RITW 12: Usage of Building Materials

This should… scare them, right?

Yu Qunqing observed the slight trembling of the people across from him and felt confident. Suddenly, the system prompted:

“Ding! The crocodile is frustrated because its size prevents it from squeezing into the elevator. Please spend 2 hexagram stars to install a larger and more beautiful elevator for it!

You have three options: ‘Egyptian Mythology Relief Column,’ ‘Ultra-Modern Space Floating Mobile Capsule,’ and ‘Roman Beast Arena Conveyor Belt.'”

Yu Qunqing: Crocodiles are really easy to upset.

He switched to inverted vision and noticed that several people ahead had debuff statuses above their heads. Zhang Shu was unconscious due to excessive blood loss, Xiaojin had burns, scratches, and infected wounds, and Grandma Sun had a high fever…

There was also a prompt under their feet: “TA is not your game friend. Do you want to add as a friend or banish? (Costs 10 hexagram stars to delete local data and backups.)”

Yu Qunqing’s hands trembled slightly too. Within the scope of the game, human life seemed to be nothing more than a weightless set of data.

He flipped through the game instructions and took out the calamity stone that Sun Min had given him. It was the white shell-shaped calamity stone produced by the sporophyte and was one of Yu Qunqing’s latest objectives to clear the level.

He asked Sun Min to accompany him downstairs. Outside Building Four on the ground floor, the crocodile lay in wait, staring at them. Faced with the colossal creature, Sun Min couldn’t help but feel weak in the legs and stammered, “W-will it, the crocodile, eat us?”

Yu Qunqing: “It doesn’t like to eat humans. Humans don’t taste good to it.” After all, the crocodile had an endless supply of refined feed provided by the system.

Sun Min almost fainted upon hearing this.

After a brief stare-down between the crocodile and Yu Qunqing, the crocodile slowly crawled away. Yu Qunqing let out a sigh of relief. He had just established a powerful image of the crocodile and didn’t want to do anything that would undermine it.

“Do you talk to crocodiles?” After walking for a while, Sun Min seemed to have found his voice again.

“It understands what we say,” Yu Qunqing took the opportunity to deceive, “It knows everything and controls everything here.”

“Is the Crocodile Deity a calamity monster?” Sun Min’s face turned pale. He couldn’t imagine what level it would be if this ancient behemoth was a calamity.

Yu Qunqing fell silent. He seemed to have a subconscious understanding of what the true nature of the system was. He had even directly participated in the formation of the system. This system would never harm him… But there were always missing pieces from his past life. He simply said, “It can help us survive.”
　　
As long as they could stay alive, it no longer mattered who they depended on.

They quickly arrived at the center of the crocodile fountain, where the flowing water continuously struck the cracks in the middle. Yu Qunqing pressed the light switch, illuminating the calamity stones inside the cracks. There were a total of 88 white pearl-shaped calamity stones and 22 colorful shell-shaped calamity stones.

“Mentally recite your name and the names of your friends, then throw these two calamity stones into that spot,” Yu Qunqing instructed following the game’s instructions.

Sun Min followed the instructions and did as he was told. When three identical calamity stones touched each other, they dissolved strangely.

Sun Min felt as if his brain had connected to an abyss. He squatted down and touched the edge of the crack again, and a transparent box suddenly popped up at his fingertips: “Sun Min/Current Building Materials: 500.”

“Ding dong! Friend request from Sun Min has been added. Now you can entrust him to help you overcome challenges!”

A notification sound echoed in Yu Qunqing’s mind.

He explained, “Building materials can help you live better here. You can exchange them by eliminating the calamity stones or directly offering jewelry.”
　　
“Um, excuse me, are you actually a game NPC?” Sun Min couldn’t help but ask. “Will you give me quests?”

Yu Qunqing, of course, wouldn’t admit to any transcendent status. “I just arrived a bit earlier, that’s all.”

After helping set up the friend account, Yu Qunqing, mindful of his depleted stamina, prepared to return home for a while. He let Sun Min and the others explore freely. Everyone wanted to say something but hesitated, watching Yu Qunqing leave.

The small gardens on the fourth floor of the four buildings were all connected. Yu Qunqing arrived at the fourth floor, where the chorus of frogs resounded, and a few water snakes were present. Accidentally touching some plants caused a swarm of dark insects to fly out. A biological chain had formed here.

He lived in the second building, and it didn’t take long to reach his home. Taking the elevator up, he saw the familiar metal gate.

Closing the heavy curtains, he powered on and entered the game interface!

“Special Event: Parrot’s Gift! During the event period (from Thursday to Friday), winning consecutive levels will reward you with abundant items from the parrot! However, if interrupted, the accumulation of rewards will start over. Please enjoy the game to the fullest!”

“Chirp chirp!” The rescued blue-bellied parrot called out loudly.
　　
Yu Qunqing gave the parrot some dry food.

In the game, there was also a parrot, but it was majestic and had vibrant feathers, unlike the real one. The game’s field of view was also much larger. Yu Qunqing moved to the fourth building, illuminated the position on the second floor, and found several pixelated figures gathering together. They all had friend icons beneath their feet.

Friends could help achieve the clearance goals, so why not give it a try?

Three minutes later, the screen lit up with the congratulations sign for clearing the level. The Parrot’s Gift was activated, and the next level would reward a yellow duck balloon at the start of the level.

At that moment, the parrot fluttered down with its injured wing trembling. Yu Qunqing sensed something amiss and used the inverted color mode to take a look. On top of the little parrot’s head was the “Yellow Duck Balloon” BUFF, allowing it to float around like a balloon and possess a one-time bomb function to attack unfriendly targets within a 6×6 range.

Yu Qunqing couldn’t help but feel amused and exasperated. He put the parrot back in its birdhouse and let it continue to recover from its injuries.

After using up all eight stamina points, he successfully obtained six hexagram stars.

Switching to the renovation mode, Yu Qunqing started by installing an elevator for the esteemed crocodile. He chose an Egyptian mythological theme, which looked more impressive.

Then two renovation tasks popped up. One was the construction of public areas: repairing the exterior walls of the residential area to prevent them from collapsing due to water damage. The other task was the interior construction of residential buildings: freely choosing any floor from the first to fourth of any building for construction.

Yu Qunqing observed the exterior walls and felt they could hold up for a while longer, so he clicked on the massage room on the second floor of the fourth building.

“Would you like to use 1 hexagram star to unlock this area for friends?”

“The massage room is full of dust. Spend 2 hexagram stars to clean it up!”

“The disinfectant alcohol has spilled all over the floor… Clean it up quickly and buy some new ones.”

Yu Qunqing spent all the hexagram stars again. He clicked on other floors, hesitated for a moment, and moved some of his stored antipyretic medicine to the massage room on the second floor of the fourth building.　

Meanwhile, after Yu Qunqing left the second floor of the fourth building, the others experienced the changes from the game system.

Sun Min stood at the staircase and called out to others, “Zhang Jie, come and take a look. Do you have this notification?” He placed his hand on it, and a message popped up: “To unlock the third-floor public area, 600 building materials are required. Currently, Sun Min/500 building materials.”

Zhang Sanxi immediately came over, and the same box appeared, but with a different name. She was startled.

Xiao Jin and Anan also tried it and found it to be true. The group was shocked and doubtful. Sun Min quickly repeated what Yu Qunqing had said. After listening, Anan pondered and said, “It means that this area is sustained by building materials. Having order is a good thing. But every time we go to a new place, we have to pay with building materials. Could it be that someone is paying for us?”

Of course, everyone knew who that person was. Ah Jin exclaimed first, “That’s great! We finally encountered a good person! I thought he let us rest here as if we were just a reserve food supply…”

“You’re overthinking it! NP, cough, Brother Yu is not that kind of person,” Sun Min retorted.

“He is a good person, but good people can’t always save us. We can only save ourselves,” Zhang Sanxi anxiously said, “Having shelter from the rain is indeed fortunate. But building materials don’t have much use. Going upstairs at most keeps us away from the stagnant water. It’s still too difficult for us to survive…”

She had just checked everyone’s injuries. Her father and Xiao Jin were severely injured, and everyone’s clothes were damp, making them prone to infections.

Anan said, “We still need to explore the uses of building materials. Going upstairs requires 600 building materials, and we can’t pool our resources together. None of our individual accounts have enough to pay. Let’s discuss it further later.”

Everyone’s mood became low again. At that moment, Zhang Shu suddenly groaned and called out in pain. Zhang Sanxi’s face showed distress. Besides moving her father to a relatively dry area, she had no other solutions.

Ding dong.

Suddenly, the sound of unlocking came from the adjacent massage room.
　　
Even in the apocalypse, everyone was afraid of ghosts and huddled together, screaming. After a while, Zhang Sanxi suddenly said, “How could I forget? There must be some fabric in the massage room that we can use for bandages!”

Her heart surged with excitement. As she placed her hand on the door handle, a small box popped up: “Zhang Sanxi/Current building materials: 500, entering the massage room costs 100 building materials per visit.”

“Building materials can open this door too!” she exclaimed with joy. Her good friend Anan quickly went to touch the door of the adjacent gym, but there was no response.

Xiao Jin said, “Have you guys noticed… this massage room is much tidier than before.”

“No, no, no… It can’t really be ghosts,” Anan wanted to hold Zhang Sanxi back. But Zhang Sanxi went straight in, and everyone held their breath, standing outside the door, observing.

“Indeed, there are clean clothes for guests here, as well as scissors and alcohol,” Zhang Sanxi immediately found the items she was looking for. Overwhelmed with joy, she handed them out through the door, saying, “Quickly take them and use them to dress your wounds! I’ll keep looking for more.”　　
　
“There’s really not even a speck of dust on them…” Anan touched the items and pondered, “The only variable that changes when the massage room opens should be the calamity stones you placed on the sculpture. So the more calamity stones we place, the more space will be restored. The more building materials we obtain, the greater our chances of survival here!”

In just a few minutes, Anan had already figured out the rules of survival in this place. Yu Qunqing’s intention of not explaining all the rules was also for this reason. Only by exploring on their own would they better adhere to the rules here.

Zhang Sanxi changed into dry clothes in a small compartment, feeling much more refreshed. Then she embarked on a scavenging journey, stripping several bed sheets, taking pillows and small stools.

“There are antipyretic medicines here too! Quickly give them to Grandma Sun!” Zhang Sanxi threw the bottles out. Sun Min quickly caught them, as if catching a priceless treasure.

The moment she stepped out of the massage room, the room behind her quickly returned to its original state, except for the antipyretic medicines. The people who witnessed this change were pleasantly surprised.　
　　
The group took turns going inside and quickly changed into clean clothes. Xiao Jin wrapped clean bandages around his feet, and Zhang Shu was almost wrapped up like a mummy. The two ladies helped dry Grandma Sun’s body, gave her the antipyretic medicine, and covered her with thick blankets. Grandma Sun’s furrowed brow relaxed. There was a water dispenser in the massage room, and everyone didn’t care if it was expired as they filled several buckets with water.

Finally, their dry and cracked lips were moistened with fresh and clean water. Everyone covered themselves with thick blankets and rested in the dry hallway on the second floor.

“I’ve never been treated so well even in prison!” Xiao Jin exclaimed first. In terms of the quality of the environment, there wasn’t much difference between the two, but their state of mind was completely different. They were struggling for survival, but now that they had changed into new clothes, life seemed to have a new glimmer of hope.

Zhang Sanxi undoubtedly agreed. She had thought that she could only watch her only loved one die in pain and even if she survived, she could only endure all the pain and live without any resistance. She had never imagined that there would suddenly be a faint glimmer of hope for their medical conditions, and she didn’t want to give up anymore. She held Anan’s hand while silently wiping away her tears.

Anan squeezed her hand tightly. Hope was such a precious thing. Suddenly, she said, “Sun Min, how did you say we can obtain building materials?”

“You need to use Disaster Stones or offer up jewelry,” Sun Min replied. He was using his sturdy hands to sharpen the top of an iron pipe. He thought to himself that if they wanted to survive, they would need more building materials, and they would definitely have to venture outside. But relying solely on their small group, they wouldn’t be able to get very far…

Sun Min took off a relatively sharp piece of iron, shaped like an arrowhead. He remembered that there weren’t many arrows in Yu Qunqing’s bow case. Perhaps, he could use his abilities to increase everyone’s chances of survival.

The sound of sharpening echoed through the second-floor hallway.　

.

.

.

T/N: it’s been a week….I got caught in a scam and had a $4000 loan taken out in my name omg. Trying hard this past week to get it cancelled but it doesn’t look good and I’m probably going to have to find a lawyer to file a lawsuit. I’m just a poor grad student, why do people do this to those who already have nothing 😭😭😭

On top of that, I got no work done this week because of this and don’t have any new data to present to my PI next week. Gonna have to work overtime this weekend. Ugh, I’m so upset right now