Chapter 199: Setting the Mountain on Fire Lands You in Prison (Fifth Update, Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Pass)

Chapter 199: Setting the Mountain on Fire Lands You in Prison (Fifth Update, Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Pass)

Looking at the game achievement that popped up, Wang Han felt deeply helpless.

She hadn’t even experienced five minutes of this playthrough, and it was already over?

That was way too fast!

"Beehives don’t seem like something I can mess with in the early game."

Wang Han silently noted this down before starting a new game.

This time, she noticed that besides Wilson, there were actually other characters she could choose from.

Each character seemed to have their own unique traits.

Currently, though, she had only unlocked Wilson.

The others required either specific conditions or surviving for a certain number of days in the game.

After restarting a new game, Wang Han quickly noticed the differences.

"Huh!? My spawn point changed! Is the map randomly generated, or am I randomly appearing in different spots on the map?" Wang Han looked genuinely surprised.

Previously, she had spawned in an area surrounded mostly by trees, close to the sea.

But now, her location had turned into something resembling a desert, and ores—ones she hadn’t found before—were actually quite plentiful here.

Just like in her previous start, Wang Han began by collecting trash.

Berries, grass, twigs, and stones scattered on the ground.

Then, following the usual steps, she crafted an axe and a pickaxe.

After chopping down two trees, Wang Han used the pickaxe to mine the nearby ore.

Soon, stone chunks, flint, and other materials littered the ground.

At this moment, Wilson in the game spoke up again.

"Some of these ores look different from regular ones. Maybe there’s something valuable here."

Seeing Wilson’s dialogue, Wang Han, sitting in front of the computer, immediately took notice.

"Different from regular ores? Huh, there’s an ore with a lightning symbol!" Wang Han quickly spotted the difference.

The ores she had mined earlier looked just like big rocks with no markings on the surface.

But beside them was a slightly smaller boulder with a pattern resembling lightning.

Upon seeing this, Wang Han directed Wilson to lift the pickaxe and start hammering it wildly.

With a crisp sound, the rock cracked open, scattering stone chunks and flint across the ground. Among them was also a piece of gold.

"Ah, I see! Ores with the lightning symbol drop Gold Nuggets when mined!" Witnessing this, Wang Han instantly grasped part of the game’s mechanics.

She still wasn’t sure if it was guaranteed or just a chance drop.

Feeling like she had discovered a New World, Wang Han, pickaxe in hand, began searching for more lightning-marked ores.

She sprinted toward the upper part of the map, collecting every resource she encountered along the way.

During this time, she discovered something new. While wandering through the forest, she came across a Spider Egg. The moment she approached, the egg cracked open, and a hideous spider emerged, chasing her relentlessly.

Looking at the axe in her hand, Wang Han really wanted to initiate an Imperial City PK with this spider.

But considering her previous death by bee stings, and since it wasn’t even the end of day one yet, she managed to restrain herself.

While passing through the forest, she also encountered a Structure called a Pig House, though she didn’t see any pigs.

She couldn’t figure out what the Pig House was for.

Deciding to ignore it for now, Wang Han continued exploring the map.

Just then, the sky began to darken. Wilson in the game started muttering, giving a reminder.

"It’s almost night. I should probably make some fire."

The game’s Time Wheel had three distinct phases: day, dusk, and night.

Currently, it was dusk—a transitional period clearly meant for players to prepare.

"Nighttime, so now I need to craft a bonfire or torches?"

Wang Han checked the status bar and ate two berries to increase her hunger level by one.

"But what exactly happens in the dark? Will I die?" Watching the sky grow darker in the game, she was tempted to test what would happen when night fully fell.

However, as night arrived and the screen turned pitch black, Wang Han still built a bonfire.

The wind sound and strange noises coming through her headphones gave her a creepy feeling, making her uneasy.

"But this fire is way too small! It only lights up such a tiny area?"

She glanced at the time in the top-right corner. Dawn was still a while away, and the bonfire only illuminated a very small radius.

Standing in front of the fire, Wang Han grew restless. She cautiously stepped a little farther away from the flames.

Almost immediately, she noticed something: as she moved away from the fire, her Sanity in the top-right corner began dropping rapidly.

At the same time, an icy Special Effect suddenly appeared on the screen.

Wilson in the game started panicking.

"Who’s there?"

"What is this thing!?"

Hearing Wilson’s lines (dialogue), Wang Han got goosebumps.

In the darkness, she suddenly saw pairs of eerie eyes appearing. The sounds in her headphones grew even more distorted, and footsteps seemed to be approaching her from the shadows. Terrified, she immediately ran back to the bonfire.

"So monsters come out at night!" Wang Han felt lingering fear.

Back at the bonfire, she opened her Inventory to craft another one, but she didn’t have enough materials—only enough for a torch.

After a moment’s thought, she decided to craft the torch.

Equipping the newly made torch, she watched its durability steadily decrease in the bottom-right corner.

But compared to the entire screen, the torch’s lighting range was still too small.

Soon, however, Wang Han noticed something interesting: the torch in her hand could actually ignite other things—like Berry Bushes, trees, and Tall Grass.

"This is much brighter!"

Wang Han moved the cursor over nearby trees and Berry Bushes, instantly setting them ablaze.

At first, she just wanted to burn the surrounding trees to light up the screen a bit.

But as the flames spread from tree to tree, Wang Han suddenly found the act strangely enjoyable.

In real-world, playing with fire was extremely dangerous and carried serious risks—hence the saying, "Set the mountain on fire, and you’ll rot in jail."

Even as a child, when she lit napkins with matches or lighters, her parents would scare her by saying that playing with fire would make her wet the bed at night.

But in the game, there were clearly no such worries.

So, while her torch still had durability, Wang Han ran around setting everything on fire.

Since the surrounding forest was connected, the flames quickly spread, engulfing the entire screen in a sea of fire.

Nighttime wasn’t very long. Soon, the game shifted back to daytime, and an auto-save icon appeared.

At the same time, the torch in her hand burned out completely.

Looking at the still-burning trees, Wang Han felt a bit regretful—she hadn’t had enough fun yet!

Even though she could still set things on fire during the day, the Atmosphere just wouldn’t be the same.

More to come later

(End of Chapter)<>