Chapter 45: Skill Cards

An Ling set out along her target path.

The island wasn’t actually very big; if she were just taking a stroll, she could easily explore the entire place in less than half a day.

The only real time sink was in extracting resources and gathering them up.

Honestly, if it were any other survivor here—without powers or a spatial backpack—just collecting these supplies would take who knows how long.

With how survivors were now, probably only a few among the Awakened could even hope to reach a place like Resource Island.

Crash—

A small stream flowed down ahead, its rushing sound filling the air. An Ling walked over; this was the lower reaches of the creek.

She squatted by the stream and washed her face, immediately feeling much cooler and refreshed.

The water was so clear she could see the little fish and shrimp darting about.

She cupped her hands, scooped up a handful, and took a sip—the water was cool and sweet, pure mountain spring water.

What a pity she didn’t have a container; she couldn’t collect any fresh water, nor use it for trading.

Though with An Ling’s cleverness, she could probably come up with a solution—but it was too much hassle, and hardly worth it.

Those bananas she’d already traded were more than enough for her to use on all these basic resources.

No need to waste time here.

Following the stream upward, she soon saw the small hill at the island’s center—this was where the creek bubbled forth, a spring at the top.

But An Ling was far more interested in whether there was anything good in the cave.

She picked up her pace unconsciously and quickly arrived at the foot of the hill.

What she’d glimpsed from atop the small mound seemed unimpressive, but up close An Ling saw just how unusual this hill was.

“This looks like an artificial rockery,” An Ling muttered, looking up at the rugged, ravine-scored mountainside as she began to search for the cave entrance she’d spotted earlier.

Soon, the two-meter-high, half-fan-shaped opening came into view.

Sea wind rushed in, striking the hill and swirling through the gullies, emitting a low, eerie wailing; an even colder breeze drifted from the pitch-black cave mouth, raising goosebumps on her arms and making her shiver.

An Ling gathered some thatch and wood from nearby, fashioning a simple torch. The cave entrance wasn’t too big; this wouldn’t take long.

Before going in, she tossed a stone inside—plop! At once, a flock of pitch-black bats burst out.

From the sound, there wasn’t any underground river, and the cave didn’t seem that large.

Torch in hand, An Ling entered. The weak flame illuminated only a small patch ahead; she’d need to search carefully to see what was around.

[Coal mine detected. Can be mined with a simple pickaxe. Mining efficiency: 0.5]

Looking down, she found the ground beneath her feet truly pitch-black. She lifted her shoe and saw the sole was already stained black.

“So dark,” An Ling frowned. Her powers still needed time to recover; if she wanted to mine, she’d have to do it by hand for now.

But doing it one-handed wouldn’t work—not while holding a torch.

“What a hassle.” An Ling stepped back out and quickly collected some more wood, bringing it inside to start a small campfire.

She decided: no matter how much she mined, she’d stop as soon as the fire was about to go out, even if there was still more coal left.

Ding, ding!

Soon, the sound of a pickaxe striking coal echoed through the cave. Just like chopping trees, the ore had “health bars”—everything here was gamified.

After half an hour, An Ling had managed to get only 10 pieces of coal, and she was pretty exhausted.

Seeing the fire start to die down, she decided to give up. She’d come in here hoping for treasure, not to mine coal in some pitch-black hole like a fool.

Lighting a new torch she’d prepared earlier, An Ling resumed exploring.

“The mining efficiency of this simple pickaxe is just too low—only 0.5. I don’t need double that, but at least give me a normal efficiency of 1.0,” An Ling complained, glancing gloomily at the time on her pendant. It was almost dark—she had to hurry. Even though the system said the island wouldn’t sink, who knew?

She needed to be back on the boat before dark, just in case.

“Hey, what’s that?” Following the torchlight, An Ling saw something gleaming deeper inside the cave. She walked over, uncertain.

It was a treasure chest—smaller than a regular crate, looking like the kind meant to hold jewels.

There had to be something good inside!

“A treasure chest, really!” An Ling hurried up and tried to open it. Treasure chests on Resource Island had to be better than those random crates drifting in the sea, right?

Clank, clank, clank!

The chest wouldn’t budge. She looked down and was stunned to see it had a lock.

“Oh, come on, you’re making me solve puzzles even on Resource Island?”

An Ling examined the lock: small, thin, just a regular little padlock.

“If this world is fully digitized and includes superpowers, but still obeys common sense…”

She drew her pistol, aimed at the lock, stepped to the side of the chest, and—bang! The deafening gunshot echoed through the cave, the smell of gunpowder spreading as the lock snapped in two.

“Like hell am I going to search for a key.”

She lifted the torch and peered inside the chest.

A single green card. Nothing else.

Puzzled, she picked it up. She’d never seen a green card before.

“Skill card…” she murmured, reading the three words on the back by torchlight.

The front bore an emblem of two interlocking diamonds—she couldn’t tell what it meant.

[Universal Skill Card: Can be used to learn any one of the following basic skills. Each time you learn, all attribute points +1.]

[Skills available to learn: Hand-to-hand Combat, Swordsmanship, Blade Arts, Archery, Marksmanship, Firearms Mastery, Mechanical Engineering.]

[Note: Each survivor can only choose one skill to learn. Any further Universal Skill Cards obtained will automatically convert to a Fixed Skill Card.]

“So that’s it—this is basically a special enhancement card for survivors.”

Each use boosted all attributes, but you could only pick one skill, so the decision had to be made carefully.

“Logically, as a Swordmaster, I should learn Swordsmanship—but the problem is, I don’t even have a sword…”