Trading Cigarettes, Stirring Up Trouble, and Building a Hideout Door

[Sea Cube Shelter: Holy shit, who listed so many cigarettes? @Cigar Hideout, was that you, boss? Why are you only trading for supplies? Can I pay with Survival Points?]

[Burning Chariot Shelter: The Cigar boss released his rolled cigarettes early? Wasn't that still two days away? I've been craving a smoke. I'm going to look.]

[Furious Whale Shelter: I checked. These are premium cigarettes, not the Cigar boss's hand-rolled ones. Didn't Taotao Cave have a bucket for sale just now? Why'd you take it down, brother? I'll pay top price!]

[Grizzly Shelter: Premium cigarettes are usually only found in cities, right? Did some big shot in an urban area put them up? Terrifying. I've got an abandoned service station nearby. Time to take its hinges off...]

The sudden listings set the entire chat channel buzzing. In the Wasteland, cigarettes were one of the best ways to ease anxiety and unease, helping people keep their emotions steady.

But they were extremely scarce. Aside from Cigar Hideout's regular listings of foul-tasting hand-rolled cigarettes, anyone who found cigarettes kept them for personal use.

They rarely made it onto the market.

Somewhere in a mountainous region, inside Cigar Hideout.

A rolled cigarette as thick as a little finger was lit and raised to a man's lips.

Smoke drifted slowly from his mouth, gradually veiling his face. He watched messages flood the chat channel, a trace of disdain in his eyes.

"Premium cigarettes? Hah... Some lucky bastard probably dug a few out of a forgotten corner and couldn't wait to trade them for supplies." He glanced outside his Hideout with a contemptuous smile.

"As long as this patch of wild tobacco stays healthy, tobacco is mine alone. Cities? If surviving in a city were that easy, so many top-ranked players wouldn't have gotten overconfident and disappeared one after another."

"Idiots, all of them. A city can be packed with supplies, but you have to stay alive to use them. In the end, surviving the Wasteland comes down to resources, especially renewable ones you control exclusively. With those, supplies will keep flowing in, and you can take your pick."

Yan Juan, a former tobacco company executive, had discovered this patch of wild tobacco soon after entering the Wasteland and built his Hideout here.

His choice had proved sound. He simply dried the wild tobacco, shredded it, and rolled it into cigarettes.

Using the convenience of anonymous trading through Taotao Cave, he had earned his first stake under the eyes of high-ranking players. From there, his growth had snowballed.

Even after people began to suspect that he was the tobacco trader, he had weathered wave after wave of attacks and attempted raids by other players. His Hideout now ranked 1,978th.

So he paid little mind to the player selling cigarettes. Others had sold premium cigarettes before, but never more than a dozen or twenty. It was hardly worth worrying about.

Still, he exercised a little caution. He opened Taotao Cave and searched for cigarettes.

The instant the results appeared, Yan Juan's pupils contracted. The rolled cigarette fell from his lips, and a murderous glint flashed in his eyes.

Cigarette trades filled the entire Light Screen. Some offered three cigarettes for PVC pipe; others offered one for metal hinges. There were fifteen listings in all, and whenever one trade was completed, a new listing appeared almost at once.

Fifty or sixty cigarettes had already been traded in that short span, and the trades were still going. It far exceeded what he had expected.

Yan Juan traded only two hundred hand-rolled cigarettes every half month, and that was already his limit.

Though this wild tobacco grew rapidly and differed greatly from the tobacco he knew, harvesting too much at once would still hamper its growth.

The cigarette trades moved quickly. Before long, more than half the listings had been completed. Spread among over ten thousand people, seventy or eighty cigarettes were nowhere near enough to go around.

In the end, only five or six trades remained unfinished.

Yan Juan stared at the trading screen, snorted, and closed it. His mind, however, was racing.

He did not know who was trading the cigarettes. But anyone who could offer so many and wanted industrial goods and household supplies in return was probably a player who had spawned in an urban area.

Only a player in an urban area would need so many industrial goods and household supplies to build a Hideout.

He reopened the chat channel. People were still guessing who the seller was.

One message caught Yan Juan's attention. His eyes turned thoughtful, then cold.

[Moss Hut Shelter: Do you think it could be that newcomer from this afternoon? His rank shot up so much at once. He must've found loads of supplies! @Fish Abyss Shelter, was it you?]

Yu Yuan saw the message too, and his eyes sharpened.

What a nose this guy has. He even managed to connect it to me. Someone had warned Yu Yuan earlier that Moss Hut Shelter specialized in deceiving newcomers.

And now this blatant attempt to stir people up...

He's got his eye on me.

Yu Yuan opened his Hideout Memo and, after thinking for a few seconds, began to write.

--3. First day in the Wasteland: Moss Hut Shelter appears hostile and may be trying to manipulate public opinion, pry into my affairs, and provoke trouble. Continue observing.

Two entries had already been completed above it.

--1. First day in the Wasteland: Ambushed while leaving Parasol Building. Managed to get away through negotiation, but was forced to hand over some supplies. The target was extremely calm, cautious, and decisive. His gaze was aggressive without being blindly confident. Much like me!

This person is extremely dangerous. Do not antagonize him unless necessary. If an opportunity arises, kill him in a single strike.

Speculation: He may have a woman or child with him.

--2. First day in the Wasteland: Confirmed that Cigar Hideout is a high-ranking player with access to tobacco resources.

After finishing his Hideout Memo, Yu Yuan checked the chat channel again. Finding nothing useful, he closed it.

Sure enough, Moss Hut Shelter's message had prompted quite a few people to tag him and ask whether he was selling the cigarettes.

He had no intention of answering. They were acting as though sending chat messages cost nothing.

He retrieved all the supplies from his completed trades on Taotao Cave.

Then he opened the Facility Management Log and began constructing a Hideout facility.

[Security - Shabby Door]

Construction materials: Wood ×10 units, screwdriver ×1, screws ×15, hinges ×2

Construction requirement: Hideout

Construction time: 10 minutes

Construction conditions met. Begin construction?

--[Yes]

As Yu Yuan confirmed his choice, the wood, screwdriver, screws, and hinges vanished from the pile of supplies. Green light enveloped the Hideout entrance again. Space warped, and time seemed to accelerate countless times over.

Ten minutes later, the Light Screen disappeared...