In the end, Dan Xingyu didn’t stay overnight in the treehouse because he found out that Qiyu’s treehouse only had one bedroom. 

Besides, he had his own reasons: “I had a great time playing at your place today, but I need to go back and get ready so you ca. have a great time at my place tomorrow, too.” 

“All right, then.” Qiyu felt a little regretful; it seemed there were still many things he hadn’t shown Dan Xingyu. Because the two of them had been so engrossed in picnicking and fishing that morning, he’d forgotten to plant the seedlings.

But it didn’t matter—there would be other chances later. “Well then, see you tomorrow!”

Dan Xingyu waved at him and said with a smile, “Don’t make such a big deal out of it. We have a teleportation array— what’s the difference between this and living next door?”

“If you’re not too reluctant to leave me, why don’t you come home with me right now? We can take a quick look around and then come back?”

Qiyu was actually a little tempted, but in the end he shook his head: “I can’t just yet—I haven’t prepared a gift for my visit to your place.”

The smile on Dan Xingyu’s face grew a little deeper.

Ever since hearing that sweet-as-candy “Come visit me more often” from the boy younger than him, the smile hadn’t left his face. 

Oh my, how could there be such a fun person?

After seeing his good friend off, Qiyu walked to the farmland in the backyard and planted the seeds he’d gotten from two mystery plant seed packs he’d exchanged for points at the store. 

He’d save the remaining three mystery boxes for next time. 

A total of six packets of seeds: the magical plants include Moonlight Grass and honey crystal flowers, while the ordinary plants include sunflowers, soybeans, strawberries, and cherries. After planting them, he watered them and cast a blessing spell. Hmmm.

The seeds sprouted at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The Survival Board noted that soybeans, strawberries, and cherries are all edible foods, and the latter is also a much-loved water source. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of anticipation.

A message suddenly popped up on his personal message page.

“01 survival squad”—this meant someone in the group had tagged him. He tapped to open it.

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: Hey, everyone! Big news! @All members.】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: I ran into another player today.】

【Civil Engineering Brother: What’s going on?】

【Tranquility Yields Transcendence: Where are you right now? Are you okay? Stay safe.】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: I’m safe, I’m safe. They didn’t spot me—I snuck away.】

【I Love Survival Game: What’s going on? You should be exploring the Star Forest—did you run into someone else?】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: Right! Hold on a sec, let me gather my thoughts.】

After a little over a minute, Money posted a long string of text.

Since today was a Safe Day, he’d prepared his supplies early last night and set out to explore first thing this morning.

Seriously, even though the regional chat was full of criticism of the Liver Emperor putting pressure on everyone, who with even a shred of ambition could just sit idly by after hearing that? 

Money didn’t consider himself a particularly hard-working person, so last night he got everything organized and planned to sleep in before heading out. 

But a month of Survival Mode had already trained his body to wake up automatically at 8:00 a.m. So what else was there to say? Time to get up and grind.

Exploring a forest free of danger is a truly pleasant experience.

The Star Forest boasts beautiful scenery and fresh air; it’s definitely a “natural oxygen bar” that even working people should visit during their vacations on Earth. Plus, his physical stats have improved significantly now, so he can carry all his items in his backpack without worrying about the weight.

When he got hungry, he’d just sit down anywhere to rest for a bit and take some snacks out of his backpack to munch on slowly.

So even if he didn’t make much progress all day, he was still in a great mood—he just treated it as a day off from his usual routine to relax in nature. Then he heard a faint commotion, as if some creatures were fighting nearby.

Thinking it was a fight between mutated creatures, he quietly prepared to sneak over and pick up any loot. 

But when he parted the grass to take a look—

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: It’s a player! Definitely a player from our server, taking down a mutant creature!】

【Civil Engineering Brother: Did you make contact with them?】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: …No, I just ran away. I was terrified at the time—I was afraid I’d run into someone trying to kill me for my loot.】

So he didn’t even get a clear look at whether the other person was male or female. He ran back to the shelter in one breath, only then letting out a sigh of relief before rushing to share the news in the group chat. 

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: Money, you’re such a lucky guy—you actually ran into a man with such mysterious luck. That’s the kind of super-rare event that only you could stumble upon.】

【Civil Engineering Brother: It’s fine if it’s a super low-probability event, but what I’m really afraid of is that Money will run into other players—let’s not even get started on that.】

As soon as he said that, the group fell silent.

After all, it’s common knowledge that survival games have a hidden rule: once a brand-new item that’s never appeared before shows up, the odds of other players finding it increase significantly.

What if Money isn’t the first to take the plunge? It’s not like he hasn’t done things like this before.

【I Love Survival Game: It’s possible. After all, for the past month, no one has detected the presence of other players.】

【I Love Survival Game: I have a flying device. When I was searching for swifts earlier, I explored a much larger area than most players in the zone, yet I didn’t spot any other players either.】

In fact, in addition to his wings, he also used psychic detection, so the range he could observe was even wider than he claimed. Even so, he hadn’t spotted any other shelters in several directions around him.

Now that the first month has just ended, Money ran into other people during the Safe Day. 

Is that really just a coincidence?

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: Gaming pro, what you’re saying really scares me. I thought it was great to survive alone in single-player mode and slowly expand my territory—why did other people suddenly show up?】 

【Civil Engineering Brother: I wouldn’t have guessed you were socially anxious.】

【Civil Engineering Brother: It’s not that I’m afraid of people. But I’m worried that once players actually start interacting with each other, things will get chaotic.】

After all, this survival game world doesn’t seem to have much oversight over the players.

After a month in the game, the players who’ve survived this long have built up some guts—players who couldn’t even kill a chicken on Earth can now kill mutated creatures without batting an eye.

They’ve grown accustomed to fighting and competition.

What if they encounter fellow players? 

As everyone knows, players carry backpacks, and most of them probably keep their supplies and items on them.

【I Love Survival Game: You’ll have to go through this phase eventually. In the Star Forest, there are only a few tens of thousands of players, and everyone starts on a similar footing. As you go out exploring, you’ll encounter many natives. Among them are many skilled professionals.】

【I Love Survival Game: From the very beginning, survival games tell us their sole purpose: to get stronger and stay alive.】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: It’s rare for the boss to say so much, so I’ll listen to him. At worst, I’ll just carry a few more survival items.】

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: Sigh, better not. Judging by the way this survival game is shaping up, there’s bound to be plenty of exploring ahead. You can hide for a while, but you can’t hide forever.】

The atmosphere in the group chat seemed a bit somber, so Qiyu pondered for a moment.

【I Love Survival Game: Info—Ruby King Crab. Does anyone here want to eat this?】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: Holy crap! What is this? King Crab? And it’s even the survival game version of Ruby King Crab! Boss, I want to eat it, I want to eat it—my kid’s drooling already.】

As it turns out, when it comes to food, everyone is equal. Especially in a survival game.

No one in the group was short on food, but it was really hard to find seafood in the Star Forest—let alone this kind of top-tier seafood certified by the Survival Game. Even Teacher Tranquility Yields Transcendence couldn’t resist this temptation.

Qiyu and Dan Xingyu each ate a crab leg, leaving exactly three remaining. He gave one to each of his friends in the group.

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: Just from the description, I had no idea it was this big… Holy cow, if I had that fragile body and huge appetite from the survival game, I probably couldn’t even finish this leg in a whole day.】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: Boss, waaaah, even though you won’t acknowledge me, in my heart, you’ve long been my most beloved dad.】

Thanks to Dan Xingyu, Qiyu has learned to handle this kind of flirty banter like a pro. 

【I Love Survival Game: Give me back my crab leg, @Need A Little Money To Save Me.】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: I didn’t say anything just now! Bro, Boss, gaming legend! The greatest joy of my vacation comes from you!】

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: OK, thanks, gaming legend! I suddenly feel full of energy! Back on Earth, I couldn’t even afford king crab of this quality.】

With nothing to do in the evening and feeling safe, Qiyu finally had some free time to dig out the martial arts manual he’d bought earlier.

He decided to start with *Guardians of the Earth*: it was the best-selling physical training manual at the mages association store, and reportedly had received countless recommendations and rave reviews. 

Qiyu carried the book to the Tree of Life, sat down, and opened it with great anticipation. In a flash, he found himself in a familiar spiritual realm.

This time, the scene was one he had never seen before.

He stood on a black platform carved from rock, roughly 100 square in size. Beyond the platform lay nothing but empty space, with no protective barriers along the edge.

Qiyu cautiously walked to the edge and looked down—a boundless abyss stretched out before him, and at the very bottom, he could seem to make out churning crimson magma. A pale yellow phantom slowly took shape in the air. It spoke, its voice surprisingly youthful:

“Young mage, welcome to my Body Tempering course. Are you ready to begin the training?” 

Presumably, this ethereal figure—whose features and details remained indistinct—was none other than Rain, the Earthelement magister who had created this Body Tempering technique. 

Qiyu nodded: “Yes, I’m ready.”

The phantom nodded: “All right. Let’s start with the first lesson. Lesson objective: Survive for half an hour.” 

As soon as he finished speaking, the phantom vanished.

Qiyu felt an inexplicable heaviness in his body and realized that the magical power within him had been sealed; he could no longer sense the magical elements in this mental space. 

“Roar!”

A furious roar rang out beside his ear.

From the rocky terrain ahead, a towering figure slowly emerged.

It stood about three meters tall, its entire body grayish-white and devoid of facial features.

【Angry Earth Guardian: An enraged Earth Guardian will attack all living beings within its line of sight.】

The magister’s voice drifted in from who knows where: “Hang in there, little mage. The Earth Guardian’s hits really hurt.”

As if in response to his words, the rock giant threw back its head and let out a long, loud roar before charging toward Qiyu.

Thud, thud, thud. The entire area seemed to tremble from its charge.

Qiyu：？？？

Wait a minute.

So, “Earth Guardian” isn’t the name of a technique, but the name of this giant creature? 

He deftly twisted to the side, dodging the charge.

Before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, a rocky arm shot out from nowhere and slammed hard into his back. Accompanied by excruciating pain, Qiyu was sent flying and plunged into the boiling magma. 

Everything went black. Then white.

He found himself standing on the high platform once more. The Earth Guardian slowly rose from the rock. 

Qiyu: “……”

So, does this so-called best-selling mage physical training technique mean you won’t get beaten up? He recalled the note on the product page: “Has received countless positive reviews from buyers.” 

Mages Association Store, I think you’re being dishonest.