001's way of putting it...
Having insufficient funds is not a big deal.
What does 'pay it back later' even mean? Does it not realize that the person who owes money is the boss? As long as it doesn't affect her normal trading or anything, it is just a measly fifty-thousand fine; she can just leave it sitting there.
Meanwhile, the system that issued the fine was furrowing its brows tightly.
Strange.
Too strange!
Why won't the repayment deadline message go through?
It tried to force it through using several different methods, but finally, it had no choice but to report the error to the central system.
Cheng Shuili was very happy.
This dungeon trip could be described as unexpectedly fruitful.
She took out all the energy crystals. The stones, varying in size, were stacked one upon another, piling up into a small hill inside the vehicle.
The more Cheng Shuili looked at them, the more satisfied she felt. She even opened the system to take a photo, intending to keep it as a memento.
However, these energy crystals could not be used directly yet. 001 had specifically compiled a document for Cheng Shuili called 【Special Material Segmentation Rules】.
It was aimed exactly at materials of varying sizes like these!
It was meant to prevent humans—who were capable of all sorts of devious deeds—from cutting a whole energy crystal into the smallest possible pieces to inflate the total count of crystals!
Cheng Shuili, who had been thwarted, thought: "..."
Seriously.
How is it that the system can be so clever at times and so incredibly stupid at others?
Cheng Shuili shook her head, gripped her long blade, and began cutting the energy crystals according to the standards.
This material was indeed easy to cut; it could be called the easiest thing Cheng Shuili had ever sliced.
But that wasn't the point.
Cheng Shuili frowned deeply, held up a stone, and questioned 001: "Why doesn't this piece of energy crystal count as one unit?"
【Boss, this piece of energy crystal is 0.1 centimeters smaller than the required minimum specification. Therefore, it does not count as a unit.】
Cheng Shuili clenched her fist, trying hard to force the corners of her mouth upward.
This is retaliation, right?
It definitely is!
She thought of something else and asked with a frown: "Then is this piece of stone still of any use?"
As soon as she finished speaking, the energy crystal in her hand dissolved into a wisp of dust and drifted away in broad daylight.
Cheng Shuili: "???"
【Boss, this is our waste recycling system. To prevent the misuse of non-standard energy crystals, any stones falling below the minimum standard automatically turn into dust.】
It was unbearable; there was no need to tolerate it any longer!
"You don't make the rules that actually matter! Why bother managing these messy, trivial details?"
【Boss, we have gone through rigorous consideration! If we do not restrict the specifications of the energy crystals...】
001 listed over a dozen seemingly severe consequences in one breath.
Cheng Shuili listened with a frown for a long while. The more she heard, the more she felt that none of these were as serious as her chopping down the statue.
"It really is... failing to be serious where it matters..."
Cheng Shuili muttered, carefully studying how she should divide the energy crystal in her hand.
She had originally thought it would be a small matter, but under the system's high-standard requirements, Cheng Shuili worked until past eleven in the evening.
Of course, she had taken a break to eat dinner in between.
When she straightened up to stretch, Su Rui had already fallen into a deep sleep.
Cheng Shuili shook her head. Looking at the energy crystals scattered across the floor—all uniform in size and glistening with a crystal-clear luster—she felt that this day had been very fulfilling.
The statue had allowed her to harvest a total of 142 energy crystals.
This was not the limit of the statue; it was the limit of Cheng Shuili's Abyss Ring.
She hadn't specifically organized the ring before entering the dungeon, and it still held quite a few items. It was only because the remaining space was stuffed to the brim with energy crystals that she managed to bring this many out.
But in truth, Cheng Shuili was already very satisfied.
That was 142 pieces! If a Gold Supply Crate were opened entirely for energy crystals, it could only yield 10!
Rounding it up, her trip to this dungeon had yielded the equivalent of 14 Gold Supply Crates!
Before this, such a thing was something she wouldn't even have dared to imagine.
Cheng Shuili took a deep breath. Since the day wasn't over yet, she took an energy crystal and sat in front of the workstation.
She hadn't used her improvement attempt for the blueprints today, so she couldn't let it go to waste.
Cheng Shuili thought for a moment and chose the 【Basic Vehicle Rainproof Tarp Blueprint】 she had obtained from the organization.
Improvements, after all, had a certain evolutionary effect! It had to evolve the function to shield against acid rain!
What Cheng Shuili worried about most now was what the next disaster would be. The 【Gift of the Great God of Prophecy】 would only be better tomorrow, and only then would the answer be revealed.
In the short term, disasters shouldn't repeat themselves. The next disaster had to be one for which she already had a blueprint to cope with!
Otherwise, she would be no different from a raw recruit.
Cheng Shuili grumbled to herself, but her eyes were fixed on the blueprint. After hesitating for a moment, she finally hardened her heart and pressed the button to improve it.
Then, she immediately raised her hand to cover her eyes, as if good things would happen if she didn't look at it.
But heaven didn't follow her wishes. When Cheng Shuili opened her eyes, she saw the word "Failed" on the pop-up window.
Cheng Shuili gnashed her teeth and stared at those two words for a long time. Sometimes, she was truly curious about what the actual probability of success was! What conditions had to be met to even see that probability!
Damn system!
Is it that hard to provide a manual?
The system, of course, ignored her boring accusations. After Cheng Shuili wasted one energy crystal, she hugged the remaining 141 energy crystals and went to sleep, feeling quite content.
She had just closed her eyes when she suddenly opened them again.
Come to think of it, this stuff is shiny and provides energy; it couldn't be something radioactive, could it?
Cheng Shuili frowned, suspiciously gathering the energy crystals that had been covering her body and putting them back into the Abyss Ring.
She was different from before. In the past, she had a cheap life and would work overtime whenever told, but now that she had died once, she could be considered the most self-preserving person in the entire game world.
She lay back down on the bed and obediently closed her eyes.
At the very last moment before her consciousness drifted away, she was still thinking that at twenty-something, it seemed to be the age to start focusing on wellness.
Cheng Shuili sometimes really felt that this disaster was completely different from the previous ones.
Previous disasters would be eager to beat gongs and drums, announcing with great fanfare what kind of disaster was coming! They would also constantly declare their presence, affecting every second of the players' lives.
Famine, however, was like a venomous snake lurking in the shadows, spying on its prey. It would wait for you to relax your vigilance before quickly sticking out its head and biting you hard.
On the fifth day of the famine, the system didn't stir up any trouble.
The self-preserving players who had figured out the process all followed the rules obediently. Setting aside how much in supplies they had lost, at the very least, they had managed to keep their lives.
For the past two days, the regional channel had been filled with quite a few bloody images.
Thighs and arms gnawed down to the white bone, and so on. The subjects in the pictures were all in a coma. Of course, whether they could wake up from such a situation was self-evident.
These kinds of pictures, which were chilling just to look at, were spreading wildly on the regional channel.
Rate on N.U.
