The next day Adam caught one fish and ate the two raw ones before they spoiled.
He ate an egg as well.
He drank enough from the purifier to bring his Thirst near full.
One capped bottle drifted close enough for the hook.
He filled it before dark and rinsed the cut again, keeping that hand out of the sea while he refilled the purifier.
The pink around it faded by evening, though gripping the line still hurt.
On the tenth morning, the panel confirmed the infection had cleared.
[Infection (hand): cleared.]
[Health 91% | Hunger 72% | Thirst 84% | Stamina 80%]
He had enough water to drink and the hand no longer needed care.
Another notice appeared beneath his status.
[Barter System Unlocked]
[Trade tab added.
Both parties place items in a shared window and confirm.
Items swap instantly on the second confirmation.]
[Limits: 5 trades per person per day.
10 kg per trade.
Up to 3 item types per side.]
[Water must be in a container; the container transfers with it unless a return is specified.
Living things and structures cannot be bartered.
Blueprints can.]
[No fee.
You may barter with anyone you can message.]
He had three bottles.
He could send only as much water as he could put in them.
The global tab, when he opened it, had gone back to what it had been on the first night, a column pouring upward too fast to read, and he closed it.
The regional was quicker but not by much.
He filtered it on Reeve, because there was one person on the water he had already traded words with, and the man was there.
[Reeve] Kessler.
You awake.
I’ve got wood and no water and a girl who drinks like a horse.
Two bottles for six wood, that’s what I’m offering, and I don’t know if that’s robbery either way.
Six Wood for two units sounded useful.
He had two Wood left, and the purifier would make more water during the day.
He accepted.
The trade window showed his name on one side and Reeve’s on the other.
Adam placed two full bottles in his side.
Reeve added six planks and confirmed.
Adam checked both sides, then confirmed too.
[Barter complete — Reeve: 6 Wood | Kessler: 2 Water (Bottle 1 L ×2).
2.0 kg / 10 kg.
Trades today: 1/5.]
Six planks appeared beside the crate.
His two bottles had gone to Reeve with the water.
Only one bottle remained on his raft.
The purifier’s trough was nearly full again.
His only remaining bottle still held guano, so he had no clean container ready for the next unit.
Adam opened Inventory, then the trade record.
Both listed the bottles under Reeve’s side of the completed exchange.
The water was worth the Wood, but giving away the containers would leave him waiting beside the purifier with nowhere to keep what it made.
He tried opening the finished trade again.
It showed the details and no controls.
Reeve sent a message before Adam could ask for the bottles back.
[Reeve] Got them.
Chloe says thank you and a lot of other things.
Now look at your window again, lad.
Bottom right.
Little box that says Return container.
You didn’t tick it.
Those bottles are mine now.
The Return container box sat beneath the weight limit.
Adam had missed it.
He would have to ask for his bottles back in another trade.
[Reeve] Don’t panic.
Coming back to you now, and two fish with them, call it a lesson fee.
I’m charging you for the advice later.
Tick the box.
A second window opened with two empty bottles and two fish from Reeve.
The offer was marked Gift and would use only Reeve’s trade allowance.
Adam confirmed.
He had three bottles again and five fish in the crate.
Reeve had spent one of his five trades and two fish to teach him.
Adam typed thank you.
He filtered Global Chat for water offers.
[DELL] Just did 4 wood for a bottle.
Done in ten seconds.
That’s the price then.
[Saltking] Market open.
Water is the unit of account, as predicted.
Indicative: 1 Water = 3 Wood = 1 Rope = 2 Fish = 1 Cloth.
Wood will fall as more rafts strip.
Buy rope.
Told you.
[DELL] “as predicted” he says.
Everyone with a bottle predicted it, Victor.
[Saltking] Sellers with volume, DM this handle.
I can place it.
Several offers matched Saltking’s prices.
Reeve had given him a fair amount of Wood.
Adam needed more bottles if he wanted to sell much water each day.
He wrote: bottles.
Underlined it twice this time.
Then he went back to the global and typed a line into it, his second ever.
[Kessler] Buying empty bottles, 1 L or bigger, paying water.
Sector 14.
Four minutes later, Jonno replied.
[Jonno] Sector 9.
Got a sack of empties off a slick, no use to me, no purifier.
3 bottles for 1 water?
Can’t do the return thing, need the bottle it comes in, sorry mate.
Adam sent Jonno one full bottle and left Return container unticked.
Jonno sent three empties.
Both confirmed.
[Barter complete — Jonno: 3 Empty Bottle (1 L) | Kessler: 1 Water (Bottle 1 L).
Trades today: 2/5.]
Four empty bottles stood beside the crate; the green one in the crate still held guano.
He filled one of the empty bottles with the next unit from the purifier; the other three stayed empty.
Rope sellers were asking for too much.
Adam waited until a survivor in Sector 14 offered two lengths for one Water.
The seller’s raft mate was at Thirst 30 and needed it that day.
The price looked unusually low, so Adam waited for the seller to place both coils in the trade window.
Both had the System’s Rope label.
The seller wrote that they had cloth to make more rope but no way to make water.
Adam checked Return container and sent a full bottle.
They confirmed, and two coils appeared on his raft.
[Barter complete — 2 Rope | Kessler: 1 Water (Bottle 1 L, return).
Trades today: 3/5.]
The empty bottle returned with the rope.
Adam stood it with the others.
For the fourth trade, Adam put one full 1 L bottle in the window for three planks from someone who had stripped a pallet.
He selected Return container again.
Both confirmed, and the empty bottle returned with the planks.
[Barter complete — 3 Wood | Kessler: 1 Water (Bottle 1 L, return).
Trades today: 4/5.]
He left the fifth trade unused and let the purifier fill the bottles for the rest of the day.
In the afternoon he ate one of Reeve’s fish raw and a gull’s egg.
The illness roll came up clean.
The fish he had caught yesterday smelled sour, so he threw it away.
Reeve found him in the evening, in the direct channel that had opened between them the day before.
[Reeve] Well.
How did the water lad get on.
[Kessler] Four trades.
Bought wood, bottles and rope.
Still have water.
Haven’t drunk any today.
[Reeve] Drink your water, lad.
It’s the cheapest thing you’ve got.
Every other bugger on this sea is dying for it and you’re the one man who gets it for nothing and you’re sat there thirsty counting bottles.
[Reeve] Chloe says drink it too.
She says it louder.
Adam opened a bottle and drank it.
The water was warm and tasted of plastic.
He sent Reeve a short reply, then set the empty bottle beneath the purifier’s spout.