A Bountiful Harvest

"Captain, what's this red stuff?"

Ling Chu was enjoying her meal when a skull poked over.

Titch leaned in curiously by the pot, sniffing hard with a nose that didn't exist. As a native NPC in the game, this was the first time in his life he'd ever seen hot pot base as a food item.

"That's chili oil," Ling Chu explained.

Though Titch had no nose, his sense of smell remained. He found the aroma had a strange, numbing spiciness that stung his eyes a little, but it made him drool uncontrollably.

"Want a taste?"

Ling Chu fished out a crab claw and handed it to him.

Titch mimicked her movements, cracking the shell of the claw with a stone, pulling out the tender white meat, tilting his head back, opening his mouth, and tossing it in.

Ling Chu watched as the meat traveled from his jawbone, down to his collarbone, then to his ribs, past his pelvis, and finally landed on the sand. The corner of her mouth twitched.

"Absolutely delicious."

Titch let out a satisfied sigh, as if he'd truly tasted the flavor of the coconut crab.

Ling Chu didn't call him out on it. She owed a lot of today's haul to Titch's help.

Besides, there were plenty of coconut crabs left. Let him enjoy himself.

The shell of the coconut crab was a crafting material. Ling Chu didn't toss it after eating; she casually stored it in her ring space.

With a day and a half left before the system-mandated departure from the island, Ling Chu wasn't in a hurry to leave. She figured she'd at least enjoy one more dinner here.

Life at sea was unsettled, and having her feet on solid ground gave her a sense of stability. She'd savor it while she could.

Gnawing on a crab leg, Ling Chu glanced down at the bountiful haul in her ring space and couldn't help squinting her eyes in satisfaction.

This trip had been nerve-wracking but rewarding—a true windfall!

When an island was first claimed, the maturation time of its resources was refreshed.

After Ling Chu clicked to collect the resources, her ring bag instantly gained 500 iron ore, 300 wood, 50 jin of sea buckthorn fruit, 30 coconuts, 10 coconut crabs, and one ghost thorn seed.

In her ring, identical items could stack. The 500 iron ore only took up one storage slot.

Combined with the iron ore she and Titch had mined earlier, she now had over 580 pieces of iron ore.

She was willing to bet she was the player with the most iron ore on the entire server right now.

Sure enough, that wool hadn't been sheared for nothing!

Ling Chu checked her food supplies again.

She had fourteen wheat bread, five bags of alkaline water bread, two baskets of blueberries, one block of butter, one can of sweet corn, two cans of ham, one can of cranberry, one small bag of salt, two horse mackerel, one sea bream, three chocolates, five cans of rye beer, two small watermelons, two baskets of fresh lychees, two extra large frozen tomahawk steaks, nine bags of spicy butter hot pot base, five bags of hot and sour boneless chicken feet, five bags of milk cookies, fifty jin of sea buckthorn fruit, and fifteen red-skinned coconut crabs.

This was enough to feed her for a month. As for water, she had twenty bottles of freshwater, forty coconuts, plus two water purifiers. She wouldn't have to worry about running out of water or food anytime soon.

With food and drink settled, the next priority was upgrading the raft.

Upgrading the raft to level three required 50 iron ore, 500 cloth, 500 wood, 50 bones of any kind, 10 glass, and one tear of the ghost.

She had enough iron ore and glass. She was still short on wood and cloth, but she could trade iron ore with other players for them. Bones were also available at the trading post at a very cheap price—one bottle of water could get ten bones. Most of these bones were animal bones fished up from the sea or caught while angling, so she directly traded for fifty.

As for that tear of the ghost, Ling Chu had no idea what it was. She even searched the trading post specifically, but no one was selling it.

She opened the public chat channel, where all kinds of messages were flashing by.

"Looking to buy iron ore with all kinds of basic resources!"

"Trading food for iron ore! Just one! Any kind-hearted big shot willing to sell me one? Save a poor soul!"

"Trading pearls for iron ore! Can add more food if it's not enough!"

"Selling one spare iron ore. DM me if interested, highest bidder wins!"

"Stop with the DMs, it's already sold out..."

Dull pearls and iron ore were both essential items for upgrading the raft, but the former could still be obtained through fishing with a decent probability. Iron ore, however, could only be acquired by salvaging those floating supply crates on the sea surface.

But the chance of encountering a supply crate was already low, and the chance of getting iron ore from one was even lower.

Even a pirate like Sanfuye, who had robbed several players, only had two pieces of iron ore on him. That showed how rare it was.

With only one day left before the newbie period ended, many players couldn't upgrade their raft to level two due to a lack of iron ore. Without a level-two raft, they wouldn't survive the upcoming sea storm. It was a matter of life and death, which was why the public chat channel was flooded with everyone begging to buy iron ore.

Ling Chu planned to keep eighty pieces of iron ore for herself. Taking advantage of the hot market, she'd trade away the surplus. After all, she had an iron ore island. In three more days, she'd get another 500 iron ore. She had no use for that much iron ore, so she might as well exchange it for other resources.

She first posted a buying request: "50 iron ore for one tear of the ghost. Players with the item can apply for trade directly. Price is negotiable."

The moment she sent this message, it instantly grabbed the attention of a large number of players.

While everyone else was racking their brains over a single piece of iron ore, she was offering fifty. It was practically showing off her wealth.

"Fifty iron ore? Am I seeing things? Probably a scammer!"

"You can't post a trade message for items you don't have. Since she posted it, she really has them!"

"What's a tear of the ghost? Never even heard of it."

"Big shot, do you need anything else besides that tear? I just need one iron ore to survive!"

Ling Chu didn't speak in the Public Channel. Instead, she continued posting purchase requests.

Five pieces of any fresh food weighing 500g could be exchanged for one piece of iron ore. One hundred basic resources like Wood or Cloth could be exchanged for one piece of iron ore. If someone had equipment, blueprints, or other rare items, they could directly private message her for an appraisal and trade for iron ore.

Although food wasn't in short supply at this stage, she still wanted to stockpile more in case of emergencies. Besides, her Ring Space was static, so there was no risk of food spoiling.

The moment Ling Chu posted her purchase request on the Trading Post, her private messages exploded, ringing incessantly.

She patiently read through them one by one.

A considerable portion of these messages came from freeloaders, claiming they couldn't scrape together that many resources and asking if they could borrow a piece of iron ore first, promising to repay it later.

Ling Chu pretended not to see them all.

She was collecting not only food but also basic resources. A hundred pieces of Wood sounded like a lot, but if someone kept fishing for supplies nonstop, they could recover that amount in seven or eight hours.

Two days had already passed. If someone was diligent, they wouldn't be unable to produce a hundred basic resources.

Those who claimed they couldn't were either too lazy or pure freeloaders.

Neither type deserved to live.

There were also plenty of hagglers, saying her price was too high.

Ling Chu couldn't be bothered with them even more. Iron ore was such a hot commodity—if you thought it was too expensive, plenty of others would buy it.

Among them was one private message.

Invincible and Handsome: "Bro, where did you get so much iron ore? Can you let me in on it? I can trade resources with you."

Ling Chu ignored him, but he immediately sent a few more.

"We can all make money together, right?"

"Holding onto that much iron ore is useless anyway. It's only useful for everyone to Upgrade their Rafts in the early stages. It probably won't sell for much later."

"How about I trade you ten jin of food for the info? It's just one sentence from you—you can't lose on that deal, can you?"

He persistently tried to pry information out of her.

Annoyed by his constant pinging, Ling Chu shot back a single reply.

"Not convenient to disclose."

There was no way she was going to tell him she owned an entire Iron Ore Island.

Besides, ten jin of food was beneath her notice.

"Heh, not convenient or just unwilling to disclose?"

Seeing that she refused to talk, Invincible and Handsome's attitude shifted.

"I'll be straight with you. I'm a Pirate, and I have tracking items that can locate people. It's dangerous to have resources that don't match your own strength. I suggest you wise up, or I'll find you anyway."