Day 4. Morning.

  Yu Zhiye stepped back into his shack and casually tossed the supplies he just looted to the food corner. “Another day, another good harvest.”

  Unless they wall off every aisle, nothing can stop a speedster from taking whatever he wants!

  He gotta admit: the swiftness buff at the start of every day really did make it that much easier.

  Too bad, it’s not permanent. Nor did the shack level-up upgrade the speed buff.

  Instead, a new “Cleanse I” effect got added to the previous two-buff collection.

  Though Yu Zhiye had some guesses about its effect, nothing could be verified just yet, except for a rather noticeable cleansing of his body.

  When he woke up this morning, the salty sheen from all the sweating was gone and even his body felt less sticky than yesterday.

  It was almost like he had taken a shower in the morning! Minus the getting wet part.

  Sweet stars above, the ladies, perhaps even everybody, would probably be jealous if they ever find out he enjoyed such a luxury in this desert!

  Not that they’ll ever know... right?

  The future is unpredictable, but the decisions on how to go about the journey are still in our hands.

  And he happened to complete a rather critical decision just yesterday night.

  Yu Zhiye set his gaze upon the cubic workbench block that sat in a corner of his shack.

  That’s the crafting table made from the planks he acquired from recycling the spare treasure casket he fished up!

  Truth be told, there wasn’t much special about the process. The hardest part was actually breaking apart the chest into planks.

  Then, the rest was straightforward: open the crafting menu, fill all four grids with a unit of plank, move the output into an inventory slot, and place the block in the real world.

  It’s just that… there’s a teensy weensy little problem.

  After getting placed, the block strangely couldn’t be moved! It’s stuck in place, just like the indestructible altar!

  Though this did reflect some of the underlying block rules of the original game, but… in reality, it was rather inconvenient.

  Especially since his punches did nothing to the block.

  Want to turn the crafting table back into an item block? His bare hands certainly didn’t have that magical ability!

  Though Yu Zhiye thought of a possible solution, it was quite late past midnight and he was almost forcing his eyes to stay open by that point.

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  Now that he was refreshed and wide awake…

  Yu Zhiye grabbed the materials he needed, headed over to the corner, and placed a hand on the workbench.

  His inventory-status screen popped up, but this time around, the character equipment and basic crafting interface section—right above the inventory toolbar—got replaced by a three-by-three crafting grid!

  Well, there’s nothing else special here. It was just an extension for the basic two-by-two grid crafting system.

  “Two sticks, three cobble…” Yu Zhiye dragged the materials in his inventory toolbar and placed them into the crafting interface one by one. “Arrange them like this and… wala.”

  New item acquired: Stone Axe (Blue)!

  Moments later, the stone axe in his inventory toolbar appeared in his hands!

  Yu Zhiye gave it two swings just to gauge its weight. “Hmm. It’s heavier than it looks. But it should work fine as a weapon.”

  As for how well it’ll work against those death angels? Eh… let’s hope he’ll never have to test that out himself.

  Then what’s the point of crafting this axe? Well…

  Yu Zhiye’s gaze switched from the axe to the crafting table. “My hands don’t work, but what about the axe?”

  Follow his imagination!

  The axe chopped down! But the expected chink in the wood didn’t occur. Instead, cracks magically appeared all over the crafting table!

  But once the axe paused, these illusory cracks started slowly mending themselves…

  This phenomenon aroused something in Yu Zhiye’s instincts and he chopped away a second time. Then a third, then another…

  Cracks spread more and more…

  Just when Yu Zhiye thought the crafting table will splinter into a million pieces, the cracks seemed to shatter space itself and some mysterious force shrunk down the crafting table into a little item block!

  This supernatural effect really took his common sense for a trip down memory lane...

  Yu Zhiye picked up the bobbing and floating miniature crafting table. He inspected the undamaged block all over. “How magical. It’s really like a game, huh?”

  He almost thought this world was skewed towards realism, but new discoveries never fails to refresh his world views.

  “Well, now I don’t have to worry about the crafting table being a permanent obstruction. That’s good news.”

  The small cube got placed back on the floor at its former position.

  Once he took a step back, the miniature model grew back into a full-size crafting table!

  This was block placement!

  As long as there’s valid spacing with no hands or feet in the way, the block will take root and return to its original size!

  “Not everything is the same as the game, but I guess some mystical rules still apply to what’s crafted through the system.”

  This got Yu Zhiye thinking. Perhaps any processed blocks will be the same?

  In reality, it’s impossible to just stack blocks and expect to build a sturdy house, but if blocks crafted through the crafting system could glue together on its own and even defy gravity, then…

  “It might really be possible to build a sand castle with just one recipe!”

  Sandstone block recipe! He wants!

  Alas, that depends on the heavens above and the authors beyond.

  “Whatever. Just having an axe that can collect certain blocks is already awesome enough.”

  Yu Zhiye kept it in his inventory toolbar. Another semi-permanent occupant. Never know when it’ll come in handy.

  Now that was done and over with, Yu Zhiye went to finish up his daily routine, mainly: harvesting and resetting his wood generator.

  “Another eight wood. I used up two in my fish-purification experiment yesterday night and now the total comes to fourteen.”

  Just two short from the wood requirement to construct the observatory, but if nothing goes wrong, he should have enough wood and points by tonight!

  “Well, I hope something goes wrong so I can fleece them for the last of the cobblestone I need. All in the name of progress! Haha…”

  Yu Zhiye is an evil capitalist.jpg. Mwahahaha!

  Alas… even evil capitalists have to go to work at the beginning of every success story.

  Arriving outside the store, Yu Zhiye took in the morning scenery out back.

  The sunrise’s glow lit up the uneven sand slopes and gaps left behind by yesterday’s digging.

  Gravity did it’s thing overnight, but clearly not completely.

  But that wasn’t the only point of interest. An even more intriguing sight was…

  “Hmm? Did those rocky mountains get... even closer today?”

  Yu Zhiye wasn’t sure, but the gears in his mind was already turning. “Wonder what events could be on the horizon. It won’t be... a disaster, right?”