"Awooooo..."
It was the wolf's howl that woke Red up. Waking up in confusion, a shiver went down his spine as he heard the ghostly howl once again. Looking around in confusion what greeted him wasn't his room, but a worn-out hut with a creaking wooden window.
"Where am I?" The first thought that crossed his mind was that he was dreaming, but the biting cold gust of wind that almost froze his bones made him realize that it wasn't.
Just when he was wondering, a translucent window suddenly appeared in front of him.
[Welcome to Death Beacon]
[The entire earth's population has been transferred here.]
[Search for supplies, upgrade your hut, and do your best to survive.]
[Remember, the death here is permanent. Once you die, that is the end.]
[Novice benefits will disappear after seven days. After that, you are on your own.]
[The Daytime in this world is only six hours, so be sure to make the best use of it.]
[Remember not to wander around in the dark or else...]
[Explore the rest of the functions on your own.]
Looking at the window before him, Red rubbed his eyes a few times wondering if he was hallucinating. But soon, this feeling of confusion was replaced by excitement. Just how many times did he dream of a situation like this? Just how many times did he imagine escaping his ordinary life and being a part of something big?
"Hahahahahaa." For a moment, Red couldn't help but laugh out loud. With a big smile on his face, he closed the window in front of him before another new window popped up.
[Name: Red]
[Strength: Ordinary Human]
Looking at the two rows of text, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes. Contrary to his expectations, his panel was simple. There was no such thing as strength, vitality, or mana. Looking further, there were many small options at the bottom of the panel.
[Global Chat] [Zone Chat] [Trading Platform]
Narrowing his eyes, Red touched the [Global Chat] and the moment he did, a new window opened in front of him, constantly bombarded by innumerable messages. The screen kept on flickering constantly with a flood of messages. Even if he wanted to focus on one, he couldn't as it would be lost instantly. The only thing he could see was a number on top of the chat.
[8 Billion People]
Thinking for a moment, Red closed the [Global chat] and opened the [Zone Chat]. Just like the global, the messages here kept on flickering constantly, but compared to the number of people on the global chat, the number of people here was [10 Thousand People].
After gazing at it briefly, Red closed it and opened the last option, [Trading Platform].
As soon as he chose the option, a message was displayed.
[Trading Platform will be opened after the initial day.]
After looking at the window for a while, Red closed it and finally took a good look at his small hut. Just like the name, the small hut was made up of red mud with thatch of grass as a roof. There were only two rooms inside the small hut, the first one was the bedroom where there was a small straw mat on the ground and the other was a small room with an old workbench and a small wooden box placed beside it.
As soon as Red saw the room, a message popped into his mind.
[Tool Room: The core of your base where you can craft and upgrade your hut.]
The small hut wasn't big, if Red had to compare it to his previous apartment, this entire hut was half the size of his bedroom. Even the tool room was so small that only one person could enter there at a time.
Standing there, Red's focus wasn't on the workbench but on the small wooden chest.
[Open to receive the Novice supplies.]
Without wasting another second, Red opened the chest and soon, in front of his surprised eyes, the wooden chest disappeared and several items lay there.
[Ordinary Axe: Can be used to either gather wood or stones.]
[Water Jar: Two liters of pure drinking water.]
[Packet Of Beef Jerky: Seven pieces of beef jerky. Eating just one is enough to satisfy your hunger for one day.]
Holding his breath, Red picked up the Axe carefully. On earth, he was a person whose life was rather simple. Other than the knife that he used in the kitchen, he didn't have experience with any other tools. Now holding the unfamiliar axe in his hand, he was rather confused.
Carefully placing the axe and the supplies in the corner of the tool room, Red finally focused on the Workbench in front of him.
[Ordinary Workbench: Essential for upgrading your house and crafting tools.]
Looking at the small list of items that he can make at the moment, Red nodded in understanding.
[Hut: Lvl 0]
[Upgrade condition: (1) 10 pieces of ordinary wood for wooden cabin.
(2) 10 pieces of ordinary stone for stone cabin.]
"Umm..." After a glance, Red focused on the other items.
[Ordinary Axe: 2/wood, 2/stone]
[Ordinary Pickaxe: 3/wood, 5/stone]
[Ordinary Spear: 1/wood, 1/stone]
"That's it?" Looking at the three times that can be crafted, Red couldn't help but be speechless. He initially thought that just like games there would be innumerable items he could craft, but to his disappointment, there weren't that many items there.
Just when he was wondering about his next course of action, a notice popped up in front of him.
[The first day is here, head out and start your new life. But be aware of the wilderness and the night. Remember, only your hut can protect you from the night.]
Without wasting another second, Red picked up the axe and walked out of the hut.
As soon as he opened the door, the first thing that greeted his sight was the endless dead trees without any leaves on them.
"Uh!?" Red didn't know what he was expecting, but he certainly wasn't expecting this.
As far as his eyes could see, there was nothing but dead trees. Even the ground beneath him was black. Bending down, he picked up a handful of dry soil without any moisture in it before exhaling a mouthful of air.
"Damn it, what kind of ghost place is it?" Not to mention anything else, there wasn't even a single green grass growing anywhere. Gritting his teeth, Red opened the global chat. Compared to the previous time, the messages this time were rather few, giving him a chance to read them.
[Brawn: Hahahahaa, I am standing at the shore of a river. Who wants fish?]
[Joen: Help, there are only mountains around me.]
[Peno: Shit, is that a deer?]
The more Red looked at the messages, the darker his face got. He knew his luck wasn't the best since his birth, but to think that he would end up in this place. Gritting his teeth, he opened the Zone chat.
[Rony: Guys, does anyone know how to make a party?]
[Demo: Damn it, there are so many snakes in this damn valley.]
[John: Focus on survival first. I believe we will have plenty of time to think about it later.]
Red who was already frustrated after reading the global chat became even more angry after reading the zone chat. It was one thing if he didn't see it, but now that he saw it, he couldn't help but compare his ghost place with others.
"Forget it. Let's just focus on gathering the woods first" Since it has come to this, there wasn't anything else he could do. Right now, his priority was to upgrade his hut. As for the matter of exploring further, he would have plenty of time for it later.
Walking towards the nearest tree, he pulled back the axe and then swung it at the tree. He didn't have any experience with chopping wood, but this doesn't mean he didn't know what to do with an axe.
As soon as he hit the tree, both his hands went numb for a moment and he almost let go of the axe. Looking at the tree, there was a small section of it missing. Taking a deep breath, Red kept on hitting the tree with the axe. It wasn't until an hour passed did the tree fell.
"Phew." Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Red finally breathed a sigh of relief. Before he started, he thought, it would be a rather easy task. But it was only after hitting the tree a few times did he understood just how hard it was to chop a tree.
Looking at the fallen tree, just when he was wondering how to make wood pieces with it, the tree turned into specks of light before disappearing completely, leaving behind two pieces of wood each fifteen centimeters long and wide.
[Ordinary Wood: Like the name says, it is just a piece of ordinary wood.]
"What the..." Stunned, Red stood for a moment. Looking at the two pieces of wood, he could have sworn that the tree was worth a lot more than these two pitiful pieces. But there was nothing he could do at the moment, so he picked up the wood and placed it beside the workbench before standing in front of another tree. Since one tree takes one hour and gives two pieces of wood, he was going to chop off four more trees to upgrade his hut.
With this in mind, he began to work hard.
.
.
Two more hours passed in the blink of an eye. And just when Red was busy chopping the tree, an announcement sounded in his ears.
[Congratulations to Lincon for getting the first kill. Awarded with one mysterious treasure box.]
"What the!?" Red almost lost control of his axe. Opening the global chat in a hurry, he saw the numerous messages flashing there.
[Eron: What the hell? Why didn't it register when I killed an ant?]
[Baric: Big Boss, do you need subordinates?]
[Xena: @Lincon, how about teaming up with me? I used to be a financial advisor.]
[Aria: Help, how do I go back home?]
Looking at the long list of messages popping up, Red was speechless. Some were full of praises for Lincon while many messages were filled with envy. There were a lot of people even offering to team up. And if that wasn't enough, Red even saw a lot of politicians and bureaucrats sending messages. The only redeeming quality of the global chat at the moment was that it had a limit of one message per day. Thankfully after the initial explosion of messages, there were fewer people sending messages now.
"Forget it, let's just focus on gathering the wood first." Shaking his head, Red closed the panel and began to chop the tree in front of him. There was no use thinking about it. Right now, he still needs to cut two more trees to gather the remaining four pieces of wood.
Thankfully, the weather here was relatively cold so he wasn't sweating as much. But still, he was getting more and more tired. In the end, after chopping off the third tree, Red was forced to eat a piece of beef jerky due to hunger.
By the time the fifth hour passed, Red finally managed to gather ten pieces of wood.
Carrying the last two pieces of wood, Red headed to the tool room and the moment he placed the two pieces of wood on the floor, all the pieces of wood began to give off a weak blue glow, and a message window popped in front of him.
{Whether to combine ten wooden pieces?} {Y/N}
Looking at the completely different window in front of him, Red was stunned for a long time as his mouth opened in the shape of an 'O' and his eyes went wide with disbelief.