With only that mound left in the area, he would never dig past sunset. From 8 to 10 p.m. was his time for dinner, browsing forums, and then sleeping.

After defeating the Level 2 zombie, Yining was originally down to just over 20 HP. Having his stats reset during the skill upgrade was a pleasant surprise. Plus, he didn’t trigger the 【Battle Damage】 debuff, so his injuries weren’t fatal. 

The monster drop was decent; he got his second synthesis card. According to the forum and chat channels, Decomposition Cards could also be obtained from monsters, but he didn’t have that kind of luck this time.

Since he couldn’t get any more decomposition cards, he decided to try trading for them using synthesis cards.

Just past 6:00 PM, Yining stood by the monster-spawning brazier and opened a new batch of express blind boxes. From boxes 61 to 72, he got 3 large, 4 medium, and 5 small items.

Of the three large boxes, the first contained two cotton-linen blankets measuring 180cm × 150cm; the second was a piece of wood; and the third was a pillow stuffed with cassia seeds.

Yining hugged the pillow and blanket, taking a deep breath.

The large boxes mostly contained items he could use right now: basic resources, alloy thighbones, and a cursed watermelon earlier, and now blankets and pillows.

The medium-sized express blind box is also worth looking forward to; it has the highest probability of yielding freshwater items among the three sizes.

【Obtained: 40cm-tall brown rabbit plush ×1】

【Received: Toothbrush ×6】

【Received: White Rabbit creamy candy ×50】

【Obtained: Paper Funeral Wreath ×1】

Rabbit plushie, so cute.

White Rabbit creamy candy restores a total of 50 HP.

The game is worried he’ll get cavities from eating candy, so it even gave him a toothbrush!

Six lucky hours.

Yining felt a long-lost, simple happiness.

The five little blind boxes also contained some great finds.

Two batteries, each 14mm in diameter and 50mm tall; a packet of water for a self-heating hot pot, labeled “not for drinking,” but good for brushing teeth.

Ask, and you shall receive.

Yining found a vendor at the trading market selling toothpaste, plastic cups, and towels. After calculating that it would cost 32 wood to trade for them, he decided to use the soul-summoning brazier to summon spirits and grind monsters before nightfall.

If he could avoid using his current resources, he would.

The flames of the soul-summoning brazier burned brightly; one by one, the joss paper bills curled in the intense heat and burst into flames. Staring at the paper money burning brazier, Yining couldn’t help but wonder if he should recite some kind of incantation.

While waiting, Yining found a branch, peeled off the bark, and strung the mushrooms on it. He also unwrapped and ate the slightly melted chocolate. The chocolate restored 10 Satiety, 3 Health, and 3 Spirit, while the mushrooms drained Spirit—but they tasted so good he couldn’t resist.

【Summoning Successful】

【Monsters Near You: Shadow Phantoms ×3】

【Summoning Successful】

【Monsters Near You: Shadow Phantoms ×5】

【Summoning Successful】

【Monsters Near You: Shadow Phantom ×1】

The three waves of monsters before nightfall were all shadow phantoms; he didn’t see any other types. Still, it’s better than nothing. Yining obtained 5 shadow skins and 8 bone meals. Bone meal has a somewhat awkward market position. He noticed there aren’t many people selling soil and seeds, which suggests there are very few farmers, and…

At this stage, farming carries a fair amount of risk.

Once vegetable and fruit prices are set within players’ budgets, costs must remain low to ensure high volume sales with slim margins. However, the total cultivation area across all players combined likely cannot meet market demand. These factors will drive prices up, creating the risk of unsold inventory piling up.

Even the big shots in this world can’t afford to eat vegetables and fruits—weapons, medicine, and so many other things take priority over produce.

Farming has become a luxury. With the game having launched just 40 hours ago, no one knows how the market will shift tomorrow. Even though bone meal can shorten the growth cycle of plants, farming isn’t something that can be accomplished overnight.

He has to take a gamble.

Yining, of course, couldn’t join the betting table; his territory explicitly stated that he couldn’t grow ordinary crops.

A player offered, “I can share some of what I grow with you. How about that?” Yining thought for a moment and replied, “I’ve decided to cash out instead. Sorry.”

The turning point came from a player who sold both soil and toothpaste.

【“One Cat”’s Profile】

【Soil: 5 Wood】

【Dry Leaves: 1 Wood】 

【Shirt: 30 Wood】

【Toothpaste: 15 Wood】

【Carpet: 10 Wood】 

【Plastic Basin: 10 Wood】

Yining took the initiative to make an offer: “Hello, can I trade fertilizer and seeds for your toothpaste?”

The other player was indeed interested.

【One Cat】: What kind of seeds? What’s the fertilizer for?

【Yining】: Watermelon seeds—about 20 of them—and bone meal fertilizer (4 units). A single application reduces the growth cycle by 25%. You can use this once per day per unit of land.

Yining only mentioned half the seeds and bone meal.

【One Cat】: Deal. Let’s add each other as friends. If you can get more bone meal later, we can continue trading.

Yining thought that if One Cat’s planting was successful, even if just a single watermelon vine grew, it would still be a decent harvest. In that case, they could indeed continue their partnership.

【Yining】: Remember to start with seedlings first; otherwise, they won’t grow well.

【One Cat】: Start with seedlings?

【Yining】: Take a small cup, fill it with soil, dig a hole about a knuckle deep, cover the seed with soil without packing it too tightly, and make sure the soil stays moist and well-aerated—it should be just moist enough to absorb water.

Also, I suggest not getting too greedy—just make sure one seedling sprouts before worrying about watermelons.

【One Cat】: Got it, bro.

Yitiao Mao, who has no gardening experience, thinks Yining makes a lot of sense.

【One Cat】: By the way, is bone meal a drop from a special method? I’ve seen everyone opening blind boxes and getting nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers. Those are the three most common fertilizers in the trading market.

【Yining】: It drops from monsters.

It might be considered one of Yining’s local specialties.

His other “specialties” include joss paper, paper flowers, and paper effigies. He can’t imagine any players other than those in graveyards getting these from blind boxes, and he hasn’t found them in the trading market either.

Yining was a little curious: why weren’t the other players in the graveyard selling these items? They could have earned some supplies by using them as fuel. He wasn’t quite sure—maybe they were afraid of giving away their location?

Yining shook his head and decided not to dwell on it. Next up were the towel and the cup…

A drinking water bottle could be used as a cup for rinsing, and the towel was the last priority. Actually, he should have collected more fresh water to clean up or found a way to boil his own.

Currently, bottled water from the store and deliveries is safe to drink straight from the bottle, but that doesn’t mean fresh water that isn’t ready to drink isn’t valuable. There’s more fresh water today than yesterday, yet the price hasn’t dropped.

According to a forum post, a player discovered a well after expanding their territory. It appeared all alone, which was a bit eerie, but it didn’t stop that player from doing business.

The player has given themselves a very poetic nickname: 【Li Bai】.

To buy water from Li Bai now, you must bring your own container. One liter of water costs 10 wood, or other items of equivalent value.

Yining sold 12 synthesis cards. Each synthesis has a 10-minute cooldown, taking a total of 120 minutes—two hours. The transaction fee amounted to 20 wood, and he used 10 of those to trade for 2 units of soil.

The soil is stored in plastic storage bins, which are actually perfect for farming.

In contrast, Yining’s territory is overrun with all sorts of eerie things like 【bloodflesh flowers】 and 【singing mushrooms】. If it weren’t for the inability to farm, I’d really love to get agricultural production up and running.

【Yining】: I have 2 units of soil, 23 watermelon seeds, and 4 bone meals. Would you trade me 5 liters of well water? You don’t have a water shortage there, so it should be perfect for growing crops.

He didn’t forget to share a screenshot showing the effects of bone meal.

【Li Bai】: Sure, I’ve actually grown watermelons before. But you’ll need to bring your own containers—I’ll tell you where to buy them.

Li Bai sent Yining a dozen or so curated links to trading markets, including items ranging from large plastic buckets and clay water jars to pond blueprints and glass fish tanks.

Cheaper options included plastic water dispenser barrels, empty 1L mineral water bottles, and plastic basins.

【Plastic Bucket: Trade for food of equal value】

【Clay Water Jar: Exchange for medicine】

【Li Bai】: If you buy a clay water tank, I can fill it up for you, but you’ll have to give me 20 bone meals later.

【Yining】: No problem.

Yining used his third replication card point to duplicate one of his remaining four hemostatic bandages, successfully trading for the clay water jar and a full jar of water.

In this trade, Yining used 12 synthesis points, 10 pieces of wood, and 1 replication card to obtain a full jar of water—about 400 liters! All of this is thanks to that “Hemostatic Bandage Brother” who wanted to eat watermelon last night.

【Remaining synthesis card uses: 153】

【Replication Card Remaining Uses: 2】

Yining has conducted a synthesis card synthesis of 53 delivery boxes so far, and after accounting for the ones he’s sold, he has 53 left.

He also got one from a Level 2 zombie, so he’s not short on them for now. However, as more people move into the expanded area, they’ll probably lose their value soon.

Of course, water spoils if left out too long. Yining dug a little deeper into the coffin pit next door and buried the clay water jar partially underground, trying to slow down the spoilage by keeping it cool.

【Li Bai】 sells not only well water but also drinking water, which means he owns at least one pot capable of boiling water. Other water filtration methods are too costly to maintain long-term stability.

Yining went to the trading market to buy a pot, but to his surprise, not a single player was selling one.

How embarrassing.

It turns out pots are even more precious than fresh water—they sell out the moment they’re listed. On the game forums, there are countless players posting requests to buy pots.

But now, it’s almost 11 o’clock.

Time to sleep. Whatever needs to be done can wait until tomorrow.

Yining set an in-game alarm to wake him every two hours to check on the campfire, making sure the three logs were burning properly.

He spread some hemp straw in his coffin, unfolded the hemp blanket he’d drawn that afternoon, rested his head on his cassia seed pillow, tucked the small blanket around him, hugged his rabbit plushie, and closed his eyes contentedly.

Another fulfilling day.

Today, Yining wrote down the death list, planted two bloodflesh flowers, and discussed game mechanics with his friends… no, the laws governing the world’s operation.

Then he expanded my territory, picked mushrooms, farmed mobs, obtained 1 enchantment blueprint, started a synthesis card business, and stocked up on supplies. He wasn’t able to find out anything about Ether. 

Tomorrow’s plan includes: figuring out how to remove the 【Contamination】 effect and how to obtain Ether; trying to make a clothesline; sewing, washing, and hanging clothes; farming Level 0 shadow phantoms; and getting a pot.

【Personal Stats】▼ 

Health: 48/101 

Satiety: 53/100

Mana: 35/100 (replenishing) 

Strength: 3

Defense: 2+1 (bracelet bonus) 

Critical Hit: 1 (one critical gem)

Attack: 3 (3 Attack Coins)

Luck: 4 

Benevolence: 5 

Clairvoyance: 1

Status: 【Contaminated】 【Growth】

【Contamination: -3 Spirit, -2 Health, -2 Satiety per hour】

【Growth: Restores 1 HP, 1 Satiety, and 1 Sanity per hour】