...
The journey was silent.
After lunch, Gu Pingsheng drove the bus along the straight highway.
Occasionally, Li Ruoyao would chat with Gu Pingsheng to prevent him from getting sleepy.
Many female classmates rested against their seats for a nap, lay on the back of the seat in front of them, or whispered to each other.
But just then, a message came from the Trading Market.
Gu Pingsheng's eyes flickered as he quickly opened the Trading Market.
Upon opening it, he saw a reply from a driver in the same region under a purchase request post.
Huang Xiaoya: [Hello, I have ordinary-grade wood and would like to trade for some water resources or iron ingots.]
Gu Pingsheng thought for a moment. He had plenty of water, but that didn't mean other buses passed by resource-rich stations.
Gu Pingsheng replied: [A 500ml bottle of mineral water or one iron ingot for 10 pieces of wood.]
Huang Xiaoya: [Wow, that's expensive!]
Gu Pingsheng: [Check the bus upgrade panel, and you'll see that 100 pieces of wood and 10 iron ingots are of equal value.]
Huang Xiaoya: [I'm a female college student, could you make it cheaper?]
Gu Pingsheng: [Even if you were a big brute, it wouldn't work.]
A female college student?
He had female college students on his bus!
Huang Xiaoya: [...]
After a while, she replied, [I have 120 pieces of wood. Can I trade them for 8 bottles of mineral water and 4 iron ingots?]
[Sure.]
[Driver Huang Xiaoya requests a trade]
[Ordinary-grade wood ×120 → 500ml mineral water ×8 + ordinary-grade iron ingot ×4, proceed with the trade?]
[Trade.]
After clicking the trade, Gu Pingsheng gained 120 pieces of wood.
Although he already had more than enough wood for one upgrade, he might need more for future upgrades or other needs.
Huang Xiaoya: [How did you get your resources?]
Gu Pingsheng: [We passed by a small shop station and got them there.]
There was no need to hide this information, as besides him, many buses passed by stations like grocery stores or supermarkets.
Huang Xiaoya: [Alright, thanks. I got mine from opening a chest, a total of 700 ordinary-grade wood. You guys are really lucky...]
Although 700 pieces of ordinary-grade wood seemed like a lot, it wasn't enough to trade for a day's worth of food and water for a bus.
However, Gu Pingsheng didn't know why Huang Xiaoya wanted iron ingots. In his opinion, it was best to solve the food and water issue for the bus before considering upgrading it.
After ending the chat, Gu Pingsheng put 100 pieces of wood on the trading panel, and the remaining 20 pieces were casually traded with a female classmate for some supplies.
Next, perhaps because they had been traveling for half a day, many drivers were hungry and gradually began trading with Gu Pingsheng.
Soon, besides the Energy Core, he had collected enough leather.
Knowing the rarity of the Energy Core, Gu Pingsheng continuously posted purchase requests.
Around four in the afternoon, a player finally contacted Gu Pingsheng.
After all, it was a trading market with two to three thousand people.
Li Ming: [Hey, I have an Energy Core. How much are you offering?]
Gu Pingsheng: [Name your price.]
Li Ming: [300 bottles of 500ml water or 500 portions of food.]
Gu Pingsheng's mouth twitched upon seeing the message.
Gu Pingsheng: [Are you joking?]
Li Ming: [I checked the posts in our region. Besides me, no one else is selling Energy Cores. It's crucial for upgrading the bus. I see you're selling food and water, so you must have gathered enough supplies on your bus, right?]
Gu Pingsheng: [That's impossible, it's too expensive. We're not the only bus that has gathered food and water supplies. Go trade with someone else.]
Li Ming naturally tried negotiating with players from other buses.
But they all found the price too high.
Helplessly, the two continued to haggle. Find the original chapter at g.com.
Half an hour later,
Gu Pingsheng finally traded 30 bottles of 500ml water for the Energy Core.
"My god, Pingsheng, you really bargained it down from 300 bottles to 30 bottles."
Li Ruoyao exclaimed beside him.
"Don't mention it, even 30 bottles of water make my heart ache. But upgrading the bus will bring more resources, and the sooner we upgrade, the more we can distance ourselves from the monsters. Overall, it's worth it.
Moreover, this item surely won't be that rare. I think the other side realized this too.
After all, eventually, almost every bus will need to upgrade to escape the monsters. If this item were truly scarce, it would be a death sentence.
So, many buses must have found it but chose not to sell it, intending to keep it for upgrades."
Gu Pingsheng smiled, holding something resembling a crystal in his hand.
[Energy Core:
Quality: Common Top-grade.
An essential item for upgrading buses and other tools.
Evaluation: You can't do without it. In this harsh world, the Energy Core is extremely important.]
Gu Pingsheng stopped the bus and placed the final required material, the Energy Core, on the bus upgrade panel.
But before upgrading, Gu Pingsheng needed to emphasize something.
He turned to his classmates and slowly said:
"Everyone, I'm planning to upgrade the bus. The bus is a vehicle we all rely on for survival.
So, when upgrading the bus, I need each of you to contribute a piece of material. As I said before, the principle on the bus is fairness. The material you contribute can be a bottle of water or a portion of food.
Now, please place a piece of material on the empty spot on my dashboard.
Of course, these resources will also help us trade better with other bus drivers in the future."
Gu Pingsheng's words received approval from many classmates.
Li Ruoyao chimed in, "That's right, the bus belongs to everyone. It wouldn't be fair for the Class Monitor to use all his resources for the upgrade, would it?"
Lin Qiunan and other class committee members responded by placing a piece of material next to Gu Pingsheng's dashboard.
Huang Ting and others were the last to contribute. They seemed reluctant, but under Li Ruoyao's warning gaze, they eventually gritted their teeth and handed over the materials.
Gu Pingsheng stored the resources he could fit into his inventory.
The rest were temporarily placed in the empty seats on the bus, to be traded with other drivers later.
He thought this was a good idea; collecting materials from his classmates every time the bus was upgraded would also encourage them to be more proactive at each station.
...
Then Gu Pingsheng clicked to upgrade the bus.
In the next moment, the entire bus suddenly became bumpy, startling most of the female classmates.
Immediately after, the bus, originally about 10 meters long and 2.5 meters wide, expanded significantly, with more space between the seats.
Two additional rows of seats appeared at the back, totaling 8 more seats, bringing the total to 50 seats, including the driver and front passenger seats.
Not only that, but the entire bus space also increased significantly.
"Wow, so this is what upgrading the bus does. It's amazing, it got a lot bigger."
"Not only that, there are more seats now."
"Upgrading is good; otherwise, the bus space was too small and uncomfortable."
......
At the same time, a notification sounded in Gu Pingsheng's ear.
[Congratulations to player Gu Pingsheng for upgrading the bus to level 2, receiving blueprint: Large Water Condenser Blueprint. Function unlocked: Mod Shop.]
Large Water Condenser Blueprint?
A flash of delight crossed Gu Pingsheng's eyes.
Constantly producing water resources?
This was a great item.
Gu Pingsheng glanced at the blueprint description.
[Large Water Condenser Blueprint:
Quality: Common High-grade.
Synthesis requirements: Stone ×100, Iron Ingot ×100, Energy Core ×1.
Can condense 20 liters of pure water per day from atmospheric water vapor.
This large water condenser also required an Energy Core.
This thing seemed really important, just as the evaluation suggested.
Gu Pingsheng scratched his head.
No matter, he would trade some water for it later. Currently, water resources were the most valuable in the Trading Market.
If he built this large water condenser, the basic needs would be covered.
With a bus full of people, even if each drank only 500ml a day, they would still need at least 15-20 liters of water resources daily, just enough for this large water condenser...
Of course, a person needs 1-2 liters of water a day to live well. To truly sustain a busload of people, at least three large water condensers would be needed.
...
Afterward, Gu Pingsheng put away the blueprint and continued to check the bus panel.
He casually named the bus "Ping'an," hoping that he and all the female classmates on the bus could remain safe and sound.
[Bus Panel:
Name: Ping'an.
Bus Number: 15200.
Level: 2.
Quality: Common Low-grade (Upgrade level or modify to improve bus quality.)
Number of Members: 42.
Speed: 40 km/h.
Durability: 20/20
Upgrade Requirements: Ordinary-grade wood ×200, Ordinary-grade leather ×50, Ordinary-grade iron ingot ×20, Energy Core ×2.
Upgrade Rewards:
1: Speed increased to 60 km/h.
2: Durability increased to 30.
3: Slight increase in defense.
4: Receive any blueprint ×1.
5: Unlock a function.
Current Bus Functions: Dismantle, Mod Shop.
Dismantle: Can dismantle large items into basic materials, such as dismantling a common-grade table into wood.
Mod Shop: Can purchase bus modules in the Mod Shop, which can modify the bus.]
At this moment, a notification appeared.
[Region-wide Broadcast: Player Gu Pingsheng is the first driver in Region 6 to upgrade a bus, rewarding player Gu Pingsheng with a random skill ×1, any attribute point ×5.]
[Player Gu Pingsheng, you have acquired the skill Air Slash.]
[Skill: Air Slash:
Quality: Common Mid-grade.
Creates a sharp slashing attack that can effectively damage creatures of common mid-grade and below. The higher the constitution, the greater the damage dealt.
Cooldown: 2 minutes.]
"It seems the skill's damage is related to two aspects: the skill's quality and one's constitution."
Without hesitation, Gu Pingsheng allocated all the attribute points to constitution.
With the identity of a bus driver,
Gu Pingsheng's constitution bonus was doubled.
After adding the points, his base constitution reached 17 points.
With the bonus, it became 34 points.
Feeling quite pleased, it was more than three times that of an average man's constitution.
With this constitution, using Air Slash, he could probably deal decent damage even to monsters of common high-grade quality.
Gu Pingsheng breathed a sigh of relief.
He finally had an offensive means.
...