Starting With a Reef [Global Survival]

When Yun Luohe saw this, she laughed out loud.

It seemed there really were people unluckier than she was.
A Backpack full of trash—wasn’t that pure treasure?
Trash was treasure to Yun Luohe!
She quickly went to add that person as a friend.
【Name: Mu Zitang
Gender: Male
Age: Confidential
Signature: Forget it, let the world be destroyed.
Other Information: None】

However, Yun Luohe worried that if she sent a friend request without any explanation, the other party might not accept it.
After all, she herself wouldn’t add random strangers.
Yun Luohe: 【Hello, I can trade you food.】
She still had two Steamed Buns and half a pack of Chocolate Cookies in her Backpack.
Maybe she could exchange them for all of his trash.

Although Yun Luohe herself had not eaten either, she could still endure.
She had eaten a Scallion Pancake in the afternoon and wasn’t very hungry yet.
At worst, she could drink more water to suppress the hunger.
Besides, after the Reef upgraded, the rewards might include food.
She sent the friend request and waited for quite a while, but there was no response.
When Yun Luohe checked the chat channel again, she could no longer see that person’s messages.

The players' messages scrolled too fast—after all, there were hundreds of thousands of people in Zone 2.
If he didn’t add her, there was really nothing she could do.
Just as she was about to close the light screen, a notification sound rang out.
She thought her friend request had been accepted.
But it turned out to be a message from Du Ruan-tian.
It turned out Du Ruan-tian had successfully started her fire and sent a message to thank her, along with a burning piece of Wood.

Yun Luohe accepted it and stored it safely in her Backpack without taking it out.
By now, it was completely dark, and the wind on the sea was fierce.
If she took the torch out now, it would likely be blown out quickly.

It would be great to have a fire at night to avoid the cold, but Yun Luohe didn’t have enough Wood to burn continuously.
It was better to leave the burning Wood in the Backpack for now—after all, the Backpack's time was frozen, so no matter when she took it out, the Wood would still be burning.
She would wait until the Reef Upgrade was complete before deciding what to do.
Yun Luohe still had some Stamina Points left, enough to use the Fishing Net one more time.
She hoped she could fish up some more trash.

While waiting, she didn’t idle around.
She began studying the items she had just fished up.
[Wooden Box Without Lid: A box made of wood, but the lid is missing.]
The Wooden Box was about the size of a 20-inch suitcase.
Though it had no lid, it was quite suitable for storing things and could hold a lot of miscellaneous items.

Just in time—Yun Luohe could use it to store the piles of odds and ends cluttering her Reef.
After almost exhausting her Upgrade materials, her Backpack now had several empty slots.
Next, Yun Luohe picked up the Bamboo.

It was just an ordinary, fresh, green Bamboo stick, but she had no idea what it could be used for.
[Iron Ore: Essential material for crafting various tools and weapons.]
This had to be a good item.
By now, the sky was completely dark.
Even if there was movement on the sea, it was impossible to see clearly.

Yun Luohe decided to pull up the Fishing Net one last time before sleeping to check for any harvest.
Time passed bit by bit.
When there were less than thirty minutes left until the Reef Upgrade finished—
Yun Luohe finally saw a new message.
【Mu Zitang has accepted your friend request.】

Yun Luohe: "Hello."
She immediately began thinking about how to phrase her message so that the other party wouldn't become suspicious when she asked for all his trash.
After all, running around looking for trash was indeed a little suspicious.

Normal people wouldn't need that much trash.
And she couldn’t reveal that she had a treasure Trash Can either.
She needed to come up with a better excuse.
She couldn't just bluntly say she wanted to trade food for trash.
However, Mu Zitang’s reply came even faster.
"Hello, I don't have much in my Backpack. A lot of people contacted me, but after they saw my stuff, none of them wanted to trade. You can take a look too."

In real life, although Mu Zitang had bad luck, he came from a wealthy family, so his life had been comfortable.
But after being thrown into this game, he was miserably unlucky.
Not only had he failed to upgrade to Level 2 so far, he had even broken his Fishing Net and had no food left.
Thinking that he might soon die on this miserable Reef made him unwilling to accept his fate.
The game had said that after a month, the remaining people on Blue Star would also enter this world.
If he died here, wouldn’t his family come too?
If he died, his family would be heartbroken—he was their only child, and his parents had poured their hearts and souls into raising him.
He didn’t want to die like this.

[Leaky Wooden Barrel ×1, Rotten Vegetable Leaves ×2, Torn Cloth ×1, Coconut Shell ×1, Soaked Paper Carton ×1, Rotten Gloves ×1, Broken Stone ×1, Spoiled Steamed Bun ×1, Hat with Holes ×1, Giant Rock ×1]
After seeing Mu Zitang's materials, Yun Luohe nearly grinned from ear to ear.
All treasures!

"I have two Steamed Buns. Give me all of these."
Mu Zitang: "?"
He almost blurted out, You want even this junk?
Was this person a philanthropist?
Aside from the Giant Rock, which a few people were interested in, nobody had even asked about the other items.

But those people were only willing to trade one or two materials for the Giant Rock, which was completely useless to Mu Zitang.
So he hadn't traded anything.
Yun Luohe: "How about it?"
Mu Zitang: "No problem!"
Although he didn't particularly like Steamed Buns, in the real world—even if he didn’t eat delicacies every day—his wealthy background meant he had always been picky about food.
But he had been starving for a whole day.
Since coming to this game, he had only eaten one whole wheat bread.
Now, just having Steamed Buns to eat made him want to cry with gratitude.

I’m not destined to die yet!
In Mu Zitang’s eyes, Yun Luohe was nothing short of a saint.
Yun Luohe: "Then let’s trade now."

Mu Zitang sent over all the trash from his Backpack.
At first, he had thrown away some trash,
but after realizing everything he fished up was garbage, he just stopped bothering.
Yun Luohe spun around in circles on her Reef in delight.

This time, she had truly struck it rich!
She took a deep breath.
There was so much trash that her Backpack couldn’t even fit it all—she had to pile it directly onto the Reef.

She decided to recycle the larger items first.
【Leaky Wooden Barrel recycled successfully. Obtained: Wood ×2】
【Broken Stone recycled successfully. Obtained: Ocean Stone ×1】
【Giant Rock recycled successfully. Obtained: Ocean Stone ×10】
Seeing that the Giant Rock could be turned into 10 Ocean Stones, Yun Luohe was stunned.

She had guessed it would yield a lot of Ocean Stones, but she hadn't expected as many as ten!
Now, she only needed to throw in one more piece of trash to level up the Trash Can.
The closer it came to a key moment, the more thrilling it felt.

【Hat with Holes recycled successfully. Obtained: Fiber ×2】
【Congratulations! Trash Can has been upgraded to Level 2! Scrap-for-Cash skill unlocked.】
【Level 2 Trash Can】
【Experience Points Needed for Next Upgrade: 300】
【Skills: Recycling, Scrap-for-Cash】
【Note: Only one skill can be used per day. To change skills, wait until the next day.】
【Upgrading unlocks the Item Upgrade skill.】
【Accumulate ten trash items recycled to earn a lottery chance (limited to two per day).】

Fantastic—her precious Trash Can had leveled up!
Scrap-for-Cash—just hearing the name sounded like a great skill.
Although she didn’t yet know exactly what kind of "money" it referred to,
it definitely wouldn’t be a bad thing.
And now, she had two lottery chances per day—amazing!

Maybe, each level up would add one more lottery chance?
However, it would probably be much harder to level up from now on.
Still, she had another lottery chance now.
Feeling wonderful.

【Start Lottery】
【Obtained: Workbench Blueprint ×1】
[Workbench: Can craft various basic tools, with disassembly and synthesis functions.
Materials required: Iron Ore ×2, Wood ×15]
And she had just gotten one Iron Ore today!

If she could find one more piece of Iron Ore, she could craft the Workbench.
She stored the Blueprint carefully.
At that moment, a white light enveloped the Reef, illuminating the surroundings.
[Reef Upgrade Successful!]

Yun Luohe’s eyes lit up.
It had arrived!
The Reef had grown significantly taller, now standing a full two meters above the sea surface.
It immediately felt much safer.

Where the stone bed had once been, a thatched hut had appeared!
The thatched hut alone was the size of the previous Level 2 Reef.
Now, the Reef was approximately fifty square meters.
Yun Luohe could even run a full circle on it without feeling cramped.
Having more space was simply pleasant to look at.

By the remaining white light, Yun Luohe saw that behind the thatched hut, a patch of the ground had turned into soil.
It was no longer just stone but a mixture of soil, weeds, and sand.
Did this mean she could start planting here?
The thatched hut emitted a faint glow.
Yun Luohe walked inside and saw that it was empty.

Still, just having a place to shelter from the wind and rain made her extremely satisfied!
Gradually, the white light faded.
【Congratulations! You are among the top thirty players in Zone 2 (Rank 27) to upgrade your Reef to Level 3!】
【Rewards: Iron Ore ×2, Ocean Stone ×20, Wood ×30, Deep Sea Flint ×2, Mineral Water ×5, Quilt ×1, Pillow ×1, A Basket of Strawberries, Mango Daifuku ×1, Meat Floss Rice Ball ×2】

She had ranked in the twenties!
That was very high!
And the rewards were exceptionally generous.
Yun Luohe was extremely pleased.
Almost everything she needed had been provided.
With the Iron Ore, she could craft the Workbench.
With the Flint, she could synthesize a Fire Starter.
She now had a Quilt and a Pillow, so she could have a proper sleep tonight.

Her food and water supplies were also replenished.
Life was starting to look good!
Yun Luohe immediately grew excited about her future life on the Reef.

First, she would craft the Workbench!
—
Creating the Workbench would take half an hour.

Yun Luohe opened the Reef Center.
[Reef Level: Level 3
Area: 50 square meters
Score: 15 points
Upgrade Requirements: Ocean Stone ×100, Wood ×300, Fiber ×100, Iron Ore ×50, Glass ×10]
As expected, Glass was one of the upgrade materials.

It seemed Wu Jing had already reached Level 3, and much earlier than she had.
She wondered if he had ranked in the top ten.
But that wasn’t something Yun Luohe needed to concern herself with right now.
After all, he was a lucky player with extraordinary luck, whereas she had only managed to upgrade so quickly thanks to her Trash Can.

She picked up her Trash Can and found a nice spot for it inside the thatched hut.
Since she couldn't use the Scrap-for-Cash skill today, she decided to keep the remaining trash to use tomorrow.
However, in just the short span of an hour, Yun Luohe had acquired so many materials that she really needed to organize them properly.

It seemed necessary to start a fire.
Moreover, she now had plenty of Wood.
A campfire would not only provide warmth but also light.
With firelight, she would be able to clearly see her supplies.
Yun Luohe chose a suitable spot outside the thatched hut, took out two pieces of Wood, and used the fire stick Du Ruan-tian had given her to ignite the Wood.

Two pieces of Wood would burn for about two hours.
Although that wasn’t a long time, it should be ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) enough for her.
As long as she saved the fire source before it went out, everything would be fine.
First, she placed the items she had received from Mu Zitang into the Wooden Box, then began organizing her supplies.

[Ocean Stone ×36, Wood ×26, Fiber ×10, Iron Ore ×1, Plastic ×6, Seaweed ×1, Flour ×1, Flower Cloth ×1, Bottled Mineral Water ×8, Black Seed ×1, Deep Sea Flint ×2, Sheepskin Scroll Fragment ×1, Ball of Yarn ×2, Leather ×2, Bamboo ×1, Cabbage Seed ×1, Sprouted Apple Tree Seed ×1, 3L Mineral Water ×1, Quilt ×1, Pillow ×1, A Basket of Strawberries, Mango Daifuku ×1, Meat Floss Rice Ball ×2, Shell ×1, Coconut Shell ×1]
There was also the opened package of Chocolate Cookies.
Yun Luohe let out a long breath.
She had accumulated quite a lot of things already.

Survival truly required the joy of stockpiling supplies.
—
Yun Luohe stood up to stretch her muscles.
She finished off the remaining Chocolate Cookies and drank half a bottle of water.

Now that her supplies weren’t as tight, but food was still not abundant, she decided to eat a Mango Daifuku tonight and save the rest for tomorrow.
The chubby Mango Daifuku looked crystal clear, and could be eaten in one bite.
It was soft, chewy, and delicious, with a refreshing sweetness.
The mango inside was especially sweet and juicy, pulling into silky threads when bitten into.
"It seems I really need to start farming.
Only by becoming self-sufficient will I no longer have to worry about food."

Yun Luohe went to the open space behind the thatched hut and squatted down to examine the soil.
[Soil: Ordinary soil with poor fertility, thick layer, and heavy texture.]
Although the fertility was poor, it was not completely infertile, meaning it could still be used to grow crops.

She initially thought she could simply dig a hole with her hands and plant the seeds, but it didn’t work.
The soil had to be tilled first with a hoe, and all the weeds and stones had to be cleared before that.
But she had no tools at all.
At minimum, she needed a hoe.
Right! The Workbench.

It was just about done—she immediately ran over to check.
She was sure she could craft a hoe at the Workbench!