Unknowingly, the sky darkened again.
Under the seemingly endless blizzard, there was a Shelter that seemed to never be buried by the snow.
Two thick white smoke columns rose from two black chimneys, making this iron Shelter even warmer.
The above-ground portion of the Shelter was only 40 square meters, almost entirely occupied by a large amount of firewood and two massive fireplaces.
A woman in plain clothes opened one of the fireplaces, placed a pile of firewood inside, checked the other fireplace to ensure there were no issues, and hurriedly went down through the basement entrance in the center of the room.
In the 320-square-meter basement, there were currently seven people busy with their respective tasks.
"Bess, the furnace is fine?" asked the bespectacled man whittling a branch when he saw the woman coming down.
"N-no problems," the woman replied nervously, nodding quickly. "I've filled the firewood; it should burn for over five hours, for now, it shouldn't be... necessary..."
Seeing the bespectacled man frown, Bess hurriedly went to check the ground floor again.
At this moment, the bearded man making wooden planks nearby walked over and patted the bespectacled man's shoulder: "Du, thinking about that first-place kid's Shelter again?"
Du Ping chuckled lightly, "There's a lot to learn from, isn't there, Eliot?"
"I can't deny that, Du," Eliot echoed, "I've always had a question though, why don't we aim for first place in this group but instead change plans midway to go for fourth place?"
"Eliot, that's a strange thing to say. Isn't it obvious? Du doesn't want us to expose our strength, using so many methods to lower our score... although it ended up being dangerously close, just 2 points behind the third place big guy." The red-haired woman tightened herself beside Du Ping.
"Exposing our strength doesn't matter, wouldn't it just attract more people to work for us?" Eliot shrugged. "Du, hiding our strength doesn't offer any benefits, does it?"
Du Ping adjusted his glasses and hugged Teresa, glaring at him: "Competing for first? Do you think I've not calculated it? Between all eight of us, what we can achieve together, it's no better than what Lin Yue has! If we really go for second, it would only be humiliating for us, and if we barely lead in first, that's even more shameful."
"Huh? Is that really the case?" Teresa seemed incredulous, "I watched that video too, didn't seem like a big deal, but our score wouldn't suffice?"
Du Ping pointed at the wooden bucket with only a few liters of water and stood up: "Our water, we exchanged from Lin Yue using good stuff we got from crates, what else can we compare with? While he was eating roasted meat, eating instant noodles, what did we eat, how can we compare? He even has enough food and water to sustain a pet! Did you see the massive amount of supplies in his basement, still a lot even after Lin Yue stored away many items!"
Teresa and Eliot looked at each other.
Indeed so, with eight people coordinating daily, going out every day to chop wood, search for minerals, quarry stone, hunt, despite working hard, the obtained resources were still scarce.
The severe lack of water was a crisis that became even larger with their numbers.
For this reason, they had to exchange some temporarily unused items or parts with Lin Yue for a small amount of water to stay afloat.
This forced them to use better items to trade for water with Lin Yue.
But the chance of getting treasure chests from killing mutated creatures was extremely low, ultimately forcing them to explore the Secret Realm, trying to find something special inside.
Now with the snow disaster upon them, the Secret Realm locked, there was no opportunity to trade good items for water anymore, even the most valuable bicycle design, Lin Yue haggled it away for just two liters of water.
"In a day, there will be more people in this Shelter, then we won't have to beg Lin Yue for water," Du Ping took off his glasses, took a deep breath, "The next leaderboard, we will rise to the top again! At that point, let this group know who the true king is!"
...
Meanwhile, in another Celestial Pit.
Lin Yue lay sprawled on the bed, petting Bai, while haggling line by line with Belger and Cork Brown.
He hadn't added these two as friends, only engaging in a temporary conversation with them.
Who would have thought, before he even had a chance to act against them, these two fellows came directly on their own accord.
They naturally came asking for water, and water merchant Lin Yue certainly wouldn't let them leave without taking a good cut.
Belger had a substantial amount of animal pelts, but what caught Lin Yue's eye was his Iron Shelter Design Map; as for the seasoned carpenter Cork Brown, Lin Yue desired the assortment of wooden product design maps he had made.
The worst taboo in business? Letting others know your trump card.
Lin Yue? He had no trump card, or rather, his trump card was practically limitless, but those two? Each took what they needed, and the rest was simply an intense tug-of-war.
Lin Yue had to admit he wasn't particularly skilled in this regard, but since he was the one with the hard currency in his hand, setting a baseline and disregarding anything excessive worked fine.
"Lin, I need water, isn't 2L reasonable?" Belger persisted.
"1L, I'll list yours for bidding," Lin Yue replied after a while.
"Please give me 1.8L, my friend and I are extremely short on water, help us out!"
"Oh, then 0.9L."
"What? Why would it decrease? Lin Yue, I warn you, my parents will arrive tomorrow, bringing enough water for three days..."
"Not happy? 0.8L."
"Don't! Don't lower it, 1L, I accept it, Lin, you're truly a devil!" Belger cursed as he exited the temporary conversation.
While wrestling with Belger, Lin Yue was also leaving Cork Brown hanging, making him anxious.
With a successful trade of 1L of water for the Iron Shelter Design Map, Lin Yue had little interest in whatever else Belger had to offer, turning his full attention to Cork Brown.
However, when he looked at the chat window, he couldn't help but chuckle wryly.
Initially, Cork Brown's tone was... "No, impossible! I don't want to trade this Comfortable Wooden Bed design map! Lin, dreaming to trade this for 500ml is simply delusional!"
Yet during Lin Yue's chat with Belger, after a long wait, Cork Brown changed his tone.
"Lin, can't you just... haggle just a little?"
"Alright, I could let you have it for 1L water, I'll be magnanimous."
"800ml isn't unacceptable, understand water is precious... tomorrow, I will have more than three days of water and food, this is your last chance, Lin!"
"Haha, how about 700ml? Let's compromise a little?"
"Lin, stop pretending not to hear, answer me quickly!"
"Answer quickly! Or I'll deal with someone else! This is in high demand, you know!"
"600ml, you definitely deserve this!"
"Quick, quick let's deal, I beg you, Lin God, I was wrong, 500ml will do, I have no objections..."
Lin Yue exclaimed, Goodness.
Was this some sort of self-conquest?
Just when Lin Yue intended to deal directly with this fellow, a sudden system prompt sounded.
[In 24 hours, the system will undergo an upgrade!]