Chapter 12: Community 135
Immediately following her exit, Chu Yun entered a virtual, unknown space, and the system voice rang out simultaneously:
[There are countless roads, but safety comes first. Careless driving leads to a family’s tears!]
[Congratulations on clearing the Highway Survival instance. You have earned a total of 3,080 Gold Coins.]
Surviving 15 days and clearing: $15 \times 20 + 300 = 600$ coins
Defeating the venomous snake mob: 30 coins
Life and Death Speed: 50 coins
Killing 80 zombies: $80 \times 30 = 2,400$ coins
[Congratulations on achieving first place in this server for the number of zombies slain. You have received 2x Enhanced Zombie Crystal Nuclei.]
[Congratulations on discovering a special resource point—the Desert Seed Processing Factory. You are rewarded with 1x Matching Land Item Card.]
[The next round of the game will begin in two days. Please be prepared.]
The moment the broadcast finished, the white light dissipated, and Chu Yun was instantly teleported back to her single suite. She turned on the room lights, sat on the sofa, and looked over the item descriptions for her newly acquired rewards.
[Zombie Crystal Nucleus: Can accelerate plant growth by 10 times. One nucleus can be dissolved in 1,000,000 cubic meters of water.]
Irrigating one mu of land required roughly 10 cubic meters of water, meaning 1,000,000 cubic meters was equivalent to watering 100,000 mu of fields. Since she had two zombie crystal nuclei, she could irrigate 200,000 mu of land—an incredibly massive quantity.
[Land Item Card: Requires personal binding.
Produced by the system, this Land Item Card covers a total area of one mu. You can raise livestock, grow vegetables, build houses, etc. You can do whatever you want on it. Collecting five cards allows you to unlock and operate your very own instance. (Note: After opening your own instance, you can invite and hire other players to do missions for you).]
On the final day, she had gathered seed packs at the processing factory. Because her zombie kill count was the highest in the server, the game had settled an extra zombie crystal nucleus to accelerate plant growth. Combined with the matching resource rewarded for clearing the instance—the Land Item Card—this infrastructure configuration was so precisely tailored that it was practically telling her to go clear the wasteland.
Chu Yun followed the operational procedure to bind the Land Item Card, thought about it for a moment, and named it: Happy Farm. Subsequently, a top-down miniature map of the land appeared on her personal interface. It was a square patch of red soil, completely flat and barren, with a small brook flowing smoothly right through the center. The system configuration was incredibly convenient; she had the land, and she had a water source. Now all that was left was for her to plant crops on it.
Chu Yun clicked to enter. With a flash of white light, she appeared right in the middle of the farm.
At the same time, the miniature map on her personal interface didn’t disappear, displaying various control buttons as if a farming game had manifested in reality.
Chu Yun understood instantly. She tapped her finger on the brook, and a dialog box popped up: “Do you want to use an item?”
Chu Yun clicked yes, and the dialog box brought up the usable items. Chu Yun selected the zombie crystal nucleus. The brook on the miniature map immediately shifted colors, looking as though it were dyed with a golden light, while a prompt appeared: Zombie Crystal Nucleus remaining: 100%. The soil interface could also be clicked, but there were no items available to select.
One mu of land wasn’t very large; she walked across it in a single minute. She planned to use $3/4$ of it to plant staples, and the remaining $1/4$ for vegetables. Everything was ready except for one crucial thing—she didn’t have any farming tools. She planned to ask around the community tomorrow to borrow some cultivation tools from other players.
After strolling around for a bit, Chu Yun left the seeds at Happy Farm and exited the space.
Just as she returned to her room, a knock, knock, knock echoed from the door. Peer through the advanced display screen on the door, she saw it was Xu Dongdong and Yu Wenhao.
She opened the door and met her neighbors, whom she hadn’t seen in half a month.
“Sister Chu Yun, our community is fully occupied now! Every time I tried to find you before, it showed you were unavailable, so I guessed you must still be in the game. I didn’t expect that you’d be the very last one from our Community 135 to exit. That means you’re the only one who cleared it!” Knowing a big shot lived right next door, Xu Dongdong couldn’t help but beam with pride.
Chu Yun stepped out of the room, only now noticing that the surroundings had become much livelier. The lights in many of the white houses were still on.
It looked like Xu Dongdong and Yu Wenhao had come out before her. Following them would allow her to learn more about the community. Xu Dongdong suggested taking a walk, so the group headed toward the lawn in the center of the community, which had already become a gathering spot for players since it was wide open.
“I came back on the eleventh day because I couldn’t find a water source and suffered a severe negative state from dehydration. Bro Hao came back last night, just a hair’s breadth away from clearing it. He said he ran into zombies. Zombies! And they even multiplied in batches, it was absolutely terrifying,” Xu Dongdong said, unable to repress a shiver.
Yu Wenhao added, “Yes. Those zombies could only be killed with a headshot, otherwise they just wouldn’t die. But there were still too many of them. I couldn’t fight them all off, so I came back.” He couldn’t help but look at Chu Yun. Even he had found it difficult to survive to the end among the zombie horde, yet this Chu Yun had managed to become the only person in the community to clear it. He had to admit she was truly formidable.
Xu Dongdong introduced their discoveries over the past few days to her: “Currently, our Community 135 is fully packed with 2,000 people, half male and half female. Among them, the elderly over sixty and children under fifteen make up 5%. They were teleported over with their families and can freely choose whether to participate in the games. If they don’t participate, they are issued 1 Gold Coin a day, while other players get no gold coins and are forced to participate. But what can 1 gold coin buy anyway? So whether it’s forced or not doesn’t make much of a difference; most of them choose to voluntarily join the games.”
It was true. Here, 1 gold coin could only buy a single mantou, which was barely enough to fill one’s stomach. The weak were meat and the strong ate them; survival of the fittest was a law that neither the elderly nor children could escape.
The lawn in the middle of the community was illuminated, attracting quite a few people who hadn’t gone to sleep yet. Among them, she spotted an old grandpa weaving a straw mat under the light, with a seven- or eight-year-old child assisting him.
Seeing that Chu Yun was interested, Xu Dongdong said, “This old man’s craftsmanship is excellent. He brought back several large bundles of thatch from his game, and once he came out, he started weaving straw mats. He can make quite a few. Two people have already bought some, but I thought it would be a hassle to carry around, so I passed.”
Chu Yun walked over to the old man and squatted down to inspect it. It was exactly as Xu Dongdong said; he was a seasoned craftsman. The straw mat was tightly and delicately woven, with multiple layers interlaced together, making it very thick. It felt soft and smooth to the touch, and leaning close, she could even smell a faint, refreshing fragrance.
“Girl, want one?” Seeing someone patronizing his business, the old man stopped what he was doing and asked hesitantly. Seeing it was a girl, he hadn’t originally held much hope. This was meant to be carried into the games, and even many of the grown men in Community 135 had passed on it, complaining about the inconvenience.
Chu Yun asked, “Yes. How much is it?”
The old man replied, “It… it costs 10 Gold Coins. But it probably won’t be ready until tomorrow.”
Gold coins? Those were virtual. How would they pay? Chu Yun turned her head in confusion to look at the two behind her.
Xu Dongdong explained, “In the community, gold coins can’t just be used to buy things at the convenience store; they can also be used for trading. You two just need to add each other as friends.”
Chu Yun said, “Alright. I want two bamboo baskets and one straw mat. I’ll come back to pick them up tomorrow.”
The bamboo baskets could be used to hold the vegetables she produced, and the straw mat would make it convenient to rest during survival missions.
After the two added each other as friends, they agreed on a pickup time.
“By the way, Dongdong, do you know who has a hoe, a shovel, or any other kind of tools for planting?” Chu Yun asked. Xu Dongdong was quite the social butterfly; in just a few days, he had practically figured out the ins and outs of this entire community.
Xu Dongdong tilted his head in thought and said he would help her ask around when he went back tonight, giving her an answer tomorrow.
“I want to go browse the convenience store again. Why don’t you two go rest first? It’s getting quite late,” Chu Yun suggested.
“Alright. I agreed to practice martial arts with Bro Hao tomorrow and need to get up early, so you should rest early too.”
“Oh, right. The forum is open now, and it’s really interesting inside. Remember to go take a look.”
After exchanging pleasantries, the two went back together.
Chu Yun had just come out of the game, and many of her daily living supplies were lacking, requiring an immediate shopping spree. She didn’t want them to know she possessed a spatial item yet, so she used an excuse to dismiss them.
There wasn’t much to choose from. Chu Yun browsed through items casually and added them to her cart: a set of pajamas for 35 coins, a set containing toothpaste, a toothbrush, and a cup for 20 coins, towels, shampoo, body wash, and laundry detergent for 65 coins, an iron pot for 50 coins, a set of bowls and plates for 10 coins, and an iron bucket for 15 coins. She had earned a total of 3,080 gold coins in the Highway Survival game; she spent 195 coins here in one go, leaving 2,885 gold coins.
After placing the order, the supplies were delivered from the slot beneath the machine. Chu Yun packed the majority of the supplies into her storage ring, leaving only a towel draped over her hand.
Ten minutes later, Chu Yun washed herself thoroughly from head to toe. She threw her dirty clothes along with those from her space into the washing machine, pouring in laundry detergent to wash them. After drying her hair, she lay down on her bed.
