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On the night of day 11, a robbery frenzy broke out through the town. Grocery stores, restaurants, pharmacies, convenience stores, bakeries… almost all shops that are open for business until now have been looted.
At night, Su Han took shelter in a half-finished apartment in a residential building. (The apartment has no doors or windows installed, she could walk in and out at will). The entire night was filled with the sound of fights, windows getting smashed, people looting and burning things. All kinds of shrieks and howls were heard.
Su Han just changed her position and continued sleeping.
The next day, she checked the situation outside and realized how catastrophic last night was. The few shops that were still operating were turned into ruins, the owner looking lost at the entrance; there were several people with serious injuries lying on the street. A small number of people seemed to be on the verge of death and those with 0 energy level have probably been refreshed or eliminated. Important supply points like department stores and supermarkets, were guarded by forty or fifty guards after what happened last night.
“Obviously more than one group committed crimes last night.” She muttered to herself, “At this point the number of people who can’t survive will keep increasing.”
*****
Purchase restrictions mean it is still possible to buy something if you’re willing to waste time lining up. Su Han was actually quite willing to go to a department store and queue in line to buy some stuff, but it was a pity that she couldn’t find even half a coin after searching all over her body, so she had to give up that idea.
Having nothing better to do, Su Han munched on a loaf of bread and checked her inventory.
The warehouse has 114 bars of soap (separated in two slots), 100 bottles of mineral water, 9 loaves of buttered pork floss bread, 60 packs of instant noodles, 10 rolls of bandages, 5 boxes of anti-inflammatory drugs, 69 bags of steel beads, 2 slingshots and a fishing rod.
There’s 1 opened bag of steel beads, 5 candles, 5 lighters, 1 magnesium strip and 1 flint stone in her backpack.
‘Should I have stock up on more ready-to-eat products?’
Things like instant noodles, if you eat them without cooking, the increase in satiety is only about half of what you get if you boiled the noodles, so eating them without cooking won’t increase much satiety. Right now, the only ready-to-eat product she has is 9 loaves of buttered pork floss bread.
When she first entered the instance, she didn’t have enough money to stock up on buttered pork floss bread. And she thought milk and brown bread took up too much space so she consumed those whenever she received them. Su Han racked her brains, “Even if I want to, where am I supposed to go find buttered bread now?”
Her occupation’s skill has a 5% chance of obtaining the luxury set meal which includes “3 bottles of milk, a piece of buttered pork floss bread, and a piece of chocolate cake”, but the probability of actually getting that meal is so low, it can basically be ignored.
‘Should I have eaten the buttered bread instead of brown bread?’
Because the source of obtaining brown bread is relatively stable, it is more conducive to stockpile. And the buttered pork floss bread… She deeply felt that this thing would not be found in the later stage of the instance.
Su Han rearranged her inventory while reflecting. Soon, it was 9 am.
*****
The system’s mechanical voice sounded on time, “On the 12th day, the price of goods rose by 100%.”
The system continued: “Due to insufficient electricity supply, there will be a power outage in residential buildings for 2 hours every day and electricity supply will be cut off after 8 pm.”
“Due to negligence in maintenance of water pipes, the number of bacterial colonies in tap water has completely exceeded the safety standards. From now on, tap water is no longer drinkable (Drinking it will make one more susceptible to negative buffs).”
Su Han’s heart sank as soon as she heard the announcement. The limited supply of electricity is still manageable. She only goes out during the day, and besides, she still has candles in her backpack to use at night. But isn’t it too cruel to make tap water undrinkable?! How can people not drink water? This announcement is going to cause more panic.
The only silver lining of the day is, she found 4 bottles of milk, 1 piece of brown bread, 1 piece of buttered pork floss bread, and 1 chocolate cake in her backpack. Obviously, her skill triggered both chances at the same time, so two meal sets were obtained together.
[Chocolate cake: Satiety +40.]
Su Han has never been so thankful about choosing “Nutritionist” as a profession.
Although she already found a secluded place to stay, after thinking about it, she still decided to go out and see if she could get lucky. After all, there’s no such thing as having too much supply.
*****
As a result, as soon as she got out of the building, she saw that someone had set up a stall next to a department store. A crowd was already forming around the stall.
Su Han approached curiously.
There were matchboxes, candles, and bottles of mineral water on the stall. It was obvious there were more stuff inside the huge backpack next to it.
A sign hanged on the left side of the stall, ‘Once robbed, will not set up a stall again.’ Su Han wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be a warning or a threat.
There was also a sign on the right side of the table, which says, ‘Will trade for jewelry and medicine. If you have other useful items, you can ask whether they could be used as an exchange.’
“Come everyone, line up here. You can ask one by one, don’t rush.” The stall owner is a young man about 25 years old. He’s very tall, about 1.85m and looked very athletic.
Su Han thought the stall owner was very clever. There were forty or fifty guards in front of the department store staring at the street stall next to them. Normal people would never have the guts to commit a robbery in front of those guards. And the most ruthless thing was the words written on the sign, ‘Once robbed, will set up stall again.’
As time went by, people gradually discovered that compared to the decline in purchasing power, the more frightening thing is to have money but no place to buy what they want.
There are stable supply points in the instance for food and daily necessities, although it’s very difficult buy anything, but at least there is hope of replacement. But if no one set up a stall, people really wouldn’t know where to buy things like candles and drinking water.
Thus, the crowd was quite cooperative; everyone lined up obediently.
Su Han has no shortage of drinking water or candles, so she just watched from the side silently.
The first customer opened her palms; a gold ring, a gold necklace and gold earrings flashed blindly in her hands.
“What do you want?” Facing these treasures, the young stall owner showed no change in expression.
“I want candles and water.” The customer was a little nervous.
“One piece of gold can be exchanged for two candles or one bottle of mineral water.” The young man calmly quoted the price.
The customer let out an exclamation, “So black-bellied!”
Black-bellied: A Chinese term used often in online novels. It refers to someone who is secretly evil, sly or manipulative.
“If you think it’s unfair, you don’t have to do business with me, I’m not forcing you to do anything.” The young man said indifferently, “But you should seize this opportunity. I don’t have much inventory of these things.”
In other words, even if you are willing in the future, you may not be able to buy it.
The customer gritted her teeth and spit out a sentence, “Bring me two candles and a bottle of mineral water.” Then, she took the gold ring back, she was reluctant to exchange all her treasures.
The first transaction was successfully completed.
Su Han took a look and found that after looking at the ring, she could actually see its attributes, [Golden Ring: Pure Gold, 4.8g]. She thought to herself, ‘That’s quite convenient, at least you don’t worry about being deceived.’
The second customer took out a small golden Buddha statue and said anxiously, “My baby weighs over 50g! it won’t be considered as one piece of gold, would it?”
“Fine, I’ll count it as ten pieces, what do you need?” The young man asked.
The second customer wanted to negotiate some more but the stall owner was very stern, “It’s not easy to carry this statue around, not to mention it’s difficult to cut it to pieces, I won’t change the price.”
The customer had no choice but to quietly exchange his stuff.
The third customer took out a jade bracelet, the color was green and clear, the bracelet looked very good.
Looking at the stall, Su Han also thought about exchanging some food with gold or jewelry. Although these things might not have any use in this instance, they might be beneficial in other instances.
She gave up this idea after considering it for a while. for starters, it was inconvenient to carry all those jewelries around, her warehouse doesn’t have enough slots and her backpack is almost full. Also, she only exchanged a few points into currency before entering the game, so she wasn’t able to buy that much stuff inside the instance. It’s impossible to exchange for jewelry with her current supplies, she might end up starving.
After staring the stall for a while, Su Han walked away with a shake of her head.
The stall owner tilted his head and watched Su Han walking away, his face showing a thoughtful look.
*****
Having nothing to do, Su Han simply went to the bazaar on the overpass.
The so-called bazaar actually has no fixed location. It’s just a number of people setting up their stalls in places that are usually bustling with activity.
Su Han walked forward, checking out the stalls as she walked. Perhaps due to the sheer amount of robbing, stealing and looting last night, the items in the stalls at the bazaar were quite copious, most stalls have canned food, shampoo, bandages, and other in-demand goods on display.
A person brushed past her, and at the same time murmured softly, “Player?”
That person whispered so softly that if she wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings, she would not have heard it at all.
Su Han felt a jolt and looked towards the voice. Standing behind her was a young girl about seventeen or eighteen years old.
The other party lowered her voice even more, “I have news, are you willing to exchange it with daily necessities?”
Su Han put up a hand to stop her. “Let’s go and talk in a hidden place, come with me.” She then led the way.
The young girl bit her lips and followed.
*****
Su Han only started talking after she determined that they were the only two people present when they reached a secluded corner, “How do I know if your news has any worth? I don’t want to spend money on information I might already know.”
The young girl made a suggestion, “I’ll say the first half, you can choose whether you want to listen to the rest or not.”
Su Han raised her eyebrows, “For example?”
“All daily necessities can improve cleanliness but…” The young girl stopped talking, beckoning her to pay to listen to the second half.
However, Su Han said, “I know this.”
“All food improves satiety…”
Su Han interrupted mercilessly, “I also know that, tell me another one.”
The young girl stared at Su Han silently for a while, “Are you sure you have daily necessities?”
“I have soap, more than ten bars.” Su Han reported a fraction of what she actually has.
The young girl thought about something for a long time before she finally made up her mind, “I’ll give you crucial information regarding warehouse management, something I learned from my own experience. But the price will be slightly more expensive, I want 10 bars of soap in exchange for this knowledge.”
Su Han showed a vague smile, “For example?” ‘If this girl dared to say some garbage like store the same item as much as possible, she’s going to have a falling out with her right here.’
The young girl had already decided to sell this precious piece of information. So, to express her sincerity, she said everything in one breath, “Store ready-to-eat foods with high satiety as much as possible. This way, not only will you last longer in the instance, but it’s also convenient to eat. If it’s not ready-made food, cooking will be very difficult if there’s no electricity, water or gas.”
“That is an important piece of information. But I already thought of everything you just said.” Su Han threw her a piece of soap for her hard work, and then turn around to leave.
“Five bars of soap and I’ll tell you everything I know!” The young girl desperately shouted, “It’s impossible that you would know everything I thought of, right?”
The young girl was very worried; her cleanliness level has dropped close to the red line and is about to go lower than 25. In addition, because she didn’t use soap and shower gel for a long time, her energy level also kept dropping. She is going to die at this rate!
In addition, not many players have personal warehouses and the chance that she can meet one with a warehouse is even fewer. Plus, the ones that were rich enough to afford this piece of information is almost close to none. Therefore, she had no choice but to place all her hope on Su Han.
Su Han stopped, ‘5 bars of soap, the price is not that expensive, I guess it doesn’t hurt to listen.’ Therefore, she turned around, paid the balance, and calmly urged the girl to start talking.
The young girl calmed down and spoke slowly, “There are ten slots in the personal warehouse. Let’s say you put 100 bottles of – mineral water or milk or beverages or something else, as long as it’s something you can drink, in the 1st slot.”
“In the 2nd slot, you can put soaps for cleanliness and in the 3rd slot, put instant food for satiety.”
“With these three items, I personally think we don’t need to stock up on rations anymore, you can store tools in the other 7 slots.”
Su Han coldly asked her, “Are you telling me to let one thing take up an entire slot?”
While asking that question, she annoyingly thought in her mind, ‘This girl’s simply playing tricks, she’s going to ask for a refund!’
The young girl smiled mysteriously, “No, put your sundries inside backpacks and put those backpacks in the left-over slots.”
Upon hearing this, Su Han was at a loss for words.
Author’s note: Backpacks with items inside cannot be stacked.