NOVEL NEXT chapter 12 - Day 4 of Survival 02
“You’re overthinking it. I have my reasons for establishing this club. Help me recruit, and I promise you won’t lose out. I’ll at least take care of your food and water.”
“Sister Yun, even though I said I’d listen to whatever you say, I really don’t want you delaying your own progress just to do good deeds. But if you’ve made up your mind, I’ll follow through.”
Mu Zitang had absolute trust in Yun Luohe. He just worried she would sacrifice her own development for others.
He couldn’t think of any real benefit such a club could bring to her.
Yun Luohe:
“Try to recruit ten players whose Luck stats are similar to yours. The club will be called the Survival Mutual Aid Association. After joining, members will turn in a portion of the useless stuff they fish up each day. In exchange, they’ll receive upgrade materials and water. Not a large amount, but it’ll be a steady supply.”
“Ten’s not hard. I already know three whose Luck is just a bit better than mine. Their daily loot always includes some trash.”
“Then go ask if they’re willing to join. I’m usually too busy, so the club’s management will likely fall to you. You’ll be in charge of collecting materials. When it comes time to distribute them, I’ll coordinate with you. I’ll send you the required goods, and you’ll handle the distribution. Your portion will be calculated separately—you’ll get an extra share on top.”
Yun Luohe truly didn’t have the time to manage the club herself. The whole point of creating it was to gather more trash and grind experience for the Trash Can.
The faster the Trash Can leveled up, the bigger her advantage would become.
Yun Luohe had always been keenly aware of the ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) massive gap between herself and those Lucky players.
If she wanted to surpass them, she’d have to make full use of the Trash Can.
Now, the two daily lottery draws had the potential to give her high-grade blueprints, but just drawing them wasn’t enough—there was no way she could mass-produce them on her own.
And the amount of junk she could fish up herself was way too small.
Sure, custom crafting brought in a lot of materials—including trash.
But she couldn’t keep doing that work forever.
She only had one Toolbench, and she needed to reserve it for making advanced tools like Water Purifiers and Plastic Umbrellas.
Even the Fishing Rod business would probably do well later on.
But if she stopped taking custom orders, how would she get enough junk?
She couldn’t exactly trade Water Purifiers for garbage.
By setting up this club, she could trade a small amount of materials for a large amount of trash. Leaving it to Mu Zitang to manage didn’t worry her at all.
After all, she didn’t have to invest much—just hand over a few supplies.
For now, the goal was to recruit ten people. With ten players, they should be able to generate about twenty pieces of trash a day.
Since Plastic had become valuable, once everyone had a Toolbench, they’d realize they could break down empty mineral water bottles into Plastic. By then, it wouldn’t be so easy to get them anymore.
The day went by quickly.
By evening, the sky suddenly turned gray, the temperature dropped, and the sea wind on her face was damp and cold. It looked like rain was coming.
The system had already warned about this, so Yun Luohe wasn’t surprised.
Sure enough, not long after, she heard the light pattering of rain.
The rain wasn’t heavy, but since it was so quiet around, the sound was unusually clear.
She opened the chat channel.
“If it starts raining right when night falls, then we better use up all our stamina during the day.”
“Remember what the system said? Getting sick or injured can lead to death. I bet getting caught in the rain can easily lead to a cold. There aren’t any doctors out at sea—and no cold medicine either.”
“So we can only stay active during the day and hide in the Thatch Hut at night?”
“What if the hut leaks? The rain won’t stop after just a day or two.”
“What else can we do? Upgrade! Maybe the next level is a brick-and-tile house.”
“Haha, good thing I pulled an umbrella today. It’s finally useful!”
Yun Luohe took out the Plastic Umbrella Blueprint.
Looked like she needed to craft it sooner rather than later. No one knew how long the rain would last, or if the Thatch Hut roof was even waterproof.
If it wasn’t, upgrading would be urgent.
To make one Plastic Umbrella, she needed: Plastic ×3, Iron Ore ×1
She had both materials, but they were also key components for crafting Water Purifiers.
That meant the demand for both would only increase from now on.
She crafted one Plastic Umbrella first and opened it, using it to shield the garden behind the Thatch Hut so the newly sprouted seedlings wouldn’t get damaged by the rain.
Then she went back inside to finish the 50 custom orders.
That afternoon, her Fishing Net hauled in four rounds of items total:
One Shell, Palm Leaves ×2, Coconut ×1, Damaged Beer Bottle ×1
The Shell revealed a Gray Pearl.
The loot from the pearl was pretty average—
Steamed Buns ×2, Ocean Stones ×3, Fiber ×1, Cotton Fabric ×1, Aluminum Can ×1, Old CD ×1
She still had some stamina left and had only pulled up one shell.
So later tonight, she’d definitely go out and keep casting the net.
Just as Yun Luohe wrapped up all her orders and was about to take a break, Du Ruan-tian messaged her—she had brought in two Water Purifier deals.
And both offers were pretty good—16 Iron Ore each.
That was one more than Yun Luohe had originally asked for.
Just in time—she had received two Gravel from Mu Zitang earlier, and with the materials she had on hand, she quickly crafted two more Water Purifiers.
To thank Du Ruan-tian, Yun Luohe planned to give her the extra two Iron Ore she earned.
Du Ruan-tian:
“It’s fine, keep them. You could sell them for that price in the Trading Center anyway.”
If Water Purifiers appeared in the Trading Center, other players would realize they were out—and the value of Purified Water would start to drop.
Before she could mass-produce Water Purifiers, she didn’t plan to list them publicly.
For now, her main goal was to make as many as she could and use the Purified Water to trade for basic upgrade materials like Ocean Stones and Fiber.
With the Iron Ore she’d just earned, Yun Luohe could now craft several more Water Purifiers.
As for the Plastic Umbrella, she was planning to make two and test the market—see whether they sold better than the Purifiers.
Even though the rain only came at night, if players still had unused stamina during the day and didn’t have an umbrella, they’d be stuck inside their huts, unable to go out and fish for supplies.
Players with bad luck might let it go, but the lucky ones definitely wouldn’t want to waste stamina.
Like those people from the Lucky Club—someone would probably want one.
But Yun Luohe had no intention of asking them directly.
Unlike Water Purifiers, Plastic Umbrellas could just be anonymously posted in the Trading Center without causing any ripples.
She planned to make two and list them at a high price to see if they’d sell.
Then another message came from Du Ruan-tian.
“Wu Jing just asked me who made the Water Purifier. He wants to add them as a friend. I haven’t told him—it’s your call. I know you two already have each other added.”
“Was one of those two Water Purifiers for him?”
“Yeah.”
Yun Luohe:
“Don’t tell him yet.”
“Mm, got it.”
Du Ruan-tian stared at the light screen for a few minutes, carefully crafting her message before sending it.
“I have an idea I’d like to discuss with you.”
“Go ahead.”
“I want to partner up with you and sell Water Purifiers together.”
When Yun Luohe saw the word partner, she wasn’t surprised. She quietly waited for Du Ruan-tian to continue.
On paper, the offer sounded great. Yun Luohe wouldn’t need to worry about anything else—just use the Toolbench to make the items, and she’d earn a solid amount of materials.
However, finding customers wasn’t actually difficult at all.
The demand for Water Purifiers was obvious. Every player in the zone knew they needed one.
And since she was the only one with the blueprint for now, any Water Purifier she put out would be snatched up instantly.
Yun Luohe wasn’t opposed to keeping all the profits for herself—she could absolutely do it. The problem was, there was just too much to handle alone. She was already stretched thin.
And gathering that many materials was a hassle.
Her original plan was to sell Purified Water in exchange for materials, then use those to craft more Water Purifiers and earn even more resources. But she’d only planned to make as many as she had materials for.
If they partnered up, she’d be able to make more Water Purifiers.
Yun Luohe opened the Trading Center to check how her trades for Gravel were doing.
She clicked on Settlement.
She saw that three of her listings had completed.
500ml Purified Water traded for:
Wood ×3, Ocean Stone ×1, Gravel ×2, Rotten Vegetable Leaves ×1, Torn Burlap Sack ×1, Mineral Water Bottle ×2
500ml Purified Water traded for:
Wood ×7, Fiber ×2, Gravel ×1
500ml Purified Water traded for:
Iron Ore ×1
A few people had left her messages, too:
“Hi, I don’t have Gravel. Can I trade 10 other materials instead? How about 10 Ocean Stones or 10 Fiber?”
“I’ve got Gravel. How about 5 Gravel for one bottle of water?”
“We’re all drinking mineral water, but is your purified water filtered from seawater? I’ll trade you 20 materials for a filter.”
Judging by that, things were moving a bit slowly.
If she couldn’t even get enough materials with Purified Water, could Du Ruan-tian really guarantee a steady supply?
Yun Luohe replied to the second person first.
Trading 5 Gravel for one bottle of water wasn’t unacceptable.
She was in urgent need of Gravel.
Besides, she was trading anonymously, so lowering the trade rate wouldn’t affect her reputation.
After replying, she updated her listing:
1 Purified Water = 5 Gravel
About ten minutes later, the listing was completed.
Then she sent a message to Du Ruan-tian:
“If you can get me 50 Gravel, 100 Iron Ore, 100 Plastic, and 50 Charcoal by tomorrow, we’ll go with your plan.”
If Du Ruan-tian could produce enough materials to craft 50 Water Purifiers, Yun Luohe would seriously consider the partnership.
It would save her a lot of effort.
Yun Luohe:
“Besides Water Purifiers, I have other blueprints too. If you can gather the materials, we can partner on those under the same terms.”
This was Yun Luohe testing Du Ruan-tian’s capabilities.
If she could deliver that many materials by tomorrow—
Then Yun Luohe would trust she had the qualifications to work with her.
There was a limit to what Yun Luohe could do alone. Partnering up might not make her earn less than going solo.
Plastic Umbrellas, Fishing Rods…
All good business opportunities.
And she needed a lot of materials.
Du Ruan-tian:
“Alright. Just wait for the good news.”