Yu Zhiye laid there like a salted fish and blankly stared up at the ceiling.
It felt like he just closed his eyes and a snap later, he was awake.
“But I feel quite refreshed though? It’s like I slept for a full twelve hours—uh… did I do just that?”
Totally an accident...
Yu Zhiye slowly sat up and lazily stretched his arms. “Whatever. If I missed the time, then... I guess I’ll just have to bear with the hot sun.”
As for disciplining himself? Sorry, he’s not a machine. He’s happy to be alive.
Yu Zhiye got off the comfy hammock and headed over to pick up the empty water bottle that got set aside.
Now, the bottle was completely dry and not even a single drop of water was left.
“Hmm… now let’s see if my speculations are correct…”
A thought later and the empty bottle appeared in his inventory hotbar.
But unlike before, the durability bar was gone. Instead, there was now a x1 counter!
“As expected, unfilled bottles are stackable just like the glass bottle in game!”
It’s just that in reality, the bottle had stricter “empty” conditions such as: not a single drop leftover.
“Cool. Quite the interesting fact, but… not like it mattered much since I don’t plan to stack em.”
The empty bottle reappeared in his hand and Yu Zhiye unbuckled his pants…
“Hah~ feels good to let it all out... Almost thought the desert dried up all my pee. Good to know my body’s fine.”
Just that his urine was a bit darker, that’s all.
The bottle cap screwed back on and Yu Zhiye gave the roughly-ten-percent full bottle a shake.
Emergency water supply acquired! Ahem.
The urine bottle returned to its corner and Yu Zhiye dusted off his icky hands.
“Well. Good thing it’s only number one for now. But guess I’ll have to find some good spot for number two sooner or later…”
Do it outside? Or… fertilizer?
At that thought, Yu Zhiye went out back and assessed the barren plot of land. One look and he knew.
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“Guess for now, farming is out of the question.”
The soil here was so hard and dry that there’s cracks spiderwebbing out all over! It literally looked like another type of desert—a land of drought!
“This place will need a lot of work to become farmland. But I don’t even have enough water to drink, let alone use it here. As for burying fertilizer here…”
Yu Zhiye wasn’t sure if it was a great idea to stink up the place he sleeps.
“Well, if I can get my hands of a shovel, it should be no problem as long as I can bury them deep enough. But for now… just keep number two outside.”
After doing some simple morning stretches, Yu Zhiye headed back into the shack and did a routine check.
The core…
“Still two CE from the two fish I caught. Nothing changed. Guess the daily income hasn’t cashed in yet?”
Moving on, Yu Zhiye pulled up his status screen.
“Nothing should’ve changed here either—Huh? Wait. What’s this? There’s two new status effects?”
[Saturation I] 1:14
[Speed I] 1:14
“If I remembered correctly, the saturation effect restores hunger and the speed effect increases walking speed.”
Nice little positive buffs, but where did they come from?
“The timer is still counting down. Only about a minute left. Tracing back the time... Oh! Could it be the mentioned well-rested buff for resting in this shack?”
Most likely. That can easily be confirmed over the next few days.
“Anyways, this is a good thing. Guess I can skip breakfast.”
No wonder he felt so refreshed after waking up. It’s cause his belly felt full!
But that didn’t mean it was really full.
“Still need to go find more supplies. Aight, let’s head out…”
A new day awaits! Alas, the early bird gets the worm. Yu Zhiye didn’t get his hopes up…
But when Yu Zhiye returned to the store, the scruffy uncle guarding the hallway greeted him with a strange face.
“Hey Steve, you’re awake so early?”
Yu Zhiye blinked in confusion. Is it still early? “What time is it, Jack?”
“Dunno. But I wager it should be around 5 or 6 AM.”
Yu Zhiye was shocked. It’s only been a couple of hours?!
Yet now he felt wide awake. It seems that well-rested buff came with other effects not listed in the buffs.
“Ain’t gonna sleep in for a bit longer, Steve?”
Yu Zhiye pulled himself together and shook his head. “No. I’m good. I’ve slept enough.”
“Yeah?” Jack looked him up and down. “Aight, bud, I understand. Can’t sleep ey? Miss your bed? Bwahahaha!”
Yu Zhiye didn’t bother correcting the misunderstanding. “Something like that.”
“Hey, you…” Jack sighed and comforted him with a shoulder pat. “Well, you’ll get used to it. Buck up, Steve! There’s still a long day ahead!”
“Thanks Jack…” Yu Zhiye then looked to the right. “I’m gonna go check the store to see if there’s any changes. Wanna come along?”
“You go ahead.” Jack grinned and pointed over his shoulder at the lady’s room nearby. “Still on guard duty. That little missy is still in lala land.”
“Right. You do you.”
Yu Zhiye left the man with responsibilities behind and headed back into the store.
What welcomed him should’ve been empty aisles and racks, but to his surprise, he saw new stuff on the shelves!
The supplies respawned!
“Thank the sweet heavens above. A new day, and everything was already looking oh-so-cool!”
Time for another round of search and hoard!
This time, there’s no need to hold back since he knew it won’t drive others into a desperate situation!
First and most importantly on his list was obviously water. He cleaned four bottles off the shelves in a snap. Inventory full!
But Yu Zhiye wasn’t done. He went to find the fruit racks from yesterday…
As expected, new oranges! Since they’re stackable, all mine!
That brought his total from four up to a dozen!
Finally, Yu Zhiye went to the instant ramen aisle.
Here, a new variety of ramen packs and bowls sparsely littered the shelves.
He quickly went to pick a few flavors he liked. But just when he was about to carry his precious loot off, a scream stopped him in his tracks!
“Thief! Stop right there!”