Slacking off in the Game of Survival

Chapter 44 Above the Wasteland(4)

In the war instance, the most sought-after professions are, first, doctors, and second, scholars.

Doctors possess talent skills that enhance healing effects, which greatly reduce the consumption of medical supplies. On the other hand, scholars can create various kinds of armor and weapons using their blueprints.

To be honest, scholars have even greater advantages than doctors. In the midst of this raging war, merely dodging the gunfire for a while is a stroke of luck. Without professionally crafted armor, ordinary players would find it challenging to survive the bombardment of artillery fire.

The same applies to weapons.

Players still have daily supplies to draw from, but the indigenous people can only rely on their meager resources. Once those resources become scarce or unevenly distributed, it will inevitably lead to unrest and chaos.

Bare hands are no match for fire guns, medicine, cannons, or bullets. When that time comes, if someone doesn’t have two reliable weapons at hand, it’ll be difficult to stay safe.

To craft these items, one must have blueprints.

Therefore, in general, if a scholar player possesses formidable blueprints, other players will treat them more respectfully. After all, nobody knows when they might need help, and they wouldn’t want to make enemies easily.

However, what Hong Mingyuan never expected was to encounter an anomaly.

Before he could even finish speaking, he was rejected?

Hong Mingyuan’s expression does not look too good. He cleared his throat and attempted to regain some dignity using his rare blueprint. “I have a blueprint for making a sniper rifle.”

As he spoke, he glanced over with a raised chin at Qian Yue to gauge her reaction, showing a hint of arrogance.

It’s not that he was particularly conceited, but sniper rifles were high-end items even in the super mall, and most people couldn’t afford them.

Especially in the current war instance, their value was unimaginable.

Qian Yue’s expression paused, and she instinctively frowned.

Hong Mingyuan felt a glimmer of joy. How about that? Are you scared now? Regretting your previous attitude towards me? Hurry up and apologize to me—

Qian Yue said, “I’m sorry, but I’m even less interested in cooperating now.”

Hong Mingyuan: ?!!

He couldn’t believe it, furrowing his brows. “This is a sniper rifle blueprint!”

In addition to that, everything in this instance is in ruins. If you want to live a little better, you need to use several architectural blueprints.

This person knew to hide under the foundation to avoid the artillery fire earlier, and she didn’t seem like someone without a brain. Why isn’t she even a bit tempted?

To his surprise, Qian Yue’s frown deepened.

“What does your blueprint have to do with me?”

Hong Mingyuan was momentarily stunned, also caught off guard by the question.

He had never really thought about this before.

He instinctively wanted to say, “True, it’s none of your business. I just wanted to show you my strength and ask if you wanted to team up.”

But as he thought about it, saying that seemed a bit strange. In the previous instances, whenever he showed his blueprint, the other party would automatically team up with him without needing much explanation. So why did this person need to divide things into “yours” and “mine”?

So he retorted, “Why is it not your concern? After we team up, we’ll be a team. Why divide things into yours and mine?”

Qian Yue coldly sneered.

Does this person really think I’m foolish or easy to deceive?

Qian Yue had read on the forum before that items made from these rare blueprints usually only existed in one copy. Even if given to the scholar himself, he could only make a slightly more durable item; there was no such thing as duplicating it.

The reason she initially refused was that rare blueprints meant rare materials, which would require time, effort, and money.

So this person wanted to use the allure of a rare blueprint to trick her into joining his team, so she could tirelessly help him find materials all over the map and then watch him create the item for his personal use?

Qian Yue: If he ate a few more peanuts, he wouldn’t end up so drunk.

Seeing that the other person still seemed confidently righteous, Qian Yue sneered and asked, “So after teaming up, there won’t be any distinction between yours and mine?”

Hong Mingyuan subconsciously felt that her expression seemed off, but since he had just said that himself, he could only respond with a forced smile, “Of course.”

“Great then,” Qian Yue suddenly made a 180-degree turn in her attitude, with a radiant smile on her face.

She warmly patted the empty space next to her and said, “Just talking is not enough. Let’s now split the medicine from your backpack, shall we?”

Hong Mingyuan’s face immediately turned unpleasant, “Are you kidding me?”

Qian Yue raised an eyebrow, “Why would I? Wasn’t that what you said? I didn’t add a single word.”

She put away her playful expression, and her aura instantly became cold as she said, “Or should I say, were you just talking nonsense?”

Hong Mingyuan finally realized what was happening, and his face turned green and then white alternately. He seemed to want to get angry, but he restrained himself in the end.

Someone who could think of hiding under the building’s foundation to avoid artillery fire from the very beginning couldn’t be an ordinary person.

They had just entered the instance, and he didn’t dare to cause too much trouble when the environment around them was still unfamiliar.

He coldly chuckled and turned to leave, saying, “It seems I misjudged the situation. Let’s forget about cooperating.”

Qian Yue snorted, not bothering to pay him any more attention.

But just as he was leaving, he had to add, “Let me remind you, we’re all players. There’s no need to make it so ugly.”

Listening to his tone, it was as if Qian Yue was deliberately causing trouble and embarrassing him.

This amused Qian Yue.

Before this person came, she had been planning to take inventory of her supplies. But now, she simply ignored the items, threw the bag over her back with a swish, and stood up.

“So, you’ve said all the nice and nasty things you wanted to say, right? Why are you so good at talking?” she asked expressionlessly.

Hong Mingyuan felt something was off instinctively and took a couple of cautious steps back, “What do you want to do?”

Qian Yue remained indifferent, “Nothing.”

Although she said she wasn’t going to do anything, her expression showed otherwise.

As Qian Yue spoke, she started to walk in Hong Mingyuan’s direction.

But just as she had taken two steps, he suddenly sprinted and flipped out of the ruins, going up the slope!

“Tsk…”

Qian Yue disdainfully clicked her tongue and sat back down, reopening her backpack.

The lottery supplies had been delivered to her bag at the beginning of the game’s fifth minute, but Hong Mingyuan’s sudden appearance wasted several minutes, delaying her lottery draw for nothing.

“There’s one more bandage in the basic supplies.”

Needless to say, it must be today’s begging alms.

“Tools… screws?”

Qian Yue furrowed her eyebrows slightly as she looked at the ten screws in her hand. She raised an eyebrow but did not comment.

She continued to look through the rest and found a mask and a blueprint.

Even before Hong Mingyuan approached, Qian Yue had carefully hidden the gas mask, so he would not see it. As she was about to go outside and explore, she might encounter other people. Qian Yue thought about it and decided not to use the gas mask but wore the mask instead.

After putting it on, she continued to examine the last blueprint.

【Blueprint: Anti-Wolf Mini Flashlight (Regular)】

Description: Collect the materials to craft a mini flashlight for self-defense against wolves. It has limited power and is not rechargeable.

Usage: 10-13 times (randomized).

Required Materials: Item Fragment (Metal) x6, Item Fragment (Plastic) x3, Synthesis Stone x1.

Qian Yue murmured, “This one is not bad.”

Although it couldn’t be used as an everyday weapon, it could come in handy during critical moments for self-defense. The only downside was that it seemed to require quite a few materials for crafting, and she wasn’t sure if they would be easy to find.

Thinking it over, she decided to check the pit next to the nearby building later.

She didn’t have much knowledge about military matters and couldn’t figure out what those bombers dropped exactly.

But whether it was bombs or landmines, there would probably be residual shrapnel and casings from these explosive weapons. Perhaps those could be counted as metal item fragments.

With this thought, Qian Yue chuckled mockingly.

Just the blueprint for a “regular” quality item required so many materials. As for that “sniper rifle” he mentioned earlier, who knows how complex it is? No wonder that guy wanted to find a sucker to help him work for free under the guise of a partnership.

“Ugly on the outside, but so good at scheming.”

Stuffing the blueprint into her backpack, Qian Yue quickly got up and walked towards the area that had just been bombed. (Caution, it’s dangerous to do this, please do not imitate.)

*

Although she said “nearby,” in reality, the building where Qian Yue was located was still a bit of a distance from the one that was bombed.

In between, there seemed to be a small park with numerous green plants, but most of them were either toppled or buried, nearly destroyed.

As Qian Yue passed by, there were still many branches lying on the ground, burning. Since they were all damp wood, the smoke billowed, and occasional crackling sounds could be heard, filling the air with the smell of burnt wood.

All of this was the aftermath of being affected by the blast wave from the explosion.

Qian Yue carefully skirted around these fires and continued walking.

It wasn’t that she wouldn’t put out the fires, but there were no conditions nor any need to do so. The ruins were full of building debris, and even with the wind blowing, the fires wouldn’t spread easily. Soon, they would extinguish on their own.

Qian Yue picked up a wooden stick casually, snuffing out the burning branches with it and using it like a cane to explore her way.

After a few minutes, she arrived near the explosion site.
Qian Yue stood on the ruins and looked down.

If she remembered correctly, there used to be half of the building’s foundation left here. If she hadn’t been closer to the other side at the time, she might have sought shelter here.

However, what was exposed in front of her now was only a hot, black pit.

Not only was the remaining half of the building gone, but even the vertical steel bars in the foundation had all vanished, replaced by a deep pit of debris about one to two meters high and dozens of meters in diameter.

Apart from Qian Yue, several people had already arrived in the pit and were searching for supplies separately.

Among them was the man who had had an encounter with Qian Yue earlier.

In just a few minutes, he seemed to have found someone to cooperate with. When he caught a glimpse of Qian Yue, he instinctively froze for a moment, then gloomily pulled the person next to him in the opposite direction of Qian Yue.

Qian Yue chuckled and had no intention of bothering with him at all.

She jumped into the deep pit and joined the group searching for supplies.

The explosion had only recently occurred, and the temperature in the pit was still high. Just standing inside, Qian Yue felt like she was burning.

But time waits for no one, and the next round of bombing might come at any time. She had to gather what she needed before that happened.

As expected, Qian Yue’s previous speculation was correct. There were indeed quite a few metal items in the pit, but to balance the drop rate, not everything could be identified as item fragments.

While she picked and chose several items more and more people gathered in the pit. Some of them seemed to be indigenous people and didn’t have backpacks.

Qian Yue’s actions paused for a moment, and a hint of doubt flashed in her eyes.

Players came to the pit to find item fragments, but what were these indigenous people doing here? Did they just follow the players because they saw them coming?

Something’s not right!

Qian Yue remained vigilant and, after picking up what she needed, immediately turned around and headed back up.

At the same moment, she distinctly felt a gaze fall upon her from behind, and that feeling of being watched made her instinctively alert!

While her expression remained calm, she quickened her pace without hesitation.

Sure enough, just a few steps after she walked away, there was a sudden “bang” from behind!

“Hand over all your belongings!”