Looking at the requirements, Red stood in silence for a moment before shaking his head. Yesterday he took some time to explore the world around him. Other than the trees, there was no other thing. Thinking about how he needed stone to upgrade his workbench, his only option was to trade the woods.
With this in mind, he ate one of the jerky, drank a mouthful of water and after some time, headed outside his house. The trunks of the trees he cut yesterday were beginning to grow again in just a single night. Clicking his tongue in wonder, Red walked to the nearest tree and began his daily schedule of chopping.
From time to time, he would look at the global chat, but other than the usual cries of help and people shouting about selling items at auction, there wasn't anything there.
The Zone chat on the other hand was eerie quiet. After the event of the last night, no one sent a message. It seemed the death of so many people cast a heavy shadow on the people.
Red kept on checking the messages from time to time. It wasn't until almost two hours passed that a flurry of messages caught his eyes.
"Holy shit, who is selling fresh meat on the second day?"
"Gulp. Boss, can I join your team?"
"Bastard, asking for ten pieces of wood for a single piece of meat. Why don't you just ask us to die."
Opening the auction, Red saw five pieces of meat priced at ten wood each. After cursing the bastard for a while, he closed it and focused back on the chopping.
Four more hours passed in the blink of an eye as Red picked up the last two pieces of wood for the day and headed back home.
Looking at the twelve pieces of wood in the tool room, he saw the message again.
{Whether to combine ten wooden pieces?} {Y/N}
Controlling his urge to merge the wood, Red opened the auction and after a while, looked at the list of items being traded.
[1/Wood <=> 1/Stone]
[1/Stone <=> 1/Wood]
Other than these two, two more things were being traded.
[1/Piece Of Meat <=> 10/Wood or 10/Stone]
[1/Liter Of Water <=> 3/Wood or 3/Stone]
"Tch." Red clicked his tongue in disappointment as he saw the price of the two items. He knew that right now food and water were the most essential things that one needs. Even if there were initial supplies, they weren't going to last long. One needed to work hard in order to gather the materials, and for that one needed energy. Even after eating two beef jerky in a day, he was feeling weak and hungry. One could only imagine his condition after the initial time passed.
Red wasn't the only one going through this crisis. Looking at the chat, numerous people were shouting in discontent. Other than a few lucky ones who ended up near water sources, the rest of the humans were miserable. There was even a guy who was stranded in a desert and another who was stranded near a volcano. Compared to them, his condition was much better.
Looking at the auction for a moment, Red finally decided to exchange five stones for five wood. Right now his priority was to upgrade as much and as fast as possible. Once he gets the better tools, his rate of gathering will naturally increase.
With this in mind, he didn't waste another second and bought five stones in a go.
Looking at seven pieces of wood along with the newly bought five stones, he looked at the Workbench.
[Workbench: Lvl 0]
[Upgrade Condition: 5/wood, 5/stones, Lvl 1 cabin]
"Upgrade." Shouting with anticipation, Red saw the woods and stones disappear before the workbench was shrouded in white light as a timer appeared above it.
[1 Hour Remaining]
Looking outside the window, the world was already going dark. After carefully closing the window and door, Red sat on his straw mat. At this moment, he was thankful for the white light upgrading the workbench. At least it was dimly illuminating the inside of his house.
"It's getting cold." With nothing to do, Red was finally feeling the cold. Without a proper bed and fire, it was getting increasingly difficult for him to get some rest.
"Damn it, the last thing I want is to get sick." Red knew he couldn't risk getting cold at this moment, so after gritting his teeth, he picked the last two remaining pieces of wood and threw them in the bonfire.
And as soon as he did it, a flame almost half a meter long appeared in it, along with a timer [12 Hours remaining]. The freezing cold temperature of the house was gone in the blink of an eye, replaced by a lukewarm temperature. Not only that but the entire house was illuminated with a warm yellow light. For the first time, Red felt safe.
At first, he was worried that the flame would burn the cabin or the smoke would suffocate him to death. But to his surprise, there was no smoke. Even the floor around the bonfire was completely safe as if the fire was unable to burn those planks of wood.
Feeling relieved, Red finally let out a sigh of relief. But this feeling of his didn't last long as after half an hour, the sound of footsteps once again echoed outside his room. But this time, judging by the sound of footsteps, the number has increased from one to two.
'Knock... Knock... Knock"
Someone or something knocked on the door once again. And if that wasn't enough, another sound of knocking came too... but this time from the window.
'Knock...
Knock...
Knock...'
"Gulp." Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Red stayed still with eyes fixed on the door and the window. The light from the fire gave him some sense of safety, but with every passing second, this sense of safety was getting more and more fragile.
The things outside his house kept on knocking on his door and window relentlessly. It was as if they wouldn't go unless Red opened the door for them.
Red on the other hand had no such intention. He didn't even want to see what the thing outside was much less engaging with them. The fate of more than five billion people was still fresh in his mind.
"I need to make a damn weapon." It was only now Red felt the importance of the weapon. He knew that once those things outside entered his house, he was a turtle trapped inside a jar. The only thing he could do was to wait for his miserable death. But if he had a weapon, at least he could put up a fight, at least he had a glimmer of survival.
With this thought in mind, he put aside the task of upgrading his house first and focused on crafting a weapon. It only needed one wood and one stone to craft an ordinary spear. After crafting a spear, he would still have some wood left. As for the matter of food and water, he didn't think much about it. He needed to stay alive first to eat. If it comes to the worst, he would just starve for a few days.
Ignoring the constant knocking on the door and window, Red opened the zone chat and after seeing a few new messages asking for help, opened the global chat.
"Damn it, what is it outside?"
"No matter what it is, we just need to stay inside our house."
"Is there a brave soul willing to take a risk and venture outside? I will burn money after your death if you tell me what those things are."
Just when everyone was busy chatting, a sudden announcement stunned them.
[Congratulations to Lincon for getting the first kill of the creatures. Rewarded with a mysterious treasure box.]
"....."
"....."
"....."
"FUCK... SO FIERCE?"
"WHO... Who is it?"
"ADD ME DADDY."
"Brother let's team up."
Within a few seconds, the entire chat exploded. No one would have thought that while they were still inside their house, cowering in fear, someone would already kill those things outside.
On one hand, this announcement surprised them, while on the other hand, an absurd thought rose in their heart. The things outside were not invincible. Someone already proved that these things could be killed. Now it is upon them whether to take their chances or not.
A few brave souls after seeing the announcement made up their minds. Since they were going to die one day, then why not take their chances here? After all, fortune favors the brave.
As soon as this thought came to their mind, the number of people in chat began to decrease again.
[Lincon: Stop rushing outside foolishly. Just focus on your survival first.]
This was the only message he sent.
"Fuck, so pretentious. At least tell us how you killed them."
As soon as someone said it, the entire chat began to boil once again.
"Yeah, he is right. Aren't you ashamed of not sharing your tactics with us? We all are from the same world."
"Correct. You should share it with us."
Looking at the chat, Red just let out a chuckle before shaking his head. Regardless of place and situation, people would always put their interests first. While it was true that he could tell them, Red doubted anyone would do such a thankless task.
"Why aren't you replying to us?"
"Yes... At least tell us something."
Looking at the people getting more and more excited in the chat, Red finally couldn't control himself and sent a message.
[Red: Are you all that stupid or just pretending to be? Don't you know there is a one-message-per-day limit?]
"....."
"..."
"....."
As soon as Red sent this message, the chat went silent for a while. It wasn't until a few more moments passed that someone sent the message.
"OH!"
"How about telling us tomorrow then?"
"Well, he could have shared the method to kill them instead of sending us a message, telling us to stay inside our house."
There were still a few people who were discontent. Looking at the messages, Red shook his head and closed the chat.
By now, amidst the sound of constant knocks, his workbench was finally upgraded.
[Lvl 1 Workbench: A multitask workbench that could be used to craft and upgrade your house.]
If the previous workbench was made up of worn-out wood, then this upgraded version of the workbench was a decent crafted piece of furniture.
Looking at the newly crafted workbench, a new window of craftable times popped up in front of him.
[Ordinary Axe: 2/wood, 2/stone]
[Ordinary Pickaxe: 3/wood, 5/stone]
[Ordinary Spear: 1/wood, 1/stone]
Other than these three, there were some new additions to the crafting table.
[Normal Axe: 5/wood, 5/stone]
[Normal Pickaxe: 5/wood, 8/stone]
[Normal Spear: 5/wood, 5/stone]
"Ugh..." Looking at the increasing number of materials required for these items, Red couldn't help but complain.
The only thing that caught his attention was the next upgrade conditions for his cabin.
[Ordinary Wooden Cabin: Gives decent protection against the temperature and creatures of the dark.]
[Upgrade Cost: 10/Hardwood]
"Umm!?" Looking at the new material listed there, the only thing Red could do was shake his head and close the workbench window.
He then fell on the straw mat and closed his eyes, trying to get some sleep. Though the temperature now was lukewarm, he still couldn't fall asleep due to the constant knocking outside his house.