Chapter 31: Dolly

Actually, it was perfectly normal for her to have these doubts—after all, NPCs had no idea that things like building cards even existed.

If it weren’t for the building card, Su You’s first building really would have been a residential house. After all, labor was the most important thing, and she didn’t have the materials to build a tavern anyway.

Although the woman found the setup of this territory quite strange when she saw it, her own condition was so poor and she was so desperate for help that she couldn’t afford to dwell on these oddities.

Dragging her exhausted body, she walked toward the camp.

“Hello, is anyone there?” She stopped in front of the fence gate.

She could have just pushed the gate open and walked in, but she was a stranger, after all, and this was someone else’s territory—it wouldn’t be appropriate.

She was here to ask for help, not to cause trouble.

But she waited a long time and no one came. Exhaustion and hunger began to overwhelm her, and she was clearly at her limit.

…In fact, she’d already reached her limit. The only reason she’d made it this far was because she’d seen the Heartfire in the center of the territory.

Her current state was like someone lost in the desert for days suddenly spotting an oasis. She’d forced herself to keep going, only to discover that the oasis was just a mirage…

Just as she was hesitating about whether or not to push open the gate, she seemed to hear footsteps behind her…

Was that… her imagination?

…Why behind her?

That was the last thought she had before she completely lost consciousness.

……

Switching to Su You’s perspective.

The woman had been calling out but got no response—not because Su You was deliberately ignoring her, but because Su You wasn’t even in the territory and couldn’t possibly hear her.

That morning, before five o’clock, Su You had already woken up.

After waking, she headed out for two main reasons: to check the traps she’d set earlier, and to visit the sandstone resource point to dig up more sandstone for making whetstones.

She still had one whetstone left, but considering she’d worn out one in just over an hour yesterday, she knew this one wouldn’t last long either.

Now that she had a territory, Su You had a huge demand for basic materials—not only was she short on labor, but she also lacked tools.

Most NPCs didn’t bring their own tools. If she wanted them to work, she’d have to provide tools herself—otherwise, it would be like trying to cook without rice.

Su You knew there was a good chance an NPC would show up that morning, but since NPCs only appeared during the day, she’d gone out early to make the most of her morning without missing the NPC’s arrival.

But… it seemed she was still a little late?

Seeing a slender figure standing at the gate, Su You guessed who it was. But before she could say anything, the woman swayed like a falling autumn leaf and collapsed to the ground.

Su You: ?!

Startled, Su You rushed over, dropped what she was carrying, and helped the woman up.

As she did so, she quickly checked the woman’s information.

【Dolly】

Gender: Female

Age: Young adult

Loyalty: Unknown

Favorability: Unknown

Talent: Unknown

Skills: Unknown

Traits: Unknown

Description: This woman has not eaten or rested for a long time, and her nerves have been under constant stress. She is extremely weak and needs rest and food.

Su You didn’t have time to look at anything else. She skimmed the last part, and after understanding the woman’s condition, immediately took out a cup of water from her backpack—hot water she’d already boiled and could be drunk directly.

As for the roasted berries, given the woman’s unconscious state, Su You figured there was no way she could feed her those.

Even giving her water, the woman only managed to swallow some of it, the rest dribbling out—but at least she got a little down.

After giving her water, Su You glanced at the ground to make sure nothing she’d dropped would run away, then helped Dolly into the territory and settled her next to the Heartfire, letting her rest against a chest.

Once that was done, Su You returned to the gate to pick up what she’d dropped.

She’d dropped three rabbits—still alive.

These rabbits weren’t from her traps; the traps weren’t that effective. When she’d checked them, there wasn’t even a tuft of fur left—clearly, the animals had escaped.

But that was expected, given the poor quality of the traps. If she wanted to hunt in the future, she’d need to make better ones or have a combat-capable NPC do the hunting…

Still, even though the traps hadn’t caught anything, Su You had stumbled across a rabbit warren on her way back.

Because she’d gone out early, the rabbits were still resting, so she managed to catch all three.

To keep them from escaping, she’d quickly gathered some fiber scraps and twisted them into a cord to tie the rabbits up.

Glancing at the still-unconscious Dolly, Su You took out her stone knife and got ready to process the rabbits.

Thinking back, Su You had been a bit puzzled when she saw Dolly faint. She’d actually thought the NPC was Doya—the special NPC with combat skills.

But if it was Doya, why would she faint?

After all, Doya wasn’t some frail girl—she had combat ability, and it was more than enough to handle the beasts outside the forest.

Plus, having hunted with her father since childhood, she should have been used to the wild and wouldn’t be in such a sorry state.

It wasn’t until Su You checked the NPC’s information that she realized this wasn’t Doya, but Dolly—a wandering NPC.

She couldn’t see information about wandering NPCs unless they actively wanted to join her territory, at which point she’d receive a join request.

Only in the request interface could Su You see their information.

It made sense—the recruitment interface was for players to choose from, so it showed all the details, just like a job application.

But wandering NPCs, being new arrivals, wouldn’t reveal anything until they wanted to join. Only then would their information be displayed, allowing players to decide whether or not to accept them.

……

……

【Obtained: Animal Hide x2】"

"32. Tool Bag

[Obtained Damaged Animal Hide x1]

[Obtained Rabbit Fur x14]

[Obtained Small Piece of Meat x12]

After spending some time processing the three rabbits, Su You ended up with two complete hides and one damaged hide.

She looked regretfully at the damaged hide and let out a sigh.

She had originally hoped that with three rabbits, she’d get three hides—just enough to craft a tool bag for carrying her tools, while the hide she’d collected earlier could be used to make a simple pair of hide shoes.

Although she did have shoes now, they were just the most basic straw sandals. Straw sandals didn’t provide any bonuses; at best, they just kept her feet from getting pricked while walking.

Hide shoes, on the other hand, were one of the better pairs of shoes you could craft early on.

They could increase walking and running speed, and also reduce stamina consumption while moving—making them perfect transitional gear for early-game exploration.

But since she’d failed, Su You could only use the two complete hides, along with the one she already had, to make a tool bag.

Compared to stamina consumption, the most important thing right now was backpack space.

Stone knife, axe, pickaxe, shovel… and even whetstones (stack limit: 5).

Once these five items were stored in the tool bag, half of Su You’s backpack space would instantly be freed up.

With that in mind, Su You took out some twine from her portable workbench—also something she’d collected along the way.

When she’d spotted the rabbits, she’d already thought she might be able to craft a tool bag today, so she’d gathered some extra fiber scraps just in case.

With the twine, she now had all the materials she needed for the tool bag.

[Consume Animal Hide x3, Twine x5 to craft Tool Bag?]

[Crafting: Tool Bag. Estimated time: 120 seconds.]

…

[Obtained Tool Bag x1]

[Tool Bag]

Category: Special

Quality: Green

Description: Tool bag. When equipped, allows you to store one of each type of tool (up to five whetstones) without taking up backpack space. Only one tool bag can be equipped at a time.

As soon as the tool bag was finished, Su You equipped it right away.

The tool bag slots appeared just below her backpack—a long row of silhouetted icons, each representing a different tool.

Su You took out her pickaxe and placed it in the tool bag. The pickaxe automatically matched to one of the silhouettes, which then lit up and moved to the front of the row.

A black silhouette meant that slot was empty, while a lit icon meant a tool of that type had been placed there.

As for the order, that was a special feature of the tool bag: to help players quickly find the tool they needed, after equipping the tool bag, players could customize the order of their tools.

By default, lit icons came first, silhouettes after; the most frequently used tools were at the front, and the least used at the back.

Besides that, the tool bag had another handy feature: it could “auto-repair” tool durability.

Of course, the prerequisite for auto-repair was having at least one whetstone in the tool bag.

With a whetstone, you just had to put the tool you wanted to repair into the tool bag, and then you could use the whetstone directly.

All in all, these were just minor features—the tool bag’s main function was still to store tools and save space.

Su You put all her remaining tools into the tool bag, instantly freeing up half her backpack space.

After all that work, Su You was starting to feel hungry.

She glanced at Dory, who was still unconscious, thought for a moment, then took her stone knife to gather some berries nearby, and brought out the rabbit meat she’d gotten earlier.

[Use Small Piece of Meat x1, Berries x2, Leaves x3 to cook Berry Roast?]

[Cooking: Berry Roast. Estimated time: 120 seconds.]

…

The campfire was blazing as the berry roast cooked, while Su You leisurely ate a serving of roasted berries herself.

By the time she finished her roasted berries, the meat was already giving off a rich, mouthwatering aroma.

Roast meat was already delicious, but this time, with the addition of berries, the flavor was even more tempting. The red berries added a tangy note, making the scent even more irresistible.

Even someone who wasn’t hungry would find their mouth watering at that smell.

Let alone Dory, who hadn’t eaten in ages.

Maybe the aroma was just too enticing, because Dory, who had been fast asleep, was suddenly woken up by hunger.

When she woke, she was completely confused.

Dory: …Who am I? Where am I?

“You’re finally awake. Have some water first—the roast will be ready soon.” Before Dory could figure out what was going on, a gentle female voice sounded beside her.

At the same time, a hand reached over, holding a wooden cup filled with steaming hot water.

Dory instinctively wanted to refuse, but when she realized her throat was so dry she couldn’t even speak, she hesitated, then shyly accepted the water Su You offered.

The water was hot, but not scalding—just right to drink, and enough to clear her hunger- and exhaustion-fogged mind.

After finishing the cup, Dory gradually remembered what had happened.

Her name was Dory. She was a member of a merchant caravan, but while passing through the forest, the caravan had accidentally wandered into a beast’s territory and was attacked. In the chaos, she’d gotten separated from the others.

She’d been too scared to rest, afraid that if she fell asleep, she’d wake up surrounded by beasts.

She was also too scared to eat anything from the forest, since she’d once seen someone nearly die from eating a wild fruit.

Luckily, the caravan’s doctor had managed to give that person an antidote in time, saving their life.

But now Dory was alone, with no antidote and no knowledge of which plants were safe—so of course she hadn’t dared eat anything in the forest… which was why she’d ended up so exhausted and hungry.

If she remembered right, just before she lost consciousness, she’d seen the campfire in the distance and headed toward it, hoping for help.

She’d called out for a long time with no answer, and just as she was about to pass out, she vaguely heard hurried footsteps behind her…

As Dory slowly came to her senses, Su You brought over the freshly made berry roast."

"33. Staying the Night

“Remember anything?” Su You handed the grilled meat to Dolly. “If not, it’s fine. Eat something first.”

Looking at the delicate-featured woman before her, Dolly felt a strange sense of goodwill rise in her heart.

“Um… thank you. I’ll pay you.” Although Dolly still wasn’t sure who this woman was, the fact that she’d been able to bring Dolly here and was now roasting meat over the territory’s heart-fire gave Dolly some vague guesses.

But no matter who the woman was, it didn’t change the fact that she’d saved her.

Dolly had intended to take out some money to thank Su You for rescuing her and providing her with food and drink, but before she could do anything, Su You shoved the grilled meat into her hands, not giving her a chance to react.

“Eat first. We can talk about everything else later.” With that, Su You stood up, as if she was about to leave. “There’s a new guest. I’ll be gone for a bit—take your time and rest.”

At first, when Dolly saw Su You leave, she thought maybe the woman was embarrassed to accept her money. But after hearing the second half of her sentence, Dolly paused, then instinctively glanced toward the entrance of the territory.

If she wasn’t mistaken… there really was someone standing over there.

Since Su You genuinely had something to attend to, Dolly didn’t want to disturb her and could only thank her again to show her gratitude.

Su You actually didn’t care whether Dolly paid or not. After all, she was only doing this to build goodwill.

Wandering NPCs rarely had skills, because most of them didn’t have any backstory—no story, no past; their existence was simply to exist.

But Dolly was different.

Although Su You couldn’t see any other information about her, she could tell from Dolly’s clothing that she probably wasn’t an ordinary wandering NPC. Su You guessed she was someone with a backstory—in other words, an NPC with talents or skills.

But even if she was wrong and Dolly didn’t have any skills, Su You wouldn’t consider the grilled meat wasted. She needed people, and goodwill still needed to be built.

…

When Su You reached the gate, she saw a handsome, short-haired woman dressed in practical leather armor.

Not only that, but Su You could see what looked like a bow and arrows slung across her back…

Huh?

An NPC who comes with their own weapon?!

“Hello, are you the manager of this territory?” Duoya looked Su You up and down. Perhaps because they were both women and seemed about the same age, her previously cold demeanor softened a little.

Hearing this, Su You, who had only been guessing at her identity, now felt sure.

Because only tavern-recruited NPCs would know directly that she was the territory’s manager. In other words, this dashing, charismatic woman was Duoya.

If it weren’t for the fact that her current appearance was quite different from how she’d looked on the recruitment panel, Su You might have recognized her identity just from the bow on her back.

“That’s right, I’m the manager of this territory.”

“Su You. That’s my name.” As she spoke, Su You opened the gate.

Duoya didn’t enter right away. She stood at the entrance, surveying the territory… Though it was rather shabby, she didn’t show any sign of disdain.

Faced with Duoya’s appraising gaze, Su You remained calm, not at all embarrassed by her “poverty.”

Every territory starts from nothing, after all—there’s nothing to be ashamed of.

“Duoya.” After taking in her surroundings, Duoya looked at Su You and introduced herself, then stated her request.

“Lord Su, I’d like to stay here and rest for a day. If you’re willing, I can offer something in return as payment for lodging.”

As mentioned before, recruiting an NPC doesn’t mean they’ll automatically join you. The tavern recruitment only gives the player a chance to interact with the NPC. Whether the NPC actually joins depends on the player’s own abilities.

After all, the player doesn’t pay any price for recruitment. It’s impossible to get a powerful NPC for free.

Duoya’s request to stay the night was actually a “chance” set by the system—a chance for Su You to make her stay.

During this day, Su You could try to persuade Duoya to stay, whether through words or other means.

If, by the end of the day, Su You couldn’t make Duoya feel “I want to stay” or “I need to stay,” then she would leave the next day, and Su You’s recruitment attempt would be considered a failure.

As an “old city lord” who had recruited countless NPCs, Su You understood this well, so Duoya’s request didn’t surprise her.

“No problem, as long as Miss Duoya doesn’t mind how simple things are here.” Su You smiled, then led Duoya to the heart-fire.

When Su You returned with the short-haired woman, Dolly—who had finished her meal and was feeling full—immediately stood up.

“And this is…?” Duoya glanced at Dolly, a hint of curiosity in her eyes, but it quickly faded when she noticed the traces of hardship on Dolly.

Those marks were all too familiar to someone like Duoya, who’d spent years dealing with wild beasts.

Guessing what Dolly might have been through, Duoya’s mood soured a little. She also noticed that Dolly seemed to want to say something to the territory’s lord, so she gave them space, moving to the other side of the heart-fire and staring into the flames.

Dolly watched her leave but said nothing. At this moment, her attention was entirely on Su You.

“Thank you for saving me. I’m sorry I forgot to introduce myself earlier. My name is Dolly, and I’m a repairer with a merchant caravan. My companions and I ran into wild beasts in the forest… If it weren’t for you, I might have starved to death out there.”

Although Dolly was an NPC, in this digital world, NPCs were almost indistinguishable from real people—their behavior and AI were nearly identical to humans.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, even after such a disaster and being rescued, Dolly shouldn’t have revealed all her information so readily.

No matter the situation, no matter who the other person is, it’s always a mistake to reveal everything about yourself to a stranger."

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