Chapter 46.1: Collecting Item Cards
Wen Huahua reminded Cheng Qisheng that the first thing she needed to do was purchase a batch of insulated one-piece cold-weather suits.
[The temperature on Dazzling Star has dropped dramatically again over the past few months. Without the insulated bodysuits obtained from item cards, residents simply can’t function normally.
[Boss, except for the half hour around noon, don’t let anyone leave the heated shelters unless they’re wearing one of those insulated suits.]
Just talking about it made Wen Huahua feel fortunate that he had left the previous world when he did.
Back then, he had fled because the ever-increasing number of high-level zombies had scared him off.
Ironically, arriving in this world early had ended up giving him a chance to survive.
At the time, it had already been cold, and people could easily freeze to death at night.
But it wasn’t yet so severe that simply staying outdoors for a short while outside of noon would cause severe hypothermia and low-temperature organ failure.
Wen Huahua had immediately sent all the residents out to live separately (the real reason being that he was too poor to supply enough energy for everyone). Scattered across the wilderness, relying on item cards, most of the people from Coriander Safe City gradually managed to survive.
At first, he had worried that once people got used to living outside, they might decide there was no need to return to the Safe City.
But as the temperature continued to plummet day after day, that concern gradually disappeared as well.
Back then, he had been thinking to himself:
Thank goodness I arrived early.
If I had only arrived after the temperature had dropped to what it is now, I’d have been unbelievably unlucky. At these temperatures, I wouldn’t dare stay for more than an hour before running away.
Then, only a couple of days after having that thought…
His boss arrived.
Wen Huahua was genuinely worried that Blue Sea would decide to cut its losses and leave.
Emotionally, as long as Blue Sea was here, he felt an immense sense of security.
Logically, after coming to this world, he had realized just how important items were to a Safe City. Used properly, they could even raise the residents’ quality of life by an entire level.
Since Wen Huahua had latched onto such a powerful backer, he naturally hoped that backer would continue growing stronger and stronger.
— Coriander Safe City has transferred 500 tons of hardwood and 125 Item Cards (White, Tier 1) to Blue Sea Safe City. —
Coriander Safe City: [Boss, I’m sending you some lumber. These are also all the Item Cards I currently have in stock. Use them for now—you don’t need to pay me any crystals. Just pay me back after you have some.]
At the moment, Cheng Qisheng was effectively multitasking with her attention split three ways. A single glance at the Item Card listings in the group chat was enough for her to realize that Coriander was making a huge sacrifice.
Perhaps because there were as many as forty-two Safe Cities that had descended onto Dazzling Star, this group chat was especially lively. Many city lords were chatting casually, while many others were selling all kinds of goods.
The going market price for White Item Cards was consistent:
—300 crystals for one card,
—2,500 crystals for ten,
—and 20,000 crystals for one hundred.
Buying them was essentially like purchasing blind boxes—no one knew what an Item Card would contain until it was opened.
The more you bought, the cheaper each card became.
In other words, Coriander had just transferred the equivalent of more than 20,000 crystals worth of goods to her—without even asking her to sign a contract.
It was a complete act of trust.
Looking at the message, Cheng Qisheng’s lips curled into a faint smile.
So… that trust had already been built.
Blue Sea Safe City: [Thank you, Coriander. This is a huge help. I’ll repay you as soon as possible~]
Staring at that reply, Wen Huahua finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Back on Velvet Star, every time he had helped Blue Sea in some way, Blue Sea had always repaid him with something even more valuable afterward.
For example, when he had given Blue Sea some timber, Blue Sea had sold him grain that it normally wouldn’t have sold to anyone. When he had shared information that newcomers didn’t know, Blue Sea had taught him how to manage a Safe City. When he had found the coordinates of the granary and sent them over, Blue Sea had discounted the price of grain for him.
Wen Huahua had long since grown accustomed to the idea that helping Blue Sea always led to generous returns.
Trust was built little by little, one interaction at a time.
Of course, he knew that to other city lords, what he was doing probably looked like giving away valuables for free.
But Wen Huahua believed in Blue Sea’s character.
Of course, trust was one thing. Handing over such an enormous amount of wealth still made him feel uneasy.
Wen Huahua rubbed his face, patted his chest, and tried to reassure himself.
—Don’t panic! Stay strong! Boss will definitely repay me!
…
Coriander had been right. This world really was better suited to letting the residents fend for themselves.
As soon as the duration of the Tier 3 Protective Barrier expired, Cheng Qisheng watched Blue Sea’s energy consumption skyrocket.
Blue Sea covered a vast territory and had a huge population. Even though Aether had already done everything possible to arrange for more people to stay together, the city was still consuming enough energy every minute to support a single person for several hundred years.
Fortunately, Blue Sea had a substantial reserve. They had spent several months mining on Velvet Star, so they could still afford the expense—for now. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have lasted long.
Cheng Qisheng had already moved the White Item Cards into the warehouse, where the military was now opening them.
The defining characteristic of Item Cards was that, until you opened one, there was no way of knowing what it contained.
One card might hold nothing more than a bottle of body wash.
Another might contain thirty insulated cold-weather suits.
Yet another could produce a hundred pairs of ordinary shoe insoles.
What you got depended entirely on luck.
Before opening the cards, the soldiers prayed solemnly:
“May the great Creator God bless us—”
The great Creator God, Cheng Qisheng: “…Uh…”
That… wasn’t really something she could do.
Sitting in her study, Cheng Qisheng decided to wash her hands and light a stick of incense, completing the traditional “bathe and burn incense” ritual before trying one’s luck.
Whether it actually worked or not, at least the sense of ceremony was there.
The military wasted no time. As soon as the prayer was over, the 125 soldiers who had been selected each opened the Item Card in their hands.
Ripples spread across the ground.
The shimmering distortion looked somewhat similar to the spatial waves that appeared whenever a Safe City relocated or descended into a new world.
When everything settled, Blue Sea had obtained:
— 12 cartons of toilet paper,
— 57 tubes of toothpaste,
— 31 bottles of anti-freeze skin cream (cold-protection cream),
— 62 towels,
— 17 sets of gloves and scarves,
as well as a miscellaneous assortment of everyday supplies, including garbage bags, dental floss, disposable cups, soap, nail clippers, matches, candles, sewing needles and thread, and various other odds and ends.
No wonder more than half of Dazzling Star’s population had managed to survive by relying on Item Cards.
These cards really contained just about everything.
She had even seen one produce an aquarium.
In theory, Item Cards solved one of the biggest problems of the apocalypse: with industry at a standstill and society collapsed, humanity could no longer manufacture the necessities of daily life on its own.
No wonder none of the forty-plus city lords wanted to leave. With something as incredible as Item Cards available here, who would willingly walk away?
After sighing in admiration, Cheng Qisheng shifted her attention to the large crates stacked in the middle.
Inside them were the one-piece insulated cold-weather suits, along with all kinds of winter clothing—thermal socks, insulated underwear, knee warmers, and similar items.
Their luck wasn’t bad.
They had obtained 398 insulated one-piece cold-weather suits, which was a fairly generous drop rate.
Of course, Cheng Qisheng had never expected those 398 suits alone to solve Blue Sea’s problems.
What she really wanted to learn was how the Item Cards worked, and more importantly, whether the cold-weather suits produced by the cards could be reverse-engineered so Blue Sea could manufacture them itself.
Blue Sea already had contingency plans for extreme cold and had stockpiled its own polar protective suits.
The outside temperature was currently around −70°C. Although it would become even colder at night, Blue Sea’s polar gear was still sufficient for temperatures like these.
There was just one small problem.
They only had three million suits.
In almost any other world, the obvious strategy would have been to equip the army with polar gear and launch a full-scale offensive.
But Coriander had already explained that the snow beasts of this world possessed a certain level of intelligence.
They only attacked small groups or isolated individuals.
If they saw a large concentration of humans, they would simply run away.
Snow beasts moved extremely fast across the snow. If they truly wanted to escape, then aside from a handful of speed-type ability users, ordinary people had no hope of catching them. They would only end up exhausting themselves in the frozen wilderness.
That was why the people of Dazzling Star rarely lived in large communities.
Most families lived alone in individual item-generated buildings.
At most, there might be a small village.
Even then, when it came time to hunt, the hunters still spread out and operated separately.
After all, a snow beast wouldn’t die if it failed to eat a human.
But if a human couldn’t kill a snow beast and obtain an Item Card, they really would die.
Even these small settlements had to remain constantly vigilant.
A lone snow beast wouldn’t recklessly charge into a village inhabited by a group of humans.
However, there was a chance that several snow beasts would gather together and cooperate to besiege the settlement.
When that happened, very few people in the village survived.
As a result, true villages were rare on Dazzling Star. At most, people would place a handful of item-generated buildings close together and live as neighbors.
The Dazzling Star inhabitants who were still alive today were either strong enough to protect themselves or had family members capable of protecting them.
In Cheng Qisheng’s view, the people of Dazzling Star had actually adapted to this way of life.
If the temperature weren’t continuing to drop, they could probably have gone on living like this indefinitely.
We have to move quickly.
Before the world’s temperature fell to the point where ordinary industrial cold-weather gear became useless, every resident needed to have at least one proper insulated suit.
Cheng Qisheng shifted her gaze toward the reconnaissance team outside Blue Sea Safe City’s walls.
While the rest of the city was still busy constructing heated shelters, this squad had already departed wearing Blue Sea’s polar protective suits.
Their mission was to locate snow beasts, fight Blue Sea’s first battle against them, evaluate their combat strength, and assess how well humans could operate in the outside environment.
After receiving Coriander’s warning, Cheng Qisheng had issued a divine decree ordering the team to split up.
Now, they had divided into thirty small squads.
From her bird’s-eye view, the endless snowstorm was nothing but a vast expanse of white.
No trees.
No mountains.
No buildings.
Only a few bulky Blue Sea soldiers, bundled up from head to toe. Their thick hoods completely covered their heads as they trudged slowly across the snow.
Cheng Qisheng also noticed another advantage of the insulated suits that came from the Item Cards.
They weren’t nearly as bulky.
Although wearing one still restricted movement slightly, they didn’t make it difficult to bend one’s joints or move naturally.
Cheng Qisheng had already begun to suspect that Blue Sea’s hope of reproducing these insulated suits through conventional technology was probably doomed to fail.
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before Blue Sea’s researchers reached the same conclusion.
“The material used in these insulated suits doesn’t belong to any substance known to Blue Sea. In fact, their function is remarkably similar to that of a Protective Barrier.”
The experts from Blue Sea’s National Institute of Advanced Protective Materials were presenting their report to senior officials.
“A conventional protective suit has to completely cover the body, including the face, with a full windproof mask. That’s because at the current temperatures, leaving the facial skin exposed for even ten or twenty seconds is enough to cause frostbite.”
They continued, “Our protective suits are also equipped with breathing apparatuses. The main reason is that inhaling extremely cold air directly into the respiratory tract is highly dangerous. It can cause pulmonary edema or freeze and damage the airways.”
The expert pointed toward a live video feed.
It showed a soldier wearing one of the one-piece insulated suits obtained from an Item Card, casually walking around outside the city’s gate.
Inside the city, the White-Robed Bishops in the temple stood by on full alert, ready to pull the soldier into a prepared medical room at the first sign of an emergency.
Because frostbite victims couldn’t simply be exposed to high temperatures all at once, emergency treatment had to be carried out in a low-temperature environment.
The bishops themselves, waiting inside the windproof room, were bundled up in thick winter clothing as they watched the scene outside with complete concentration.
But judging from the experts’ observations so far, it seemed the Pope wouldn’t be called upon to perform a rescue after all.
“This insulated suit appears to generate a peculiar invisible energy field. Once someone puts it on, they still need to wear the hood, but they no longer need a face mask.”
“The wearer seems to be enveloped by this energy field. Their entire body experiences an effective ambient temperature of roughly 0°C. Even with their face exposed, they suffer no frostbite whatsoever.”
“Likewise, once you’re wearing it, there’s no need for any breathing apparatus. You can breathe normally.”
The expert tapped a coin-sized circular light located on the upper left chest of the insulated suit.
“There’s a small white indicator light here that’s constantly illuminated. After disassembling the suit, we were unable to determine what powers it or where its energy source is located.”
“What we have confirmed is that when the suit is destroyed, the light goes out completely. While the suit is in the process of being damaged, however, the light flashes. This serves as a warning to the wearer, giving them time to replace the suit before it fails entirely.”
Cheng Qisheng had been listening attentively.
But when she heard that part, her expression became rather indescribable.
The light stays on during normal operation… starts blinking when it’s about to break… and goes out completely once it’s broken?
She couldn’t help being reminded of a certain children’s TV series.
Blue Sea, of course, had never had a show like Ultraman, so the experts remained completely unaffected by the resemblance and continued their analysis with utmost seriousness.
“In summary, with Blue Sea’s current level of technology, it is impossible for us to reproduce an insulated suit with equivalent performance. Even if a damaged suit were repaired and reassembled, we would still be unable to recreate the energy field it originally generated.”
“Furthermore, these suits are extremely difficult to damage. Our recommendation is that anyone who needs to operate outside should wear one of these item-generated insulated suits whenever possible. They provide far better protection against environmental hazards.”
In short—
These were incredibly valuable pieces of equipment.
The more they could obtain, the better.
Just looking at the officials listening to the presentation made that obvious.
Every single one of them had eyes shining with excitement.
Now, everyone was simply waiting for the Great Creator God’s command.
Cheng Qisheng, however, didn’t issue the order immediately.
Blue Sea Safe City really was consuming energy at an astonishing rate.
But caution had become second nature to her.
She wanted to first observe Blue Sea’s initial battle against the snow beasts, evaluate how capable her people were in combat, and make sure they could hold their own.
Only then would she allow the rest of her followers to leave the safety of the city.
The Creator God’s gaze settled on one of the small squads that was currently engaged in combat with a snow beast.
The squad consisted of only three people.
Their opponent was roughly the size of a Northwestern wolf, with a body length of about 1.5 meters and shoulders around 65 centimeters high.
Its body resembled a wolf’s, but its head looked more like a lion’s. It had no tail. Its fur was entirely white except for its crimson-colored underbelly.
It prowled continuously around the three soldiers, probing for an opening. Whenever its claws struck the ground, they left deep impressions in the snow.
This was a typical medium-sized terrestrial snow beast.
Its hunting style closely resembled that of a wild predator, and Cheng Qisheng quickly matched it to the photograph in the information Coriander had provided.
Red Bear
Great strength, high speed, and extremely sharp teeth. Its bite force is powerful enough to crush human bones. It constantly circles its prey, waiting for an opportunity to launch a surprise attack. It prefers targeting the weakest opponent. Its legs and abdomen are its weak points.
Combat Rating: Upper-middle tier. The most common snow beast found on the snowy plains.
After killing one, the drop rates were approximately:
70% chance of a Tier 1 Item Card.
0.01% chance of a Tier 2 Item Card.
An excellent opponent for evaluating the snow beasts’ combat capabilities.
Cheng Qisheng immediately sent a divine revelation to each of the three soldiers in turn, conveying the information from Coriander’s dossier.
She carefully timed each revelation so that none of them would become distracted in the middle of the fight.
The three soldiers gripped their high-carbon steel hunting spears tightly.
At their waists hung integrated steel hunting knives, meant only for close-quarters combat.
Even after receiving the divine revelation, they maintained their back-to-back triangular formation, each watching a different direction while carefully assessing the Red Bear’s strength.
The Red Bear licked its lips as it patiently circled the trio, searching for an opening.
It recognized the long spears in their hands.
It knew from experience that being stabbed by one would hurt badly.
So it kept looking for an angle of attack that would allow it to bypass the spear points altogether.
After circling one another for about three minutes, the Red Bear finally spotted what it thought was an opening.
One of the three prey looked slightly smaller and leaner than the other two.
During the standoff, that human failed to turn quickly enough, exposing part of their back.
“ROAR!!!”
The Red Bear seized the opportunity and pounced.
But instead of panicking and trying to dodge, the “prey” remained perfectly calm.
As the beast leapt through the air, its crimson eyes reflected the scene before it:
The soldier calmly stepped aside, while the two teammates behind them thrust their spears forward simultaneously.
If the snow beast had been able to read human expressions, it would have realized that the prey it had judged to be the weakest—simply because they were slimmer—was actually wearing an expression of eager excitement.
“ROAR!!”
“Cut its legs!”
“Stab its belly!”
“It’s trying to run!”
The snow beast only managed to rake one soldier with its claws.
The human cried out in pain…
Yet, for some inexplicable reason, became even more excited.
His grip tightened, and his attacks only grew fiercer.
The beast opened its jaws to bite.
A hunting knife shot straight upward, piercing through the roof of its mouth.
The soldier didn’t care in the slightest whether the beast’s razor-sharp teeth might clamp down on his hand.
He even twisted the knife while it was embedded, making the snow beast howl even more violently.
“ROOOAR!!!”
The snow beast quickly realized something was wrong.
All three of its prey were becoming more energized the longer they fought.
Meanwhile, its own abdomen was bleeding.
Without another moment’s hesitation, it turned and fled.
But its keen ears caught the sound of something slicing through the air behind it.
The three soldiers had thrown their hunting knives like throwing daggers.
Each deliberately aimed at one of its legs.
As for how they would recover their knives afterward…
Or what they would do if another enemy appeared before they retrieved them…
Blue Sea soldiers simply didn’t think that far during combat.
Once the fight began, there was only one thing in their minds—
Win.
Only one knife found its mark.
But that was enough.
The snow beast, sprinting at full speed, suddenly stumbled as one leg gave way beneath it.
Unable to keep its balance, it crashed headfirst into the snow.
The three soldiers immediately charged after it, determined not to let it escape.
