Survival Queen of the Frozen Wastes novel Chapter 17

Chapter 17 The Grind

Chapter 17 The Grind

Free Caine

Over the next two days, Riley completely gave up on the whole ‘running around like a bearlless chicken searching for crates” approach. If luck wasn’t on her side, fine—she’d outwork it.

Every morning, she woke up on time, choked down the sour wild berries, left half a piece of bread on the rock, and hauled her sled into the woods.

The little elf–girl–Riley had started thinking of her as “Sylvie” in her head, since she clearly wasn’t just some random animal–seemed to have turned it into a regular trade. Every day, a fresh cluster of berries by the wall. Every day, half a loaf left in return.

With “Strength: 12” and the “Pioneer’s Wristguard” doing their thing, plus Riley’s relentless, almost mechanical work ethic, the two days added up to some serious gains.

“Current Inventory: Wood x420”

Beyond wood, she’d also kept an eye out for exposed rocks during her trips. Little by little, she’d scraped together “Stone x56“.

As for Sylvie? She’d been spotted a few times over the past couple days, lingering at the edge of the woods in the distance.

Always on all fours, like a wary little leopard, watching Riley from afar. Still wouldn’t come close. But the hostility in those amber eyes had mostly faded, replaced by something closer to curiosity.

After all, the bread Riley left behind

than stomach–curdling sour berries.

e been bland and rough–but it was solid carbs. Way better

******

Evening of the sixth day.

Riley sat at the table, taking stock.

Tomorrow, the “por Grace Period” ended.

The daily bread and water from the system would stop. All the survival pressure would come crashing down at once.

“Need to stockpile more food.”

She had some leftover meat from earlier, but nowhere near

nough.

She pulled up the “Trade Market” and posted an offer.

“SpicyBurger: Selling Wood x100. Looking for high–calorie foo

There were still players out there who’d gotten lucky with other reso

food for wood, saving themselves the chopping time.

bread, whatever. DM offers.”

and might be willing to trade

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20:14 Mon, May 4

Chapter 17 The Grind

+15 Free Coins

After filtering and haggling. Riley traded that 100 wood for “Frozen Meat x30” (roughly fifteen pounds) and “White Bread x10”

Financially, it was a slight loss–a lot of people had gotten meat from scavenging or hunting, so their cost was low. But with beginner protection ending tomorrow and no idea what was coming. Riley wasn’t taking chances.

“That’s

‘s two weeks of food, give or take.”

Looking at the supplies piling up in the storage crate, Riley felt a weight lift off her shoulders.

Next, she spent another 25 wood to build a ring of “Wooden Palisade” around the camp perimeter.

Problem was, the massive “Intermediate Mechanical Workshop” took up so much space that the fence had to curve around its outer wall. The result was a camp shaped like some weird, bulging polygon. Looked ridiculous.

“Whatever. Still counts as defense.”

Done with everything, Riley dragged her tired body back into the main cabin and collapsed onto the wooden bed.

“Six days.”

She stared at the ceiling, muttering.

“Six whole days. Not a single random loot crate in the wild.

“What kind of luck is that?”

Right as she was about to close her eyes, a dark purple notification box slammed into the center of her vision.

“Detected: Player SpicyBurger has spent over 20 hours exploring the wild for five consecutive days (during Beginner Period) without opening a single random supply crate!

“That is statistically improbable levels of bad luck!

“This is rarer than getting high–tier rewards five days in a row!

“Congratulations, player. You have unlocked the hidden title-“Unlucky Fool (Unique)“!

“Title Attributes (Passive)

“Strength +5, Agility +5, Constitution +5

“The system believes you need a sturdy physique to fight back against this crappy fate.

“Unlucky Aura (Negative); While this title is equipped, your chance of encountering random supply crates

the wild drops to 0%.

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