While Everyone Panicked, I Upgraded My Raft

Chapter 52: Chapter 52: Safe Day or Disaster Day?

Meanwhile, Rowan Rhodes continuously received the Hot Stones and geothermal cores collected by various permanent players. The server-wide market was no joke. In just a short while, all the Trading Coins Rowan had accumulated were completely wiped out.

Once her Trading Coins hit zero, she paused her trading. She was waiting to reap the harvest when the natural disaster officially arrived. As for whether those permanent players would overthink things, Rowan didn’t care. For the sake of tangible benefits, they wouldn’t abandon this platform.

Sure enough, even though Rowan did nothing, the Trading Coins in her Sea Survival Shop began to slowly tick up again due to the continuous transactions among the permanent players.

At this moment, what caught Rowan’s attention were the numerous trade requests sent to her by other players.

[District 5323 Ian Sinclair: Engine, Steering Wheel, battery]

[District 7493 Miles Dempsey: Engine, Steering Wheel, battery]

[District 172 Violet Wendell: Engine, Steering Wheel, battery]

[...]

Looking at these trade requests, Rowan couldn’t help but twitch the corner of her mouth. It seemed quite a few permanent players had upgraded to Level 6, only to be stumped by the resource requirements. Now, they were hoping to take a shortcut through her.

As if shortcuts were that easy to take! Especially since she had painstakingly found a sunken ship at the bottom of the sea to get them. Not to mention, she really didn’t have much of what they were asking for. She only had five Engines left on hand. After using some herself, she had twenty-six batteries remaining. As for the Steering Wheel, she had used her only one. So, they would just have to work hard on their own!

Rowan rejected them one by one, adding a single sentence to each.

[Currently out of stock.]

Of course, later on, when she could manufacture them, she could still put them on the shelves—and list them at exorbitant prices. Those willing to buy would have to pay a massive amount of resources. This could be considered an alternative kind of trial for them. For Rowan, it was a win-win situation.

As for players below Level 6, if they offered good terms for the resources they requested, Rowan went ahead with the trade. If they were just trying to take advantage of her, she simply replied, [Please pay attention to the product listing times.] She was willing to offer permanent players a little private help, but she wasn’t going to let them exploit her.

After replying to the messages, Rowan’s gaze fell on the Unlockable Equipment for the Level 7 Raft.

[Metal Wall: 10 Metal Ingots + 10 iron nails]

[Medical Table: 50 Metal Ingots + 20 plastic + 10 Wooden Boards + 10 iron nails]

[Seed Bed: 10 Stone + 8 Wooden Boards + 4 Seaweed + 6 dirt]

[burning bottle: 4 Metal Ingots + 4 rope + 2 gunpowder]

The defensive power of the Metal Wall was far superior to that of the Wood Wall and stone wall. Installing it on the raft could fend off sharks and ordinary marine life, and even firearms. In addition, it could reduce water intake during storms in the later stages while stabilizing the raft. It could be said that after upgrading to the Metal Wall, the raft would essentially become a small, secure fortress.

However, the number of Metal Ingots required for the Metal Wall was extraordinary. Taking her current 100-square-meter raft as an example, it would take over three hundred Metal Ingots and more than three hundred iron nails just to upgrade a small section, which wouldn’t be enough to enclose the entire perimeter. But even this small section was extremely difficult for her right now, as she had just used up more than half of her Metal Ingots upgrading to the Metal Raft. Therefore, upgrading to the Metal Wall would have to wait.

However, with the extreme cold disaster approaching, she really needed to use Wooden Boards to completely enclose her raft first. Yes, the extreme cold disaster was pervasive. For the temperature control equipment to work, it had to be in a sealed environment. Since she couldn’t use the Metal Wall right now, she would just have to use the Wood Wall!

While installing the Wood Walls, Rowan didn’t forget to move the wooden fence from the first floor up to the third floor. After all, the third floor was now an open platform. Just like that, the Wood Walls were built one by one, completely enclosing the entire raft. The planting area was also included inside.

During the previous extreme heat disaster, the plants hadn’t been greatly affected because they were mostly tropical fruits with strong heat resistance. As long as she watered them on time, they could still bear fruit. But extreme cold weather was a different story. As far as she knew, many people in her past life assumed the extreme cold disaster would be like the extreme heat disaster, having little impact on plants. The result? Shortly after the extreme cold disaster hit, their cultivated plants simply died. Those who had planted a lot suffered heavy losses.

While building the perimeter walls, Rowan didn’t forget to leave spaces for doors and windows. Previously, she had used wooden windows that needed to be manually opened and closed. Now, however, Rowan prepared to manufacture glass windows. Glass windows had better sealing, and they also allowed her to see outside. As for manufacturing the glass windows, all she had to do was insert the glass production blueprint into the Workbench.

Under Rowan’s operation, a 100-square-meter small ocean villa took shape. Looking at the 3D version of the raft on the control panel, the corners of Rowan’s mouth curled up slightly. Life was truly getting better and better.

Immediately after, Rowan proceeded to unlock the next piece of Equipment. The Medical Table could be used to manufacture medical supplies for player recovery. However, compared to the various developments made by medical-class players, the medical supplies produced by the Medical Table were rather basic and fixed. The materials for them came from the ocean and islands. But even if there were only a few types, they were enough to cover a player’s basic needs.

After unlocking it, Rowan conveniently added more resources and batteries, upgrading the F-level Medical Table into a C-level electric Medical Table. Once construction was complete, Rowan placed it in the work area alongside everything else.

Next was the Seed Bed. The purpose of the Seed Bed was to grow crops; it could be considered an upgraded version of the dirt pot. A single Seed Bed had an area of one square meter, acting as a small plot of arable land. Rowan had relatively abundant resources on hand for building Seed Beds. She built twenty-five square meters’ worth and placed them directly in the living area on the third floor. This way, the space on the third floor was also fully utilized.

Finally, there was the burning bottle. The burning bottle could be considered a Basic Level thermal weapon, dealing Area of Effect fire damage. Aside from being able to fight off sharks and other marine life, it was also a sharp weapon for combating other rafts. Especially against outdated rafts whose main component was Wooden Boards, throwing a burning bottle onto someone else’s raft would make it a lethal weapon capable of dealing massive damage.

The most crucial material for it was gunpowder. There were three sources of gunpowder in the Sea Survival Game. The first was by killing pufferfish, a type of marine creature, which would drop explosive Slime. Placing this explosive Slime into a Furnace could refine it into gunpowder. The second was finding it in a treasure box, though the probability was extremely low. The third was synthesizing it yourself. There was a simple version and an upgraded version. The simple version required Stone + charcoal, while the upgraded version required Stone + charcoal + flint.

Considering these three methods, Rowan could only manufacture the simple version of the third option at present. Its power was relatively small, but at this current stage, it was more than enough.

Having made her plan, Rowan placed wood into the Furnace to burn into charcoal, then directly synthesized the gunpowder. With the gunpowder, the burning bottle could be manufactured. Because she had upgraded her power supply, the burning bottles also began automated production.

Time continued to slip away, and the goods in Rowan’s hands grew increasingly abundant. Now, she was just waiting for the extreme cold disaster to arrive so she could reap a massive harvest.

Just like that, without her realizing it, the time drew near midnight. Countless players who had been busy all day unconsciously focused their attention on their control panels. They needed to see: would tomorrow be a safe day, or a disaster day?