Chapter 51 Chapter 51 The Upgrade and Evolution of Floating Bridges and Floating Objects...
Chang Ruijia was initially surprised by Lu Baian's sudden appearance beside her, but gradually realized that something was wrong.
Not to mention whether Lu Baian left in this direction in the white fog at that time, and Chang Ruijia looked at the location of the living area assigned to her, but it was in the edge corner of the entire settlement area. Even if Lu Baian wanted to pass by, it wouldn't be this way, right?
So after the initial enthusiastic greeting, Chang Ruijia quietly made a zipper gesture with her mouth and pointed to the silent crowd around her.
Seeing this, Lu Baian nodded and stopped talking loudly. He just watched Chang Ruijia speed up the packing in her hands and waited quietly by the side without saying anything.
Chang Ruijia actually didn't know what to do. The bells were all scattered on the sea, and she had nothing else to put on the sea. She only came up with this excuse because she didn't know how to deal with Lu Baian's sudden appearance.
While pretending to pick up some things from the bed and busying herself, Chang Ruijia kept thinking in her mind why Lu Baian suddenly appeared beside her at this moment.
A chance encounter? Stalking? Or some other motive?
Chang Ruijia didn't know what to think in which direction, but when she felt the inquiring gazes fixed on her, she felt that all this was definitely not accidental.
Thinking about what she had done during this period, Chang Ruijia felt that it must be some of her actions after arriving at the market that led to Lu Baian's encounter.
Could it be another person who has connections with the organizer of the market?
Quietly glancing back at Lu Baian standing beside her, Chang Ruijia decided to wait until they left the settlement area and then find out without leaving any trace.
What exactly do they want from her? Why do they keep coming back?
After putting on a full show and throwing the meaningless things she had just sorted out onto the sea, Chang Ruijia finally turned around and looked at Lu Baian: "I'm done, let's go!"
Um!
Lu Baian nodded, took the lead and walked in front, leading Chang Ruijia out of the encirclement of the settlement area.
There was silence all the way, but the careful Chang Ruijia discovered that Lu Baian had indeed stayed in this market longer than she had imagined.
When leaving the crowd in the settled area, people who were still staying in the market couldn't help but gesture to Lu Baian when they saw him.
Even when Chang Ruijia was leaving the settlement, she discovered that the two people guarding the gate always had a special attitude towards Lu Baian who was passing by.
Chang Ruijia, who was one step behind, carefully observed the atmosphere between them. Although she passed by them in just a moment, she could still clearly notice their suddenly excited eyes.
This directly explains 80% of the relationship between them!
Chang Ruijia immediately confirmed her previous guess. For the person sent by the organizer to guard the settlement to show such an expression, the relationship must be unusual.
As they were slowly moving away from the settlement area, she looked back and could still see the two people whispering excitedly while stealing glances in the direction they were leaving.
Thinking about how to get more information out of Lu Baian, Chang Ruijia followed him out with a distracted look.
Judging from her previous communication experience with Lu Baian, he was different from the people she had met in the market before. She couldn't ask the questions in her mind rashly, but had to think carefully about it.
But unexpectedly, before Chang Ruijia could figure out how to ask the question, a sentence coming from the front made her stunned on the spot.
"Don't think about it. I do have a relationship with the organizer of this market, or rather, I am one of the organizers of this market."
"Ah?" Chang Ruijia looked up blankly and saw that Lu Baian had already stopped the floating object at a place some distance away from the trading area and the settlement area, and was looking at her with a helpless smile.
"How do you know I want to ask these questions?" Since others have seen through it, Chang Ruijia no longer pretends to refute it. Anyway, she hasn't figured out how to ask this question.
"Given the way they show their emotions, it would be a blessing if they can avoid being discovered." Lu Baian held his forehead and sighed.
He had originally planned to slowly infiltrate and tell Chang Ruijia about this matter, but he didn't expect that as soon as he showed up, he would be exposed completely in this way.
That's right! Chang Ruijia nodded. If hiding one's emotions was a lesson, they would definitely fail, and would even be on the verge of getting zero.
Seeing Lu Baian frankly reveal his identity, Chang Ruijia threw aside all the roundabout ways of probing him and asked directly with the same frankness.
"What exactly do you people at the market want from me? Tires? Aren't there people buying them from me every day? Is there something more valuable in my hands?"
"You really know everything," Lu Baian said with emotion, seeing that Chang Ruijia knew everything even about the tires, "I knew nothing could be hidden from your eyes."
No, I don't know. In Lu Baian's answer, which did not deny it, Chang Ruijia silently pondered in her heart. Before this, everything was just her guess, but now it seemed that she could come to a conclusion.
Although she accidentally let a guess out of Lu Baian's mouth, Chang Ruijia did not express it directly, but still looked at him with a questioning expression.
"I know you have a lot of questions in your mind, such as why people at the market pay so much attention to you." Lu Baian looked at Chang Ruijia waiting for a conclusion and sighed, "Don't be impatient, let me explain slowly."
Various abilities appeared inexplicably on the sea, and some people regarded them as disasters, while others regarded them as opportunities.
And after such a long period of endless changes in nature and chaotic coexistence at sea, the people who huddle together for warmth, the markets for exchange, and the small groups of people with similar interests who gather together should come to an end.
At first, Lu Baian just wanted to gather a group of people, so that at least he could protect himself on the sea where anything could happen. However, as more and more people gathered, it was no longer just a small fight at the beginning.
As a "base" that wants to continue to develop on this sea, constantly recruiting all kinds of talents has always been their goal. Only when they are strong can they deal with anything.
Not to mention that they have a goal that they have been working towards recently, and finding suitable talents that can be of benefit to them has become their top priority during this period.
Unexpectedly, he actually ran into someone he knew.
So what? Chang Ruijia looked at Lu Baian, who was eager to talk, and gestured with a puzzled look. If that was all, she just needed to ensure that she could exchange something for it, right? Why did he keep coming over so tirelessly?
"So," Lu Baian smiled awkwardly, "So, we tried our best to leave you with a good impression of the market, to keep you in the market as much as possible and to get you to join us. In fact, they decided the result, but now it seems that they messed it up a bit."
"We've gotten along before," Chang Ruijia looked at him and said in a deep voice, "So, you should know my attitude towards approaching people."
"I know, so I came here to ask you a favor," Lu Baian looked at her seriously and said, "Could you please stay in the market a little longer? If you must leave, could you please establish a long-term deal with us? We really need something from you."
"Tire?" Chang Ruijia looked at Lu Baian's pleading eyes, recalled what happened here thoughtfully, and said in an affirmative tone.
"Yes!" Lu Baian was not at all surprised that Chang Ruijia was able to guess the tire. After all, this matter had been handled so straightforwardly by others that it couldn't be more straightforward. If she couldn't guess it, it would be intentional.
"Can I know what it is?" Avoiding Lu Baian's extremely serious gaze, Chang Ruijia pondered for a moment and asked cautiously.
As the owner of the item, she felt she had the right to know about it.
If trading tires was just an ordinary behavior before, after Lu Baian emphasized it, she really became quite curious about this matter.
Looking at Chang Ruijia's curious eyes, Lu Baian hesitated and nodded, "Okay."
Although this matter is still in the confidential experiment at this stage, as long as it is confirmed to be put into practice, it will not be something that needs to be kept secret. Moreover, if Chang Ruijia can be attracted to stay permanently, wouldn’t this be a good thing that kills two birds with one stone?
Unlike other people who are suspicious but want to help, although Lu Baian has not known Chang Ruijia for a long time, the few times he has met her have given him confidence in her character.
Under Chang Ruijia's puzzled eyes, Lu Baian looked around the bed beside her for a few times. As expected, he did not see any extra tires, so he just started to talk.
"Judging from the new area you've added to your bed, you must have discovered the floating ability of tires on the sea, right?"
"Since tires that can float on the sea can create a larger usable area, what if we increase that usable area and connect the floating objects that prevent two people from interacting with each other until they die?"
After thinking carefully about the wild idea proposed by Lu Baian, Chang Ruijia's eyes lit up.
Yes! Since tires can create enough extra space around the edge of a bed for people to stand, it's certainly possible to build a bridge for people to walk on.
In the previous life, we were even able to use people’s wisdom to build a cross-sea bridge, but now we are just using tires to build a floating bridge within a distance of a few meters. Why is it not possible?
"You have tried it." Chang Ruijia looked at Lu Baian and said affirmatively.
If they had not had successful experience before, Lu Baian and the others would definitely not collect things on such a large scale.
"Yes," Lu Baian nodded. "In fact, we should also thank the disappearance of the underwater monsters after the fog dissipated. If we were not sure that we would not be attacked after leaving the range of the floating objects, we would not have tried to build a floating bridge even if we tried it out."
Unexpectedly, the disappearance of the monster not only brought her the misfortune of having to join the crowd, but also brought such a groundbreaking good phenomenon to the crowd.
"I just don't know if these monsters will appear again, and whether these floating bridges will be able to produce the expected results by then." Lu Baian sighed.
Compared with the protective ability of the floating object itself, the results of leaving the floating object and stepping onto the floating bridge when there are monsters and when there are no monsters will definitely be different.
Who knows, it might be extremely difficult to muster the courage to move forward at that time.
"It will appear." Chang Ruijia said affirmatively.
Even if we don't talk about whether they will be let off so easily, judging from the scarcity of items in some product sections of the Kan Yidao Mall, the things she has in her hands are not the limit at all, and there will definitely be all kinds of things appearing in the future.
Lu Baian did not show any stern denial of Chang Ruijia's cold water poured on his head.
After all, he thought so too.
Although many people are optimistic, sometimes the reality is not as good as imagined, and it is still uncertain what will happen in this unknown sea.
"I don't know what the future will be like, but at least I think I can try hard now," Lu Baian said with a rather rogue look, "If I really succeed, can I ease the relationship at this time when the distance between people is being forced apart?"
"I understand why you need tires," Chang Ruijia said awkwardly, "However, the number of floating objects that appear every day is fixed. If you rely solely on tires, how long will you be able to continue?"
Just thinking about building such a huge number of tire pontoons made Chang Ruijia feel that it would be a long time before he could accomplish this.
"No, no, no," Lu Baian quickly waved his hands, "The tire is just one of the buoyant items we chose. We won't rely entirely on the tires."
That's about right! Chang Ruijia nodded. Although she was a little moved by what Lu Baian said, if she was going to be tied here for the rest of her life to provide tires, she wouldn't dare stay even for one more night.
"Besides," Lu Baian looked at Chang Ruijia's relieved eyes and said hesitantly, "Don't you know that these floating objects will upgrade and evolve?"
Upgrade and evolve? This is not an unfamiliar thing to Chang Ruijia, but if it is placed on the floating object below, it is not certain.
"You're not talking about the expansion of the floating object, are you?"
"Of course it's not that simple," Lu Baian rolled his eyes and said, "This is at most a result of the upgrade and evolution."
I told you, if upgrading and evolving were so simple, wouldn't it have already become commonplace among the general public? Chang Ruijia thought to herself, but when she faced Lu Baian, she signaled him to continue with her words.
"That's right. Based on the initial area of your bed, upgrading and evolving it is not an easy task," Lu Baian sighed as he looked at the huge bed under Chang Ruijia. Seeing that the secret was almost sold out, he explained to her.
"This was also a little unexpected fact that we discovered after the crowd gathered. After using the devouring function to expand other people's floating objects into the area of your own floating objects, each time the area doubles from the previous one, an upgrade and evolution effect will occur."
"It was first discovered by people who accidentally flipped over and left the floating objects in the sea. Before being harmed by the monster, they could temporarily move freely away from the floating objects. Later, they gradually figured out the pattern."
"Each level up allows you to stay away from floating objects for an additional 10 minutes. During this time, floating objects will not appear and disappear automatically. In the last 30 seconds of the 10 minutes, floating objects will slowly become transparent, as if they were swallowed by the sea."
Chang Ruijia understood Lu Baian's explanation after a little thought.
If we convert it to her own bed, then based on the initial 2*2 bed area, the next time it will be 4*4, and the next time it will be 16*16...
After careful consideration, Chang Ruijia was really shocked by the "upgrade requirements" she would face.
Compared to the much smaller area of others, what she has to face is simply a bottomless pit!
Noticing Chang Ruijia's speechless expression, Lu Baian chuckled, "These aren't things we can decide on our own, right? Compared to others, your low starting point means God won't let you upgrade easily."
She! Just! Knows!
Thinking back to how she had an easier start than the others, it turned out that there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world. Fortunately, she didn't count on the upgrade of this broken floating object to survive.
However, thinking about the bed's area of nearly 6*6, Chang Ruijia touched the bed beneath her thoughtfully, which showed no response. She must have experienced an upgrade without realizing it.
It may be because her daily focus is on the system's Kan Yi Dao Mall, and due to her perception of danger, she extremely does not want to be involved in any dangerous things (in short: afraid of death), so she did not feel any changes in this regard.
"It is because of this discovery that we are considering increasing the connection between people's floating objects. Maybe we can visit each other from time to time in the future." Lu Baian said.
In this way, Lu Baian and the others had actually considered everything very carefully. Chang Ruijia thought about the series of questions that would arise after learning about the floating bridge, except for the materials for the floating bridge, which seemed to take a long time to obtain...
Before she could finish thinking about this only shortcoming, Lu Baian's words directly dispelled Chang Ruijia's last doubt.
"In addition to the fixed time when the floating object leaves, its upgrade and evolution is also reflected in the number of items that appear each night."
"It's true!" Looking at Chang Ruijia's incredulous eyes, Lu Baian said with certainty, "Although we haven't figured out the specific pattern yet, many people have experienced duplicate items after upgrading. This is the key to our determination that the Floating Bridge Project can succeed."
"However, as for the number of items you have now that hasn't changed, maybe you can get them after another upgrade?" Lu Baian touched his nose and said with some guilt in the face of Chang Ruijia's questioning eyes.
Although it is relatively easy for others to reach the next level, it seems extremely difficult for Chang Ruijia.
"Forget it, as long as you don't rush, I'm quite satisfied with the current quantity of items," Chang Ruijia waved her hand. She didn't want to start a killing spree yet.
It took the contributions of so many gangs to get to the current 6*6. If we want to reach 16*16, how many lives will be sacrificed?
"It's okay, as long as there are tires available, we won't be picky," Lu Baian said angrily.
The purpose of their establishing this base is to protect themselves. If they harm innocent people for the materials to build a pontoon bridge, wouldn't that be a slap in their own face?
"So, after knowing so much, do you still remember my original request?" Lu Baian said.
"I can establish a long-term supply relationship with you," Chang Ruijia said after a moment's hesitation. "In the future, I might even think about settling here permanently."
If she could make friends with the crowd gathering area where Lu Baian was, and bring her such rich information, then it seemed like a good choice.
Coupled with her assessment of the current stability of this settlement, Chang Ruijia actually felt a little moved.
"Any conditions?" Lu Baian looked at Chang Ruijia expectantly. "As long as the request is not particularly excessive, I can agree to it directly. If there are any special needs, I can contact other partners to discuss it."
"Freedom." Chang Ruijia looked at Lu Baian and said, "I want the freedom to come and go here."
"No one will restrict you," Lu Baian said, looking at her serious expression, "Even the most ordinary people here can have this. What's so worth it..."
"In other words, I want a portion of the ownership of this gathering area." Chang Ruijia paused, looking at Lu Baian who was waiting for her next words. "Nothing is more reassuring than having control in your own hands. No one knows what will happen in the future. What I need is the freedom to withdraw at any time, even if the transaction goes deeper in the future. No one will ask me to do something I don't want to do under any name."
"If it's just the freedom to leave at any time, I can promise it to you," Lu Baian said with some embarrassment. "However, as one of the organizers of this market, I may need to discuss this with others. I'm sorry, I can't give you any answer right away."
"Of course, I'm not in a hurry anyway." Chang Ruijia said indifferently. If Lu Baian agreed now, she would really think about it again.
The words were almost said. Looking at the sun that had already slid down from the center and her stomach growling, Chang Ruijia fumbled in her own pocket and then tossed a pocket to Lu Baian with a "whoosh".
"Since you've given me so much information, even though you're trying to get me to stay, I still have to give you some due compensation."
In response to Chang Ruijia's hard words and soft heart, Lu Baian smiled helplessly and slowly opened the tightly wrapped bag in his pocket.
Before he could pull open a larger part, Lu Baian had already smelled an indescribable fragrance.
Abalone, mussels, shrimp, pig's trotters...
Good God, if Lu Baian hadn't known that Chang Ruijia didn't have anything else in her hands, he would have thought that she had robbed the condiment table in the noodle shop!
However, looking at the dishes emitting a rich aroma, Lu Baian couldn't help swallowing.
Pull! Just for the occasional treat, even if others disagree with Chang Ruijia joining, he will do his best to convince others to agree.
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