“Boss, I’ve bought the torches. I’ll trade them to you right now.”
On the other end, one of Li Haibo’s underlings, after buying torches from Chang Fa, immediately traded them to Li Haibo.
No one really knew how Li Haibo managed it, but somehow, even though his gang had never met in person online, he’d managed to inspire a surprising amount of loyalty.
Li Haibo held the torch in his hand, examining it from every angle, and thought it was nothing special.
The firestarter was hard to come by, but fuel was easy enough to find.
“These idiots, holding onto something as precious as a firestarter, and they’re selling it this cheap? Tch, with brains like that, they think they can compete with me?”
You had to know, before this, firestarters were so rare that people couldn’t get them even at sky-high prices on the trading platform.
And now they’re selling them for just twenty units of upgrade materials?
Li Haibo thought these people must have had their brains kicked by a whale.
If it were him, and he was trading with ten lucky players at once, who knows how many rare and valuable items he could get in exchange—certainly more than just wood and nails.
Besides, now that lots of people had firestarters, this business wouldn’t last much longer anyway.
“Boss, now that we have firestarters too, should we get into the torch business?”
Seeing how well Chang Fa’s business was doing, one of Li Haibo’s group members spoke up.
“Idiot. This stuff is already everywhere now, you can’t get a good price for it anymore. I’ve got a better idea.”
A glint flashed in Li Haibo’s eyes as he stood on his raft, patting his prized workbench.
Meanwhile, as night fell, the temperature dropped even further.
Business was booming on Chang Fa’s end.
People who had hesitated about buying torches, now feeling the biting cold that could freeze your breath, were willing to trade anything.
After all, in weather cold enough to kill, only those who are cold really understand how desperate it feels.
If you didn’t get a torch, you might not even make it through the night—who cared about holding onto a few supplies at that point?
Chang Fa had already used up all ten of his public chat messages for the day.
Luckily, he didn’t need to advertise anymore—his private messages were exploding, and he couldn’t keep up with all the replies.
With 300 torches almost sold out, Jiang Lai, who’d been idle until now, was finally put to work by Boss Chang.
Jiang Lai started buying up newbie clothes and all kinds of grease on the trading platform.
Everything she collected was immediately passed to Qi Jingxing, who worked overtime to craft more torches.
The finished torches were then handed to Chang Fa to trade.
The supplies they got in exchange were sent back to Jiang Lai to keep buying materials.
And so, a complete supply chain of procurement, production, and sales—run by just three people—was officially up and running.
That night, none of the three slept; they worked straight through until dawn.
On the fifth day of the game, as the cold night faded and sunlight once again shone on the sea, daytime temperatures had dropped to minus 15 degrees Celsius.
For the lucky few who had upgraded their shelters and had wooden cabins, this was just barely tolerable.
But for the majority—still drifting in leaky little boats with barely enough cold-weather gear—this temperature was brutal.
Jiang Lai, curled up in her blanket, rubbed her eyes and yawned.
“It’s finally over.”
After working all night, they’d finished making and selling every torch they had.
And as more people got firestarters, more started thinking about getting into the torch business themselves.
Prices for newbie clothes and grease on the trading platform kept rising, and it was getting harder and harder to buy them.
As others started selling torches too, the price dropped from 15 units of upgrade materials, to 12, and finally stabilized at 10.
Costs were up, prices were down, and the market was limited.
The monopoly was over; there was no more money to be made.
Fortunately, Jiang Lai and her partners had all understood this was a time-limited opportunity.
By relying on their torches’ longer burn time and better quality, they cleared out their last batch and wrapped up the business perfectly.
The rest of the market could be left to the cutthroat competitors.
“Are you guys tired? Can you hang on a bit longer? Should I settle up the accounts now?”
Chang Fa, who’d also been up all night acting as customer service, spoke up in the group chat.
All the upgrade materials from the trades were with him, so it was up to him to settle accounts with Qi Jingxing and Jiang Lai.
“I’m fine, not too tired,” Qi Jingxing replied.
If anyone was exhausted, it was Qi Jingxing—he’d spent the whole night actually making torches, pure manual labor.
Chang Fa and Jiang Lai only had to reply to messages with a thought.
But now that torches had sold well and many people had firestarters, and with cheaper torches flooding the market after they left, it was a great thing for the surviving players.
This was exactly what Qi Jingxing had hoped for.
He’d achieved more than he’d planned, so even though he was tired and sleepy, he felt exhilarated.
“I’m not tired either—let’s settle up before we sleep,” Jiang Lai said.
Of course, Jiang Lai was lying—her eyes were practically glued shut.
But now that the business was done, she couldn’t sleep easy until the supplies were in her inventory.
Even though she, Qi Jingxing, and Chang Fa had signed a distribution contract under the system’s notarization, Jiang Lai couldn’t rest easy until she had her share in hand.
In this survival game, Jiang Lai only trusted herself—only what she held in her own hands gave her real security.
“Alright! Let’s get this done quickly.”
With both partners agreeing, Chang Fa didn’t waste any time.
“We sold a total of 468 torches, earning 9,360 units of upgrade materials.
Each torch cost an average of 4 units to make, so that’s 1,872 units in costs.
So, our net profit is 7,488 units.”
Chang Fa was a sharp businessman and kept clear accounts. He organized the transaction records and posted them in the group for everyone to see.
“Jiang Lai gets 50%, so she gets 3,744 units.
Qi Jingxing gets 40%, so he gets 2,996 units.
I get 10%, so I get 748 units.
Since the upgrade materials include both wood and nails in different amounts, I’ll transfer them to you in the same proportions. Sound good?”
Chang Fa was completely transparent—every transaction and material count was open for all to see.
Qi Jingxing and Jiang Lai weren’t the nitpicking type, so they had no objections.
Soon, Jiang Lai received her share of upgrade materials from Chang Fa.
3,744 units in total, including 2,600 wood and 1,144 nails.
“We’re rich.”
Looking at the numbers in her inventory, Jiang Lai was instantly wide awake, her heart pounding.
She’d finally gotten rich overnight!
(End of Chapter)”
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