Chapter 18: The Fifth Day of Frost Season (2) The Return of Wood Shop No. 1
Although it is not yet 12 o'clock, Yu Luowei would still be outside at this time in the past, but the necessary procedures still need to be followed, such as the first thing to do is to unpack the box.
Today's four treasure chests yielded:
[Furnace × 1, Item Upgrade Card × 1, Induction Cooker × 1]
[Stone Pickaxe × 1, Ordinary Cloak (Green) × 1]
【Heat patch × 50, charcoal × 100】
[Dishwashing liquid × 1, steel wool × 1, iron rack × 1]
The induction cooker was ready, but the shelter wasn't connected to the power supply yet, so even if it did, it wouldn't work. Yu Luowei temporarily placed it in the corner of the kitchen. However, the stone pickaxe reminded Yu Luowei of the copper mine in the cave. She could go dig some when she had time.
Throwing the shrubbery debris he'd brought up while digging into the fireplace didn't raise the temperature, but it did extend the burning time by an hour. The furnace was placed directly on the first floor. Based on Yu Luowei's previous experience reading novels and playing games, iron ore could be turned into iron blocks in the furnace. Sure enough, as soon as the furnace was placed, a prompt appeared:
[Furnace: Place ore into the furnace to smelt it into the corresponding metal, but it cannot be used to barbecue.]
After putting two pieces of iron ore into the furnace, it would take some time for the smelting to be completed. Yu Luowei took the upgrade card and walked around the house, but did not find any props that could be upgraded. Yu Luowei had to put the card away first.
It was a great pleasure to still be in the shelter at this time of noon, and the iron rack was very suitable for barbecue. Yu Luowei decided to make it a grand occasion and have barbecue at noon today.
The chicken in the system was a whole chicken. Yu Luowei took one and cut off the wings and legs. She also took out half a pound of mutton and animal meat and cut them into slices. She also took out a pigeon she had shot yesterday and marinated them all. She was a little short on vegetables, so she only cut up half a potato.
The grill was taken out and placed over the campfire beside the table. The meat needed to marinate for a while, but Yu Luowei couldn't wait any longer, so he grilled some potato slices to fill his stomach. There was no special barbecue sauce, only the cumin from the seasoning gift pack, but the potatoes tasted very good. After eating the potatoes for a while, he was no longer so hungry, so Yu Luowei slowly grilled the meat, no longer in a hurry, the main thing was to enjoy it.
In the end, there was half a roasted pigeon left. Yu Luowei couldn't eat it anymore, so he put it aside for the time being.
He took down the iron rack, put a soup pot on it to boil dandelion water, and then Yu Luowei went to do other things.
Holding the item upgrade card, Yu Luowei took another tour of the base. Aside from the cherries planted the day before, the onions, wheat, and peaches were all ripe tonight. The item upgrade card also lit up when Yu Luowei approached the planter box.
The upgrade card shows that four planting boxes and five portions of soil are required. I don't know if using the upgrade card now will affect the crops that are about to mature. To be on the safe side, Yu Luowei plans to use it after the harvest in the evening. There just happens to be an empty planting box, so he can keep the one for the cherries.
After putting 60 parts of soil into the brick making machine, the machine started to rumble. Because it would take 5 hours to make all the red bricks, which was about the same time as harvesting crops, Yu Luowei waited until then to harvest together.
Now that she had no other work to do, Yu Luowei took a walk around the base. Today was her ninth day here, but she hadn't studied the base properly yet.
The temperature inside the base was the same as outside. Yu Luowei had come out wearing a down jacket and no gear. A Level 3 base was already quite large; Yu Luowei felt like even three buses could fit inside. The shelter was located at the innermost part of the base, with a fence behind it. From the outside, it looked the same size as a Level 1 shelter; you couldn't tell it had been upgraded to a two-story "mini-hall." But the base was completely empty. Aside from five planter boxes and a brick-making machine near the entrance, the rest of the base had only a single stone floor.
The outermost fence reached Yu Luowei's chest. Because it was made of ice, it gave off a faint chill. The moment he placed his hand on it, he felt as if his blood was freezing. Outside, the traces of the spike traps could still be seen on the ground. Yu Luowei had almost forgotten about them, so he went out to check them out.
There were indeed things in two of the traps, but they weren't monsters, just three ordinary rabbits. Because they were too close to the fence, they had been completely frozen into ice and couldn't be decomposed by the system, but it was a way to preserve them.
These three ordinary rabbits were probably frozen as soon as they approached the fence, and then fell to the bottom of the trap, causing limited damage to the trap. The durability of the two ground spike traps only decreased a little, so there was no need to repair them for the time being.
Unexpectedly, in the game world, he could experience the joy of waiting for something to happen. Yu Luowei excitedly collected the three rabbits and returned to the shelter whistling.
After taking the four iron blocks from the furnace, Yu Luowei went straight upstairs. He placed three large ice blocks next to the bonfire on the second floor and added some charcoal to the fireplace to raise the temperature to 5 degrees. Yu Luowei took off his down jacket and took a shower.
After washing, the ice had almost melted, and the three rabbits had been broken down into five pounds of rabbit meat. After so many decompositions, Yu Luowei had learned something: the yield from decomposition wasn't entirely based on the creature's size. Normally, you'd get two portions of meat from an animal or monster, but only one for a juvenile. Only high-level monsters, for example, had size mattered. Flame Lions and Gale Bears, for example, yielded a lot of meat.
After collecting the cut meat, Yu Luowei threw herself on the bed. It was so cold, she should stay in bed! From then on, except for going to the base to harvest and use the restroom, she would never leave her warm bed!
Pulling out the survivor's handbook, everyone was still out searching for supplies, and there were only a few people chatting on the channel. They were discussing which district the wooden shop in the market was located in. Yu Luowei, the person involved, was unfazed by this. Seeing no further information, he closed the communication channel and opened the market.
Aside from talking to Zhao Linlang in the mornings, Yu Luowei had been lurking in the chat channel the rest of the time. He had also gleaned some other information, specifically regarding luck. Luck significantly impacted finding treasure chests and the rewards within them. Someone with a luck score of 1 or 2 might not have found a single treasure chest since the end of the novice period, while someone with a luck score of 8 or above might be able to find three or four in a simple walk through a pristine environment.
Currently, there are no items that can increase Luck, but most people's Luck is between 3 and 6. Normally, they get one (green) or two (white) Supply Chests a day. Extreme cases are rare. However, there are some items that can improve other attributes, and they sell for exorbitant prices on the market.
Yu Luowei had already experienced the benefits of her luck. Next time she made a wish before unboxing a box, she'd wish for an item that boosted her luck. Just in case, it came true. However, the items that boosted other attributes—the Cloud Pomelo Fruit and the Wind Feather Grass—were both ready for a second serving, so Yu Luowei took one of each and ate them as a snack while she worked through the manual.
The price of wood has rebounded significantly, though this is due to the deaths of many survivors with self-service woodcutters. As a result, Yu Luowei's newly opened wood shop has closed over a dozen deals, earning him 208 points. With this morning's announcement, it's expected that the price of wood will continue to rise, and the shop should see even more business.
Continuing to browse the trading market, the hottest items right now are various thermal supplies. Not to mention charcoal fire starters, a simple wool blanket is worth five packs of compressed biscuits (a pack of compressed biscuits lasts a day, and most of the food you get from treasure chests is compressed biscuits, which are currently the common currency in the survival game). Warm clothes that can be worn outdoors are even more expensive.
Yu Luowei had actually been selling down jackets a few days ago, but the price before was three times the raw material. Now Yu Luowei decided to follow the crowd and change the price of each down jacket to 10 packs of compressed biscuits.
Why did they change to compressed biscuits? This was actually because Yu Luowei saw a preview of the next-level function when his VIP level was upgraded to level three: some useful items that the survivors didn't want could be recycled and exchanged for points.
He casually clicked on the points market and exchanged all his newly earned points for random saplings, and Yu Luowei's VIP level successfully reached level 4. The recycling price of a pack of compressed biscuits was 2.5 points, and recycling four packs would buy enough materials for a down jacket.
After changing the prices of the remaining down jackets, Yu Luowei added another 300, practically exhausting her stock of cloth and cotton. Down jackets were also sold in the points mall, costing 25 points each. However, since most of the team hadn't yet reached VIP level 3, and compressed biscuits were easier to obtain than points, Yu Luowei was still quite confident in the sales of her down jackets.
Because charcoal is becoming increasingly important in today's environment, sales of water purifiers have also declined. Yu Luowei also has a fireplace, a major consumer of charcoal, so this time he only put 20 on the shelf.
When putting the items on the shelves, Yu Luowei saw Jin Yu's message again. Besides disliking him, she was also curious about this person: Although this person was very rude the few times he interacted with her, he was really nice to the district, giving away wood for free and exchanging wood for charcoal. Although he himself could benefit from it, the price he exchanged for charcoal was still lower than the market price. After all, it benefited most people in the district. Human hearts are indeed complicated.
Just when Luo Wei was curious about Jin Yu, Jin Yu was almost getting furious.
Jin Yu's family wasn't wealthy back on Blue Star, and he didn't attend university. He relied on clever tactics and sweet talk to become a real estate salesperson, becoming a top seller, able to sell houses near polluted areas for the same price as those in oasis areas (on the edge). However, as his sales grew, he became increasingly arrogant, his work became less rigorous, and he offended some clients. If he hadn't entered the game, he would have been fired sooner or later.
Jin Yu's own physical fitness wasn't strong, so during his three-day novice period, he only managed to rank in the rankings for Level 1 Shelter and Level 2 Base. Unexpectedly, he got lucky and received a disaster warning. He had always wanted to build his own faction in this game and realize his dream of reaching the pinnacle of the pyramid, so this information arrived at the perfect time.
Many members of the mutual aid group Jin Yu founded received self-help logging machines. He used the excuse of mutual assistance and resource exchange among group members to buy various materials at extremely low prices. He exchanged a small amount of materials, using them primarily for his own use before selling them on the market at a higher price.
After all, no one would verify how many people had received the items. Even if someone asked, Jin Yu could just say that the items were stored in his warehouse and could be used in an emergency. Because of this, the degree of damage to his own original environment was only around 30%.
Since the start of this event, Jin Yu has made it his goal to open a wood shop. While the self-service wood-cutting machines can't be traded, friends can exchange treasure chests. Jin Yu has arranged with his team members and anyone else who's asked him to trade charcoal for the treasure chests they've found that day (at a super low price, of course). Because it's cold outside, everyone's back home early, and he's actually managed to open four self-service wood-cutting machines so far. Including the one he didn't turn in, he now owns five.
Jin Yu excitedly clicked the "Merge" button on the five automated logging machines, but instead of a forest farm appearing as he expected, a line of text appeared:
Someone in this area has successfully opened a small wood shop.
Jin Yu's face was now as bruised and blue as an overturned palette. He hadn't expected anyone in the district to gather their resources faster than he had. He (or she) must have known long ago that the self-service felling machine shouldn't be used lightly. Perhaps it was someone who owned the forest farm when the announcement was made. Jin Yu couldn't help but suspect Zhao Linlang.
Zhao Linlang didn't contact him this morning. Jin Yu suppressed his anger and sent a message to Zhao Linlang:
Jin Yu: Miss Zhao, is that wood shop in the market open now yours? Don't worry, I won't tell anyone if you tell me. But since I helped you out this morning, could you please sell me the wood at a lower price?
Zhao Linlang hadn't returned yet, likely still out, so Jin Yu had no choice but to suspend the charcoal-for-treasure-chest exchange. Thinking of the forced market for the five self-service logging machines, Jin Yu began to have a headache. He was ready to think of a way to make up for his losses by taking some items from the mutual aid group. After all, that was the reason he had formed the mutual aid group in the first place!
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