Chapter 11: A Stroke of Luck

“Triggered the luck effect again?!”

Ye Da’s eyes lit up.

He was beginning to understand the function of his lucky ring—not ordinary luck, but sudden bursts of luck at critical moments. For example, when opening treasure chests, or perhaps at other times he had yet to discover. But, roughly, that seemed to be how it worked.

With a lucky critical hit from the wooden chest, Ye Da’s anticipation for its contents soared.

[500ml bottled water +3] luck doubled ➔ [500ml bottled water +6]
[Oat toast +1] luck doubled ➔ [Oat toast +2]
[Inferior nails +10] luck upgraded ➔ [Ordinary nails +10]
[Soup pot +1] luck upgraded ➔ [Frying, boiling, roasting three-piece cookware set +1]
[Ordinary large-capacity backpack +1] luck upgraded ➔ [Beginner magic storage backpack +1]

The chime of rewards was music to Ye Da’s ears; each gain accompanied by the joy of luck doubling or upgrading. Opening this chest left him utterly exhilarated.

There was no need to elaborate on the water and toast—tomorrow’s breakfast was secured. As for the three-piece cookware set, it was a godsend for improving his quality of life. Ye Da had been worried about lacking proper pots, and now, as if fated, the solution arrived.

But what truly excited him were the rewards of nails and the backpack! The treasure chest was like a benefactor, providing exactly what he needed, and the lucky ring even enhanced the rewards.

Ye Da wanted to upgrade his treehouse to its highest level, aiming for a mobile version. What he needed most were nails; one unit of high-quality nails required a hundred units of inferior ones to exchange.

Yet the lucky ring worked wonders, directly upgrading 10 units of inferior nails to 10 units of ordinary nails, rather than simply doubling the quantity. If it had merely doubled, Ye Da would have gotten 20 units of inferior nails, which could only be synthesized into 2 units of ordinary nails—still far from upgrading to high-quality nails!

But the lucky ring directly improved the quality, essentially multiplying Ye Da’s reward tenfold!

Luck truly lived up to its name.

With a quick synthesis, Ye Da could immediately obtain one unit of high-quality nails.

Incredible!

A third of the top-level treehouse task was already accomplished. He laughed, determined to finish collecting the remaining top-grade wood and linen tomorrow.

“Magic backpack?”

Compared to the other supplies, Ye Da was most intrigued by the so-called beginner magic storage backpack. What was it, exactly?

He took it from the wooden chest—it looked like an ordinary leather double-shoulder bag at first glance. But the moment he opened it, a strange sight greeted him: a light screen appeared.

A screen with five empty slots!

Ye Da stared at it, a sense of familiarity washing over him—it resembled the inventory system found in video games.

Could he really store items in the backpack as in a game?

He tried it. When he attempted to move the empty wooden box into the backpack, one slot on the light screen immediately displayed the image of a wooden box, and the box vanished from the ground.

Four slots remained. He placed the three-piece cookware set inside, which occupied three slots.

Only one slot remained.

On the ground were three kinds of items left: ten boxes of ordinary nails, six bottles of water, and two bags of oat toast.

[Synthesize!]

Ye Da promptly synthesized the ten boxes of ordinary nails into one box of high-quality nails.

[Synthesis successful: ordinary nails -10, high-quality nails +1]

Watching the ten boxes merge into one, Ye Da marveled at the magic of this world—it was like performing a trick, as ten boxes transformed in an instant.

He opened the plain box, finding the small iron nails gone, replaced by large, high-quality steel nails. The box for high-quality nails was noticeably larger than the ordinary nail box—yet, even so, it was merely the size of a shoebox.

He gathered up the nails, placed the two bags of brownish oat toast atop the nail box, and stuffed the six bottles of water into the backpack, occupying the last slot.

Six bottles of water were heavier and more cumbersome than the nails, so he preferred to store them in the backpack.

Back to the treehouse!

Having obtained so many items at once, Ye Da decided to return first, empty the backpack, and then set out again.

Upon returning, he found the bonfire had burned down considerably.

He added a few dry branches to keep it alight, then took out the wooden box and stored all the food supplies—bread, water, and so forth—inside to protect them from snakes, insects, and rodents.

This was why he didn’t dismantle the wooden box; he needed it for storage.

After unloading his supplies, Ye Da set out again.

Time was short for afternoon exploration, and he had to make every minute count.

First, he needed to retrieve the agave leaves he’d cut down that morning. In the evening, he could extract the linen from them, essential for upgrading his treehouse.

Compared to wood, linen was even rarer and more difficult to obtain, whether by gathering or purchase.

“I’ve arrived!”

Heading south, Ye Da quickly found the spot where he’d felled the agave earlier.

The leaves were scattered across the dry, sandy ground—Ye Da frowned at their disarray.

He distinctly remembered stacking them neatly in the morning for easy retrieval, yet now…

They were in utter chaos.

Some leaves had even ended up twenty to thirty meters from the agave’s roots.

Agave leaves were heavy; unless a typhoon had struck, they shouldn’t have blown so far—it must have been something dragging them away.

Ye Da crouched down to examine them and found several leaves bearing bite marks.

The marks were neat and puncture-like.

It was as if a giant stapler had taken a bite out of the agave leaves, the only noteworthy detail being the size—the bite was as long as a stick of green arrow chewing gum.

If Ye Da guessed correctly, these marks belonged to some rodent species.

But what sort of rodent would leave such large tooth marks? How big would it have to be?

A chill ran down Ye Da’s spine as he pondered; thinking about it made him uneasy.

“I’d better leave this place quickly!”

He hurriedly packed the agave leaves into the backpack—thanks to its magic retrieval function, he could collect them swiftly, without worrying about the leaves cutting his hands.

But…

As he gathered the leaves, Ye Da noticed something troubling.