Chapter 6: Day 2 of Desert Survival (4): Unlocked Something That Seems…

After the base of the umbrella was repaired, it could now stand upright on the ground.

Yu Miaomiao pushed the umbrella ribs upward, and the umbrella canopy fully opened—it looked more than twice as large as before. Not only could it cover her alone, it could even shade an entire repair station.

This meant that whether she worked in front of the repair station or placed the umbrella beside it, she wouldn’t be exposed to the sun anymore.

The heat in her body finally began to dissipate. She felt that all her earlier effort was worth it in this moment.

『IsPipiThere: I heard you’ve received the nylon fabric. I’ll go ahead and send you the materials for making the pickaxes. You can help us make them when the weather’s not as hot.』

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Alright.』

After receiving the materials, Yu Miaomiao’s system backpack now contained:

【Wood ×8, Mineral Water ×5, Scrap Metal ×2, Basic Nutrient Solution Shards ×2, Basic Replication Card ×2, Spicy Chicken Wing ×1, Swiss Army Knife ×1, Rubber ×10, Steamed Bun ×3, Palm Leaves ×9, Stone ×6, Rope ×1】

Her system backpack had been nearly full all this time, and she hadn’t had a chance to manage it.

Although materials could be stored outside, they had to be in the backpack to be used for trading. And in this kind of heat, food would definitely spoil if left outside.

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Do you know how to upgrade the backpack?』

『IsPipiThere: I saw someone trying to trade food for a ‘Backpack Expander’—not sure where they got it from. My guess is it’s crafted through the workbench too.』

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Got it, thanks. If you see someone trading that blueprint, let me know—I’ll make you a pickaxe for free.』

『IsPipiThere: Will do!』

Come to think of it, the pickaxe blueprint came from him anyway. The earlier labor fee had been because it was just too hot. Now that she had some shade and felt cooler, her conditions weren’t as strict.

The world channel was now much livelier than it had been in the morning. After receiving their noon supply packs, everyone seemed to come back to life, making the place bustling again.

Yu Miaomiao had just gotten ready to move the umbrella over to the workbench when she received another message from “Lulu.”

『IsLuluThere: I’m really sorry to bother you… Could I possibly trade something I get tomorrow for another bottle of water? Tomorrow, I only need to keep water and food.』

Yu Miaomiao didn’t want to entertain IOU requests like this. She closed the chat window.

Standing in front of the primitive workbench, Yu Miaomiao began making a new pickaxe, she only needed to make one more.

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: The pickaxe is done. Click to trade.』

『IsPipiThere: So fast! Thank you so much. I thought you wouldn’t finish until tonight.』

After the trade was completed, Yu Miaomiao relaxed and chatted a bit with “Pipi.”

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Earlier, my outdoor sun umbrella broke, so I couldn’t make the pickaxe under such strong sunlight.』

『IsPipiThere: Broken? Outdoor sun umbrella? Is it this one? 【Sun Umbrella】』

Seeing the umbrella info he sent, it was obviously different from hers. Could it be that her old broken umbrella was actually a good item?!

Not wanting to reveal her lucky trait to others, she quickly changed the subject.

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Yes, but I’ve repaired it now. The sun has gone down a bit, so I finished the pickaxe.』

『IsPipiThere: Repaired? You even have a repair station? That’s impressive. So you collected nylon fabric to fix the umbrella, right?』

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Mm-hmm.』

『IsPipiThere: I guess the umbrella will only last a few more days. When I arrived yesterday, my sun umbrella could still block UV rays, but today the sun feels like it’s burning my skin.』

Standing under the sun, Yu Miaomiao did feel it was much hotter than yesterday, but the shading power of the newly repaired big umbrella still seemed pretty good.

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: There must be new shading or cooling tools eventually.』

『IsPipiThere: Yeah, if the sun keeps getting stronger, we’ll either die of thirst, hunger, or sunstroke.』

Apparently, “Pipi” really wanted someone to talk to. Thinking that they probably wouldn’t contact each other tomorrow, Yu Miaomiao stopped replying.

She looked again at her “Item Crafting Guide.” The crafting formulas were displayed together with the system interface, so they must be common for everyone—hence their prominent placement.

She hadn’t noticed it before after finishing the simple repair station, but now she saw a new line of text below the crafting formulas:

【After completing all item crafting, new crafting formulas and system functions can be unlocked.】

Although this prompt didn’t mention any rewards, the new system functions still caught Yu Miaomiao’s attention.

After all, the last new function unlocked was World Chat, which allowed her to trade for supplies and gain new information.

So what could this new function be? She glanced at the system’s crafting guide and saw that only one item—the campfire—remained locked. Maybe she should just go ahead and make it now.

After checking the required materials, she noticed she didn’t have much wood left. But right now, her goal was to build the campfire and unlock the next stage of crafting recipes and system functions.

Yu Miaomiao thought for a moment and decided to message “Pipi.”

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Do you guys have any cotton?』

『IsPipiThere: I think one of my classmates had cotton in their starting location. I’ll ask.』

It seemed that these basic resources might refresh differently in each person’s starting area. So what exactly was the special resource around her location?

Not long after, she received a reply from Pipi.

『IsPipiThere: How many do you need?』

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Just one.』

『IsPipiThere: Are you trying to make a campfire?』

Since her previous trades with Pipi had gone smoothly, Yu Miaomiao didn’t bother hiding it and replied honestly.

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Yes.』

『IsPipiThere: I saw someone in World Chat say that once you build a campfire, you’ll need to regularly add wooden sticks to keep the fire burning. If it goes out, you’ll need cotton again to relight it.』

Wooden sticks could be crafted at the workbench—one piece of wood could make five sticks.

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: A campfire probably isn’t enough to keep out the cold at night, so it must have another use.』

『IsPipiThere: You mean… the campfire might be able to protect us from something else?』

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: That’s just my guess. In an apocalypse, anything can happen. The earlier we prepare, the better our chances of survival.』

『IsPipiThere: What are you offering in exchange?』

After hearing what “Pipi” said earlier, Yu Miaomiao felt that one bundle of cotton might not be enough.

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Wooden sticks. You guys probably don’t have a workbench yet—I can split wood into sticks. I’d like to trade one wooden stick for one bundle of cotton. If possible, I want five bundles of cotton.』

『IsPipiThere: Okay, I’ll help you ask around.』

The sun was about to set, and this time Pipi seemed to be taking a while. Bored, Yu Miaomiao started browsing World Chat.

A familiar name kept posting the same message repeatedly.

『IsLuluThere: 【Simple Raft Blueprint】 Looking to trade for water.』

At least no one seemed to notice her for now—after all, there was a 30-second cooldown between messages, and the chat was full of trade requests. Her messages quickly got buried.

But “Lulu” was almost posting exactly on the second, and more and more people began to notice her posts—until they started criticizing her.

『IsLuluThere: 【Simple Raft Blueprint】 Looking to trade for water.』

『Shizuka: Girl, look at where we are right now. A raft blueprint? You really think you can trade that for water? Everyone knows water is the rarest resource right now.』

『ColonelIsMe: Spamming like this, too bad we can’t report people—otherwise I’d mute you. You’re just polluting the chat channel.』

『LostFaith: Damn this apocalypse game’s chat system—you can’t even curse properly.』

『IsLuluThere: 【Simple Raft Blueprint】 Looking to trade for water.』

『ILoveMochi: Hey, ‘IsLuluThere,’ stop spamming. Even if your blueprint is useful in the future, no one’s going to trade for it right now.』

『AprilLie: Hey, the one above—I love mochi too. If you get any mochi in the future, can we trade?』

The chat quickly got sidetracked, but “Lulu” continued to stubbornly post the same message over and over.

Yu Miaomiao tapped to view the blueprint’s info:

【Name: Simple Raft Blueprint (1/1)

Level: 5

Function: Learn the crafting process for a Simple Raft after use

Attributes: 】

So far, the highest-level item she had seen was level 4, yet this raft was level 5—Yu Miaomiao was intrigued.

She believed nothing in this world existed without purpose. Earlier, she had seen someone share a fishing rod blueprint, and now a raft blueprint had appeared. That meant there had to be a situation later on involving large amounts of water.

Whether it would be a transition from desert to ocean, sudden appearances of lakes, or even heavy rain and flooding was unclear. But with this crafting recipe, it at least provided another survival tool.

Yu Miaomiao was used to living alone and had always been one to prepare for the worst. After thinking it over, she reopened the temporary chat with “IsLuluThere.”

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: How much water for one blueprint?』

『IsLuluThere: One bottle of water for one blueprint.』

In Yu Miaomiao’s mind, the future value of this blueprint would far exceed a bottle of water—but considering how scarce water was right now…

『MeowMeowNotLackingWater: Half a bottle.』

『IsLuluThere: Deal.』

The other party immediately sent a trade request. For a moment, Yu Miaomiao wondered if she had still offered too much. But then again, half a bottle was likely the lowest tradeable amount. Without hesitation, she confirmed the transaction.

After receiving the blueprint and using it, the system notification chimed:

【System Notification: Player MeowMeowNotLackingWater has unlocked Simple Raft crafting.】

She walked up to the workbench and selected “Living” on the crafting wheel with one hand. Sure enough, the raft crafting recipe appeared.

Raft Plank ×1 = Wood (2/2), Plastic Block (0/2)

The workbench showed a thumbnail preview of the item. Judging by its appearance, it wasn’t a proper raft—more like a small piece of floating wood.

This was what they called a Simple Raft? Might as well name it Floating Plank Blueprint instead—and yet it was a level 5 blueprint.

Before she could finish complaining, Yu Miaomiao received another message from “Pipi.”