Chapter 59: Using the Shelter Modification Panel

Chapter 59: Chapter 59: Using the Shelter Modification Panel

Thinking about the chicken he ate a few days ago, Jiang Yuxing smiled wryly. "It was... great. Just don’t make it again."

Shi Zhile nodded knowingly. She understood he was complaining about her poor cooking skills.

Her cooking really wasn’t good, but at least it was always thoroughly cooked and wouldn’t kill you.

She wanted to ask Jiang Yuxing to help make egg pancakes, but the thought of her system getting caught stealing his energy made her feel a rare sense of embarrassment.

"It might not taste good, but it’s definitely edible. Don’t make breakfast; I’ll treat you to some egg pancakes."

Jiang Yuxing didn’t refuse. "Alright, send the batter over and I’ll make them. Did you add salt?"

"No."

Half an hour later, Jiang Yuxing sent her a dozen or so egg pancakes and a bowl of seafood congee.

Besides the vegetable congee she ate at Jiang Yuxing’s shelter, this was the most satisfying meal she’d had since entering the instance.

The chickens, ducks, and cows in her Breeding Space hadn’t been fed yet, so she slipped back inside and let the chickens and ducks into the Planting Space to catch bugs.

There was too little grass in the Breeding Space. In just one day, the two cows had eaten it all.

With no mature vegetables or green plants to feed them, the pregnant cow was mooing constantly from hunger, which worried Shi Zhile.

She contacted Jiang Jing: [Are you there? Can you ask your friends in District Two if they have any fodder for cows? If so, I can trade corn seeds for it.]

All the corn harvested on the Desert Island was in her backpack. Before leaving the instance, Shi Zhile had given a portion to Jiang Yuxing and Wang Peng for their help.

Even so, she still had a lot left.

Jiang Jing immediately started a video call.

The sound of wind mixed with the crashing of waves came through. On the video screen, Shi Zhile saw the receding sea and a sky full of falling snow.

She moved closer to the screen and could barely make out his raft through the snowflakes.

It was a small raft with a wooden pavilion that was drafty on all sides. Other than a single stool, it was completely bare.

But that wasn’t what surprised Shi Zhile. It was the fact that he had gone out to sea in a heavy snowstorm.

"Are you crazy? Going out to sea while it’s snowing?"

Jiang Jing’s voice was faint against the wind. "Even though it’s snowing, the wind isn’t bad. We’re low on supplies. It might be cold, but if you live by the sea, the fishing is still great.

Don’t worry, this isn’t my first time going out to sea in the snow. It’s fine."

His face was turning purple from the wind. He rubbed it a couple of times before pulling his collar up to cover half of his face and continuing to speak:

"Let me tell you something: the worse the weather, whether it’s snowing or raining, the better the fishing.

Besides being a little colder and the snow being a little deeper, it’s not much different from a normal day. Plus, I haven’t run into a single Sea Monster since it got cold."

This was information he’d gained after risking his life several times. He could have traded this information for supplies, but he didn’t.

’Jiang Jing’s resilience is incredible,’ Shi Zhile couldn’t help but admire.

Thinking of the pile of corn seeds and glass in her backpack, she took out fifty units of each and sent them to him.

"The seeds are payment for the information, and the glass is my tuition for the archery lessons. Use the glass to enclose the sides of your raft first, so you don’t get sick from the cold and become unable to teach me."

As soon as Jiang Jing saw the supplies, he accepted them without any hesitation.

Once the pavilion was no longer drafty, he touched the glass and laughed. "Finally, no more wind! Give me two minutes. I’m going to turn in the rest of this glass, then get some grass for you."

The video call ended. Just as Shi Zhile was about to water her fields, she received supplies and a message from Jiang Jing.

Shi Zhile opened it. It was a pile of fresh, dewy green grass.

[Someone in District Two is in a rainforest and a grassland instance. We don’t have any hay, but there’s no shortage of wild grass and weeds. I’ll send you a few types of grass first so you can see if your cows will eat them.]

Shi Zhile accepted the items and tossed them next to the cows. The two animals didn’t hesitate, lowering their heads to eat all the different types.

She was ecstatic. [They’re eating all of it. For now, I need about three hundred units. I can trade corn or eggs for it, whatever you need. This batch of corn was ripened with Growth Liquid twice, so it can only be eaten, not planted.]

’District Two has a lot of people. If they’re distributing supplies collectively, they’ll definitely choose corn.’

Corn could be a staple food, but eggs couldn’t.

What Shi Zhile didn’t expect was that District Two didn’t ask for anything.

[Jiang Jing: The higher-ups said the grass is a gift. We’re already gathering soil. We’ll trade for your corn once we have enough soil ready.]

’Everything is about benefits. They probably have other plans for not asking for the corn, but if I accept this, I’ll owe them a favor.’

In a time of scarce resources, a straightforward exchange was the best way to do business.

Her backpack had what could be described as a mountain of corn, so she sent over one hundred fifty units directly.

[Soil is soil, and grass is grass. We can’t mix the two. Here are one hundred fifty units of corn in exchange for the three hundred units of grass.]

One hundred fifty units of corn weighed about 165 pounds. The reason she described her corn supply as a "mountain" was that she had harvested the entire island’s worth. Not counting what she had given to Jiang Yuxing and Wang Peng, she still had at least a ton of it in her backpack.

Even though it couldn’t be planted, it was excellent for trading.

If she wanted to, this corn could feed all the players in Server One for two or three months.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t willing to. She preferred to have valuable friends. As long as the players of Server One couldn’t offer her anything of value, she wouldn’t extend a helping hand.

Corn was difficult to mill. If she had an automatic grinder, she could actually feed it directly to the black cows.

A short while later, Jiang Jing sent over three hundred and thirty-something units of grass.

Shi Zhile accepted it immediately and fed a portion to the black cows.

With the fodder issue resolved, Shi Zhile finished watering the fields.

After leaving the space, she walked a lap around the second floor.

She observed her surroundings, formulating a plan in her mind for how she wanted to renovate her shelter.

The cave area on the second floor was too small; she could upgrade its size.

The sealed glass windows needed to be changed into sliding ones, which would make it easier for her to clear the snow outside.

The wooden door could stay for now, but she could add a handrail to the stone staircase.

The first-floor cave was very empty. She could add a window on the west side and build a fireplace.

The basement needed to be enlarged. While she was at it, she could extend it downward to create a sub-basement, which could be used to store ice and snow in preparation for future weather changes.

The courtyard needed a major overhaul.

She had enclosed the top in a hurry, and the flat glass roof wasn’t good for letting accumulated snow slide off. She needed to change it into a sloped roof.

Once she had a rough plan, she took out the shelter renovation panel. The moment she touched the panel with her stylus, an image of the courtyard’s roof automatically appeared.

She tentatively drew two sloped lines with the stylus. The glass roof above her changed, and the iron support pillars in the courtyard shifted their positions accordingly. In just over ten seconds, the whole thing was transformed.

’It seems that after expanding the shelter, making precise modifications will require drawing them out.’

Now that she understood how to make modifications, Shi Zhile picked up the pace. She continuously changed the scenes on the panel, adding and subtracting elements, and altering things according to her plan.

During the final ten-second countdown, Shi Zhile decided to go big.

She chose to consume her spiritual power to raise her shelter’s Level.

When the system displayed that the Level-up was successful, the panel automatically popped up.