Chapter 8: Crazy Rewards

“Huff, it’s already noon.”

An Ling wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and tucked the stray strands of hair behind her ear.

Since she had eaten breakfast late, she wasn’t very hungry yet, but to prevent her fullness level from dropping back to the critical point, she selectively ate a little.

A pack of soda crackers and a can of eight-treasure porridge made up her lunch for the day.

As she ate, An Ling suddenly paused, struck by a serious question.

How was she supposed to handle bathroom breaks?

Being a girl, peeing wasn’t too much trouble, though a bit inconvenient, but that wasn’t the main issue.

What about pooping?

There wasn’t even any toilet paper!

Given her current limited resources, she should probably eat less to avoid this situation, but if her fullness level dropped, she would miss out on valuable points.

It was a real dilemma.

“Reeds, huh…”The corner of An Ling’s eye twitched.

It was frustrating, but it really seemed like the best option for now.

“Just hope that day doesn’t come too soon.”

She rinsed the empty iron can of eight-treasure porridge with seawater and tossed it into a wooden crate.

That thing would definitely come in handy.

She stored everything—empty mineral water bottles, cans, and so on—for future use.

There were no teammates here.

On this five-square-meter island, the only thing she could rely on was her own two hands.

Soon, another wooden crate appeared in her vision.

She seized the moment, hooked it, and slowly pulled it toward her.

【Locked wooden crate, unlocking requires key *1】

“Huh?”

An Ling knew those clasps on the crates weren’t just decorations.

Well, now she had really encountered a locked one.

The lock was an old-fashioned, black one, covered with rust.

Without tools, there was no way to pry it open.

Of course, a pistol could do the trick, but she didn’t want to waste a precious bullet on this.

She could only put it aside for now.

As for the key, she’d leave it to fate.

An Ling resumed fishing.

As expected, the achievement system triggered again.

It was already nearing dusk.

【Achievement “Good Things Come in Pairs” triggered 100 times, reward: 1 Upgrade Card.】

“Upgrade Card? Another new card?”

An Ling looked at the red card.

The back simply said “Upgrade Card,” and the front showed an upward arrow.

【Upgrade Card: Can be used on any building or item. Using it upgrades the target to the next higher tier.】

What did that mean?

An Ling wasn’t quite sure yet.

Since nightfall was still some time away, she decided to study it later and focus on fishing for now.

After all, there was plenty of time at night.

Throughout the afternoon, besides the locked crate, An Ling fished up three more wooden crates.

Along with various odds and ends, her haul was very rich.

Not exaggerating, today’s haul was nearly three times that of yesterday.

The materials she gathered were: wood 15*2, scrap iron 6*2, plastic 8*2, nails 12*2, gauze 1*2, charcoal 20*2, reeds 10*2, mineral water 2*2, cream bread 3*2, sugar-free soda 2*2.

The sky was almost dark now, so An Ling put down her fishing rod.

The amount of materials excited her; just the food alone would last her several days without worry.

The surplus materials were enough for her to use “Good Things Come in Pairs” to grind points.

There were now eight wooden crates in total.

Two crates occupied almost one square meter.

Though she stacked them, in this five-square-meter island, the space already felt cramped.

【“Good Things Come in Pairs” bonus: dismantling wooden crate yields wood 12*2, nails 12*2.】

She dismantled three crates in one go.

She had wanted to dismantle four, but there was nowhere to put the extra materials, so she gave up.

After organizing her materials, An Ling took out the Upgrade Card from her pocket, ready to study it.

She noticed that whenever she held the card near a building, an

【Upgrade】 prompt appeared, but there was no such prompt for basic materials.

Currently, only three items could be upgraded: wooden fork, seawater filtration device, and the simple tent.

As for her backpack, fishing rod, and workbench, An Ling wasn’t sure why they couldn’t be upgraded.

After some thought, she decided to upgrade the simple tent.

The wooden fork was useless, and she had enough water for now.

【Simple Tent upgraded to Simple Wooden Hut, earned 3 points.】

【“Good Things Come in Pairs” bonus, points earned 3*2.】

【Built Simple Residence, rewarded Wool Felt Mat *1.】

Her vision instantly went pitch black, surrounded by wooden planks.

The simple wooden hut covered the entire island.

“Whoa!”

Three prompts popped up the moment An Ling used the Upgrade Card, even startling her.

She walked to the door and opened it.

Outside was the roaring sea.

The wooden planks were nearly level with the island’s edge.

All her materials were now inside the wooden hut.

The planks were only three or four centimeters thick.

The island’s area was five square meters, so strictly speaking, the interior space of the wooden hut was less than five square meters.

Next to her was the newly rewarded wool felt mat, single-sized, about one meter wide and two meters long, taking up half the hut.

After using the Upgrade Card, her activity space actually shrank.

Her previous plans were disrupted, and with all the things inside, she couldn’t even fully lay out the wool felt mat.

“Ahhh!”

An Ling was about to lose her mind.

The sky outside was already dusk, and now she was enclosed in the wooden hut.

Even with a small wooden window, it didn’t provide any real light.

She still had to sort through all these miscellaneous materials in the pitch-black environment.

Though the building was too heavy for her to move, at least the light screen could.

It reminded her a lot of the survival building games she used to play.

An Ling spent nearly an hour re-planning the entire wooden hut.

She placed the workbench and seawater filtration device by the door on either side where they wouldn’t get in the way.

In the innermost corner, she laid down the wool felt mat for sleeping.

Next to it, she stacked four wooden crates, taking up the space of only two crates, leaving her at least some room to move inside the small hut.

“Phew, I’m exhausted.”

An Ling sat on the mat and gulped down a bottle of mineral water.

The wooden hut’s walls were two meters high, which wasn’t a problem for her since she was only 1.7 meters tall.

Besides, the hut had a peaked roof, so the center was even higher.

With this wooden hut, she finally had shelter from wind and rain—no more sunburn or exposure to the elements.