Qiyu liked this kind of shiny color. 

He didn’t rush to open it either; instead, he placed the brass chest into his backpack, where it took up an entire slot. At that moment, his backpack contained:

The brass chest took up one slot. The fine iron chest took up one slot.

Three unopened wooden chests took up one slot. 

Food and water: 500ml of clean drinking water x 4, steamed buns x 4, half a cake, 70 wild banyan berries, stored in a wooden box.

Miscellaneous: 1 dagger, 1 piece of cotton cloth, 1 packet of sunflower seeds, 2 pieces of leather, 10 rabbit furs, all stored in the wooden box. 

The two wooden boxes take up one slot.

50 pieces of wood occupy one slot.

500g of gale rabbit meat x3 occupies one slot.

There is also an empty wooden chest, sitting alone in a separate slot.

Seven of the ten slots in his basic backpack were already taken. He began collecting the loot dropped by the Level 2 mutant barbarian fang boar.

Fortunately, 100 kg of barbarian fang boar meat fits into a single backpack slot.

【Fine leather x30, excellent crafting material.】

Qiyu opened his personal panel. He remembered that leather was among the materials needed to upgrade the wooden cabin, but he wasn’t sure if this fine leather would work.

The chest’s capacity was limited; the wooden chest for miscellaneous items couldn’t hold thirty units of fine leather. The empty wooden chest was filled to capacity, and the stack was placed into the backpack slot in front of it.

This freed up one slot in his backpack, leaving three slots remaining.

There were still two glowing orbs left. At first glance, both appeared to be white light, but upon closer inspection, there were subtle differences.

One had a faint green tint to its white, while the other had a slight blue tint.

【Barbarian Fang Bracers: Unique equipment. Equipping grants +3 Attack. Can be equipped.】

【Barbarian Fang Dagger: Fine-quality equipment. Increases damage by 10% and has a 10% chance to crit. Can be equipped.】

Qiyu chose to equip them all.

The barbarian fang bracers were made of black leather; once equipped, they fit on his right wrist like a cool accessory. The +3 Attack bonus was quite noticeable, and Qiyu felt his strength had increased.

The barbarian fang dagger, however, automatically suspended itself from his waist in a completely unscientific manner. 

Qiyu was wearing a white cotton cloth shirt, yellow linen trousers, and black cloth shoes.

Of course, these weren’t his own clothes; there were no clothes this clean and comfortable in the post-apocalyptic world.

He had originally assumed these were the standard starter outfits distributed by the survival game, but after checking the chat channel yesterday, he realized something was off.

It seemed the game’s starting outfit was determined by the player’s condition when they were pulled into the game.

This meant some players were fully armed, while others complained they’d been pulled into the game wearing nothing but underwear and flip-flops. As for himself…

Qiyu thought for a moment; perhaps it was because he had been pulled into the game in a state where his body was either completely mangled or barely clinging to life. 

So they might as well have just given him a one-click outfit refresh. 

Hmm, not just the clothes—his body too. 

In any case, his outfit was very casual, which actually matched the style of the wooden cabin and this primeval jungle. The little sunflower hat he’d traded for last night went so well with it that it looked like part of the same set. Qiyu took out the silvery dagger, examined it, and holstered it again, feeling pretty cool doing so. 

Next, he continued patrolling the safe zone like an inspector. Unfortunately, it seemed there were only two mutated creatures in this area today; he hadn’t spotted a third target.

Returning to the wooden cabin with a bountiful haul, it was already 11:00 a.m., but Qiyu still had plenty of energy left. He wasn’t about to waste it.

Picking up the wooden axe, Qiyu instantly transformed into a relentless logging machine. 

With the bonus from the barbarian fang bracers, he felt stronger and could chop down trees faster.

After felling six trees in a row, the system issued a low stamina warning. He opened the interface to check the time—it was exactly 12:30 p.m. He had cut down six trees in an hour and a half.

He triggered two critical hits, yielding 80 pieces of wood. 

He sat down to rest for a bit, drank some water, and had the half-eaten cake from last night for lunch. 

Since today’s harvest was bountiful, he even treated himself to some wild banyan plums he’d picked earlier. These wild fruits were about the size of a pinky finger, more sour than sweet, and not particularly tasty, but Qiyu still ate them with relish. 

After finishing lunch, Qiyu rubbed his hands together with great reverence. 

Before him lay a brass chest, a fine iron chest, and three wooden chests. Facing so many treasure chests for the first time, he felt a rare sense of excitement.

Especially the brass chest—it was his first time seeing one, and it had dropped from a Level 2 mutant barbarian fang boar.

Just the Barbarian Fang Boar alone had dropped so much edible meat, as well as valuable items like the barbarian fang dagger and barbarian fang bracers. Surely the loot from those chests wouldn’t be anything to sneeze at?

【Treasure chest detected. Open?】

Qiyu chose to open the wooden chests first.

【Congratulations, player. You have obtained 500ml of water x3, cream-filled bread x3, 500g of flour, 1 Men’s Universal Clothing Set, 1 Daily Necessities Set, and 1 flint】

What an unexpected find.

The wooden chests opened yesterday mostly contained basic necessities like water and food, but today, three wooden chests yielded three bottles of water and three pieces of bread, not even as big as a steamed bun. 

On the bright side, he did get an extra clothing set and a daily necessities set.

Qiyu picked them up and took a look, discovering that the universal clothing set looked exactly like the outfit he was wearing—a shirt, pants, cloth shoes, and undergarments.

Nice find!

The daily necessities set was also a large box, containing toothpaste, a toothbrush, shampoo, body wash, laundry detergent, and toilet paper. Qiyu handled them with care, then carefully put them back in the box.

In his previous world, every single one of these items would have been considered a luxury. In an environment where mere survival was a luxury, who had the energy to think about anything else? He never imagined that after dying once, he would actually have the chance to live like a human being. 

There was still one fine iron chest and one brass chest left.

Qiyu had a hunch that what he’d find inside this time would likely be different from what he’d imagined.

“Open the fine iron chest.”

【Congratulations! You have obtained 2 units of universal farmland, 2 units of plant nutrient solution, and 1 packet of gale grass seeds】

It’s farmland and seeds!

He had been wondering earlier: if the area outside the wooden cabin refreshes daily, how would he plant sunflowers? It seems now that he needs the “farmland” provided by the game.

He was very satisfied with this chest’s rewards.

Let’s go for it.

“Open the brass chest.”

【Congratulations! You have obtained 1 mysterious card and 1 drifting bottle】

The brass chest yielded only two items.

A translucent green card, very beautiful, with a smooth, cool texture to the touch.

An unremarkable glass bottle, half-filled with snow-white sand.

【Mysterious Card: May have unexpected effects under special circumstances.】

【Drifting Bottle: Throw it into water, and it may appear in any area.】

Qiyu：？

He examined the card repeatedly, even using his abilities to touch it, but there was no reaction. He had no choice but to put it away for now.

As for that “drifting bottle” filled with sand?

Come on, he was currently relying on loot chests even for drinking water—where was he supposed to get water to put in a bottle?

He’d better put everything away for now.

Next, he opened his personal interface.

Shelter: Initial Wooden Cabin (Durability 100/100), upgradeable. 

Next Level: Level One Shelter (Sturdy Wooden Cabin). 

Upgrade Materials: Wood x200, Stone x100, Leather x20, Iron Chunks x20.

He tried to submit supplies:

【Wood 130/200】 【Stone 99/100】

【Fine Leather 30/20 (met)】

【Iron Chunks 10/20】

Qiyu was delighted: Fine leather is usable!

Wood and stone are easy to come by, and he can also break down iron chunks to get fine iron chests. He only has two pieces of leather, which he’s only ever found by killing mutated beasts.

But that gale rabbit only drops 2 pieces of leather. If fine leather isn’t usable, gathering 20 pieces of leather would be a real hassle.

Victory was within reach, and Qiyu felt as though he had boundless energy. He grabbed the wood and headed out. 

Two hours later, he returned home with his backpack filled with 70 units of wood and 50 units of stone.

【Wood 200/200 (Met)】 【Stone 100/100 (Met)】

【Fine Leather 20/20 (Met)】

【Iron Chunks 10/20】

All that’s left is the iron chunk.

Qiyu opened the chat channel.

He noticed the chat channel’s population had dropped to 99,832/100,000. Over a hundred people were missing.

【Civil Engineering Brother: It looks like mutated creatures have spawned in the safe zone today. Killing them drops rewards.】

【I Am Really Out Of Options: I don’t dare! I can’t even kill a fish.】 

【Today Is Also A Day Of Slacking Off: I’d dare to, actually. I just saw a really gorgeous wild pheasant—it made my mouth water just looking at it after two days of eating steamed buns. But the problem is, I can’t catch up to it!】 

【National First Class Trash: A mutated dog. I chased it, but couldn’t take it down. If it hadn’t been so close to the wooden cabin, I almost wouldn’t have made it out alive.】

【Pure Peace Music: I ran into one too. Animals are so cute—why kill them? It’s too cruel. Can’t we just live in harmony?】

【A Van Full Of Bread Men: Don’t be too scared, everyone. I’ve been watching—as long as we don’t provoke them, these mutated creatures won’t attack us.】 

【Civil Engineering Brother: Those aren’t real animals. When you kill them, they turn into a white light and vanish—just think of them as a string of data. The loot boxes drop a lot of stuff, so let’s give it our best shot. We’re in a survival game, after all—we’ve got to take this step.】

This “Civil Engineering Brother” has always been very active in the channel and seems surprisingly helpful. Judging by the chat logs, it looks like players have all started encountering mutated creatures today. Qiyu scrolled through the trading panel and, as expected, didn’t find any iron chunks.

That makes sense—after all, it’s an essential item for upgrading the wooden cabin. Unless absolutely necessary, no one would trade them away. Qiyu had no choice but to dismantle a fine iron chest.

【Obtained iron chunks x10】

Qiyu let out a long sigh of relief. He’d finally gathered all the resources needed to upgrade the shelter. 

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

T/N: Hiii guyss, with all new stories uploaded, we are gonna be consistent with the schedule now. Bonus chapters on Sunday, regular updates on Monday and Tuesday, Patreon uploads on Saturday. Side note, with the way the site is built, uploading chapters is a bit of a hassle for the way the site was built, so the Milou’s Archive admin handles the uploading, not us, so we may see comments late. You can chat us up on Discord for issues. I heard that the channel is coming up this week. Also, since we (TKA and the Site Admin) are not from the US, which makes ad views payment low and inconvenient, we are looking for a way to resolve it, but MLA activated their Patreon using a similar way to ours, so check it out if you want, their seven-day free trial is open until the end of June.

That is all. As usual, Tokki’s Archives is thankful for every reader and supporter with us.