Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Li Wenxi manipulated the vines, wrapping around the two people's waists, leading Silver King and Keke together into the treehouse.

It was Xu Xin's first time being led into the treehouse by someone else, feeling completely different from when he manipulated it himself.

Because the survivor's treehouse is almost connected to himself, manipulating the roots is like controlling his own limbs, so pulling himself into the treehouse is no different from jumping or running.

But being pulled by someone else into the treehouse, it really feels like being swallowed whole by a giant beast, making his heart skip a beat.

...This feeling of entering someone else's treehouse, it's really kind of strange.

Li Wenxi first took him to the first floor: "Let's make the steel armor set for Sister Xuefei first!"

The first floor of the treehouse was divided into left and right sections, with the left part being larger and the right being much smaller.

Li Wenxi took him into the room on the right, where there were some workbenches for crafting, and many shelves filled with green-level backpacks.

"Here!" She led Xu Xin to the weapon and armor crafting bench and took a backpack from one of the shelves, handing it to Xu Xin.

Inside the backpack were dozens of blue-level steel blocks and over a hundred green-level steel blocks.

"...Isn't this a bit too wealthy..." Xu Xin looked at the items in the backpack, his eye twitching.

He had just told the people in [Explorer] that once the materials were sufficient, he would make each of them a set, and only ten minutes later, the materials for making a blue-level armor set for everyone were already in his hands.

"Really? I feel it's quite normal, just dozens of blue-level steel blocks, right? You can get over a hundred blue-level fruits from one fruit tree!"

"I..." Xu Xin nearly rolled his eyes.

How can that be the same? Those are fruits, consumables with pseudo-blue levels, having very short-lasting effects or increasing very few attributes. The real blue-level resources are not fruits, but the fruit trees or shrubs that produce them.

And these blue-level steel blocks, each piece can make a piece of blue-level equipment, and it's the strongest among the blue-level equipment, simply not to be underestimated!

Of course, if used to make coordinates, putting one for each person in [Explorer], it would still be somewhat insufficient.

Xu Xin immediately crafted a set of steel armor set (blue) with these steel blocks and handed it to Li Wenxi, who promptly sent it over to Qi Xuefei.

Qi Xuefei: "Thanks for the steel armor set, Wenxi! I'm heading out!"

Wang Lei: "I'm so jealous!"

Zhao Xiaochuan: "Why be jealous, you should head out too!"

Wang Lei: "I've been out for a while now, okay? I can see the treehouse from both the east and south, and I'm currently heading east along the creek!"

Wen Guixin: "You're too slow, run! I've already sorted out all the other areas' treehouses nearby!"

Qin Yunlong: "All sorted? Any survivors?"

Wen Guixin: "Only the one I killed was alive, along with the dying treehouse I encountered yesterday. In total, I only got two parasitic treehouse seeds and two treehouse cores, which is somewhat of a gain, I guess. Too bad, if I knew, I wouldn't have killed him. I'd have him work for me instead! When you guys meet me, don't have any thoughts or else I'll end you!"

Wang Lei: "Who'd be interested in a human female T-Rex with excessive combat power..."

Wen Guixin: "Hehe, Wang Lei, the day we meet is the day you meet your end!"

Wang Lei: "Brother Xin, save me! I can't beat her!"

Li Wenxi quietly laughed behind her hand, glancing at Xu Xin, who helplessly shook his head.

Xu Xin: "Wish you well, I can't beat her either."

Zhao Xiaochuan: "Huh? No way? Isn't Brother Xin ranked first in the entire list?"

Even Wen Guixin was shocked: "?? Really? Am I stronger than the number one on the whole list?"

Ever since she ranked lower than Xu Xin and Ji Chaoyang in a hunting activity, she doubted her abilities. In her home court, she didn't even get first place, she was so frustrated she almost got depressed. Now hearing Xu Xin admit he couldn't beat her made her a little excited.

Ji Chaoyang: "Indeed, speaking of combat abilities, Wen Guixin should be the strongest among us explorers, perhaps even among all survivors there's no one stronger than her."

He knew a bit about Wen Guixin's abilities, hence his statement.

Wang Lei: "Next year, burn incense for me..."

Even Ji Chaoyang acknowledged it, making Wen Guixin, who was exploring outside, fully believe it. She clenched her fist and quietly said "Yay", then excitedly turned around and kicked a nearby tree.

"Snap!"

The kicked tree immediately broke with a "boom" as it fell to the ground.

Then, whether it was the fallen tree trunk or the remaining stump, both started to slowly change color and wither.

Xu Xin suddenly thought they were surrounded by Area 189 and promptly asked: "Didn't someone encounter people from Area 189? Do we know how many survivors are left?"

Wang Lei: "The brother I chatted with earlier told me Area 189 still has over 1600 people, I'm just about to go over and have a talk about life with him."

Wen Guixin: "Hmm, the person I killed also said this; indeed, there were this many people."

More than 1600 people... This means that District 189 must have had at least two people who killed the Plant Heart and shared the fragments, helping these others survive the defensive battle that night.

Wang Lei's group is more convenient in their actions compared to Xu Xin's group.

After all, everyone who survived has a protection zone with a radius of at least six kilometers. The fewer people who died, the more connected the protection zones are.

On the other hand, in Xu Xin's group, only 800 people survived in District 187, resulting in many nearby treehouses having already died, with a zone of influence that is only three kilometers. To reach Qi Xuefei's treehouse, which is very close, they have to detour.

This is because their region inexplicably has many strong people, leading to fewer deaths. If it were other places, it would be far worse; some survivors in District 188 might be surrounded by dead treehouses and can't get out, while others can't get in.

They were quite lucky.

"Alright, we've delivered all the steel armor sets. Let's rest for a bit before heading out! I'll show you my treehouse!" Li Wenxi was indifferent to who might be stronger, looking up at Xu Xin and smiling.

She pulled Xu Xin out of the creation room, then pushed open the door to the opposite smelting chamber, "Come quickly and see my smelting chamber, my new furnace!"

The smelting chamber was Li Wenxi's main enhancement spot, larger than the adjacent creation room, nearly forty square meters.

When the smelting chamber door opened, Xu Xin glanced inside and was stupefied by the furnace before his eyes.

Li Wenxi's smelting chamber contained a total of five furnaces, four situated at each corner of the chamber, just like the furnaces in Xu Xin's treehouse.

In the middle of the smelting chamber, however, was a large furnace that looked completely different from the other four.

This special furnace was notably larger than the others. Just from the appearance alone, it looked much more advanced, with a bellows, a grinding wheel, and even a cooling unit for holding water.

Moreover, the biggest difference was that this furnace emanated a blue glow.

"...A blue-grade furnace?" Xu Xin exclaimed in surprise.

He recalled that furnaces were only supposed to be made at green-grade, right?

"Hehe, I just made it not long ago, impressive, right?" Li Wenxi chuckled proudly, puffing her chest out.

"This..." Xu Xin paused for two seconds, recalling that a furnace required a hundred green-grade stones, and due to the fixed quality of the tool table, it couldn't be upgraded with blue-grade stones.

Where did this blue-grade furnace come from?

"Is this... your unique blueprint?" Xu Xin suddenly understood, much like his alchemical synthesis table, this was a blueprint paired with Li Wenxi's ability, her unique blueprint.

"Exactly! I might be the only one in this world who can make this furnace! Well, not necessarily, there might be others with similar abilities as me, but it's certainly very rare." Li Wenxi walked up to the advanced large furnace and patted it with her hand.

"This furnace used up a lot of my materials. Ordinary stones wouldn't do; they have to be blue-grade stones, and even primitive blue-grade stones wouldn't do. I'd have to refine the stones into another type of material and make various components before finally synthesizing a furnace. Even with the amount of material I have, I could only make this one first." Li Wenxi explained.

It sounded similar to the alchemy components of [Iron Sand][Black Gold Dust] he needed, involving further processing of basic materials.

Xu Xin also walked up to the large furnace, inspecting the sizable apparatus. The furnace wasn't running, and inside it was spacious and hollow, so much so that Keke eagerly tried to climb inside, only for Xu Xin to grab it by the neck and pull it back.

"Climb inside; be careful the fire doesn't melt you!" Xu Xin warned Keke.

"Eeek!" Keke cried out in fear, quickly leaping onto Xu Xin's shoulder, not daring to approach the furnace again.

Petting Keke's large tail, Xu Xin studied the peculiar furnace and asked, "Does this furnace have any special abilities?"

"Hehe, look back at me!" Li Wenxi's voice came from behind him.

Xu Xin turned around, and a purple light dazzled his eyes.

Li Wenxi was holding a backpack in her left hand and a steel block in her right, emitting a purple glow.

"...A purple-grade steel block?!" Xu Xin's pupils trembled as he sharply turned back to look at the special furnace, "Is this the furnace's effect?!"

Li Wenxi couldn't have a treehouse core and couldn't upgrade materials from blue-grade.

"Wow, you could tell at a glance that this is a purple-grade steel block." Li Wenxi was somewhat surprised, "I have to place it on the identification table to know. I even planned to show you by putting it on the identification table, but it seems unnecessary now."

Xu Xin touched the furnace's wall; it was incredibly cool when not in operation. Given the current weather, a bone-chilling coldness even emanated.

[Prospector's Furnace (Blue): A special furnace made only by Prospectors, offering greatly enhanced basic smelting speed and a chance to smelt higher-grade materials. This chance increases with the enhancement points of the smelting chamber.]

Special furnace!

There is a chance to smelt higher-grade materials!

Xu Xin's eyes widened immediately. He turned to look at Li Wenxi, who wore a proud expression on her face.

No wonder, no wonder this little rich lady doesn't need a treehouse core; it wasn't out of selflessness but because she has the ability to smelt purple-grade materials!

This furnace, combined with the smelting chamber, is an incredibly powerful existence. The furnace has a chance to obtain higher-grade materials, while the enhancement of the smelting chamber allows it to gain multiple materials at times. If both trigger together...

She truly lives up to being a little rich lady!