Volume One, Chapter 16: Daytime Exploration Once More

Lin Yifan’s heart involuntarily grew heavier once more.

Returning to the chat channel, he pondered for a moment and decided to remind everyone.

Just then, a familiar message popped up from an old acquaintance.

Sexy Wildcat: “Oh my! Last night was so cold! Fragile me almost froze to death, but thankfully Brother Ye Yifan gave me a warm cotton jacket, which helped me survive this chilly night. Thank you, Brother Ye Yifan! I love you! From now on, my heart belongs only to you!”

The moment this message appeared, the chat channel exploded with activity!

“Holy crap, that wildcat actually hooked up with Big Boss Ye?”

“As expected, no matter when, beauty holds the advantage. Even someone like Ye Yifan can’t escape the charm of a beauty’s attack.”

“If even that wildcat can get close to the boss, then so can we!”

“Big Boss Ye Yifan, I’m the sexy wild boar. I can sing and dance, and if the boss gives me some food and clothes, I’ll love only the boss!”

“Me too, Brother Ye! I’m the sexy wild ox, skilled in all eighteen martial arts. Please love me, brother!”

“I’m the sexy wild chicken…”

“I’m the sexy wild sheep…”

And so on.

Watching the flood of messages in the chat, Lin Yifan’s vision darkened, and with a face full of helplessness, he sent a message:

“Stop messing around! I want to say something serious. Check the date and weather page. I noticed not only has the temperature dropped, but daytime is also getting shorter. I don’t know if it will keep shrinking, so you all need to hurry up and gather more supplies.”

His message briefly silenced the channel.

Everyone went to check the date and weather page.

After a moment, the chat resumed its lively pace.

Lin Yifan no longer paid attention. He could only remind them out of a sense of camaraderie, nothing more.

He barely had the strength to ensure his own survival, let alone worry about others.

At that moment, he noticed a message from Ruan Qingtan, whom he had traded with yesterday.

“Mr. Ye, do you think the shortening of daylight could turn into eternal night?”

Lin Yifan raised an eyebrow slightly upon reading it.

Indeed, there were always smart people. If he could think of something, others naturally could too.

However, he couldn’t give a definitive answer, so he replied:

“I don’t know. There are many natural disasters in this world. Even the mosquito swarms crisis counts as just a mild disaster. Surely, more dangerous ones will come. Eternal night isn’t impossible.”

“But there’s no need to worry about that now. Worrying won’t help. The best thing is to gather supplies diligently.”

After sending this, he turned his attention outside the wooden cabin—the dawn had come!

The rain still drizzled steadily, even heavier than yesterday.

And perhaps it was just his impression, but today the fog seemed much thicker than before.

Yesterday, standing inside the cabin, he could still see the dense fog in the distance, but today it was obscured.

Daytime was growing ever shorter; he couldn’t waste a single second.

He switched off the light screen, donned his straw raincoat, filled two empty chests with water under the eaves, and set out to search for supplies.

Yesterday he had gone left, though only skimmed the area, so it was already explored.

He also avoided the left side for another reason—to steer clear of the mosquito swarms.

Last night, he clearly saw billions of mosquitoes swarming in the left forest. He’d been lucky to avoid them.

Continuing to search there would likely lead to an encounter with the swarms, and he hadn’t yet crafted a potent mosquito repellent.

Facing the swarms recklessly would be too dangerous.

Therefore, today he planned to explore the right side instead. The forest there was denser compared to the left.

The tree species were roughly the same, but the right forest featured many low shrubs besides towering trees.

Many thorny vines and brambles lined the path, requiring his axe to hack through.

Gathering supplies would be more difficult, but Lin Yifan resolved to take this route.

His shelter was there, and although he didn’t know if it could be moved later, he had no plans to relocate anytime soon.

For safety’s sake, he intended to explore every direction around his shelter.

Also, today he wasn’t after basic supplies; he sought only chests, medicinal herbs like mint, and materials to craft feathered arrows such as bird feathers and iron pieces.

Surprisingly, luck was on his side.

After only a short distance, he found two medicinal herbs.

Wild chrysanthemum and plantain were common herbs with cooling and detoxifying properties. Back in the countryside, he had seen elders brew them as tea to reduce heat and detoxify.

Even if he didn’t need them now, he gathered them anyway.

“Talent activated! Earned an 8x critical reward!”

Wild chrysanthemum [icon] 8

Plantain [icon] 8

The critical harvest buff instantly turned the single plants into eight each.

Lin Yifan happily tossed the herbs into his spatial ring and moved on.

Not long after, he spotted a massive pine tree branch with a bird’s nest as large as a basin.

His eyes lit up.

He desperately needed bird feathers, but so far hadn’t found a single one.

There were birds in the forest, but only their calls, never their forms. Even with his Wind-Chasing Cloud-Breaking Bow, it was useless.

Now that he’d found a nest, there was a chance to find feathers.

He didn’t dare hope for baby birds.

He had roughly judged the season to be autumn.

Birds built nests and laid eggs in spring, so the nest was surely empty.

But with some luck, maybe a few feathers remained.

He put his axe into the ring, spat into his palm, rubbed it, then began climbing.

His climbing skills weren’t great, but having grown up around such tasks, he managed to reach the nest.

He carefully climbed along the branch until he stood before the nest.

As expected, there were no eggs or chicks inside.

To his surprise, however, there was a chest inside the nest.

Though it was only a white chest, it was better than nothing.

Lin Yifan stored the chest in his spatial ring, planning to open it back at the shelter for convenience.

But then he noticed something else beneath the chest in the nest.

A single egg, about the size of a fist, with a bluish-green shell.