Community Traversal: I Have a Daily Rescue Kit

8: Homestead System

As the helicopter roared to life, two cold, mechanical voices entered Su Chen's ears:

Dedicated rescue team has been deployed.

Advanced rescue kits are being distributed.

"My deduction was correct!" Su Chen thought to himself with amusement. "The 'quality' of this exclusive rescue service really is related to how much work I've done! The basic package has been upgraded to the advanced package!"

The moment the thought crossed his mind, a flash of light appeared before his eyes. A green package materialized out of thin air and landed steadily at his feet, becoming a neighbor to the large white egg.

Su Chen squatted down and opened the package. Inside were four items: a heavy cardboard box, a bottle of liquor with a long, thin neck, a pistol, and a white card.

He first picked up the cardboard box and weighed it in his hand.

"Wow! This braised beef must weigh at least twenty pounds!" The cardboard box was printed with a picture of large pieces of braised beef, which was glossy and looked so good that you could almost smell the aroma of the sauce through the box.

Su Chen's mouth immediately watered. The fatigue and exhaustion from running around all day seemed to be washed away by this box of meat, and he felt much more at ease.

"Who would have thought?" he couldn't help but grin. "After all this time, barely surviving in this apocalyptic world, I'm actually enjoying some delicious, chewy braised beef!"

Thinking about it that way, those three cans of luncheon meat I got yesterday suddenly didn't seem so appealing anymore—what's so great about processed meat? Even a dog wouldn't want it!

He put down the beef and picked up the bottle of wine.

The bottle has elegant lines, and the label is simple yet exudes a sense of luxury.

"Dom Pérignon...and a vintage piece?" Su Chen's eyes lit up.

Back in his school days, he enjoyed having a drink, especially with younger female students.

Looking at this bottle of champagne that I used to only dare to admire from afar, my throat suddenly went dry, and I really wanted to pop it open right now.

However, he licked his lips and held back.

This thing would be a rare commodity even in peaceful times, let alone in this godforsaken world.

Yesterday he explored other neighborhoods, which were now ruins, but this was a signal, a signal that there might be other survivors in the gray fog!

If he were to run into and connect with other survivors who were doing well, this bottle of Dom Pérignon might just become a valuable commodity, allowing him to exchange it for items he desperately needed.

"Keep it, we must keep it." Su Chen put the wine aside. "You never know when it might come in handy."

Then, he picked up the pistol. The gun was dark gold in color and felt heavy in his hand. The casing was intricately engraved with coiled dragon patterns, making it look more like a work of art than a weapon.

If a shot were fired, the artistic merit would be at least three or four stories high.

"If this guy had been there when we ran into Jiahao yesterday," Su Chen gestured as if aiming, made a soft "piu" sound, and smiled, "then I might not have been the one running away with my tail between my legs."

He laughed twice, finally satisfying the pure, youthful longing for firearms that had been building within him.

After satisfying his craving, he removed the magazine and took a look. It contained nine gleaming yellow bullets, plus one more that could be loaded into the chamber, making a total of ten.

Whether you really need to fire from a distance or just pull it out to intimidate someone, it's enough.

Finally, he picked up the white card.

There were no words written on the card, only a drawing of an ancient well. The well water seemed to be rippling slightly. After staring at it for a while, I felt a little dazed, as if the water ripples were really moving.

"How do you use this thing?" Su Chen looked at it over and over, a little confused.

Just then, a semi-transparent screen suddenly unfolded in front of him. At the same time, the same voice that had accompanied the settlement process sounded again:

[Resident Su Chen has been detected to have obtained the building card [Well]. The Homestead System is now activated... From now on, you can use building cards, resource cards, expansion cards, function cards, recruitment cards, protection cards, etc., to build and expand your homestead.]

As soon as the notification tone ended, another corner of the room suddenly lit up.

Su Chen turned his head and saw that his closed laptop had opened by itself.

He quickly moved closer, but the screen didn't display the familiar Windows interface; instead, it showed a completely unfamiliar screen.

[Welcome to the Resident Community System, resident Su Chen]

When danger strikes, home is the ultimate haven.

Two lines of text flashed by, and the interface changed, displaying a 3D model of his house in the center of the screen. In the toolbar at the top left of the screen, a small card icon was flashing like it was breathing.

Su Chen subconsciously clicked on it with the mouse.

A semi-transparent window called "Card Center" immediately popped up, filled with descriptions of various cards.

The card at the very front is the [Building Card].

As the name suggests, it allows you to "conjure" buildings directly in a room.

The [Well] card that Su Chen just received belongs to this category.

Next is the [Resource Card].

The description is also straightforward: it can generate resource points inside the house after use.

Just as Su Chen was overjoyed, he noticed a small note below: "Resource points require a lot of space. Please ensure you have enough building space before using them."

"Fine." Su Chen was immediately a little annoyed.

The house he rented wasn't small, over 100 square meters, but it was crammed full of stuff, with very little empty space. Even if he got the resource card, he might not have a place to put it for a while.

He sighed and continued scrolling down.

The third category is [Expansion Cards].

Using this card can change the spatial structure of a room and expand the actual usable area.

Upon seeing this, Su Chen immediately thought of the "basement" on the sixth floor of room 602.

"That place was probably created using expansion cards," he pondered. "Hmm... if you want to use resource cards, you'll probably have to lay the groundwork with expansion cards first."

Next up are the [Function Cards].

After reading the introduction, Su Chen was a little confused: "Is...is this really scientific?"

Function cards can add all sorts of strange and wonderful "home features" to a room.

From small things like regulating the indoor climate throughout the four seasons to large things like creating a "mini sun" indoors as a light source.

But that's not the most outrageous thing—as long as there are enough high-level function cards stacked together, he can even turn his house into an independent little world "nested" inside a residential building.

From the outside, the door looks like an ordinary door, but once you push it open and go inside, it's a modern version of "Peach Blossom Spring," a hidden paradise.

This is simply fantastical and magical!

Next up is the [Recruitment Card].

These cards come in all shapes and sizes, and each one corresponds to a "minion".

There are cards that recruit laborers like Paluka, Puppet Card, and Sprite Card; cards that recruit fighting units like Wolf Rider Card, Chimera Card, and Mountain Giant Card; and even cards that can recruit animal-eared girls as followers...

Next is the [Protection Card].

Compared to the numerous types of cards mentioned earlier, protection cards are relatively fewer in number. They mainly provide the home with a period of invincibility or invisibility, or generate shields or defensive barriers.

In addition, there are a whole host of other types of cards.

Su Chen read through them one by one, his head spinning, and he still hadn't finished.

"Forget it, I'm not going to look at it anymore!" He rubbed his temples. "I'll come here to check how to use it if I ever get a card I don't recognize in the future."

As soon as I closed the [Card Center] window, a new icon started flashing in the toolbar in the upper left corner of the computer screen—a small yellow exclamation mark.

Su Chen clicked on it, and a window titled "Intelligence Message" popped up.

Almost simultaneously, the roar of a helicopter swept past again outside. Several messages also appeared on the window:

[Intelligence - Wandering Merchants in the Mist]: In the world of mist, many elusive wandering merchants lurk. You should have already encountered them. Continue trading with them; you can obtain even more valuable items.

[Intelligence - Mysterious Merchant]: Every so often, a mysterious merchant will come to your neighborhood. If you have something they are interested in, you can exchange it for some rare and precious items.

[Intelligence - Exclusive Message]: The eggs of the guardian beasts in your home need to be placed in a building of the [Incubation Room] category in order to hatch successfully.

Looking at the first two pieces of information that sounded like beginner's guides, and the last one that came with the roar of a helicopter and had the prefix "exclusive," Su Chen couldn't hide his surprise.

This was not only because he finally knew how to hatch the egg, but more importantly, this information confirmed one thing for him:

The relief supplies that arrived with the sound of a helicopter were truly only for him!

Those are exclusive supplies!

Exclusive!