BXBX NOVEL Chapter 30 - 30 Chopping Skill
Upon seeing the system prompt, Song Jian was perplexed. He only used his dagger to kill two first-level mutated zombies, and his skill level rose a level, saving him one skill point in the process.
After some thought, Song Jian realized that he had practiced his dagger fighting technique in the real world for several hours.
“Could it be,” Song Jian wondered, “that exercising in the real world can also improve my skill proficiency in the game? And if I strengthen my body in the real world, will it enhance my physique in the game?”
This possibility was substantial, and Song Jian couldn’t wait. He wanted to leave the game right away to verify this in the real world.
“I should complete the main task first,” Song Jian decided after surveying a housing complex area. Realizing that ridding the whole residential block of monsters would take at least a day and night, he felt this approach too slow and inefficient. His task was to exterminate all monsters within a kilometer radius of the base, tackling them one by one could take up to a week or even half a month.
“I should find a place where wood and stone materials can be gathered. Once I have these two materials, I’ll be able to upgrade the villa,” Song Jian thought to himself.
Shifting direction, he headed for the highway marked on the map. Near the highway, there was a small forest where he could likely gather wood.
The highway was actually at the edge of Doomsday City; beyond lay an ominous black fog.
Leaving the villa complex, Song Jian spotted a few poplar trees just a few steps away. The trees emitted a milky white glow, similar to the glow of common quality items.
“This should be a decent source of wood!” Song Jian thought, drawing his stone axe to start chopping down the poplar trees.
Thunk, thunk, thunk
Whether it was the toughness of the poplar trees or the lack of sharpness of his axe, Song Jian found cutting down the trees physically demanding. After chopping for more than ten minutes, a chunk of wood finally broke away from the tree, turned into a ray of light, and automatically entered Song Jian’s inventory.
System: You have gained 2 units of wood.
System: You have comprehended the passive skill ‘Chopping Skill’. Chopping Skill: when chopping trees, efficiency is increased by 5%
“Chopping Skill? A skill specific to wood collection? This game sure allows you to master a wider range of skills than I thought.” Song Jian took a break; continually chopping for over ten minutes had left him sore all over. His arms felt sore, his muscles swollen from exertion.
In his inventory, a pile of three logs was neatly stacked, and a small number “2” was displayed at the bottom right of the icon. Viewing this icon, Song Jian realized that the material would materialize as soon as he wanted to take the wood units out.
Resting for a moment, Song Jian resumed chopping. Whether it was a biown-up feeling or the effect of the Chopping Skill, every five or six minutes, a chunk of wood flew off,
The tree chopping became easier with time, and chunks of wood frequently flew off, automatically turning into standard units of wood and entering Song Jian’s inventory. After amassing twenty-seven such units, the tall poplar tree before him finally disappeared with a “crack”, leaving behind a stump protruding about three inches from the ground.
“Phew, I’m exhausted. Even chopping a poplar tree in the real world wouldn’t be this tiring,” murmured Song Jian, wiping sweat off his forehead.
He had spent more than forty minutes to completely gather the poplar tree, a tree barely thicker than a bowl, which cost him three durability points off his stone axe.
“This axe loses durability too quickly,” Song Jian was taken aback. The axe was second-hand to begin with and already had low durability. Worrisome even was the high rate at which its durability was plummeting. If it continued to decrease at this rate, it would break after chopping only a few more trees.
Furrowing his brows, Song Jian recalled a new, high durability stone axe cost 100 Doomsday Coins in the Doomsday supermarket. If he wanted to collect a large amount of wood, the cost of buying axes alone would take up a large number of Doomsday Coins.
Procuring stone would probably be as cumbersome and expensive as gathering wood. The pickaxes’ durability usage would yet be another large expenditure.
“At this rate, I’ll be bankrupt before long,” Song Jian muttered to himself. “It seems constructing a safe house might be more difficult than I thought.”
After a while, Song Jian still couldn’t come up with a good solution, so resolved to chop down the remaining two trees first.
It took him over an hour to gather all the wood from the remaining two trees. In total, he harvested fifty units of wood from the three trees, and unsurprisingly, the axe’s durability had decreased to eleven points. It would likely retire after gathering from two or three more trees.
Having gathered the wood from the three trees, Song Jian continued towards the outer city highway. The highway was already at the edge of the city, and a short distance away was a thick black fog.
The journey was mostly empty, save for ten or so abandoned cars quietly laying along the highway. Some had collided with each other and were burnt out, while others were covered in rust and moss, looking almost fuzzy.
The forest beyond the highway was small, just five or six acres, and contained trees no older than ten years. For Song Jian, this was refreshing news.
To his delight, within this small forest, there were a few boulders that were taller than a man and glowed with a milky-white hue. It seemed this location could provide not only wood but also stone material.
After replenishing his food and water, Song Jian began to gather resources. It was already noon; he needed to return to the safehouse before nightfall. The nights in the game were too dangerous – even a level one mutated zombie was lethal to the now level four Song Jian, let alone higher-level monsters.
“Huh, what’s that?”
As soon as he got close to the forest, Song Jian noticed a golden glow deep within the trees.
“What’s that, a treasure chest?” Song Jian speculated in curiosity, forgoing his intentions to gather wood and instead cautiously approached the source of the golden glow.