Having worked nonstop for twelve hours from dawn till dusk, Faye Yardley was utterly exhausted. She had been completely focused on fishing, only taking short breaks to eat a Delicious Little Bread and drink mineral water to regain her strength.
The sun was setting, and night would soon fall upon the sea.
Lying on her back with a gentle breeze caressing her face, Faye Yardley whispered, "Time to take stock of today's haul."
She had fished up a total of 8 treasure chests, two of which were Iron Treasure Boxes.
She had already opened five, leaving three unopened.
Faye Yardley didn't waste the empty chests either; she dismantled all of them. One Wooden Treasure Chest could be dismantled into 3 units of wood.
That meant as long as she fished up about seven Wooden Treasure Chests, she could upgrade her raft to Level 2 even if the chests themselves didn't contain a single piece of wood.
Her Hunger Level was still at 80, so she was fine not eating for now.
Her total loot from the opened chests was: [Mineral Water x6, Steamed Buns x2, Delicious Coke x1, Delicious Little Bread x1, Instant Noodles x5], [wood x62, iron blocks x15, cloth x4, cotton x5], [Alfalfa Seeds x3, Vegetable Seeds x2], and [Basic Iron Axe Blueprint x1].
She had to admit, the items from those five chests were quite a haul.
She rolled over, quickly washed her hands in the sea, and then Faye Yardley chanted, "Jade Emperor, the Buddha, The Three Pure Patriarchs, please bless this faithful daughter. Grant my wishes and give me what I need."
[A Wooden Treasure Chest has been discovered. Open it?]
"Open, open, open!"
This time, there were only two orbs of light inside. Faye Yardley frowned slightly. 'Did my luck get worse after washing my hands in the sea?'
After she collected the orbs of light, the system prompted: [Obtained: Ordinary Fishing Rod x1], [Obtained: wooden fence Blueprint x1].
A wooden fence?!
HAHAHA!!!!
Faye Yardley felt like kowtowing to all the gods. 'This is exactly what I needed! I was so scared I'd roll off the two-meter-wide raft in my sleep. A fence will make things so much safer.'
There was still one Wooden Treasure Chest and one Iron Treasure Box left. No question about it; she had to open them while her luck was hot. She wouldn't even repeat the spell. 'What if I jinx it by saying it wrong?'
[Obtained: Mineral Water x5, Egg Pancake x1]
[Obtained: Basic Wooden House Blueprint x1, Basic Wooden Bed Blueprint x1]
Wooden House Blueprint: Requires Raft Level 3 or higher. Materials needed: wood x62/150, stones x0/50, iron blocks x15/10.
"No way. A tycoon like me can't even afford a basic Wooden House? Fine, fine, fine. Let's see who in this region is wealthier than me. System, open the regional chat channel, now!"
Faye Yardley stared at the regional chat channel scrolling rapidly on the virtual screen before her. Looking closely, she noticed that messages with many likes were pinned to the top, which made searching a bit easier.
In a regional channel with a million people, the messages scrolled by at a dizzying speed, even with only a fraction of them talking.
Messages disappeared in the blink of an eye.
'Trying to scroll up to read the history? Ha, what a naive thought. The earlier messages were long gone, impossible to scroll back to.'
She looked at the pinned messages first.
[Leo Sloan: Has anyone found a Bandage or medicine? I'll trade everything I've found for it. You can even have the treasure chests I fish up. Pleading for a Bandage or something to stop bleeding.]
[Kyle Lewis: Mommy, Mommy, where are you? Kyle upgraded the raft, did you see?]
Huh?
'Those two familiar names are pinned by that many people? Looks like there are a lot of kind-hearted people out there.'
[Alice-Rae: I've been fishing all day and only got two wooden chests. Not a single bottle of water inside. I'm dying of thirst. Can anyone give me some water? I can sing, and I can dance too.]
[Bonnie Callahan: It takes all kinds of weirdos. Everyone is short on food and water right now; who wants to watch someone sing and dance? Anyone want to trade for wood? I can trade the eggs I found and the crab meat I fished up.]
[Hailey Miles: If you're short on wood, you can dismantle your chests. One wooden chest can be dismantled for wood x3, and an Iron Treasure Box can be dismantled for iron blocks x2. They're useful resources, so don't just throw them away!]
[Phoebe Pierce: Hailey is so beautiful and kind. Too bad I didn't know that before. I threw mine into the sea because they were taking up space.]
[Yeah, yeah, so painful +1]
[So painful +1,000,000]
[So painful +my social security number]
Hailey Miles's message was quickly liked and pinned to the very top. Watching this, Faye Yardley suddenly fumed and slapped her own forehead. 'Faye Yardley, you idiot! Why did I forget to steal Hailey Miles's thunder and farm that reputation for myself?'
[Faye Yardley: Trading mineral water and instant noodles for wood, stones, and iron blocks. Also, if my big brother sees this, remember to add me as a friend!]
She spammed this advertisement three times in a row, using up her daily regional chat limit. She was confident someone would see her ad. Now, all she had to do was wait for people to message her for a trade.
"System, what resources do I need to upgrade the raft to Level 3?"
[Raft Upgrade (Level 3): wood x62/150. Insufficient materials. Unable to upgrade.]
'Upgrading the raft only requires wood. It seems the early stages of the game are still simple.'
'It only took 20 wood to get to Level 2, but upgrading to Level 3 requires 150. How much will it take to get to Level 4?'
Looking at the regional channel, she saw that most people only got four to five wooden chests a day. The unlucky ones only got one or two.
'And this is still the beginner's protection period,' Faye thought. 'Once it's over, those people getting only one or two chests a day might not be able to fish up a single one. They'll probably have to jump into the sea and catch fish with their bare hands just to get food.'
Sure enough, just as she finished looking at the raft upgrade information, she heard the DING DING DING of nonstop message notifications.
Just as she was about to look away from the regional channel, she suddenly spotted a message.
[Zachary Pierce: Does anyone have a spare fishing rod to trade for materials?]
Seeing his message about to be buried, Faye Yardley immediately clicked on his name and sent a friend request.
Sure enough, his message disappeared from the regional channel a moment later. Faye Yardley laughed. She remembered this name being mentioned in the novel; he was a character on par with the male lead.
And unlike the male lead from the book, Zachary Pierce was supposed to be with the government.
The game had just begun. Even if the government had already reacted, contacting and organizing everyone would not be an easy task.
Her friend request hadn't been accepted yet, but Faye Yardley went ahead and sent a message anyway. She took a photo of the ordinary fishing rod next to her system-issued one and sent it to him. The implication was clear: 'I have what you need. Now, what can you give me?'
He quickly accepted her friend request and sent a message: "What do you want for the fishing rod?"
Faye Yardley was very direct in her reply: "I want wood, stones, and iron blocks. Or whatever you think is a fair trade."
Zachary Pierce: "I only have 50 wood and 4 stones. Trade?"
Faye Yardley didn't haggle. The system hadn't enabled the trading feature yet, so they could only rely on trust. She directly sent the ordinary fishing rod she had found using the Gift function in the friends menu.
On the other side, Zachary Pierce fell silent as he looked at the Gift notification...