Max felt hungry then reached to his inventory to eat some breakfast as he hasn't eaten anything from the morning was busy checking the ship and its upgrade.
Upon reaching the inventory he saw a shiny treasure sitting right there, Max was astonished as he never remembers collecting such silver white treasure chest.
With doubts in his mind, Max decided to check the system log to find out where the treasure chest had come from. When he opened the logs, a bright golden message appeared on his screen, congratulating him for being the first to upgrade the raft to a ship.
A notification asked him if he agreed to have his name published in the announcement for being the first to upgrade the raft to a ship in the region.
Since Max muted all notifications before going to sleep to avoid disturbances, he hasn't seen them. As a result, the system automatically announced his name in the regional channel, congratulating him on his achievement and awarding him the silver treasure chest.
Max was glad the system didn't wake him up forcefully, as it could have annoyed him. He had no strong feelings about announcing his name, having already experienced the advantages it brought—fame in the region, boosted business, and a competitive edge that helped him achieve milestones ahead of others.
Max didn't want to open the chat channel, knowing it was probably buzzing with discussions about him being the first to upgrade the raft to a ship.
Instead, he quietly opened the personal friend column and saw a message from Sophia congratulating him on the upgrade and asking about the changes the ship had brought after upgrading.
Max thought for a second and realized there was no harm in sharing the details with others since he had already enjoyed the best reward. He believed helping his friend upgrade faster would ultimately benefit him.
When more ships reach his level, he can trade items of equal value with them. If he is at level 3 but his teammates are still at level 1, where would he get all the level 3 gear he needs? While focusing solely on himself might bring short-term gains, in the long term, it would delay his progress.
He can't explore the entire ocean alone; he needs others to share resources and grow together, strengthening the region as a whole. Humans are social creatures, after all.
He didn't want to be the only one surviving disasters, living in isolation, and looking down on others. Though this mindset had made him some enemies, he had no intention of changing his way of life.
As soon as the decision was made, Max started typing out the detailed information about how the ship upgrade left him unable to move the raft for 12 hours. Additionally, his ship was excluded from newbie protection, which caused aggressive water beasts to actively attack the ship as they passed by.
He then explained the limitations of the workbench and the inability to use the system production page to create items. The workbench has restricted production capabilities as it requires him to supply it with mental or magical power, which is not advisable since it can quickly exhaust him.
He also described the cabin provided by the system on the ship which has bed, bathroom and other facilities.
Max reviewed all the details of the message and sent them to Sophia, thanking her for providing the ship-mounted crossbow. He also asked if she needed resources to upgrade her raft to a ship, offering up to 500 wooden logs to help her upgrade faster and secure the second prize for the raft-to-ship transformation.
After sending the message Max shifted his gaze back to the silver treasure chest.
After thinking for a bit, Max decided to open the treasure chest in the evening when he has completed today's exploration and find out if he can find any island to land as it is not conductive to health staying single on the ocean all alone and he has to get some replenishments to store in his ship for extensive travelling.
Within minutes of sending the message, Max got return message from Sophia thanking him for his kindness and she doesn't want to take resources for free, so she is ready to trade the 500 wooden logs and the piece of the information he has just shared for a scroll which she has with her.
Max appreciated her thoughtfulness, agreed to her idea, placed the wood in the private trade channel, and traded it for the scroll she had sent him.
Soon the scroll was presented before him, and max was amazed to see it was an upgrade scroll which can upgrade a type of weapon to grade higher.
Max was satisfied to get such a precious treasure for just a piece of information and 500 wood logs.
After some thought, he decided to use it on the ship-mounted crossbow, as the wooden crossbow lacked durability and lethality, which he found unsatisfactory. It also didn't have an automatic reloading function, so upgrading it might give it the autoloading feature.
As soon as the thought struck him, he couldn't resist tearing the scroll to activate its upgrade function. He quietly chose the set of four ship-mounted crossbows, as they came together and were eligible for selection under the upgrade conditions.
Soon the scroll produced a blinding light and the crossbows on the lower deck were upgrade to iron crossbow and to his delight max found he can load up to ten arrows in one crossbow and shoot them automatically upon selecting the target.
Max realized how poor he was at the moment, so he decided to sell the information he had for just ten wood logs at the trade shop. This way, he could gather some resources to replenish his depleted wood storage, ensuring he had enough to repair his ship during emergencies.
Before that he informed Sophia of his decision and asking her to upgrade faster so other won't steal her achievement.
Sophia agreed with his decision and let him know that he could post the news, as she had already started the upgrade process right after receiving the wood resources from him.
Max was amazed by her decisiveness and thought she might have powerful talent otherwise she could have achieved such faster upgrade process almost reaching him while also staying lowkey.
Soon he recopied the details of the upgrade situation after the raft upgrade to ship and posted in the trade market for selling at the price of 10 logs.
He then opened the regional chat channel and saw the many were messing around as many has woken them up early morning as system has disturbed their sleep by issuing regional announcement.
He carefully typed out the details about the conditions following the raft's upgrade to a ship, requesting them to make the purchase at his shop and not to message him repeatedly for information.
Soon, many thanked and others condemned him for being a profiteer, but Max didn't care about the accusations. Many had upgraded their rafts, and the average raft level had risen to about level 5, allowing them to hunt the water beast and secure one bronze treasure chest per day.
So, the 10 wood logs he requested for crucial information barely make a dent in their treasury.