"Chunzhu, you home?"
Xiuhua's voice, from outside. I opened the door and broke into a grin. There was a girl standing behind her.
"This is my little sister, Xiuqian. Just got sent out here. Assigned to our commune too."
The girl looked maybe eighteen, nineteen. She had Xiuhua's features, no doubt about it, maybe seventy, eighty percent the same, just softer, prettier. She gave me this shy little smile, cheeks going a little pink.
My stomach did a flip and I almost laughed out loud. Are you serious? I just had the thought — man, wouldn't it be nice if I had a little sister to marry — and here one shows up on my doorstep. Was this space actually reading my mind and making it happen?
"Got some chicken from up the mountain. Neither of you leave. Stay and eat."
"We're not going to just mooch off you." Xiuhua rolled up her sleeves, all business. "We'll cook. Xiuqian, you work the fire."
Truth was, before they came over, Xiuhua had leveled with her sister. A girl on her own out here couldn't get anywhere without somebody to lean on. Either stick with Chunzhu, or sit around waiting for the commune to marry her off to some local guy she didn't know from Adam. Xiuqian went with the first option. So there she was, grabbing the firewood herself, trying to warm up to me.
"Big brother, let me give you a hand."
Firewood crackling in the stove, a pot of chicken bubbling away, smelling amazing. While we had a sec, I dropped my voice and asked Xiuhua, "You know your way around here. Where can a guy get a gun?"
Her hand stopped, and she went quiet too.
"Supply co-op needs a commune permit. Tough. Black market's got old rifles and handguns, but they're pricey, and it's a crapshoot." She paused. "You go closer to the border, sometimes you can grab good stuff smuggled in from the Russian side. Real firepower. But the risk is just as big."
I nodded, keeping my face blank, and locked every word away in my head.
A pot of hazel mushroom chicken stew smelled so good. All three of us just put our heads down and went to town. Five pounds of meat gone. Cleaned it right out.
After we ate, the sisters didn't dare hang around. Soon as they cleaned up, they hurried off. A single girl spending too long in a bachelor's place, people start talking.
Once I'd seen them off, I sat cross-legged on the kang and on a whim pulled out the reward for killing the level one boss. A bow, body jet black, the limbs studded with a ring of golden-red phoenix feathers, and it came with twenty matching feathered arrows.
Phoenix Tail Bow. Rare. With phoenix feather arrows, one hundred percent headshot accuracy. One arrow punches through a wild boar, a black bear, even a Siberian tiger. Note: only twenty phoenix feather arrows. Once they're gone, no replacements.
I held that bow, fingertips burning, but my blood ran cold. This thing was flat-out broken. In times like these, even a regular hunting rifle would make people's eyes go greedy. Never mind this.
Nobody could ever, ever see it. There's a saying — hold a treasure and you're asking for trouble. Yeah, I got it.
I carefully stashed the bow back in the space, got up, and headed out to learn my way around the village.
But the second I stepped outside, I just stood there like an idiot. The whole place was cave dwellings, every single one identical, row after row of them. I couldn't even find my own front door.
"Hey, educated youth. What are you standing there spacing out for?"
It was Donkey. He had two big, tough-looking wolfhounds on a leash, a hunting rifle slung over his shoulder, grinning.
"More than half this village came from old Russians who stuck around back in the gold panning days. Tell you what, when I'm back from hunting, I'll walk you around and help you find your door."
And with that, he ducked down and disappeared into the woods.
The wind was cutting into my face, and honestly, I lost all interest in wandering around. Might as well duck into the space and go scout level two.
Level two was way more wide open than level one. The whole thing was one big field of white in front of me, a huge flock of snow-white geese. Second I stepped in, every one of them whipped their heads around, red eyes locked dead on me.
Right in the middle of the flock stood this giant goose, easily over three feet tall, neck straight as a rod, strutting around like it owned the place. No need to ask. That was the boss.
I swallowed hard. "Goose stew," I muttered, gripping the axe and grinning. "Come here, you little monster."
The words were barely out of my mouth. The giant goose let out this long screech, and the whole flock came charging at me, wings flapping, honking like crazy. Real scary looking. But I didn't move a muscle.
In this space, other than the boss, none of these animals could touch a single hair on me. I just let the geese peck and pile all over me while I kept my eyes locked on the boss.
It broke out of the flock, whipped its long neck out, and struck straight at my face.
That was my shot. I swung the axe up over my head, and riding the momentum of that neck coming at me, I brought it down hard.
Crack. Clean hit.
The giant goose's big body slammed to the ground and went still. Every goose around me just froze on the spot, like somebody yanked their souls right out.
Level two boss killed: Giant Goose. Rewards: attribute points x2. Premium bedding set, four piece, x1. Extra thick goose down quilt x1. Level resources refresh every six days. Move on to level three?
Not yet. I stared at the words level three and shook my head. No clue what was waiting down there, and right now I didn't have the guts to roll those dice.
I walked into the nests and dug out the eggs one by one. Fifty-five total. Then scooped up that soft, thick bedding set. Way better haul than level one.
Holding that brand-new quilt, an idea suddenly hit me. This stuff was top-notch, and it restocked on a schedule. Save up a batch, sell it at the black market. That'd beat selling a few chickens by a mile.
I came out of the space, laid the new four-piece set on the kang, folded the goose down quilt up nice and neat at the head of the bed, and tossed some more wood in the stove.
After running around all day, I was wiped. Hit the pillow, and was out cold. Right before I drifted off, one thing stuck in my head. Soon as it got dark, I was hitting the black market.