"It actually rains here."
The girl stretched her arm out the window, letting raindrops dampen her fair skin.
She stood there, gazing calmly at the endless grassland slowly passing by, as if admiring the scenery.
But honestly, beyond the sea of green, the only thing one could feel was loneliness.
The breeze drifting in through the window carried a slight chill, tousling the pink curls by her ears.
Turning her head, she glanced at the remaining number of people on the channel: 7,788. Suddenly, she let out a cold laugh. "Do they really think dying in this hyper-realistic world will send them back to reality?"
She didn't believe it. To her, those people in the channel were just foolish and naïve.
"Still over two hundred kilometers left." The girl lay back down on the bed.
Listening to the rhythmic tap-tap of raindrops against the wooden ceiling, she rested her head on her hands and leisurely closed her eyes.
"Little Qing1, let's try to reach Station One by tomorrow."
"Moo!"
"Container—what can I use as a container, damn it!"
Bai Cheng scanned her train but found nothing suitable for storing water.
Wooden crate?
She glanced at it and immediately shook her head. The gaps between the planks were wider than the gaps between her grandma's teeth. There was no way it could hold water.
Plastic water bottle?
She looked up at the sky. "This rain's too light. The evaporation rate would outpace collection…"
Just as she finished speaking, fat raindrops began falling down, drumming loudly against the ground.
The wind howled, making the nearby saplings sway wildly.
The raindrops stung Bai Cheng's skin, and within seconds, most of her clothes were soaked.
"Damn it!" she cursed under her breath.
Now, making a rainwater collector was the least of her worries. She grabbed her silver axe and jumped off the railcar.
Of course, she didn't forget to switch her outfit into a raincoat. Unfortunately, it was still short-sleeved, leaving most of her arms exposed.
Chopping trees during the day was much easier than at night. One swing, one tree.
Soon, the small grove before her was reduced to stumps.
Bai Cheng gathered the wood and quickly transferred it to her tablet interface.
"This should be enough." She frowned and immediately started building.
In an instant, her bare six-square-meter rail cart transformed into a small wooden cabin made of simple wooden planks.
A window on each side kept the interior from being too dark while allowing her to observe her surroundings. She also left a simple outward-swinging wooden door on the side.
To avoid getting drenched, she had no choice but to build a shelter.
Compared to hauling extra weight, Bai Cheng was more worried about catching a cold from the rain.
"Thankfully, my physique has been strengthened." She smirked as she examined her new cabin. "Otherwise, I'd be exhausted by now."
The sound of raindrops hammering against the roof was almost like a lullaby.
Wind and rain occasionally blew in through the open window, dampening the once-dry floorboards.
Bai Cheng stood in the corner, her clothes still soaked.
Without hesitation, she stripped down to her underwear, hanging her wet clothes to dry on a wooden pole.
She then gathered all the scrap iron from the train into her backpack.
There were 51 pieces in total. It was still 149 short of the 200 needed… which meant that she needed 2,980 more pieces of wood.
Bai Cheng groaned at the sheer scale of the task. But if she wanted more scrap iron, she would have to trade at a high price.
A gust of wind blew in, ruffling her loose white hair. She crouched down.
It was summer, so the air was merely cool, not cold.
Barefoot, Bai Cheng sat cross-legged in the corner and picked up the green treasure chest she had grabbed while chopping trees earlier.
"This chest can't be dismantled, and it looks sealed. Maybe it could work as a container?" She examined it, wondering if it could be repurposed.
Outside, the rain showed no signs of stopping.
Before opening the chest, Bai Cheng muttered a little prayer, even giving her own chest a squeeze for a luck buff.
"Who needs freshwater in a downpour anyway? Please give me something useful…"
[Opened Uncommon Treasure Chest: Obtained Furnace (Blueprint) ×1, Stone Floor (Blueprint) ×1, Water Generator2 ×1, Scrap Iron ×2.]
Bai Cheng froze on the spot.
Damn, not even pretending anymore!
"The water generator isn't even a blueprint?!" Furious, she hurled the chest out the window.
A container? Screw making one!
The water generator was compact. It was a 20-centimeter plastic barrel with a small funnel on top.
Bai Cheng checked its info.
[Name: Water Generator]
[Quality: Common]
[Description: Automatically collects 2 Litres of freshwater every 24 hours.]
[Evaluation: A must-have survival tool!]
"That's not even a lot of water?" She frowned.
The output was barely enough for one person's daily drinking needs, and there would be no surplus for trading.
As for the stone floor blueprint, the name said it all. Bai Cheng didn't even bother checking the details and used it immediately.
Two stones made one tile. The only advantage over wooden flooring was that it allowed for indoor campfires. The downside was that it's too heavy, and the materials were harder to source than wood.
She had no plans to build it. It would only be extra dead weight.
The real prize in this uncommon treasure chest was undoubtedly the furnace blueprint.
"So, smelting equipment really does come from chests," she mused, delighted.
Now, she couldn't wait to test if the furnace could smelt scrap iron.
[Name: Furnace (Blueprint)]
[Quality: Common]
[Build Cost: Scrap Iron ×10]
[Description: Processes and refines metal ores.]
[Evaluation: An essential structure to reach Iron Age!]
Without hesitation, Bai Cheng built it, placing it in a corner.
A flash of light later, a gray, triangular prism-shaped structure about her height appeared.
She inspected it and noticed three differently sized openings, one at the front base and two on the sides.
The front was clearly for fuel.
[Fuel Added: 0/10]
Bai Cheng tossed in 10 pieces of coal, then fed 10 scrap iron into the side slot.
As the flames roared, waves of heat billowed out, turning her fair skin red. She quickly backed away.
Soon, a clank echoed as a smooth, rectangular metal block slid out from the other side.
[Iron Ingot +1!]
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Iron Axe, Iron Pickaxe, Iron Sword, Barbecue Grill, Iron Crate…]
Messages flooded her screen, and Bai Cheng's face lit up with excitement.
"It can process scrap iron!"
The heavy rain outside meant no tree-chopping today.
But now that she had a furnace, trading wood for scrap iron was unnecessary.
Bai Cheng smirked.
"Now, it's this lady's turn to make a fortune!"