Chapter 25: Blank Upgrades, Ship Upgrades Require Too Many Materials

After eating breakfast, the three of them went to the Magic Plane as usual.

After gathering a batch of Flammable Grass, they made a point to ask Qiqi to tell her mother about the roof situation before returning to the island from their hidden corner.

The sky was a bit dark at this time, and they didn’t dare leave the Flammable Grass outside. Fortunately, the ship had just been upgraded, and the space in the lower cabin was empty. They could spread out all the gathered Flammable Grass there; while the drying effect certainly wouldn’t be as good as sunlight, it would at least serve to air-dry it.

“This weather isn’t quite clear but isn’t quite overcast either. I can’t tell if it’s going to rain or not.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it. we can’t control the heavens.”

As they spoke, the three of them disembarked again. Following their plan from the morning, they began to walk around the perimeter of the island.

From a distance, this island didn’t look very large, but compared to a human’s height, it couldn’t be called small.

The island’s landscape was varied. They didn’t dare walk too close to the edge, fearing that a loose clod of earth or a stone underfoot might send them falling. They also didn’t dare go into the deeper, more overgrown areas.

However, after making a rough circuit, they managed to find several locations suitable for mooring the ship. But as for which specific spot was most appropriate, they still needed to give it serious thought.

“We need to find a place that blocks the wind and won’t be affected even if the tide rises high.”

“A place that’s too small won’t work either.”

“That’s true. If our ship keeps upgrading and getting bigger, a place that’s too small won’t be able to fit it.”

“I was thinking it would be best to find a place where we can use ‘Check-in’ to upgrade it.”

“Do you mean a building upgrade, Eldest Sister?”

“Yes,” Bai Yu nodded. “Whether it’s our kitchen or the Rain Pavilion, they are much sturdier than anything we could build ourselves. I’m afraid something might happen if we use a mooring point that hasn’t been upgraded.”

“Then let’s wait and see. We’re not in a hurry to get into the water anyway. Now that we’re used to living on the island, I’m worried I won’t be used to drifting on the water in a boat again.”

“That’s because life has improved; you’re no longer used to a life of swaying back and forth.”

By the time they returned to the ship while talking, a light rain began to fall from the sky. The rain wasn’t heavy, but it was enough to soak the Flammable Grass. Luckily, they had been smart today and hadn’t left the grass outside to dry.

Quickly returning to the ship’s side, Bai Yu stood below. After Bai Xi climbed up, she pushed Bai Miao up.

Only after Bai Xi pulled Bai Miao up did she climb up herself.

In that short time, all three of them had been dampened by the rain to some extent.

Bai Yu and Bai Xi first helped Bai Miao change out of her wet clothes before changing their own.

“It’s such a strange feeling to be able to stand up in the cabin while changing,” Bai Xi said after changing, raising her hand to try and touch the ceiling of the cabin. “We actually get to live in such a large room.”

Having finished changing, Bai Yu used a clean cloth to dry Bai Miao’s hair and smiled, saying, “Since it’s raining outside and we can’t do outdoor work, Xiao Xi, why don’t you cut some cotton cloth and sew a few clean towels? We have enough cotton now, so we can each have one.”

“A towel for my own use?” Bai Xi asked in surprise.

“Of course, you and I will each have one.” Bai Yu looked down at Bai Miao, who had her eyes closed, and brushed the hair away from her face. “Later, when we have time, we can make two simple wooden racks to hang the towels.”

Thinking of the racks, Bai Xi pointed in a certain direction: “We’ll hang them right here.”

Building a towel rack wasn’t difficult. They had enough wood and enough space now; they could make the racks at any time.

Just thinking about it made Bai Xi happy. She immediately took out a whole bolt of cotton cloth from the side, picked up the scissors, measured against the size of a towel, and cut out the appropriate length and width.

Making a towel was much simpler than making clothes; she just had to sew it into a square.

After cutting it out, Bai Xi pulled out a needle and thread and sat to the side to begin sewing the towel.

The rain outside continued for several hours. It cleared up briefly in the evening, but after they finished dinner, it started raining again.

Fortunately, they had no survival pressure now and were even in the mood to open the window and watch the rain outside. It wasn’t until the rain grew heavier and began to be blown into the cabin by the wind that they closed the window.

Lying in bed, the cabin was pitch black, but all three of them had their eyes open and were not yet asleep.

“The cabin is so big now, I’m really not used to it.”

“You’ll get used to it slowly,” Bai Yu said, hugging Bai Miao, who was burrowing toward her, and placing a hand on Bai Xi. “Go to sleep.”

Bai Xi grabbed Bai Yu’s hand, and the fear in her heart finally lessened. Closing her eyes, she slowly fell asleep to the sound of her sisters’ breathing beside her.

[Check-in successful. Obtained (Chair) x1]

[Continuous Check-in for thirty days. Obtained Blank Upgrade Card x30]

“What upgrade?” Bai Xi suddenly opened her eyes upon hearing the voice. She saw the extra chair not far away and a pile of upgrade cards that had fallen onto Bai Miao, and she rubbed her eyes.

Bai Yu had woken up earlier than Bai Xi. In fact, the reason Bai Miao had checked in was because they were both awake.

They had thought today’s check-in would be the same as usual, but who would have expected such strange items to appear?

“Blank Upgrade Card?” Bai Yu muttered to herself in confusion.

Bai Miao looked at her, took a card, and pressed the button on it.

[Please select the specific item or building to upgrade]

“Select…?” Bai Miao raised her hand. “Eldest Sister, you choose.”

“I don’t know either,” Bai Yu frowned slightly. “Why don’t… you try saying ‘Ship’?”

Bai Miao listened to her eldest sister completely. She did whatever she was told, immediately bringing the card to her mouth and shouting: “Ship.”

[Selection confirmed – Ship. Please prepare the following upgrade materials]

As the card’s voice faded, a list of materials immediately appeared on it. There was text next to them, but unfortunately, none of them were literate. They could only look at the small icons. Aside from the wood, they didn’t recognize any of the other icons.

[Blank Card upgrade confirmed. The quantity of ship upgrade materials is massive. Invisible directional map activated]

[Bind companions?]

“Bind.”

Before Bai Yu and Bai Xi could react to the question, Bai Miao had already agreed and confirmed.

But even so, the three of them still didn’t understand how this new upgrade card was actually supposed to be used.

It wasn’t until they stepped out of the cabin that they saw a long line leading toward the top of the mountain.

“Xiao Xi…?”

“I see it!”

“Eldest Sister, I can see it too,” Bai Miao said, raising her hand.

Bai Yu swallowed hard. Although she had long known how special the Check-in Shell was, seeing such a change once again still left her feeling profoundly shocked.

Bai Xi was equally stunned, turning her head and spinning around repeatedly, but every time, that line pointed straight toward the mountain. “Eldest Sister, are we going up there?”

“Perhaps this line is pointing toward the Great Tree,” Bai Yu said, taking Bai Miao’s hand. “Miao Miao, take us to the Forest Plane.”

“Okay.” Bai Miao nodded, letting the two of them grasp her wrists. She flipped through a stack of cards to find the Transit Pass for the Forest Plane and brought them both there.

As expected, there were lines in this plane as well, and there were many of them in different colors.

“In other words… even though we don’t know what’s written on the Upgrade Cards, we can follow these lines to find all the materials? There are more materials here in the Forest Plane than on the island.”

“But the materials needed to upgrade the boat are too many,” Bai Yu thought for a moment. “How about we start by upgrading the rack for hanging towels?”

“That works, but would it be a waste? We can make a towel rack ourselves.”

“An upgraded one will definitely be better than anything we can make. Let’s try it with the rack first.”

Before doing that, however, they still needed to gather Flammable Grass.

During this trip to gather Flammable Grass, they also obtained definite information regarding roof coverings. The roof coverings used in this plane weren’t hard to find and were generally sold in the markets. However, it depended on the size. A single, complete large piece would be very expensive. Conversely, if they bought small pieces to overlap and cover the entire roof, the price would be much cheaper than buying one whole piece.

They didn’t have much money, so they naturally chose the latter option, but they would have to wait until their next trip to the market to buy them.

Before that, they returned to the island and used wood to build the simplest possible rack. After hanging a used towel on it to define the rack’s purpose, they used an Upgrade Card.

As expected, the materials required to upgrade the rack were far fewer than what was needed to upgrade the wood.

“But why does upgrading a rack require sand?”

“Never mind that, as long as it can be upgraded.”

Bai Yu and Bai Xi crouched on the beach, collecting sand as required. With every handful they grabbed, the blank spaces for materials on Bai Miao’s Upgrade Card filled up a little more. Once they were completely filled, the entire Upgrade Card lit up.

The wooden rack was sitting nearby. Bai Miao hurried over with the card in her hand and placed it onto the rack.

The card slowly vanished, and the wooden rack was enveloped in a white mist.

It was the same effect as every other time they had used an Upgrade Card.

And this time, the result of the wooden rack’s upgrade was equally surprising to them.

“A mirror! How is there a mirror after this upgrade?!”

“We only collected wood and sand.”

“The rack is wood, so the sand… could it have become the mirror?”

The two of them stared at the clear, bright mirror, unable to fathom how sand could turn into a mirror, but there were no other raw materials for this rack aside from the sand.

“But it really did upgrade!”

“This is amazing.”

“So this is what I look like.”

“This mirror doesn’t seem like a bronze mirror¹; it’s much clearer than one.” Bai Yu curled her finger and lightly tapped the surface of the mirror. She looked at herself in the reflection, feeling a bit of a stranger to her own image. She had never seen herself so clearly before.

After a moment of daze, she felt a tugging at her leg.

She looked down at the expectant Bai Miao and smiled, leaning over to pick her up.

Bai Miao stared at the mirror for a long time before turning to look at Bai Yu. “Who is this?”

“It’s you, it’s Miao Miao,” Bai Yu said with a smile. “Look closely.”

Bai Miao turned back again, staring at the mirror with a frown.

She glared, and the person in the mirror glared back. She opened her mouth, and the person in the mirror did the same. She waved her hand, and the person in the mirror waved back. After confirming it repeatedly, she leaned in close to the mirror.

“Miao Miao.”

“Miao Miao, Miao Miao.”

“Miao Miao, Miao Miao, Miao Miao.”

As she chanted her name, Bai Miao looked up and met Bai Yu’s eyes in the mirror. Her eyes instantly crinkled into a smile. “Eldest Sister!”

Bai Yu gave a smile very similar to hers and nodded in response. “Yes, Eldest Sister is right here.”

Translator’s Notes