[Opening level 4 treasure chest] [Obtained Train Coins: 8] [Obtained: Watcher Blueprint (level 4)] [Obtained: Safety Wristband (level 4)] [Obtained: Clockwork Monkey Doll Bomb Blueprint (level 4)] [Obtained: Blasphemy Card (fragment)]
Three items marked level 4, including two blueprints.
Without a doubt, this chest opening had been luckier than the last.
Ye Qiyan eagerly took everything out to examine it.
[Watcher Blueprint] [Requires: 100 kg of metal, 80 kg of wood, 150 mechanical parts, 30 electronic components] [Install in any carriage to monitor any part of the train. An alarm will sound if a foreign entity intrudes]
It was a very good train structure, but he did not have any electronic components yet. He would have to look for them on the trading platform.
[Safety Wristband] [Can block one instance of fatal damage. Shatters after blocking]
The description was extremely brief, but the item was quite practical.
Staying alive was undoubtedly the most important thing in this world.
Ye Qiyan put the wristband on his right wrist and felt inexplicably reassured.
[Clockwork Monkey Doll Bomb Blueprint] [Crafting requires: 3 kg of metal, 40 mechanical parts, 400 g of gunpowder, 1 kg of fiber] [When fully wound, the monkey doll will travel to the designated location and self-destruct]
"Four hundred grams of gunpowder? I remember a hundred bullets only used five hundred grams in total. But where am I supposed to get some gunpowder...?"
Ye Qiyan shook his head. Having blueprints but no materials was truly frustrating.
"I'll just have to buy some."
Having made his decision, he turned his gaze to the final reward, something he had never gotten from a chest before.
One-third of a black-and-gold card.
[Blasphemy Card (fragment)] [Collect three fragments to combine into a Blasphemy Card] [Blasphemy Card: ???]
"That mysterious? Three into one, meaning... at least three level 4 treasure chests? No, even a level 4 treasure chest isn't guaranteed to contain one."
Ye Qiyan toyed with the card, made of an unusual material, for a while.
Although he still did not know what would happen after combining it, it probably would not be anything simple.
[Trading platform]
His attempts to buy materials on the platform did not go smoothly.
It was not that no one was selling, but the quantities were too small, the prices inconsistent, and the markups too high.
Even if he was relatively wealthy now, he did not want to be anyone's sucker.
Besides, under the current circumstances, truly capable people had long since made it through the difficult initial period. They would not casually put things like gunpowder up for sale.
If he wanted to buy some, he would still have to post a message directly in the chatroom.
[Buying gunpowder. Every 200 g can be traded for one compressed biscuit plus either one bottle of drinking water or one fresh tomato. If interested, search the trading platform yourself, or send a private message with your asking price]
After sending the message, Ye Qiyan also spent one Train Coin to pin it so that everyone still alive would see it.
At the same time, he posted a trade request for electronic components, setting the price at one bottle of mineral water plus one compressed biscuit for every ten components.
After experiencing the thunderstorm platform, anyone with a little sense probably would not be too short on water now.
Clean or not, drinking it after heating it would at least keep them from dying of thirst.
Besides, there was Shangguan Yingxue, a major water seller. Ye Qiyan often saw the water she listed on the trading platform, though he did not know whether it was leftover bathwater.
That was why Ye Qiyan added a compressed biscuit.
He might not think much of those biscuits, but that was him, not everyone else.
One bottle of water and one military compressed biscuit were enough to get someone through an entire day without another meal.
Besides, the sweetness of the biscuit could offer a little comfort when they faced life and death at every moment like this.
As for tomatoes.
The most plentiful produce in the castle kitchen at the fourth stop had been tomatoes. He had brought back three whole large crates.
People sailing the seas in ancient times would develop scurvy without fresh fruit and vegetables. They might be surviving on trains now, but ultimately, how different was that from being on a ship?
["Whoa, what's this message? How did it suddenly get pinned? Awesome."]
["Pinning one message costs a whole Train Coin! Holy crap, what a big shot. I only have one Train Coin, and I'm saving it to buy resources to upgrade my train's speed later. Someone actually spent one on this? What a waste!"]
["What's it to you what a big shot does? Look at the name, Ye Qiyan. This is the badass who put a rifle up for sale right after the first stop. Maybe he isn't short on Train Coins at all."]
["That's what you're focusing on?! Didn't you see? He's offering tomatoes! Damn, how many days has it been since I had any proper fruit? My mouth's forgotten what flavor is. Two hundred grams of gunpowder... hey, I actually found some in a corpse's backpack earlier. I was thinking I might be able to make a bomb or something, but I could buy a little with it."]
["Can we buy tomatoes with other things?"]
["Tomatoes are vegetables, not fruit!"]
["Gunpowder? @Ye Qiyan, what's gunpowder used for? Making guns? Boss, if you have any more guns, could you sell me one? I'll pay in Train Coins!"]
["Me too, me too! Boss, please sell me a gun!"]
As he had expected, there were capable people among the survivors.
In just a short time, Ye Qiyan completed all ten trades he had set up.
Looking at the two kilograms of gunpowder that had appeared before him, he took some out and combined it with metal to craft his first batch of bullets.
[Bullets ×100] (level 3)
One hundred bullets appeared out of thin air where the materials had been consumed.
Ye Qiyan weighed them in his hand a few times. They were a little heavier than the Low-level Bullets he had first obtained.
He loaded the pistol, chambered a round, and fired at a pile of stacked metal.
With Low-level Bullets, the Blacklight Pistol had originally only been able to punch through it.
But after switching to these level 3 bullets, it actually blasted the metal pile apart.
"Whoa, how many times more powerful is this? That's fierce."
Ye Qiyan was very pleased with his handiwork.
After turning all the remaining gunpowder into bullets as well, he stored the 999 freshly made level 3 rounds in the special storage unit so that he could retrieve them at any time, even outside the train.
The chat interface flickered slightly.
A friend had sent him a private message.
Who could it be?
Ye Qiyan looked over and discovered that more than one person had messaged him.
All three of his friends had appeared in his private messages.
Li Xiaosheng: ["My friend, do you remember what I told you? I have gunpowder, and you can manufacture weapons. If we join forces, we can definitely become the kings of all train captains!"]
Delusions of grandeur. Ignore.
Zhao Lin: ["Brother Ye, could you sell me a gun? I can pay in Train Coins."]
A smart trading partner. Worth trading with her.
Shangguan Yingxue: ["What level have you upgraded your train to?"]
Huh?
Seeing the last message, Ye Qiyan paused for a moment.
What did this woman mean?
If she was asking whether Ye Qiyan had upgraded to level 2, there was no need at all.
After all, following this fourth stop, other people besides Li Xiaosheng had also reached level 2. Even though Ye Qiyan had not said anything, everyone else should have considered him one of them.
Ye Qiyan did not particularly care that his train's level might be exposed.
Whether it was exposed or not made no difference. He was not afraid of such things.
["Just upgraded."]
Before you continue