After half an hour of hard work, she ended up with Potato*35.
An Ling felt there might be other vegetables nearby, so she quickly packed everything up and began searching.
For now, fresh vegetables and meat were probably the priciest goods, but few survivors were likely capable of actually cooking them.
Even so, these were absolute best-sellers, never a worry to sell.
The surrounding trees were all of the arbor type, nothing like fruit trees. She wasn’t short of timber at the moment, so chopping them down would be meaningless.
An Ling started wandering around the area where she’d just found the potatoes.
Very soon, she discovered a patch of Seedlings, covered in bright red Chili Peppers, which could be used as seasoning—of course, she wouldn’t let those slip by. In the end, she obtained Chili Pepper*20.
Other than that, An Ling found no more crops. Perhaps there simply weren’t any more on the island.
But she didn’t feel discouraged; today’s harvest was already quite bountiful. She continued forward, ready to start mining Ore.
As she walked, a lump of earth jutting from the ground caught her foot and almost made her fall.
[Yellow Earth deposit found. Can be gathered with a pickaxe.]
Eh?
Yellow Earth was also quite useful. Though An Ling couldn’t make use of it yet, since she encountered it, she couldn’t just let it go.
[Collection multiplier triggered: 4, obtained Yellow Earth*2!]
[Collection multiplier triggered: 6, obtained Yellow Earth*3!]
[Collection multiplier triggered: 8, obtained Yellow Earth*4!]
………..
Each time she dug, a notification popped up. One after another, a stream of messages appeared, and An Ling finally understood the effect of her new blessing.
Although the blessing was powerful, she could only helplessly look at her pickaxe. This thing was just too awful—only 0.5 efficiency. Even with doubled output, she’d only get half of what she mined.
She had already made up her mind. Before heading to another resource island, she absolutely had to upgrade this useless pickaxe.
After ultimately harvesting Yellow Earth*34, An Ling left the area and moved on.
Before long, noon arrived. The scorching sun beamed down directly onto her head, the powerful ultraviolet rays searing her skin.
An Ling was already drenched in sweat.
It was midday, and the weather was unbearably hot. She had no choice but to hide in the shade of a tree to rest for a bit.
If she worked in this kind of weather, she feared she might collapse from heatstroke before she could finish mining the Ore.
Though it hadn’t been cool earlier, it was nothing compared to this heat. She even felt the temperature must have reached thirty-seven or thirty-eight degrees. The Chocolate in her bag had already melted, sticking to the wrapper. She ate a couple of bites and tossed the rest aside, then took out two sealed braised chicken drumsticks—her lunch for today.
For now, she’d make do on the island, but when she returned to her Construction Island tonight, she’d have a good meal.
After finishing the chicken legs, An Ling pulled out a bottle of Sugar-free Cola. These had been among the supplies she got before coming to Survival Island, and she’d been reluctant to eat them until now.
Now that things had improved, it was time to enjoy herself a little.
Gulp gulp—the bubbles filled her mouth, stimulating her taste buds, but after just a couple of sips she set it aside. “As I thought, I really don’t like sugar-free.”
With lunch settled, An Ling rested for a while before setting off again.
At the edge of her vision, she could already see the ocean. That meant she was about to reach the Gobi.
Once she finished mining these Ores, if there was still time, she’d check the island once more and wrap up her exploration of the resource island, preparing to return.
[Iron Ore found. Can be gathered with a pickaxe.]
Seeing the system’s prompt, An Ling looked down at the dark stone beneath her feet. Only a small part of it was exposed; the rest was probably buried underground.
“So this is Iron Ore.”
She immediately activated her ability and began mining. But after the first strike with her pickaxe, she was stunned.
HP–1
The Iron Ore’s Health Points had only dropped by a sliver—barely noticeable unless you looked closely.
Who knew how much HP this Iron Ore had, or how much would drop after it was finished?
The situation was completely different from Yellow Earth. The latter dropped items instantly with each strike, but with Iron Ore, you had to deplete its HP before it dropped anything at all.
In other words, as long as the Iron Ore’s HP wasn’t zero, An Ling wouldn’t get a single piece.
“So stingy?” An Ling raised an eyebrow. She felt like, at her current level, she might not be ready to deal with such advanced resources.
Still, since she was already here, she was determined to crack this Iron Ore.
Ding!
Ding ding!
……..
After an hour of continuous striking, the Iron Ore’s HP was finally depleted.
With a crunch, the Iron Ore beneath her feet finally broke apart.
[Collection multiplier triggered: 5, obtained Iron Ore*25!]
“So originally, a single Iron Ore only drops ten pieces?” An Ling was clearly dissatisfied with the result. She’d worked for an hour—without the blessing, she would’ve only gotten five.
“No point being stubborn.” An Ling immediately gave up on the Iron Ore. With her current technology, she simply couldn’t mine this stuff efficiently.
She could only look around for any other Ore.
As expected, An Ling soon discovered Coal nearby. This time it wasn’t hidden in a pitch-black cave, so her mining speed was much faster.
Coal was essential for heating. It was scorching during the day and freezing at night. Who knew what tricks the system might pull next?
In short, as long as it was a resource, she’d take it all.
After two hours of mining, all the Coal in the area had been cleared. Compared to Iron Ore, her efficiency was much higher with Coal.
And with the random multipliers from the blessing, she’d gained a total of Coal*90.
Of course, during this period, An Ling also discovered another Ore: Copper Ore.
But hitting it with her crude pickaxe didn’t lower its HP at all. This was what frustrated her most.
Iron Ore should be harder than Copper Ore, but here, Copper Ore was clearly even rarer—and harder—than Iron Ore. Suddenly, that started to make sense to her.
Other than that, there were no more types of Ore to be found.
“Well, it’s the first resource island I’ve come across. Limited resources are normal.” An Ling walked out of the Gobi area and continued exploring the small island.
Before long, she’d crossed the island to the other shore, where the beach was covered in smooth stones—unlike the spot where she’d landed.
Curious, An Ling walked over to the shore and picked up a stone to examine it. It was palm-sized, oval, much like a river pebble.
[Flint: Can be used to make some basic equipment. Usually found on the seashore.]
“So it’s actually a kind of material?”