Chapter 56: Unbelievable Luck

Everyone quickly set about gathering up the items scattered on the ground.

"Brother Fan, they're mostly just seeds and experience points," Xu Xinjie said as he walked over to Chen Fan.

"Alright, that works too. We'll plant these seeds in the dirt later, and who knows, before long we might even be able to drink our own home-grown tea."

Though feeling a slight sense of disappointment, Chen Fan still managed a smile.

At that moment, Yang Keli came skipping over with a beaming smile, holding a white bag in her hand and saying excitedly, "Chen Fan, look at this."

Chen Fan recognized it at a single glance and asked, "A loot bag?"

"Yep, though just an ordinary one." Yang Keli nodded as she handed the bag over to him.

The battle having just ended, a biting cold wind swept across the area, chilling everyone's hands until they turned slightly purple. They rubbed their palms together and blew warm air into them.

Chen Fan wiggled his fingers, feeling them go somewhat numb, and urged everyone to hurry back inside the house to get warm.

Although they were all wearing warm down jackets, and while it was somewhat chilly, they still couldn't fully experience the terrifying severity of the dead of winter.

If one stayed outside for too long, body temperature would inevitably drop, potentially leading to death.

"I really envy them for having such thick fur, actually being able to withstand minus seventy degrees weather," Chen Fan murmured as he walked.

"You're not kidding. Why couldn't they shed a bit of it? Otherwise, we could have made clothes out of it to fend off the harsh cold." Xu Xinjie rubbed his hands together in agreement.

"You're overthinking it. If it were that easy, the Survival Manual wouldn't call it extreme survival," Li Chengdong said, slinging an arm around Xu Xinjie's shoulders with a smile. "Brother Jie, I agree with Brother Fan. Otherwise, wouldn't so many people have frozen to death?"

Chatting and laughing, the group returned to the house and gathered around the campfire to warm up.

Chen Fan didn't waste any time. After thawing out a bit, he stood up, walked over to the crafting table, and crafted another hundred campfires, putting them up for sale on the trading platform in batches.

Looking at the trading platform right now, he could see quite a few campfires being sold; he was clearly not the only one who had discovered Minecraft elements here.

Moreover, their asking price was 300 gold coins, higher than Chen Fan's.

However, Chen Fan couldn't be bothered to adjust his prices and listed them at 150 gold coins as before.

After all, the manufacturing cost of a campfire was very low, and 150 gold coins was a fair price.

Yet this very action of his stirred up hatred toward him from a certain group of people.

In the eyes of these individuals, Chen Fan selling campfires at a lower price disrupted their ability to reap greater profits, breeding discontent and resentment in their hearts.

Meanwhile, inside a rather large stone house, a ferocious-looking man punched the wall and cursed bitterly, "What the hell is wrong with this Chen Fan? Selling them this cheap—is he trying to steal my business?"

"Brother Hai, what's wrong? What could possibly make you this angry?" A graceful woman walked slowly down from the second floor, a hint of concern and flattery in her eyes.

"Ran into an idiot today, actually selling campfires for dirt cheap," Li Hai said with a furious expression.

"Brother Hai, why don't we just lower our prices too and sell them even cheaper than he does?" The woman blinked, asking tentatively.

"What do you know?" Li Hai glared at the woman. "If we sell them cheap, how are we supposed to make money to expand our territory?"

The woman was slightly startled, but her face quickly refilled with smiles as she gently walked over to Li Hai, hooked her arm through his, and said coquettishly, "Brother Hai, don't get so angry it ruins your health. By the way, after the bitter winter passes, are we really going to go look for Boss Mo?"

Li Hai glanced at her and, without answering, simply nodded.

Then he began pacing back and forth inside the room, pondering whether he should really go seek out that Boss Mo.

After all, that man had been notoriously ruthless back in the Blue Star era; he hadn't expected him to still be alive.

***

On the other side, Chen Fan put up a hundred campfires and some bread for sale every single day. Aside from the few days he was unconscious, plus the ones he had sold previously, his current gold coin count had accumulated to 5,319.

At this rate, he only needed to keep selling for two more days to save up enough funds to expand his territory by another plot.

Having finished up his tasks, Chen Fan opened the ordinary loot bag. Inside was simply a piece of ordinary paper, and nothing else.

Watching the loot bag vanish into thin air, the corners of Chen Fan's mouth twitched involuntarily. It really was excessively ordinary.

He then stepped outside. The howling gale was gone, but a piercing, freezing chill rushed head-on toward him, causing Chen Fan to shiver uncontrollably. Seeing him head out, Yang Keli called out, "Where are you going?"

"You guys wait inside for a moment, I'm going to go open a couple of lucky blocks," Chen Fan said, pulling the iron door shut as he headed off in a certain direction.

This iron door was one Yang Keli had newly installed for safety while Chen Fan was unconscious.

After walking a short distance, seeing no particular structures around and being quite far from home, Chen Fan planted a lucky block on the ground without a second thought.

" Heavens bless and spirits guide, may the readers be handsome and wise!" Chen Fan muttered a spell, tapped the lucky block, and immediately turned tail and ran.

The next second, amidst a deafening clatter of gongs, drums, and firecrackers, a lucky well materialized.

Hearing the commotion, Chen Fan turned around with a delighted expression, walked a few steps closer, and tossed a cobblestone into the well.

Another burst of firecrackers sounded, and a shower of diamonds, emeralds, and other treasures rained down from the sky.

"I'm rich." He swept all the dropped items into his inventory, finding ten each of iron ingots, gold ingots, diamonds, and emeralds.

Chen Fan aimed and mined the lucky well's beacon, along with the nine iron blocks beneath it—these were all top-tier resources.

The beacon, in particular, was an absolute treasure for setting up a home base.

Furthermore, beacons could be placed on top of pyramid bases built from iron blocks, gold blocks, diamond blocks, or emerald blocks, ranging from 1 to 4 layers.

Doing so activated various buff effects, such as speed boost, jump boost, strength, regeneration, haste, and so on.

It was practically like running a cheat code, with the only drawback being the limited range.

For instance, a single-layer base had an effect radius of 20 blocks, while a four-layer base could reach up to 50 blocks.

After mining everything clean, Chen Fan placed the last lucky block by the edge of the lucky well, repeated the exact same operation, touched it, and turned and bolted.

As soon as the lucky block vanished, absolutely nothing appeared on the ground.

He frowned. Why was there no sound behind him? He looked back—good grief, he had unboxed a whole lot of nothing.

A gust of cold wind swept past, slicing across his cheeks like a razor-sharp blade.

Chen Fan shivered violently, quickly wrapped his coat tighter around himself, and ran back home.

Bursting through the front door, he saw only Yang Keli sitting quietly by the campfire, the warm yellowish firelight casting a glow across her face.

Chen Fan strode forward, pulled her into a tight embrace, and slipped his ice-cold hands right into Yang Keli's armpits.

Startled by the sudden action, Yang Keli gave a slight shudder, a blush spreading across her cheeks as she gave Chen Fan a reproachful look.

"Keli, where is everyone?"

Chen Fan's voice carried a slight tremor, whether from the cold or something else.

Yang Keli pulled his freezing hands out and rubbed them between her own slender palms. "Still cold?"

"Not anymore," Chen Fan said, leaning down to plant a kiss on her cheek.

"Xinjie and Chengdong went to the mine tunnels to dig for ore. Rama and Thor went to the skeleton spawner, and Rem is working in the fields."

Yang Keli continued rubbing his hands as she spoke leisurely. "By the way, Chen Fan, what were you just doing outside?"