Chapter 87: Diligent Mine Slave

Lin Yifan fills his stomach while sorting the thoughts in his mind.

When his Physical Stamina recovers enough, he stands up, ready to leave.

He still intends to explore the Water Pool; the secrets hidden at its bottom are countless.

He has a vague feeling that if he can uncover all the pool's secrets, perhaps he'll also grasp the higher‑level rules governing this world.

Unfortunately he lacks that ability now, so all he can do is work hard to improve his own strength.

Moreover, although the Stabilizing Water Bead can ensure the Water Pool won't become the source of the upcoming Heavy Rain Disaster, who knows if other directions might still have water sources?

Therefore, he must take advantage of the remaining time to thoroughly explore around the Shelter; only then can he feel at ease.

He also wants to locate an Iron Vein; he already has a Primary Synthesis Room, but to upgrade the Shelter to level four he first needs to upgrade the Primary Synthesis Room to Intermediate.

But this requires a huge amount of Intermediate Cast Iron; Lin Yifan has calculated that even if he exchanged all the Cast Iron listed on the auction across the entire District, it still wouldn't be enough.

Thus his only hope is to find Iron Ore!

Lin Yifan pulls out his Mountain Bike, rides it back to the Old Mouse Hole he visited before.

Although he had already surveyed the area and found no Iron Ore near the Old Mouse Hole.

But Lin Yifan reasoned that Iron Ore has no legs; it won't mysteriously move from one place to another on its own.

Therefore, the Iron Ore must be there; he just hasn't found it yet!

After spending about ten minutes, he rushed back to the vicinity of the Old Mouse Hole and began a careful search.

He even took out a hoe and, near where he had previously found Iron Ore, started digging down.

Half a meter!

One meter!

Two meters!

…

Lin Yifan was basically tunneling, and when he reached three meters deep, he actually uncovered something unusual.

The soil here has a top layer of leaf‑mold humus, about half a meter thick.

Beneath the humus lies a fairly fertile black earth, roughly one meter deep; below that turns into ordinary yellow clay.

But at three meters depth, the soft soil suddenly becomes a hard rock layer, its hue showing a faint metallic sheen.

Although the color differs greatly from the Iron Ore he previously collected, Lin Yifan is certain the rocks still contain iron.

That means he finally hit Iron Ore!

Lin Yifan is overjoyed, but he doesn't keep digging because time is running out.

Daylight is shortening; yesterday it was 8:00 sunrise, 4:30 sunset, today it's already 8:30 sunrise, 4:00 sunset.

And with only twenty minutes left before nightfall, even on a Mountain Bike it would take a desperate sprint to get back to the Shelter.

So the Iron Ore will have to wait until tomorrow to be mined.

Of course, he could stay and mine through the night, since he has Blazing Light Stone and Pure Spirit Flower on hand.

But he doesn't intend to; after a full day of lake‑bottom exploration and digging here, even though his body can recover Physical Stamina with Chestnuts, his mind is exhausted.

Moreover, the Blazing Light Stone and Pure Spirit Flower only keep him unaffected amid Mist and Eerie Whisper.

Yet the night's dangers aren't limited to that; the Maggot Human Bone he encountered last night still lingers vividly in Lin Yifan's memory.

Last night, relying on the Shelter's protection and scrubbing the animal oil from himself and Hong Shaoqiang's hands, he barely managed to eliminate the Maggot Human Bone.

But this place is so far from the Shelter that there's no combustible oil; encountering another Maggot Human Bone would be trouble.

So, despite the strong temptation to mine overnight, Lin Yifan still decides to return to the Shelter.

His timing today was perfect; when he arrived at the Shelter it was already night, so he took no risks.

As usual, he brings the collected rainwater indoors, filters it once, then uses the purified water to cook dinner.

With a Mithril Cast Iron Pot, even Lin Yifan's clumsy cooking can produce decent food.

Nevertheless, he decides to find a Beginner Cooking Skill Book, even though he has already developed Ruan Qingtan to deeply study the Cooking profession.

But asking others is not as good as relying on oneself!

What belongs to others remains theirs; there's no absolute freedom.

Moreover, the Mithril Cast Iron Pot is perfect for the Cooking profession; a chef using it will make food with outstanding attributes.

However, such a precious item, even though Lin Yifan isn't stingy, he's reluctant to let anyone else use it, even if that person is Ruan Qingtan.

After all, they're people he's never met in reality, so Lin Yifan truly can't trust them 100%.

Thus, to avoid wasting the Mithril Cast Iron Pot, he decides to become a cooking master himself.

He opens the Trading Hall and begins searching for a Beginner Cooking Skill Book.

However, Lin Yifan keeps feeling that he's forgotten something important, yet he can't recall what it is.

When he fails to find the Beginner Cooking Skill Book in the Trading Hall and thinks of asking in the chat channel, he sees a flood of rapid messages there and finally remembers what he's missed!

Among last night's Disaster Mission Reward was a 48‑hour Harvest Double Collective Blessing.

And he actually forgot it!

He opened so many Treasure Chests today, yet didn't recall this batch at all!

However, each Treasure Chest he opened only granted a today‑buff generated by his own innate skill, without triggering the Harvest Double Collective Blessing.

Meanwhile, the nonstop spam in the chat channel is all about this.

"Didn't we have a 48‑hour Harvest Double Collective Blessing? Why didn't any of my Treasure Chests or gathered supplies trigger the double today?"

"Exactly, I didn't get Harvest Double either. What's going on? Are they lying to us, saying there's no such Collective Blessing?"

"But the system announcement was posted; how could they deceive us? Is it a bug?"

"We busted our resources yesterday to get first place, and now the reward is bugged—are they really bullying us like this?"

"Too much! Really too much! If you don't want to give us this Collective Blessing, then don't post the announcement—post it and then withhold it, that's just playing with us!"