Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 150: Chapter 149: A Belated Special Reward

If the vines can’t attack beyond five meters, then essentially anything above five meters is still within the normal treehouse protection zone.

This way, he can jump back and forth at the five-meter line, luring the vines out, and then kill them from above five meters to keep earning points and obtain more mutant vine sap!

Moreover, there was no vegetation beneath his treehouse. Before the rainy season, he had chopped down all the trees and bushes around the treehouse during thunderstorms, and even cleared away the weeds on the ground, including those under the treehouse.

After the rainy season ended, no plants grew under the treehouse canopy, likely because the area had already been taken over by the treehouse.

So now there’s not even any grass beneath his treehouse—just a plain dirt ground.

Plus, the area is large enough that he can use explosive arrows beneath the treehouse!

Forget about fire arrows; if the vines caught fire and thrashed around wildly, igniting the surrounding trees, that would be bad. Best to use explosive arrows to take them out in one shot.

But now’s not the time to discuss this.

”Since everyone agrees, I’ll announce on the regional channel that we’re selling wooden armor for treehouses. You can make some and hang them on the trading platform. Price them at twice the cost of the raw materials—not too expensive, since they don’t really have anything worth taking advantage of anymore.”

”Okay, Boss Xu!”

”Got it.”

Xu Xin immediately announced on the regional channel that [Explorers] would soon be selling wooden armor for treehouses, along with details about the armor, causing quite a stir on the regional channel.

”Hooray for the big boss!”

”Only [Explorers] can handle this!”

”We’re so lucky to have such a big boss in our area!”

”Hurry up, Boss! The vines under my treehouse are going crazy!”

At this time, Li Wenxi sent him a private message: ”Can you make iron armor for treehouses?”

While making armor, Xu Xin replied: ”No, there’s no iron armor for treehouses, but I can make an automatic iron crossbow for a treehouse if you need one.”

”An iron crossbow? Yes, please! I can’t use this wooden one; its automatic feature isn’t accurate enough!”

”Hold on, you should make some armor to sell first. There’s a high demand for armor right now.”

”Oh, okay, I’ll sell armor first.”

He used all his logs to make wooden armor and listed them on the trading platform at twice the cost of the raw materials. Because he was at the top of the leaderboard, his trade order went straight to the top of the trading platform, and within seconds, all the wooden armor was snapped up.

”What the heck, who bought them so fast!”

”Hey, hey, don’t hog them all! The trunk is only three meters high, and six pieces per person should be enough!”

”Who’s going to only buy six? Of course, you need to stock up, so you have replacements when they break!”

”Shoot, I didn’t get any! The vines under my treehouse are still attacking! Stop hogging them, let those of us under attack buy them first!”

After other members of [Explorers] also put up armor for sale, the commotion gradually settled down.

Xu Xin then used the newly acquired materials to make another batch, this time noting that both logs and thin wood could be used as payment.

Again, they were instantly sold out.

Treehouse armor was basically a necessity in this activity—something everyone needed to buy. Now, with a total of 3,058 people left in the regional channel, even if everyone bought ten treehouse wooden armors, 30,000 pieces would be needed to meet everyone’s needs.

This means each person in [Explorers] needed to make over 3,000 pieces of armor to barely satisfy the demand.

Because the price was double the materials, Xu Xin now had a lot of logs and thin wood.

After making several batches this way, the selling speed finally slowed down, and Xu Xin flexed his fingers and decided to take a break.

Now, almost everyone in the entire area had outfitted their treehouses with armor. If nothing else happened today, everyone should be safe for now.

”Thanks, big bosses! I feel so much safer now!”

”Haha, those silly vines still attacking below? They’re just giving the armor a little scratch, scraping off some wood chips, really lame!”

”At this attack rate, if they focus on one spot, could they break through a piece in a few hours?”

”Just replace a broken piece with another one. I bought more than twenty treehouse armors.”

”Yet another day with the big bosses leading us to victory. It’s boring and uneventful.”

After sorting everything out, Xu Xin messaged Li Wenxi: ”Want the iron crossbow?”

”Yes!”

Li Wenxi sent a video immediately, and Xu Xin habitually accepted the call.

The little beauty was wearing a newbie’s two-piece suit that looked a bit faded from washing, with her hair a little messy, appearing like she had just woken up, yet her energy was still so vibrant: ”Um, do the crossbow arrows come in iron too? I’d like that...”

”Yes, that’s not an issue. I can even make a blue-grade iron crossbow, but you’ll need to provide the materials.”

”Blue-grade iron crossbow!” Li Wenxi’s eyes widened, then she seemed a bit deflated, ”But... but I don’t have blue-grade thin wood...”

”A blue-level heavy crossbow doesn’t require blue-level fine wood,” Xu Xin explained, ”The iron heavy crossbow only needs blue-level iron blocks and blue-level beast tendons.”

”I have them all, I want a blue-level heavy crossbow!”

Li Wenxi directly sent him the materials, with a few extra blue-level iron blocks as a reward.

He crafted two heavy crossbows and ten crossbow arrows and sent them to Li Wenxi. Xu Xin asked, ”If we open iron trading to outsiders, will your iron mine resources be sufficient?”

”Hmm... Forget about blue-level, blue-level needs to be kept for our own use, but I can supply green-level iron blocks.” Li Wenxi pointed to the rows of backpacks behind him, ”There are plenty of green-level iron blocks, too many to count.”

”With your word, I’m relieved.”

After hanging up the video call, he was ready to go out and try to lure those vines out.

Keke was still on the bed hugging her tail, snoring lightly, but Mimi and Silver King were already awake. Seeing Xu Xin looking ready to go out, both of them came forward.

Xu Xin keenly noticed that the blood-red patterns on the two beasts’ bodies had deepened compared to the previous day.

Hopefully, they’ll evolve into mid-level mutant beasts soon.

”You don’t need to follow today, just rest at home.”

Upon hearing this, the two beasts didn’t insist on following and went back to sleep. These two guys have been sleeping whenever they’re idle lately, which should be a sign of advancing to mid-level mutant beasts, accumulating strength through sleep.

Just as Xu Xin was preparing to go out, his watch vibrated with a private message from Ji Chaoyang.

”The rewards for the Rainstorm Season leaderboard can be claimed today.”

?!

Xu Xin immediately withdrew his hand reaching for the exit and returned to the screen, clicking on the [Leaderboard - Rainstorm Season Event] option.

Sure enough, a claim button appeared next to his name.

Clicking the button, a prompt sound suddenly rang out.

[This reward is a special, non-public reward, related to the decoration level of the treehouse. Since the survivor’s treehouse hasn’t been upgraded to the second stage, part of the decoration level functionality will be unlocked in advance.]

[This reward is a special ability: Random Enhancement]

[Detected treehouse decoration level greater than 100, today’s random enhancement acquired: Enhanced Vision, effect lasts for one day.]

As the sound ended, Xu Xin felt a refreshing cool sensation flowing around his eyes, finally rushing into them.

In an instant, the world in his eyes became incredibly clear, able to see even a speck of dust on the treehouse wall.

Xu Xin blinked his eyes, like a newborn baby, curiously observing his surroundings. It was as if he saw a world he had never seen before.

Not only did things nearby become clear, but when he looked out from the window, the previously blurry distant view suddenly became very clear.

He felt that his eyes were now like a magical tool that could switch between a telescope and a microscope at any moment.

”This ability is too powerful!” Xu Xin was amazed, he could even see a uniquely eye-catching tree in the jungle from over ten kilometers away, which seemed to be another survivor’s treehouse.

Experiencing the powerful new ability, Xu Xin began to focus on the reward itself.

Special Ability: Random Enhancement.

He opened the [Decoration Level] option, and sure enough, a sub-option named [Random Enhancement] appeared.

Upon opening it, the screen interface split into two parts, one named Today’s Enhancement, the other Historical Enhancement.

Today’s Enhancement included a description of the [Enhanced Vision] he had just acquired.

[Enhanced Vision: Strengthens the survivor’s eyes, allowing for clearer visibility of tiny details and distant objects.]

The Historical Enhancement section was empty, lacking any text.

At the bottom of the interface, there was a line of small text introducing [Random Enhancement].

[Depending on the treehouse’s decoration level, survivors who sleep continuously for more than three hours in the treehouse will receive different functions and variable-duration random enhancements, once per day per person. The higher the decoration level, the more enhancements and longer durations are possible.]

Abilities related to the decoration level, the higher the decoration level, the stronger the random enhancement ability.

Despite not knowing the normal function of decoration level, this single reward already made him realize the importance of this attribute.

His current decoration level is over a hundred, based on this ability, a decoration level of a hundred can yield one full-day ability every day. In other words, as long as he sleeps in the treehouse for a full three hours every day, he can randomly gain an ability!

The ability gained today was Enhanced Vision, so powerful it’s practically a superpower for him!

This reward, this special ability, is truly strong!

Despite the randomness and lack of control, any enhancement is undoubtedly beneficial.

Xu Xin looked at the ground outside the window; with his current vision, he could even detect subtle tremors in certain places outside, which were likely the positions where underground vines lurked.

”Truly heaven’s assistance!”