Chapter 12: Tree Pulling

Chapter 12: Tree Pulling

Chapter 12: Tree Pulling

The village was just as the old village chief had described, with a sparsely populated population. Such a big village had only a few dozen people, and it looked quite desolate.

And most of them are old, weak and sick.

Xiao Jie was wandering around the village, looking for possible people. When he came to the back mountain of the village, he saw a middle-aged man with a broken hand, looking at the trees on the mountain with a sad face.

Although there was no task mark above his head, Xiao Jie felt that there was definitely something interesting going on.

"Uncle, I'm looking for a job. Is there anything I can do for you?"

The man looked at Xiao Jie warily, and his eyes suddenly lit up when he saw his attire.

Wang Daniu (woodcutter): "You are a returnee, right? I have heard of you. You came at the right time. I am a woodcutter in the village. A few days ago, I was accidentally bitten by a poisonous snake. Although I saved my life, my hand was disabled. Now the village is in urgent need of firewood, but I can't do this job. If you are willing, please help me chop some firewood.

Although the work is a bit tiring, I will definitely not let you work for nothing. I will give you ten copper coins for each bundle of firewood. How about it, do you want to do it?"

A dialog box pops up in front of you——

[System prompt: Wang Daniu has assigned you the task of [Chopping Wood]. Do you accept it?]

Chopping wood? That doesn't sound difficult.

If you cut one bundle, you will get ten coins. If you cut one hundred bundles, you will get one thousand coins, which is enough to buy equipment in the early stage.

Xiao Jie decisively chose to accept it.

"Here, I'll lend this to you first."

System prompt: Obtained temporary occupation [Woodcutter].

System prompt: Obtain the temporary item [Rusty Hatchet].

【Rusty hatchet (one-handed knife)

Attack: 12 cuts.

Weapon effect: Chopping wood. (Causes 50% increased damage to tree monsters)

Item Description: Rusty hatchet, used for chopping wood rather than killing people. It is very crude as a weapon, but it is better than being empty-handed. 】

They even gave me a weapon as a gift, not bad.

Wang Daniu (the woodcutter): "Come on, young man, I'll tell you the essentials of chopping wood.

See those trees on the hillside behind the mountain? You can chop firewood there, but remember not to go too far, otherwise you may run into danger.

In addition, you should pick dead branches to chop, fresh branches cannot be burned, and don't chop trees that are too thick. Cutting firewood is not like felling wood. It doesn't matter whether the wood is thick or thin as long as it can be burned. When you have cut 50 branches, tie them into a bundle with nearby mountain vines. If there are fewer branches or the number is not enough, I will deduct your wages. How do you do, have you learned it?"

System prompt: You have learned [Chopping Wood (Beginner)], and your skill book has been updated.

Xiao Jie couldn't help but laugh, according to what the man in black windbreaker said, life skills can also be brought into reality. He could be considered to have learned a new skill, although this skill would probably be of no use in reality.

"I've learned it, uncle. Just go and have a rest. Leave the rest to me."

After Wang Daniu left, Xiao Jie started chopping firewood on the hillside.

This task is not difficult. First, you need to identify whether the trees are dead. Those that are lush and green cannot be cut down indiscriminately. Just look for those dead trees that have turned yellow.

I don’t know if it’s because the land is barren, but there are dead trees everywhere in the mountains, and there are very few green trees.

Then just chop the branches of the dead tree with your knife. This kind of gameplay of chopping trees to collect resources can be found in many survival games, and Xiao Jie is not unfamiliar with it at all.

The work progress continues to appear in the lower right corner.

Crack! Failed to chop wood.

Crack! Failed to chop wood.

Crack! Successfully chopped wood, dry wood +1.
Crack! Failed to chop wood.

Crack! Failed to chop wood, the durability of the axe -1.
Crack! Successfully chopped wood, dry wood +1.
There doesn't seem to be any pattern to these prompts. They appear completely randomly. Sometimes you can chop down a piece of dry wood with one stroke, and sometimes you fail after several strokes.

Occasionally, there will even be a reminder that durability -1.

Fortunately, this hatchet has a durability of 50 points, so it won't be a problem for a while.

After working for more than ten minutes, Xiao Jie had collected enough firewood to make a bundle. He cut a vine to tie it up, and in this way, he had earned ten cents.

Haha, is this job easy? 1000 copper coins are just around the corner.

After working for more than an hour, Xiao Jie had chopped five bundles of firewood. Although the process was a bit boring, he was full of motivation when he thought that he could buy equipment and learn skills with the money.

I am not as good as Gao Muyuan, so let's not think about magic and supernatural powers for now. Let's first learn some internal skills and practice some internal strength to experience the feeling of a martial arts master, and then learn some light skills to feel the joy of flying over eaves, walking on walls and stepping on snow without leaving any trace.

Then learn some sword techniques or something...

He bundled the dry firewood in the bag again and continued to chop trees.

However, after only chopping a few pieces of wood this time, Xiao Jie discovered that his character's chopping speed had slowed down.

Xiao Jie hurriedly checked his status, and he didn't know when his stamina bar had been emptied. Xiao Jie was a little surprised, because the stamina value would be constantly restored, and it would not be empty unless he did strenuous exercise.

He sat on the stone and rested for a while, watching his physical strength slowly recover. The recovery speed was obviously much slower, and his physical strength only recovered halfway and then stopped increasing.

There is also a ghost face icon above the head.

[Hunger: Your satiety is too low, your physical strength limit is reduced by 50%, and your physical strength recovery speed is reduced by 75%. ]

Damn, what the hell is this?

Xiao Jie hurriedly studied it and found out that this game also has a satiety design. The full value is 100 points. If it is lower than 30, it will trigger the [Hunger] debuff effect, and if it is higher than 80, it will trigger the [Satiety] gain effect.

Xiao Jie hadn't eaten anything when he went out of the village to fight monsters yesterday, and he had been chopping wood for half a day today, which definitely triggered the hunger effect.

This... Xiao Jie didn't expect this game to be so detailed. One has to eat. He also doesn't know if Wang Daniu will take care of the food.

When he walked down the hillside, Wang Daniu was sitting on a wooden stake to rest, with a sad expression on his face.

Xiao Jie chose to hand in the chopped firewood and received 50 coins. Then he asked, "Uncle, this is the firewood I chopped. Do you have any food here? Give me some. I'm hungry. I'll continue chopping after I'm full."

Wang Daniu (the woodcutter): "You young man, you don't do much work but you have many problems. This is not a charity, so where can I get free food? Go to the village tavern, they sell steamed buns and sesame cakes."

Xiao Jie arrived at the tavern and found all kinds of food.

Steamed bun (satisfaction +10), 5 cents each.

Sesame seed bun (satisfaction +20), 10 cents each.

Wild boar meat jerky (satisfaction +50), 25 coins per piece.

Secret roast chicken (satisfaction +50, additional bonus: satisfaction), 50 coins per piece.

Lao Baigan (satisfaction +5, additional effect: dizziness). 15 cents a pot.

Dukang wine (satisfaction +5, additional bonus: hearty and refreshing), 40 coins per pot...

Xiao Jie didn't want to think about the things behind him, so he just bought six of the cheapest steamed buns and raised his satiety to 90 in one go. He felt a little painful when he saw his wallet shrunk by half in an instant.

It’s not that he felt sorry for losing these copper coins, but he suddenly realized that he had not taken into account the food loss when calculating the income from chopping wood.

The more you work, the hungrier you get. The profit of 10 cents for a bundle of firewood is not high to begin with. Now deducting the money for food, it is not easy to save up 1000 cents.

However, Xiao Jie soon discovered that eating was not the only place where he spent money.

Xiao Jie returned to the mountain and continued chopping wood. While chopping, he observed the rate at which his satiety decreased. Fortunately, the decrease was not too fast, and with the bonus of [Satiety], his physical strength recovered very quickly. He could just chop without thinking, and his efficiency in chopping trees actually increased for a while.

I got hungry so quickly today probably because I went out to fight monsters yesterday and didn’t eat.

Under normal circumstances, this 90% satiety is enough to sustain for several hours.

However, after just over half an hour, a red prompt suddenly appeared in the lower right corner.

[System prompt: The durability of your hatchet is too low and cannot be used. ]

Xiao Jie opened the backpack column and saw that the durability had indeed become 1/50.

He suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart. He wondered if he would have to pay for repairing the knife himself.

What you worry about is bound to happen. When he found Wang Daniu and told him that his hatchet was broken, the other party did not look happy.

Wang Daniu (the woodcutter): "Young man, you have to fix this axe yourself. It was in good condition when I handed it to you, but you broke it by misusing it. You can't blame me. My hand is broken. I hired you to cut wood just to help me out. The village pays me ten cents for a bundle of wood, and I gave it all to you. If you still want me to spend money to fix the axe, I will have to pay for it. This is not right."

What Wang Daniu said was so pitiful that Xiao Jie really had no idea what to do.

Fortunately, he sold the two bundles of firewood for another 20 coins. Together with what he already had in his bag, he had a total of 66 coins, which should be enough.

He went straight to the blacksmith shop, but the bearded blacksmith was not there. Only the fat black apprentice was forging the blank of an iron sword.

Xiao Jie thought that it was not a big job anyway, so he could be an apprentice and maybe he could get it cheaper.

"Hello, could you help me fix my hatchet?"

Wang Kai (blacksmith apprentice): "No problem, let me take a look. Hmm, I'll fix it for you for fifty copper coins."

Fifty copper coins! Xiao Jie was speechless for a moment. He had earned a total of 70 coins this morning, and spent 30 copper coins on six steamed buns. If he spent another 50 copper coins to repair the knife, would he have to pay for it? Fortunately, he had the 26 copper coins that the bandits had dropped before, otherwise he wouldn't even be able to afford to repair the knife. What a joke!
This game isn't that dark.

Xiao Jie did not agree, but started to think. Since this game is designed to let players work and earn money, it shouldn't be impossible not to give players a way to survive, right?
No matter what, it can't be a negative return.

And he didn't forget the high degree of freedom in this game, maybe the repair fee can be bargained.

"Brother, can you give me a discount? It's not easy for me to make a living as a returnee."

Wang Kai (Blacksmith Apprentice): "You are a returnee, but I am not? My price is cheap enough. If you ask an NPC to repair it, it will definitely cost more than 50 cents."

The other party's words made Xiao Jie stunned for a moment, and then he reacted suddenly.

"Huh? You're a player too!"

(End of this chapter)