Survival in an apartment, starting with a stroke of luck on a plane

The two arrived at a relatively secluded corner at the edge of the trading area. The burly man gestured for Lin Yu to put down his backpack: "Is everything in these four bags?"

"Yes." Lin Yu opened the backpack for him to check.

The burly man peered over and, confirming it was correct, said, "Okay, we'll calculate it at the price we agreed on earlier."

He quickly tapped through the pile of equipment and items in his backpack, then looked at Lin Yu and said, "A total of 155 game coins, rounded down to 150, is that alright?"

Lin Yu had no objection to this number.

But considering he desperately needed the steel ingots, and that this player seemed like a big shot, he tentatively asked, "Brother, could we exchange part of the payment for steel ingots in this transaction?"

The burly man raised an eyebrow and sized up Lin Yu: "Steel ingots? You're collecting upgrade materials, kid? You've got a long-term vision."

Steel ingots are currently in short supply. The normal market price is 2 yuan per coin, but there is no market for them.

Therefore, if you want to exchange for steel ingots, you'll have to pay 1.5 coins for 2 ingots. I can only give you a maximum of 20 steel ingots, which is 15 game coins. (Sorry, the price was wrong earlier; it has been corrected.)

20 steel ingots, plus 135 game coins, is that price acceptable?

Lin Yu thought about it. Although the price of steel ingots was high, he could get the goods directly, which saved him a lot of trouble.

He nodded: "Okay!"

Without further ado, the burly man made a deal with the two of them immediately.

After confirming that everything was correct, Lin Yu's backpack suddenly contained a heavy amount of 135 game coins and 20 steel ingots.

The money and goods were exchanged. The burly man seemed quite satisfied with the transaction and proactively sent a friend request to Lin Yu.

[Player "Violent Ghost Slayer" has requested to add you as a friend. Do you accept?]

Lin Yu agreed. Looking at the other person's very distinctive ID, Lin Yu finally couldn't help but ask curiously, "Brother, if I may ask, your ID... doesn't seem to be your real name? I see everyone else uses their real names."

The violent demon-slaying maniac, who was about to leave, stopped upon hearing this and looked at Lin Yu with interest: "What? Interested in this?"

He smiled and continued, "According to the rules, all information in the game has to be bought with money."

However, I find you quite agreeable, so I'll make an exception and tell you for free this time, but this won't happen again.

He pointed to the top of his head: "This isn't an ID, it's a 'title.' As for how you got it? Heh, you'll have to figure that out yourself in the game."

Having a title brings many benefits; at the very least, it will make some fools think twice.

After saying that, he didn't say anything more, waved his hand, and strode away.

Title? Lin Yu silently noted down this keyword. It seems there are still many hidden mechanics in this game that he doesn't know about.

Having dealt with most of the items, Lin Yu had no interest in returning to the trading area to set up a stall and sell the remaining thirteen blueprints.

He went straight back to his apartment.

As soon as he entered, he couldn't wait to open the apartment control panel, ready to upgrade the iron gate immediately.

He walked to the door, brought up the apartment management interface, and selected the "Level 2 Iron Gate" upgrade option.

He clicked on "Upgrade" with great anticipation.

[Note: The safe zone is an absolutely safe area. Any upgrades that may alter the apartment structure or cause energy fluctuations are prohibited.]

Please upgrade in your personal apartment after entering the game instance.

The cold system notification extinguished Lin Yu's excitement. He sighed helplessly; it turned out the safe zone couldn't be upgraded!

I'll just have to wait until next time I log into the game.

With nothing to do for the time being, Lin Yu lay down on the bed and opened the [Newbie 9527 Community Public Channel].

The channel was still flooded with messages: trades, team formations, requests for help, insults, and spam. He edited a listing for sale: "[For Sale] Basic building blueprints (electrical appliances/decoration/tools), 13 in total."

Selling sincerely, private message me if interested, scammers stay away.

After sending it out, as expected, friend requests kept popping up.

Lin Yu patiently screened, communicated, and negotiated with each client one by one.

This process is extremely mentally taxing and filled with all sorts of oddballs, scammers, and unreliable buyers.

Two days passed in this tedious trading. In the end, Lin Yu successfully sold all the blueprints. Several weapon blueprints and one special tool blueprint sold for good prices, while the rest of the low-level blueprints could only be sold cheaply.

He earned a total of 50 game coins. Adding the previous 135 coins and the 16 coins he had left, he now had 201 game coins.

However, those 201 coins have now become 178 coins.

Because he had seen a piece of equipment that caught his eye while browsing the public chat:

-

Bulletproof windbreaker +1

Category: Armor

Grade: Bronze

Durability: 75/75

skill:

Bulletproof Layer (Passive): When Bronze-level or lower bullets hit the trench coat, damage is reduced by 70% and impact force is reduced by 80%. It is still effective against bullets above Bronze level, but the effect is greatly reduced.

Description: We are! BTS!

-

This upgraded bronze-grade trench coat has a very useful special effect at the current stage, especially against damage from firearms.

Lin Yu and other players bid against each other, and Lin Yu finally won the bid with a high price of 23 game coins.

This is indeed a high price, considering that ordinary bronze-level armor only costs around 15 coins. This equipment is expensive because of its powerful effects and the fact that it has been enhanced.

Therefore, although 23 coins is expensive, Lin Yu felt it was still worth it.

He is now fully equipped, with the [Yan Shuangying's Dual Pistols] for ranged attacks and the [Executioner's Blade] for melee attacks. In addition, the special effect of this equipment can also be used to slay ghosts and monsters.

In terms of escaping, he also has bronze-level [long-distance running shoes], and now with the addition of this trench coat for defense, his sense of security has increased significantly.

After that, Lin Yu didn't spend any more money on equipment, mainly because the other items in the public chat were just average and he really didn't like them.

He estimated that most of the good stuff in this neighborhood would only circulate within that four-person channel.

During the past two days of "flooding" the screen with trading and casual chat, Lin Yu also absorbed a lot of key information from some relatively friendly veteran players, much like a sponge.

For example, there are indeed items in the game that can predict the type of the next game world, but they are very rare and are usually in the hands of high-level players or large teams.

Furthermore, there are certain patterns to how players enter the game, suggesting that the system employs some kind of mechanism.

If a player has just experienced a survival-type instance (such as the zombie apartment that Lin Yu experienced before), then the probability of him entering a survival-type instance again will become extremely low, and he is more likely to enter other types.

This gives players some direction for preparation.

In addition, a player with a title was bragging in the public chat that he had achieved an "Excellent" rating in the game five times in a row (completing all main and side quests).

The system will forcibly schedule a special tower defense game.

Just like its name suggests, this game is similar to online tower defense games in the real world. Players need to defend their apartment against waves of monster attacks.

It is extremely difficult, with a staggering mortality rate, but the rewards are also exceptionally generous.

Therefore, many savvy players will deliberately lower their performance (by abandoning some side quests) during their fifth game to avoid triggering this "death test".

Of course, there are also overconfident individuals who will actively seek to trigger it.