Entering the Stone Age

**Your friend: Wu Xiu, a scholar, talked about you to Wu Guan, who was not a member, but the words were not speculative. Wu Guan, who was a member, thought that Wu Xiu, a scholar, was talking nonsense. Hatred: 0.5 stars**

**Enemy (1/1)**

**Wu Guan outside the staff: online, hostility: 0.5 stars**

"."

Chen Xiyi was taken aback. Good grief, the game could generate interactions out of thin air.

"This is a terrible game. I can handle having a crush on a guy; after all, we could still be good friends. But now, he's considered an enemy just because he's dissatisfied and doesn't like me? Now it's called hatred."

The degree of hatred baffled Chen Xiyi. The scope of hatred must be broad, not just limited to personal dislike.

"This Wu Guan should be Wu Xiu's father. It seems Wu Xiu told his father about me, but he didn't believe it?"

"And judging by the situation, he must have scolded him harshly."

Chen Xiyi found this a rare bit of amusement during his mining work. Today's yield was disappointing—mostly stone and soil, with no sign of iron ore or coal, which annoyed him. He had worked for most of the night, and by his reckoning, it was already past 11:30 PM.

Chen Xiyi debated whether to go back to sleep. After all, he hadn't slept today.

"The wooden ladder is used up, so I've dug down 300 units?" He looked at the missing wooden ladder and embedded a torch in the earth wall beside him.

He set a ratio of three torches to one wooden ladder to maximize lighting in the descending passage.

"Resources are still insufficient. Better go back to sleep first; otherwise, I might get a negative status from staying up all night." Chen Xiyi wasn't sleepy but still energetic—his first day in this world naturally excited him.

After putting the wooden pickaxe back into his inventory, he climbed up the wooden ladder. Tonight, several of his wooden pickaxes had worn out. Wooden pickaxes had durability limits; overuse would cause them to break. Repairing them wasn't worth it since a new one cost only 1 unit of wood, the same as repairing. Moreover, repairs had to be done before durability hit zero; otherwise, the pickaxe would disintegrate.

Back in the stone house, Chen Xiyi quickly washed up and checked the time.

"Damn, it's almost the next day."

He hurriedly put everything on the table and jumped into bed.

"That was close."

As 11:59 PM turned to 12:00 AM, Chen Xiyi opened his eyes.

"So close, I almost didn't sleep."

Seeing his recovered state, he sighed in relief.

What? Only slept for 1 minute?

That's sleep too.

For Chen Xiyi, sleeping was merely a process to refresh his state; rest wasn't the focus.

"Let's go back home first. Today's crops and animals should be ready for harvest. After gathering those, save some of today's soil and rocks, then upgrade my equipment. Stone tools will speed up digging, and stone weapons and armor will offer better protection."

He planned his next steps, believing that better tools would increase efficiency.

"Let's go back."

Chen Xiyi mentally commanded himself back from the stone house to his wooden house at home.

After a few rounds of harvesting on the farm and pasture with a torch, he returned to the wooden house. He stored some resources in the wooden storage box and began crafting the needed tools.

Busy for an hour, he then headed back to Dali Kingdom, now equipped with stone-age tools and armor.

**Stone Pickaxe**

**Durability: 30/30**

**Mining: 20**

The mining attribute had doubled. Chen Xiyi estimated that soil would now require only 5 hits, and stone perhaps 10 hits. This saved him half the time and energy.

He also crafted stone armor, a stone helmet, and a stone spear, enhancing his defense and attack.

Wooden armor initially had a defense of 1, now upgraded to 2.

He made 1,200 wooden ladders and 400 torches to dig deeper. If these were used up without finding iron ore or coal, he would have to seek information in the city on where to find these resources.

Staying in one place forever wasn't an option.

Currently, it was past 1:00 AM, and Chen Xiyi judged that the Dali Kingdom would be under curfew. As an ancient feudal society, most people would be asleep by now.

"I wonder if Lingqu City has walls. If so, I could knock some down and maybe get stone bricks."

Descending into the mine, Chen Xiyi pondered.

"Not just the city walls, I could dismantle the city gates too. If I knock fast enough, the city guards won't react in time."

Though somewhat immoral, Chen Xiyi felt he was being a conscientious player by not raiding civilian NPC homes.

"A 3×3 mine, digging another 1,200 units here, means digging until noon today."

Chen Xiyi suddenly felt overwhelmed. Each dig produced a 3×3 hole, totaling 9 units of resources per layer.

And then 9×1200 equals 10,800 units of resources, making Chen Xiyi feel daunted.

"Never mind, too much is better than too little."

Reaching the bottom, he started digging with the stone pick.

Too much is a lot, but not doing it because it's a lot isn't an option.