Thanks to Green KiTea for the constant support! Enjoy the bonus chapters for this new story!

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【Farmland: Once placed, provides a 2m x 2m planting area.】

The area inside the wooden cabin is marked as unplaceable.

Qiyu pushed open the door and tried to select an empty spot by the entrance.

【This area is unclaimed and cannot be used for farmland.】

Qiyu:? What does that mean? 

Can’t place it inside the house, and can’t place it outside either.

A survival game introduces a resource like “farmland”—they can’t possibly be messing with us, can they?

Qiyu put the farmland away and opened the zone chat channel. As luck would have it, he saw a familiar ID again:

【Civil Engineering Brother: Everyone, hurry up and gather resources to upgrade your shelters—upgrading shelters rewards you with premium chests.】 Based on what Qiyu had learned about this person over the past two days, he seemed like a decent guy.

But clearly, this message didn’t go over well:

【Today Is Also Not A Good Day: Get lost, Versailles!】

The Wind Whistles Coldly: What the hell? Has someone already upgraded their shelter? I’m exhausted and only halfway through gathering the resources!】

【Food Handed Out In Contempt: If the big shots are already upgrading their shelters, they must have plenty of resources. Can you spare some? @Civil Engineering Brother, we’re all in this together—you can’t just stand by and watch us die!】

【Tears Of The Unlucky Chief: A high-tier chest? What good stuff did you get, big shot? Can you show the brothers?】

【Civil Engineering Brother: I’m not bragging, I swear. You guys should try hunting mutants. After a successful kill, you can open your personal combat stats panel, and they drop gear, too. Once your strength increases, it’ll be easier to get other resources.】

【Harmony Brings Wealth: @Civil Engineering Brother, isn’t this just bragging? I don’t even understand a word of what you’re saying. If you’re really looking out for everyone, why not share how you managed to stockpile enough upgrade resources so quickly?】

Harmony Brings Wealth’s comment immediately garnered agreement from others.

However, the Civil Engineering Brother didn’t say anything else in the chat—he wondered if he was upset.

Qiyu opened the trading section.

Perhaps because of the appearance of the mutated creature today, the number of items in the trading zone had increased, and the variety had become quite bizarre.

【Selling gorgeous tricolor chicken tail feathers in exchange for any blueprint.】 

【Selling a standard short sword in exchange for leather and iron chunks.】

【Selling 500g of mutated rabbit meat in exchange for 500g of vegetables.】

Suddenly, a row of items appeared:

【Selling a standard short sword; prefer plastic in exchange.】

【Selling 500g of Azure Python meat, prioritizing trade for plastic.】 

【Selling 20 pieces of wood, prioritizing trade for plastic.】

He clicked on them. The seller’s ID was anonymous, but judging by the consistent style, it looked like the same person.

Plastic？

Qiyu guessed that this person might have obtained some blueprints and just happened to need plastic as a material.

He searched for “blueprints” in the item list, but didn’t hold out much hope.

In this game, you need a blueprint to craft most items, and everyone knows how valuable they are. To his surprise, someone was actually selling one.

【Selling the “Barbecue Grill” blueprint in exchange for cold medicine.】

【Selling the “Fence” blueprint. Prefer trades for other blueprints and weapons. Feel free to DM me.】

【Selling the “Fishing Net” blueprint. Will trade for any gear.】

The barbecue grill is nice, but cold medicine is rarer, and Qiyu doesn’t have any. As for the fishing net, Qiyu hasn’t seen any fish or rivers yet.  

However, he is somewhat interested in the 【f

Fence】.

【Fence: A basic structure that expands your territory and protects your shelter.】

Expand territory?

Qiyu clicked into the trade page and discovered the buyer was an acquaintance. Of course, it was the kind of “acquaintance” where he was the only one who recognized the other person.

The buyer’s ID was none other than 【Civil Engineering Brother】.

【ID4399439: Hello, what do “expand territory” and “protect the shelter” mean?】1

【Civil Engineering Brother: After building a fence, a durability meter will appear on it. If the shelter comes under attack, the fence must be destroyed first.】

【Civil Engineering Brother: Any area within the zone with a fence becomes your territory.】

When the Civil Engineering Brother received this anonymous inquiry, he wasn’t surprised at all.

After all, the descriptions on the fence—whether “Expand Territory” or “Protected Sanctuary”—sounded pretty intimidating.

He expertly posted a series of clarifications:

【Civil Engineering Brother: However, building fences requires a lot of wood—10 units of wood can make one meter of fence. Also, you must completely enclose the shelter with fences for it to provide protection. The same goes for expanding your territory: only the area fully enclosed by fences counts as your expanded territory.】

Every player who asked about fences ended up at this point.

Qiyu did the math: his current level one shelter was nearly 50 square meters. Assuming he didn’t expand his territory further and simply enclose the shelter, he would need roughly 30 meters of fence.

That means adding a layer of protection to the shelter requires 300 units of wood.

And that’s just for a single ring around the shelter. If he wanted to expand his territory, the amount of wood required would likely be a terrifyingly high number. The Civil Engineering Brother had produced two fence blueprints; he’d used one himself and only then realized this.

He asked himself honestly: if he were the one buying such a blueprint, he wouldn’t want to either. He waited for Qiyu to refuse.

【ID4399439: I don’t have any blueprints to trade, but I’ll trade 1 Common Dagger and 2 kg of mutant barbarian fang boar meat for this blueprint.】  

He already had a barbarian fang dagger, so a Common Dagger wasn’t very useful to him.

As for the food, based on his observations, although quite a few players had killed mutated creatures in the area today, judging by the materials being sold, most were small animals.

2 kg of barbarian fang boar meat should still be quite valuable.

【Civil Engineering Brother: Do you have any longer weapons—knives, swords, clubs, or the like?】

As a construction worker, aside from the handful of good strengths he’s built up through hard labor, his combat experience is practically nonexistent. As the saying goes, “the longer the blade, the stronger the weapon,” but he felt that conventional weapons offered more peace of mind.

Qiyu thought about it. He figured the mutated creatures weren’t hard to kill; if he wasn’t looking for gear and just wanted ordinary weapons, it wouldn’t be too difficult.

Most importantly, this Civil Engineering Brother was a down-to-earth sort of guy.

Just for the fact that he voluntarily pointed out all the flaws in the fence, Qiyu had a pretty good impression of him.

【ID4399439: If I get these weapons later, I’ll trade them back for the dagger.】

When Civil Engineering Brother saw the description of the mutant barbarian fang boar meat clearly labeled as a Level 2 Mutant Creature, he was filled with awe. He initiated a trade.

【Civil Engineering Brother: So, can I add you as a friend, boss?】

You can add friends?

The post-apocalyptic semi-primitive, completely unaware of this feature, was astonished. 

【ID4399439: Sure.】

Thinking the big shot was a bit aloof, Civil Engineering Brother sent a friend request. A request popped up on the chat screen, and Qiyu clicked “Accept.”

Once added, the anonymous user became a real name. 

Civil Engineering Brother: “……”

Holy crap, what kind of sycophant ID is that?

What kind of mental fortitude does it take to be dragged into this crappy place out of the blue and still type “I Love Survival Game” without batting an eye?

The Civil Engineering Brother was deeply impressed and felt he couldn’t hold a candle to him.

And he quietly questioned the “cool and aloof” persona of this big shot in his mind, labeling him as secretly flirty. 

You could tell from the regional chat that the Civil Engineering Brother was a chatterbox, and it became even more obvious after adding him as a friend.

【Civil Engineering Brother: Hey, big shot, is there anything else you need? I’ve drawn up a few furniture blueprints that I’ve used myself. I can’t sell the blueprints, but if you provide the materials, I can make them for you.】

【Civil Engineering Brother: We can also share resources and help each other improve!】

He enthusiastically sent over descriptions of a few items:

【Simple Stove: Basic cooking equipment for preparing food.】

【Simple Trap: A basic trap that might catch less intelligent prey.】  

【Kerosene Lamp: Provides light at night.】

【Beanbag sofa: Comfortable furniture; lying down to rest slowly restores stamina.】

Qiyu’s eyes widened; it seemed like he wanted every single one of them.

【ID4399439: Did you craft all these yourself?】

【Civil Engineering Brother: No way, hehe. I’ve added everyone I’ve traded with as friends—we all got these by exchanging resources.】

【Civil Engineering Brother: What do you think, boss? Is there anything you need?】

I want it all! 

【ID4399439: How do we trade?】

【Civil Engineering Brother: Since we’ve just started playing this survival game and everyone’s resources are limited, it’s best to bring your own materials, pay a small fee, and have them processed for you.】 

【Civil Engineering Brother: Is there anything you’re looking for, boss?】

【ID4399439: I’ll contact you tonight.】

【Civil Engineering Brother: Alright, boss. Go ahead and take care of your business.】

End of chat.

Qiyu rummaged through his backpack.

Damn it, he opened several treasure chests today, so why does he still feel so broke!

The slight sense of satisfaction he’d felt from opening a silver chest vanished instantly. He angrily devoured two whole steamed buns.

Only after finishing did he realize what he’d done. He froze for a moment, feeling a twinge of regret.

These were two big white steamed buns—back in the apocalypse, he could have stretched them out to last a whole week.

But he quickly consoled himself: I’m already someone who owns over a hundred kilograms of meat—eating two steamed buns isn’t a waste.

And…

He rubbed his satisfied stomach; the feeling of being full was truly wonderful. 

He pulled out the fence blueprints.

He gestured to indicate that there was no immediate need to fortify the shelter; for now, he could simply fence off an area to create farmland. He had been curious about his 【Farming】 talent for quite some time.

Two 2m x 2m plots of farmland require 12 meters of fence to enclose them completely. A total of 120 units of wood is needed.

He had already used up all his wood to upgrade the wooden cabin. At this point, he decided to start chopping down trees. 

Qiyu picked up his axe and began chopping down trees with single-minded determination.

Equipped with the barbarian fang bracers, the jade necklace, and the jade boots, he found chopping down trees to be a breeze. 

Plus, having just eaten his fill, his stamina was fully replenished.

Without taking a single break, he chopped down ten trees in one go.

He triggered three critical hits along the way, earning an extra 30 units of wood. Checking the time, two hours had already passed.

He learned the blueprint.

【Materials detected. Do you want to craft a fence?】 “Craft.”

The fence was built. Like other furniture, it appeared as an icon on the survival panel. It wouldn’t materialize until Qiyu selected a location to place it. 

Qiyu chose the open space to the right of the wooden cabin.

There wasn’t any particular reason for this choice; it was simply the largest open space in the area.

However, after selecting the spot for the fence, he realized he had overthought it—once the eight-square-meter fence was placed, the space seemed to extend out of nowhere.

The original open space between the wooden cabin and the jungle remained, still just as distant as before. This eight-square-meter “territory” was essentially an area that had materialized out of thin air.