Catastrophe Descends: I Scavenge in the Dungeon

Ji He, an orphan who survived her previous life through ruthless independence, transmigrates into the body of an eighteen-year-old high school student in a world facing abnormal climate shifts. The original owner died of a high fever after her parents perished in a car accident. Upon waking, Ji He discovers she has inherited a spatial ability containing a planting area and a storage room. Her immediate priority is survival; she suspects a catastrophic event is imminent due to rising global temperatures and her own prophetic nightmares of a collapsing world. With only 300,000 yuan in savings, she embarks on an aggressive stockpiling campaign, upgrading her space by collecting seawater, fresh water, and soil to expand its capacity and unlock new features like a miniature ocean and lake.

Her preparations are exhaustive. Ji He liquidates her assets and spends nearly all her money on bulk food, water, medical supplies, clothing, and survival equipment. She purchases livestock, fish, and seeds, creating a self-sustaining ecosystem within her spatial dimension. She also rents a three-wheeled vehicle to transport goods, meticulously organizing her inventory to maximize efficiency. Despite her caution, she remains vulnerable due to her poor physical condition and lack of combat experience. Her strategy relies on hoarding resources and maintaining a low profile, believing that preparation is the only guarantee against the unknown disaster she anticipates.

On the night of her final preparations, Ji He receives a system notification summoning her to the Assistance Game. She accepts, finding herself in a one-star dungeon called The Farm is Busy. The task requires processing one hundred giant, aggressive chickens within eight hours. Ji He utilizes her past life experience as a poultry farm worker to slaughter the creatures efficiently, sustaining injuries in the process. During the post-task exploration, she discovers the farm’s wasteful disposal of edible organs and meat. Her instinct to scavenge these resources unlocks two unique talents: Scavenger, which allows her to collect trash without attracting NPC hostility, and Healer, which grants her the ability to mend wounds. These talents prove crucial for her survival in the game.

Returning to reality, Ji He finds that time in the game passes differently than in the real world. She spends the following days continuing her stockpiling while intermittently entering the game to gather resources. She returns to the farm dungeon, systematically scavenging massive quantities of offal and bones that the system discards as waste. She also visits a zoo, manipulating a worker into providing animal hair, scales, and nails to meet the space’s upgrade requirements for biodiversity specimens. Her dual life becomes a routine of managing her physical stockpiles in the real world and exploiting the game’s dungeons for additional materials and skills.

The narrative establishes a clear trajectory for Ji He’s survival. She is not a hero but a pragmatic survivor willing to exploit any advantage, including the game’s mechanics and the waste of others. The story contrasts the mundane reality of extreme heat and societal indifference with the dangerous, resource-rich environment of the Assistance Game. Ji He’s focus remains on expanding her spatial capabilities and accumulating enough supplies to withstand whatever catastrophe awaits. Her journey is defined by the tension between her fragile human body and the growing power she gains through the game, setting the stage for future conflicts as the real world deteriorates and the game’s challenges intensify.