After receiving the fish spear, Zachary Pierce quickly packed the items he had just mentioned into a Red Envelope and sent it to her.
At the same time, he couldn't help but add a reminder, "Don't trust others so easily."
Faye Yardley couldn't help but laugh at his message. 'He can't possibly think I'm some naive girl, can he? If I hadn't read the book and known he was an upright person, I wouldn't have done something so reckless. I was just willing to bet a fish spear on the book's information being correct.'
'As expected, he's the real "good guy."'
"Thanks for the reminder. I know. I only sent it first because it was you."
Zachary Pierce frowned slightly. He didn't recognize her name at all. "You know me?"
Faye Yardley didn't keep him in suspense. "My brother is Ethan Yardley. I've heard him mention you a few times."
She didn't pay Zachary Pierce any more mind after that. She still had a pile of messages to get through.
'When did the trading system appear?'
'I can't seem to remember, but it definitely shows up later on.'
'Probably right after the novice period ends.'
Instant noodles and mineral water were definitely hot commodities right now. So even though people knew she wanted upgrade materials in return, there was still a huge crowd scrambling to trade with her.
Of course, among the flood of messages, plenty were from people hoping to get something for nothing.
She blacklisted all the freeloaders. She had no intention of ever trading with people like that.
She was 38 wood short of upgrading to a Level 3 Raft, but she also needed to craft a wooden fence and build a Wooden House.
'Why does it feel like my wood deficit is just getting bigger and bigger?'
After picking and choosing, she ended up trading away 8 bottles of mineral water, 4 packs of instant noodles, 1 bottle of cola, and 2 steamed buns. In return, she received stones x45, wood x219, iron blocks x20, Crystal x1, and a Space Stone x1. The haul was nothing short of generous.
"System, upgrade raft."
[Raft Upgrade (Level 3): Wood x331/150. Upgrade conditions met. Proceed with upgrade?]
"Yes."
A flash of white light was followed by thirty seconds of CLANGING. As expected, the raft had not only expanded, but she could now also freely adjust its shape.
'A 5x6, thirty-square-meter raft. I still need to set aside 150 wood for the Wooden House, which leaves me with 31 wood for the fence.'
[Wooden Fence: Consume 2 wood to obtain one piece of fence (1 meter long, 0.5 meters high).]
'To completely enclose the Level 3 Raft, I'll need 22 meters of fencing, which will cost 44 wood.'
'It doesn't seem like that much more is needed, but I have to save some food and drinks for myself, too.'
She was just one stone short of being able to build the Wooden House. 'Maybe if the Wooden House occupies one end of the raft, I'll need less fencing.'
She had used up all her channel posts for the day. Her friends list was only populated with people she had just traded with.
After thinking it over, Faye Yardley clicked on Zachary Pierce's profile. "Mr. Pierce, do you have any more stones? I'm one short."
By now, the sky had completely darkened, and Faye Yardley could feel the temperature dropping.
'I desperately need a Wooden House right now.'
With her current physical stats, she was afraid spending a night out in the open would get her sick, which would affect her ability to fish for treasure chests the next day.
When she didn't get a reply, Faye Yardley started browsing the regional channel to see if anyone else was looking to trade.
Something like iron blocks for stones.
A lot of people were talking in the regional channel. It seemed that on this silent sea, where everyone was alone, watching others chat was the only thing to do. Fear was enveloping them all.
[Wade Warren: Everyone, look at the player count in the bottom-left corner of the regional channel. We're already losing people. Has anything unusual happened to any of you?]
Faye Yardley looked and saw that he was right. The perfect one-million-player count was no longer whole. Though the gap didn't look large, over three hundred people had already died on the first day of the novice period. She wanted to know why, too.
'I'm so weak, yet I'm still alive and well. How did other people die?'
'Were they already seriously ill to begin with?'
DING-DONG!
She received a Red Envelope from Zachary Pierce. After opening it, she found stone x1.
"Thank you, Mr. Pierce! If you need anything, just let me know. If I have it, it's yours."
Zachary Pierce: "Don't mention it. Ethan's sister is my sister."
Faye Yardley chuckled to herself. Now was not the time for pleasantries. She immediately used her existing materials to build the Wooden House.
The same white light and CLANGING construction sounds followed, but this time they lasted for a full minute before stopping.
A small 3x4 Wooden House appeared before her.
Even better, she could move the small Wooden House anywhere she wanted on the raft via the system panel.
She placed it against one end of the raft. This way, 7 meters of its perimeter—the 3-meter and 4-meter sides—wouldn't need a fence.
That meant she needed exactly 15 meters of fencing, and she would even have one piece of wood left over.
'So nice!'
Stepping into the Wooden House, she found it completely empty. But however bare it was, the temperature inside was noticeably warmer than outside.
Just then, a DING sounded, and a system prompt appeared. [Tool workbench can be unlocked. Unlock now?]
"Yes."
'That sounds like a good thing. I'll unlock it first and figure it out later.'
A table laden with tools materialized out of thin air in a corner of the room.
'As expected. Game worlds just don't follow logic.'
Walking over to the workbench, Faye Yardley took out the blueprints.
[High Level Fish Spear blueprint and Basic Iron Axe blueprint detected. Learn blueprints?]
"Yes."
After a flash of light, Faye Yardley saw that the workbench could now craft High Level Fish Spears and Basic Iron Axes. They required materials, of course, but this meant she could produce them continuously as long as she had the resources.
She checked the materials for the Basic Iron Axe: iron block x2, wood x1.
Next to the recipe was a green "Craft" button.
Faye Yardley tapped it immediately.
The raw materials were consumed, and a gleaming Basic Iron Axe appeared on the workbench.
She picked it up and swung it a couple of times, only to feel her arm ache. 'Oh, great. Just great. Is the game mocking my stamina and Strength?!'
Looking closely at the Iron Axe, she was surprised to see it even had a durability of 70/70.
She then checked the materials for the High Level Fish Spear: iron block x5, Crystal x1, wood x2. A red prompt to the side indicated "Insufficient Materials."
'It even needs a Crystal? Good thing I have one.'
'Damn it, I'm short on wood again. I don't just need it for the fish spear; I'll need it for a wooden bed later, too.'
'I can't really wield this Iron Axe myself, but I can trade it. I'm not sure about others, but Zachary Pierce will definitely need one, right?'
So, she naturally found his profile and poked him. "Mr. Pierce, [Basic Iron Axe]. Need one?"
He replied instantly. "I do. Name your price."
Faye Yardley thought for a moment before replying, "I'll trade for wood, Crystals, iron blocks, or blueprints for household items. Any trade has to include wood, though."
'It suddenly occurred to me that there should be a one-time Dungeon event during the novice period, and you can form a team for it.'
Faye Yardley sent the Iron Axe over in a Red Envelope and added, "Mr. Pierce, if a Dungeon event happens in the next few days, how about you take me on your team?"