Player 1212: “I have electrical wire. I need at least enough food for a full meal and two bottles of water.”
Qi Xu wasn’t a sucker, so she ignored this one outright.
Two Negatives Make a Positive: “I need glass. Do you have any? I want to trade my electrical wire for 5 glass.”
Peppy Girl Guo Degang: “I have electrical wire. I’ll send it to you—no need to give me any more supplies. I already felt bad about trading just 5 wood for three of your loaves of whole-wheat bread earlier.”
Qi Xu went straight for the last one, Peppy Girl Guo Degang. None of the others were worth it.
Still, she didn’t want to take advantage of her for nothing.
Since the noodles she was boiling happened to be ready, she asked: “Do you have a bowl or a cup?”
Peppy Girl Guo Degang: “Only disposable cups. I have two of them. Take them if you need them.”
[Player Peppy Girl Guo Degang has sent you a gift. Please accept!]
Qi Xu accepted both the cups and the electrical wire, filled one of the cups with cooked noodles, and sent it back.
“Ahhh! Piping hot noodles! They smell so good I could cry. Boss, won’t you lose money doing business like this?! Wuwuwu, I really want to eat it, but I’m too shy to take it!”
Invincible Black Whirlwind: “It’s fine. Hurry up and eat before it gets cold. If you hear any leads on a Vehicle Upgrade Card, remember to let me know.”
“Got it, got it! I’ll go ask around right after I finish eating. Boss, you’re too famous. If you ask for supplies yourself, people will probably jack up the price on purpose. You can just tell me what you want. If a broke nobody like me goes to buy it, I guarantee they’ll quote their bottom price!”
Qi Xu agreed right away: “Good! If the trade goes through, I’ll give you a commission.”
“No need, this cup of noodles is plenty! I feel like I’ve found the will to live again!”
“Keep at it.”
Qi Xu was starting to try cooperating with others. There was no need to trust anyone 100%, of course, but doing others a favor when appropriate also made things easier for herself.
Now that she had everything she needed, Qi Xu set the damaged small portable solar power box onto the crafting bench. Repairing it only took a few basic materials.
She tapped “Repair” right away.
Qi Xu was honestly worried the bench might just blow up on the spot… She almost wanted to cheer it on from the side. Thankfully, the repair succeeded in the end, and she let out a small sigh of relief.
She took out the repaired small solar power box. It was ready for normal use now, though it would need to charge once the sun came out tomorrow.
Qi Xu tucked it at the back of the tricycle, beside the Silver Supply Crate.
The crafting bench didn’t have a dismantling function yet—that probably wouldn’t unlock until she had a Level 2 vehicle. So the top priority was still upgrading the tricycle as soon as possible!
Among the remaining loot was a yoga mat. Qi Xu pulled out the dirty clothes from earlier in the day and wiped the mat down dry first, then turned the pants inside out and poured utility water over it to rinse the whole thing clean.
Sleeping in the back of the tricyclehad left her butt sore from the hard bed. Folding the yoga mat in half for padding should make it much more comfortable.
Two bowls and a plate were also part of her haul from the waste depot, their packaging still unopened and spotless.
The rest were basic materials like rubber, iron chunks, and scrap screws, adding a long list of items to her overall supplies.
Everything that stacked with what she already had went into her inventory backpack. The rest she set along both sides of the tricycle for now; she still needed room to sleep tonight, so she had to clear a spot and could just load them back onto the bed tomorrow.
The tricycle, which had been so bright and pink during the day, now looked no different from a scrap cart. Its pink paint had turned gray with grime, and some of the lace trim had been snagged and torn by all the junk…
Qi Xu cleared her throat and called out loudly: “Pitch-black grime! I want to be pretty! La-la-ha woo-woo, gaba-gaba, transform!”
The next second, the tricycle was back to its sweet pink self! Best of all, to Qi Xu’s delight, the rusty, battered crafting bench… had been refurbished too!
It had turned pink as well, sure, but at least it no longer looked one bump away from falling apart. Qi Xu couldn’t have been happier with it.
When she scanned it with her light screen, even the item description had changed.
[Cute Girl’s Beautiful Crafting Bench: So pretty, so pretty, I’m seriously so pretty.]
The line about how “it might break down at any moment” was completely gone, which meant this crafting bench was as good as brand-new!
Qi Xu was thrilled. Two units of gasoline had bought her a real treasure!
Just then, she noticed someone had been tagging her nonstop.
Player 1212: “@Invincible Black Whirlwind, why don’t you dare reply to my DMs? And you still have the nerve to act like some big shot? Is this how you scam us ordinary players?”
Qi Xu frowned in confusion. She wasn’t even angry—there were troublemakers everywhere. If it wasn’t this 1212, it would be some 1213.
At first she thought someone had gotten an upset stomach from eating the food she’d sold, but after scrolling up through the chat log, she understood what was going on.
A player named [Light Shines on Everyone] had posted an announcement.
“Comrades, I found something great! This black stone is called a Basic Black Spatial Stone. Using it by itself does nothing, but if you place it on your inventory backpack, it expands your inventory backpack by 10 slots!”
Qi Xu remembered this person very clearly.
A total bleeding-heart saint who broadcasted every bit of information in public, kept nothing from anyone, and loved nothing more than standing on the moral high ground to lecture and guilt-trip other people.
After tracking stones appeared, this player was the very first one to be tracked down and killed by another player…
Qi Xu opened her private chat with Player 1212 and saw a whole string of messages.
“Can you give me back my Basic Black Spatial Stone?”
“Or just compensate me with some supplies. You traded for it with only one meat bun and a bottle of water—I took a huge loss.”
“I’m not being greedy either. Just give me 5 more bottles of mineral water and 5 portions of food. It expands the inventory backpack—that’s a crucial tool you can use for a long time!”
“Can you at least reply? You’re a big shot—do you really need to be this stingy with ordinary people like us? I’m not even asking for much.”
Qi Xu didn’t even bother replying. She blocked the player on the spot.
That only made Player 1212 even madder. “@Invincible Black Whirlwind, what’s the meaning of blocking me? Guilty conscience, huh? Traded a single meat bun and a bottle of mineral water for my spatial stone! Do you have a conscience at all?”
Retired Magical Boy: “I didn’t know what was going on earlier, so I stayed quiet. Now I get it—you’re just a dumbass trying to back out of a finished trade.”
Peppy Girl Guo Degang: “If you didn’t want to trade, you shouldn’t have agreed to it in the first place. What’s the point of crying about it after the deal’s done?”
Possessed by Lady Luck: “Seriously, how spineless can you get.”
Player 1212: “You’re not the ones who got ripped off, so of course you’re not worked up! Easy for you to fucking talk when it’s not your loss!”
……..