Chapter 38
by LhaoziChapter 38: A House-Building Mini-Game? [1]
The requirements for the next upgrade were even more demanding.
What caught Qin Xi somewhat off guard, however, was that this upgrade didn’t require gathering natural element points; instead, it asked for ancient cultural artifacts.
She couldn’t quite fathom what on earth the system needed those things for!
Still, she set those thoughts aside for now.
Over the past two days, her nerves had been stretched taut due to the system tasks. Now that a task had just wrapped up, she wanted to take a break.
Qin Xi withdrew her consciousness from the system space and checked the time, realizing it was only 2:00 PM.
Dragging Qin Song off to the side, she told him:
“Big Brother, the system has upgraded. We don’t need to rush into the next task right away—how about we rest for half a day?”
Qin Song agreed without much hesitation:
“Alright.”
Qin Xi also shared their afternoon plans with the other three:
“We won’t be heading out this afternoon and will just rest up. Barring any unexpected turns, the two of us plan to head down the mountain tomorrow. You three can think it over—if you don’t want to head down for now, you’re free to stay.”
Hearing Qin Xi’s words, Lin Xin, Bai Hanyue, and Li Zekai exchanged glances, shaking their heads in unison:
“We’ll head down the mountain together too—there’s not much left up here anyway!”
They all felt that following Qin Xi and Qin Song was far better, or at least significantly safer.
Qin Xi had no objections to this.
As the saying went, having a few extra people in the team allowed for night-watch shifts, ensuring everyone could get a good night’s sleep at least.
However, the five didn’t stay at this house to rest, relocating instead to Bai Hanyue’s house next door.
Bai Hanyue’s house was a three-room building.
The structure possessed deep vertical depth, with bedrooms on both sides and a kitchen in the middle; all three rooms were partitioned into front and back sections.
Checking the house thoroughly to confirm no other zombies or mutated animals had entered, the group finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The courtyard’s main gate and house doors were secured tight.
While Bai Hanyue and the other two rested in the east room, Qin Xi pulled Qin Song into the west room.
She locked the room door from the inside, drew the window curtains, and under Qin Song’s puzzled gaze, took his hand.
In the very next instant, their figures vanished from the spot!
Inside the system space, Qin Song stood upon the grassland, a rare stroke of disbelief surfacing within his narrow, long eyes!
Even though he had long learned about the system’s appearance and operating model from Qin Xi’s description, being physically present inside it now still made it impossible for him not to feel amazed!
The grassland beneath his feet, the scenery before his eyes, the fragrance of flowers in the air, as well as the sky overhead—everything was virtually indistinguishable from reality!
Suddenly recalling something, he looked at Qin Xi:
“Where are the supplies we purchased?”
Since he wasn’t the master of the system, he couldn’t see the floating prompts hovering above the items inside the space.
Qin Xi pointed toward the small building off to the side:
“That house is the warehouse—everything is inside. The interior area doesn’t match the dimensions on the outside.”
Qin Song couldn’t help letting out a long breath. The taut tension he had held ever since his rebirth finally experienced a moment of true relaxation.
Qin Xi took Qin Song on a tour of her space, while taking the opportunity to inspect it closely herself.
When it first upgraded earlier, she hadn’t managed to examine it carefully.
Now, she discovered that inside the safe house—which now took the form of a red-brick building—there were actually text prompts floating in midair.
In the room directly facing the living room entrance, several small lines of text floated:
[Sofa] [Cabinet] [Coffee Table] …
Meanwhile, inside the rooms on the left and right, words like [Bed], [Wardrobe], and [Nightstand] floated similarly, with even terms like [Showerhead] and [Bathtub] visible.
Qin Xi quickly guessed the meaning behind these prompts.
Could it be prompting her to arrange and furnish the safe house according to these labels?
Just like those house-building mini-games [1]?
At that thought, she felt an immediate urge to test it out.
Using the system interface, Qin Xi moved the double bed directly into the east bedroom.
The moment the double bed appeared, the word [Bed] hovering over that open spot vanished as expected.
It really was like that!
Qin Xi felt an immediate wave of excitement.
It suddenly struck her—if the system kept upgrading and the duration the safe house could be deployed in reality grew longer and longer, could there come a day when the safe house could be permanently placed in the real world?
Otherwise, she couldn’t understand why the system space would ask her to furnish a safe house—it would be completely redundant!
Qin Xi shared her discovery with Qin Song.
Listening to her, Qin Song shared a similar line of thought, though it would all need to be verified in the future.
Before leaving the space, Qin Xi used the One-Touch Mining feature to extract 3 tons of coal and 3 tons of copper ore.
The system rewarded her with a total of 200 Points.
Because One-Touch Mining could only be used twice a day—and each use could only extract a single type of resource—the remaining 1 ton of gold ore would have to wait until tomorrow.
Returning to the house at Bai Hanyue’s place, Qin Xi caught the sound of someone pacing outside.
Recognizing it as Bai Hanyue’s footsteps, she left it be, climbing onto the brick kang bed-stove to lay out two sets of bedding before lying down to sleep.
Qin Song lay beside her, listening as the girl’s breathing gradually smoothed out beside him until she was fast asleep.
Turning on his side with one arm supporting his head, his gaze rested unblinkingly on the girl’s sleeping face. After a long moment, the corners of his lips curved upward.
Qin Xi woke up to the sound of knocking on the door.
When she opened her eyes, bright daylight still streamed outside; with the curtains drawn, the light wasn’t harsh.
She stretched lazily beneath the quilt, and as she turned over, her eyes met Qin Song’s gentle gaze.
Freezing for a second, she looked at Qin Song:
“Big Brother? You didn’t sleep?”
Qin Song let out a soft chuckle upon hearing that, his gaze resting on Qin Xi under the dim light, glowing with soft radiance:
“I just woke up too.”
With those words, he sat up, looked at Qin Xi, and suddenly bent down without warning.
Caught off guard by his sudden approach, Qin Xi went stiff on the spot, not daring to move a muscle!
Yet in the very next second, she felt a cool, soft touch press gently against her forehead!
Her eyes widened slightly as she raised her head, her gaze locking with his.
Qin Song raised his head, a trace of amusement gracing the corners of his lips upon seeing her dazed expression.
As if it were the most natural, everyday gesture, he patted her head:
“Don’t zone out. Get up, freshen yourself up—it’s time for food!”
With those words, Qin Song stood up, walked over to the window, and pulled back the curtains.
Qin Xi remained dazed from the sudden forehead kiss, unable to snap back to her senses.
Looking at the man’s tall, well-built back standing beneath the sunlight, her heart suddenly pounded wildly.
Yet the instant he turned around, she quickly lowered her head to dodge his gaze.
It was very strange.
It was clearly just a kiss on the forehead.
There was nothing unusual about a brother kissing his sister’s forehead.
Yet she suddenly didn’t dare meet his eyes.
Her heart felt scorchingly warm.
Sensing the man approaching, she scrambled up from the brick kang, put on her shoes, and walked briskly over to the room door, pulling it open in one smooth motion.
The instant it opened, the warmth of the living room surged in. The three people outside were busy preparing dinner in the kitchen behind.
A lively, comforting atmosphere rushed over her.
Composing her spirits, Qin Xi finally convinced herself that Qin Song’s action just now was merely a brother comforting his younger sister.
She turned back to look at Qin Song:
“Let’s make something delicious for ourselves too!”
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