So, was this all just a game?
In reality, once Starfish's time pointed to 00: 00, Zhang Heng would enter a standstill. But now, the sea breeze was still blowing in his ears, and the coconut tree behind him was swaying. Except for the voice that suddenly appeared not long ago, nothing had changed.
Zhang Heng had tried playing a few computer games in this standstill state.
According to the contact recovery principle, as long as he was not connected to someone else, everything would work without exception.
But now was not the time to worry about such things.
The dawn of victory was right in front of his eyes, but the game's difficulty had suddenly increased to hell.
When he realized that he had to stay on this deserted island for 500 days instead of 20, Zhang Heng did not even have the strength to smile bitterly.
He sat by the beach, staring at the sea in the distance, doing nothing until the sun set. For the first time, he felt that life was full of malice.
But now that things had come to this, there was no point in complaining.
Even if he wanted to settle the score, he had to survive until 500 days later.
Zhang Heng finally pulled himself together before the sky turned dark. He was not someone who was easily knocked down by difficulties. Following Ed's teachings, he gave up intermittently, and after venting all his negative emotions, he had basically regained his composure.
He brought the fish and crabs he caught back to the cave for a hearty meal. The next morning, he threw himself back into the struggle against nature.
Fire could be used to roast food, heat water, and keep him warm at night. But at the same time, keeping the fire burning had become Zhang Heng's responsibility.
Not only did he have to collect food and water every day, but he also had to find firewood that was easy to burn. Especially soon after the rain, this task became extremely difficult.
Zhang Heng had always wanted to collect more firewood to store in the cave to cope with the rainy weather, but all his energy had been focused on finding food. Now that Ed was gone, the amount of food he needed had been reduced by half. Finally, he could free up time to do more.
Besides collecting firewood, Zhang Heng also tried to make a few stone axes. Ed was not very good at tool-making, and could only explain the general principle of making stone axes to him. Zhang Heng used to chop down trees with sharper edges of clamshells, but it did not work very well. He had to saw at least two to three hours to chop down a small tree.
Now, he wanted to try the stone tools that had always been respected by the primitive people. However, he did not know what went wrong. The stone axes he made would either fly off when he was chopping down trees, or they would chop themselves before he could chop them down.
Zhang Heng could only comfort himself that failure was the mother of success.
Another twenty days passed in the blink of an eye, and a familiar voice rang in Zhang Heng's ears.
[Mission completed …]
[Will return in 480 days …]
There was clearly nothing wrong with the two sentences, but when they were put together, it seemed like a lame joke.
Zhang Heng ignored the mysterious voice. He had just finished his lunch and was looking for a few more clamshells by the beach to hold water. The original one had just been burned down, and he was looking for more goods in the free market. When he looked up, he inadvertently saw two small black dots not far away.
Huh?! This plot seemed a little familiar.
What was even more familiar were the two people struggling in the waves.
This is not the explorer of option B.
The guy in shorts from option C?
"…"
Zhang Heng was speechless. What kind of people were these? Their vitality was just too tenacious. It was not easy for him to survive on the island, and yet these two were still alive and kicking after drifting at sea for forty days.
He thought of the already deceased Ed thanking him before he died, saying that at least he could die on land and not end up in the belly of the fish like the other two. Zhang Heng felt a little sorry for Ed.
If he had not "saved" him, perhaps he would still be floating at sea happily.
This was not Zhang Heng's first day playing games. He knew that he had encountered a bug in his current situation.
The root of the problem was that his extra twenty-four hours had disrupted the operation of this dungeon.
In theory, the plot after forty days should not exist at all. By this time, the other players would have returned to the real world, and he was the only one who was still struggling.
An ordinary game would most likely crash or crash at this point. The fact that this game could still continue to run was a testament to how amazing it was.
The bartender lady said that this was the greatest game in human history, and Zhang Heng was starting to believe it. Ever since he came to this world, everything before his eyes was incredibly real. Whether it was the plants or the animals on the island, they were exactly the same as in the real world. Ed, who he had interacted with, was no different from a real person.
But now, this invulnerable world had finally revealed a flaw.
"Because the plot is over, I have to repeat it again?"
But unlike the mechanical cycle, Ed, whom he had personally buried in the grove, did not reappear. This meant that the basic logic was still running.
Zhang Heng took off his clothes as fast as he could. Of course, he would not let go of this opportunity to give himself some benefits.
Compared to 40 days ago when he had just arrived on the island, his body was weak. Now, he could eat his fill, and he could even do some exercise in his spare time.
His stamina had almost recovered to its peak.
Zhang Heng gauged the distance between himself and the two men. This time, he decided to choose the guy in shorts who was the furthest away. According to the game designer's logic, the more effort he put in, the better the reward he would receive.
With Ed's help, Zhang Heng had basically escaped the problem of food. He wanted to know what kind of changes this guy in shorts could bring to his life.
…
Ten days later, Zhang Heng looked at the brick kiln and tile-roofed house in front of him and decided to kneel down.
There really was someone in this world who could build a house with their bare hands! Zhang Heng followed the guy in shorts all the way, watching as he looked for clay, built beams, set up the kiln, and finally built a half-meter-tall tile-roofed house model. Other than that, the guy in shorts also showed Zhang Heng how to make a stone axe, build a wooden shed, make pottery, make shrimp cages, sandals, weave cloth with tree bark fiber, and even make bows and catapults.
This time, Zhang Heng did not have to worry about food. He could spend all his time learning like crazy.
Unfortunately, the guy in shorts did not speak a word from beginning to end. All he did was silently demonstrate various tools and building techniques according to Zhang Heng's instructions.
On the nineteenth day, he died in the woods after accidentally eating a poisonous mushroom.
A … plot kill?
Zhang Heng finally understood that this game required you to spend the latter half of your time alone on the island. That was why neither Ed, who was already injured, nor the man in shorts, who seemed to be in good health, could last until the 20th day.
With his previous experience, Zhang Heng dug a hole next to the previous grave and buried the guy in shorts as well.
Unlike Ed, the guy in shorts had not spoken a single word along the way. Zhang Heng did not have a deep relationship with him, and now that he knew it was all just a game, he was no longer as sad as he was before.
Still, they were teacher and student. Zhang Heng buried the guy's body properly.
After that, he tried to digest everything that the guy in shorts had taught him over the past nineteen days. During this period, the adventurer floated over twice, but Zhang Heng did not 'save' him.
He would still float over the next time anyway.
If Zhang Heng saved him, he would only have nineteen days left to live.
On the 130th day on the deserted island, Zhang Heng heard another notification.
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