Chapter 60 - 58: Rating Speculation, Grassland Card
Deep in the night.
Shen Xinrou had gone back.
Chen Chong and Xu Jun had also returned to their respective rooms.
After doing so much and gathering so many resources today, their settlement Rating was bound to be high.
The two of them fell asleep filled with anticipation...
Elsewhere.
Sima was also looking forward to the next day’s settlement...
’Today’s haul was the best we’ve had in days. I should be able to push for a B-Level Rating tomorrow and get a B-Level Card, right?’
Sima gazed at the new names on the roster and the report on the day’s hunting gains, the corners of his mouth turning up uncontrollably.
Although some people had quit, the Survival Association’s membership still exceeded three hundred.
Aside from occasionally leading hunting parties, his main job was to plan the movements of these three hundred people, assign different squads to search for resources in various areas, and manage the overall situation.
Unfortunately, their abilities were seriously worrying. They were weak to begin with and had a tendency to slack off. Their attempts at finding food were a disaster.
They would find either wild vegetables and weeds, wild fruits, or various insects.
The better ones managed to catch some fish, shrimp, and crabs from the river, or bring back meat from creatures like mountain rats and bats from the jungle.
Over the past few days, the entire Survival Association had found less food than its members consumed.
If it weren’t for the baseline supply of food they had looted from shops and cafeterias in advance, he feared half the members would have already deserted.
Even so, many people had been poisoned from eating unfamiliar wild vegetables and fruits, leading to all sorts of problems...
Sima was mentally exhausted just watching it all, but he continued to recruit more people anyway.
Besides wanting to expand the Survival Association and seize territory and resources, his primary goal was to increase his daily settlement Rating.
He had discovered on the second day that commanding and leading others to survive gave a bonus to his daily settlement Rating.
However, this bonus was minuscule, far less than what he got for directly obtaining prey.
Even if he led a hundred people, if they didn’t gather enough resources, he would at best get a C, or maybe even a C-.
After looting a large amount of supplies on the first day and getting a B-Level Card, he had never again received a Card higher than C-Class...
Sima had also managed to swindle some Cards from the other Survival Association members under the pretext of centralized management for the team and equal distribution of rewards.
But not everyone received a Card from the daily settlement.
Over the past six days, he had analyzed the settlement data from several hundred people and reached a conclusion.
A Rating below 10 would yield no Card. Only a Rating above 10 would grant the lowest-grade D-.
As for the threshold for a C-Class Rating, he couldn’t determine it yet; he needed a few more days of data.
In short, there were requirements for obtaining Cards. You couldn’t just lie around and get them; at the very least, you had to find a certain amount of resources.
Of the more than three hundred people in the Survival Association, not even half of them received Cards each day, and the majority of those were completely useless.
Cards like crude iron ingots, bone needles, wooden axes, and even straw hats—the worst kind of Resource Cards.
Very few people got crude iron weapons, let alone better ones like Farmland Cards, Vacant Land Cards, or various large-scale Building Cards.
Sima was not discouraged. He knew his members currently lacked ability. As long as he could lead them to acquire more resources, they would get more Cards.
And as the person leading everyone’s survival efforts, his own Rating bonus would also increase.
This was precisely why he had been trying to pull all the school’s students into the Survival Association.
Unfortunately, due to a lack of resources, most of the more capable students paid him no mind, preferring to form their own small groups rather than join his association.
Today had been a day of explosive luck for the Survival Association.
Except for the fifty members who stayed behind at the school, the rest, divided into more than twenty teams, had all gone out to find resources, and almost every team had a substantial haul.
Two teams had even used traps and fishing nets to hunt a sixty-jin roe deer and a large fish of about ten jin, respectively.
When he saw the prey being carried back, Sima was so relieved he almost cried.
’My members are finally useful for something! And I finally don’t have to subsidize them with our reserves anymore.’
’It seems that as time goes on, everyone is getting more skilled at finding food.’
’As long as they maintain this level, the more prey they bring back, the higher my Rating will rise.’
’They brought back so much prey, and my planning and command were instrumental. Tomorrow’s Rating should hit B-Level for the second time...’
Lost in this fantasy, Sima drifted off to sleep.
...
Before dawn.
Accustomed to waking early, Chen Chong slowly opened his eyes.
[The daily settlement has begun. Based on your harvest and performance over the past day, a Rating will be calculated and automatically redeemed for Card rewards of a corresponding level.]
[Over the past day, you cooperated with others, used traps to capture one live wild rabbit, one live wild duck, a large quantity of live fish, one dead wild rabbit, and five small birds. You successfully hunted two wild pheasants, obtained two types of crops (ginger and green onions), arranged for a small trade of supplies, and successfully evaded the pursuit of a Blood-tooth Python...]
[Score: 97]
[Rating: B+]
[Rewards: Building Card · Grassland, Resource Card · Refined Spear, Recruitment Card · Handmaiden]
[Note: Your surplus score has been automatically redeemed for low-level Cards.]
Gazing at the three Cards by his bed—glowing white, green, and blue, respectively—Chen Chong was a little surprised.
This was his highest score in the seven days since he’d transmigrated.
It was even slightly higher than his score on the day he hunted the Moose.
The total yield from these catches was definitely not as much as the Moose—not even close to half—yet the score was several points higher.
’Besides having more variety in harvests and events, could it be that capturing live creatures to raise and breed is more beneficial for the settlement Rating?’
’Also, how exactly does the score correlate with the Rating? Is everything under 100 points considered B-Level?’
’How many points would I need to get an A-Level Rating?’
’And what level comes after A-Level...?’
’Evading the Blood-tooth Python counted toward my score, but this scale I picked up wasn’t included. I guess there’s nothing special about it.’
Chen Chong picked up the dark red Snake Scale from the nightstand.
He had studied it for a while before bed last night and found that other than being quite hard, the scale had no other special properties.
After casually putting the scale back in his backpack, Chen Chong picked up the three Cards and read their information one by one.
[Card Type: Building Card · Grassland]
[Rating: B-Level]
[Description: Upon use, you can build a 20-square-meter grassland that refreshes a fixed amount of grass daily. The grass that grows here can be consumed by all types of herbivorous creatures. Creatures fed this grass will gain a 30% bonus to their daily growth rate.]
’A 30% daily bonus?’
At first, Chen Chong hadn’t thought much of the Grassland Card, but after reading the attached effect, he was stunned.
The animal pens only gave a 20% daily growth bonus, but the grassland gave a full 30%!
If he fed the grass from here to the wild ducks and wild rabbits, wouldn’t the two effects stack, adding up to a 50% daily growth rate bonus?
Raising them for 10 days would be equivalent to 15 days of normal growth. The rate at which he could turn over his poultry and livestock would be much faster!
This is great stuff!
Besides, the fish in the pond also eat grass. If he cut some grass and threw it in every day...
Their growth rate was already at a 100% bonus; this would boost it to 130%, making them grow even faster!
This would also be useful if he raised animals like wild boars, wild deer, or wild sheep in the future.
Chen Chong clicked his tongue in amazement, unable to help but recall something he had said not long ago.
’As expected,’ he thought, ’there’s no such thing as a useless B-Level Card...’
...