While waiting, she didn’t forget to check her Trading Order, and the amount of supplies she had now was simply overwhelming.
An Ling seriously suspected that if she took all these supplies out at once, it would crush her Small Wooden Cabin flat.
Fortunately, the upper limit of the Space Backpack was quite generous—32 slots, with each slot holding up to a hundred items.
An Ling took out the rarer supplies from the box for now to prevent them from occupying space, and then began to claim the supplies she’d obtained through trading.
[Trade obtained: Lumber560, Scrap Iron318, Thatch528, Iron Nails488, Plastic220, Charcoal422.]
All this came from trading nearly a thousand bananas from the Banana Grove. It was simply astonishing.
At least for the foreseeable future, An Ling would never have to worry about these supplies again.
After sorting out her inventory, the water had almost finished boiling. An Ling filleted a cod, tossed it into the pot, then opened a pack of instant vegetable soup and poured it in as well. The soup came with seasoning and a bit of dehydrated vegetables—quite nice.
She happened to have a squid left, so she grilled that too while she was at it.
On this chilling, pitch-black night, An Ling drank cod and vegetable soup, ate grilled squid, and warmed herself by the Campfire. Her body quickly grew warm.
After finishing dinner, An Ling kept boiling water, planning to add some to the Shower Capsule.
“Freshwater resources are still way too scarce.” Boiling seawater directly was out of the question for drinking or bathing, and Distillation was too much trouble. An Ling pondered, “Looks like bathing is out of the question tonight.”
If she used her fresh water supply just for drinking, it would be more than enough, but for daily use, it was far from sufficient—unless she got an upgrade card right now to improve her seawater filtration system.
“Bottled water, huh…” An Ling looked at the mineral water in front of her, thinking that it wasn’t much—two bottles made just one liter.
A single backpack slot could hold fifty bottles, only twenty-five liters of water.
Besides, trading large amounts of bottled water was a hassle, too.
She opened the Construction Module to see if there was another tool to store water.
[Plastic Bucket: For storing rice, flour, and water, or for carrying things on the run—endlessly useful! Materials needed: Plastic*5. Production rewards 1 point.]
“There really is one!” An Ling immediately crafted one—a simple and unremarkable Red Plastic Bucket, just about the size she had imagined.
These buckets usually held about 15–20 liters each, nearly as much as fifty bottles of mineral water.
Now An Ling wanted to test if full buckets of water could be stacked together in the Space Backpack.
If it worked, she’d be able to collect a large amount of freshwater tomorrow after landing on the island. [Plastic Bucket full of seawater*1]
An Ling made another Plastic Bucket, filled it with seawater again, and the quantity stacked!
“Great! Now I’ll never have to worry about freshwater again!” After her experiment, she learned that as long as the buckets contained the same liquid, they could be stacked.
But buckets of seawater and buckets of freshwater couldn’t be stacked together. The same went for empty buckets.
An Ling immediately crafted thirty Plastic Buckets—don’t ask why not fifty, she simply didn’t have enough plastic.
That much freshwater would be more than enough to fill the Shower Capsule’s tank and then some.
She stored all thirty buckets in her backpack in advance, ready for tomorrow’s second trip to the island.
An Ling went to the edge of the island to check her fishing net, but didn’t catch a single fish. She didn’t even bother taking it in, just left it hanging there.
Such scattered supplies no longer interested her—unless it was a wooden box.
This proved that An Ling’s Supreme Luck did have its limits. At least once she left the island, it no longer affected the fishing net, otherwise she couldn’t possibly have caught nothing.
“Since I can’t take a shower, I might as well not bother changing clothes.” After tidying up a bit, An Ling began her simple nightly wash-up.
Looking at the crude wooden bed, she even wondered what she would do if the weather got colder. She didn’t even have a quilt, let alone a blanket.
After washing her socks and hanging them by the Campfire, she boiled another pot of water and suddenly discovered another advanced use for the Plastic Bucket.
That’s right—soaking her feet!
There was nothing more comfortable than this.
What, you’re asking if she’ll still use this bucket to store water? Come on, An Ling doesn’t have athlete’s foot, she won’t get a fungal infection.
After a busy night, her fatigue melted away, and she got ready to sleep.
Right now, her development had reached a peak, and An Ling had no time to join in the other survivors’ chats.
The night passed uneventfully.
At dawn the next day, An Ling woke up. The charcoal in the Campfire was still burning, but about to go out.
She washed up quickly, took out a sandwich, and ate her breakfast.
After finishing her meal, An Ling pushed open the wooden door. A chilly wind blew right at her, making her shiver. The weather was getting colder.
She deftly twisted the pendant hanging around her neck, and the pale gold cube began spinning rapidly.
Looking down at the pattern in the ravine, she saw a Chicken Head—an all-new blessing!
[Obtained Pendant Blessings: Supreme Luck, Divine Right Hand, gathering has a 1–10x drop rate!]
[Time remaining: 18 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds] “It’s true, ask and you shall receive!” An Ling was excited. It seemed she would harvest not only plenty of freshwater today, but also mineral resources in abundance.
With her backpack on, she boarded the Wooden Boat. The Navigator still displayed the coordinates. Retracting the Anchor, she set off without hesitation.
It was only six in the morning, still early, so An Ling aimed to finish exploring the entire supply island in one day.
Everything went smoothly on the way. Two hours later, An Ling reached the island once more.
Since she needed to collect freshwater, she didn’t dock her Wooden Boat on the other side, but stopped at the same place as yesterday.
Soon, An Ling returned to the creek, took out all her Plastic Buckets, and began filling them one by one.
“I don’t produce water, I’m just Mother Nature’s porter!”
With her abilities, she finished collecting all thirty buckets in less than twenty minutes and packed them into her backpack.
That was at least 500 liters of water—enough for her to take a bath in a tub if she wanted.
“All done!” An Ling hoisted her backpack and set off for the other side of the island.
The Space Backpack really was handy. Otherwise, there was no way she could’ve taken all this water with her.