"Bro, should we join them?" Qin Ziwu frowned. He didn't much like people like Huang Tao—too slick for his taste.
Qin Ziwen shook his head. "Less than a tenth of the residents are even here, and his so-called alliance will most likely fail. He doesn't have enough prestige; people won't follow him."
"Modern people all have their own ideas. Unless there's a tangible, visible benefit, who would follow empty promises? Besides, he can't produce that much food. In a few days everyone will be starving—no one will listen to him."
Qin Ziwen paused, then continued, "I don't think his goal is to form an alliance for the whole complex. It feels more like he's using the property managent's supplies as bait to recruit a group."
The usually playful Qin Ziwu behind him suddenly spoke with rare seriousness: "Anyway, I only listen to you. I don't respect the others. After Mom and Dad had the accident, it was you—big brother—who supported my schooling. You could have been recomnded for graduate school because your grades were so good..."
Qin Ziwen kicked him in the butt. "Shut up. I'm your brother; I don't care who else has to fend for you. If you keep whining I'll beat you."
Qin Ziwu chuckled and hurried forward. "Oh my god, bro, co look—one of the traps caught sothing."
"Quiet, do you want everyone to hear?"
When they approached, Qin Ziwen imdiately recognized what was caught in the snare trap tied to the wall.
From appearance it was a yellow field mouse.
Sensing humans nearby, the yellow mouse struggled desperately.
"Looks a bit like a vole, and it's pretty fat."
Qin Ziwen crouched down, picked up the rope, examined it carefully, and confird, "It's a field mouse. Good—tonight we'll have so at."
Hearing they'd eat a mouse, Qin Ziwu's pupils shrank.
Although he knew these weren't the filthy sewer rats—these field mice ate roots and insects and were relatively clean—he still felt squeamish. After two days without at though, he was tempted. He stared conflictedly at the mouse dangling from Qin Ziwen's hand.
Qin Ziwen said, "Skin it and gut it. I'll leave the innards-clearing to you."
Qin Ziwu's pupils trembled again. "What!"
Qin Ziwen gave him a calm look. "Young people need to see so blood. If you can't even kill a one- or two-pound mouse, how are you going to kill sothing over a hundred pounds later?"
Qin Ziwu: "......"
Qin Ziwen picked up a stone and struck the mouse on the head.
The struggling mouse fell quiet and went to sleep peacefully.
He grabbed it by the tail and tossed it into Qin Ziwu's backpack.
"Let's check the other trap."
At the second trap, the trigger had been set off too, but it was empty; only so short gray-brown fur remained at the scene.
They scanned the area but found no trace of prey.
"What a pity." Qin Ziwu squatted and picked up the gray-brown fur from the ground.
Qin Ziwen examined it and noticed bite marks on the rope. "The prey must have been cautious. The surrounding grass and plants aren't flattened, so it wasn't very big."
He straightened a branch and rearranged the trap. "No matter. Catching one field mouse already exceeds expectations. Any yield is a win. Let's dig for wild vegetables first."
As dusk approached, the wild greens around the complex dwindled.
The group digging for greens grew larger and larger. The easily discovered wild fruits and vegetables near the complex were basically all picked clean.
To keep digging they'd have to go farther out, and out of caution Qin Ziwen decided they should return first.
"We're going to fetch water."
By the river, the number of anglers had grown substantially.
A strange scene had ford: the stone beach and higher ground by the river were packed with people.
Those not on the stones kept a distance from the water, staying in open areas.
Most were in groups; solo anglers were rare.
"There's a crocodile, the crocodile's coming closer!" one fisherman shouted, pointing at the river.
"Hit it!" soone nearby grabbed a stone and smashed it toward the crocodile's head.
The river splashed. Either hurt or startled, the crocodile flicked its tail and swam toward the deeper part.
Qin Ziwen walked to the river with a bucket to observe up close. It was a shallow, east-west flowing river about a hundred ters wide, with a gentle current, stony riverbed, and muddy banks overgrown with weeds interspersed with shrubs.
He avoided the muddy areas, stepped on the stones to the water's edge, watched carefully for a while, and, once sure there were no crocodiles or water snakes lurking in the clear shallows, bent to scoop a bucket of water.
Carrying the bucket back to shore, he said, "Let's go ho."
Back at their place, they let the bucket sit for twenty minutes until the top layer cleared, then used a washed, clean cloth as a filter and slowly poured out nearly half the water.
Qin Ziwen took the field mouse out of the bag.
"Sqwiiiek."
The mouse that had been playing dead thrashed wildly in his hand; Qin Ziwen struck it hard on the head with the back of his knife.
The mouse fell completely still on the floor. Qin Ziwen said, "I'll go fetch so firewood. You handle this thing."
Qin Ziwu looked reluctant. "I've never done it before."
"It's simple: skin it, remove the innards, rinse it."
Qin Ziwu rolled his eyes, then brightened. "Right—bro, we don't have fire at ho."
"Are you stupid? How do you think I started the fire to cook noodles at noon?" Qin Ziwen smiled faintly and pulled a magnesium flint from his pocket.
Qin Ziwu didn't ask where the flint ca from; his face went sour. "Fine, I'll do it."
That night, with so bread, they ate hot roasted field mouse.
There wasn't much at—after removing the innards, bones, and head, only a little remained—just enough for the two of them to taste.
At first they hesitated, but once they bit in they found no nasty fishy or ammonia sll.
It was a bit like roasted quail with a wild-ga tang—stronger than fard pork, beef, or mutton.
"Knock knock knock."
Just as they finished the roast, soone knocked on the door.
Qin Ziwen gave his brother a look; Qin Ziwu understood and grabbed a kitchen knife, moving to the door.
Qin Ziwen picked up the wooden stick propped in the corner.
"Knock knock knock."
The knocking continued. A voice ca from outside: "Is anyone ho? I'm from upstairs. Were you guys cooking just now? The smoke's heavy—don't set the place on fire. It's dangerous."
Hidden behind the door, Qin Ziwen replied, "The gas is off. If we can't cook inside, where else should we?"
The person outside said, "In the corridor, or on the rooftop."
Qin Ziwen shook his head at his brother, signaling to ignore them.
"Anyway, I'm telling you!" the person cursed. When there was no further reply from inside, footsteps receded.
Qin Ziwu was annoyed and pointed at other building balconies in the complex that were smoking. "It's not just us on the balcony, and ours is cleared out. I think this guy's just looking for trouble."
Qin Ziwen calmly said, "I know. Don't worry about it. Don't let outsiders affect what we need to do. Also—there are birds out there that grab people; do not go to the rooftop. Don’t cook in the corridor either. If you cook, the whole unit will sll it."
"Knock knock knock."
The knocking ca again in the hallway, but this ti it sounded farther away, in the direction of the next-door neighbor's door.
"Neighbor, are you ho? Do you have extra cups? Can we borrow two?"
It was still the sa person speaking, but now the voice was directed at the apartnt across the hall.
Qin Ziwen looked through the peephole.
The dim hallway revealed the neighbor's door tightly shut. Two n stood outside it.
One was knocking; the other hid in a corner by the door, holding sothing in his hand.
Qin Ziwen narrowed his eyes and signaled his brother with a shushing gesture.
Qin Ziwu understood. He ca over, observed, and first looked shocked, then his expression hardened.
He put his palm across his neck and made a cutting motion.
Qin Ziwen shook his head.
Qin Ziwu leaned in and whispered, "Bro, earlier didn't soone hide outside our door too? If we opened the door, would they have attacked?"
The apartnt across the hall didn't answer, but Qin Ziwen rembered seeing that neighbor return once this afternoon, so soone should be inside.
The n asked a few more tis and waited, but when no one answered, they turned and left.
"Bro, they just asked and left?"
Qin Ziwen said, "They were probably casing the place. The fact the across-the-hall neighbor didn't answer ans either nobody's ho or there's no one of importance there."
Qin Ziwu got it and suddenly understood. "So when they knocked at our door earlier, maybe it was just an excuse to trick us into opening it. They were checking whether there were adult n inside."
Qin Ziwen nodded. "If they're going to make a move, it's most likely in the early morning. Hallway lighting is dim then and easier for them to hide, and residents leaving the apartnt are likely to have keys on them."
"Why not in a few days or tonight?"
"Breaking the door at night makes too much noise. And in a few days, household food will be gone, so it wouldn't be worth it. It's not like they're stealing a few dozen pounds of at off a person's body."
"Alright, sleep early. Just in case, lock the doors and windows tight. I'll wake you early."
At night, Qin Ziwen fought to stay awake.
As darkness deepened, the complex fell deathly silent.
The concrete-and-steel buildings rose like cold sentinels in the forest, and the night seed to bring the woods to life.
From afar ca occasional beast howls; the flapping of bird wings echoed through the sky.
He didn't know how long passed. Just as Qin Ziwen was drifting off, drowsy, a cold, chanical male voice sounded in his ear.
"You successfully survived the second day in the wilderness, gathered a certain amount of wild vegetables, collected a small amount of river water, and captured one small prey. Overall score: 8 points."
"You received rewards: [Building Card] Level 1 Root Cellar1, Foldable Water Filter Bag3."
A golden light screen appeared.
At the top of the screen were the four bold characters: Daily Settlent.
Below them were many tiny squares, but only the first two contained items: a gray card and a chibi water-filter-bag icon. In the upper-right corner of the filter-bag icon was a *3 marker.
"Auto-extract?"
"3......"
"2......"
"No."
The golden screen shrank into a faint golden dot tucked in the upper-left of his vision.
With a thought the screen expanded.
After trying a few tis, Qin Ziwen accepted the thing gladly. Whatever it was, it was good for him. No point overthinking—he was already transmigrated; what couldn't he accept?
"Withdraw building card."
A weight sank into his palm: a thin gray tal card.
The mont the building card appeared, the space around him experienced a split-second stutter.
A small light orb glowed in the center of the bedroom.
Imdiately a white screen appeared before his eyes.
[Detecting survivor acquisition of building card. Resident identity activated. Ho functions unlocked.]
[You can use Building Cards, Resource Cards, Expansion Cards, Function Cards, and Recruitnt Cards to expand and remodel your ho. Your ho territory is Yujing Jiangcheng Residential Complex Building 8 Unit 2 Apartnt 5-2.]
A great deal of basic knowledge stread into his mind from the orb and finally cleared things up.
Before obtaining cards, they were only considered survivors.
Only by obtaining cards in advance or successfully completing a survival-stage objective could one activate resident identity.
There were two ways to obtain cards: exploring wild supply points—which were often in high-risk areas—or killing a powerful lifeform in the current area, which could drop cards.
Wait... hold on.
Let sort this out.
So this daily settlent thing is another unit?
Qin Ziwen realized: this "ho" function is a golden finger any resident can activate, and Daily Settlent was so extra system sneaking in.
So he was playing a cracked version.
He toyed with the Level 1 Root Cellar building card in his hand.
Now the entire 98-square-ter apartnt was his buildable, remodelable map. He only needed to select a 1-by-2-ter square spot to construct a grain-storage cellar.
Qin Ziwen chose the floor by the wall next to the bedroom.
"Use."
The building card dissolved into light and rged with the floor. Ripples spread across the floorboard.
The flat floor sank into a square entrance; stone steps descended into mist, and light warped at the mouth of the opening.
When the light faded, a cellar hatch with a wooden cover appeared, complete with an iron ring on top.
The rough style clashed with the modern interior.
Qin Ziwen hesitated—was the cellar going to end up in the downstairs bedroom?
He reached out, hooked the iron ring, and pulled up.
A deep stone stairway extended downward about five or six ters, flanked by stone walls.
The instant he stepped into the cellar a cool draft hit his face. At the bottom was a large chamber paved with blue bricks—bigger than his bedroom—and clearly not the downstairs room nor matching modern decor.
He estimated the temperature here was at least ten degrees lower than the bedroom; the air was crisp and dry with no mustiness.
He knocked on the wall; the sound was dull, with no echo—like it was truly buried beneath the earth.
Qin Ziwen couldn't help but marvel, "Aweso. This space is probably overlapped with reality. We can store extra food here from now on."
......
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