One listing in the Marketplace immediately caught Ethan’s attention.
[Shelter Upgrade Crystal (Lv.1) — Trading for any food.]
Since almost everyone was desperately short on food and water, very few players paid any attention to the listing.
Ethan, however, was different.
After a full day of scavenging, he and Natasha had managed to build up a respectable stockpile of food and drinking water.
Even with both of them eating more than the average person, their supplies would easily last another week or two.
He sent the seller a private message.
"Hey, can you send me the item’s description?"
The other player responded almost immediately.
[Shelter Upgrade Crystal (Lv.1) — Permanently upgrades your shelter to 50 square meters and increases its defensive strength.]
"Now that’s a good item."
Ethan rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
His cabin currently measured only about ten square meters.
It was enough for two people, but as his team continued to grow, the space would quickly become inadequate.
More importantly, the upgrade also strengthened the shelter’s defenses.
The better protected his shelter became, the greater his chances of surviving this dangerous world.
The seller was probably starving and had nothing else of value to trade.
Of course, it was also possible they’d simply been incredibly lucky and found more than one crystal.
Either way, Ethan had no intention of letting an item like this slip through his fingers.
"I’ll trade you one piece of meat."
"Meat? What kind? I’m not eating poisoned meat. I don’t want my last meal to be my actual last meal."
"It’s perfectly safe."
Ethan sent over the item description for the Ironfang Giant Rat Meat.
A few seconds later, the reply came back.
"Holy crap! Fresh meat! You’re amazing! I’m still searching for scraps, and you’re already hunting monsters."
"I just got lucky."
"But it says eating it raw can upset your stomach. It won’t kill me, but getting sick out here could still be deadly."
"Tell you what. Throw in something extra, and I’ll include a lighter."
The lighter was something Ethan had found while searching the office building earlier that day.
It was just an ordinary windproof lighter.
Since he already owned the Epic Fire Starter, the lighter meant very little to him.
"I also found a box of pistol ammunition. Interested?"
"Deal."
Although Natasha hadn’t fired a single shot yet, there was no such thing as having too much ammunition.
It was always better to prepare in advance.
After confirming both sides of the trade, Ethan pressed Confirm Trade.
A flash of white light appeared.
Inside his inventory was a flawless white crystal.
Beside it sat a box of pistol ammunition.
Opening it, he counted exactly fifty rounds.
After handing the ammunition to Natasha, Ethan picked up the crystal.
A System prompt appeared.
[Use Shelter Upgrade Crystal (Lv.1)?]
"Yes."
The crystal dissolved into a stream of white light and shot into the cabin floor.
The entire shelter was enveloped in a soft glow.
Two or three seconds later, the light faded.
The cabin had expanded to roughly fifty square meters.
The wooden walls, floor, and roof had also transformed.
Ordinary timber had been replaced with an incredibly dense hardwood that looked almost as strong as steel.
Even the windows had gained sliding wooden shutters, making it much harder for intruders to break in.
Looking outside, Ethan discovered another pleasant surprise.
A ring of wooden anti-charge barricades now surrounded the cabin.
Rows of sharpened stakes crisscrossed one another, forming a sturdy defensive barrier.
Originally designed to stop cavalry charges, they would likely prove just as effective against ordinary monsters.
After eating dinner and drinking some water, Ethan crafted a large wooden storage chest.
Back when the cabin was only ten square meters, adding furniture would have wasted valuable living space.
Now that the shelter had expanded, storing excess supplies in a chest made perfect sense.
Like the inventory, the storage chest possessed a form of time-stop preservation.
Anything stored inside would never spoil, rot, or deteriorate.
That allowed both Ethan and Natasha to free up inventory slots for future scavenging runs.
Once everything had been organized, Ethan smiled.
"Natasha, I’ll take the second watch again tonight."
She looked at him with concern.
"Commander... won’t that be exhausting?"
Everyone knew that even after getting some sleep, staying awake during the second half of the night was especially draining because of the body’s natural sleep cycle.
"Don’t worry."
"I’m a night owl."
"And after the Gene Serum, my body’s much stronger than before."
He raised an arm and playfully flexed his bicep.
Remembering just how much stronger Ethan had become, Natasha agreed.
"Understood, Commander."
Later that night, after Ethan climbed out of bed to begin his watch, the Daily Check-In System activated once again.
[Ding! A new day has begun.]
[Today’s available rewards are:]
[1. One Common Hammer]
[2. One Genetically Modified Sow]
[3. One Item Rank Upgrade Card]
"The hammer’s an easy pass."
"As for the sow... I could butcher it for meat."
"But I’ll take the Upgrade Card."
Over the past few days, the Daily Check-In rewards had frequently included livestock.
That suggested animals had a fairly high chance of appearing.
The Item Rank Upgrade Card, however, was something he had never seen before.
Its rarity alone made it worth choosing.
A flash of white light appeared.
A gold card roughly the size of a playing card materialized in Ethan’s hand.
It looked as though it had been forged from solid gold.
Its description appeared immediately afterward.
[Item Rank Upgrade Card — Upgrades the rank of any item. Cannot upgrade an item to Mythic or Creator Rank.]
From everything Ethan had learned so far, items in this world were ranked from lowest to highest as follows:
Common → Advanced → Rare → Legendary → Epic → Mythic → Creator
Thanks to the Daily Check-In System, he had already started the game with Legendary and Epic equipment.
For everyone else, finding even a Rare item would be considered extraordinarily lucky.
Now, with this Upgrade Card, he could improve one of his existing items and further increase his combat strength.
Without hesitation, Ethan summoned the Silent Hunter.
Even in its Legendary form, the crossbow had killed an Ironfang Giant Rat with ease.
If it became Epic...
Just how powerful would it be?
With monsters growing more aggressive by the day, the decision was obvious.
He used the Upgrade Card on the Silent Hunter.
The golden card melted into liquid light before flowing into the weapon.
Brilliant golden radiance completely enveloped the crossbow.
When the glow finally faded, its appearance hadn’t changed much.
The only obvious addition was a scope mounted on top.
"...That’s it?"
Feeling slightly nervous, Ethan opened the weapon’s information panel.
The moment he finished reading it, an excited grin spread across his face.
[Silent Hunter (Epic)]
[A super-alloy hand crossbow that fires in complete silence. Comes equipped with fifty recoverable armor-piercing bolts.]
[Damage increased by 50%. Effective combat range increased to 500 meters.]
[Multi-Function Scope: Capable of spotting an ant from one kilometer away. Can also switch to thermal imaging mode.]