Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Frost Wolf broke into a heavy stride and charged in the direction Han Xing had ordered.
Watching the man and wolf disappear into the distance, Cao Xing nodded in satisfaction.
A few minutes later.
A system notification appeared.
[Your territory building [Polar Folk Hut] has been upgraded successfully. Current level: Level 2. Number of Polar Folk available for recruitment: 4/8]
Cao Xing's eyes lit up. "Good, good, good! The Polar Folk Hut has been upgraded too. Now I'll have more people working for me!"
Before long, four Polar Folk carrying tools came to Cao Xing.
"Lord, the task is complete!"
Cao Xing nodded, then walked over to the level 2 [Polar Folk Hut].
After its upgrade, the [Polar Folk Hut] had changed from a small tent into a little bungalow nearly three meters tall, with a floor area of about 20 square meters.
The building's attributes appeared before him.
[Level 2 Polar Folk Hut: You can summon Polar Folk to work for you by consuming food.] [Floor area: 30 square meters] [Maximum recruits: 4/8] [Required for upgrade: Level 3 Lord's Hut, Stone*100, Wood*200, Iron*50]
Cao Xing thought, "The level 2 Polar Folk Hut can only recruit four more Polar Folk. I still don't have enough hands."
"To upgrade it again, I need a level 3 Lord's Hut. I can't build one anytime soon."
He shook his head and spent another 20 food to summon four Polar Folk.
The hut shuddered.
Four Polar Folk rushed out.
"Greetings, respected Lord! The Polar Folk report for duty!"
Liu Muxue, standing to one side, exclaimed softly, "Oh! A few more Polar Folk have come out..."
Cao Xing nodded and continued giving the Polar Folk names.
He went from Wuzhuang and Liuzhuang all the way to Bazhuang before stopping.
The Polar Folk said respectfully, "Thank you for giving us names, Lord."
[You successfully named a Polar Folk. Wuzhuang's loyalty to you increased by 5...] [You successfully named a Polar Folk. Liuzhuang's loyalty to you increased by 5...]
System notifications announcing increased favorability kept appearing.
Cao Xing looked at Dazhuang first and said, "Dazhuang, take Erzhuang through Sizhuang. The four of you will work at full capacity to mine that Coal Mine."
"Wuzhuang and Liuzhuang, your task is to chop down the nearby trees and transport the timber to the Logging Mill for processing."
"Qizhuang and Bazhuang, your task is to collect more Stone and build an Ore Processing Plant."
"Is that clear?"
The eight Polar Folk exchanged glances. They bowed respectfully and replied, "Understood, Lord!"
Then, led by Dazhuang, the Polar Folk got to work in full swing.
"Ah Xing, is there anything I can do?" Liu Muxue asked softly from the side.
Cao Xing glanced at the equipment Liu Muxue was wearing. Apart from the small wooden shield given by the system, she had only a Stone Axe.
The small wooden shield had also developed cracks from the fighting.
It seemed it would be completely ruined after one more battle.
Thinking of this, Cao Xing said, "Sister-in-law, I'm going to check the market and see if there's anything useful."
Liu Muxue nodded gently. "Mm... I'll do whatever you say."
Cao Xing checked his food reserves.
[Food: Bread*45, Snake Meat*10, Wolf Meat*132]
"I've still got plenty of food for now. I can trade some of it for supplies or equipment."
He opened the Market Channel.
Dozens more pages of items were listed for sale.
It seemed that more and more survivors-or teams, rather-had built a [Market].
Cao Xing entered "equipment" in the search bar and applied the filters.
A few scattered pieces of basic equipment appeared, such as Stone Axes and Stone Spears.
Some iron items were also listed, at quite a high price.
Cao Xing shook his head. The attributes of these items were too poor; they wouldn't improve anything much.
Just then, he saw a listing.
[Item for sale: Rusty Iron Shield (White)*1] [Wanted in exchange: Food*50 or Medical Kit*1] [Seller: Chen Yuan] (Seller's note: Top-quality Iron Shield, amazing defense. First come, first served.)
Cao Xing looked at the shield's attributes. It had 5-8 points of armor, almost twice as much as the small wooden shield Liu Muxue was holding.
It wasn't exactly top quality, but it was pretty good.
So, as usual, Cao Xing made an opening offer.
Cao Xing: "20 food for the Rusty Iron Shield."
A moment later, the other party replied with one word.
"Get lost."
Damn... This guy had quite a temper. He couldn't even stand a bit of haggling.
Cao Xing was amused.
He shook his head and didn't take it to heart.
Then he put up a listing of his own.
[Item for sale: Fresh Wolf Meat (Green)] [Wanted in exchange: Equipment, weapons, skill books] [Seller: Cao Xing] (Seller's note: Fresh Wolf Meat. 1 piece of Wolf Meat = 5 food. Looking for equipment and skill books that Aurora Knights and Frost Mages can use. Message me if interested.)
The Wolf Meat had barely been listed when survivors began noticing it on the market.
"Holy crap! Someone's selling food on the market, and it's Green-grade Wolf Meat!"
"Wolf Meat? Aren't the wolves out in the wild all at least level 3 monsters? Which big shot is this? How did they kill a wolf so soon?"
"That's incredible. I'm still gnawing on dry bread, and someone else is already eating meat."
"This big shot wants equipment and skill books. If any of you have some, hurry up and trade with them!"
At this stage, everyone was worried about food, and someone had put food up for sale-precious Wolf Meat, no less. It immediately caused a stir.
Sure enough, before long, Cao Xing received his first private message.
Ren Yixu: "Brother, I can tell you're a man of extraordinary talent. I've got a top-quality +18 greatsword here. I'll sell it to you for just five pieces of Wolf Meat. What do you think?"
Cao Xing was delighted. "Send it over and let me see."
[Rusty Iron Sword (White), Quality: Ordinary, Attack: 6-8, Special effect: None]
Cao Xing: "..."
"This is the top-quality +18 greatsword you were talking about?"
Ren Yixu chuckled. "Forgot to mention, it's a future +18 enhanced greatsword. With my skills, I can definitely enhance it to +18 someday!"
Cao Xing was speechless. He replied directly, "Two pieces of Wolf Meat."
Ren Yixu was stunned. "That little?"
"Are you selling or not?"
"I'm selling!"
Ren Yixu agreed without hesitation.
Cao Xing speechlessly edited the trade.
[Trade successful. You received Rusty Iron Sword (White). You lost Fresh Wolf Meat (Green)*2.]
Then Cao Xing received many more private messages.
Not many of them were selling equipment. Most wanted to trade other territory resources, such as Wood, Stone, and a small amount of Iron.
Cao Xing reminded these survivors that basic resources were important and the foundation of survival, and that they shouldn't sell them lightly.
Some survivors took his advice and gave up on the trade, but others insisted on trading with Cao Xing.
They told him they were practically starving to death. Who cared about future development? They had to fill their stomachs first.
Looking at their messages, Cao Xing pondered silently.
"Since they want to sell, we can indeed take some supplies from them first."
"But I don't have much wolf meat in reserve, so I can't buy large quantities of Stone and wood."
"However, I can trade for some Iron first, then get the [Blacksmith] built."
Once the [Blacksmith] was built, he could make some simple iron tools inside, such as iron axes, Iron Pickaxes, iron spears, and so on.
Other equipment, however, required the corresponding blueprints to craft.
But the survivors currently had very little Iron, at most two or three pieces.
Trading one piece of wolf meat for two Iron would definitely be a loss for Cao Xing.
So Cao Xing asked the system, "Can wolf meat be divided into smaller portions?"
A system prompt appeared.
[One piece of wolf meat can be divided into at most 10 smaller pieces, with 100 g per portion.]
Cao Xing was stunned. It really could be done!
So he took out five pieces of wolf meat and divided them into 50 portions.
Then Cao Xing changed the trade terms.
The consignment rate was one portion of wolf meat for two Iron.
The Regional Channel was abuzz again.
"Brothers, this big shot has changed the terms. You can trade Iron for wolf meat too. If you've got any Iron, hurry up and trade!"
"I happen to have two pieces. I'll go trade with this big shot right away."
"Damn, I want meat so badly too. Save me some!"
Cao Xing kept receiving trade requests.
[Trade successful. You received Iron*2 and lost wolf meat*100g.]
[Trade successful. You received Iron*4 and lost wolf meat*200g.]
[Trade successful. You received Iron Round Shield (white)*1 and lost fresh wolf meat*5.]
Besides a large amount of Iron, Cao Xing also got the shield he'd been hoping for.
Cao Xing checked its stats.
[Iron Round Shield (white), quality: ordinary, armor: 9-11, special effect: none]
Although it was only a white-quality shield, its stats were still much better than the wooden shield Liu Muxue had.
Before long, all the dozen or so pieces of wolf meat Cao Xing had listed were snapped up.
And his backpack had gained 100 pieces of Iron.
Now he had more than enough Iron to build the [Blacksmith].
Cao Xing's eyes lit up. "Trading with other survivors really is faster than gathering things bit by bit!"
Of course, this method depended on having enough resources.
Now that the population of his territory had suddenly increased so much, the daily food consumption was a considerable amount.
So he could only sell a small portion of his food to trade for supplies.
Just as Cao Xing was about to end the trade, the survivor named Chen Yuan messaged him again.
"Bro, I'll sell you that iron shield for 10 pieces of wolf meat."
He seemed to have noticed what was happening on the market too.
Seeing this message, Cao Xing couldn't help laughing.
This guy sure had some nerve. He was treating that beat-up shield of his like a treasure.
The shield Cao Xing had just traded for had better stats than this [Rusty Iron Shield], and it had only cost him five pieces of wolf meat.
So Cao Xing replied, "No need. Keep it for yourself."
Hearing that, the survivor named Chen Yuan immediately grew anxious.
"Come on, bro! We can talk it over. Eight pieces. Eight should be fair, right?"
Cao Xing didn't want to deal with him at all.
The other man hurriedly said, "Six pieces. I really can't go any lower. You shouldn't be so greedy."
Cao Xing still didn't reply.
Chen Yuan urged, "I'm Chen Yuan from the Three Heroes Association. Do me a favor and take this shield for five pieces of wolf meat."
"..."
Chen Yuan seemed to have lost patience.
"Four pieces of wolf meat! That's my absolute lowest. I advise you not to push your luck!"
His tone grew more and more impatient.
At this point, Cao Xing replied calmly, "Get lost."
Before you continue