“Boat cabins, thirty units of upgrade materials per trade. I’ve already uploaded them to the trading platform. Windproof and warm, limited quantity—first come, first served.”
“Of course, if you join my pirate crew, you get priority exchange.”
As soon as Li Haibo spoke, a flood of lackeys started spamming the chat.
“Boss, you’re amazing!”
“Boss is awesome!”
“Boss is a genius!”
Jiang Lai stared at the mindless barrage of messages, feeling like she’d been transported back to middle school…
Pirate crews, this kind of posturing—just how old is this Li Haibo guy, anyway?
Jiang Lai silently complained in her heart, not realizing she’d already hit the nail on the head.
Still, she was a bit interested in the so-called “boat cabin,” so she checked out the item description on the trading platform.
Looking closely at the details, she realized it was basically a rectangular wooden box that could be clamped onto a small boat.
Since it was placed upside down on the boat, the box only had five sides.
One side could slide open, serving as both an entrance and a vent.
All in all, it was very crudely made, and squeezing inside would be anything but comfortable.
But, being made of planks, it would at least offer some wind and rain protection.
Still, thirty units of upgrade materials was a steep price.
Everyone knew that once you upgraded to a level-two dwelling, you could withstand this extreme cold.
Upgrading only required 150 units of upgrade materials in total.
Buying this boat cabin would cost a fifth of that.
It was hard not to be shocked.
“Li Haibo, your boat cabin is somewhat useful, but it’s way too expensive.
With that much material, we’d be better off saving up for an upgrade. Why would we waste it on your useless thing?”
A player voiced their opinion.
“If you can really gather enough materials to upgrade, then of course you don’t need my boat cabin.
But that’s only if you can survive the night.
It already rained during the day, and it might rain again tonight. The temperature will drop another ten degrees tonight.
Are you sure you’ll make it to the upgrade?
If you’re not buying, stop talking nonsense and get lost.”
Li Haibo was arrogant and rude, but when it came to business, he did have some brains.
The price was high, but there was definitely a market for it.
Right now, some people in the game had already upgraded to level-two dwellings, while others were just unlucky or didn’t know how to use their resources wisely and hadn’t saved anything.
But those were the minority.
Most people had been preparing for the upgrade for days.
They’d saved up a lot of materials—not enough for the full 150, but thirty units was doable.
That’s exactly what Li Haibo was counting on.
“My boat cabins are limited. If you wait too long, you’ll be popsicles by morning.”
The group chat buzzed with discussion, but since it was a lot of resources, no one rushed to buy.
“Tsk tsk, this guy even knows how to use scarcity marketing.”
Chang Fa commented in their three-person private chat. With such a commotion in the main channel, it was impossible not to notice.
“Jiang Lai, don’t you have a workbench too? And yours is even better than his! You should sell some as well.
We’ve got such a good setup—can’t let him monopolize the market.”
Chang Fa, ever the business veteran, immediately tried to rope Jiang Lai into the trade.
“Boat cabins are just a stopgap. After a couple of days, they’ll be useless.
Spending thirty units of material will only slow everyone’s upgrade progress. If there’s another crisis after this cold snap, people will be in trouble.”
Qi Jingxing was thinking long-term.
“Ah Xing, you’re overthinking it. If Jiang Lai doesn’t make the money, Li Haibo will.
Besides, for those who can’t survive the night, spending fifty units to save their lives isn’t a waste, is it?
As for what happens later—who knows how long any of us will last? We can’t worry about that now.”
Chang Fa’s opinion was the opposite of Qi Jingxing’s.
If he had a workbench himself, he’d definitely try to push Li Haibo out of the market.
Given the current situation, who could afford to think so far ahead? Making some extra money and staying alive was what mattered.
Meanwhile, Jiang Lai, the only one in the group with a workbench, hadn’t said a word.
Because right now, she was on her raft, tugging on her fishing rod.
The first treasure chest had just been hooked.
“Why is today’s chest so heavy?”
Jiang Lai pulled hard on the rod, feeling like today’s chest was especially heavy.
Could there be something good inside?
With that thought, she was filled with energy and hauled the chest up in one go.
“Ta-ta.”
“Haibao?”
The familiar chubby white creature was hugging the chest on the fishing line with its short fins.
Jiang Lai took a closer look—the chest was just a wooden treasure chest.
“Get down first, I want to open it.”
“Ta-ta.”
Understanding her, Haibao obediently climbed down, making room.
But its round eyes stayed glued to the chest, drool dripping from the corner of its mouth.
Seeing Haibao like that, Jiang Lai had a pretty good guess about what was inside.
She opened it.
[Apple x5]
That’s it?
Jiang Lai took out the apples and rummaged around the chest.
She’d guessed there’d be food, but was it really just food?
Every time she’d opened a chest before, she’d gotten two items. Today, it was just apples.
They were good, but Jiang Lai couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed.
Haibao stared anxiously at the apples in her hand, signaling desperately with its eyes.
“Ta-ta, ta-ta, ta-ta.”
“You want one too?”
Of course Jiang Lai understood what Haibao meant.
But these apples were precious to her, stuck at sea with no fresh fruit or vegetables.
Still, with Haibao staring at her like this, there was no way to fool it.
If she made the little guy angry and it went back to tell its parents… well…
Thinking of Haijia’s massive size, Jiang Lai decided it was better not to upset Haibao.
“Haibao, how about we make a deal? You help me with something, and I’ll give you an apple, okay?”
Jiang Lai put on her most “kind and friendly” face, coaxing it gently.
“Ta-ta?”
Haibao tilted its head, big eyes full of innocent stupidity, not realizing it was about to be tricked.
“Here’s the deal: you take my fishing line down into the sea. If you see any chests that aren’t wooden ones, hook them onto my line, okay?”
Jiang Lai pointed at the wooden chest, then at her fishing rod.
No need to explain bronze or silver—too complicated. As long as it’s not a wooden chest, she’d consider it a win!
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(End of chapter)”
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