When the second day came, Hannah used the materials she had to make an axe and a pickaxe, then started looking for things to craft a campfire and torches.
From her first night, she had more or less figured out some of the rules.
At night, as long as she had a campfire or torch, she was safe.
It just felt unsettling—the view was narrow, and the background sounds were creepy.
But without a torch, those glowing-eyed monsters she had seen in the dark could very well end her life.
So for safety's sake, she decided she needed to gather more materials for torches.
The safest plan was still to quickly collect resources and gear herself up.
The forest around her had turned into blackened tree trunks because of the fires she had started.
Chopping them with her axe dropped charcoal, which she could collect as materials—though she wasn't sure what it was for yet.
Looking through her backpack, Hannah noticed she now had enough to make a science machine.
She went back to the spot where she had lit the campfire the night before and chose to build it.
Right after, a green, windmill-like machine appeared, spun together by Wilson's hands in the game.
With the science machine built, Hannah found new features unlocked.
Things like magic, equipment, and crafting recipes such as boards.
"So many resources needed!" Hannah stared at the long list of items, feeling a little overwhelmed.
Besides the axe and pickaxe, she couldn't craft anything else for now.
There were also many materials she hadn't even seen yet, like manure and spider silk.
"Forget it, I should find some food first." After checking her backpack, Hannah decided to ignore the machine for now and focus on gathering enough supplies to get through the day and night.
Up until now, she had survived by eating berries, but she didn't have many left.
Her hunger bar was still more than half full, but her berry supply was already gone.
The bigger problem was that last night she had gone wild setting fire to the forest.
She ended up burning down not only the trees but also many berry bushes, and since she hadn't picked the berries beforehand, she had nothing left to eat now.
Opening the map, Hannah picked a random direction and started exploring.
Along the way she chopped trees, picked up stones, mined ores, and dug up carrots. Her inventory quickly filled up.
By evening, just as she was about to head back to the science machine to see what she could craft with her materials, the sound of a wild boar's howl suddenly echoed in her ears—followed by a strange roar.
Curious, Hannah ran toward the sound, and what she saw left her stunned.
A group of pigmen walking upright were locked in a fierce fight with a group of slimy green fishmen, shouting as they brawled.
"Ahhh!"
"Ahhh!"
"Pigmen will slaughter now!"
"Walt Grut!"
"Glurp! Glon peeka larp!"
"Ahhh!"
She could understand what the pigmen were yelling, but whatever the fishmen were shouting made no sense at all.
It looked like the two sides had arranged a gang fight, with about eight or nine on each side, all wildly swinging their fists.
Looking at their big strong bodies, Hannah glanced back at Wilson's thin arms and legs, deciding it was better not to get involved.
But just as she was about to leave, she noticed something exciting.
As the two sides kept fighting, the monsters that died were dropping pieces of meat.
"Meat drops! Finally, I can eat better food!" Hannah's eyes lit up at the sight.
Up until now, her diet in the game had basically been all plants.
Berries, carrots, and flower petals—and some mushrooms too.
The petals seemed to restore health, while some mushrooms actually hurt her health, though she didn't know why.
So berries had been her main food.
She had tried to hunt rabbits, but they were way too fast to catch.
Now she had actual meat lying around.
While the monsters were still fighting, Hannah crept forward and stole a piece of meat from the ground.
But she accidentally drew the attention of a fishman, scaring her into running away as fast as she could.
Luckily, the fishmen were especially dumb, nothing like bees or other monsters.
They paused for a moment before attacking, so as long as she ran without looking back, she didn't need to worry about being hit.
Once the fishman gave up, Hannah sneaked back again. When the fight ended, she picked up all the fish and meat lying on the ground.
"This life, this little routine… it's finally getting better! I've got meat to eat!"
After cleaning up the battlefield, night soon fell. Since it was still a long way back home, Hannah decided not to leave and built a campfire right there to get through the night.
This time, she didn't set the forest on fire, because she realized these trees would eventually become her resources.
If she burned them all now, she'd have to travel who knows how far just to chop wood later.
She also noticed her sanity dropped when she was away from the fire. She didn't know what would happen if her sanity got too low, but she figured it was best not to take risks.
And sanity was hard to restore—so far, the only way she'd found was picking flowers, and that gave only a tiny bit.
Not like hunger, which was easy to fill with food.
After surviving her second night, Hannah returned to her base. Looking at all the materials she had gathered, she felt richer than ever.
"This game is actually pretty fun!"
Checking her resources, Hannah crafted two more axes and pickaxes, then set off again to chop wood, mine, and explore more of the map.
While exploring, she found something interesting: wormholes scattered in certain areas of the map.
When players jumped into a wormhole, it would take them to another part of the map.
After going through one, she saw a creature called a Tallbird. But aside from the long legs, Hannah didn't see how its big bulging eyes made it look like a bird.
What really caught her attention was the big white egg next to it, which looked delicious.
As Hannah kept exploring the game, soon it was the seventh day.
During this time, she also discovered some small tricks. For example, food in the game could be cooked.
All she had to do was drag it from her backpack into the campfire.
This discovery really amazed her.
She never thought of trying something like that before.
"Alright, just a little more material, then I'll make some grass armor and a spear. After that, I can head out and explore the world." Hannah looked over her resources and made her plan.
She had already survived seven days in the game and was now starting her eighth.
But honestly, during this time, she was kind of just messing around and didn't gather much stuff.
Sometimes she'd wander outside for an entire day.
Now that she felt she had a pretty good grasp of the basic gameplay, she thought it was time to open up a new chapter.
(End of The Chapter)
---
Read +100 advanced chapters on my patre*n
patr eon.com/GustinaKamiya
Free Tier can read 3 advanced chapters
---