Before he knew it, the sky darkened once more.
Under the seemingly never-ending blizzard, there was a Shelter that might never be buried by snow.
Two thick plumes of white smoke rose from two black chimneys, making the iron Shelter even warmer.
The ground-level part of the Shelter was just 40 square meters, almost entirely occupied by a large amount of firewood and two massive fireplaces.
A woman in casual clothes opened one of the fireplaces, placed a pile of firewood inside, checked the other fireplace to ensure there were no issues, then quickly descended through the entrance to the basement in the center of the room.
In a basement of a full 320 square meters, seven people were each busy with their own tasks.
"Bess, is the stove okay?" Seeing the woman come down, the bespectacled man, whittling a branch with a short knife, looked up and asked.
"N-no problem." The woman nodded timidly, "I've filled the firewood, it should last more than five hours, for now there's no need to..."
Seeing the bespectacled man frown, Bess quickly went back up to check.
At this moment, a bearded man who had been working on wooden boards nearby came over and patted the bespectacled man's shoulder: "Du, are you thinking about that kid's Shelter again?"
Du Ping smiled gently: "There's much to study, isn't there, Eliot?"
"I can't deny that, Du, I've always wondered why we don't aim for first place in this group, instead of changing plans midway and going for fourth place?"
"Eliot, your way of putting it is strange, isn't it obvious? Du doesn't want us to expose our strength, used so many ways to reduce points... even though we were only two points behind that big oaf in third place, it was indeed a close call." The red-haired woman sat closely beside Du Ping.
"Exposing our strength wouldn't be a problem, wouldn't it just attract more people to work for us?" Eliot shrugged, "Du, hiding our strength isn't beneficial, is it?"
Du Ping pushed his glasses up, embraced Teresa, and glared at him: "Compete for first? Do you think I haven't calculated it? What our eight people accomplish in the Shelter doesn't measure up to Lin Yue's! If we really went for second place, it would just be self-humiliation, and if it were first, with not much lead, it'd be even more disgraceful."
"Ah? Is it like that?" Teresa seemed incredulous, "I also saw that video. It didn't seem like a big deal. Our scores wouldn't be enough?"
Du Ping pointed at a wooden bucket with just a few liters of water and stood up: "Our water, we exchanged good things from the boxes with Lin Yue for it. How do we compare with him? When he's eating roasted meat, eating instant noodles, what do we eat, how do we compare? He even has surplus food and water to raise a pet! Did you see all those things piled up in his basement? That's only after Lin Yue put away a lot!"
Teresa and Eliot looked at each other.
Indeed, their group of eight divided tasks reasonably every day, going out to chop trees, search for ore, chisel stones, hunt, but despite their efforts, resources were still scarce.
And the extreme scarcity of water, faced with such a large number, continued to escalate.
Therefore, they had to use some items or parts they temporarily didn't need to exchange with Lin Yue for small amounts of water to sustain themselves.
This also forced them to trade better things with Lin Yue for water.
However, the chance of getting boxes from killing mutant creatures was too low, and in the end, they had no choice but to explore the Secret Realm, hoping to find some special items inside.
Now with the snow disaster, the Secret Realm was sealed, making it impossible for them to find good items to exchange for water. Even the highly valuable bicycle design map, Lin Yue bargained and exchanged it for just two liters of water.
"In a day, this Shelter will have a lot more people, and by then we won't have to watch Lin Yue's face and beg him for water." Du Ping took off his glasses and took a deep breath, "Next time the leaderboard updates, we'll climb to the top! Then let this group know who the real king is!"
...
Meanwhile, in another "Celestial Pit."
Lin Yue lay sprawled on the bed, petting Little White, bargaining with Belger and Cork Brown one line at a time.
He hadn't even added these two to his friends list, instead engaging in temporary conversations with them.
Who knew, before he had a chance to make a move, these two guys came to him of their own accord.
Naturally, they were here for water, and Lin Yue, a water profiteer, wouldn't let them off without shedding a layer of skin.
Belger had an abundance of animal hides, but Lin Yue was eyeing his iron Shelter Design Map; as for Cork Brown, the old carpenter, Lin Yue wanted the various wooden product design maps he crafted.
What should you avoid most in business?
Others knowing your trump cards.
Lin Yue? He had no trump cards, or rather, his trump cards were almost limitless, while the other two?
Each taking what they needed, and what's left is an extreme tug-of-war.
Honestly, Lin Yue wasn't great at this, but he held the hard currency now, set a baseline for himself, ignoring anything over it, the less the better.
"Lin, I need water, 2 liters isn't much, right?" Belger pestered.
"1 liter, I'll quote it to you." Lin Yue replied after a while.
"Please, give me 1.8 liters, my friends and I are very short on water, help us!"
"Oh, then 0.9 liters."
"What? Why lower it? Lin Yue, I warn you, tomorrow at this time my parents will be here, they'll bring enough water to drink for three days..."
"Not happy? 0.8 liters."
"No! Don't lower it, 1 liter I accept, Lin, you're truly a devil!" Belger cursed and exited the temporary conversation.
While dealing with him, Lin Yue was also keeping Cork Brown in suspense, making him anxious.
Using 1 liter of water, he successfully acquired the iron Shelter Design Map, having no interest in other things Belger offered, Lin Yue focused on dealing with Cork Brown.
Still, when he saw the chat window, he couldn't help but chuckle.
At first, Cork Brown's style went... "No, impossible! I don't want to offer the Comfortable Wooden Bed Design Map! Lin, dreaming you'd exchange this for 500 milliliters is simply absurd!"
However, as Lin Yue was chatting with Belger, after waiting a long time, he suddenly changed his tone.
"Lin, you might, might negotiate a bit, right?"
"Alright, 1 liter of water and you can have it, I'll be generous."
"800 milliliters, it's not impossible to accept, you know about water, tomorrow I'll have more than three days' worth of water and food, this is your last chance, Lin!"
"Haha, how about 700 milliliters? Let's each take a step back?"
"Lin, don't play dumb, respond to me quickly!"
"Respond quickly! If not, I'll trade with someone else! You know this is in high demand!"
"600 milliliters, you deserve it!"
"Hurry, hurry, please trade, Lin God, my mistake, 500 milliliters for it, I have no objections..."
Lin Yue called him a good chap.
Is this self-conquering?
While Lin Yue was about to directly trade with this guy, suddenly, the system emitted a notification sound.
[In 24 hours, the system will undergo an upgrade!]