Something was in their stomachs, and both wore content expressions, no longer wanting to speak. They lay down in perfect sync. Ye Lin savored the taste of snake meat, while Qin Tian’s thoughts drifted back to the system that had appeared today.
In just one short day, so much had happened—his own near disaster, Ye Lin’s call for help, the difficult search for supplies, and making fire. After all that, he had completely forgotten about the system until now.
As if summoned by his thoughts, the system’s voice suddenly sounded again. “Ding—Host lit a bonfire, gained 100 Points.”
At the same moment, the Electronic Screen appeared before Qin Tian’s eyes.
Startled, Qin Tian jumped, which made Ye Lin tense up and leap as well, her expression nervous. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
Qin Tian didn’t answer immediately. He blinked, looked at the screen, then at Ye Lin, and suddenly understood. “Nothing, just a little bug fell into my clothes.”
Hearing this, Ye Lin breathed out in relief and lay back down. She had thought they were in some kind of danger again.
Once sure Ye Lin couldn’t see the system, Qin Tian thought to himself: no surprise, only he could see it.
Having realized this, Qin Tian relaxed. Although the island now had only the two of them, who knew when they might get rescued.
If Ye Lin found out he had a system, it might spread around.
People are unpredictable. He and Ye Lin had only known each other a day and didn’t really know her character. It was better to be cautious—he definitely didn’t want to be dissected and studied.
Today’s Newbie Gift Pack showed Qin Tian just how powerful the system was, and he couldn’t help but look forward to what it would bring next.
Turning away, Qin Tian planned to study the system properly.
Without any new gifts, the system interface had changed compared to earlier that day. Two sections appeared: Tasks and Shop.
The Task section popped up first, showing a few lines.
In the center, big characters read: Host lit a bonfire, gained 100 Points.
On the side was a note: Host gains Points as rewards by acquiring survival items on the island through effort. Points earned can be exchanged for corresponding goods in the system shop.
In the corner, current Points displayed: 100.
No explanation was needed—seeing the shop, Qin Tian knew exactly what the Points were for.
More curious now about what could be exchanged with these 100 Points, he switched the page to the Shop section.
Apparently, the system was connected directly to his brain.
Excited, Qin Tian browsed the page, but after just a glance, his expression darkened.
The lowest redemption required 2,000 Points, and he only had a tiny fraction of that.
Categorizing roughly, Qin Tian divided the shop items into three types.
First type: various books like the Wild Plant Encyclopedia, Wild Trap Encyclopedia, Wild Cooking Encyclopedia, and so on.
What really baffled Qin Tian was that there was even a censored cover for the Wild Love Action Encyclopedia! And it required a whopping 10,000 Points.
If that was allowed, he really wanted to ask the system’s creator—what happened to their morals? None at all? Come on, if you have the guts to put the book up, at least have the guts to remove the censor bar!
Not even showing the cover was a total rip-off.
Second type: talents like Thousand Mile Hawk Eye, Inferior Silver Wolf, Strength of an Ox, and similar. Though their effects weren’t explicitly stated, anyone who had played games could guess what these talents did.
Third type: mysterious items of unknown purpose.
Those were the types of goods in the shop.
But neither the books nor the talents were affordable for Qin Tian right now. No problem—he could just do tasks to earn Points, like in online games.
However, when he tried to pick a task to earn Points, he found something incredibly frustrating—the Task section didn’t have any place to claim tasks.
The only information was that note, which basically meant he had no idea what to do to get Points.
How unfair could this be?
At that moment, Qin Tian felt the world was heartless.
Not dwelling on the system any longer, Qin Tian thought for a moment, then the Electronic Screen vanished before his eyes.
The night was very quiet. Perhaps the darkness muffled all sound; even though the jungle was right behind them, Qin Tian and Ye Lin couldn’t hear any insect chirping. Only the crackling of the fire filled their ears.
In this silence, drowsiness overtook Ye Lin. She glanced at Qin Tian and closed her eyes with ease.
Though they were a lone man and woman, after today’s events in the forest, Ye Lin trusted that Qin Tian wouldn’t harm her.
Seeing Ye Lin fall asleep like that, Qin Tian was at a loss for words, thinking how carefree she was—not wary of him at all.
He fiddled with the firewood alone. A few minutes later, after adding more wood, Qin Tian also lay down.
Surrounded by darkness, Qin Tian and Ye Lin lay on the ground across the fire, as if forgotten by the whole world.
Time passed silently. After some unknown duration of sleep, Qin Tian scratched his face in a daze and felt a chill.
Instantly, his sleepiness vanished. Startled awake, Qin Tian realized the island’s temperature had dropped to an extremely low level while he was asleep—only his exhaustion had kept him from waking sooner.
“Ye Lin! Wake up! Get up quickly.” Without thinking twice, Qin Tian hurriedly called out, afraid she might die in her sleep.
Ye Lin blinked confusedly at Qin Tian. When she saw him, she jumped up like a startled rabbit, eyes wary. “What do you want to do?”
“The island temperature…”
“I thought you were upright, but I didn’t expect you to be this kind of person!”
“You…”
“Don’t think you can do whatever you want just because it’s only the two of us here!”
Qin Tian’s face darkened. What a mess.
Her words kept interrupting him, so he didn’t bother to explain and simply squatted by the fire to warm himself.
Seeing Qin Tian just walk away like that, Ye Lin was stunned and couldn’t react immediately. Then a cold breeze blew past, making her shiver.
“If you don’t want to freeze to death, come warm yourself by the fire,” Qin Tian’s voice came at just the right moment.
As a top student at school, Ye Lin was no fool. Feeling the cold, she knew exactly what had happened earlier.
Looking a little sullen, she lowered her head and moved to the fire. Within a day, she’d misunderstood Qin Tian twice already—she was too embarrassed to face him.
Qin Tian said nothing. Such things were like arguments—they would be forgotten with time.
The night’s temperature was truly low. This cruise route near the equator was usually warm, and although it was mid-March, neither of them wore much clothing.
Qin Tian wore a mid-sleeve shirt and jeans; Ye Lin a long dress—completely insufficient against the cold.
They kept inching closer to the fire, finally feeling some relief.
Ye Lin secretly thanked Qin Tian for his foresight in preparing the overnight bonfire; otherwise, they might have frozen to death on the island tonight.
Still, she had underestimated the island’s temperature. As night deepened, despite the fire’s warmth, her body trembled uncontrollably.
Qin Tian noticed and hesitated for a moment before speaking, “If you can’t stand it, do you want to huddle together for warmth?”
“No!” Ye Lin’s refusal was immediate.
That answer was completely expected by Qin Tian, so he didn’t push. He silently threw more wood on the fire, trying to make it burn stronger.
Half an hour passed, and the temperature dropped even more. Even Qin Tian, as a man, shivered occasionally. Ye Lin was trembling like a leaf.
She felt that aside from the front side warmed by the flames, her back had gone numb from the cold.
Knowing it was dangerous to endure any longer, Ye Lin slowly stood and, her face flushed, came over to Qin Tian, shivering. “Cl-close your eyes!”
“What?” Qin Tian was caught off guard.
Without another word, as if making a serious decision, Ye Lin bit her lip and slid her dress strap off, revealing her snow-white shoulder.
This startled Qin Tian, but he immediately understood what she was thinking and waved his hands frantically. “What are you doing? Don’t take off your clothes! Don’t take off your clothes!!”
Ye Lin looked at him as if he were an idiot. “Not supposed to?”
“No, really not!” Qin Tian explained, “Unless your clothes are too thick and block heat transfer, you don’t need to take them off.”
“Like how we’re dressed so lightly now, no need to take anything off.”
“Those TV shows are just for viewers’ eyeballs.” He added that last line, making Ye Lin’s face redden further.
Qin Tian was sure she’d been misled by dramas.
With a sound of understanding, Ye Lin put her clothes back on and obediently squatted by Qin Tian’s side.
Some things shouldn’t be left for the girl to initiate. Qin Tian wrapped his arms around Ye Lin.
Maybe because of the cold or something else, Ye Lin’s body trembled, and she buried her head in his chest, as if wanting to disappear into the ground.
She was the school beauty, with many admirers, but she had never accepted anyone. Never had such intimate contact with a man.
Qin Tian was the same—never dated before, and this was his first close contact with a girl, and a school beauty at that.
Both were first-timers. Ye Lin shy, Qin Tian nervous. Because of themselves, neither noticed anything unusual in the other, but one thing was certain—they both found warmth in each other’s presence.