The system’s gifts, which came every half hour during the newbie period, were as reliable as clockwork.

For now, he had no shortage of resources to survive. He had a pot and a fire, a wooden bed that was reasonably flat, and clothes to change into.

For a wild man forced to eke out a living in a graveyard, this life could be considered quite decent.

It was still… Well, that wasn’t something Yining needed to worry about. In fact, he had secretly fantasized about building a proper home in this graveyard.

Not a tent or a coffin, but a campsite with a bit of a wilderness survival vibe.

He’d need to dig a cave-like dwelling, install a chimney and drainage channels, and connect the earthen bed to the stove—warm in winter and cool in summer.

With a sturdy wooden door shut tight, ideally keeping out all manner of demons and monsters, it would provide a sense of security.

For furniture, he’d need leather mats to lie on the earthen bed, topped with soft blankets and quilts—so he wouldn’t wake up with a face full of dust.

You’ll also need a wardrobe, a chest specifically for weapons, a first-aid kit, a lantern, a water jar, wooden floors, and a rug…

During the day, he goes out to fight monsters and gather supplies; in the evening, he returns to light a fire, cook dinner, and tidy up the house. At the end of the day, he crawls into his warm, cozy bed.

Apart from the near-total lack of entertainment, life here isn’t all that different from what Yining experienced in his rural hometown in his previous life.

If one were to be a bit greedy and desire a spacious, bright house with running water and electricity, fully equipped with home appliances, a comprehensive social system would be required—one with order and rules. Otherwise, such a house would eventually become a sitting duck in the eyes of all players.

Even the strongest individuals have moments of complacency.

It would be better to build a safe house within the domain.

Once killing and looting become the norm in a survival game, everyone is meat on the chopping block, a hunter in the Black Forest. Putting aside his wandering thoughts, Yining opened Yunzhou’s private message panel.

The most important thing right now is crafting the blood knife.

【Yunzhou】: We currently have enough materials for two blades; there’s no way we’ll have a third one anytime soon. Alloy metal is extremely hard to come by—I suspect there’s just a huge demand from players overall. Ether only drops randomly when trading with market merchants, so the supply is unstable. We can farm Blood Demons repeatedly, but they don’t drop gems. We only have one gem each, so if we use it to craft a blade, expanding our domain to Level 3 will have to be postponed.

【Yunzhou】: Also, crafting a single blade takes 6 hours.

【Yining】: We can duplicate the blood knife later using replication cards, and there’s no rush for the gem—the 15-day checklist doesn’t require a domain expansion.

【Yunzhou】: With 336 blind boxes over 7 days and a 1% drop rate, theoretically, we could still get a gem.

【Yining】: We don’t know the blood knife’s attack power yet, but I drew an item that provides 100% defense. Combined with that, I can’t even imagine how powerful it’ll be. If only defense items could be mass-produced.

【Yunzhou】: Then it should be like playing games in my past life—for example, when you can’t dodge certain monsters’ attacks, the blood knife’s effect is key for sustaining your health. In this world, you can’t exactly expect to fight while unscrewing a bottle and drinking potions, can you?

Yining really couldn’t handle both the game’s inventory and the real-world combat situation at the same time, but he didn’t have much combat experience either; he had to rely on sheer numbers, while the Level 0 shadow phantoms were dispatched with a single slash each.

After sharing his combat experiences with Yunzhou, he voiced his hypothesis.

【Yunzhou】: The only way I can think of to acquire these combat skills right now is by reading books or studying blueprints. Otherwise, if hot weapons ever appear, anyone who’s handled a gun in a past life would be able to take over the world.

【Yining】: I’m not sure, but we absolutely can’t fall behind others.

He didn’t need to become a top-tier powerhouse; he just needed enough ability to handle any crises that came his way.

The blood knife was added to the production queue, and then Yining went to handle another matter.

He took the two books he’d received from Fanfan last night—one titled *Animal Science* and a romance novel with a yellowed cover—and sent them both to Ziling’s email.

【Yining】: Thanks for the intel, boss. I’ve shared it with all the players. The books were a gift from Fanfan—please accept them. 

A few seconds later, the other party replied with an image.

It was a simple sketch of a kitten drawn with a charcoal pencil—round-headed and chubby, with lines that were crude yet lively. The little kitten in the sketch was making an “OK” sign with its paw.

“Got it.”

It means he’s already received it. Cute.

Yining couldn’t help but laugh, feeling cheerful.

【Yining】: Let me know if you need anything (given your situation, you don’t need to reply to this). 

Next up is handling the items he listed for sale last night.

Surprisingly, even though his inbox was flooded with harassment and insults, all the items he had listed—including that pair of -600 prescription, had actually sold out completely.

And the prescription glasses were the first to go.

260 points credited. Combined with the 50 points from Fanfan’s compensation, Yining now has 310 points.

To cover the 190-point shortfall for the lantern, Yining decided to farm the soul-summoning brazier. He had plenty of fuel—he’d collected quite a bit of joss paper, paper flowers, and paper ingots. While lighting the fire, he boiled some salted noodles, topped them with chili sauce, and after finishing breakfast, he could even keep boiling water to earn more points.

Each drop of bone meal is worth 5 points, and a pot of water is worth 10 points. A pot of water actually holds more than 500ml—roughly 750ml to 800ml.

Of course, Yining wouldn’t rely solely on this method to earn the 190 points; the most sustainable approach was to keep digging up graves and opening blind boxes with coffin loot.

The brown-quality shovel still has about 170 durability left; Yining used over 30 points digging the first grave. Durability doesn’t decrease by 1 point per use.

The same applies to the Mountain Axe: durability only decreases during effective attacks; opening packaging or cutting hemp causes no wear at all.

Soon, at ten o’clock in the morning, Yining dug the coffin out of the mound.

This time, it was completely silent beneath the coffin lid—no pounding, no screams, and the game didn’t display any monster alerts.

Yining gripped the shovel tightly, took a deep breath, and forced the lid open. Then, he froze in place.

【Hint: Sanity -10】

【Alert: Sanity -20】

There was no corpse inside the coffin, no burial offerings, and no zombie. Only flowers.

Dense, layered, writhing, and tangled.

The stench of blood flooded his nostrils. Those flesh-made flowers resembled a gigantic monster assembled from pieces, defying all human comprehension. At a glance, it appeared to be a massive mass of twisted, proliferating flesh; the largest “flower” was as big as a palm and likely weighed a full pound. Upon closer inspection, however, one could clearly see the capillaries distributed across each “petal”; the delicate red veins pulsed faintly, as if possessed of a life of their own.

They breathed as if they were living creatures.

Yet Yining felt only a wave of intense dizziness.

He forced himself to steady his mind and carefully examined the chaotic, malevolent mass inside the coffin. There were only a dozen or so fully grown, harvestable bloodflesh flowers; the rest were numerous buds of varying sizes, some set to mature in five days, others in three.

【Hint: They need food】

Had he stumbled upon a reliable source of points, or had he unearthed a monster petri dish?

Never mind, never mind—people will die for money.

Yining picked a few ripe bloodflesh flowers and listed them on the trading market, pricing them by weight: one jin for 30 points; half a jin for 15 points; and two liang for 8 points.

After carefully calculating the prices, Yining finally couldn’t hold back and covered his mouth, retching.

I’m going to get pregnant, I’m going to get pregnant…

Yining couldn’t stop his mind from wandering, yet he knew he was just daydreaming. He turned his head and saw a clothed rabbit lying in a coffin, waving at him while chewing on a strand of hemp, saying it wanted to eat Chinese cabbage.

The rabbit said the hemp stalk was too tough, and it wanted Chinese cabbage. Yining replied, “No way, Dad can’t afford Chinese cabbage. How about some dried watermelon rind?”

When he woke up, it was already high noon, and the sun was beating down on him.

Yining climbed to his feet, straightened his clothes, and calmly brushed the dust and dirt off his body, convinced that it certainly wasn’t him who’d made a fool of himself after having that hallucination.

It was too much.

It was like he’d eaten poisonous mushrooms.

Luckily, the fuel in the soul-summoning brazier had burned out before the coffin was opened; otherwise, he would’ve been devoured by shadow phantoms.

All his bloodflesh flowers had sold out at the trading market, leaving him 69 points short—equivalent to 14 portions of bone meal. He’d farmed 3 portions this morning; if he farmed 9 more this afternoon, he’d have enough.

The lantern in the trading market hadn’t sold yet, and Yining felt a flicker of joy at this small stroke of luck.

At the same time, he worried that the solar lantern might be traded away at any moment, so he had to hurry.

People who buy bone meals usually purchase several portions at once. It’s said that a single tree yields 50 logs and two tree seeds. Although the cost of fertilizer, soil, and an axe is worth at least 30 logs, it’s still a profit.

The replication card still had two uses left. Yining didn’t consider the lantern a true “must-have” item—something he could scrape together with what he had—so there was no need to use the replication card for it.

Ten backpack slots: Replication cards take up a single slot, Synthesis cards take up a single slot, Hemostatic bandages take up a single slot, Large shipping boxes haven’t reached the stacking limit yet, 500ml bottled water ×3, Enchantment blueprint ×1, 100% Defense Dummies ×5, Attack Coins ×3

The bloodflesh flower is placed in a skill slot to boost health; not even the golden electric heater gets special treatment.

Yining allocated his inventory slots based on the principle of ensuring his survival at any time and place; he wasn’t sure what other special mechanics this world might hold.

If there were monsters capable of invading the player realm, or player skills that could freely traverse the Dark Realm, then someone like him—who had a bad reputation among the player community—would be in serious danger.

Six hours later, Yunzhou finished crafting the blood knife and sent it to Yining. Yining checked the stats at a glance.

【Blood Knife】 Attack: 3

Critical Hit Rate: 10%

【Vampirism】: Upon a successful hit, drain 1% of the target’s maximum HP to restore your own. 

Durability: None (Attacks do not consume durability)

No durability!

Taking a deep breath, Yining realized that since his resurrection in this world, his threshold for surprise had been steadily lowering. A weapon with no durability meant it was even more powerful than a golden-quality item!

In the long run, an Attack stat of 3 will inevitably fall behind the game’s progression, and it certainly can’t compare to the 5-Attack weapons required for the 15-day list. However, the 1% lifesteal effect ensures it will always have a place in battles against high-HP monsters and in prolonged fights.

At second glance, the blood knife resembles an exquisite dagger, no longer than the forearm, with a narrow, sharp blade and a matte metal finish that exudes a sense of solidity and grandeur.

The handle is wrapped in dark, non-slip fabric, providing a solid grip.

Yining casually selected a 50-centimeter-long, 20-centimeter-diameter piece of wood cut by the system for testing. With a forward grip, he swung the blade; a flash of cold steel followed, and the wood snapped cleanly in two, leaving a smooth, even cut.

Of course, there are drawbacks. The shorter the blade, the greater the risk; a dagger is only suitable for close-quarters combat and demands extremely high levels of defense and combat skill. When facing other players, each attack only restores 1 HP, so it remains to be seen if there will be an opportunity to increase the HP cap later on.

He tried equipping the blood knife in the 【Hollow Puppet】 skill slot, but failed. It seems weapon-type items cannot gain additional attributes through skills.

But even so…

Yining gripped the cold hilt, feeling the power that seemed to draw life flow through his palm.

In this precarious world, what does a weapon that never breaks and heals you as you fight even mean? He gazed toward the dark realm at the edge of his territory.

There are 11 days left until the descent of 【Lord’s Wrath】. The replication card interface unfolded before his eyes.

Yining dragged the blood knife into the 【Copy Target】 slot.

【Clone blood knife ×1】

【Confirm Duplication】

【Replication Card Count: -1】