Chapter 5: Cooling Water Stone

Only one silver Treasure Chest remained. It was Lily Rhodes’s final hope.

While the previous Treasure Chests had yielded decent items, they weren’t rare enough. They were either single-use tools or basic supplies that would vanish once consumed. What she needed now was a sustainable resource.

Lily stared at the final silver Treasure Chest before her. She mentally prayed to every deity imaginable—the Jade Emperor, the Queen Mother of the West, and The Three Pure Ones—begging for just one good item.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the chest.

Inside lay a single object: an oval cobblestone radiating a brilliant sapphire blue.

The moment she picked it up, a refreshing coolness swept through her body. At the same time, her palm grew damp. A layer of moisture had somehow coated her skin, and the water was steadily increasing.

Before she could figure out what was happening, a surge of information flooded her mind.

[cooling water stone: When left in a container, it continuously condenses fresh water. Drinking it relieves heat and refreshes the mind.]

After reading the Introduction, Lily’s eyes lit up. This was exactly what she needed.

The item Introduction stated it needed to be placed in a container. Since she didn’t have a suitable one on hand, she opened the System panel and entered the trading zone to look for one. That was when she noticed an unread private message.

First, Lily used a chocolate bar to trade for a large stainless steel basin in the trading zone. She placed the cooling water stone inside it.

Almost instantly, a layer of clean, fresh water condensed on the surface of the cooling water stone, rapidly multiplying. At this rate, the entire stainless steel basin would be full in no time.

Having settled the basin, Lily finally opened the unread private message. She guessed it had something to do with the hundred milliliters of water she had listed earlier. She opened the message and read the contents.

She was right.

The chat interface didn’t display names, but each person’s avatar was a real photo. Of course, users could choose to hide it. Both Lily and the person messaging her had opted to keep their avatars hidden.

"Friend, I have the Crystal Core you want, but a hundred milliliters of water is too little. Can you offer a bit more?"

"How many Crystal Cores do you have?" Lily asked.

Since she didn’t know when this message had been sent, she wasn’t expecting a quick reply. To her surprise, a response popped up almost immediately.

"Man, you finally replied. I admit my attitude was a bit off earlier. A hundred milliliters is fine. I’ve got five Crystal Cores, and I’ll trade them all for fresh water."

Seeing this, Lily couldn’t help but wonder what exactly had happened to this guy while she hadn’t been checking her messages.

"Sure. But I don’t have any spare containers on my end. Do you have one?"

"Hold on."

Soon, Lily received an empty beverage bottle. Its capacity was exactly five hundred milliliters, neither more nor less. She filled the bottle with water and listed it directly in the trading zone, setting the specific trade price at five Crystal Cores.

Meanwhile, a middle-aged man lay on a dilapidated bamboo raft. His lips were parched and cracked, but his eyes were fixed intently on the trading zone.

When the interface refreshed with a new item—a beverage bottle full of water priced at five Crystal Cores—his eyes instantly lit up. Without a shred of hesitation, he reached out and tapped the purchase button, terrified that someone else would snatch it away if he was even a second too slow.

The moment he got the water, he popped the bottle open and poured it down his throat. GLUG GLUG GLUG. He downed half the bottle in one breath. Forcing down his desperate craving for more, he stored the remaining half in his System inventory.

Feeling as though he had been brought back to life, he opened his private messages.

"Thanks, bro. You really saved me this time. I would’ve died of thirst otherwise. Can I ask what you’re collecting Crystal Cores for?"

He waited for a long time, but no reply came. Eventually, he had to exit the chat.

Once the trade was complete, Lily inspected the newly acquired item. So this was a Crystal Core, she thought. It looked just like glass.

Seemingly catching the scent, Shelly poked its head out of the water again. Its large eyes stared fixedly at the gem in her hand, practically drooling.

Amused, Lily fed the Crystal Core to Shelly. Now, she only needed five more Crystal Cores to upgrade.

With that in mind, Lily sent her first-ever message in the regional channel. Its content was simple.

"Trading fresh water. Limited quantity. Only accepting Crystal Cores."

The moment this message went out, the regional channel—which had previously been filled with aimless chatter—was instantly hooked.

"Are you for real? Someone is actually trading fresh water?"

"Did this guy get some kind of water-producing item? Like a seawater purification blueprint? If you did, don’t be stingy! We’re all Azureans here; we should help each other out."

Countless others chimed in to echo the sentiment.

Seeing this, Lily exited the regional channel without hesitation. She knew arguing with these people was useless. For every word she said, they would have a hundred excuses waiting. In the past, she might have cared, but now? She couldn’t care less who they were.

Her only goal was to spread the word that she had fresh water. Those who truly needed it would naturally private message her, just like that previous guy.

Sure enough, not long after her announcement, her inbox was flooded with countless new messages. Most of them were from people demanding free water.

Lily automatically ignored them. To prevent further harassment, she casually blocked every single beggar. The remaining messages were from people who actually wanted to trade.

"A hundred milliliters is too little. I might not know what these Crystal Cores do yet, but you clearly know they’re valuable."

Many potential buyers wanted to negotiate, feeling that one hundred milliliters was simply too little. They all tried to squeeze out a bit more. Taking this into consideration, Lily thought for a moment before sending out a mass reply.

"I’ll add another fifty milliliters at most. Not a drop more. Water is the source of life, and fresh water is incredibly precious right now. You must provide your own container."

After that, no matter how much they begged or haggled, she refused to back down an inch. If anyone persisted annoyingly, she simply left them hanging, just as she had done with her very first customer.

She truly wasn’t short of a buyer or two. If anything, she was already struggling to keep up with the sheer volume of trades. With the cooling water stone, she wasn’t lacking a water source anymore. Therefore, she planned to trade away all the bottled mineral water she had on hand, converting it all into Crystal Cores while fresh water was at its absolute peak value.