Chapter 1 The Survival Game [Player teleportation in progress. Countdown: 3, 2, 1, 0...] Brenna Dalton stared at her screen, her eyes widening in sheer disbelief. 'Wait, what? Hold up a sec. What the hell is this supposed to mean?' She watched the glowing, crimson zero float in midair. Her phone slipped through her fingers, clattering loudly against the pavement. On the other end of the line, her best friend, Gillian Wetzell, was still rambling. "Brenna? Hello? Are you seriously ghosting me right now?" A split second later, Brenna vanished into thin air. A blinding flash of white light forced Brenna to squeeze her eyes shut. When she finally opened them, her entire world had been flipped upside down. A vast, eerily calm ocean stretched out infinitely before her. And beneath her feet? Nothing but a single, floating wooden plank. The sky above was studded with countless stars. And the moon... Brenna felt her stomach drop as a wave of vertigo washed over her. 'Why the hell are there two moons?' Before she could even process the sight, that same synthesized electronic voice echoed directly inside her mind. [Welcome, players, to the Survival Game. Chosen individuals have been randomly deployed across various sectors. Your objective is simple: Survive. [This game cannot be exited or restarted. Death is permanent. There are no respawns. Please prioritize upgrading your attributes and abilities. [The individuals selected for this phase are healthy humans from Earth between the ages of 18 and 50. Your family and friends will be included in the second wave of teleportation. [Work hard to survive and build a secure environment for your loved ones. [Earth will be decommissioned immediately following the second wave. There is no turning back. Repeat: There is no turning back.] The robotic voice faded, leaving a deafening silence. Brenna felt her knees buckle. She collapsed onto the damp wooden plank, completely overwhelmed by panic. It was supposed to be a perfectly ordinary Sunday. She had even dressed up a bit, planning to head over to Gillian's apartment so they could just spend the day bed-rotting and binge-watching Netflix. She had just finished a quick grocery run and was standing by the store entrance waiting for her Uber. That was when a static-filled electronic voice suddenly rang in her head. [Congratulations, Player Brenna Dalton. You have been selected as a participant in the first wave. The system will teleport you to the game environment in ten seconds. [Please hold onto any immediate supplies. They will serve as your initial survival capital.] At the time, Brenna had been totally distracted by Gillian complaining about her dating life over the phone. The announcement barely registered. Standing right outside a massive grocery store, she naturally assumed it was just some weird promotional gimmick blasting over the parking lot speakers. Even when the countdown digits started materializing right before her eyes, it didn't click. She just stood there like a statue, staring blankly at the impossible holographic numbers. Brenna closed her eyes and let out a long, shaky breath, trying to clear her head. She finally forced herself to accept the harsh reality. She had actually been sucked into some twisted game. She turned around to take stock of her surroundings. Her entire world now consisted of a square wooden raft, roughly the size of a queen bed. Overhead, the twin moons cast a silver glow that danced across the rippling water. As her racing heart began to steady, a dull ache in her fingers finally registered. She looked down and realized she was still clutching two massive paper grocery bags in a literal death grip. "Thank God," Brenna muttered, patting her chest to calm her frayed nerves. "At least I won't starve to death this week." [The starter kit provided contains only basic tools. Players should manage their expectations; there are no handouts here. [The first three days act as a grace period. Your survival zone will be entirely free from natural disasters and hostile creatures. This is the developers' final act of mercy. [The game interface is synced to the player's right forearm. You can operate it manually or via thought commands. Please explore the remaining features on your own. Good luck.] Brenna hastily raised her right arm. Sure enough, a pale blue holographic screen about the size of an iPad flickered into view. The interface featured four main tabs: Personal Info, Backpack, Global Chat, and Crafting. The upper right corner of the personal page displayed the time and temperature. However, the year had been replaced with "Year One of the Reset." It was currently July 31st at 12:30 AM. The top left corner held a full-body 3D render of her current state that she could rotate 360 degrees. Right below the photo, her personal stats were laid out clearly: [Player ID: 6523 (Customizable) [Name: Brenna Dalton [Gender: Female [Age: 23 [Strength: 7 (Who knew you had it in you, girl?) [Agility: 6 (Do you actually hit the gym, or what?) [Luck: 8 (Keep it up, you're only two points away from hitting the jackpot!) [Sanity: 65 (You seriously need to eat or get some sleep right now.)] 'I really didn't expect the game system to be this snarky,' Brenna thought, rolling her eyes at the screen. Still, judging by the commentary, her base stats seemed pretty decent. She switched over to the Backpack tab and found rows of empty square slots. Only five of them were glowing; the rest were completely padlocked. The very first slot held a single fishing rod. This had to be the starter kit the system mentioned. 'Wow, could they be any cheaper?' she thought, sighing heavily as she stared at the lonely icon. Brenna backed out and tapped the Chat interface. She was instantly blinded by the dizzying speed of the scrolling text. She quickly swapped over to the Crafting page without bothering to glance at the Regional Channel. Under these circumstances, anyone with half a brain could guess it was just a massive wall of pure panic and endless crying. However, she quietly shut down the interface after noticing that all the icons on the Crafting page were locked too. Instead of wasting time studying things she couldn't even build yet, she figured she might as well take inventory of her actual supplies. Since it was the dead of summer, Brenna had left the house wearing a brand-new sundress. On her feet were a pair of strapped heeled sandals that were completely useless for any real physical activity. Aside from the straw sunhat on her head, she only carried a small crossbody bag. It was tiny and naturally couldn't hold much: just a few now-worthless dollar bills, a pocket pack of tissues, and a bottle of sunscreen. The real lifelines that could keep her alive for now were sitting right there on the wooden boards inside those two grocery bags. Ready-to-eat items: six 12oz bottles of sparkling water, a ten-pack of snack beef sticks, two mini boxed cupcakes, five peaches, four oranges, and a container of pre-cut watermelon. Frozen foods (requiring cooking): a box of frozen Hot Pockets, two bags of frozen pizza rolls, and a bag of frozen veggie tots. 'I should try shoving these into the inventory slots in a minute,' Brenna thought anxiously, eyeing the condensation forming on the packaging. 'The daytime temperature out here on the ocean is going to be brutal. 'Letting this food spoil would be a total disaster.' Luckily, there was a single box of instant mac and cheese left at the bottom. Even though both she and Gillian knew how to cook, their morning routines were always a rush. They both had a habit of stocking up on quick, microwaveable meals just to grab a bite before heading out the door. In fact, Brenna had only picked up these specific groceries because Gillian was too lazy to brave the summer heat and begged her to do the shopping. Given how abruptly everything had happened, plus the measly ten-second warning, Brenna felt confident. She definitely belonged to the lucky group of people who had crossed over with a solid stash of supplies. Of course, she couldn't rule out the possibility of some fitness bro managing to bear-hug his entire fridge right before teleporting. A sudden ocean breeze swept past. Brenna wrapped her arms tightly around herself, rubbing her shoulders to ward off the chill. The ocean at night was freezing cold. Chapter 2 The Cheat System Brenna rubbed her arms against the ocean chill. She separated her food into two distinct piles: ready-to-eat meals and raw ingredients. Taking a deep breath, she tried stowing both physical grocery bags into her inventory interface. It actually worked. Once inside the system, the two separate bags merged into a single icon labeled Food Bundle x2. Brenna knew the standard gaming rules. Usually, one inventory slot held exactly one item. With limited slots and way too much gear, storing everything individually would have been impossible. Luckily, by packing everything into bags first, she had successfully exploited a massive glitch in the game. She let out a heavy breath of relief and decided to check the frozen goods at daybreak. 'If the backpack actually freezes time and stops spoilage, I am golden,' she realized, feeling a glimmer of hope. Only a boxed cake and a bottle of soda remained on the wooden raft. She had zero appetite, but a quick glance at her Sanity meter showed a dangerous drop to 65 points. Brenna forced herself to ignore her spiraling panic and choked down some food. Sleeping was completely out of the question. She was a restless sleeper on a good night. If she rolled off the raft and into the dark water, it was an instant game over. 'I absolutely cannot risk closing my eyes,' she thought, taking a tense bite of cake while scanning the horizon. That single glance almost made her drop her meal in pure terror. A massive full moon hung low over the water, sharing the sky with a distant crescent. The ocean had been perfectly still just seconds ago, but the water suddenly erupted. A monstrous fish launched into the air. Its colossal, scaly body glowed with a sickly luminescence under the moonlight. Razor sharp fins sliced through the night sky. The beast unhinged its jaws to reveal rows of jagged teeth, exhaling a blast of freezing mist that chilled Brenna to the bone. The creature's sheer mass churned the ocean into a frenzy. Massive swells rolled out like tidal waves, crashing violently in every direction. Time seemed to stop. A suffocating dread washed over Brenna, leaving her completely paralyzed. The beast was miles away, meaning the rough water never reached her flimsy raft. Still, Brenna shook uncontrollably. 'Is this what the game meant by monsters?' she wondered, her heart hammering violently against her ribs. She was just an ordinary woman sitting on a few loose planks. A single wave could wipe her out. 'How could I possibly survive nightmares like that?' Right as panic threatened to pull her under, a ridiculously cheerful voice echoed in her mind. "Made it! Sorry, traffic was an absolute nightmare, but I am finally here!" The voice paused to cheer. "Hello there, gorgeous! Cheat System 0032 reporting for duty. Requesting immediate binding!" "A cheat system?" Brenna muttered aloud, furrowing her brow in confusion. Ever since joining the corporate grind, she had completely dropped her reading and gaming habits. Her only knowledge of LitRPG mechanics came from her bookworm best friend, Gillian. Brenna was completely out of her depth. Sensing her hesitation, 0032 chimed in again. "Yup! We are helpful little AI guides that travel through various games, totally dedicated to helping our hosts win. "And we do it completely free of charge! Do not hesitate, just bind with me!" Brenna chewed her bottom lip. "Can I unbind from you later?" That question nearly caused 0032 to short circuit. As an ultra rare module that maxed out player luck, it had partnered with hundreds of hosts. This was the absolute first time anyone had asked about a return policy. "I guess so?" the system stammered out. "But honestly, why would you ever want to?" Hearing that confirmation made Brenna exhale a long breath. Gillian had always warned her that while many protagonists got awesome cheat systems, some AI were totally cursed. If she blindly bonded with a system that demanded a steep price, she could easily get herself killed. Reading the fine print was survival rule number one. "I will do it, but you have to tell me what you actually do first," Brenna stated firmly. The system perked right up, its voice practically buzzing with pride. "As the most overpowered cheat system in history, I can max out your Luck stat. "On top of daily login rewards, I randomly trigger the Lucky Roulette Wheel! "The harder my host works, the richer the loot. After all, our motto is: Work Hard, Get Lucky. Plus, since you are so pretty, I will even throw in a free Inspect skill!" Growing up in the foster system, Brenna knew all about the daily grind. Even after achieving financial independence, she only gave herself one weekend a month to relax. She knew absolutely nothing about taking it easy, but working hard? That was her default setting. "I agree to bind," she announced. [Beep. System binding in progress.] [Binding successful. Congratulations to player Brenna Dalton for acquiring the Cheat System. Please sign in immediately to claim your starter pack!] Brenna closed her eyes and checked her mindscape. Instead of a sleek digital interface, she found a Golden Retriever. More importantly, the dog was standing upright on its hind legs. Her eyes flew open in shock. "Do you not like my current avatar, Host?" 0032 whined in her head. "I am super broke on points right now, so this is the only form I can afford." 'So my ultimate cheat code is a bipedal dog?' Brenna thought, rolling her eyes. 'Right. Because this situation was not crazy enough already.' She cleared her throat awkwardly, completely ignoring the dog comment. Instead, she focused on the glowing golden "Sign In" button hovering in her vision. "Sign in!" she commanded. [Sign in successful. You have triggered one spin on the Lucky Roulette Wheel! Congratulations, Host. You have received a Gold Tier Fishing Rod. The item has been sent to your backpack. Please check it at your convenience.] Before Brenna could even process the golden rod, a massive glowing roulette wheel popped up. It looked exactly like a sketchy loot box wheel from a free-to-play mobile game. All the prizes were heavily blurred out, leaving only the spin button crystal clear. Brenna smashed the button. As the wheel finally ticked to a stop, the item in the winning slot came into sharp focus. [Congratulations, Host! You have received Inventory Expansion Stone x2. Expansion Stones can be used to unlock additional inventory slots.] 'Okay, this system is actually incredibly useful,' Brenna mused, a genuine smile forming. Not only did it hand out free loot, but it also clearly explained what everything did without her needing to ask. Brenna opened her eyes and immediately pulled up her backpack interface. Thanks to the Expansion Stones, two previously padlocked slots were now glowing and ready to be unlocked. She applied the stones right away, bringing her total usable slots up to seven. With the extra space secured, she reached into her inventory and pulled out both fishing rods, eager to see exactly what made her new golden toy so special. Chapter 3 Lurking in the Chat Once System 0032 bound with Brenna, it gained full access to her character stats. Noticing her Sanity meter hovering at a lackluster level, the artificial intelligence immediately chimed in. "System analysis indicates the Host's Sanity stats are dropping. "Please secure food or get some sleep to replenish your Sanity." Brenna was too busy examining her two fishing rods to even look up. "I just ate, and I'm way too wired to sleep right now," she muttered, tracing the grip of the tools. "Let me figure out the difference between these two things first." Seeing her hustle made 0032 feel guilty for slacking off. The system dove straight into the digital interface, surfing the game's data streams to scour for hidden details. [Common Fishing Rod: An essential tool for retrieving treasure chests. Can also be used to catch saltwater fish for food.] [Lucky Fishing Rod: Gold Tier. Guarantees a 100% success rate when retrieving any treasure chest within a 30-feet radius. Can also catch saltwater fish without the need for bait.] Reading these descriptions gave Brenna three massive pieces of intel. First, treasure chests actually spawned out here in the ocean. The loot inside was undoubtedly going to be survival supplies, weapons, or basic tools. Second, while she could fish for food to avoid starving, the basic rod required her to actually have bait. The game's starting tool required real-world skill and extra gear to function properly. However, her system-rewarded lucky rod bypassed all those rules completely. Brenna immediately stashed away the common rod, unable to take her hands off the glowing golden one. She was dying to test it out, but the ocean surface was completely bare of crates. The memory of that freaky monster fish from earlier was still fresh in her mind, so she wasn't about to risk blindly casting a line just yet. Riding the high of her new godly loot, and with nothing better to do, she popped open the regional chat channel and started lurking. [Regional Chat: 99,988 / 100,000] A panicked player asked: Where did you guys end up? I'm stuck in a tiny cave right now. It's pitch black outside, and I'm scared out of my mind.] [I'm in a freaking desert with nothing but a leaky tent, Can some good soul spare a jacket? It's freezing in this hellhole!] [You all got terrible RNG! I'm chilling in a wooden cabin right now. It's a bit run-down, but at least it keeps the wind and rain out, right?] [Give it a rest, man. I'm literally floating on the open ocean! This game is complete trash. They gave me a single wooden plank and a fishing rod. I have thalassophobia, dude! Just feed me to the sharks and get it over with.] [Then jump in and end it all.] 'Well, at least I'm not the only poor sucker stuck out here,' Brenna thought, letting out a heavy sigh. It wasn't that she was afraid of being alone, but realizing she wasn't the sole victim here eased her mind quite a bit. Finding any kind of common ground in this hopeless situation was a rare comfort. [It was literally high noon at my house,] a confused user pointed out. [How is it the middle of the night in the game?] [Did you get teleported straight from your house too? Did you bring any food? Hook a brother up!] [Give me a break. You guys are thinking about food? I had just stepped out of the shower and was getting dressed. I got yanked in here wrapped in a damn towel! [Thank God I grabbed a pair of boxers at the last second, or I'd be out here chopping trees buck naked tomorrow.] [You beggars are pathetic. If you want food, trade for it. Who taught you to just hold your hand out for freebies?] [Cassie, sweetie, are you here? It's Mom!] [If you're looking for family, go to the global chat. There's barely anyone in this regional one.] Brenna flicked her eyes to the top right corner of the screen, finally noticing the player count right next to a [Trade] button. It seemed twelve people had already lost their lives in the few short hours since they entered the game. She didn't feel sorry for them, though. It wasn't that she was cold-blooded. The game literally stated that the first three days were a beginner protection period completely free of danger. Plus, everyone pulled into this world was a healthy, sane adult. As long as a person didn't do anything spectacularly stupid, dying was practically impossible. Anyone who managed to get themselves killed within the first few hours really didn't deserve any pity. Plenty of missing person posts flooded the chat, but Brenna didn't really have any family. She only had her childhood best friend, Gillian. When the teleportation happened, Gillian hadn't shown any signs of glitching out, so Brenna was fairly certain her bestie wasn't in the game yet. Naturally, there was no point in posting a missing ad for her. However, the system had mentioned that their friends and family would be teleported in eventually. Knowing that, Brenna knew she had to step up her game. By the time Gillian was dropped into this mess, they needed a proper roof over their heads. They couldn't just survive on a janky piece of driftwood bobbing in the ocean. After staring at the glowing screen for God knows how long, exhaustion finally washed over her. Brenna hugged her knees to her chest and drifted off to sleep without even realizing it. An unknown amount of time passed before that familiar, synthetic voice chimed in again. The sudden noise startled Brenna awake just as she was about to roll off the raft. [Good morning, players! A new sun has risen, and today's treasure chests have been successfully deployed. [Please pick up the starting tools in your possession. Players on land, step out of your shelters and begin your treasure hunt! [The Grace Period countdown has officially begun. Please upgrade your living conditions as quickly as possible to guarantee your survival.] Brenna clutched her chest, waiting for her racing heart to settle before shifting her gaze back to the interface. The clock in the top left corner read exactly 7:00 AM, and right next to it was a brand new 64-hour countdown timer. "Time to grind," she declared out loud, stretching her back. She rubbed her stiff limbs, pulled out her golden fishing rod, and glued her eyes to the water's surface. Back in the real world, Brenna suffered from severe nearsightedness, but ever since she crossed over into this game, her vision had miraculously corrected itself. She realized this last night when she spotted that freaky monster fish with crystal clarity. Her prescription glasses were completely missing anyway. Since she clearly didn't need them anymore, she brushed the thought aside. The seven o'clock sun climbed up behind her. It wasn't scorching yet. The morning rays actually felt pretty warm and comforting against her skin. About five minutes later, a few floating objects bobbed into view on the distant horizon. Brenna squinted at them, realizing they were wooden crates. 'Those must be the loot crates the system was talking about,' she reasoned, her pulse quickening. Too bad she didn't have a paddle. Her raft was practically anchored in place, so her only option was to wait for the ocean currents to push the crates her way. She waited another half hour until a crate finally drifted into her casting range. Without missing a beat, Brenna whipped her rod forward and cast her line straight at the target. The line pulled taut immediately, groaning under a shocking amount of weight. Brenna cranked the reel as fast as she could, dragging a white wooden chest onto her raft moments later. Floating directly above the lid was a glowing prompt with two options. [Open Crate? Yes / No] 'Is that a joke?' she thought, rolling her eyes at the floating text. 'Who fishes out a crate just to leave it closed?' Chapter 4 Cracking Loot Crates Opening the crate, Brenna checked her loot. The contents materialized in front of her: Lumber x10, Purified Water (16.9 fl oz) x5, Bread x3. "Is that it?" Brenna muttered, feeling a twinge of disappointment. 'Maybe I just hyped myself up too much for the very first drop,' she thought to herself. "Do not sweat it, host!" 0032 chimed in, giving Brenna a solid jump scare. "Pulling three different items from a basic white crate means your luck is actually off the charts." 'Wait, basic tier? Does that mean there are better crates out there?' she wondered silently. Still, 0032 was her personal system now, so a little bonding would not hurt. Brenna looked around the empty space. "Where the hell have you been, 0032? You just vanished on me." "I was gathering intel to help you survive this mess," the system replied cheerfully. "For instance, those daily loot crates are coded by color. "White is the lowest tier. Above that, you have Orange, Red, Yellow, and Purple. The higher the tier, the better your odds of scoring rare supplies or weapons. "Speaking of gear, the rarity scale goes Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. Higher rarity means better drop rates and damage output." Brenna rolled her eyes. 'This stupid game kidnaps people, tosses them into a death trap with a generic survival message, and expects us to figure out the interface on our own. 'My unauthorized cheat system has better tutorials than the actual developers.' Right on cue, a distinctly colored box bobbed into view. Brenna cast her line, hooked the target, and reeled it in with practiced ease. This time, she landed an orange crate. The orange loot crate only dropped two items, but the quantity was on another level entirely. She snagged thirty pieces of wood and a blueprint glowing with a faint orange aura. Brenna inspected the blueprint. It was a water purifier. Sure, it was a basic model, but with this machine up and running, dehydration would be a thing of the past. 'Man, high luck is seriously broken,' she realized happily. Pulling up her crafting menu, Brenna slotted the blueprint in, and the purifier icon lit up immediately. [Basic Desalinator Blueprint Activated. Required Materials: Plastic x2, Charcoal x2, Cloth x1.] Her excitement fizzled out instantly. 'Great, no materials means no machine, which means no water,' she sighed mentally. Then a thought struck her. The system mentioned wooden crates could be dismantled into wood scraps. 'Does that not mean the empty water bottle and plastic cake container from yesterday can be broken down too?' she wondered. Wasting no time, Brenna grabbed the empty bottle and focused on it. Just as she hoped, a [Dismantle] prompt popped up. She activated it, though it only yielded a single piece of plastic. Still, beggars could not be choosers. She was definitely going to drink more than one bottle of water a day, so plastic would not be a bottleneck for long. Charcoal should not be too hard either. She just needed to figure out how to start a fire. Cloth, however, was a totally different beast. The only fabric she currently owned was the sundress she was wearing. Since she was not dying of thirst yet, stripping naked to fish for crates was completely out of the question. The sun was already brutal. Even with sunscreen slathered on, her exposed arms were turning an angry shade of red beneath her short sleeves. Besides, she had the trading post. She could just lurk in the trade chat tonight and see if anyone was swapping fabric. Her third catch was another orange crate. Alongside another thirty pieces of wood and two massive tuna sandwiches, she scored a blueprint for a patio umbrella. An umbrella was a godsend. Even if she did not have a fancy tent or cabin like some other players bragged about, some shade would keep her from literally frying. The catch? It demanded five pieces of cloth, one iron ingot, and three pieces of wood. Once again, she was gated by missing materials. She spent the entire morning grinding, only to pull in those three crates. Brenna left most of the loot inside them, taking just what she needed. Her backpack space was way too limited to hoard everything right now. Plus, stacking the three empty wooden crates created a makeshift barrier against the sun. Brenna curled up in their tiny shadow, cracked open a fresh bottle of water, and chugged it down. After instantly dismantling the empty bottle into plastic, she swiped open her interface. She remembered seeing an option to change her player ID and hide her stats from strangers. Taking advantage of the downtime, she tinkered with her profile settings. After applying the privacy filters, she noticed her stat page had updated. [Player ID: WaveRider [Name: Brenna Dalton [Gender: Female [Strength: 7 (Upgradeable) [Agility: 6 (Upgradeable) [Luck: 10+ (What did you do?) [Sanity: 50 (Moderate Fatigue. Take a break!)] 'Holy crap, my luck stat is actually maxed out!' she thought in shock. Her sanity, however, had tanked to fifty. Between a crappy night of sleep, baking in the sun all morning, and her empty stomach, the drop made perfect sense. Brenna quickly pulled out her two grocery bags. She needed food, but she also needed to check if her frozen goods had turned to mush. To her massive relief, items stored in the backpack slots were in perfect stasis. With her anxiety quelled, she shoved the bags back into her inventory. She kept a slice of cake and a couple of hot dogs out, settling in for a weird but necessary brunch. Without Netflix to keep her company while she ate, she pulled up the trade chat on her interface to browse. Scrolling through the endless stream of listings, she saw that plenty of players had shaken off the initial shock and were actively grinding to survive. Sadly, the chat lacked a search filter. Sifting through the spam manually was a total waste of time, so Brenna just blasted her own message into the global feed. [Trading fresh biscuits and purified water for cloth and iron ingots. DM for details!] It did not take long for her inbox to start pinging like crazy. She definitely had an audience. KittyKisses: [Hey handsome, trade you a bikini pic for a bottle of water?] Maybe her username sounded too much like a frat bro, because someone had actually sent her a hardcore thirst trap. She caught one glimpse of the spicy photo and instantly slammed the chat window shut. Between the miserable starting conditions and garbage luck stats, her inbox was flooded with beggars, creeps, and lowballers hoping for a handout. Brenna aggressively filtered out the trash until a message from a user named MamaHilda caught her eye. [MamaHilda: Hi there. I have ten pieces of cloth. Would you trade them for two bottles of water and two bread?] It was a surprisingly reasonable offer. Since it was only the early stages of the game, everyone was desperate just to secure their next meal. Plus, very few people had snagged blueprints that actually required fabric yet. Anyone willing to trade precious food for crafting materials right now was practically a unicorn. Chapter 5 Building Alliances and Bagging a Turbot Brenna Dalton skipped the small talk and sent over a trade request: [Bread x2, 16.9 oz Purified Water x2 for Fabric x10] Moments later, ten pieces of fabric landed in her inventory, accompanied by a message of genuine gratitude from "MamaHilda". After typing a brief reply, Brenna clicked the 'X' in the top right corner to close the window. To her surprise, a familiar username caught her eye. It was the girl from last night who had mentioned she was sheltering in a cave. A new DM from her popped up. CaveDweller: [Hey dude, I managed to mine a bunch of iron ore. Any chance you'd trade some food and water for it?] Brenna sighed under her breath as she read the text. 'Great, another player assuming I'm a guy,' she thought. Still, if she had that much iron and lived in a cave, she probably spawned near an iron vein. A major resource supplier was exactly the kind of connection Brenna needed to maintain for future business. Eager to lock down the contact, Brenna quickly typed her reply. [Yeah, I can do that. What kind of rates were you thinking?] Miles away in her rocky shelter, Eunice Swann hadn't ventured outside all day. Once dawn broke, she finally saw her bleak surroundings: endless rolling hills of reddish clay with nothing but a few scrawny trees on the horizon. As for the loot crates the game tutorial mentioned, she hadn't spotted a single one. Armed with only the common starter hammer provided by the system, Eunice had experimentally swung at the cave wall behind her. To her absolute shock, a chunk of iron ore had actually dropped. But her luck took a sharp dive. The hammer actually lost durability with every swing. By the time she gathered twenty iron chunks, the tool's durability had plummeted from a full 100 down to 40. Since she had never done a day of hard labor in her life, the skin between her thumbs and forefingers was raw and blistered. After grinding for hours, her Sanity stat had dipped below 50. All she had to show for her aching wrists and sore hands were a few lumps of metal. Eunice wrapped her arms around her knees and began to sob. 'Is my RNG seriously this cursed?' she wondered miserably. Unfortunately, the emotional breakdown only dragged her Sanity down further. While she didn't know if a zeroed-out Sanity meter meant instant death, it clearly wasn't a good sign. Staring at the pile of metal at her feet, Eunice pinned her last shred of hope on the trading post channel. Thankfully, her persistence paid off. She finally found a high-tier player like Brenna who was actually willing to exchange food for iron. Tears of relief welled in her eyes as she typed a reply with trembling fingers. CaveDweller: [Five iron for one bottle of water. Is that okay?] Iron had limited utility in the ultra-early game, but once the player base started unlocking advanced blueprints, it would become an absolute goldmine. While trading a single bottle of water for five iron was a massive steal that anyone would accept, exploiting the girl now would likely ruin any chance of a long-term partnership. Recognizing that anyone spawned near a desert iron mine must be low on essentials, Brenna decided to sweeten the deal. She hit send on her message. [I'm not going to rip you off. Honestly, your asking price is way too low.] [WaveRider has sent you a trade request: 12 oz Soda x1, Bread x1, Hot Dog x1 for Iron x6] With her insanely high Luck stat and the distant black specks bobbing on the horizon, Brenna wasn't worried about food or water. For the cave dweller, however, this counter-offer wasn't just a fair trade; it was a literal lifesaver. Brenna parted with a fraction of her surplus to secure six chunks of iron, keeping her main goal in mind. Crafting that sun umbrella was her top priority because the open ocean sun would bake her alive without adequate shade. Eunice stared at the trade notification, completely stunned. Before her brain could fully process it, her hand automatically slapped the accept button. Six iron chunks vanished from her backpack. By the time she snapped out of it, she was already stuffing bread into her mouth. "Oh my god, who is this absolute saint?" Eunice sobbed through a mouthful of food, tears streaming down her face. "Real food, actual meat, and they even upgraded the water to a flavored soda! "WaveRider, you are a literal god!" Meanwhile, having secured the final materials, Brenna pulled up her crafting menu and hit the construct button for the sun umbrella. A flash of white light illuminated the screen, and the large patio umbrella materialized directly into an open backpack slot. Brenna equipped it immediately, securing the shaft to her wooden raft. With the shade set up, she dismantled the makeshift tower of loot crates she had been using for height and stored them back in her inventory. She checked her current backpack layout: Food Pack x2, Iron x5, Fabric x5, White Loot Crate x1, Orange Loot Crate x2, Common Fishing Rod x1, Lumber x67, Plastic x2, and 16.9 oz Purified Water x4. Her storage slots were completely maxed out. To free up space, Brenna pulled one of the white crates back out and set it on the deck to serve as a makeshift fishing stool. Fortunately, identical items stacked infinitely within a single slot, so she didn't have to worry about resource overflow just yet. If things got tight, she could always find a workaround. Brenna smiled faintly to herself as she sat down. 'Space is like free time. If you squeeze hard enough, you can always make a little room.' The off-white umbrella cast a perfectly cool shadow over the small raft. Lounging on the white loot crate, Brenna snacked on the sliced watermelon she had acquired the day before and cast her golden line out, settling into a relaxed angler mode. Though she desperately needed Inventory Expansion Stones to unlock more slots, the incoming loot crates were still microscopic specks on the horizon. They would take hours to drift over. With time to kill, she figured she might as well test the capabilities of her premium fishing gear. The System-grade golden rod didn't disappoint. Within minutes, the line went taut as a heavy weight jerked the rod tip downward. Having zero real-world fishing experience, Brenna completely bypassed the concept of tiring out the fish and simply cranked the reel with raw force. Thanks to the overpowered stats of the legendary-tier gear, her chaotic, amateur technique actually worked. She hoisted the catch onto the raft, sending a flat, diamond-shaped, incredibly ugly fish flopping violently across the wooden planks. As a kid who grew up entirely landlocked, Brenna couldn't identify most saltwater species, but this specific profile was unmistakable. It was a massive turbot, easily weighing a solid five pounds. She had eaten turbot in restaurants back home, but she had never seen a live one this large. Terrified the valuable catch might flop back into the sea, Brenna pulled a chunk of iron from her backpack and repeatedly bashed the fish's ugly face in. [Congratulations! You have successfully killed a Level 1 Turbot. Rewards: Fish Meat x10, White Loot Crate x1] Brenna only stopped swinging when the robotic notification chimed in her mind. Panting, she wiped a stray blood splatter from her cheek and let out a breathless, goofy laugh. The excitement wasn't just about scoring a bonus loot crate. For the first time since being dropped into this brutal survival game, she had secured sustenance through her own hard work. The sense of achievement felt completely different from random RNG drops. This kill proved she actually had a fighting chance to survive, taking the edge off the lingering trauma from last night's encounter with the sea monster. "Gillian, I'm gonna survive this," she vowed aloud to the empty ocean. "I'm going to build a real future for us." The harsh environment no longer intimidated her because she had someone worth protecting. This time, she would be the shield, carving out a safe haven where Gillian would never have to suffer. Brenna was completely fired up. Even System 0032, watching silently from the depths of her mind, felt a rare ping of emotion at her sudden, unyielding determination.
