BXBX NOVEL Chapter 28 - “Life Skills Player 1”
Last time, on Apocalypse Lord: Yun Ling becomes a real estate mogul.
This chapter has been brought to you by me and Smash10101.
Chapter 28 – Life Skills Player 1
The custard bun was sweet and soft, and the bean paste bun was sweet but not greasy. Adding on a cup of soy milk, they were delicious.
Yun Ling was eating breakfast when You Qing Wen found her and headed straight for the main topic. “I got a new job, going to the food processing factory to get supplies, you coming?”
“Food processing factory? What foods were they producing?” Yun Ling asked.
When wheat was milled, sifted and fortified, and baked, these were all food processing.
Turning corn, wheat and bran into animal feed was also considered food processing.
The two were very different.
You Qing Wen answered, “This time, the employer is the boss of a food processing plant. Supposedly, they are involved in canned meat, canned fruit, ham, and grain processing.”
“Where? Is it far?” Yun Ling asked.
You Qing Wen gave an address.
Yun Ling shook her head at hearing this. “Too far.”
“Okay.” You Qing Wen had felt that the job was good so she came to tell Yun Ling. Seeing that Yun Ling was not willing, she did not force it, and left with a farewell.
Watching You Qing Wen leave, Yun Ling bit into the custard bun, and sank into deep thought.
There were two main expenditures in hiring NPCs.
First, she had to pay a certain amount of copper coins to hire them.
Second, after hiring them, she had to provide two meals a day.
Then, the NPCs would be loyal to her and serve her.
No matter if it was the Woodworker A in the Woodworking Workshop, or Priest A who stayed in the territory and charged for healing, they did not keep even one of the copper coins they made, and handed in all of it.
All these were the important income sources of the territory.
“There are several hundred bags of rice and flour in the warehouse, enough to eat for a long time,” Yun Ling thought. “Right now, it is most important to save more money, and create residences. Also, it will take a lot of copper coins to upgrade the level 1 buildings to level 2.”
With the warehouse as the example, to upgrade from level 1 to level 2, she needed to pay 10000 copper coins.
10000 copper coins!!
Just thinking about it, her heart hurt and she could not breathe.
After finishing the custard bun in a bite, Yun Ling decided to not run around anymore. She would lead the NPCs to fight monsters and level up nearby, get drops, and get money.
At 8 o’clock.
Yun Ling took Guard A, Archer A, and Mage A to depart.
After walking for less than three minutes, a large patch of flax came into view.
A bit further, there was a patch of cotton in view.
Then there was a field of wheat. The golden wheat ears swayed in the wind, waiting for players to come harvest.
Collect 10 flax to trade for a piece of linen cloth.
Collect 10 cotton to trade for a piece of cotton cloth.
Collection 10 wheat to trade for a portion of flour.
Leveling up? For what! Gathering, hoarding, and creating items were so fun!
Yun — life player — Ling strode towards the supplies without a word.
**
Rising Cloud Village.
Most of the players were out during the day, and only the old and weak were left in the territory.
Xu Xin carried a plastic bucket, walking step by step to the nearby river.
Put down the bucket, fill with water.
When it was full, she walked laboriously back with the water.
Wash rice, wash vegetables. Each day, she had to cook for more than ten people. She was very busy.
While it was very hard, Xu Xin had no complaints. She was lucky to have good cooking skills, so she managed to stay with the team in the territory, and each day, she could have hot food. Otherwise, if she could not pay the overnight fee, she would have died a long time ago!
Due to this, Xu Xin treasured her work greatly. Each day, she worked her best, making sure that nothing was wrong.
Unknowningly, the rice in the metal pot was cooked. There was a charred layer at the bottom, the rice crust which smelled very delicious.
“Once I cook the pork belly from yesterday, the food is about done,” Xu Xin said as she poured oil into the pot, and prepared to cook the meat.
[Barbecue success. You have obtained 1 x Pork Belly.]
Xu Xin glanced at the notification, and then closed the window, thinking nothing of it.
The first time she saw the notification, she had been overjoyed, thinking something good had happened. But she had overthought. Nothing happened.
Later, she found, whenever she used the system materials, similar notifications would appear each time. After many times, she did not care.
She continued to make meat. The system continued to give notifications.
[Barbecue success. You have obtained 1 x Pork Belly.]
[Congratulations, Player, for successfully barbecuing 10 times.]
[You have received 1 experience point.]
[You have unlocked the life skill “Elementary Barbecue.”]
[Congratulations, you have officially become a player, and your body will be digitized.]
Elementary Barbecue, 20% chance of failure, 75% chance of success, and 5% chance of increasing food quality.
Note 1: If barbecue fails, the food materials will be automatically destroyed.
Note 2: if barbecue succeeds, the food will have additional attributes. When players eat the food, they will gain buffs.
Great joy drowned Xu Xin.
She looked dazedly at the system notification, and could not recover for a long time.
**
Rising Cloud Village.
Old Zhang sat on a small bench, and wove together straw and wheat stems.
The calamity had come so suddenly his relatives had all passed away, leaving him with his grandson.
Each morning, his grandson would team up with others and go out. He wanted to help, but the years did not spare people. He was more than sixty years old. He was going deaf, he had bad eyesight, and his reactions were slow. If he was taken along, the entire team would be dragged down.
With no way about it, Old Zhang could only stay in the territory.
But he could not let himself be idle like this!
Each person had to pay 5 copper coins each day to stay overnight. Other than this, they had to eat. With the burden of supporting the family on his grandson alone, he felt guilty and helpless. After thinking for a while, he could only think of finding some materials near the territory to make straw sandals, and sell them to subsidize the family.
He did not know if anyone would buy them after he made them.
As time passed, a pair of straw sandals took form.
The system notified, [Congratulations, you have made self-made equipment.]
[You have unlocked the life skill, “Elementary Straw Art.”]
[Congratulations, you have officially become a player, and your body will be digitized.]
Self-made equipment? Life skill? Player? Body digitized? What was all this…
Old Zhang could not figure it out.
Coincidentally, someone passed by. He accidentally looked, and his eyes lit up. He quickly walked close, and said in a friendly tone, “Old Man, you are selling the straw sandals?”
There were customers coming to the door?
Old Zhang said firmly. “Yes, as long as the price is right!”
The right price? The person was unsure and said hesitantly, “How about 20 copper coins per pair. What do you think?”
20 copper coins?!!
Old Zhang, who had never seen the world, was stunned.
The man misunderstood the shock as disbelief, and assumed the old man thought the price was too low.
The man flushed red, and whispered, “Old Man, I only have 36 copper coins. I can only give you 30 at most, no more. I have to keep the rest to pay the overnight fee.”
Old Zhang feared this person would cop out, and hurriedly said, “Then 30 copper coins. Give me the money, and I will immediately give the straw sandals to you.”
“Okay!”
After the transaction was completed, the man hurriedly left.
Old Zhang looked with astonishment at the 30 copper coins in his hands. A pair of straw sandals was worth so much? He increasingly did not understand the world…
The other person held the straw sandals, and joy welled up.
[Name: Straw Sandals]
Quality: Normal
Equip Effect: +1 Agility.
The cloth shoes from the Tailor Shop had +1 Agility, but they were sold for 100 copper coins!
He wanted to laugh at getting such a bargain. But fearing that other people would discover this, he could only suppress himself.
**
Yang Yong’s ancestors were all bamboo craftsmen. He himself had started to learn to weave bamboo from his father starting at the age of 7.
In a flash, twenty years had passed, and the world had changed. The only thing that had not changed was his eternal love for the bamboo art.
On Day 5 of the game, he saw a patch of purple bamboo near the territory. On a whim, he suddenly planned to use bamboo to weave a bamboo shield.
He started to work as he thought about it. Fortunately, he had all his tools on him.
Chop, sand, weave. Yang Yong spent a day making the product.
The system notified, [Congratulations, you have made self-made equipment.]
[You have unlocked the life skill “Elementary Bamboo Art.”]
[Name: Bamboo Shield]
Quality: Normal
Equip Effect: -3 damage received.
In the Woodworking Workshop, a round shield that had -2 damage received could be sold for 100 copper coins. A bamboo shield with -3 damage received would not be worse than the round shield. This was much more profitable than going out.
“In famine years, those with crafts will not starve. The old saying is right,” Yang Yong sighed.
**
At the start of the game, most players did not have life skills. Due to this, the materials were all over the place, and no one collected them.
Yun Ling saw supplies all over the place, and was so happy she was almost crazy.
[Foraging success. You have obtained 1 x Flax.]
[Foraging success. You have obtained 1 x Flax.]
[You have collected 10 flax. Do you wish to exchange for 1 x linen cloth?]
After working for a while, she suddenly realized — Guard A, Mage A, and Archer A did not have life skills, and could only look on.
Thinking, she took out the linen backpack, and gave her own backpack to Guard a. “Go and fight monsters nearby, pay attention to safety. Remember, take all the drop items and place them in the backpack. Do not miss one.”
“Yes, Lord.” Guard A nodded, and left with the team.
Yun Ling kept on collecting.
Now, she finally had the feeling of playing game.
The life/leisure/retired players were always obsessed with hoarding materials, and making recovery items. Fighting and killing was not her style at all.
She looked at the linen backpack. The number of linen cloths were rising, and Yun Ling felt very satisfied.
She had the materials. Was she far from mass producing bandages?
She had cotton cloth. Was she far from making cotton backpacks?
She had flour. Was she far from making foods with special effects?
This was the game life she hoped for.
Snap — her back was suddenly whipped by a tree branch.
She looked back. There were three tree monsters staring at her, coming to surround her.
Yun Ling:”……”
Do not interrupt me from my collection!!
She quickly took a few steps back, wanting to pull away, and have the tree monsters retreat automatically.
But the monsters followed her closely, and were very stubborn.
Yun Ling could only hold a shield in one hand, and a dagger in the other to kill them.
After the monster died, they dropped 16 copper coins, 1 piece of willow wood, and 3 pieces of wood.
Base Recovery Speed: 14 HP/min. About every 4 second, she would get +1 HP and her HP steadily rose.
Yun Ling thought, this was also good, she would both collect and kill monsters.
**
Yun Ling spent more than three hours harvesting the supplies. In the end, she got 40 x linen cloth, 25 x cotton cloth, and 30 x flour.
The NPCs spent most of their time fighting monsters. When their HP occasionally dropped, they would return to Yun Ling, and rest.
Yun Ling found now that as a member of Rising Cloud Territory, the NPCs also enjoyed the buff. They did not just have +50 HP, and base recovery speed +1/minute, they were also able to fight longer.
They did not need to return to camp. She thought, they could roam around the surroundings for a while, and maybe find better materials.
Yun Ling took out biscuits and water from her backpack and ate lunch hastily. Then she strode away into the distance.