Chen Luo stood frozen, staring at the red light that had just flashed before him. He could never forget that color. It was unlike the brilliant red usually associated with Exotic items; this was a dark, bloodlike red that brought terrifying memories rushing back with a single glance.
-"No... no... no... it can't be... Don't tell me it's that thing?"
He swallowed hard, still clinging to a faint sliver of hope. But the moment the reward came into view, that hope vanished.
The Patience Bag.
It really was that!
If anyone wondered why Chen Luo was reacting so violently, the answer lay in an experience he never wanted to relive. In his previous life, he had spent nearly six months opening this very lucky bag over and over. After that endless stretch of time, all he received was a cold notification: "Thank you for patiently opening the bag. Experience +1."
-"Six months! Nearly half a year! And all I got was one measly experience point?"
The corners of his mouth twitched just thinking about it.
The bag clearly contained countless tempting rewards. The total chance of obtaining one of those items was 5%, with each individual item averaging around 0.185%. The chance of getting a Patience Bag was 94.995%. Yet Chen Luo had been unlucky enough to repeatedly hit the remaining 0.005% outcome—not once or twice, but eight times, across all eight different bags!
-"Eight times! Eight times in a row! The game can't mess with people like this!"
Just remembering it made his blood pressure soar. In his previous life, he had been one of the unluckiest people ever to open this bag. Who could have guessed that after being reborn, the same misfortune would still cling to him? So what if his Luck stat was now above five? Against the Patience Bag, that number was nothing but a joke.
Chen Luo's expression cycled through green, red, purple, and yellow, turning him into a walking color palette. As he stared at the bag in his hand, he recalled a saying from a "sage" who had once become famous in the game: "Time will reveal the result."
"Right. Time will reveal the result..." He gritted his teeth and glared at the bag as though it were his sworn enemy. "But this thing is definitely the most time-offending creation in the entire game!"
-"AN ENDLESS LOOP... MAY THE DEVILS DRAG YOU AWAY!!!"
Chen Luo's scream echoed through the cavern before gradually fading into the distance. He wanted a good reward, but this was absolutely not what he wanted. If he had to open a bag every day only to receive another Patience Bag—and the bag itself disappeared once opened—it was no different from being forced into an endless loop with no escape.
A long while later, Chen Luo finally exhaled and forced himself to calm down.
-"Whatever. Who can I blame? I'm just that unlucky."
He mocked himself, lightly slapped his face, and forced himself to regain his composure. His work in this area was finished, and there was no reason to linger. He could use his Mind Map to locate more mining spots, but doing so consumed too much mental energy and required him to process too much information. He might follow an entire network of caverns only to find a few scraps of ore at the end.
-"Not worth it. My time is more valuable than that."
With that thought, he decided to stop. He still had plenty to prepare and could not waste his time on inefficient mining expeditions.
Just as Chen Luo emerged aboveground, a small island suddenly appeared floating hundreds of meters in the sky. He paused, immediately opened Alvibion, and checked the information. Once he confirmed it, his eyes lit up: it was a Slime Island, an important source of materials for equipment in the "Crafting & Repair—Forging Technology and Blueprints" category.
-"A Slime Island? If you've delivered yourself right to my doorstep, don't disappoint me."
Chen Luo rubbed his chin, looking at the island with eager anticipation. He quickly summoned Hina, preparing to find a way up.
Hina had just woken from a long nap. She was still a little groggy, but the moment she realized Chen Luo was the one calling her, her spirits lifted. She carried him to the nearby high-rises and swiftly made her way to the roof of a thirty-story building.
-"All right. This should be high enough."
Chen Luo looked up to estimate the distance, then pulled out his grappling hook and hurled it toward the island. The cable whistled through the air and, fortunately, caught firmly on a rock.
-"It's secured! Hina, your turn. Kick me over there!"
Hina tilted her head, as if checking whether she had heard him correctly.
-"What did you just say? You want me to kick you over there?"
-"Exactly. Use all your strength. I'll be fine."
Chen Luo sounded confident. His stats were far higher than an ordinary person's, after all; surely one kick would not cause any serious problems.
Hina watched him for a few seconds, then slowly curled her lips into a smile.
-"Of course! Since my master trusts this princess so much, I certainly won't let you down!"
Her suddenly obedient tone gave Chen Luo a bad feeling.
-"Wait, why are you suddenly—"
Before he could finish, Hina swung her leg and kicked him hard. Chen Luo shot through the air, trailing the grappling cable, then landed on the island in a thoroughly undignified heap.
-"WHO TOLD YOU TO KICK SO HARD?!"
He rolled across the ground, mud covering his face and clothes. After a brief silence, Hina's uncontrollable laughter rang out from the other side.
-"Ha ha ha! Serves you right! You summoned me out of nowhere and ordered me around without explaining anything. At last, this princess has paid you back!"
So she had still remembered how abruptly he had summoned her earlier. Chen Luo wiped the mud from his face and shot her a glance, but did not bother arguing. He activated Quick Summon and brought Hina over to the island.
-"Done laughing? Come over here and see what we've found."
-"I'm not done laughing yet! But fine. This princess is feeling generous today, so I'll spare you for now."
Hina appeared beside him, still giggling. Chen Luo ignored her and turned to inspect the island.
The island was not particularly large, but by studying its terrain and ecosystem, he could identify most of the materials he needed. Most important were the Slimes bouncing around before him. An island's size generally determined how large a Slime population it could sustain, while the Slimes' colors indicated the types of materials they provided.
Green Slimes were the most common. The materials they yielded were ordinary-grade and usually used to make starter equipment or relatively simple machines. Blue Slimes were rarer and supplied materials with greater durability and cohesion, suitable for objects that needed to be resilient without breaking easily, such as large bows.
Pink and orange Slimes were much rarer, since they mainly appeared on floating islands like this one. Materials from pink Slimes had outstanding durability and elasticity, making them ideal for high-end equipment. Orange Slime materials, meanwhile, were heat-resistant and perfect for tools and devices that had to operate at high temperatures.
The more Chen Luo looked, the brighter his eyes became.
-"Pink Slimes... and so many of them?"
The island was small, but its entire population consisted of pink Slimes. To him, it was a mobile treasure trove. Smaller Slimes were easier to kill, while larger ones were stronger and more difficult to deal with. The most troublesome thing was not necessarily the damage of each hit, but how many attacks they could chain together. Even if each strike was not particularly powerful, they could unleash two to five consecutive attacks and bypass equipment defense to damage a player's health directly.
-"If I didn't have enough defense, I'd be down for sure. Good thing these ones are all small..."
Chen Luo watched the blobs of slime bouncing up and down, quickly calculating the odds. A single successful hit was enough to harvest materials. With so many of them, he could obtain a large amount of rare material—as long as his luck was not too terrible.
But the moment he thought about luck, his face twitched again. The Patience Bag was still a vivid reminder.
-"Stop thinking about bad luck. This time, I'm definitely getting something worthwhile!"
Chen Luo took a deep breath and forced himself to focus on the Slimes. Even so, one major problem remained: the drop rate for pink Slimes was pitifully low. Gathering materials from green or blue Slimes was not too difficult, but pink Slimes were different. Some players had once advised that the materials had to be extracted while the Slimes were still alive to guarantee a 100% yield.
Unfortunately, Chen Luo did not yet have the tools for that. He was still in the early game and could not craft the specialized devices that players in later generations had developed, mostly because he lacked the materials. For now, he could only gamble on luck and hope the necessary items would drop after he killed them.
-"Hina, help me take them down!"
-"Oh? So you've finally realized how important this princess is?"
-"I don't have time to listen to you praise yourself. Hurry up, or I'll cut your share of the meat tonight."
-"You wouldn't dare!"
Hina glared at him angrily but immediately charged into battle. Chen Luo did not hesitate either. On the small island, Slimes bounced, collided, and burst apart under their attacks. The splattering sounds of slime continued without end, making the fight both chaotic and somewhat ridiculous.
More than two hours later, they finally cleared out all the Slimes. Chen Luo braced his hands on his knees, panting, sweat running down both temples. He looked at the meager pile of spoils before him and fell silent for a long time.
-"...That's it?"
Hundreds of pink Slimes had yielded only a few balls and several strands of stretchy material. Chen Luo stared at them, the corners of his eyes twitching uncontrollably.
-"I fought for more than two hours! Two whole hours! Have you people never heard of respecting someone else's time?"
He finally understood why hunting pink Slimes without equipment that increased drop rates had been considered extremely inefficient by players in the previous generation—and even forbidden by some. There were plenty of monsters, but the finished materials were pitifully scarce. If he kept doing things this way, how many would he have to kill before collecting enough?
-"All right... at least now I know why people don't recommend this method." Chen Luo tried to console himself, though his tone was utterly unconvincing. "Next time, I need to find a way to increase the drop rate before doing something this exhausting."
Completely worn out, he walked to the lake and bent down to search for what he needed. His hand groped beneath the surface for a while, until at last he felt something resting at the bottom.
-"Congratulations, host. You have successfully acquired your first floating island. This island now belongs to you permanently. In addition, you can travel here at any time while the island is in flight."
Chen Luo froze, then slowly raised his head and looked around. A notification like that meant the island officially belonged to him.
-"Finally, some good news... System, shouldn't you have told me this before I had to wrestle with those Slimes?"
He no longer had the strength to remain standing, so he lay down beside the lake. The sky above gradually darkened. Both he and Hina were exhausted, and neither wanted to find a way back to the ground at that moment. They decided to spend the night on the island, roast some meat over a fire, and figure things out the next morning.
In the flickering firelight, Hina suddenly turned to Chen Luo. Her usual mischievous look remained, but there was clearly a question she had been holding back for some time.
-"Hey, Master. Why didn't you let me join that fight the other day?"
Chen Luo was about to bite into his meat when he froze.
-"Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?"
-"Don't pretend you don't know! You told me to go outside and hold them off so they couldn't return too soon. I did as you said, but you didn't explain a thing."
Hina raised a foreleg and pointed at him, staring intently.
-"I know you had a reason, but I want to know what it was. Or did you think this princess wasn't strong enough to help you?"
-"It's not about being strong or weak." Chen Luo hurriedly waved his hand. "I know you wanted to fight him too, but before deciding whether to let you join in, I needed to understand him better."
-"Understand what? What's so special about him that you had to face him yourself?"
Chen Luo fell silent for a moment, considering how to explain without revealing too much of what he could not yet discuss.
-"It was just a fight. I needed to confirm a few things for myself—to see what kind of person he was and how strong he really was. If you'd jumped in from the start, things might have turned out differently."
-"That still sounds like you're hiding something from me."
Hina narrowed her eyes. Chen Luo immediately felt that the night might turn out longer than he had expected.
-"I'm not looking down on you. There are simply some things I need to confirm myself first. When I can tell you, I'll explain everything clearly."
-"Hmm... I'll remember you said that."
Hina was not entirely satisfied, but she finally stopped pressing him. She turned back to roast the meat, occasionally glancing at Chen Luo as if memorizing every expression on his face.
Chen Luo secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Good thing she stopped. If she'd kept asking, I might as well have stayed awake all night..."
But from Hina's suspicious gaze, he had a feeling the matter was far from over.