Chapter Three: Skill Card: Hawk Eye

Jiang Ran had long since changed into a sun-protective jacket, worn a pair of thick-soled hiking boots, put on sunglasses, and even carried a sturdy sunshade umbrella.

Relying on memories from her previous life, she headed toward the cave where she had hidden before.

This mountainous area was vast—so vast that in her past life, Jiang Ran had never encountered another player until the train appeared.

The heat was overwhelming. As she ascended the mountainside, she sipped on chilled lemon water.

The game wasn’t designed to let players die outright. There were plenty of caves between the mountain peaks and cliffs to seek refuge from the heat. The train’s marketplace provided mining picks and heat-resistant nets, along with water and food.

However, everything came at the cost of health points.

Jiang Ran found a narrow crevice between two rock faces and carefully squeezed inside.

Deep within the gap was a small cave leading further inland—something Jiang Ran had accidentally discovered in her previous life.

The cave was low and required her to crawl in a bent posture.

After crawling quite a distance, she finally pulled out the ultra-light iron pick she had purchased from the train market for 100 health points.

Using the marketplace’s tools, the stones she chipped away vanished instantly, and there was no risk of a cave-in. The iron pick was not only lightweight but incredibly sharp, cutting through rock as if it were tofu.

With Jiang Ran’s current stats, digging a deep hole wouldn’t take more than half an hour.

She dug inward with the plan to pull out her safe house once the hole was deep enough.

Unexpectedly, after just over ten centimeters, her pick struck something hard.

Her heart quickened—could it be...

Jiang Ran swiftly cleared the surrounding rock. Indeed, there was a square silver chest!

Is this what it means to be richer and luckier? In her previous run, she had toiled endlessly and only found two wooden boxes.

Sometimes, one can hardly empathize with their former self.

Holding her knife, she cautiously opened the chest.

[Congratulations, player obtained: Insect Repellent x1, Mineral Water x5, Health Points +10.]

Jiang Ran raised an eyebrow; her luck was good—no dangerous creatures emerged.

The space inside these chests was mysterious; sometimes creatures several times larger than the box itself would leap out, bizarre in form and highly aggressive.

After the first volcanic eruption in the Fire Mountain dungeon, a dangerous species called “Fire Ants” appeared.

Unlike ordinary ants, these Fire Ants come in swarms of thousands, each the size of a palm.

Anyone they crawl over instantly turns into a skeleton.

Fortunately, the first eruption happened around 6 p.m. the next day, and Jiang Ran’s location allowed her to avoid the lava perfectly, so she could safely wait it out.

After securing her loot, Jiang Ran dug with renewed vigor.

The sooner she dug, the sooner she could enjoy the shelter.

She found two more wooden boxes but only got two spoiled loaves of bread, which she sold for 1 health point each.

Half an hour later, satisfied with the spacious cave before her, Jiang Ran stopped digging.

She pulled out a medium-sized safe house from her inventory.

The interior was already equipped with electrical appliances and a generator. The first thing she did upon entering was turn on the air conditioning, then set up cameras and alarms before retreating into the bathroom.

After a refreshing shower, she changed into light summer clothes, sank into the sofa, and casually opened a bottle of cold cola.

The first sip of a 2.5-yuan cola was worth at least 2.4 yuan.

And in this scorching environment, how many health points was it worth?

Jiang Ran crossed her legs and opened the chat hall.

Everyone was complaining about the heat, feeling faint from heatstroke, or thirst. Some even mentioned finding treasure chests.

She hid her personal information and changed her ID to “BrickThrower.”

Then she typed slowly: “I opened a chest and got five bottles of mineral water. Anyone want some?”

The train’s marketplace also sold water, but at a steep price of 5 health points per bottle, so many players couldn’t afford it.

But the temperature in Fire Mountain was so high that everyone was desperate for water. Even priced at 10 health points a bottle, her stock sold out in under two seconds.

She sipped her cola while scrolling through trade messages, looking for anything useful.

Although she still had 3,362 health points, it was far from time to relax.

Because upcoming stations would be plagued by natural disasters and deadly monsters, she needed to leverage her early resource advantage to grow stronger quickly to survive.

Soon enough, she spotted something that piqued her interest.

“Selling a random skill card for 500 health points.”

“What the heck? Charging that much, why don’t you just go rob it?”

“Skill cards sound good. I’ll buy if you drop the price to 50.”

“Get lost.”

...

Due to the exorbitant price and uncertainty about what the skill card might yield, the message quickly got buried.

Yet, Jiang Ran felt the seller’s ID was somewhat familiar.

She clicked on the seller’s avatar and sent a friend request, which was accepted instantly.

The friend, “Little Top,” messaged: “Wanna buy? If I didn’t need resources, I’d use it myself.”

“BrickThrower” replied: “You said resources are more important now. I’m interested, but this thing might give useless stuff. Your price is too high.”

After a moment of silence, Little Top said: “I can lower it to 480.”

Jiang Ran nearly laughed out loud.

She typed calmly: “I don’t have that many health points, but I got a set of sun-protective clothes and five bottles of ice water from chests.”

Little Top: “...I’m kinda losing out.”

That was the sign of interest.

Jiang Ran did want the skill card but didn’t want to get ripped off—no one guaranteed the random skill card would be worth the price.

She said plainly: “That’s all I have. If you won’t sell for that, forget it. Let’s delete each other.”

“Wait!” Little Top replied.

[Little Top initiated a trade. Accept? Yes/No.]

Jiang Ran clicked “Yes” and placed the agreed supplies into the glowing circle before her.

Both parties could inspect each other’s items and confirm the exchange.

Looking at the pale green skill card, Jiang Ran washed her hands and then reverently clicked “Use.”

[Congratulations, player acquired skill: Eagle Eye (Grade D). When activated, you can detect treasure chests within a 1.5-meter radius.]

An eagle icon appeared in Jiang Ran’s mind.

She tapped the skill; a wave of energy radiated outward from her, but nothing happened. The skill then entered a ten-minute cooldown.

Jiang Ran felt a twinge of disappointment but was relieved she only traded a few dozen yuan worth of sun-protective clothing; otherwise, she’d be furious.

Still, she hesitated before clicking the “Grade D” mark.

Instantly, a prompt appeared:

[Upgrade materials: Phantom Hawk Eyeball (0/10). Upgrading increases detection range and danger awareness.]

Danger awareness? If that meant a warning when opening chests, that was decent.

But what was a Phantom Hawk? She’d never heard of it—perhaps a material exclusive to chest openings.

After resting enough, Jiang Ran planned to explore deeper into the mountain belly, hoping to gather more chests before the volcano erupted.

Unexpectedly, just as she stepped out of the safe house, she heard voices up ahead on the mountain path—sounds vaguely familiar...