Chapter 207: Trash Picking
Inside the experience store, Su Jinyu was eagerly watching Jia Peng open the game *Don’t Starve*.
“Play it, I’m not lying, it’s really fun!” Su Jinyu said.
Jia Peng wiped his sweat. “Ahem, Goldfish, calm down. The way you’re pushing this so hard, I’m guessing this game is definitely your own work, right?”
Su Jinyu replied, “Yeah, but the store manager did give some guidance.”
Jia Peng was a bit skeptical. “If I remember correctly, the last game you made yourself was *Lifeline*? And the story was written by Zheng Hongxi…”
Su Jinyu: “So? Are you saying you don’t trust me?”
Jia Peng said, “Ahem, nothing like that. I’ll just play it now.”
With extreme distrust toward Su Jinyu, Jia Peng opened the game.
Like *Plants vs. Zombies*, *Don’t Starve* had mods (PODs) that basically didn’t break the game’s numerical system or balance, while also giving new players some guidance so they wouldn’t feel too lost in the game.
Jia Peng randomly picked a few mods to install, then glanced at the options. There were way too many settings here, and Jia Peng felt a bit overwhelmed. Under Su Jinyu’s watchful gaze, he decided to start a game session and experience it first.
[Generating world...]
[Copying Wilson’s beard...]
[Processing game theory...]
[Adding terrifying monsters...]
Entering the game screen, the overall art style matched the promotional images—dark tones, but not the creepy horror of *Diablo*; instead, it carried a thick sense of dark humor.
The terrain, trees, and rivers in this world looked like simple sketches, yet they formed a unique style of their own.
Wilson lay on the ground, and that strange, long-faced magician Maxwell appeared before him.
“Hey, friend, you’re looking a bit rough.”
“You’d better find something to eat before nightfall!”
After saying these two lines, Maxwell vanished.
Wilson got up from the ground, and the camera zoomed out. The game officially began.
Jia Peng clicked the mouse, and Wilson started hopping around the map randomly.
The game’s sound effects were quite rich—footsteps, bird calls, gathering sounds, and the rustle of a gentle breeze—making the world feel less terrifying.
Of course, that might just be because it was daytime.
The map was packed with elements: small saplings, big trees, flowers, grass clumps, carrots, and so on.
Jia Peng wandered around and didn’t spot any threatening monsters for now, which put him slightly at ease.
In the top-right corner were four key stats: day count (day/night cycle), hunger, sanity, and health. The other stats were easy to understand, but he had no clue what sanity was for.
Still, higher was probably better, Jia Peng thought.
Wilson roamed around the map, and Jia Peng had no idea where to go. He just gathered whatever he saw—picking up small saplings, grass clumps, stones, berries, and so on, stuffing them all into his inventory.
After all, Jia Peng still had plenty of empty slots, so he could carry a lot of stuff.
After running for a long time, Jia Peng was a bit confused. He opened the map and saw he had explored a long stretch, but the sheer size of the entire map was beyond his imagination.
“This map is huge!”
Jia Peng felt a headache coming on. How long would it take to explore all this?
Picking grass, picking twigs, picking stones, picking berries…
After a few minutes of this, Jia Peng felt like his playstyle might be wrong. He glanced at the left-side function bar.
For now, there were only six options: [Tools], [Fire], [Survival], [Science], [Fight], and [Clothing]. Judging by the empty slots, there should be more options, but they just hadn’t appeared yet.
There were a lot of items here, and Jia Peng had just enough materials to craft an axe.
After swinging the axe a few times, a tree fell down, dropping a pile of logs.
After picking them all up, Jia Peng started studying the items he could craft.
It seemed like each item had its own use, but he had no idea where to find the specific materials. Things like spider silk, rope, rocks, gold—he hadn’t seen any of those yet.
“I feel like I should make a pickaxe and then go break some rocks. Spider silk… maybe there are spider monsters nearby?”
Jia Peng ran around the map, searching for what he needed.
“Huh? There’s a big rock here!”
Jia Peng quickly crafted a pickaxe and started smashing the rock like crazy. Soon, flint, nitre, and gold nuggets scattered on the ground.
“Oh? Not bad—gold drops from this?”
Jia Peng hurried over to the next rock and kept smashing.
Even though the action itself was pretty boring, Jia Peng still found it oddly satisfying.
Mainly because he could collect some rare survival resources, and the sound of smashing rocks was crisp and rhythmic, so Jia Peng found it kind of fun.
Jia Peng happily made Wilson pick everything up. Then he noticed a pig hut up ahead, along with a pig walking upright.