Chapter 7: Lily Rhodes’ Ambition

"Of course! Every time I upgrade, I can gain different abilities. This time, apart from growing larger, my speed also increased," Shelly said happily.

"Then how many Crystal Cores do you need for your next upgrade?" Lily suddenly thought of this crucial question and asked.

"My next upgrade requires one hundred Crystal Cores."

After Shelly finished speaking, a translucent blue panel popped up in front of Lily, displaying only the simplest information.

[Vehicle: Turtle

Type: Special Vehicle

Upgrade Method: Consume Crystal Cores or other Energy

Level: Level 2 Vehicle

Next Level requires 100 Crystal Cores. Currently consumed: 0 Crystal Cores. Required: 100 Crystal Cores.]

Lily looked at the panel, her gaze lingering on the words "Special Vehicle."

She remembered this being mentioned during the previous world announcement. From the start of the game until now, others must have upgraded their vehicles before her. Yet, she was the only one who triggered a world announcement. Did this mean the others had only upgraded ordinary vehicles, and such treatment was exclusive to Special Vehicles?

At this thought, Lily couldn’t help but feel a surge of delight.

She closed her eyes and began to listen to the sounds of the ocean, trying to glean clues for Treasure Chests from the rhythmic waves. Now that Shelly was faster, her speed at finding Treasure Chests had also doubled.

Before dark, she found ten more Treasure Chests. Two were Wooden Treasure Boxes, and the rest were entirely Bronze Treasure Chests. For other Survivors, this kind of haul was probably something they wouldn’t even dare to dream of.

Lily looked up at the sky. Night had completely fallen, and the moon emerged. She stared upward in astonishment, discovering that there were actually nine moons hanging above. They lined up in a row, incredibly dazzling against the night sky, and were even rounder than a typical full moon.

Not only that, she sensed that ever since nightfall, numerous unseen eyes seemed to be peering at her from the darkness. However, when she turned on her flashlight and shined it across the sea’s surface, there was absolutely nothing there.

This was a survival game, after all. Those peeping eyes in the dark were probably the so-called dangers. It was just that, because they were still in the novice protection period, these threats could not harm the Survivors yet.

She opened all the Treasure Chests. The Wooden Treasure Boxes contained materials like wood, stone, and iron chunks. She currently had no need for these materials, but she couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t need them later. Wood, especially, could be used for building a house and making fires. She couldn’t live in a tent forever.

Out of the Bronze Treasure Chests, six yielded fresh water, beverages, and food. With these, she was completely free from any food shortage.

Lily looked at the two blueprints that came out of the remaining two Bronze Treasure Chests.

[air moisture collector: Once crafted, it can collect fresh water from the air. Its efficiency is relatively low, but it is sufficient to meet daily water needs.]

Although it wasn’t as good as the cooling water stone from before, this was still fresh water. Furthermore, she had been worrying about what to do if the fresh water she currently held sold out. She didn’t want to sell the water produced by the cooling water stone just yet; she wanted to wait a couple of days until people had accumulated more items, just to see if she could trade for more valuable goods.

Now, this air moisture collector blueprint had appeared at the perfect time, solving her most pressing issue.

The moment her finger touched the blueprint, a prompt to "Learn" popped into her mind. There was no need to hesitate; of course, she chose "Yes"!

After learning it, Lily discovered that her mind was now filled with the knowledge of how to craft an air moisture collector. In reality, it was just a list of the required materials.

To craft the air moisture collector, she needed three chunks of iron, two chunks of stone, five pieces of wood, and two Crystal Cores. Looking at these requirements, Lily checked her inventory and found that she had all of them. Fresh water was still in high demand by many, so after trading for supplies earlier, she still had extra Crystal Cores on hand—even after feeding ten to Shelly. However, she was still far from reaching the one hundred needed for the next level.

She made up her mind. Before the novice period ended, she absolutely had to upgrade Shelly to a Level 3 Vehicle.

After gathering all the materials, an air moisture collector appeared outside with a mere thought. This thing was much larger than she had imagined. It consisted of a wooden frame. In the center was a stone container, as wide as a washbasin but quite deep. On the inner sides of the container, two Crystal Cores emitted a faint glow, continuously condensing water from the air into the basin.

"We are out on the sea, after all. The moisture in the air is much higher than anywhere else," she mused aloud.

After inspecting the air moisture collector, she shifted her gaze to the other blueprint. This was a blueprint for crafting a weapon.

[Fish Spear: Can cause lethal damage to medium and large fish.]

"Learn."

The next second, the materials needed to craft the Fish Spear appeared in Lily’s mind: five chunks of iron and five pieces of wood.

The required materials were quite common, and the quantities were small. Almost all Survivors would be able to afford them. Seeing this, the corners of Lily’s mouth couldn’t help but curl upwards in an uncontrollable smile.

With this, she had absolute certainty that she could upgrade Shelly to a Level 3 Vehicle. If she was a bit more ambitious, even a Level 4 Vehicle wasn’t out of the question.

Moreover, up to this point, there had been no information about weapons in the trading zone. Those who had weapons were absolutely unwilling to part with them. Now that there was such a massive shortage of weapons on the market, if she could fill the gap all at once, she would not only be able to upgrade her vehicle before the novice period ended but also stockpile a massive batch of supplies for her subsequent development.

As for the crafting materials, there was no need to worry at all. She could simply include the material cost in the price and have the buyers pay a deposit first.

Thinking of this, she opened the System panel and entered the trading zone to check the situation, treating it as market research.

And what did she see?

Someone was actually selling fire sources, and they were in terribly short supply.

Seeing this, Lily smacked her own forehead. How had she not thought of that?

After entering the game, although she had quickly obtained a lighter from a chest, she already had a flashlight and a tent. Because of that, the Windproof lighter had been tossed aside and forgotten in her System backpack.

Now, seeing that fire sources could also be sold for money, she joined in without a second thought.

After lighting a bonfire, she began to list the fire source in the trading zone. She didn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt for stealing business. After all, this person couldn’t possibly provide fire for everyone. What was wrong with her sharing the load? It wasn’t as if she was using his fire.

Furthermore, Lily had no intention of engaging in malicious competition. Her price was exactly the same as the other party’s—asking for various materials. However, she had one specific requirement: the payment had to include at least one piece of wood. After all, she was running low on wood herself.