Chapter 39: Major Changes to the Raft

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Major Changes to the Raft

"Why is someone collecting trash?!"

"Yeah! Aside from the campfire, I’ve never seen trash serve any purpose."

"Trash must have some use."

"Could it be useful at Level 6?"

"Regardless of the reason, as long as it can be traded for water, just trade it."

"Remember to save a little."

"We definitely have to save some."

Amidst the lively discussion, many players traded away their idle trash, while some quietly began to hoard it. They all tacitly assumed that a top-tier player was making a move, and whatever a top-tier player collected was definitely useful. In an instant, various bottles of mineral water and food flooded the trading hall once again.

The bottom-tier players didn’t care what use the trash had! They could barely survive as it was, and trash was completely useless to them. Now that someone was suddenly trading water for trash, they had only one choice—trade! Once traded, they could endure a little longer.

Rowan Rhodes, meanwhile, paid no mind to the world channel. Seeing that she had successfully traded for a massive amount of trash, she proceeded to buy up every item in the shop that she didn’t already own. Since quite a few of these items couldn’t be placed in her inventory, she had originally planned to just carry them. However, when she noticed these items appeared as ’listable’ on the panel, she tried putting them up on the shop’s shelves one by one.

Sure enough, it worked! She realized that this shop was essentially a mobile warehouse.

A smile tugged at the corners of Rowan’s mouth. Grabbing her Iron Axe, she began gathering resources on Thesora. Trees? Chop. Grassland? Collection. Dirt? Dig. Stone? Dig. Basically, Rowan grabbed whatever she saw.

After all, the most valuable items on this island had already been taken by her. Perhaps because of this, the rest of Thesora had practically no special resources. The only exceptions were probably the hens and goats.

Once her resource Collection was mostly complete, Rowan went to regroup with the Seagull Family. Upon meeting up, she saw that they had caught five hens and two goats. From their eager looks, they were itching to catch even more goats.

When Rowan arrived, she stopped them.

"That’s enough," she said. Now flush with resources, Rowan no longer had the mentality of wanting to strip the place bare. After all, she now had a shop and an all-channel sourcing network for goods. Leaving the remaining resources behind would benefit other players. For one, it would help conceal her identity, and secondly, it would turn those players into her future suppliers. Rather than lingering, she preferred to increase the raft’s Speed and reach the waters of the third island as soon as possible to get the shipwreck’s coordinates.

The other four members of the Seagull Family directly carried their prey toward the raft, leaving only the seagull that had originally followed Rowan staring at her in disbelief. After all, back on the previous island, Rowan had looked as though she wouldn’t rest until she had hollowed the place out! The contrast now was a bit too stark, wasn’t it?

Rowan ruffled the seagull’s head and said, "Because I got the treasure."

The ultimate treasure of Thesora was this Operating Qualification Certificate.

Understanding her words, the seagull instantly cheered up and eagerly trotted after Rowan onto the raft. Once on board, the Seagull Family stared longingly at Rowan one by one.

"Seabird One, this is your new name. Take Father Gull, Mother Gull, Seabird Two, and Seabird Three to grab some food yourselves! Replenish your stats," Rowan said, conveniently naming the Seagull Family to make them easier to identify. She was terrible at naming things and felt these names were simple and easy to remember.

The Seagull Family took exactly one second to accept their new names. Seabird One happily led its parents and younger siblings to the Storage Boxes in the living area to feast.

As for Rowan, she looked at the hens and goats running amok across the raft and walked toward the planting area. The planting area needed an Expansion to become a proper pasture. Since raft area was no longer a metric for upgrade requirements, Rowan could safely expand it.

Expand early, enjoy early.

Rowan directly selected the Expansion option at the rear of the raft.

[Consume Wooden Boards x640 and iron nails x640 to expand the raft by 64 square meters?]

"Yes," Rowan replied.

She planned to do it in one go, building the raft out to a hundred square meters so she could plan the layout in advance. Upon confirmation, 64 raft foundations appeared on the control panel’s raft interface. Rowan began organizing them. These 64 foundations formed the core of the entire raft, while the original 36 Metal Rafts were directly shifted to the outermost perimeter.

Without the interference of the Abyssal Heat Bacteria, Rowan could focus entirely on building her raft, which was a joyous thing. As for the Abyssal Heat Bacteria, "catching" it manually was exhausting; buying it was much easier.

Rowan had already shifted her mindset regarding many things. She had to have every kind of resource in her hands, but she didn’t force herself to personally handle all the Collection.

As she thought this, her hands didn’t stop moving.

With the raft’s Expansion to a hundred square meters, much of the original Equipment on board now looked woefully sparse. For example, the two-story Wooden House was only a few square meters, and the wooden fence was full of gaps. Rowan wasn’t in a hurry. She planned to take advantage of the countdown to the Extreme Heat Disaster to handle these tasks.

She evenly divided the hundred-square-meter area into four zones, each 25 square meters.

First was the wooden fence. She used wood, iron nails, rope, and other resources to build and fill in the missing sections, while also installing spikes and fishing nets on the outer perimeter of the fence.

Next was the planting area. The original 16 square meters of palm trees, Coconut trees, potatoes, sweet potatoes, Watermelons, and the like was expanded to 17 square meters. She marked out an 8-square-meter pasture—four square meters for the chicks and four for the goats. After laying down turf and putting up enclosures, the chicks and goats instantly began grazing inside.

Then came the work area. The original densely packed aisle, which only allowed one person to pass, instantly became much more spacious. The machinery was neatly arranged in rows, forming an L-shaped layout.

After that was the living area. Since it inherently had less Equipment, it was also arranged in an L-shape. The most numerous items were the Storage Boxes, while the tables, chairs, and awning took up the largest area. This Equipment, originally placed at the front row of the raft, was moved by Rowan to the very center of the living area for greater convenience.

Finally, the residential area. The original Wooden House, which was only a few square meters, seemed a bit too small, so Rowan performed an Expansion on the control panel. The shower room on the first floor remained the same size but was moved to the corner. With the extra space, Rowan created two small rooms: one for Father Gull and Mother Gull, and one for the three siblings: Seabird One, Seabird Two, and Seabird Three. As for the second floor, it was entirely Rowan’s own domain. The wooden bed was enlarged, and she even added a wardrobe and a nightstand.

At this point, the entire new raft was fully planned and completely revitalized.

The Seagull Family, who had been eating and drinking, noticed the changes to the entire raft and instantly perked up.

As for Rowan, she returned to the awning, picked up a bottle of water, downed it in one gulp, and sat to the side to admire her masterpiece. In this life, she had used just a few days to accomplish what had taken her several months in her previous life.

It was truly deeply satisfying!