodded in understanding. “We will return today, and come out in the future to play.”
Then, they helped Ah Sheng up, and slowly walked home.
Under the sunlight, the shadows of the children over lapped, and they looked very harmonious.
Grandfather Zhao waved his fan and was very moved. “Fainting even when staying in the territory. How to live the next days? We cannot go to the restaurant every day to buy iced drinks……”
After a moment, he sighed heavily. “I finally understand. The game is purposefully wanting to kill players!”
But so what if they knew? Other than being anxious, there was no help to the present situation.
Grandfather Zhao’s figure was lonely, his steps heavy as he slowly walked away.
Translator Ramblings: The game never rests, and works harder than the devil.