Chapter 6: Idle Gains

Fang Heng opened the game pod and climbed out.

He was starving.

Even though he had already eaten a hard-boiled egg in the game, he felt even hungrier in reality.

Opening the refrigerator, Fang Heng found two neat rows of instant noodles.

Every single one of them was braised beef flavor.

"You're something else."

Fang Heng muttered, silently taking out a pack.

In his previous life, Fang Heng wasn't particularly fastidious, but living in such a messy room still felt uncomfortable.

After filling his stomach, Fang Heng began cleaning the room while trying to recall the memories of this body.

Ever since he broke up with his ex-girlfriend and was kicked out of the gaming club, he had been hiding in this small room.

The strange thing was, he still couldn't remember why this body had chosen to commit suicide.

Even many things that happened in the gaming club were a bit blurry in his memory.

And his ex-girlfriend.

What was her name again?

Fang Heng stared at a group photo stuck to the refrigerator, lost in thought.

The woman in the photo had long hair and fair skin, giving off the vibe of a girl next door.

For no reason, Fang Heng felt a pang of heartache.

Forget it, don't think about it. They’ve already broken up, anyway.

After finishing a bowl of instant noodles, Fang Heng looked at the overdue bill on his phone and gave a bitter smile.

"Just watch, brother. I won't take your body for nothing. I’ll make your ex-girlfriend regret dumping you!"

Exhausted from the day, Fang Heng mumbled to himself, drifting off to sleep shortly after.

……

In the game, Liao Bufan, Jimmy, and Liu Lin stared at each other.

From initial surprise to shock, and then to disbelief...

Now, they were completely numb.

Among the three, Liao Bufan looked the most miserable.

Ever since Fang Heng left, a zombie would return every few minutes, stand in front of Fang Heng’s bed, and pile the collected supplies onto the floor one by one.

By now, the pile of survival supplies in front of Fang Heng’s bed was as tall as a person.

Liao Bufan could see it clearly; there were over fifty or sixty potatoes in the pile alone, and more than half of the five or six bird eggs had been clumsily crushed by the zombies.

It made Liao Bufan’s heart ache terribly.

"Liu Lin, I think you lied to me. Didn't you say food was hard to come by? Can I take it back now?"

"No. Are you still a man?"

Liu Lin rolled her eyes at him, though she felt just as frustrated.

She had clearly realized back then that Fang Heng’s talent skill was abnormal. Why hadn't she been more proactive, offered to cooperate, or given him a few potatoes to show goodwill!

"Sigh!"

Liao Bufan let out a long sigh.

How could he have sold himself out for half a potato back then?

……

Just before two in the morning, an alarm clock woke Fang Heng from his sleep.

Fang Heng rubbed his face.

Get up, get dressed, enter the game.

"Fang Heng, you're finally here. I'm going to sleep now."

In the game, Liao Bufan reached out and greeted Fang Heng listlessly.

Ever since Jimmy and Liu Lin logged off, Liao Bufan had been yawning while watching Fang Heng’s zombie clones come and go, delivering supplies.

It was a massive mental blow.

Looking at Liao Bufan’s bloodshot eyes, Fang Heng subconsciously said, "Oh, right, thanks for your hard work. I'll take it from here."

Liao Bufan wore a look of grievance. He moved his lips as if wanting to say something, but sighed instead, silently lying down on the bed to log off.

What’s going on? What’s wrong with him?

He was fine when he logged off, why does he look half-dead now?

Fang Heng muttered to himself, then turned his head and couldn't help but freeze.

Good grief! The supplies by the bed were already piled as high as two people.

Several potatoes had been flattened, the bird eggs were crushed with yolk leaking all over the floor, and glass bottles were shattered everywhere...

Well.

Fang Heng imagined the process of the zombies delivering the supplies.

Zombies didn't have good brains; they could only follow simple instructions. After collecting the supplies, they had no idea how to categorize them and just kept piling them up.

Fang Heng scratched his head. He casually fished out a few flattened potatoes from the pile, skewered them on a branch to roast, and opened the game log to check.

[During your time offline, your zombie group collected: Firewood *412, Small Stones *298, Kindling *420, Empty Glass Bottles *7, Glass Bottles filled with murky water *2, Clean Mineral Water *3, Broken Glass Shards *1, Scrap *61, Potatoes *12, Nails *6, Canned Fruit *2...]

Still, in terms of supply collection, the zombie clones were doing quite well!

With so many supplies suddenly appearing, it was a bit of a hassle to process them.

Fang Heng chuckled and slapped his forehead.

"A happy problem."

[Notification: You have completed Roasted Potato *3, your Cooking skill experience +4.]

After roasting a few potatoes to fill his stomach and drinking two bottles of mineral water to quench his thirst, Fang Heng began to work.

Fang Heng hadn't anticipated that the zombies' "AFK" skill could be this efficient.

The game had a weight capacity attribute, so he couldn't just put everything into his backpack.

He needed to categorize them first, then put the supplies into simple wooden crates.

It looked like a lot of supplies, but for the shelter he was about to build, it was far from enough.

Fang Heng opened his character attribute panel, navigated to Basic Crafting, and found the option for a simple wooden crate in the crafting category.

Crafting a wooden crate required Wood Planks *4 and Nails *2, and planks required a large amount of firewood to synthesize, or could be crafted directly using high-level logs.

The prerequisite for using high-level logs was reaching level 5 in Basic Crafting.

Fang Heng scratched his scalp.

He had neither logs nor level 5 Basic Crafting.

So he could only synthesize them using firewood.

Take it slow, then.

Fang Heng shrugged and began synthesizing planks using 10 pieces of firewood.

After a long 1-minute progress bar, Fang Heng obtained one plank.

[Notification: You have completed the crafting of a Wood Plank, your Basic Crafting experience +1.]

Is this too slow?

Crafting items not only took time but also consumed the player's stamina.

A player's daily stamina was limited, and the only way to recover it quickly was by sleeping.

"Maybe I should just hire a few people to work for me. I'll ask that guy Liao Bufan; he seems to have the makings of a tool."

As Fang Heng was talking to himself, the small wooden hut was pushed open again.

A zombie clone had finished Fang Heng's AFK command. It returned to the hut, walked up to Fang Heng, and started piling the materials from its backpack onto the "mountain."

Facing these low-intelligence zombies, Fang Heng could only order it again to pile the supplies in the corner of the hut.

The zombie then wobbled away in another direction.

"Zombies are great at everything, except they aren't very smart... How come it's still so clumsy even after being upgraded to an SSS-level skill?"

As Fang Heng said this, something occurred to him.

He remembered that after the upgrade, the zombie clones could now inherit the player's skills. Does that mean...

No way!

Fang Heng thought of something, rubbed his hands in excitement, and gave the zombie an order to craft a wooden plank.

The zombie's eyes were as dull as ever. It walked slowly to Fang Heng, then picked up the firewood placed in front of him.

A long progress bar appeared above its head.

"Ha! That's amazing!!!"

Fang Heng clapped his hands in excitement!

This tool was actually starting to craft a plank!

Fang Heng stared at the progress bar on the zombie until it finished crafting the plank.

[Notification: Your zombie clone has completed the crafting of a Wood Plank.]

[Notification: You have obtained Wood Plank *1.]

[Notification: Your Basic Crafting skill experience +1.]

"Hahahaha! Too awesome!"

Fang Heng burst into laughter.

Not only could the clones use skills, but his main body could also inherit the experience points from those skills!

He was going to be rich!

Zombies didn't have troublesome things like stamina or hunger!

As long as there were enough materials, it meant he had ten clones grinding skill experience twenty-four hours a day!

For a moment, Fang Heng felt like he was about to become invincible.

Calming down slightly, Fang Heng ordered the zombie to continue crafting planks, then happily ran to the side to start categorizing the supplies the zombies had collected.

(End of chapter)