Chapter 15: Fuel Tank Upgrade, Obtaining Universal Wound Spray

Busy until noon, Wen Mingyue, just like the morning before, fished up three treasure chests—this time, two wooden ones and one iron chest.

From the iron chest, she got a rice cooker, which she placed straight into the kitchen.

One of the wooden chests contained 5 jin (~2.5 kg) of cooking oil, and the other gave 50 liters of fuel, which 069 promptly added to the ship’s fuel tank.

With the recent upgrades, the fishing boat’s fuel tank could now hold up to 500 liters of fuel.

For lunch, wanting a change of taste, she had her dear system buddy fish up the crab trap that had been redeployed the night before.

It was only upon seeing the damaged trap that she realized why the shark monster had attacked her boat last night.

Despite the damage, two king crabs were still clinging stubbornly inside the retrieved trap. Since they didn’t want to leave, they might as well stay for lunch.

According to 069’s calculations, each crab weighed over 10 kilograms, along with a large squid that had also been caught.

She kept one king crab out to cook for lunch, while the rest were stored in card form and saved in the camera space for future use.

After repairing the fishing boat, Wen Mingyue had 069 select two sea fish and place them back into the crab trap before tossing it back into the sea.

With everything arranged, she strolled leisurely into the kitchen to prepare lunch.

Lunch today was the leftover seafood porridge from breakfast, paired with a steamed king crab.

She mixed crab roe with two eggs, steamed the mixture, then garnished it with scallions and soy sauce. The steamed crab legs were served with wasabi soy dipping sauce.

Inside the space, 069 couldn’t resist and pretended to wipe away nonexistent drool—it was just too tempting.

In the afternoon, she fished up eight more treasure chests—two iron and six wooden.

The first iron chest contained two bottles of Universal Wound Spray. Wen Mingyue clicked to view the detailed description:

[Universal Wound Spray]: An excellent product for disinfection, anti-inflammation, and hemostasis. Accelerates wound healing and prevents infection. Note: Not very effective on heavy bleeding; recommended to use other medication first to stop the bleeding.

“Not bad, not bad.” In this game world, medicine is extremely important—especially when the sea monster tides come. In her previous life, Wen Mingyue had seen half-used hemostatic ointments auctioned off for sky-high prices.

Next came the second iron chest:

[Incomplete Island Map]

Her eyes lit up—this was another chance for a big haul. Rubbing her hands in excitement, she opened the detailed description:

[Two incomplete island map pieces can locate any island: Island resources are abundant, danger level unknown.]

She searched the trading channel but found that no one had listed any island map pieces yet. Still, she had already instructed 069 to keep an eye out for any.

She herself didn’t request a trade outright—previous system announcements had already revealed her wealth. No doubt there were plenty of people lurking in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity.

Though she rarely spoke in the regional chat group, she didn’t completely ignore it. Information was power, after all.

Starting that afternoon, she noticed that more people were proposing to form teams after the newbie phase ended. Once players added each other as friends, video chat and team functions would be unlocked, and in the future, there would be an invite feature for team gatherings.

Temporary teams require a Summon Card.

Permanent teams don’t require a Summon Card, but once both parties confirm the team, they must choose to retain one of their fishing boats. Afterward, the system will automatically rearrange the fishing boat’s layout. Once teamed up permanently, you cannot quit.

In the early stages of the game, temporary team-ups were more common, while later on, it gradually shifted toward permanent teams.

Of course, risks existed. One had to keep their eyes open and carefully discern who to trust. That’s why, in the beginning, most players preferred to team up with family or close friends.

Later on, it became a matter of the weak relying on the strong—some people would even abandon their own family just to survive, because powerful teams wouldn’t accept anyone useless.

Even if you weren’t physically strong, having a high Luck stat or a special talent could still make you highly sought-after by teams.

In her previous life, Wen Mingyue had managed to join Zhao Jin’an’s team with her “Insight Eye” talent, although it was only a temporary arrangement.

After briefly reminiscing, she went back to opening the remaining six wooden chests, which yielded:

A box of 24 ham sausages—the long-lost best partner of instant noodles

Some tapioca starch—perfect for making fried shrimp chips

12 chili seeds—a favorite of southwesterners

3 large meat buns, 2 cans of honey, and 4 onions

She took two chili seeds, found a corner to plant them, then used one bottle of growth solution to speed up their development until they bloomed and matured.

She couldn’t help but sigh again—system products were indeed top-tier: large yields, high quality, and impressive size.

Returning to her wooden house, she lay down on the leather sofa in the living room, browsing through the hoarded food ingredients in her camera space. Eventually, she had 069 pick out a large squid.

Since she had just gotten onions, she decided to make stir-fried squid with onions, along with egg and vegetable soup, paired with two bowls of rice cooked in the rice cooker.

By the time she finished dinner, it was already 7 PM and dark outside, but the soft lighting on her fishing boat gave off a warm ambiance. She had used 8 light bulbs for the wooden house, and the remaining 8 were installed on the boat by 069.

At this moment, she was comfortably sitting on the deck rocking chair, enjoying the sea breeze and sipping on freshly made honey lemon water, reviewing the harvest summary sent by 069.

The four fishing nets had brought in over 500 jin (~250 kg) of fish, shrimp, and assorted shellfish. Wen Mingyue had upgraded 069 handle the killing process, then stored everything into camera-space cards—6 new cards added to her inventory.

As for the internal organs, she chose to keep them for now, to be dealt with during cooking. This way, she could still produce waste for her energy trash bin, which was essential for power generation.

Given her principle of never wasting even a single grain of rice, relying solely on the energy trash bin to supply her current daily electricity consumption could have kept her going well into next year.

Her six water purifiers were also running well. Besides her personal daily usage, the remaining purified water and salt sold out quickly.

Wen Mingyue was very pleased. It seemed that people still had decent purchasing power, and selling water remained a high-demand market—she had been worried about that.

She’d even noticed several people in the chat today mentioning they had drawn water purifiers from treasure chests. Most were basic models, producing 10 liters of water and 100g of salt daily. The best was a mid-grade purifier that produced 30 liters of water and 300g of salt daily.

Thankfully, no one had announced unlocking purifier blueprints, and after checking the trading platform, she also didn’t see anyone mass-selling purifiers.

She patted her chest in relief, glad she hadn’t needed to lower her prices. In fact, some people were offering even higher exchange prices than her.

She then checked the materials she’d traded for, and her face lit up with joy.

She already had more than enough wood and nails to expand her fishing boat to 1,000 square meters, though she was still short on iron blocks. Since she also needed iron to craft arrows, she wasn’t in a hurry to proceed with the expansion yet.

Among the items she received were a variety of small supplies she’d been lacking, and even some luxury beauty products like premium face masks and sunscreen. She had 069 store them all.

After all, in this game world of sun and wind exposure, she might as well take care of her skin if she had the means to do so.

Wen Mingyue had suffered losses in resource trading in her previous life. This time, she made sure 069 filtered everything with upgraded intelligence, and only brought things to her if it was uncertain about a decision.