"Gold..." Chen Chen breathed out, a cloud of white vapor escaping his lips. "In a world where people are killing each other for a piece of wood, I just got Gold!"
He didn't waste time. The smell of the bear's blood was pungent a metallic tang that would surely attract every scavenger within a five-kilometer radius.
He touched the chest.
Ding!
[You have opened the Gold Treasure Chest!]
[System Critical Hit: 100% Luck applied! Rewards maximized!]
Three orbs of light floated into his inventory.
[You have obtained: Blueprint - All-Terrain Snowmobile (Storm Chaser Model)]
[You have obtained: Perimeter Defense System - Tesla Coil (Level 1)]
[You have obtained: Perfect Elemental Core (Fire) x1]
Chen Chen's jaw dropped. A snowmobile. In this infinite wasteland, mobility was godhood. No more trudging through knee-deep snow. No more burning precious calories just to walk a hundred meters.
And a Tesla Coil?
"Automatic defense," Chen Chen muttered, his grin widening to manic proportions. "The Snow Wolves want to raid me? Let them come. I'll fry them."
He quickly butchered the bear—gaining a massive 50kg of meat and thick fur—and dragged his haul back to the Stone Fortress.
However, just as he was about to step through his heavy stone door, a sound froze him in place.
Hoooooooom!
A low-frequency hum that shook the ice beneath his boots and rattled the iron bars of his windows. It came from the deep North, beyond the jagged rocks.
It sounded like a whale singing, but distorted, metallic, and incredibly angry.
Chen Chen gripped his crossbow, his knuckles turning white.
"What... was that?"
He scanned the horizon. Nothing. Just the endless white void.
"That wasn't a bear," he whispered. "And it wasn't a wolf. That was something... bigger."
He hurried inside and locked the door. The sound of the heavy bolts sliding into place gave him a momentary sense of safety, but the vibration lingered in his chest.
This world was deep. Deeper than he thought. If the bear was Level 4, what made that sound? Level 10? Level 20?
"I can't get cocky," Chen Chen scolded himself, pacing around his warm, heater-lit room. "The Gold Chest is great, but a snowmobile doesn't stop a Titan."
He checked his supplies.
He had the [Tesla Coil] blueprint, but it required materials he didn't have yet: [Copper Wire x20], [Electronic Parts x10], and [Iron Ingot x50].
"I need resources. Massive amounts of them."
The bear fight had taught him a lesson: his offense was good, but his perimeter was weak. He needed that courtyard wall.
He looked at the time. It was only 2:00 PM. The sun was high.
"I can't hide inside," he decided. "If that thing comes, I need to be ready."
He went back out. But this time, he didn't venture far. He stayed within a 200-meter radius of the fortress, circling it like a shark.
He found a cluster of Ice-Shell Beetles gnawing on a frozen shrub. His crossbow was silent and deadly.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Three [Wooden Treasure Chests].
He opened them.
[Water x500ml]
[Bread x2]
[Wood x5]
"Not enough," Chen Chen grunted.
He continued his patrol. He found a Snow Hare digging a burrow.
[Bronze Treasure Chest].
[Instant Noodles x1]
[Stone x5]
"Better. But I need more."
He worked tirelessly. Step, scan, aim, fire, loot. His 100% drop rate meant that every single kill, no matter how insignificant, yielded a reward. While other survivors might kill ten beasts for one box of moldy bread, Chen Chen was accumulating a warehouse of goods.
By sunset, his inventory was bursting.
He had opened 25 chests in four hours.
Water: 10 Liters
Food: 20kg (Bread, Noodles, Chocolate)
Materials: Wood x80, Stone x40, Iron Scrap x15.
He climbed the stone steps to the roof of his fortress. The wind here was brutal, tearing at his [Stone Skin Poncho], but the view was worth it.
The sun was setting, painting the glaciers in violent shades of purple and bruise-colored red.
Chen Chen looked out over his territory. From this height, he felt like a lord surveying his domain. But the anxiety gnawed at him.
"Seven days until the first Disaster," he recalled the manual's warning. "Day 3 is ending. We are halfway there."
The "Night" buff for monsters was real. He had read the chat logs. People dying because a "weak" lizard suddenly mutated into a frenzied killing machine after dark.
He scanned the perimeter.
To the East, the 7-Eleven ruins were a dark smudge.
To the North, the jagged rocks were ominous shadows.
And then, he saw it. A silhouette.
It was about 300 meters away, trotting casually toward his fortress.
Chen Chen raised his crossbow, squinting through the scope.
"A dog?"
It looked like a Husky. Fluffy tail, pointed ears, white and grey fur. It was bounding through the snow playfully, stopping to sniff the air.
Chen Chen lowered the crossbow slightly. A stray dog?
"No," he corrected himself. "No dogs in the Ice Age."
He watched it. The creature reached the base of his fortress. It didn't look aggressive. It looked... curious. It sniffed the stone foundation.
Then, it lifted its leg. Steam rose from the stone.
Chen Chen's eyes widened. "Did that thing just..."
He leaned over the parapet. The "urine" wasn't yellow. It was glowing green. And where it hit the stone, the rock was sizzling and melting.
"Acid," Chen Chen realized, a vein popping in his forehead. "It's pissing acid on my house."
[Mutated Creature: Corrosive Fox]
[Level: 3 (Night Form)]
[Ability: Acidic Secretions. Deceptive Appearance.]
The fox finished its business, shook itself dry, and then looked up.
It looked directly at Chen Chen.
And it grinned.
Its jaw unhinged, revealing rows of needle-like, serrated teeth that went all the way down its throat.
"Oh, hell no," Chen Chen snapped. "Nobody disrespects the fortress."
He raised the crossbow.
The fox was fast. It anticipated the shot and darted sideways, moving like a blur of white lightning.
The bolt struck the snow where the fox had been a split second ago.
"Fast," Chen Chen noted, reloading calmly. "But not fast enough."
The fox didn't run away. It began to climb the wall. Its claws dug into the mortar like hot knives through butter. It was scaling the vertical stone face, heading straight for the roof.
"You want the high ground?" Chen Chen stepped back to the trapdoor entrance of his roof. "Come get it."
He didn't shoot. He waited.
He heard the scritch-scratch of claws on stone. The sound was getting closer.
A white paw crested the edge of the roof.
Then the head popped up, hissing, green saliva dripping from its jaws.
Chen Chen was standing two meters away, the crossbow aimed directly between its eyes.
"Sit," Chen Chen said cold-bloodedly.
The bolt flew at point-blank range. It entered the fox's left eye and exited the back of its skull.
The force of the impact knocked it backward, off the roof.
Chen Chen walked to the edge and looked down.
The fox lay broken in the snow, its acidic blood melting a small crater around it.
A treasure chest appeared above the corpse.
It shimmered with a sleek, metallic silver light, but with a strange, pulsing purple aura around it.
[Platinum Treasure Chest (Mutated)].
Chen Chen blinked.
"Platinum??"
He scrambled down the ladder, ignoring the cold, and rushed outside.
The chest was beautiful. It looked like it was made of liquid mercury.
"A Level 3 mob dropping Platinum?" Chen Chen questioned. "Wait... the 'Night Form'. The manual said monsters are stronger at night. Maybe the loot tables upgrade too?"
He dragged the chest inside the warmth of his fortress and locked the door.
He sat on his bed, his heart pounding. The chest sat in the middle of the room, reflecting the orange glow of the heater.
"Open."
The lid dissolved into particles of light.
[You have obtained: Blueprint - Greenhouse Dome (Glass)]
[You have obtained: Soil Revival Potion x10]
[You have obtained: Seed Pack (Vegetable Mix)]
[You have obtained: .44 Magnum Revolver (6 Bullets)]
Chen Chen stared at the items.
A gun. A real, powder-actuated firearm!
He picked up the heavy, chrome revolver. It was cold and heavy.
"Crossbows are quiet," Chen Chen whispered, spinning the cylinder. "But sometimes, you just need to make a loud noise!"
And the Greenhouse? With the Soil Revival Potion?
He looked at the corner of the room where he had planned to put a rug.
"I'm not just going to survive," Chen Chen realized, clutching the packet of seeds. "..!"
He looked at the time.
[Day 3 - 23:59]
Day 4 was approaching. And with a gun in one hand and seeds in the other, Chen Chen felt ready for anything.
Except, perhaps, for the message that suddenly pinged on the World Channel, pinned by the System itself.
[System Announcement! 72 Hours Complete. Novice Protection is officially over.]
[The Global Temperature will now drop by another 10 degrees.]
[The First Wave of the 'Beast Tide' has been unleashed!]
Outside, the wind began to scream. And this time, it sounded like a thousand voices.