Volume 1, Chapter 41: Truly the Ultimate Home-Defense Artifact
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Lin Yifan had been lucky enough to acquire a pet like this, and he could not bear to let it die.
In this godforsaken place, there was no telling when he might encounter another human being.
If his judgment was wrong and everyone was actually in different dimensions, they might never meet at all.
Such loneliness would drive a person mad sooner or later. Even with a chat channel through which he could communicate with others of his kind, it would still be difficult to endure.
But if he had an intelligent creature by his side—someone he could occasionally communicate with, someone capable of responding to his emotions—perhaps he could hold on a little longer.
Therefore, Lin Yifan absolutely would not allow anything to happen to Mao Mao. Even if it were not a golden eagle, even if it were merely a cockroach or a rat, he would still protect it and care for it properly.
Mao Mao was obedient as well. After rubbing its head against Lin Yifan’s palm, it obediently hid inside his pocket, poking out only its little head to gaze curiously at the world outside.
At last, the time reached 8:30.
Out of habit, Lin Yifan opened the weather and calendar page. Sure enough, the temperature had dropped again.
Yesterday, it had still been twelve or thirteen degrees. Today, it had fallen to nine or ten, while yesterday’s moderate to heavy rain had become heavy rain outright.
When he opened the door, a dense curtain of rain thick with moisture made visibility even worse.
Even with Lin Yifan’s excellent eyesight, he could see no farther than ten meters. Beyond that, everything was blurred.
As he looked at the heavy rain before him and the shallow puddles already accumulating in front of his shelter, the worry in his heart deepened.
The terrain here was simply too low. Even without any lakes or rivers nearby, if the rainfall continued to increase, floodwater might well seep into his shelter.
It seemed that even if he did not move the shelter, he would still have to dig a drainage ditch all the way around it.
Lin Yifan was preparing to leave when he suddenly remembered that one of the rewards from the previous rankings had given him the item he had nicknamed the Home-Invasion Protection Device: the Illusionary Light Dome.
In weather like this, the chances of anyone attempting to break into his shelter were probably minuscule, but having something useful and not using it would be idiotic!
Lin Yifan took out the Illusionary Light Dome. It was actually something resembling a compass.
The characters engraved upon it were highly abstract, and its patterns were unusual, yet at a glance, it radiated an air of mystery.
Lin Yifan placed the compass in the main hall of the shelter and activated it.
In an instant, a dazzling ring of light burst from the compass. It expanded little by little until it completely enveloped the shelter, even including a wide area outside it.
The shelter occupied only seventy or eighty square meters, yet the dome directly enclosed a large stretch of low shrubland in front of it.
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Lin Yifan strode beyond the dome. When he turned around, he saw that his shelter had vanished!
In the place where the shelter had stood, there was now an enormous banyan tree.
But upon closer inspection, the banyan’s size and the area covered by its crown were exactly the same as those of the shelter.
Lin Yifan stared at the illusion before him in astonishment, both shocked and delighted.
He had originally assumed that the so-called Illusionary Light Dome would at most create a layer of mist to conceal the shelter.
He had never expected it to transform the shelter directly into something else. It was truly astonishing.
There was no denying that this thing was extremely useful. If he had not been bound to the Illusionary Light Dome, he might not even have been able to find his own shelter.
As he walked forward, the illusion remained in place. Even when standing directly before the shelter, all he could see was the enormous banyan tree.
In other words, even if someone knew that this was an illusion, unless they could find a way to break it, they would never be able to enter. Even if they knew that the banyan tree was actually the shelter, they would remain shut out forever.
This was unquestionably the ultimate anti-theft artifact!
As expected of a reward from the overall rankings—it was truly extraordinary!
At that thought, Lin Yifan could not help opening the rankings again and looking at the three people ahead of him.
If someone ranked fourth could receive such an abundant reward, then the rewards given to the top three had to be even more impressive.
It seemed he would have to work harder and strive to move up the rankings when they refreshed next time.
He simply did not know whether there would be rewards again.
But that was not something he needed to consider at present.
Lin Yifan remained clearheaded. After indulging in those thoughts for only a moment, he immediately returned to reality.
After admiring the illusion before him to his heart’s content, he finally began today’s exploration with peace of mind.
He was actually rather curious about the random buff he had drawn today.
The Golden-Seeking Path said nothing but that it was related to metal objects, whether one looked at its name or its description.
Could it be that he would be able to find a great deal of metal supplies today?
If so, that would certainly be a good thing!
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Apart from the flat-bottomed pan at home, the only metal object Lin Yifan currently possessed was the ordinary iron axe in his hand.
The frying pan could be set aside for now. It was, after all, a household item. Even if it could be used to smash someone over the head, Lin Yifan still felt it was better suited to everyday life.
The ordinary iron axe was different. Although most people were still using rusty, inferior axes, he had been able to obtain an ordinary iron axe only because of his talent bug.
All things considered, however, he still wanted an axe of a much higher grade.
Besides an axe, he was also in urgent need of a shovel and a hoe. If he wanted to dig a drainage ditch, those tools would be indispensable.
There were also sickles, machetes, kitchen knives, and the like—all items he urgently needed.
As he made his calculations, Lin Yifan continued exploring ahead.
Today, he had chosen the area directly in front of the shelter. He had already conducted a rough exploration to both the left and the right. Although he had not examined those areas in detail, he could at least confirm that there were no rivers or lakes nearby.
Only the areas directly ahead and behind remained unexplored. Stretching five hundred meters in front of the shelter was nothing but low shrubland, the tallest plants barely reaching the height of a person.
They did not obstruct his vision much. In weather like this, however, the fog mingled with the dense curtain of rain, and visibility was already poor. Whether his view was blocked or not was no longer particularly important.
In any case, as long as he failed to leave markers along the way, he was certain to get lost.
Thus, to avoid losing his way, Lin Yifan chose to use his axe to clear a path today as well, afraid that he would be unable to find his way back.
Naturally, this meant he could not move very quickly, but he was in no hurry.
To put it simply, hurrying would not help anyway!
There were far more treasure chests today than yesterday. In less than half an hour, he had already found two white chests.
White chests contained basic supplies for the most part, and Lin Yifan was not lacking in basic supplies at present, so he could not be bothered to open them.
He simply tossed the chests into the space inside his ring, intending to wait until he obtained a buff such as Item Ascension or Double Harvest before opening them.
That way, he could maximize his gains.
After continuing forward for another hour or so, Lin Yifan suddenly discovered a small cave at the foot of a nearby slope.
The cave was truly tiny, no larger than the mouth of a sea bowl. Had a pile of strange stones not been scattered outside it, he might never have noticed it at all.
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