While Everyone Panicked, I Upgraded My Raft

Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Powerful Sea Survival Shop

[District 122: (97,902 / 100,000)]

”Sea Survival Shop??? That’s so sudden.”

”It’s not sudden at all! A shop just appeared on Thesora, after all.”

”Does having a shop mean that later on, when supplies are scarce, we can buy resources from it to tide us over??”

”Haha, that’s great.”

”You’re overthinking it. I took a look, and the number of products in this Sea Survival Shop is limited. Plus, it’s open to the entire server. When it really comes down to life and death, it’ll still depend on who acts fastest!”

”I noticed that this Sea Survival Shop seems to be able to sell resources too!”

”Looking at it this way, the functions of this Sea Survival Shop aren’t much different from the Trading Hall. Why would the game go out of its way to introduce this shop?”

”The Trading Hall is restricted by district, but the Sea Survival Shop is server-wide?”

”Whatever. Either way, having another option is a good thing.”

”Yeah, I’m planning to exchange my idle resources for Trading Coins. Maybe I can snag some special Equipment later!”

”I’m planning to do the same.”

”...”

The players discussed it passionately in the World Channel, evidently treating the newly emerged Sea Survival Shop as an official new store launched by the Sea Survival Game.

Seeing their misunderstanding, Rowan Rhodes let out a long breath. She had chosen this name precisely for this slight possibility of misinterpretation. And the players had actually fallen for it! Although there were still some buggy aspects to this setup, the players simply hadn’t thought too deeply about it.

With her hidden agenda achieved, Rowan continued studying the functions of the Sea Survival Shop.

[Trading Coins: 0] [Exchange]

After clicking the exchange button, a page remarkably similar to the shop on Thesora appeared in front of her. This made Rowan sigh in relief. The shop indeed possessed a supply channel, though it was currently limited by her shop’s Level. The goods available for purchase were basic, but she could unlock a much wider variety of items later through upgrades.

Moreover, there was just an extra step in the middle for her to centrally regulate things. She needed to exchange resources from the shop into Trading Coins, let these Trading Coins flow into the market, and finally collect them back. This setup would severely test her scheduling abilities; if she wasn’t careful, she could easily go bankrupt.

Her gaze moved downward. Although her listed goods were on the shelves, they had no set prices and therefore couldn’t be purchased yet.

As for pricing, Rowan chose to double it.

Currently, the shop on Thesora existed, but such shops were incredibly hard to come by. When players didn’t have access to that kind of shop, her goods would sometimes become absolute necessities. If people found them too expensive, they were entirely free to trade in the Trading Hall instead. This way, she would also prevent her shop’s inventory from being instantly cleared out.

With this in mind, Rowan systematically set all the prices to double their base value.

When the prices were finally revealed, a wave of curses instantly swept across the World Channel.

”The prices are out. They’re actually double the normal price.”

”Profiteer! Absolute profiteer!”

”I knew it. The game couldn’t possibly be this kind.”

”Celia Lynch: Actually, if this shop had appeared during the extreme heat disaster, being a little expensive wouldn’t matter much if it meant surviving, right?”

”That’s true.”

”This shop just gives us a new option outside the Trading Hall.”

”Fair point.”

”If you think it’s too expensive, just don’t use it on normal days. Save it for crucial moments.”

”Exactly.”

”...”

The players were still cursing about the prices in the Sea Survival Shop, but the resentment in their hearts faded significantly when they remembered they still had the Trading Hall. Buying and selling were completely voluntary, after all.

Rowan noticed the reactions but didn’t care too much. She never intended for her shop to completely replace the Sea Survival Game’s Trading Hall. She knew it was impossible! The sheer volume of players wasn’t something her current little shop could ever handle.

What she wanted was to survive in the cracks—to gradually expand and strengthen her shop through trades, turning it into a powerful asset that would help her survive.

Her gaze continued downward.

[Reputation: 0]

This reputation was exactly the same as the reputation value that appeared in the shop on Thesora. Trades generated reputation value for both individuals and the shop itself. Rowan suspected this reputation might play a significant role later on.

She then skipped to [Acquire Goods].

After clicking it, Rowan discovered that this was also fully operated by her. The target audience for acquisitions was the players across the entire channel, and she held absolute pricing power.

Further down was [Invite Regulars]. Upon clicking it, a pop-up window appeared.

[Do you wish to send an invitation to players who meet the requirements? Attaching cooperation terms will increase the probability of success.]

[Note: Level 0 allows up to 100 people to be invited.]

Below this was a list displaying the personnel who met the standards, with the top one hundred selected by default. Rowan searched through it and specifically added a few familiar names from District 122 who hadn’t quite made the rankings.

Zelda Parrish, Skye Schuyler, Owen Caldwell, Faye Sinclair...

Rowan understood the mechanic immediately. The players the shop could invite were generally those with special Skills. The Equipment they crafted needed to meet the shop’s specific standards.

Next came the cooperation terms. Rowan directly typed in her offer: 50/50 profit split.

Not long after sending it out, she received quite a few responses, including from Zelda Parrish and the others. Their names were listed in a separate table. Besides seeing which district they were in, she could also chat privately and trade with these players.

She wondered if this essentially counted as unlocking a private chat channel. At this moment, Rowan truly felt that this shop was an unexpected delight!

Filled with joy, Rowan turned to the final line.

[Target Customers: Entire Server]

This was also entirely up to Rowan. She could choose to target the entire server, a specific district, or even a single customer. By the same token, she also had the power to block people.

At this point, Rowan had completely sorted out all the functions of the shop. Regarding this feature, she could only say its functions were far too powerful! No wonder the Sea Survival Game placed it at such an early stage, making the players miss it entirely. This was practically a bug.

And this bug now belonged to her!

Rowan’s lips curled into a slight smile, and she immediately began exchanging her idle resources for Trading Coins. Once her account was funded, she initiated trades in the acquisition section, acquiring items like Rough Insect Skin, Hot Stones, and geothermal cores.

To her pleasant surprise, right after her account received Trading Coins and she opened up acquisitions, the goods in her shop actually sold!

Mineral water, beverages, and food were completely snatched up in mere moments. Meanwhile, resources like Rough Insect Skin rapidly populated her shop’s warehouse.

Watching the transactions pop up one by one, Rowan raised an eyebrow.

The purchasing players were not from District 122; they came from a wide variety of different districts. The fact that the goods sold so quickly at double the price, and were primarily mineral water and food, meant that the situation in those districts might be rather dire.

Rowan had discovered a hidden value in the shop’s transactions. Could she analyze the overall strength of a given district based on what its players purchased? She might even be able to deduce which district the leaderboard bigshots were in.

Information itself was the greatest wealth in the Sea Survival Game.