Chapter 4 First Trade
The vegetation in this part of the forest was denser. Qin Zhen chopped down three Banyan Trees, obtaining Wood ×15 and EXP +15, then stopped there.
Her goal for the day was to gather Stone and continue exploring — she couldn't waste too much time cutting trees.
Pushing aside the Vines in front of her, Qin Zhen pressed on. The deeper she went, the thicker the vegetation became, with clusters of small yellow and white wildflowers dotting the leaves and branches.
She also spotted a great many mushrooms — bright red caps, white stems — quite beautiful. But she recalled a well-known saying from Huaguo: "Red cap, white stem — eat them together and lie flat forever." So she didn't dare pick any.
Still, the lush plant life here, mushrooms included, suggested there was very likely a water source nearby.
Qin Zhen glanced at the time — three o'clock. Walking quickly, it would take about an hour to get out of the forest from here. She still needed to collect the Fish Traps, and getting back to the Shelter from this side would take another half hour. It was time to head out.
On the way out, Qin Zhen's hunger became unbearable. She washed down a Ham Sausage in two bites with a swig of Mineral Water.
Emerging from the forest, Qin Zhen felt as though the whole world had brightened. The forest really was gloomy and eerie — no place for a person to linger.
She walked briskly to the shallow coastal area and swept her gaze across the water. The corner of her mouth twitched. Five Fish Traps — only two remained. The others had probably been swept away by the current. What rotten luck.
She hauled the remaining two Fish Traps up and dumped them out onto the beach. The haul was pitifully small.
Two conchs, one small fish about the size of a palm, and two bunches of kelp. That was it.
[Disassemble?]
Qin Zhen tapped yes without hesitation — why not use the convenience?
She obtained: conch meat ×2, fish meat 100g ×1, kelp ×2.
She didn't linger. She dropped the two Fish Traps back into the sea and headed straight back to the Shelter.
Along the way she spotted several large boulders. Qin Zhen pulled out her Stone Pickaxe and got to work — Stone ×15, EXP +15.
She felt like complaining about how stingy the System was. Such huge boulders, and all she got was 15 Stone total.
[Congratulations, player Qiyezhenzhen has reached Level 3! All Attribute Points except Luck and Magic Attribute have been increased by one. Additionally, you have received five freely assignable Attribute Points (excluding Luck and Magic Attribute).]
Through two days of exploration, Qin Zhen had come to realize that Speed was also very important — moving faster meant she could explore more ground and had a greater chance of finding resources. So this time she chose Constitution +3 and Speed +2.
Her status panel now read:
[Player: Qiyezhenzhen
Gender: Female
Level: 3 (EXP: 6/150)
Constitution: 15 (Very sturdy.)
Attack: 9 (Your Attack Power is decent.)
Defense: 7 (Not bad.)
Intelligence: 11 (Excellent!)
Speed: 10 (Very fast.)
Luck: 8 (Fairly lucky.)
Magic Attribute — Ice Affinity: 8; Light Affinity: 9
HP: 150
MP: 110]
With Constitution raised to 15, Qin Zhen felt her body — which had been utterly exhausted after an entire afternoon of hard labor — suddenly surge with renewed strength.
Speed boosted to 10, her pace back to the Shelter was noticeably quicker. It was truly remarkable!
Even so, by the time she arrived at the Shelter it was nearly five o'clock.
Same as before, Qin Zhen used Thatch ×2 and Wood ×1 to kindle a fire.
She planned to cook the seafood she had gathered today. Seafood spoiled quickly, and although her personal backpack was a static space where food wouldn't rot, space was limited — she couldn't keep carrying it around forever. Better to deal with it now.
Qin Zhen poured the remaining half-bottle of Mineral Water into the coconut shell pot from the day before, then added the conch meat ×2, fish meat 100g ×1, and the half-packet of seasoning left over from yesterday. She set the coconut shell over the fire to heat.
Once the seafood was nearly done, she tore open her last packet of instant noodles, set the seasoning packet aside, and dropped the noodle cake into the coconut shell to finish cooking.
Before long, the rich, savory aroma of seafood noodles wafted up and hit her square in the face. Qin Zhen nearly drooled — it smelled absolutely incredible. What a shame this was her very last packet of instant noodles. Sob.
She devoted her full attention to finishing every last bit of seafood and noodles, then drank the broth down to the final drop. Only then did Qin Zhen finally feel full.
With nothing to do in the evening, Qin Zhen sorted through her supplies.
After taking stock, she felt a wave of anxiety. Food was critically short. What she had could last a day at most. If tomorrow's haul was just as meager, the days ahead would be very difficult.
Qin Zhen decided to check what was available in the Trading Market.
[Wood ×10: Trade for any food]
[Thatch ×10: Trade for some water]
[Glass ×5: Trade for 200g+ of food]
[Refined Iron ×5: Trade for any food]
[Stone ×10: Trade for food]
[......]
Nearly everything was people trading other materials for food and water. Not a single person was offering food in exchange for goods. It was clear that food was genuinely scarce.
Seeing Stone listed, Qin Zhen felt a flicker of interest. She had only managed to find 15 Stone after an entire afternoon — it was slow going.
As for food, she still had several Coconuts she could use for trading. Coconuts weren't very filling, but they were packed with energy the body needed.
Qin Zhen traded four Coconuts for Stone ×20, Glass ×5, and Refined Iron ×5. She wasn't sure what Glass and Refined Iron were used for, but she had a feeling they were important.
[Player Qiyezhenzhen has been detected initiating a trade. Would you like to remain anonymous?]
Qin Zhen selected yes. Four Coconuts weren't much, but being able to trade them away meant she had a food surplus — and she didn't want to attract unwanted attention.
She opened the Chat Channel, and sure enough, people were already talking:
[Xiaoxiaohua'er: Someone just traded me 10 Stone for one Coconut! I thought I'd never find a taker — thank you, anonymous legend!]
[Chunriyan: Same here, same here — one Coconut for my five Glass.]
[Quduoduo: Mine was five Refined Iron. I won't say anything else, but that Coconut water was so good, I could cry.]
[Zhengzhan Tianxia: "Legend"? More like a profiteer exploiting fellow countrymen.
And honestly, you three are way too gullible.
Stone is a material for upgrading the Thatch hut, and Refined Iron and Glass are definitely important materials too.
You traded all of it away for one Coconut each — how are you going to upgrade your Shelters later? Tsk, tsk, tsk.]
With that, quite a few people began to feel that Qin Zhen had indeed been a little ruthless. One Coconut barely had any flesh to speak of, yet she'd gotten so much in return. They were all fellow Huaguo citizens sharing the same zone — shouldn't they be helping each other?