Chapter 21: Heavy Rain Approaching, Four Express Delivery Orders Open in Succession

[A new way to play with the 0:00 AM delivery?]

[Is it like those 0:00 AM 'flash sale' events?]

[Holy crap, are we flipping it around: midnight instant delivery?]

The viewers in the livestream room reacted instantly.

If that was the case...

...then sending him a package would require testing one's 'hand speed'?

Interesting.

Lu Xian nodded as he watched the crowd's guesses on the bullet screen.

Everyone spammed '666' in the chat.

"But it won't work right now."

"The current volume of packages is over 200,000; the number is just too large."

"Let's wait until tomorrow."

Lu Xian said.

That would be in twenty hours.

The bullet screen comments expressed that there was no problem and they were looking forward to it.

It was currently three or four in the morning.

The sun hadn't risen yet.

He didn't have a flashlight, making many tasks inconvenient to perform.

"The tent is torn."

Holding a torch, Lu Xian returned to the tent.

Under the illumination of the firelight...

...everyone saw a slash that was a full thirty centimeters long.

"Once it rains, things will get bad; that spot will leak."

This outdoor tent not only kept out the rain but also protected against mosquitoes and insects.

It had provided him with a lot of convenience over the past few days.

Now it was broken.

If not handled properly, it would become a problem.

"I'll just have to tear some tape off the plastic packaging you guys sent."

Lu Xian said.

Yesterday, the package containing the bone cleaver sent by [Genki Baka] had quite a bit of tape on it.

Lu Xian felt somewhat lucky and grateful for that.

He felt the tear could still be salvaged.

However, he had to wait until dawn for it to be convenient to take action.

Lu Xian didn't go back to sleep.

Early in the morning, he grabbed a few handfuls of rice and started cooking porridge.

While cooking the dried coral trout porridge, he chatted with the viewers in the livestream room.

He learned that among the ten newcomers who arrived a day later than him, some had already begun to be eliminated.

This didn't cause any emotional fluctuations in Lu Xian; he didn't care much about it.

Whatever, he just needed to do his best.

Cooking smoke curled upward.

Time passed slowly.

The sky gradually brightened.

"The tide is rising again."

Lu Xian went to the seaside and found that the sea level had risen significantly.

The seafood kept in the sand pit he dug earlier had been submerged.

"Good thing I turned that coral trout into smoked dried fish."

That fish weighed twenty to thirty catties; after removing the internal organs and smoking it, the water loss reduced its weight by 70%.

Plus, he had eaten some before and discarded a piece.

The remaining smoked dried fish meat was estimated to be less than 6 catties.

However, if paired with rice to make porridge and eaten in normal portions, it would be more than enough to last ten days.

In terms of the survival duration, there were only seven days left.

After a breakfast of dried fish, Lu Xian continued building the log cabin.

Today's task was the roof.

He sawed the timber needed for the roof.

Because he didn't have nails, he couldn't just saw them into planks like usual.

Using the chainsaw, he sawed the raw logs into rectangular strips.

Considering the peaked triangular structure, the roof strips were all longer than the 3-meter width of the walls.

Finally, he used the gas chainsaw to cut grooves into the strips and used fire to dry the moisture in the grooved areas, making the strips more flexible so they could be bent and hooked onto the crossbeams.

When he finished sawing twelve such logs, he was just about to lift a log onto the beam.

Suddenly.

Rumble, rumble~

The faint sound of thunder echoed in the distance!

[Eh? Thunder?]

[Whoa, is it going to rain?]

[Day four, the welfare period is over.]

Lu Xian froze at the sound, his movement to lift the log stopping mid-air.

He looked up.

But the dense branches and leaves blocked the sky.

He looked toward the ocean; in the western distance, it was still clear blue skies with fluffy white clouds.

"Did the thunder come from the east?"

Rumble, rumble~

The muffled thunder boomed again, as if in response to him.

It really was thundering in the east.

It was just that his line of sight in that direction was blocked by the dense jungle.

Lu Xian walked out of the forest and onto the beach to look at the eastern sky.

Sure enough, dark clouds were looming.

He just didn't know if the rain would fall his way.

"Family members, it might rain on this island."

"I have to go gather some dry firewood; otherwise, if it gets wet from the rain, living will become a hassle."

"The tent needs patching too, and then I'll move it onto the logs I sawed flat to keep it off the ground and avoid flooding."

At the same time, there was something else he wanted to do!

Collect water.

Rain meant fresh water.

In wilderness survival, rainwater can not only be drunk but also used for bathing.

Of course, acid rain was the exception.

Following that, Lu Xian sprang into action.

An hour later.

Raindrops finally began to fall in Lu Xian's area.

The sky above was covered in dark clouds, and a hazy curtain of rain in the east heralded the arrival of a heavy downpour.

"If I had known it was going to rain, I would have dug a large pit in advance."

Lu Xian looked at the circular pit at his feet, hastily dug to less than a meter in diameter and a dozen centimeters deep.

The reason he dug it like this was his hope that the rain would fill the pit.

That way, for a short time after the rain, he would have usable fresh water.

Not only that.

After finishing the porridge in his inner pot and washing it clean, Lu Xian used two undamaged banana leaves pressed between two logs, placing the inner pot underneath to catch the rain.

He also took all the plastic delivery bags, spread them open, and positioned them to catch rainwater as well.

He even dismantled the early warning traps to retrieve the tent's wind ropes and stakes, installing them back on the tent to prevent strong winds from blowing it away during the rain.

After a period of busy preparation...

...the rain began to fall through the forest.

The sound of rain in the distance was like a crashing waterfall, moving from far to near.

The heavy rain was coming.

At this moment, the viewers in the livestream room all began to remind him:

[Streamer, you haven't opened today's packages yet!]

"Hmm?"

"I was so busy, I almost forgot."

"It's about to pour; let's open them quickly."

Lu Xian didn't say much else, adding:

"Yesterday was specific number selection; today, let's go with random."

"Stop the delivery count."

"The number of packages sent today is 693,190."

690,000 packages!

If he waited until tonight to open them, there would probably be even more.

Seeing that the heavy rain was imminent...

...Lu Xian didn't dawdle and immediately started rolling the dice.

The large die used to determine the number of packages to open appeared once again.

He tossed it upward; the die tumbled, and the result came out:

A 4.

Lu Xian felt a bit pleasantly surprised, thinking his luck was good:

"I can open four packages today!"

The results of the random number selection also came out.

The die disappeared, replaced by four delivery packages.

All four packages were cardboard boxes, two large and two small.

"No more dawdling; I'll open them all at once today!"

Lu Xian said with a smile.

He took a blade from the tent and sliced them open in order:

"First one, number 820, sender [Little Fox]. Wow~ a nut snack gift pack? Eighteen bags! Thank you, thank you~"

"Second one, number 43991, sender [Early Summer Misty Rain], a dozen cans of 'Fat House Happy Water'? 12 cans of Coke! Thanks a lot."

"Third one, number 238456, sender [Poetry, Zither, Painting, and Memories]. Is it an emergency medical kit?! This is great, thank you, Poetry, Zither, Painting, and Memories."

"Last one for today, number 82385, sender [Xing Yang]. This person sent an eight-inch 304 stainless steel lunch box! Really nice, I have my 'iron rice bowl' now."

After opening these packages in one go, Lu Xian instantly beamed with joy.

He was very satisfied with today's deliveries!

He had noticed something.

The items from randomly selected packages seemed to be better than those from the ones he specifically chose!