[Basic timber +1] [Basic timber +1] [Poor-quality timber +2] [Basic timber +2] [Basic timber +1...]
As the axe struck the tree, harvest notifications appeared one after another.
Most of it was white-quality basic timber, with the occasional piece of gray poor-quality timber mixed in.
Once he finished chopping down a dead tree, it vanished before Ye Fei, leaving some materials on the ground for him to pick up.
[Pine needles +7] [Ice +5]
He picked up the items on the ground. More ice.
As for the pine needles...
[Pine needles (white): Material. Randomly dropped when chopping down pine trees.]
They were materials too, but he had no idea what they were used for yet.
His inventory was far too small. Ye Fei had been chopping trees directly outside his front gate, so he went back home, sat on the floor, and started browsing the trading interface.
Since they were all materials, and he didn't seem to have any shortage of them here, he might as well sell them and free up some inventory space.
[Buying ice: 1 point = 5 ice] [Buying pine needles: 1 point = 5 pine needles] [Buying basic wooden planks: 1 point = 20 planks]
Ye Fei searched around. People were buying all three items, and the prices didn't seem too low.
Seeing that there were buyers, he opened the listings to check the selling prices as well.
[Selling 4 ice for 1 point]
He had just spotted a listing selling four ice for one point when it vanished, before he could even search for anything else.
Farther down, there weren't many listings selling three ice for one point either, only a dozen or so, and one would be bought every now and then.
Looking at his meager fifteen points, Ye Fei decided to sell things to earn some money.
He had six ice in total and listed them for two points.
He also listed his seven pine needles for two points.
He left the timber alone for now, since he felt he would probably need it himself.
Besides, timber stacked.
But the gray poor-quality timber couldn't be sold because its quality was too low, so he went into the yard and used it to protect his little vegetable patch for the time being.
[Item sold. Gained 2 Survival Points.]
The ice sold just as Ye Fei finished putting up a barrier around the vegetable patch.
Right after that, the pine needles were bought too.
[You have a message from a buyer.]
The four points arrived in his account, followed immediately by a notification.
Buyers could leave messages for sellers?
This was Ye Fei's first time trading, and he hadn't figured everything out yet. He opened the trading interface to take a look.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Boss, could you add me as a friend? I'm out of points, but I have other items to trade. Could we barter in the future?]
The message was a request to trade privately.
Since the buying and selling listings in the trading interface didn't directly reveal either party's ID, Ye Fei wasn't sure whether this was the player who had bought his ice.
A message voluntarily revealing personal information, or choosing to add someone as a friend, allowed the other person's information to be viewed.
Ye Fei hadn't added this person yet, but after opening their profile, he could clearly see two available pieces of information.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Human, combat power 9]
Nine combat power was the highest value Ye Fei had seen in the chat for their Snow Mountain region.
This person wanted to add him just to trade for ice?
Looking at his own combat power, still only three, Ye Fei figured he didn't have much anyone could scam him out of anyway. He clicked to add the person and replied with an okay.
[Added Grassland/0090-1144-3656 as a friend.] [Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Hello, my friend from the Snow Mountain!]
The other person sent a message immediately after he added them.
[Me: Hello. I don't have any ice right now. It only drops when I chop down trees, and I don't have an axe anymore.]
Ye Fei greeted the person, then went straight to the point.
Without an axe, he couldn't chop down trees, which meant he couldn't get ice.
As for whether that would make the other person think he was a scammer...
He hadn't scammed them out of anything. He was simply stating the facts.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: There are axes for sale in the trading interface...]
The reply came a little more slowly. He wasn't sure whether the other person had specifically gone to search the trading channel for axes.
[Me: I saw them. It's 18 points for an axe with 100 durability, enough to chop down 5-7 trees. Each tree drops 3-5 ice. Taking the average for both, that's 24 ice, which sells for 8 points. I'd still lose 10 points.]
Ye Fei replied and worked through the numbers for the other person.
There were axes, but buying one to chop down trees would mean a loss.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: There should be other drops too. If it really meant a loss, they wouldn't sell.]
This time the reply came quickly, though the words still carried plenty of uncertainty.
[Me: Yeah, but I can't afford one.]
Ye Fei openly admitted that he was simply poor.
As for why he had added the other person...
That combat power of nine had made him curious.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Got it... Buddy, let me know whenever you have ice. I'm so poor I'm out of points too. That's all for now. I'm going back to mining coal ╯﹏╰]
The other person sent that message, bringing their conversation to an end.
Mining coal?
Ye Fei stared at the message. What did mining coal have to do with buying ice?
He couldn't figure it out, but he didn't ask. Picking up his axe, which still had thirty-two durability left, he headed outside again and hacked away at a dead tree beyond the yard.
He swung away like a beast, and his final haul was...
Twenty-five basic timber, four poor-quality timber, four ice, and eight pine needles.
It was a decent haul, but pine needles and ice only dropped randomly once a tree had been completely chopped down. He didn't have a new axe yet, and his old one had just twelve durability left, not enough to chop down another tree.
He listed the ice and pine needles for sale again. Seeing that it was getting late, Ye Fei set different prices.
He listed the four ice for two points and the eight pine needles for three points.
He wasn't sure whether they would sell. If not, he would adjust the prices tomorrow morning.
But since some places needed these materials, they could be produced at any time during the day, while at night people could only buy them for crafting or use them up to cool things down.
Before it got dark, Ye Fei hurried to sweep the yard clean once more.
[Clean yard: Your love of cleanliness always brings rewards... Reward: 1 Survival Point.]
With the four points from his earlier sales, Ye Fei now had nineteen points.
He was just short of being able to buy that Crafting Bench from the Survival Mall, but he had no tasks left to do now.
"Qingxue, dinner's ready!"
After a busy afternoon, he woke the sleeping little fox for dinner. Master and pet filled their bellies together, then rested again.
With food and drink taken care of, the sky grew dark. Even though he could see the blanket of white outside through the window, that didn't change the fact that nighttime was for sleeping.
He watched the chat channel for a while. It really was lively tonight.
Those players clearly didn't know one another, yet they were hurling insults in the chat channel under the banners of their various teams...
Was this what they called team solidarity?
Before you continue