Chapter 76: Long-Term Cooperation

Lily Rhodes stared at the golden egg resting in her arms, a swirl of complex emotions in her chest.

The Peach Blossom Fish Eggs, the Moonlight Fish Eggs, and the three bird eggs she had safely stowed away earlier hadn’t even hatched yet, and now she had another one. Fortunately, this egg was slated to hatch soon, saving her a long wait.

The System stated that the Survivor had to hatch the egg personally, but it didn’t specify exactly how. Lily had no experience hatching eggs, though she had scrolled past a few short videos of people incubating duck and chicken eggs online.

"Should I just stuff it in a chicken coop?" she murmured, eyeing the massive egg in her hands. It was larger than a full-grown hen. Even the dimmest chicken would spot the difference at a glance.

The rule stated that the Survivor must hatch it personally. The emphasis of that instruction probably wasn’t on the incubation itself, but on the word "personally."

After a moment of thought, Lily decided to carry the egg with her everywhere until it hatched.

Heading downstairs, Lily kept her new pet close. She pulled up the regional chat channel while she ate her meal.

The chat was as festive as New Year’s Eve, buzzing with discussions about the recently concluded event. Although many hadn’t snagged any official rewards, they had made a killing selling Poisonous Snail Shells and Lava Crystals, all thanks to Lily’s influence.

After scrolling through the fluffy, insubstantial chatter for a bit, Lily lost interest. She exited the channel and opened her private messages.

The first message was from Mimi Bishop.

"Congratulations on getting first place in the event, Boss! I knew you were the best.

"By the way, Boss, do you have any work for me? I’ve just been freeloading off you, and I feel really guilty about it."

Seeing this, Lily rummaged through her warehouse and dug out over twenty duplicate blueprints.

The drop rate for blueprints was still abysmally low, but certain common ones—like wooden tubs or chopsticks—were marginally useful yet too wasteful to throw away. Instead of learning these mundane recipes, many Survivors sold them to The Supreme Shop at high prices in exchange for rare supplies.

"Merge these blueprints first," Lily replied.

Mimi responded almost instantly, as if she had been eagerly guarding her inbox.

"Yes, ma’am! I promise to get the job done."

Lily then moved on to her second message.

Walter Warren: "I am the guild master of the Brotherhood Guild. I want to apologize for the actions of my guild members earlier. They acted on their own without my knowledge. I hope you understand that we bear no ill will toward you. Please accept this small token of compensation."

"The Brotherhood Guild?" she muttered.

Lily frowned in thought. Then she remembered—the thugs who had tried to cause trouble for her earlier did seem to belong to the Brotherhood Guild.

Reading Walter’s explanation, she let out a cold laugh. "Don’t try to pull a fast one on me; we both know how this game is played," she thought to herself.

She didn’t believe a single word of his excuse. Honestly, if he hadn’t popped up, the incident might have just blown over, and she might never have remembered them. But now...

Lily inspected Walter’s so-called peace offering: three seeds.

[Rainbow Fruit Seeds: Yields Rainbow Fruit when planted. Consuming a Rainbow Fruit grants temporary flight capabilities.]

"This apology actually carries some weight," she mused aloud.

Still, a necessary lesson had to be dealt. From this day forward, any member of the Brotherhood Guild buying goods from The Supreme Shop would be slapped with a thirty percent markup.

She continued sifting through her inbox. The Golden Guild, The Survivors’ Guild, and several other prominent factions from the chat channel had all reached out to her. Their goal was uniformly singular: to establish a long-term partnership.

The prices they offered were incredibly generous, and Lily would be lying if she said she wasn’t tempted. After a brief deliberation, she agreed to their proposals.

Supplying an all-you-can-eat buffet was out of the question, of course. The vegetables and fruits in Lily’s possession were no ordinary produce; long-term consumption could permanently enhance a person’s physical attributes.

Once she hammered out the terms with the guild masters and collected the deposits, she promised to deliver the first batch of fresh produce by tomorrow.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world.

A woman dressed in practical, sharp attire sat on a wooden chair, her eyes fixed on her interface panel.

The door pushed open, and a middle-aged woman in her late thirties or early forties hurried in, her face etched with worry. "Director, a few more children are showing symptoms of illness," she said anxiously.

Hearing this, the woman stood up immediately. "What happened? Didn’t we distribute the cooling potions? Why are there still problems?"

With that, she rushed out of the room.

Before transmigrating to this world, the woman had been the director of a failing orphanage. She had barely survived the initial novice period here.

Once it ended, the System prompted her with a choice: accept the children from her orphanage, or refuse and let them be randomly dropped into this brutal world.

Most of the abandoned children in her care suffered from underlying health conditions. She knew perfectly well that forcing them to survive on their own was tantamount to a death sentence. Therefore, fully aware of the crushing burden it would bring, she chose to accept them.

There were over thirty children in her orphanage, but only seven appeared by her side. She didn’t know why, nor did she have the luxury to investigate. These seven were the youngest of the bunch—the oldest was only five, and the youngest was merely a few months old.

After the children arrived, she had moments of regret. This world was far more dangerous than she had ever imagined.

Just as she was teetering on the edge of despair, she made a miraculous discovery: the vegetables sold in The Supreme Shop possessed healing properties similar to Healing Water, albeit acting at a slower pace.

She couldn’t afford the exorbitant prices of Healing Water, but over the past few days, she had managed to snatch up some fresh produce. After feeding it to the children, their conditions had vastly improved.

Even better, some of the older children from the orphanage had recently managed to contact her, sending her into a state of sheer ecstasy. To ensure everyone’s survival, she had officially established a guild.

The woman entered another room holding seven small beds, where several sickly children lay listlessly.

"What’s going on?" she asked.

Hearing her familiar voice, the oldest child weakly opened his eyes. "Mrs. Vance, I feel so awful," he whimpered. "Am I going to die?"

The woman hurried to the child’s side and pressed the cool back of her hand against his forehead. Strangely, he didn’t have a fever.

"Be a good boy, Sweetie. You’re going to be just fine. Mrs. Vance is going to find you some medicine right now."

It was at that exact moment that Lily’s message came through.

The woman read the notification, a radiant smile of pure joy breaking across her face.

"Thank goodness! With these vegetables and fruits, the little ones are going to be saved."