In the Shelter, Little White burped contentedly after eating the last bite of noodles.
Originally, it had been so stuffed that it collapsed on the table, unable to move, but upon noticing the aroma of Lin Yue's coffee, it struggled to roll over, crawled to the side, and lay by the cup, staring at Lin Yue with big red eyes.
"You want to drink this too?" Lin Yue sighed inwardly at the little glutton, dipping the chopsticks in the coffee to let it have a taste.
After tasting the bitter and sour flavor, Little White immediately retracted its neck and shook its head vigorously.
However, just as Lin Yue was about to finish the last sip, Little White came over again, rubbing against his hand, staring at the coffee cup once more, tilting its head, and chirping "pupu-pupu."
"Little White, I'm telling you, if you drink too much, you won't be able to sleep."
He cooled the last bit a little and poured it onto a porcelain plate, upon which Little White eagerly lapped it up.
Goodness, what kind of lizard am I raising here? Eating cup noodles and lamb skewers is one thing, but tea and coffee are indiscriminately consumed too.
Watching Little White lick up the last bit as if still unsatisfied, Lin Yue also called out inwardly, what a little eater.
The Shelter was quiet, with the fierce wind still howling outside.
After getting back into his original attire, Lin Yue gnawed on an apple and opened the game interface.
Last night he didn't pay any attention to the so-called points, and by the morning, he wasn't prepared for it either.
If he had known that ranking in the top three would result in short videos being made, he would have stashed away all the things that shouldn't be seen in the inventory.
Of course, he did stash quite a few things while changing clothes at that time.
Lin Yue could have just changed on the chair back then, but considering that the basement was filled with plenty of machines, he put them away one by one.
While eating noodles, he received a system prompt, stating that when the top three short video introductions began, he immediately went to check the game interface.
He then discovered that the top three on the leaderboard would be forcibly entered into such a temporary program.
And as the first place, he would naturally be the focus of attention.
After all, the first place is the one who did the best in this disaster, and his experience would definitely be imitated and learned by everyone.
Is this a good thing?
Not really, it should be considered a bad thing.
Although the introduction was less than a minute long, and it seemed to disappear from the individual viewer's playlist after watching, some information would be exposed.
Lin Yue looked at the leaderboard, and after everyone's score, there was a "..." mark, revealing the detailed source of the points when expanded.
Lin Yue frowned.
He clicked on his own video to view it, only to find that contents like the fireplace and wooden wall were exposed, and even Little White was seen by others.
But thinking carefully, it didn't seem to be a big deal.
These things could only prove his effective methods, allowing the Shelter to keep warm, thus successfully surviving the disaster.
The information captured in this short video was quite limited, and it didn't matter much if others knew.
At the very least, the 100% loot box system he possessed was undetectable to anyone.
"Seems like nothing is amiss." Lin Yue looked at his name again, where there was no video trace anymore.
Indeed, it was "read and burn."
Survival...
At the time when the first disaster arrived, more than half of the group had died, and the number continued to rise.
Survival is not easy and could be deemed extraordinarily difficult.
Everyone was striving desperately to stay alive.
The system provided everyone with the chance to simply create and invent things using materials, along with the rule that slaying monsters could have a chance to yield loot boxes, aiming to improve survival.
And this brief video naturally shared the same purpose.
The system wanted everyone to watch how the top three maintained their shelters and survived the disaster, prompting them to learn.
Those who survived until now were basically those who have learned well.
Although joking around, everyone was indeed closely observing the top three's shelters, leveraging these experiences to make their living a bit better, allowing them to survive the next upcoming disaster.
Lin Yue opened a bottle of water to take a sip.
He opened the Shelter video of the third place.
Since others could learn from him, he could also learn from others, could he not?
Having the 100% loot box system, he must live significantly better than others — not being able to widen the gap would only prove his inadequacies.
The video wasn't very long; actually, it was quite short.
"Iron Shelter? I really didn't think of that. And the ice-made passage seems to serve dual purposes of ventilation and travel... Exactly how many mutant creatures has this guy defeated? And they all seem to be quite large too."
In terms of sturdiness, metal shelters naturally surpass his stone-made one significantly, presumably even a crash by a Mutant Sheep wouldn't deplete the durability at all.
Nevertheless, Lin Yue hadn't opened one from a loot box, let alone seen anyone selling the blueprints in the store.
But he knew that if such a blueprint existed, it would definitely be in this person's possession.
"Belger, is it?"
Lin Yue noted down his name, intending to get the iron shelter blueprint from him when he desperately lacks certain resources.
In Belger's bonus section, an entry for "shelter population" was added, indicating that the size of the population indeed has a certain impact on the points, with one person contributing 20 points.
Collaborative survival with two people is naturally simpler than solo survival, as there's an additional workforce.
Yet this also presents a challenge over who should work and who should exert effort.
Well-coordinated efforts result in mutual benefits, but poorly managed ones...
Going without saying.
Herein lies an issue as well.
Where is the other person's shelter located?
Lin Yue was just about to continue watching the video of the second place when suddenly he saw in the comments of the video that others were constantly mentioning Du Ping dropping from second to fourth place.
Du Ping — a person Lin Yue remembered distinctly; he had also been continuously monitoring him.
Dropping from second to fourth place is certainly not a trivial matter.
Especially knowing that the scoring system had been assessing all night since the disaster began, only concluding in the morning, Lin Yue was more puzzled.
This led him to some speculation: was Du Ping controlling his score?
Since the top three would have short videos made, did Du Ping, not wanting anyone to discover what's at his shelter, maneuver his score...
Could this possibility be a reality?
The more Lin Yue thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed.
If it's true, then Du Ping...
This person, he should be cautious toward him later.
Continuing to watch the second video.
The duration was equally short, but the information was quite abundant.
From the video, it could be deduced that the second place person must be a skilled carpenter and a very capable hunter, whereas he could make a fireplace for heating using stones.
What's more, all of this was accomplished single-handedly.
Reflecting the impressive capabilities of this individual.
Lin Yue meticulously examined the various setups in this person's home, having some considerations in mind.
If this person wants to buy water to drink later, he could seize the chance to procure some carpentry blueprints to add some features to his Shelter.
Then...
Lin Yue opened the private messages.
This was something he usually wouldn't even check.
Seeing the 9999 unread messages each time, most of which were spam, rendered them unreadable.
But at this moment, Lin Yue felt it might not be infeasible to find some business prospects within.
Especially when he had become a celebrity within this group.