Chapter 58: One-click Complaint

Chapter 58: Chapter 58: One-click Complaint

Shi Zhile exited the instance.

The next moment, the long-awaited reward arrived.

[The Desert Instance reward has been sent to your inventory’s collection point. Please claim it as soon as possible.]

Shi Zhile opened her panel and took out the reward.

It was something like a child’s drawing pad: a rectangular black screen the size of a tablet, with a stylus resting in a slot at the very bottom.

She took out the stylus, and a floor plan instantly appeared on the black screen.

Shi Zhile examined it closely. The more she looked, the more familiar it seemed. She suddenly looked up at the two-story stone house in front of her and realized the pad was displaying her own shelter.

’A material-free shelter upgrade? Do I just draw the modifications directly? But I can’t draw at all.’

"System, item description."

[Shelter Modification Panel: Allows for material-free modification or upgrading of the shelter. Modification window: 30 minutes.

Instructions: Tap the panel and zoom in on a specific part of the shelter to make precise upgrades.

Alternatively, you can consume spiritual power to increase the shelter’s overall Level. (Warning: Increasing the shelter’s Level consumes a massive amount of spiritual power. Choose with caution!)

Note 1: The countdown begins the moment the stylus touches the screen.

Note 2: The countdown cannot be paused once it has started.]

Shi Zhile was relieved she hadn’t tapped the panel randomly.

An opportunity to upgrade without using materials couldn’t be wasted. She needed to draw up a proper blueprint for the shelter before starting the modifications. With that, she placed the stylus back in its slot.

While she was thinking, a message was pinned in the chat channel.

[World Announcement (Survival Tip): Because player Contentment Brings Happiness has unlocked 100% of the Desert Instance’s progress, the system will perform a server-wide live update tonight at 12:00 AM sharp.

Specific upgrades include, but are not limited to: panel upgrades and updates to "Spirit Value," "Physical Strength," and more.

Full details of the upgrade will be released tomorrow at 12:00 PM sharp. All players are advised to check at that time to avoid missing important information.]

’A system upgrade is never a good thing,’ she thought. ’They’re probably just increasing the game’s difficulty again.’

Shi Zhile read it over again.

’Fine, upgrade the game if you have to,’ she thought, ’but what’s this nonsense about upgrading because a player reached 100% progress in an instance?’

’The system is clearly using me as an excuse to ramp up the game’s difficulty and make more players hate me.’

Enough players from the merged Servers 1 and 3 already hated her. Now, with a server-wide upgrade, she was essentially offending every player in the game.

Although she didn’t know how many servers there were in total, she knew there had to be more than just three.

The world announcement didn’t show the total player count, and players were unable to speak.

Players could only speak in the chat channels, and even that was restricted to those in their original or merged servers.

As a result, Shi Zhile couldn’t figure out the total number of servers in the game.

She grew worried again. "I’m already hated enough as it is. A stunt like this will make me public enemy number one, a target for everyone!"

This kind of thankless situation had to be stopped.

There was a one-click complaint button on the game panel. Amidst the system’s shriek, Shi Zhile tapped it.

[AARGH! What are you doing? Take it back, quick!]

Shi Zhile didn’t pause, continuing to fill out the reason for her complaint. "What are you afraid of? I’m complaining about the main system, not you. Aren’t you guys short on energy? If you’re going to use me as an excuse to stir up trouble, you should at least pay me for it."

The system stopped screaming, but it was clearly still shaken.

’As long as the complaint isn’t about me, it’s fine.’

’Sure, it had borrowed some of her luck from time to time, stolen her newbie protection period, and even shorted her on her number of wishes, but it kept its mouth shut these days!’

’If it keeps its mouth shut, the host has to use her brain. If the host uses her brain, she’ll think for herself. And if she thinks for herself, she won’t end up dead the second she’s left to her own devices, unlike the last host.’

’As long as she doesn’t rely on wishes for everything, the host’s own skills will skyrocket, allowing her to survive to the very end.’

’That one point of merit alone meant it deserved to sit back and enjoy the rewards.’

[Complaining to the main system is the same as complaining to the game developers. You should be prepared for customer service to play dead. They’re incredibly stingy; they might not give you any energy.]

"There’s no harm in trying. In the meantime, you just keep up your regular AI persona."

Her typing fingers paused. "Tong’er, did you just say ’game developers’ and ’customer service’?"

The system glitched for a second, then played dead in a flat, emotionless tone: [System entering hibernation mode!]

’Looks like there’s more to this game than meets the eye,’ she thought.

After a moment of silence, Shi Zhile resumed typing.

The complaint form had a one-thousand-word minimum, so Shi Zhile, in one go, typed out three thousand.

The gist of it was that the main system was inhuman, no, *subhuman*, and was using her routine act of clearing an instance as a baseless excuse to upgrade the system, increase the game’s difficulty, and cause her severe personal repercussions.

She demanded that the game developers dissect the main system to check for any corrupted code or signs of a security breach.

Furthermore, she strongly demanded compensation from the developers for reputational damage and psychological distress.

Her tone was one of righteous indignation, heavily emphasizing the psychological harm she had suffered and using the opportunity to attack the unfairness of the game’s entire system.

After she sent off her sprawling, three-thousand-word complaint, an automated reply was received.

[Your complaint has been received. The system will provide a response within 3 days.]

Shi Zhile was satisfied.

If customer service couldn’t provide a satisfactory response, she would just file another complaint, this time targeting the game developers as well.

At 7:00 PM, Shi Zhile slipped into her Breeding Space.

The day’s harvest from the Breeding Space was thirty-nine chicken eggs and twenty-seven duck eggs.

She set aside the eggs she had promised to Jiang Yuxing and the other four, then sent five chicken eggs and five duck eggs to each of them.

Meanwhile, Jiang Yuxing and the other four were still on the Desert Island.

Jiang Yuxing was searching for medicinal herbs, Jiang Jing was looking for wild vegetables, and Wang Peng had swum back to the undercurrent to frantically stock up on water.

As for Jiang Yu and Chuyi, they had teamed up and were busy hunting other players.

「The next day」

Shi Zhile opened a coconut after getting out of bed. The cool coconut water settled in her stomach, and her fatigue finally vanished.

She was on the second floor, where the windowpanes were covered in a thick layer of snow, completely obscuring the view outside.

No instances were scheduled to open today, she didn’t have to worry about being hunted by other players, and she had plenty of food. There was no reason to risk leaving the shelter.

So, today was a day for some high-quality slacking.

Opening her inventory, she saw she still had 56 eggs left. She took out five to make egg pancakes.

In the Planting Space, the wild scallion seedlings had fully matured after a whole day.

She plucked a handful of scallions, washed and chopped them, then took out a bone china bowl. Into it, she added flour, cracked the eggs, tossed in the chopped scallions, and poured in some water.

She added too little water at first, so she added a bit more. Then she’d added too much and had to put in more flour.

After going back and forth twice, the batter was finally mixed evenly.

By now, the massive bowl of batter was so full you couldn’t even see a hint of egg. Remembering the vegetable porridge Jiang Yuxing had made last time, she started a video call with him.

"Jiang Yuxing, take a look. Is my batter okay?"

Jiang Yuxing stared at the massive bowl of batter, silent for a moment before asking, "Are you feeding pigs?"

"You’re the pig! I’m trying to make egg pancakes."