[Poisonous Water: River water contaminated by acid rain. Drinking it will cause diarrhea and dehydration. In severe cases, it can even lead to acute gastroenteritis and death. Strongly advised not to drink.]
[PS: If you must drink it, please filter it. Boiling is useless, the acidic substances will remain even in boiling water. Please take note.]
After seeing this… Ethan finally understood why water was sold out today.
Normally, those who lived near water sources could drink the regular water after boiling it, it couldn't be sold as purified water, but it was safe enough for personal use.
But today was different.
Water contaminated by acid rain couldn't be drunk even after boiling.
And after a full day of labor, no one could survive without drinking water.
"Ha~", After eating and drinking his fill, Ethan began to feel sleepy.
He poured the poisonous water into the purifier and was just about to sleep when he noticed, three large exclamation marks appeared on top of the purifier.
[!!!]
"What's going on?"
Ethan's heart jumped, "Could it be that this poisonous water can't be filtered?"
"Or maybe it requires a more advanced purifier to handle it?"
He quickly walked over to check.
[Purifier: Water source too heavily polluted, operating under overload. Please add 7 more portions of charcoal.]
"Phew!"
'So that's all it was, just needed more charcoal.'
"That is fine. Even if the filtering cost increases two and a half times, the water-selling business will still make massive profits."
He left the purifier running slowly to filter the water.
Then he threw more firewood onto the campfire and lay down on the soft straw bed, soon falling fast asleep.
———
[The Next Day]
Ethan woke up as the light outside brightened.
He casually picked up the magic book to check the weather forecast.
[Time: 6:37, Time until sunrise: 01:23]
[Today's temperature: 18°C. Nice weather, suitable for exploration. But be sure to chop wood and upgrade your thatched hut soon, or you'll regret it during the cold night.]
Cold Current Night.
Ethan suddenly remembered, on the very first day, he had seen a note in the magic book:
[PS: A leaky thatched hut will expose you to freezing temperatures. Build a house with cold resistance within three days, or you may freeze to death during the coming Cold Current Night.]
"And today is the third day."
"That means tonight there will be a cold wave."
"Anyone without a small wooden house for warmth might actually freeze to death."
"What a cruel game."
Ethan glanced at the online player count, it had dropped from 780 yesterday to 635.
'A decrease of 145 players overnight?'
"Tsk! Tsk!"
Ethan couldn't help clicking his tongue. It had only been two days, and one-third of the players were already gone.
Who knew what it would look like after tonight.
But that wasn't his problem. What he needed to focus on was making sure he stayed alive.
He got up and took out the remaining three pieces of roasted rabbit from yesterday, placing one over the fire to heat.
He checked the rabbit meat's description: [Roasted Wild Rabbit Meat: Marbled fat and lean, crispy outside and tender inside, high in calories, a premium meat dish. Freshness: 95, Satiety +80%]
"As expected. Cooked meat stored in the warehouse stays fresh longer."
He remembered that when he'd stored saury before, its freshness had dropped to 79 in one day. The roasted rabbit meat had also been stored a day but was still much fresher.
Since freshness dropped slowly, he could just save it for later.
Ethan wasn't in a hurry to sell.
He wasn't particularly short on any specific material right now, and the things he truly lacked probably weren't even on the market.
Besides… the 10L of water he filtered last night hadn't been sold yet.
So there was even less reason to rush selling meat.
He decided to check his earnings first.
[Trading Channel]
As soon as he opened it, countless notifications popped up.
[Purified Drinking Water -15ml, Wood +1]
[Purified Drinking Water -20ml, Mud +2]
[Purified Drinking Water -100ml, Beast Hide +1]
[Purified Drinking Water -100ml, Spirit Stone +1]
[...]
Overnight, all 8L of water had been sold, leaving only 1L, which he'd traded to the Water Source Boss for 19L of Poisonous water.
From this round of sales, Ethan had gained: 20 Wood, 80 Stone, 200 Mud, 5 Beast Hides, 15 Spirit Stones, 100 Bronze, and 10 Silver.
From the materials gained, it was clear that wood was harder to obtain than stone.
And people who had beast hides were even rarer.
Plenty had opened Bronze Chests, but very few had opened Silver Chests.
A single Silver Chest could be dismantled into 10 Silver. Since only one person traded Silver for water, that meant in the entire game, players lucky enough to open a Silver Chest were extremely rare.
Unfortunately, the purifier could only process 10L of water at a time, he couldn't filter large quantities.
So Ethan had to purify in batches of ten liters. From the 9L he filtered overnight, he kept 1L for himself and listed the remaining 8L for sale.
This time, he mainly wanted to collect Spirit Stones, Bronze, and Silver.
Other materials he'd accept as extras.
People would probably open another batch of chests today, which meant more Bronze and Silver coming in, especially Spirit Stones. Ethan had to take advantage of the fact that no one knew their true use yet to gather as many as possible.
Once the big players rose up, it wouldn't be this easy again.
"Chirp~"
The white hawk noticed Ethan eating roasted meat and quickly flew over, acting all affectionate.
Ethan immediately understood.
"Are you hungry too?"
He grabbed a two-pound chunk of rabbit meat from his storage and tossed it to the hawk.
The white hawk swallowed it whole without even chewing.
After finishing, it started staring at the rest of the meat in Ethan's hand again.
Ethan couldn't help laughing and said, "What? Still not full, little guy?"
"Chirp~"
The white hawk nodded right away, looking as if it completely understood human speech.
Ethan laughed helplessly. The little guy did eat a lot, but it had been a great help to him.
He pulled another piece of rabbit meat from his storage and tossed it over.
"If you keep eating like this, I really won't be able to afford feeding you."
"Chirp~"
However, the white hawk suddenly stood tall and puffed out its chest, even raising a talon as if gesturing.
It seemed to be saying, 'I can hunt. I can catch my own food.'
Seeing the anxious gestures, Ethan asked, "You're saying you can hunt?"
"Chirp!"
The white hawk nodded repeatedly.
Ethan's eyes lit up, "Outside's covered in white fog though, how will you hunt?"
"Chirp!"
The white hawk didn't seem to understand, just raised its head proudly again, its expression practically saying: 'I can do it, no problem!'
"All right then," Ethan chuckled, "Once we head out later, we'll hunt together, okay?"
"Chirp!"
And just like that, man and hawk struck a deal.
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