"Is this... a treasure chest?"
In the desert, Lin Yue looked at the chest-like thing at his feet and couldn't help but mutter.
On his way to work, he'd seen an unimaginably large meteor fall from the sky. With a deafening crash, a white light flashed, and he lost consciousness.
When he opened his eyes again, he was in this unfamiliar place.
He accidentally stepped on a small purple lizard, killing it, and a basketball-sized treasure chest appeared out of thin air on the ground.
A mechanical synthesized voice rang in his ears: "You have obtained a Wooden Treasure Chest."
While Lin Yue was still puzzled, he looked down, preparing to grab the treasure chest, and noticed a black leather notebook lying next to it.
On it were the words "Survival Manual."
Upon picking it up, lines of text composed of blue fluorescent light suddenly appeared before him:
[Congratulations, like the other 7.8 billion people on Earth, you have arrived in this Exotic Star wasteland world to participate in this survival game.]
[Survival is your only pursuit and goal.]
[Disasters are inextricably linked to this Exotic Star world. Seven days later, the first random disaster will occur, and then once every seven days it will recur. Three days before a disaster occurs, there will be a disaster forecast.]
[The shelter is your only safety guarantee. Once destroyed, it will disappear on its own and will not recover.]
[Elderly and children, disabled, and those unable to care for themselves will be relocated to their relatives after the first disaster, considering they have weaker survival abilities, and each person will be provided with three days' worth of food and water.]
[This world is resource-rich but full of dangers. By fighting mutated creatures that live here, you might defeat them and have a chance to obtain a treasure chest, but you might also fail and become their food.]
[Mutated creatures become more active and more dangerous after nightfall, please be cautious.]
[Survival supplies will refresh in the wild and can also be obtained from treasure chests. The quality of treasure chests you find will be higher with the strength of the mutated creatures.]
[Concentrate your Spiritual Power to open the game panel, you can use it to make your survival a bit easier.]
[Remember, death here is true death.]
[To all humans, good luck!]
After a while, the light screen and manual both disappeared.
"This is the Otherworld Survival Game?" Lin Yue couldn't help feeling astonished.
The light screen just now was definitely not something that existing technology could create. The treasure chest before him and the prompts he'd heard earlier quickly made him accept reality.
He had transmigrated to the Exotic Star with all of humanity, and the only goal was to stay alive.
And there was talk about a random disaster every seven days...
What disasters could there be?
Floods, blizzards, mudslides, earthquakes, beast tides, meteors falling...
No matter which one, none of them sound very good.
Even Lin Yue, who was normally unruffled, was a bit nervous at this moment.
He looked around.
Here was a world composed of sparse grasslands and yellow earth.
Barren, desolate.
Deadly silence.
Wait a second, was there something about fighting mutated creatures to possibly get a treasure chest?
Lin Yue looked at the treasure chest again, somewhat baffled: "Even that weak purple lizard counts as a mutated creature?"
He opened the treasure chest.
[You obtained: Farmer Three Punches Mineral Water 600ML X1]
"Farmer Three Punches Mineral Water?" Lin Yue frowned. Isn't this the Otherworld?
As he took out the mineral water, the treasure chest disappeared as well.
"Strange," Lin Yue said, looking up in another direction.
Less than ten meters away stood a very dilapidated thatched roof hut, which he had noticed earlier.
It must be the "shelter" mentioned in the manual.
This thing that was leaning to one side with holes everywhere was actually the "shelter"?
Lin Yue couldn't help but inwardly criticize.
He pulled open the door, and before he could walk inside, the door collapsed with a clatter to the ground.
Lin Yue, nearly hit by the falling door, twitched his lips.
Throwing his gaze into the dim grass hut, he found the interior to be very simple. The walls, made of piled dry grass, stood about two and a half meters tall, with only a pile of dry grass in the corner and nothing else.
This is called a shelter?
Worried it might collapse and kill him inside.
Lin Yue sat on the musty dry grass, expressing his concerns about its durability.
However, it should be fixable, right...
Recalling what the manual said about concentrating his mind, a light screen appeared before him in no time.
[Important Information]
[Trading Mall]
[Shelter Intel]
[Manufacture]
[Inventory]
"Oh, it does feel like a game," Lin Yue focused his gaze on [Important Messages], and another new screen popped up.
There were three options: [Announcements], [Groups], and [Private Chat]
Well now, this is like the old QQ, a first for Tencent to fall short.
[Announcements]: Disaster information sent in real-time, with successive warnings before disasters occur.
Lin Yue remembered the manual mentioned a random disaster every seven days with notifications three days prior.
The nature of the disaster is still unknown at the moment.
However, just knowing this makes one feel an immense pressure.
It even thoughtfully wrote down the time: Doomsday Calendar Day 1, 11:23:49
Looking further into [Groups], it was almost identical to a QQ chat group, except the avatars were all big-head photos of the individuals, names were their original names, with a plus sign next to them, presumably to add friends.
The group had a total of 10,000 members, and as Lin Yue flipped through, he noticed there were very few faces from Tang Country; most were foreigners, but names were thoughtfully translated into Tang language.
Chat messages were continually refreshing.
"Oh, guys, this broken thatched house is a shelter? I bet it will collapse with just a nudge. Oh my god, I swear I just touched it, and it collapsed!"
"Anyone born by the water? There's not a drop here, just sand; I'm dying of thirst!"
"Why on earth is there no water!"
"The chance to get a treasure chest from monsters is too low. I've killed four green rat-like monsters, not a single chest dropped."
"Exactly, the chance is too low. I've killed a bunch of bugs, not even one dropped. Who managed to get a chest?"
"Reporting! Seven fist-sized beetles killed, zero chests, unlucky soul passing by."
"Forget the treasure chest, who's found food? I was on a hunger strike for three days to lose weight, now I'm starving!"
...
Lin Yue browsed through it.
There were a lot of chatterers, but some useful intel too.
He noted that each person's location environment varied: some in Gobi, deserts, forests, while some, like him, were on a barren desert.
However, it seemed everyone faced a common lack of water and food.
For this, some set their sights on treasure chests and directly went to provoke mutated creatures.
Lin Yue found the chat search feature and mentally typed in "treasure chest," discovering thousands of messages without a single one not complaining about the low rates, none had gotten a chest.
Are the odds really that low?
This made Lin Yue gradually feel, perhaps he was really blessed by the luck of the gods at that moment.
Stepping out of the house and observing around, he found not a trace of a water source, and food was even more uncertain.
In his sight, apart from wild grass and stones, there were sparse trees.
Thump.
At that moment, a purple-black grasshopper, several times larger than he expected, jumped to his feet.
Lin Yue reflexively stomped on it.
[You have obtained a Wooden Treasure Chest!]
Hmm? Another one obtained?
After opening it...
[You obtained: Kang Shuaifu Braised Lamb Flavor Instant Noodles X1]
Hmm? Suddenly there's food? Who just said food was rare?
Holding the instant noodles, Lin Yue couldn't help but wonder, is his luck really that good?
Spending some time searching carefully nearby, he finally discovered a crawling red caterpillar.
He took a deep breath.
Let's give it another try!
Taking off his shoe, Lin Yue aimed and smacked it down!
Slap!
[You have obtained a Wooden Treasure Chest!]
Something's not right.
Looking at the consecutively appearing treasure chests on the ground, Lin Yue's scalp tingled.
Even with great luck, it shouldn't be like this, right?
Others got nothing from over ten attempts, and I can get one from just three hits?
Are the odds a bit too high?
Lin Yue walked a bit further, found three red lizards enlarged several times, not knowing what they were eating.
Picking up two shoes, he walked over.
Slap slap slap!
[You have obtained a Wooden Treasure Chest!]
[You have obtained...]
Looking at the three consecutive treasure chests appearing in front of him, Lin Yue's head buzzed.
He actually succeeded six times in a row in getting chests!
Could it be...
"100% chance of getting a treasure chest... could this be my golden finger?"