Traveling

In the cloudless blue sky, creatures beyond common sense could occasionally be seen flying past.

“Caw… caw…”

Another flock just flew by, and hearing their crow-like calls, An Ye, who was lying spread-eagled on the grass, scratched her hair in frustration.

She had forgotten that her current hair was no longer the short style she used to have.

The rough action tangled the platinum-blonde strands into a mess, and a slight tug sent a pain as if her scalp was being torn off, making her instinctively curl up and cry out.

Once the pain in her scalp subsided, An Ye spread her arms out again and lay back down.

About an hour had passed since she appeared in this inexplicable place, and by now, she had more or less accepted the fact that she had indeed crossed over into another world.

As for how she crossed over, well, she had a pretty good idea.

Originally, today was the first day of a long-awaited vacation for her.

To fully enjoy a long-anticipated open-world survival adventure game, she had spent all of last night searching for character models and made a billion little tweaks according to her preferences.

This morning, she installed the model and was just about to launch the game to see the results, but as the computer screen showed the game loading, she suddenly felt everything go black.

When she opened her eyes again, she had arrived in this unfamiliar land, and her body had transformed into that of the model.

An Ye didn’t know if this was the game world because she had only just finished downloading the game.

Eager for the joy of experiencing the gameplay and exploring the world firsthand, she hadn’t looked at any walkthroughs or wikis, so this world was a complete and unknown one to her.

She had none of the standard perks for protagonists in transmigration stories, like a max-level account or a warehouse full of end-game items.

She knew nothing about the locations of rare items, monster information, or the plot.

If she had to point out any transmigration perk, it would only be the thing floating in front of her, resembling a player control interface.

An Ye stared at the blue, semi-transparent panel before her eyes; she could feel the air brushing against her face, the scent of fresh grass filling her nose, and the warmth of the sun on her skin.

She knew that in her previous world, fully immersive dive games were just things from anime or movies, and besides, she wasn’t wearing any suspicious helmet before she lost consciousness.

No matter what, at this point, An Ye could only accept her situation.

She raised her right hand, which was covered by a white, half-palmed glove, and tapped on the control interface before her.

First, she needed to check the information at hand.

Uh… let’s see… after opening the control interface, on the left was an inventory with a hundred slots in total.

On the right, above the character model, were four equipment slots that could be swapped at any time, all currently empty.

Next to the equipment slots were four corresponding cosmetic slots, which currently displayed four sets of dresses with their matching coats, shoes, and accessories.

The one the character model was currently wearing was the first set, which was primarily white.

The other three sets were black, dark blue, and light green recolors.

An Ye tested the cosmetic-switching function.

The actual feeling was as if the clothes had learned how to teleport; with a ‘swoosh’, they changed on their own.

Switching posed no problem even while she was moving.

Then there was the status bar above the character model: one hundred max health, two hundred and seventy-five max mana, and a hunger value of around sixty out of a hundred.

Other than the mana value, it was all pretty standard.

Was she supposed to be a mage or something?

With that thought, An Ye turned her gaze to the crafting interface below the inventory, and to a starter pack lying quietly inside.

She didn’t find anything else for the time being.

“Tsk… if I’d known, I would have downloaded some kind of support mod. Even just for some extra starting equipment.”

Realizing she had to survive in this unfamiliar place in her current state, An Ye rolled around on the grass in anguish, deeply regretting why she hadn’t added a few more mods back then, even if she never ended up using them.

After rolling on the grass for a while, her clothes becoming wrinkled and her once-smooth, platinum-blonde hair turning into a mess, An Ye finally sat up slowly, composed herself, and opened the starter pack in her inventory.

Pull yourself together, An Ye.

Maybe this will be like one of those VRMMO transmigration novels where the starter pack gives you a divine artifact, or like the starter packs in system novels that are guaranteed to give the protagonist something to survive with.

With an excited heart and a trembling hand, An Ye tapped on the starter pack.

“Ding… ding… ding…”

Ah… that’s the sound of picking up loot drops.

But why can’t I feel happy about it?

How strange.

The items she got were: Iron Pickaxe, Iron Axe, Iron Hammer, Iron Longsword, Coarse Linen Shirt, Coarse Linen Trousers, Coarse Linen Cape, Wooden Bow, Wooden Arrows x100, Coarse Wheat Bread x10, Waterskin (Two Liters), Oak Staff, Wood x100, and Chests x3.

…I should probably just give up.

With just this stuff, you expect me, a pitiful-looking girl who’s not even one-and-a-half meters tall, to survive in this world?

Are you kidding me?

An Ye plopped back onto the ground.

I’m tired.

Just end it all.

Hurry up.

Without a divine artifact… or an ancient one… ugh… basically, without something awesome, I can’t survive at all.

I might as well go find a slime to off me right now and get it over with.

Growl~ Grumble rumble~

But then again, a girl’s gotta eat.

Even if I’m going to die, I’ll die on a full stomach.

An Ye performed a sit-up on the spot and tentatively took a bite of the bread from her inventory.

The taste… was pretty much like the buckwheat bread she ate while dieting.

It was better than nothing, I guess.

Sigh… regardless, having to live in this world from now on was an established fact.

I’ll just think of it as playing with a ‘real-world’ mod installed.

After chugging a few mouthfuls of water to wash down the bread, An Ye finally felt her spirits lift a little now that her stomach was full.

Anyway, let’s try the crafting interface first; it’s the only thing that might be a cheat.

Maybe it’s this world’s encyclopedia, containing a complete list of all crafting recipes.

An Ye could already picture herself easily creating things like a Philosopher’s Stone and starting to show off and put others in their place.

She eagerly dragged the only material she had, wood, into the crafting interface.

What would it make?

What would it make?

What…

I should probably just give up.

[Wooden Furniture Series: Artifacts that can be synthesized and manufactured based on the knowledge you possess. Since you do not have professional woodworking knowledge, even if they are made, they will only be usable and will not reach a level of comfort.]

Oh~ my God, this crafting interface is so mischievous.

It must have some incredible ability that I just don’t know about.

An Ye’s brow furrowed imperceptibly for a moment, then she tried tossing the clothes in as well.

[Rag xN: Scraps of cloth obtained from casually tearing and cutting linen clothes. Perhaps becoming rags is their only destiny, although they are not very effective as rags.]

Shit!

…Look on the bright side.

At least I don’t have to wear one of those two-piece starter outfits like in a game.

I not only have two complete sets of clothes, but I also made my appearance super beautiful.

Self-consolation is an essential skill for modern people.

After taking some time to readjust her mood, she dragged the iron axe from her inventory to an equipment slot, gripped the handle that suddenly appeared in her hand, and walked towards a large tree.

Let’s do this.

An essential part of starting this type of game: to get rich, you must first chop trees.

She gently stroked the trunk before her with her right hand, then tightened her grip on the axe handle and swung with all her might.

Let you be the beginning of my adventure in another world.

“I’ll chop!”

Eh?

“Gwah…”

It seemed An Ye’s start in this other world was not going smoothly.

Reality, after all, wasn’t a game.

Who told her to swing with all her might while wearing silk gloves, without even using a safety strap?

Her strength was insufficient, and her posture was incorrect.

Not only did the recoil make her hand ache, but she only managed to inflict a tiny scratch on the large tree, and even stumbled and fell.

Climbing up from the ground, An Ye came to a new understanding that this was the real world.

It’s not like she had to chop this tree.

Who said you have to start by chopping trees?

Anyway, she had wood and weapons in her inventory, so it wasn’t out of the question to go find the newbie’s best friend, the slime.

She unequipped her only iron axe.

Since she was going hunting, she definitely needed some armor first.

She’d start with a set of wooden armor, the essential gear for any beginner.

[Full Set of Wooden Armor: Armor made of wood. It has almost no defensive power, hinders movement when worn, and even has the hidden danger of catching fire if you sit next to a campfire. Compared to this, you might as well look forward to leather armor.]

Her finger, about to confirm the craft, paused slightly.

This… the description was damn right.

What about a torch, then?

A torch should be fine, right?

[Torch: It is just a wooden stick lit by friction fire. It has not been processed in any way. It’s acceptable as a light source, but please do not have high expectations for its other capabilities. If you wish to increase its duration, perhaps you could look for a slime, provided that slimes exist in this world and that they actually drop gel upon defeat.]

Sigh… nothing is going right…

An Ye sat down on the ground, tilting her head up at a 45-degree angle.

She suddenly had no idea what to do.

She couldn’t chop the tree, she didn’t know if she could win against any monsters she found, she had no idea which way to go to leave this place, and she didn’t even know if she could understand the language of this world’s people.

If she had even one useful tool, it wouldn’t be this bad.

At least she could do some base-building.

But the wood in her inventory was limited and couldn’t be wasted.

To get more, she had to chop trees.

And chop trees with an axe?

Couldn’t she trade this axe for a saw or something?

This damn other world.

Even the most difficult games at least have a main quest, from small things like mining your first copper ore or chopping your first tree, to larger goals like building a home or exploring a region.

If only this window in front of her had a quest system, she wouldn’t be so lost and unsure of what to do next.

But then again, this wasn’t a game, but a genuine other world.

This was a real world.

Wait… world?

With a sudden flip, An Ye sat up.

She knew what she had to do.

Since this wasn’t a game but a real world, she shouldn’t treat it like a difficult game, but rather like a simplified version of wilderness survival.

Thinking of it that way… right, didn’t she now know what she should be doing?

Based on the survival tutorials from world-class survival experts she had watched before crossing over, the first step was to determine her location.

Then came the four elements of survival: fire, water, food, and shelter.

With the crafting interface and the items stored in her inventory, she was only missing a shelter for now.

So, what she should do now was find a good location, break off some branches, and build a simple shelter.

At this thought, An Ye first felt the clothes she was wearing.

The clothes felt rather thin, and her legs didn’t feel too cold or too hot, which meant the average temperature of her current location was likely somewhere between spring and summer.

For now, the shelter didn’t need to be particularly insulated.

But considering this was another world and her character panel had a mana stat, there might be magical beasts around.

A normal fire might not be enough to drive them away, and a wooden shelter probably wouldn’t be very safe either.

An Ye scanned her surroundings.

She was standing in a grassy clearing, surrounded by a seemingly endless forest.

As a temporary measure, she decided she should first climb a tree to find a high vantage point and assess her surroundings.

If she couldn’t complete this plan before nightfall, worst-case scenario, she would just spend the night in a tree.

Just as An Ye made her decision and was selecting a suitable tree, the window before her eyes suddenly changed slightly.

[Quest: Find a high vantage point and confirm your current situation.]

Seeing this, she immediately stopped what she was doing.

Could it be that her hidden power was here?

Was this a world map or something?

At this thought, An Ye’s heart blossomed with joy.

If this was another world with a medieval setting, then a map could be sold for a high price…

However, no matter how she tried to interact with it, the quest log gave no response.

After fiddling with it for a long time, she discovered that this quest log was also a useless thing—it was just a notepad.

“Sigh… whatever. Having a notepad is fine too. At least I can look at it to avoid forgetting things.”

At this moment, An Ye finally let go of all her wishful thinking, picked up the iron shortsword from her inventory, and headed towards the forest.

However, she didn’t forget to add a new entry in the quest log.

[Quest: Find a village inhabited by the people of this world and understand this world first.]