“Wuwu…”
Faint sounds of whimpering reached Lin Ya’s ears as he slowly opened his eyes, clutching his heavy head as he sat up from the bed and coughed softly.
The crying stopped abruptly.
As the creaky wooden door opened with a ‘creak,’ a small, thin figure timidly walked in, holding a wooden bowl.
“Dad… water to drink…” It was the original owner’s son, a mere five-year-old named Ren Zhao.
Lin Ya halted his cough, taking the wooden bowl from the child’s small hands. He glanced down at the murky water and sighed helplessly, drinking it in one gulp.
This was not the time to be picky.
After quenching his thirst, Lin Ya moved to the edge of the bed to put on his shoes. Ignoring the fearful look on the little one’s face as he ran out, he awkwardly squatted down, searching for the silver coins hidden by the original owner.
He had already spent half of the lone silver tael obtained from selling his daughter, and with only a few copper coins remaining, there was barely 400 wen left. One silver tael is worth a thousand wen; one wen buys two eggs or half a pound of brown rice, and a typical laborer earns no more than 50 wen a month.
Lin Ya frowned slightly. After buying his daughter, the original owner indulged in drinking and pleasure at a tavern in the county town, wasting most of the silver away.
[Beep, task initiated!] The system’s delayed notification sounded somewhat grating at this moment.
Lin Ya glanced at the blue screen hovering in front of him and raised an eyebrow.
[Survival task in this world: Survive for three years
Penalty for task failure: Deduction of corresponding survival time
Task hint: Drought is just the beginning.]
Drought… Lin Ya mulled over the implication of the system’s hint, suddenly realizing that a drought would inevitably lead to flooding. In ancient times, many deaths caused by various disasters often resulted in corpses lying unattended in the wilderness. Floods would submerge countless bodies, and the contaminated water would eventually be consumed by the living, leading to rampant diseases and widespread epidemics.
This wasn’t Lin Ya’s first entry into a survival world. As an experienced survival host, he diligently paid attention to any potential threats to survival.
Originally, Lin Ya was just an ordinary worker, notable only for being a bit more handsome and intelligent than the average person—other than that, he had little to speak of.
He grew up in an orphanage, appearing gentle on the outside but actually indifferent inside. He had no particular likes or dislikes. After moving out of the orphanage as an adult, he earned a scholarship to university and eventually became a programmer, dying on his 25th birthday.
The cause of death was unknown.
The survival system bound itself to him, finding it amusing to explore other worlds while staying alive, so he began to take on tasks.
Each task completed would add a year of survival time to his existence.
When he first bound with the system, it clearly stated that failure in tasks would lead to the deduction of corresponding survival time.
To date, Lin Ya had completed tasks in three worlds, accumulating three years of real-life survival time. His first three worlds included an ice world, a virus apocalypse, and a tornado world.
The longest survival time requirement among the task worlds was six years—due to a virus leak that infected and killed nearly half of the global population. The shortest was the tornado world, lasting only half a month.
As for the ice world, it required a full year to traverse from city to city and board the Ark of Noah before time was up.
Compared to the previous worlds, the survival time required in this world wasn’t particularly long, and overall, the danger level wasn’t as high.
The primary concern here was food.
From the memories transmitted by the system, it was clear that the original owner was a fallen father who ultimately met his demise.
The original owner’s name was Ren Jing, and he was only 26 years old. He was from a farming family and, being quite intelligent from a young age, was sent to school by his widowed mother. Later, he became a disciple of a teacher in town and passed the knowledge exams at 16 years old.
At 18, Ren Jing married the teacher’s daughter, and they seemed to live harmoniously. However, at 20, with the birth of his first child, he passed the county exams, yet his wife died in childbirth with their second child. His widowed mother also fell ill without any means to seek proper medical care, leaving him to raise two children alone.
Later on, he inadvertently offended a powerful young master while copying books in town, resulting in his right hand being broken, rendering him unable to partake in further exams. Subsequently, he fell into a deep drinking addiction, gradually becoming depressed and changing his temperament.
His son and daughter, with the help of their maternal family, managed to survive amidst the adversity. However, their father, after drinking, would sometimes lash out, making the two children fear him like mice fearing a cat.
The original owner squandered away all his wife’s dowry. While at a drinking table, he overheard his debauched friends talking about the biggest brothel in the county town looking for beautiful girls. Lacking money due to his gambling addiction, he thought of his daughter and immediately went home to sell her. He earned a tael of silver but spent half of it on a gamble, winning a bit before heading off to drink again.
This led to Lin Ya’s chaotic behavior upon waking up after a drunken night.
If he hadn’t arrived, he would soon have run out of money and would likely sell his son next.
Lin Ya placed the coins into a cloth bag and tucked it into his coat before stepping out of the room. He turned right into the adjacent kitchen. The kitchen was empty; he opened the rice barrel, finding it nearly empty, but there was still enough food for today.
Lin Ya skillfully lit a fire to wash the rice and retrieved the last two eggs from the hanging basket. He then went next door to trade one of the eggs for some vegetables with the neighbor’s aunt.