But where would she find the key?

Right, she had a key fragment.

Yun Mianmian tried it, but the system responded:

Incomplete key fragment; must synthesize into a complete key before use.

Yun Mianmian frowned. Someone had offered to trade food for key fragments earlier—maybe she could find that person and make a trade.

Yun Mianmian opened the chat function, searching for the message, but there were too many people talking, and tens of thousands of people filled a single district. The message had disappeared within minutes. She scoured the chat history for a long time but couldn't find it.

Forget it. She'd build the workbench first.

She had enough materials, and soon, she crafted the beginner-level workbench.

The workbench took up almost a third of the ship's space, leaving Yun Mianmian no room for anything else.

"I need to upgrade my ship as soon as possible."

Upgrading to level 3 required three hundred pieces of wood and fifty iron nails.

Yun Mianmian didn't have that much material. Even with the two bronze treasure chests, which could be disassembled into a hundred pieces of wood, she only had one hundred and thirty. She only had eight iron nails.

Yun Mianmian sighed.

Although she'd only seen one other person—Nie Yangguang—upgrade their raft, most survivors hadn't yet. Still, she wanted to upgrade her ship as quickly as possible so that she could be ahead of everyone else.

Besides, the next upgrade might give her a sheltered house on the ship. Some fishing boats had such enclosed spaces, and an upgrade would also make the ship bigger.

She would ask Hu Yuan if he had anything else she could use. He had only traded for a bottle of water today, but he might need more food.

Yun Mianmian approached her workbench to see what she could make with it.

【 Basic Workbench (upgradable). Can create basic items. Upgrade Requirements: Blueprint for Intermediate Workbench. 】

The workbench came with a small digital display, which allowed her to select from a menu of items to create or customize. The left side of the screen was for placing materials, and the right side generated the finished product, along with step-by-step instructions.

It was simple to use, but the basic version could only produce simple products, though there was still a wide variety to choose from. Yun Mianmian looked carefully at the options and realized many of them would be useful to her, such as tables and chairs, axes, machetes, fishing rods, sickles, and long swords.

The quality of the finished product depended on the materials used. She looked over the plans and found that creating a basic fishing rod was quite straightforward, requiring only a length of fishing line, a piece of wood, and an iron nail.

If she chose to customize, she could make improvements to the blueprint, but there was a higher chance of failure, so it was best to stick to building from existing blueprints, since those were tried-and-true.

Whether or not something she designed herself would be usable was hard to say.

She sent Hu Yuan a private message.

"Do you have any extra wood and nails? I'll trade you food for them."

"Yes, how many do you want?"

The one thing Hu Yuan had no shortage of was wood and nails. In fact, after he'd caught that treasure chest, his raft had also been upgraded. He had a lot of materials in his chest, and just before Yun Mianmian sent him the message, he was preparing to trade some wood and nails for a blueprint of a medium fishing rod.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

If he could catch two chests a day, he might be able to open up more food and water. Hu Yuan had no other choice; asking people for water and food every day was too difficult. However, he wasn't too hopeful, because he'd never managed to open up anything edible or drinkable from his gift packages or treasure chests.

"Fifty nails," Yun Mianmian replied.

She knew asking for fifty nails was a lot, but she had no other choice.

Hu Yuan immediately knew she wanted to upgrade her raft. Because his own raft was at level 2, he knew exactly how many nails it would cost to upgrade to level 3—fifty nails.

"I don't have fifty; I only have thirty-five. But if you need them, I can help you get fifty. What food do you have?"

Yun Mianmian's eyes lit up as she checked her inventory again. She still had four steamed buns, five honey peaches, a piece of violet rice bread, a large watermelon, and a box of strawberries. What should she exchange for the nails?

She could give him one steamed bun—Yun Mianmian didn't like them anyway—and keep the rest for herself.

Then give me one of those peaches.

"An orange and a steamed bun for fifty nails," Yun Mianmian said.

She deliberately set the price high.

"You have peaches?!" Hu Yuan was stunned.

"Mm-hmm. Do you want them?"

Seeing Hu Yuan's reaction, her peaches seemed very valuable. Thankfully, she had asked for a price significantly higher than what she'd originally thought.

"Sure!" Hu Yuan had spent the entire day glued to the chat window, and he'd seen only one person mention having fruit. This meant that fruit was extremely rare at sea.

Her quick agreement made Yun Mianmian suddenly realize how precious her peaches were. Before, she hadn't thought much of them, since she'd had so many. She'd even traded one for a piece of a key.

In hindsight, it was a bit of a pity, but the trade had already happened, and she still had more peaches left.

Soon, Hu Yuan managed to gather fifty nails, perhaps by bartering with some wood. After Yun Mianmian received the materials, she organized her inventory.

Now, her supplies totaled:

[Wood x 135, nails x 58, mineral water x 6, fishing line x 2, mantou x 3, violet rice bread x 1, watermelon x 1, apple juice x 2, silk thread x 5, a box of strawberries, scallion pancake x 1, roses x 3, milk x 1, peaches x 4, a floral blanket, a farming guidebook, a packet of napa cabbage seeds, a set of thermal underwear]

Aside from these, there were also the few items she had brought with her from the real world.

In truth, she had amassed quite a number of supplies. Perhaps she should upgrade her tools?

She had enough to eat and drink, but if she wanted to walk ahead of everyone else, she needed to hurry and upgrade her tools.

After all, everyone was short on materials right now. No one had upgraded their fishing rods yet, but once everyone did, resources would no longer be so scarce. When that time came, food would no longer be so easily exchanged for materials.

Yun Mianmian decided to let Hu Yuan help her acquire the remaining 165 pieces of wood.

It wasn't that Yun Mianmian couldn't trade on her own, but after trading a few times with Hu Yuan, she found him to be quite reliable. Furthermore, she was tired of posting messages in the chat channel, as it was both troublesome and exposed how much she had stocked up. Keeping a low profile while piling up riches was a principle she understood well.

Yun Mianmian sent Hu Yuan a private message.

"How much wood do you have left to trade?"

Hu Yuan had just eaten a honey peach, and he felt refreshed. He planned to save the pit for later; perhaps it would come in handy. Upon seeing Yun Mianmian's message, he was stunned. He had always been the one to initiate contact, so this was the first time Yun Mianmian had reached out to him. First she wanted iron nails, and now she wanted wood. It seemed Yun Mianmian was determined to upgrade her raft all the way to level 3.

Hu Yuan hadn't realized she was in such a rush.

After all, most people were still using level-1 rafts, and very few had upgraded to level 2.

Level 3 was even more rare.

Hu Yuan had thought he could take a break after upgrading to level 2, but seeing Yun Mianmian's fervor, he hesitated. Maybe he should also endure hunger for a few days, stockpile some materials, and upgrade?

But those peaches had been delicious.

"How many do you need?" Hu Yuan got straight to the point.

"170."

Actually, she needed 165, but she rounded up to the nearest ten.

That was quite a lot. Hu Yuan didn't have that many.

"I don't have that many either," he said. "I don't think anyone has that many."

Yun Mianmian thought this was the case. No one could even afford the hundred or so logs needed to upgrade their raft, so who would have 170?

Even if someone did, why would they trade it all for her? They could just use it to upgrade their own raft.

"But if you ask a few more people, you should be able to get that many," Hu Yuan continued. "If each person gives you ten or twenty, you'd only need ten people."

Yun Mianmian fell silent. Sure, asking ten people would be a bit troublesome, but it was certainly a viable option. However, what could she give in exchange?

Suddenly, Yun Mianmian remembered she still had a watermelon. If she cut it in half and cut each half into ten pieces, she might be able to get what she needed.

She checked her workbench and saw that she could craft a cutting knife. A regular cutting knife was perfect for slicing watermelons.

She opened the crafting menu to check the requirements for an ordinary machete: one piece of wood and one piece of iron.

But she no longer had any iron.

She didn't have anything else that could be divided into ten shares to trade for wood either.

"Can you get more iron?" Yun Mianmian asked.

"How about I give you half a bottle of water in exchange?"

"You still have that much water?" Hu Yuan asked.

"I have enough to drink, but I'll have to be careful not to waste it," Yun Mianmian replied.

Six bottles of water. If she drank carefully, two days wouldn't be a problem. Besides, she could continue fishing tomorrow.

"Wait here, please. Let me ask around."

Hu Yuan had gotten to know someone who often had better materials to trade. The piece of iron he'd given Yun Mianmian before had come from this person. Hu Yuan would first go trade what he had for iron, then exchange it with Yun Mianmian for bottled water.

Hu Yuan sent Cui Tao a private message: "Bro, any iron left?"

"Just one piece. What do you want? More?"

He had given Hu Yuan a piece earlier this morning.

"I have a friend who wants some."

Cui Tao had no use for iron, but he was short on fishing line. He'd just gotten a blueprint for an upgraded fishing rod, and he needed the fishing line to upgrade it quickly.

"Sure, let's trade, but only if you give me fishing line."

He'd been keeping an eye on the chat, but no one else wanted to trade for fishing line.

Yun Mianmian asked Hu Yuan, "Do you have any fishing line? I know someone who can trade iron for it."

Yun Mianmian had just finished sorting out her supplies and remembered she still had two fishing lines. She quickly replied, "I do!"

"Okay, then you two can trade on your own." Hu Yuan then created a new group chat with the three of them.

Soon, Yun Mianmian saw Cui Tao appear in the chat.

She sent over the information for the fishing line.

Cui Tao was delighted, as this was the last item he needed to upgrade his fishing rod. Many people in the chat had already upgraded their rods, which allowed them to catch three chests at a time, greatly accelerating their resource-gathering speed.

Cui Tao immediately began the trade with Yun Mianmian.

After each received what they wanted, they swiftly went off to craft the items they needed without exchanging any words.

Yun Mianmian crafted her machete, and Cui Tao made his intermediate fishing rod.

Yun Mianmian cut the large watermelon in half, put one half back into her backpack, and used the machete to cut the other half into eleven pieces, an extra one just in case, since it would be close to half anyway, and she could eat the extra piece herself.

The seedless red flesh of the watermelon glistened under the sunlight, making it enticingly beautiful. One bite revealed its refreshing and sweet flavor, juicy and satisfyingly thirst-quenching.

She opened the chat window, prepared to post a picture of the watermelon to advertise, but she froze.

"Key fragments for trade for water and food."

The key fragments appeared again!