A huge thank you to GreenKiTea for the Kofis. Enjoy the bonus chapters!

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【I Love Survival Game: 2 kg of game meat per day—a total of 60 kg. 2 beginner healing potions, 2 standard energy towers?】

He sent the information about the healing potions and energy towers.

【I Love Survival Game: What kind of gear are you looking for?】

While waiting for a reply from this mysterious top-ranked shelter, I Need A Little Money To Save Me needed to save himself from the tension in his heart. When Qiyu’s message arrived via the survival panel, he read the contents carefully, and his eyes stung.

Taking a deep breath, he hurriedly replied:

【Need A Little Money To Save Me:! Equip me with the weapons I want—swords, knives, and clubs, all of them!】

Qiyu sent a message to Civil Engineering Brother, asking if he could get a blue-quality weapon from him. After clarifying his needs, Civil Engineering Brother sent him details on two pieces of equipment:

【Flame Pattern Saber: Fine-quality equipment. Equipment effect: Attack +7,  with the “Flame Burn” effect.】

【Double-Headed Snake Blade: Fine-quality equipment. Equipment effect: Attack +5, Agility +2, and comes with the “Snake Venom” effect.】

【I Love Survival Game: What can I trade for them?】

【Civil Engineering Brother: Do you have any shelter defense items?】He actually wants that too.

He sent over the info on the energy tower.

【Civil Engineering Brother: You’re truly a gaming expert!】

【Civil Engineering Brother: How about trading for four energy towers?】

【I Love Survival Game: Energy towers are no problem, but they require Tier 1 magic crystals to power them. I’m only selling the energy towers.】

【Civil Engineering Brother: Of course, that’s no problem!】

Qiyu sent the details of the two pieces of equipment to “Need A Little Money To Save Me.”

【I Love Survival Game: Pick One.】

Need A Little Money To Save Me. Before he was transported into a survival game, he was a total homebody whose daily hobbies consisted of gaming, binge-watching anime, and reading novels. The type of character he hated most was the aloof, cold, and pretentious alpha male.

At that moment, he realized for the first time the charm of the aloof, domineering CEO. 

He swore he’d never heard two words cooler than “Choose one” in his entire life! 

After weighing his options, he chose the “Flame Blade,” which offered a higher attack bonus.

【I Love Survival Game: The energy tower requires magic crystals as a power source. I’ll give you 10 Tier 1 magic crystals as a bonus.】

The fact that he was even willing to trade for a tier two shelter blueprint clearly meant he’d hit rock bottom. He couldn’t very well give him an empty energy tower. 

But he didn’t have any more to spare; he’d have to figure out how to get the remaining energy crystals on his own. Just as Qiyu was about to propose the trade, he remembered something else:

【I Love Survival Game: Game meat only stays fresh for three days. Do you have any preservation items? If not, I’ll make a deal: I’ll give 2 kg of game meat every day.】

He can’t stand seeing even the slightest bit of food go to waste.

On the “Need a Little Money to Save Me” side, seeing these two messages, he just couldn’t hold it together anymore.

Facing the survival interface, he burst into tears with a loud “Waaah.” 

While crying, he cursed, “F*ck this stupid survival game, waaah, f*ck this stupid Temple of the Gods, waaah…” 

Qiyu didn’t wait for a reply; two minutes later, he sent another question mark.

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: Sorry, I got held up by something just now.】 

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: I don’t have any preservation items, so no need to sign a contract! Just send me some beast meat every day, gaming big shot! I’ll even get a free spot on a big shot’s friend list—I’m coming out ahead.】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: Game Big Shot, I’m sorry—there’s something I didn’t tell you.】Qiyu’s hand, poised to initiate a trade, froze.

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: If you buy this tier two shelter blueprint from me, you might end up on the Temple’s bad side. They’ve had their eyes on this blueprint for a long time, but I’ve never sold it. They can be pretty sneaky.】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: They might have items that can track your location or cast curses—you’ve got to be careful, big shot!】

After all, they aren’t that close, and the high-level player seems pretty aloof. It’s hard to bring up all these details under “Need A Little Money To Save Me”—talking too much might make it seem like he was using him as an emotional dumping ground.

Back when he got the “tier two shelter blueprint” from the Survival Trial, he had a moment of weakness and couldn’t resist bragging about it in the zone chat. 

Right then, a lot of people sent him friend requests, wanting to buy the blueprint. Even the famous “My Fate is Determined by Me, Not the Heaven’s” proactively sent him a friend request.

He might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but he’s no fool either. With so much competition, he probably figured out the blueprint’s value right away. He turned them down, and “My Fate is Determined by Me, Not the Heavens” never contacted him again.

Instead, he started getting contacted by other members of the Temple of the Gods.

A player named “Little Old Me” harassed him every few days.

He refused repeatedly, making it clear he wouldn’t sell it. The other player grew impatient and started berating him for being ungrateful.

So what if he gets cursed at? Everyone’s in their own shelter anyway, communicating through the survival panel—just like online friends. Getting cursed at won’t cost you a single

Things were far from as simple as he thought.

His luck with treasure chests has always been weird—though you can’t exactly call it bad, since even “X” managed to drop from one.

If you call it “lucky,” though, seeing others in the zone chat flaunting gear, food, furniture, and blueprints every day was a bit hard for him to stomach. His luck—when it came to loot—

From the beginner phase until now, he’s… still poor.

During the beginner phase, killing mutated creatures would drop a small amount of game meat, barely enough to eat. Once the beginner phase ended, however, whenever he encountered mutated creatures, they wouldn’t drop a single piece of game meat.

This wasn’t a big deal at first, because once the beginner phase ended, the basic backpack couldn’t keep food fresh indefinitely, so food was hard to store, and prices naturally dropped. He had no problem trading for food on the trade channel.

But that only lasted the first day.

Starting yesterday, the trade panel hasn’t shown a single food item. 

Yesterday, he ate some of his meager rations, and today he hasn’t eaten a thing. He’s been glued to the trade board, watching for food listings, but just as he’s about to place an order, he finds it’s already sold out.

Even the few friends he’d traded with before were now making all sorts of excuses not to trade with him. One player he’d traded with twice told him, “You’ve offended the Temple of the Gods.”

“They won’t let us trade with you.”

Need A Little Money To Save Me let out a wry laugh: “We’re all in a survival game. We’ve never even met in person—we might not even be in the same dimension. What’s there to be afraid of?”

That player said that the Temple of the Gods had made it known that they had items capable of viewing a player’s recent trading partners, as well as items capable of locating players.

He doesn’t know if it’s true or not, but since they were all strangers to begin with, no one was willing to take that risk just for “Need A Little Money To Save Me.”

How could someone be so despicable! He was furious—he was already starving, and this left him so dizzy and disoriented that it took him a long time to recover. This morning, “Little Old Me” sent him another private message, offering an absurdly low price to buy his blueprints.

It was nothing short of robbery.

Disgusted to the core, “Need a Little Money To Save Me” swore that even if he starved to death, he would never sell the blueprints to the Temple of the Gods. However, after starving for a few more hours, with two tree leaves clenched between his teeth, he sought out Civil Engineering Brother. 

Ordinary players fear the Temple of the Gods.

So why not just find someone who isn’t afraid?

He didn’t have time to screen for a suitable candidate, so he simply went straight to the only player in the region who had beaten “My Fate is Determined By Me, Not the Heaven’s” and topped the Sanctuary leaderboard: the big shot known as “I Love Survival Game.”

Besides, this top player had previously had a falling-out with the Temple of the Gods, so he probably wouldn’t be afraid of them.

After saying this, he waited nervously for the top player’s reply. What he received in response was a trade request.

【Player “I Love Survival Game” used 2 Common Energy Towers, 10 Tier 1 Magic Crystals, 1 flame pattern saber, and 2 beginner healing potions to exchange for the “Tier 2 Shelter Blueprint”—is this correct?】

With trembling hands, he selected “Yes.”

【Your friend, I Love Survival Game, has sent you a gift.】

It was 2 kg of game meat.

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: Waaah, thank you so much, gaming master! I’ll be forever grateful to you! My kids are starving to death!】

Having completed the transaction, Qiyu was about to close the chat window.

But when he saw the line sent by the other, he hesitated for a moment.

He checked his inventory.

The pancakes made by “God Has No Form” smelled so good—he couldn’t bear to part with them. The jerky tasted even better than the pancakes—same story, he couldn’t bear to part with it.

One emerald crystal peach—that was for himself, so he couldn’t bear to part with it.

Finally, after some rummaging, he dug out a cream-filled bread he’d gotten from a treasure chest earlier and sent it to “Need A Little Money To Save Me.”

【I Love Survival Game: You Won’t Starve to Death.】 

【Obtained a tier two shelter blueprint.】

Qiyu examined the blueprint in his hand—a plain, unremarkable light-green sheet of paper.

Upgrade Requirements for Level 2 Shelter: 400 green-quality wood, 200 green-quality stone materials, 50 glass, 50 green-quality iron ore,

Furniture (Base) ×5, Any Plant ×2, tier two shelter blueprint ×1.

Among the supplies obtained today from trading emerald crystal peaches with God Has No Form, there happened to be 200 green stone chunks. He tried submitting sand crystal stone in the green-quality stone materials slot and found that it also met the requirements.

Basic Furniture x5: met; Any Plants x2: met; Iron Ore (Green) x50: met.

Now all that’s missing is wood and glass. 

Qiyu contacted the Civil Engineering Brother directly. As soon as the Civil Engineering Brother saw what he wanted, his face instantly turned pale.

【Civil Engineering Brother: “Game pro, did you get the blueprints?”】

【I Love Survival Game: Yeah.】

【Civil Engineering Brother: Holy crap!】 He got totally excited.

【Civil Engineering Brother: As far as I know, this is the only blueprint on our server so far. Big Shot, you’re not going to break another server-wide record, are you?】

【Civil Engineering Brother: Just you wait, I’ll get it all together for you right away!】 

【Civil Engineering Brother: That bunch at the Temple of the Gods—their eyes are practically bleeding, haha!】