Lin Qiuyue's desire for scrap iron was no coincidence!
And Tang Yan's large-scale purchase of scrap iron undoubtedly meant that… scrap iron could be smelted into iron ingots!
"These people… do they even have smelting equipment?" Bai Cheng couldn't help but feel surprised.
"Looks like I've fallen far behind them in progress."
She glanced at the price Lin Qiuyue had offered her. It was five pieces of scrap iron in exchange for one employee card.
Then she checked the market price. After Bai Cheng's calculations based on the lowest available rates, the value of a single piece of scrap iron was almost equivalent to a piece of leather.
"Five pieces of leather for one employee card? That's practically giving it away for free!"
This price was unbelievably cheap for Bai Cheng, but upon further thought, it made sense. The employee cards in the other party's hands were useless, so any trade was pure profit.
Yet, she still chose to offer Bai Cheng a low price. Who knew if it was those damn hormones acting up again?
"Unlike leather, scrap iron currently has no other use aside from crafting pulley transmission1 systems."
And Bai Cheng refused to believe that everyone had been lucky enough to obtain pulley transmission systems from their loot.
A single piece of scrap iron weighed about one kilogram, and its irregular shape made it a space-wasting burden in vehicles.
For those with excess scrap iron, trading these useless lumps for useful supplies was undoubtedly the most cost-effective option.
"That profiteer Tang Yan is demanding two pieces of scrap iron for one portion of meat. He must be banking on chests always dropping scrap iron in pairs."
Bai Cheng still decided to use her wood to compete with him in the market.
But her pricing had to be generous enough.
She accepted Lin Qiuyue's trade and was about to take action when curiosity got the better of her. She wondered how others in the chat were reacting, so she opened the channel.
"Scrap iron? What's the use of this? Even Tang Yan, the big shot, is buying it?"
"There's only one thing you can craft with scrap iron right now. Tang Yan must be planning to hoard it and resell later!"
"Hah, I admire the stupidity of the guy above me. Selling transmission systems is pointless. If I wasn't lacking equipment, worried about weight, and short on supplies, I'd be buying too!"
"Hey, what do you mean by that? Does scrap iron have some other use?"
"Brothers, what exactly is this scrap iron you're talking about…?"
"Just open chests! You'll almost always get two pieces of scrap iron!"
"Wait, even Lin Qiuyue is buying scrap iron?!"
Tang Yan frequently sold food, so his name often appeared in the trading post. The others in the channel had long regarded him as a big shot.
As for Lin Qiuyue, there was no need to elaborate. Her water supply seemed endless. She was still selling it even now, a true big shot without question.
When Bai Cheng saw the last message, she immediately closed the chat and reopened the trading post. Sure enough, Lin Qiuyue's purchase order was there.
One offered food, the other water. Their prices were similar, but freshwater was clearly more competitive.
"Did they discuss this, or did Lin Qiuyue react after seeing Tang Yan's order?"
Bai Cheng frowned. She hadn't even started competing, yet the pressure was already overwhelming.
"Tonight is definitely going to be sleepless…"
With a sigh, Bai Cheng picked up her axe with a resentful expression and stepped out of the cart.
She chopped down a few trees, burned the black slime, advanced a few hundred meters, then repeated the entire process.
Although it was time-consuming, it wasn't physically demanding for Bai Cheng. It was just tedious.
And at night, a single tree could drop over twenty pieces of wood, making the collection efficiency remarkably fast.
Even with her spatial backpack, the weight limit of three hundred pieces of wood was far from enough for Bai Cheng.
She directly synthesized all the wood into fine wood, maximizing the storage capacity of her rail cart.
After an unknown amount of time, Bai Cheng felt that it was already deep into the night, and her exhaustion was nearing its limit.
Although the rail cart could still hold more wood, she glanced at the green treasure chest not far away and decided to call it quits.
"Finally, I can rest. I'll focus on traveling tomorrow."
She tossed the axe carelessly onto the cart and stood in front of it, admiring her haul.
"Two hundred pieces of fine wood. Hopefully, they'll all be traded by the time I wake up."
By now, the chat was nearly silent. Most people had gone to sleep.
Bai Cheng opened the trading post and listed all her fine wood.
[Trader: Bai Cheng]
[Item: Fine Wood ×4 (Remaining: 204)]
[Request: Scrap Iron ×1]
Twenty pieces of wood for one scrap iron. This was already way below market price, even if wood was a common material.
But to compete with essentials like food and freshwater, Bai Cheng had no choice.
"If everything goes smoothly, I should be able to collect all the scrap iron by tomorrow night."
As for storage, Bai Cheng had her spatial backpack. There was enough space, so she had no need to worry.
But she was also curious about Tang Yan and Lin Qiuyue. If they didn't have smelting equipment, how were they carrying 200 pieces of scrap iron, weighing 200 kilograms in total, while traveling?
"They can't possibly both have smelting equipment, right?" Bai Cheng raised an eyebrow. "But where would they even get it from?"
Her gaze involuntarily drifted toward the faintly glowing green treasure chest in the distance. That was likely the only explanation.
Along the way, Bai Cheng had encountered plenty of white treasure chests, but the closest one was still three meters away from the train.
At night, she didn't dare take risks. To focus on chopping wood, she had to give them up.
Now that she had gathered enough wood and stumbled upon this green treasure chest, she finally decided to rest.
Squeezing out a small space on the rail cart, Bai Cheng sprawled out and lay down in a '大' shape.
The pitch-black night was like a beast waiting to devour its prey. Even when she looked up at the sky, not a single star was visible.
Only the warm orange glow of her lantern enveloped her, as if it was the only safe zone in this world.
"If only I could take a shower…" Bai Cheng pouted in dissatisfaction.
"I wonder how Yu Nian is doing. I hope she didn't come here…"
Gradually, her breathing steadied, and she drifted off to sleep.
Plop!
A drop of water fell from above, hitting the ground before bursting into tiny droplets.
Bai Cheng was deep in sleep. She rolled over and muttered irritably, "Ugh, stop bothering me…"
But more and more droplets landed on the rail cart, on her body.
Bai Cheng's eyes snapped open, and she bolted upright. "It's raining?!"
She looked up at the sky. It was dark and ominous.
Another raindrop landed on the tip of her nose.
Seeing the scrap iron scattered across the rail cart, and the untouched treasure chest in the distance, Bai Cheng felt a surge of joy.
"This rainwater should be drinkable2, right?" She was skeptical, but at least it didn't seem like acid rain.
If she could make a few containers, wouldn't she be able to collect a large amount of freshwater?
She could only hope that this was a localized rainfall.
"At last, this lady's luck has finally arrived!"