Max ate a lot and slept well that night well that night on the soft bed provided by the system when his raft upgraded to ship.
Maybe it was just luck that he didn't face any monster attacks nearby, or perhaps it was because he and Sophia were the first to upgrade from a raft to a ship, causing the system to lag in introducing monsters capable of attacking ships. After all, 99% of the survivors were still upgrading their rafts and hadn't yet reached the stage to meet the conditions for upgrading to a ship.
The next morning, Max woke up in high spirits after a good night's sleep. He freshened up and prepared breakfast by toasting some bread, adding meat in between to make a homemade burger, which perfectly satisfied his cravings.
After that, he went to the ship deck and saw that the bread tree now had breadfruit, which would be ripe in a few more hours. He counted the number of unripe fruits and found there were 100, each about the size of a baseball.
Max happily counted them, relieved at the thought of finally eating fresh fruits after three days of bread and meat for every meal from breakfast to dinner. Traveling on the ocean made it easy to get sick without a regular intake of fresh fruits and vegetables to prevent vitamin deficiency.
Although he had reached an extraordinary realm where common diseases no longer affected him and the food he consumed was always converted into energy to sustain his body's needs, he still prepared for the worst, considering that there might be diseases capable of affecting even extraordinary individuals.
Soon he began his journey by adjusting his sails towards the nearby treasure chest location.
While sailing, Max suddenly remembered he had forgotten to check the ship's upgrade conditions. He quickly opened the upgrade panel and grew furious upon seeing the requirements.
Upgrading to level 1 required him to provide 10,000 wooden logs and 100 iron bars. Max could supply the wooden logs since his inventory was full of wood, which he obtained by selling the knowledge of reaching the ship from the raft.
But the iron bars, even if he scrapped by dismantling all the iron treasure chests in his possession, he couldn't possibly gather 100 iron bars required for upgrading and the ship.
Max quickly came up with the idea of trading his wood for iron bars, but he faced a dilemma about the trade ratio. After observing the market, he noticed there were no uniform prices for iron, as everyone was trading it for whatever wood they could get. Many were complaining about the uselessness or unsellable nature of iron obtained from treasure chests. This prompted Max to establish a unified price, deciding to trade 10 wooden logs for 1 iron bar, especially since the influx of black iron-grade treasure chests had flooded the market with iron bars.
Max then made a posted to inform others that he is purchasing iron bars at a fixed price as part of a long-term trade, offering to exchange them for all the iron they currently possess.
As soon as the post was made, the chat channel was immediately set into frenzy as many were guessing of what use the iron could be to a bigshot and many were celebrating as they can gain wooden logs to upgrade their rafts.
Many clever individuals have figured out that iron will be needed for future ship upgrades and have warned others against selling it. However, they couldn't prevent people from selling iron because, despite guessing correctly, they didn't know the exact amount required for the upgrades. While they were busy with raft upgrades, some speculated that even with unlimited quantities available, the iron sold might not help him progress to the next stage, leaving others behind. As a result, they chose to sell only a portion of their iron to test whether he was truly buying large amounts.
As soon as Max listed 10,000 wooden logs on the market, setting the condition of exchanging 10 wooden logs for 1 iron bar, he selected the automatic trade option, which only notifies him once all the wood has been traded for iron, rather than for each individual trade.
Within few minutes of setting the trade an unknown buyer has also requested to buy iron in the market but in limited quantity only unlike max who has set it for unlimited exchange.
Max immediately guessed it was Sophia and didn't find it was hard to guess as only him and her are in great need of the iron in the channel right now.
As soon as his thoughts were finished, he received a private trade request from Sophia.
Max hesitantly opened the trade and discovered it was a ship radar designed to scan a 50-meter perimeter around the vessel. If any object approached within the 50 meters, it would alert the captain.
Sophia was asking for 10,000 wood for the device. Max thought the cost was high but believed it was worth it, as he didn't want to constantly stay on guard against monster attacks. If the device could provide prior intelligence about their presence, he could eliminate them preemptively.
Max immediately agreed to the trade and placed the device near the ship's main control center. It automatically embedded itself into a groove by the main control panel and began operating as soon as he activated it, displaying a 50-meter range map on his ship.
While he was trading with Sophia, the merchant alliance established by Joseph and Blake was discussing Max's actions and considering a trade boycott to demonstrate their power.
However, they discovered that many members of the alliance were not aligned with their plans. Most had joined the alliance to improve their chances of survival, not to be ordered around or forced to boycott every trade with a bigshot who defied them, risking the opportunity to upgrade their raft and secure safe transport for protection.
After an intense discussion they only allowed Joseph and Blake to issue a threat to other survivors to not trade with Max while they quickly trade all the iron in their possession for wood and reach the upgrade conditions to upgrade the raft to ship.
As soon they made the decision, they sprang into action and sold all the iron for the wooden logs and started to upgrade their rafts to ships.
Then they discovered another competitor who was trading wooden logs for iron bars, so they happily sold to them and attempted to invite them to the merchant alliance. However, they found their requests were all blocked because the competitor had set their requests to DND mode.
Previously, most people traded with Max since his shop was always on the recommendation list, while only a few dealt with Sophia, leaving her with just a small number of iron bars from trades. However, as Sophia hoped for more trading opportunities, the merchant alliance stepped in and quickly purchased all the wood in her storage, filling her inventory with 1,000 iron bars in just a few minutes.
Sophia quickly shared the news with Max and asked if he needed iron bars. Max declined and told her to save them, as he had already exchanged for the first batch of iron. He mentioned that he was placing an order for the second round to keep the merchants in line and allow non-alliance members to upgrade with the merchants.
Soon Max place another order of 1000 iron bars for another exchange for 10,000 woods, but this time he only takes orders of 100 iron bars at once and asked others to gather bulk iron bars which enables the flow of resources and help few more reach the ship upgrade condition.
Many quickly embraced the idea, followed his advice, and began trading with one another, benefiting numerous people in the regional channel. The flow of goods became swift, many upgraded their rafts, Max obtained the iron he needed, and others acquired the supplies they required, making everyone happy. The only ones unhappy were the merchant alliance, as they saw many items they desired but lacked iron bars to trade. Most trading required iron bars, leaving them frustrated and teary-eyed.