Starting With a Reef [Global Survival]

Yun Luohe immediately contacted the player who had the damaged blueprint.
“Hi, what do you want in exchange for your blueprint?”
“Upgrade materials. Ten Ocean Stones, five Wood, five Fiber.”

Yun Luohe: “That’s too much. It’s a damaged blueprint—if it can’t be repaired, it’s just scrap paper.”
“Then how much do you think it’s worth?”
The player had been holding onto the blueprint for a long time. They couldn’t use it, and no one had been willing to trade for it.
“I can give you a total of fifteen materials. That’s the most.”
Yun Luohe was also worried she might not be able to repair the blueprint. She hadn’t tried using the Trash Can to repair one before, and she couldn’t switch skills today—she’d have to wait until tomorrow.

It was a gamble. Blueprints were rare, and if it weren’t damaged, there’s no way it would go for just fifteen materials.
But opportunity always came with risk.
She wanted to get a steal—but she also knew she might end up at a loss.
So fifteen materials was her absolute limit.
In the end, the player agreed.
It was already late, and a damaged blueprint was completely useless in hand. If they couldn’t level up, they’d die. No point in hanging on to broken paper.
When Yun Luohe received the blueprint, she examined it carefully.

Because it was damaged, all the details were missing. She could only guess from the incomplete diagrams that it was likely a weapon blueprint.
But she wouldn’t know what kind of weapon it was until it was repaired.
Yun Luohe couldn’t wait for tomorrow. If it turned out to be a good weapon, she’d hit the jackpot.
That said, she had nearly used up all of her materials by now.

Mu Zitang: “Sister Yun, I was busy just now and only saw your message.”
“I’m almost ready to level up. I took a nap to regain some energy. I’m fishing for materials right now—just a little more to go.”
“How much are you short? Are you sure you’ll make it?”
Since Yun Luohe had already taken so many supplies from him, she had decided she’d help no matter what. She couldn’t just let him get eliminated.

“I got this, don’t worry, Sister Yun. If I still can’t upgrade in half an hour, I’ll come to you.”
Mu Zitang sounded confident. He still had a few bottles of Mineral Water and five Custard Buns saved up. If he really couldn’t gather enough materials, he’d trade those.
That finally put Yun Luohe at ease, and she went back to fishing.
She had 40 Stamina Points left. Hopefully, she could catch one more Shell.

Once her stamina was spent, she’d sleep peacefully.
But her luck wasn’t great that night.
After half an hour, she pulled up nothing but a half-rotten Palm Leaf. So Yun Luohe turned to her processing orders.
She decided to haul in the fishing net again right before bed to check it.

She took on ten more orders, working at the Toolbench while keeping an eye on the light screen for any updates.
Just after midnight, the system’s voice echoed from the sky.
[Time’s up. Players who have not reached Level 3 will be eliminated. Eliminated players will be erased by the system…]
[Newbie Protection has ended. From this point forward, player death rates will rise significantly. Whether due to injury or illness, death is now possible. Please value your life and strive to survive.]
[You are now entering a one-month Spring Season. The Trading Center and Forum are now open. Material distribution will increase. Each week, one Lucky Day will occur. On Lucky Day, players’ maximum Stamina increases, allowing up to 5 Shells to be caught.]
[Players who fail to reach Level 4 within three days will be eliminated.]
It seemed things were about to get a lot tougher.

Leveling up quickly was the only way to stay alive.
The number of online players in the region suddenly dropped by several hundred—likely those eliminated by the system.
“Hundreds of people, just gone like that? That’s brutal.”
“For real. Are lives that worthless? Even if we didn’t level up, couldn’t we have just been left to fend for ourselves? Why outright erase us?”
“Instead of wasting time here complaining, just go to sleep and get up early to fish.”
“Hey, the Trading Center just opened—did anyone check it out? You can list materials directly now.”

Yun Luohe was already studying the Trading Center.
Players could list their goods and specify what they wanted in return, or set a fixed item for barter. That way, others could simply search for what they needed and find potential trades.
Of course, if the buyer didn’t have the item the seller wanted, they could still negotiate.
Sellers could choose to trade using their name or anonymously.

Yun Luohe was very satisfied with this feature. Now she could trade trash anonymously.
She figured she’d be able to exchange all kinds of trash every day now.
With the Trading Center live, players no longer needed to message each other directly or add friends just to make trades. It was a huge time saver.

At the moment, the barter market was still chaotic. Everyone needed different things, so most players were waiting to see how others were pricing trades.
Even so, within just a few minutes, the Trading Center was already full of listings.
Some players were offering food in exchange for warm clothing.
Others were listing junk they’d fished up, asking for upgrade materials in return.
The most common listings were players trying to trade upgrade items for Mineral Water.

Clearly, a lot of people were still short on drinking water.
Even though failing to reach Level 4 in three days meant elimination, not having any water might kill you long before that.
Yun Luohe checked her own water supply.
She still had five small bottles. She’d poured out half of one that morning to water her seeds. The large bottles were untouched. She still had enough to drink for now.

She could spare at most two bottles to trade for upgrade materials. But one bottle didn’t get much in return, and if she traded them all, it wouldn’t be worth it.
If she wanted to earn more materials, she’d have to find another way.
Yun Luohe pulled up her fishing net.

To her surprise, there was already a Shell inside.
And it was a White Pearl.
Perfect—what a great way to end the day!

[Obtained: Ocean Stone ×10, Fiber ×5, Egg Fried Rice ×1, Blanket ×1, Damaged Glasses ×1, Torn Plush Toy ×1, Watermelon Rind ×1, Iron Ore ×1, Parchment Fragment ×1]
Not bad at all!
A little of everything.
And a Parchment Fragment, too.
She had already found one Parchment Fragment earlier, but she still didn’t know how many fragments were needed to complete the whole thing.

She placed the two fragments together—and sure enough, there was a reaction.
The two Parchment Fragments merged in a flash of white light, but there was still a missing piece.
Judging by the size, it looked like at least one or two more were needed.

And she still had no idea what the final result would be. Could it be a treasure map?
Yun Luohe brought over the Trash Can and switched to the Recycling Skill.
Honestly, she still preferred this skill—it brought more surprises. The Scrap-for-Cash Skill was definitely useful, though, since upgrading the reef required a lot of Ocean Stones.
And in the future, she'd only need more.

She had built up a whole pile of junk—it was finally time to dump it all in for recycling.
Yun Luohe dragged the Wooden Chest over and started tossing items into the Trash Can one by one.
[Palm Leaf successfully recycled. Obtained: Fiber ×5]
[Beer Bottle successfully recycled. Obtained: Glass ×1]
[Rotten Slippers successfully recycled. Obtained: Plastic ×2]
[Moldy Potato successfully recycled. Obtained: Potato Seeds ×2]
[Rotten Gloves successfully recycled. Obtained: Fiber ×10]
[Rotten Cabbage successfully recycled. Obtained: Cabbage Seeds ×1]
[Damaged Glasses successfully recycled. Obtained: Glass ×1]
[Torn Plush Toy successfully recycled. Obtained: Cotton ×1]
[Watermelon Rind successfully recycled. Obtained: Watermelon Seeds ×1]
…

Plus the thirty junk items she’d gotten from processing orders that night.
Yun Luohe spent half an hour just throwing trash away.
In total, she’d recycled nearly a hundred materials.
So satisfying!

She didn’t feel sleepy at all anymore. She wasn’t tired—she just wanted to keep collecting trash.
The Thatch Hut was already piled high with materials, and the Wooden Chest was full too.
And now, the Trash Can had two lottery draws stored up.

No point waiting until tomorrow—she’d draw them now.

[Lottery Start]
[Obtained: Small Water Purifier Blueprint ×1]
[Lottery Start]
[Obtained: Fishing Rod Blueprint ×1]

Yun Luohe’s eyes widened.
Now this—this was a real jackpot.
Compared to the Water Purifier Blueprint, the rest of the materials were nothing.
[Small Water Purifier: Can purify 5L of seawater per day]
[Crafting Materials: Gravel ×1, Charcoal ×1, Plastic ×2, Iron Ore ×2]

Yun Luohe had most of the required materials.
She used to think Plastic was useless—but it turned out to be necessary here. And now she had plenty of it!
She also had Charcoal. If you picked up the wood after it had burned in the Stove, it turned into Charcoal—she’d already tested that before.

The only thing missing was Gravel. She’d recycled the ones she had before, but it couldn’t be that hard to get. It was probably meant to filter fine particles.
Now that the Trading Center was open, there was nothing to worry about—she opened it to check for Gravel.
She searched… but found nothing.

That was strange—she’d definitely fished up Gravel before, so others must have too.
Most players probably saw it as useless and never bothered listing it.
After all, she hadn’t seen anyone put Plastic Bottles up for trade either.
But she remembered Mu Zitang had pulled some up before. During one of their earlier trades, she’d even gotten a piece from him.

So Yun Luohe messaged Mu Zitang.
“Do you have any Gravel?”
“Just caught one, and I still have another in my backpack. If you want them, I’ll send both.”

Yun Luohe: “Great—send me both. What do you want in exchange?”
Mu Zitang: “I was going to throw them out anyway. They take up space. Just take them—no need to trade me anything.”
“Oh, by the way, check this out. I’ve got a bunch of stuff I fished up today. If you want anything, just let me know—I’ll give it all to you.”
Mu Zitang had leveled up smoothly today, but he hadn’t stopped fishing since. He’d also been busy trading, so he hadn’t had time to show Yun Luohe his materials yet.

[Palm Leaf ×1, Gravel ×2, Sand ×1, Sponge ×1, Hemp Fabric ×1, Rotten Towel ×1, Rusty Iron Chunk ×1, Damaged Floral Dress ×1]
“If none of this is useful to you, I’ll give it all to you. I’ll take water in return.”
Yun Luohe planned to craft two Water Purifiers first.
She figured no one in Region 2 had one yet. If she could be the first, she’d corner the market.

Whether she sold purified water or the purifiers themselves, she was sure to make a profit.
Even processing orders for Water Purifiers would bring in good returns—just like Du Ruan-tian did with Stoves.
And Water Purifiers were definitely rarer than Stoves.
She needed to get ahead of everyone else and make as much as she could while she was the only one with the blueprint.

As soon as she got the materials, Yun Luohe started prepping to build the purifier.
She placed the ingredients on the Toolbench. Crafting time: thirty minutes.
She could wait half an hour. Once the first purifier was done, she’d pour in a bucket of seawater and start purifying. It would work overnight.
Before bed, she’d prep the materials for the second purifier. By morning, she’d have both.

Time ticked by. She tossed another piece of wood into the Stove. Yun Luohe had forgotten all about sleep.
While waiting on the Toolbench, she kept the Trash Can running too.
She recycled the materials she’d just gotten from Mu Zitang and pulled out a few good items.
The Rusty Iron Chunk turned into Iron Ore ×5, and the Damaged Floral Dress became Cotton Fabric ×2.

The Trash Can’s experience bar also increased significantly.
[Trash Can Lv.2]
[EXP required for next upgrade: 201]
In just a single day, she’d raised the Trash Can’s experience this much.
It wouldn’t take long to level it up again!

Yun Luohe was beyond excited.
Right—there was still one more blueprint she hadn’t checked.
[Simple Fishing Rod: Looks like an ordinary rod, but you never know—it might reel in a big fish.]
[Crafting Materials: Bamboo ×1, Iron Ore ×1, Fishing Line ×2]

Oh—this one was great too. Once it was done, she could go fishing!
The thought of eating grilled fish made Yun Luohe’s stomach rumble just a bit.
After all, a diet without meat just wouldn’t cut it forever.