Chapter 7

It's fine, if it's 10 days, then it's 10 days. Anyway, I'm single now, I don't have to live for anyone. This amount of time, I can afford to spend.

Xiao Zhi had given himself a month. A month should be enough for him to get through it. By then, he would prepare his new book, bid farewell to the past, and embark on a new journey.

The issue of thirst was relatively easy to solve. There were over a dozen wells in the village, and not far outside the village, there was a clear stream. It was relatively easy to get water.

Relying on his memory of Peace Village from the past two days, Xiao Zhi went to a public well, used the wooden bucket beside it to draw water, and after a series of operations, he lifted a bucket of clear water from the well. Then he controlled his character to drink greedily, and the thirst quickly subsided.

The problem of food was not so easy to solve.

At this time, the hardworking villagers had mostly gone out to work, leaving behind mostly the elderly and children.

Xiao Zhi tried to approach these elderly people, hoping to beg some food from them to satisfy his hunger. However, no matter how much he pleaded, his throat almost on fire, these elders just looked at him coldly, completely unmoved.

In Peace Village, not everyone was as compassionate as Yu Cunzheng, who felt sympathy for the players who had fled there. Most of the villagers, especially the elderly, were quite wary, even hostile, towards these sudden strangers.

Especially after a few players caused trouble in the village and were driven away or killed by the village patrol, the villagers' vigilance towards players became even stronger.

They believed that these outsiders were all destabilizing factors, and keeping them around would be a disaster, affecting the peace and stability of Peace Village.

After trying several elders and receiving only cold looks, Xiao Zhi no longer sought to embarrass himself.

He went to Yu Cunzheng's house, but the door was locked, and he was not at home.

He then went to the extinguished bonfire in the village.

Most of the player characters were still "lying still," with only a few having woken up.

The players who had woken up were either doing simple strength training, sweating profusely, or wandering around the village, seemingly aimless.

Prompt: "You are very hungry, you need to eat something."

This system prompt appeared every few minutes.

The character also showed corresponding symptoms, his stomach growling, his steps unsteady, and even his walking speed slowed down.

Forget it, since I can't find food in the village, I'll go outside and see.

Xiao Zhi controlled his character, passed through the village gate, and left Peace Village.

Outside Peace Village, there were fields, vegetable gardens, and orchards.

Looking around, one could see many figures working there.

These were the villagers of Peace Village.

They worked from dawn to dusk, and these fields, vegetable gardens, and orchards were their source of food, their lifeline.

When Xiao Zhi walked past them, these villagers would temporarily stop their work and look at him coldly.

Their eyes were like those of a guard against thieves.

Under such gazes, Xiao Zhi wisely kept his mouth shut and did not ask for food.

After this experience, he no longer had any good feelings towards the villagers of Peace Village.

He thought about taking advantage of their inattention to sneak a few fruits or vegetables from the orchard to satisfy his hunger.

After all, this was just a game, and he wouldn't feel guilty about it.

The problem was that no matter where he went, different villagers would follow him at a distance, leaving him no chance to act.

Forget it, if I can't find food here, I'll go further away and see.

If that doesn't work, I'll wait until nightfall. At night, the kind Yu Cunzheng would arrange a communal meal for us players.

Further away was the forest. Besides wild animals and ferocious beasts, there should be wild fruits and other things to eat, right? Xiao Zhi thought to himself.

When Xiao Zhi, with his unsteady steps, entered the forest, the villagers no longer followed him.

Xiao Zhi began to search for food in the forest.

From the forum, he knew that there were wild animals and even ferocious beasts in the forest outside the village. Newborn players, lacking strength and weapons, were no match for these wild animals and ferocious beasts. Therefore, Xiao Zhi was very cautious and only dared to explore the outermost part of the forest, not daring to go too deep.

Prompt: "You are very hungry, you need to eat something."

Xiao Zhi ignored this prompt and continued to search for food.

After about ten minutes, he found a type of berry, bright red, very similar to cherries.

Can this wild fruit be eaten?

Xiao Zhi controlled his character to pick a wild fruit and eat it.

He was very cautious, only eating one wild fruit and not eating all the berries in front of him.

Through the screen, Xiao Zhi naturally couldn't taste the wild fruit or even smell it.

He began to wait, preparing to wait 20 minutes. If there were no problems, he would eat the remaining wild fruits.

However, after less than 10 minutes, the character started vomiting, tears and snot streaming down his face, even bile coming out.

Because the character's eyes were blurred with tears, Xiao Zhi's phone screen also became blurry.

There was no doubt that the wild fruit was poisonous.

Xiao Zhi sighed in his heart. Now, he realized he had been careless. This was just the outer part of the forest, close to the village. If these wild fruits were edible, they would have been picked by the villagers long ago and wouldn't be left here.

The character struggled for 20 minutes before the situation improved, and Xiao Zhi's phone screen became clear again.

Xiao Zhi controlled his character, taking weak steps, and continued to move forward.

The character moved even slower than before, often stopping uncontrollably to take weak breaths.

Xiao Zhi, with a determined heart, controlled his character to go slightly deeper into the forest.

It was clearly impossible to find wild fruits or other food in the outer part of the forest. Even if there were any, they would have been picked by the villagers.

To find food, he had to go deeper.

After another ten minutes, Xiao Zhi found a palm-sized mushroom under a shrub.

The mushroom was grayish-yellow, not bright at all, and quite unremarkable.

Xiao Zhi racked his brain, recalling some common knowledge about mushrooms.

As far as he knew, brightly colored mushrooms were mostly poisonous.

As for mushrooms that were not brightly colored, some could be eaten, but some were highly toxic.

So, was the mushroom in front of him edible or poisonous?

With his severely lacking wilderness survival knowledge, he couldn't make a judgment.

This was too difficult.