["What do you need? Let me say upfront, I don't have any firearms left to trade with you."]
Ye Qiyan tapped on the light screen to send the message.
After waiting for a long time without reply, he thought she wouldn't proceed with the deal. Just as he was about to close the private chat, a message came through.
["Sorry, I was just taking a bath."]
A bath?
Ye Qiyan silently glanced toward his water storage tank.
Just how much water did this woman have to waste it so lavishly? Even he wasn't that extravagant.
["No problem. So what do you want to trade? You should have seen what I said earlier."]
Inside Shangguan Yingxue's train.
A black-haired girl with waist-length hair stood up from a wooden tub occupying most of her carriage. Tying up her hair, her light blue eyes showed no discernible emotion.["32kg of wood, 50kg of metal, and 40 mechanical parts. You should have these things."]
Ye Qiyan raised an eyebrow but didn't answer directly. Instead, he countered:
["These materials are for upgrading your train, right? How can you be so sure I have them? Even if I do, why wouldn't I use them to upgrade my own train?"]
["Because I hate trouble. Before contacting you, I'd already gathered some materials, but it takes too much time and requires dealing with too many people - which I dislike. As for why you? I calculated you're probably the only one who can provide different materials in bulk right now. You've sold over twenty rifles, and aside from food and water, what you've traded for are various materials."]
She was right, but not entirely.
Because Ye Qiyan hadn't sold just twenty-some rifles - it was actually double that, over forty.
As for the resources she wanted, Ye Qiyan did have them.
But trading just for water didn't interest him. His current water reserves were temporarily sufficient, and he even had a way to make it drinkable.
He'd learned this method from the chat room.
Start a fire by rubbing sticks, then boil the water. Never mind the taste - boiled water at least wouldn't kill you through diarrhea.
Of course, unless absolutely desperate, he wouldn't try this method.
Shangguan Yingxue remained silent for a while. After drying herself, she sent a screenshot.
["This should be enough."]
[Water Purification Device] (Level 1)
[Can filter and purify wastewater. Purification rate: 1kg per hour]
Seeing the screenshot's contents, Ye Qiyan rubbed his eyes.
A water purification device?
Something like this actually exists?
No wonder this woman could afford to bathe so lavishly. She must have obtained this device at the first station. Even bathwater could be filtered and recycled.
And she probably had more than one.
No - she must possess the device's blueprint, otherwise why would she be willing to trade it?
["Do you have the blueprint?"]
["This device should be enough to exchange for the resources I need."]
Neither confirming nor denying.
Ye Qiyan suppressed his surprise.
However precious the water purification blueprint might be, it belonged to someone else.
He'd already been fortunate enough - no need to envy others.
["Alright, we can trade."]
They completed the transaction.
After obtaining the purification device, Ye Qiyan found it could be perfectly installed between the wastewater and clean water tanks.
Once activated, purified water would automatically flow into the clean water tank for storage.
This saved him considerable trouble.
"Sublimation."
Having used sublimation so many times, Ye Qiyan had roughly grasped its rules. Small level 1 items like this didn't consume much energy.
[Premium Water Purification Device] (Level 2)
[Purification rate: 3kg per hour. Can purify non-freshwater]
Not only did the output triple, but it could now purify non-freshwater like seawater too.
Ye Qiyan was overjoyed.
On impulse, he sent Shangguan Yingxue another message.
["Can you upgrade your train already? Could you tell me what changes after upgrading?"]
He was curious - what upgrade options would others get? Would they be the same as his?
Shangguan Yingxue hesitated briefly before replying.
["...Fine."]
Soon, another screenshot arrived.
[Level 2 Train Upgrade Options]
[1: Basic Carriage Blueprint (0 Train Coins)]
[2: Welding Tool Set (2 Train Coins)]
[3: Wooden Bed Blueprint (1 Train Coin)]
[4: Increase Train Stop Time by One Hour (2 Train Coins)]
Options 1 and 4 were identical to his, while the other two differed.
"So the carriage blueprint and extended stop time are fixed, while the remaining two are random - and of varying quality too."
Shangguan Yingxue's random options were noticeably inferior to what he'd received.
Just as Ye Qiyan nodded in understanding, another message arrived.
["Do you... have any Train Coins?"]
["No."]
["Then... do you still want to buy water?"]
Ye Qiyan's mouth twitched. Before, he might have bought some as backup. But now? Considering she was bathing and surely recycling that water... buying now would mean purchasing her bathwater.
["No."]
["Alright then..."]
The chat ended.
Ye Qiyan understood she wanted to buy Train Coins from him to purchase options, but he barely had enough himself. How could he spare any for trade?
Besides, he still had one option left unselected.
[Train Burst Acceleration Device Blueprint (5 Train Coins)]
One of the options unlocked after upgrading to Level 2.
For most people, accumulating five Train Coins would require several stations.
Yet after just two stations, Ye Qiyan had amassed enough to buy every available option.
[Purchase: Train Burst Acceleration Device Blueprint]
[5 Train Coins deducted]
[Remaining Train Coins: 4]
[Train Burst Acceleration Device]
[Construction requires: 50kg metal, 200 mechanical parts]
[After construction, can produce acceleration bullets. Using them increases train speed to triple normal for ten minutes]
Expensive indeed, worthy of a 5-coin blueprint.
Still, he only lacked some parts now.
And he could afford it.
After the second station, the trading platform's offerings had diversified.
Currently, what most people desperately needed was food and water - precisely what he had in stock.
That Ye Qiyan disdained those barrels of compressed biscuits didn't mean they lacked value.