Chapter 14: Opening the Treasure Chest

After finishing the selection of the ten optional boxes, Lily Rhodes turned her attention to the remaining four Treasure Chests.

"Let’s open two Golden Treasure Boxes first as an appetizer," she thought.

The first Golden Treasure Box opened, and three balls of light appeared before her. Seeing this, Lily touched each of the three balls of light. Upon learning their information, her eyes immediately lit up.

[Seed Gift Pack: Contains ten types of vegetable seeds, 20 to 100 seeds each, and ten types of fruit and vegetable seeds, 1 to 10 seeds each.]

[The Commons Workshop Blueprint: An upgradeable blueprint. With each level gained, the quantity of produced items increases.]

[Condiment Production Workshop Blueprint: Automatically produces condiments when raw materials are placed inside.]

Every single one of these three items was exactly what she needed right now, especially the last one. Although her current supplies were limited and she couldn’t produce other condiments yet, she had an unlimited supply of seawater. With this Condiment Production Workshop blueprint, she would have a steady stream of clean, edible salt.

After all, a person would lose their strength if they didn’t eat salt for an extended period. This showed just how crucial salt was for survival.

She checked the crafting requirements. The materials needed for both blueprints were about the same—mostly basic materials. The required quantities were a bit high, but they were generally within Lily’s acceptable range. The most precious materials required were probably the three Crystal Cores, which she conveniently had on hand.

Immediately after, she opened the second Golden Treasure Box. It contained only one item: a Skill Book.

[Water Control Skill: Allows the user to manipulate water for attacks. The power is closely related to the user’s own strength.]

"Finally, an attack skill!" Lily almost jumped up in excitement as she looked at the Skill Book.

The two Golden Treasure Boxes had given her a great start, making her look forward to the next two Treasure Chests even more. These were two Treasure Chests more Advanced than the Golden Treasure Box. Moreover, she had previously obtained the Earth Spirit Pearl from a Diamond Treasure Chest.

As the box opened, a fist-sized, white, cotton candy-like thing floated out from inside.

[Vaughn: This is a mutated Vaughn. What specific effects it has requires the Survivor to explore for themselves.]

Lily was speechless.

Looking at the Vaughn floating in front of her, Lily reached out and poked it. It felt pretty good. Since the System said she needed to explore it herself, Lily naturally didn’t think this was just an ordinary Vaughn. She decided to keep it and study it slowly later.

Lily put the Vaughn away and then opened the final Seven-color Crystal Treasure Box.

As the Treasure Chest opened, a ray of rosy light shot out from inside. Soon after, two items radiating seven-colored light appeared before her.

So this was the prestige of the Seven-color Crystal Treasure Box. It was completely incomparable to the previous Golden Treasure Boxes and Diamond Treasure Chests, and even the items inside were on a different level.

[Environment Card Set: Integrate this into a vehicle to form the corresponding scenery inside.

Note: Some Environment Cards only take effect on specific vehicles.]

At this moment, Lily didn’t just hold one Environment Card in her hand, but quite a few. There was a wide variety, including mountains, lakes, waterfalls, forests, oceans, deserts, rivers, and all sorts of other environments. Most importantly, she discovered that she could use all of these cards without any prerequisites at all.

However, Lily didn’t use them immediately. After all, it was only her third day in this world, and she already had a lot of things to do. Using these Environment Cards now would only increase her workload.

"I’d better wait until I actually need them before bringing them out," she thought.

With that in mind, Lily put the thick stack of cards away again. Next was the second item. It was a red, fiery bead.

[Fire Spirit Pearl: Contains the ultimate Power of Fire. One of the Five Elements Spiritual Beads. Can be integrated into a vehicle.]

"Integrate," she said.

With the integration of the Fire Spirit Pearl, Lily felt warm all over. Even the air became much drier, making her feel quite refreshed.

"Phew, finally done." Lily let out a long sigh of relief.

She had woken up relatively late today. Coupled with inspecting yesterday’s haul and opening Treasure Chests, it was already afternoon. Lily opened her private messages, deciding to trade the one hundred Fish Spears first.

Her priority choices today were still Crystal Cores, blueprints, and Skill Books.

However, after only one day, other people had also obtained weapon blueprints. Like Lily, they were advertising in the trading zone and selling to the highest bidder. Furthermore, many people had discovered the use of Crystal Cores, and their prices had skyrocketed.

Previously, one hundred and fifty milliliters of fresh water could be traded for a single Crystal Core. Now, it required at least one liter of water.

Seeing this, Lily immediately changed her prices. She only used fresh water to exchange for basic materials. After all, these basic materials would be indispensable when using blueprints to craft items later. As for Crystal Cores, she was in no rush. Once the novice safety period ended, she could disguise her water with healing properties as Healing Potions and sell them to other Survivors.

In this strange, danger-filled world, medicine was incredibly important.

Subsequently, Lily constructed The Commons Workshop and the Condiment Production Workshop. Two wooden cabins of similar size appeared not far away.

Seeing this, Lily walked in and took a look around. Both buildings were currently at Level 1. To upgrade them, apart from requiring double the basic materials, they also needed Crystal Cores.

The Level 1 Commons Workshop could only produce three items: hoes, shovels, and axes. All of these were needed for farming, which was exactly what she needed right now.

Then there was the Condiment Production Workshop. Currently, it could only produce salt. She poured some seawater into an inlet marked as the salt production area. In no time at all, a handful of white salt appeared before her.

Lily pinched a little bit of the salt and tasted it. It tasted exactly like the refined salt she used to eat. The corners of her mouth couldn’t help but turn up.

After stepping out of the Condiment Production Workshop, Lily pondered for a moment. She wouldn’t upgrade the Condiment Production Workshop for now, but it was necessary to upgrade The Commons Workshop. She wanted to see what a more Advanced Commons Workshop could produce.

With a shift in her thoughts, countless materials flew out from the turtle tattoo on her wrist, streaming continuously toward The Commons Workshop. As these materials integrated, the size of The Commons Workshop didn’t change, but its exterior did. It transformed from a wooden cabin into a stone house, looking much more refined.

Lily walked inside to check on the situation.

The Level 2 Commons Workshop could produce three additional items: tents, clothes, and a complete set of toiletries. Crafting these three items required fabric and plastic. Lily checked her material box. Yes, she had them all.

Except for the tents, she needed all these things very much. In fact, she could even take the tents to the trading zone to sell. She estimated that many people would be scrambling to buy them.