He Ni’s initiative was incredibly strong.
Once she realized this, she immediately set about making arrangements.
Changing weapons was not so urgent.
At this stage, players with weapons were rare and expensive.
The only remaining coconut in her backpack was reserved as a last resort for herself.
Unless she found some top-tier equipment, she wouldn’t bother swapping it out for now.
Using the remaining portions of coconut meat and a few hundred milliliters of coconut juice, He Ni exchanged them for a batch of freshwater, wood, iron nails, and other common materials.
Then she began the cycle of trading building materials—wood, iron nails, rope—for fresh seafood meat.
This was a limited-time benefit only available during the newbie period.
All players were experiencing a bountiful harvest; various types of fresh seafood were being sold off like they were worthless, with people unloading dozens or even hundreds of pieces each.
There was no way to stack different types of meat, and backpacks had a 99-item limit.
Even if fifteen slots were dedicated solely to storing freshly caught seafood meat, it still wouldn’t be enough.
Feng Rao Zhi Hai’s seafood wasn’t limited to just fifteen varieties; currently, at least fifty types were available in the Trading Hall alone.
Besides, who could afford to fill every slot with just seafood?
Everyone entered the game with nothing, everything had to be accumulated bit by bit.
Throwing items on the raft reduced environmental points.
When players caught or fished up things they couldn’t store, their only options were to sell at a loss or discard them.
He Ni’s innate unlimited backpack slots shone brilliantly during this phase.
In just five or six hours, she had traded for 1,274 Yellow Croaker Meat, 751 Silverblade Fish Meat, and 992 Lobster Meat.
These were her three favorite seafood types, and she intended to stockpile only these.
She had already planned her five slots: one for wood, three for food, and the last one undecided.
Ideally, she wanted to use the last slot for freshwater, but freshwater needed standardized containers, which she didn’t have yet.
She had gradually obtained 32 water bottles from Newbie Gift Packs, each holding 300 milliliters.
How long it would take to fill all 99 slots was another matter.
As for coconuts, it was unlikely she would ever fill 99 of those, so no need to think about it now.
She would wait until she had a fifth type of material that could break the 99-item limit.
This wave of trading had reduced her wood total to just 17 logs, along with a significant consumption of iron nails and ropes.
He Ni didn’t mind much—she planned to catch two more coconuts tomorrow to trade back.
With her backpack full and her food and drink supply assured, she slept soundly that night.
On the third day of the Sea God Calendar year 2000, June 3rd, at 5:00 a.m., the egg-like sun rose on time.
He Ni stretched lazily, feeling well-rested and well-fed, then stood up abruptly.
She looked around and nearly jumped with excitement.
The raft was currently about 27.3 nautical miles from Abandoned Stone Island.
After ten hours of night’s refresh, there were three coconuts floating within a 10-meter radius!
This was even more thrilling than catching a big fish in 20 attempts.
She hadn’t finished reading yesterday’s unread private messages—many tempting trade requests—but limited coconuts meant she couldn’t agree to most.
If she could catch a few more coconuts today, she could trade back for all the valuable items she missed out on yesterday!
Like a shot of adrenaline, she ignored her empty stomach and grabbed her grappling hook, focusing intently on the nearest coconut.
An hour passed in this busy pursuit.
Using up 72 stamina points, she caught all three coconuts and, along the way, snagged three pieces of wood, two foam boxes, and four coconut leaves.
She scored four critical hits during this, gaining an extra coconut, a foam box, and two coconut leaves.
Holding four large coconuts in her arms, He Ni finally sat down under her sun umbrella to rest, pulling out coconut juice and grilled Yellow Croaker Meat to eat breakfast.
With the sun umbrella, her [Satisfaction] status lasted for thirty minutes.
Watching her stamina steadily climb, she thought to herself that the umbrella was well worth the trade.
While eating, she wasn’t idle—she immediately checked the Trading Hall with the keyword “coconut” and found many more sellers had appeared, nearly thirty in total.
It seemed Abandoned Stone Island wasn’t the only island producing coconuts.
As another day passed, more players slowly entered the coconut refresh zones.
Fortunately, coconut prices hadn’t dropped because of this.
Opening the World Channel, He Ni saw a glaring negative status effect:
[Fatigue: A monotonous diet is slowly eroding your health (Max Stamina -5, HP -5/day, Mental Strength -5/day)]
This was a sign of scurvy.
According to veteran players’ speculation, if a player ate only seafood for five consecutive days, this status might escalate to [Scurvy Risk], followed by mild, moderate, and severe scurvy.
The [Fatigue] status had been first discovered by a player today at 6:00 a.m.
He Ni frowned slightly—so Xiao Luo Hao’s talent could predict a condition that would appear the next day?
This talent was too powerful.
No matter what, this person needed to be either befriended or, at the very least, not antagonized.
Every minute of daylight was precious, so He Ni didn’t investigate further.
Catching coconuts, fishing junk, advertising on the World Channel, hunting for treasure in the Trading Hall, and bargaining with other players—after a brief rest, she quickly became so busy she barely had time to drink water.
During this, Sweet Donut contacted her again.
He Ni checked and found Sweet Donut had sent dozens of messages over time, all wanting to trade coconuts.
[Sweet Donut: Hi, good morning! Do you still have any coconut meat or coconut juice? Have you thought about exchanging for soil as we talked about before?]
[Sweet Donut: I have 23 portions of soil now and want to trade some coconut meat and juice. Not much, just a little. I have my own bottles.]
[Sweet Donut: Here’s a description of the soil. You can take a look. One portion of soil corresponds to one plant. The soil’s fertility allows for 20 harvests. Even when the fertility is depleted, it can be reused after fertilizing.]
He Ni reviewed the description.
[Soil: Fertile, arable soil. With this, perhaps you can eat fresh fruits and vegetables (Fertility: 20/20)]
Sweet Donut had contacted her several times these past days.
Starting with just 3 portions of soil, now it had grown to 23.
No one knew how the other player had obtained so much soil.
If her talent was related to soil, she might become He Ni’s soil supplier someday.
No one knew how long this divine game would last.
Coconuts were not a long-term solution.
He Ni couldn’t rely on catching coconuts every day.
If she stayed adrift at sea, she would sooner or later have to solve the problem of vegetables and fruits.
Since the soil description emphasized its use for planting, it meant players could obtain seeds somehow.
The raft was too small for planting now, but after expanding or upgrading, the growing area would increase.
The earlier she started planting, the sooner she could eat or sell fresh produce.
Environmental points—important too.
It wasn’t that He Ni was uniquely insightful; many players understood the importance of vegetables and fruits for survival at sea.
Few were willing to buy soil because storage space was limited, and soil couldn’t be placed on the raft—it would spill and reduce environmental points.
Without planting conditions, saving soil in advance wasn’t worthwhile.
Most players thought they could gather soil later once they had a chance to land on an island, assuming nature’s free gifts would be everywhere then.
But just because others lacked conditions didn’t mean He Ni did.
She still had an unlimited slot in her backpack.
Sweet Donut’s messages were from several minutes ago.
He Ni organized her reply:
[Have you sold any soil? How many portions do you have left now?]
Sweet Donut, likely watching the trading channel, quickly replied: [I have 25 portions now. I can trade all of them for 100 milliliters of coconut juice and 100 grams of coconut meat. Is that okay?]
In just a little while, the soil count had increased from 23 to 25—Sweet Donut must have had some lucky encounters.
The sincerity was evident.
He Ni didn’t haggle further and replied immediately: [Okay, shall we use a trade agreement?]
Sweet Donut responded instantly:
[No problem, no problem, let’s do a trade agreement.]
The deal was done quickly.
He Ni also sent a friend request, and the virtual screen showed transparent bubbles containing soil waiting to be received.
[Received Soil x25]
[Hmm…Let me check again. Additional Soil x6 received.]
Thirty-one portions of soil at once—
He Ni was delighted.
She had caught two foam boxes this morning precisely with the idea of using them as planting pots.
After storing the soil in her backpack, she thought for a moment and browsed the Trading Hall.
She didn’t find any seeds for sale, but she spotted something tempting:
[Fish Oil Lantern x1 Price: Negotiable]
[Fish Oil Lantern: A sealed transparent container filled with refined deep-sea fish oil, paired with a plant fiber wick to create a stable light source.]
[Lighting Duration: 22 hours per unit of fish oil]
[Features: Wind and light rain resistant. Under heavy rain or snow, lighting radius reduced by 50%.]
[Durability: 2000/2000 (Consumes 1 durability per hour burned)]
Wow, a lantern fueled by fish oil!
She had just traded several portions of fish oil with Zhou Jingxi yesterday, initially thinking it a rare commodity to stockpile—never expected to unlock the proper use for fish oil so soon.
Unlike tar torches, one unit of fish oil could provide 22 hours of light!
She had traded with Zhou Jingxi several times last night and had just exchanged two portions of coconut juice this morning.
Now, she had stocked up 13 portions of fish oil in her backpack.
If she could buy this fish oil lantern, that would be a game-changer—no need to buy torches anymore.
Unable to hide her excitement, He Ni immediately private messaged the seller, Lao Yue Liang.
Opening the chat, she saw that Lao Yue Liang had already messaged her first:
[Do you have coconuts? How many coconuts do you have? Want to trade?]
[Are you there? I have a lantern, a good one, want to exchange for coconuts.]
These were messages from yesterday afternoon, but she had been too overwhelmed by thousands of private messages to notice them.
There were also a few messages from today at various times: [Anyone there? High-quality item—a reusable fish oil lantern. If you give me more coconuts, I’ll trade with you, interested?]
[The newbie period protection ends tomorrow. You can’t go without light or fire. This fish oil lantern is good stuff. Think about it. Look at the description.]
[Are you there? Reply if you want to buy.]
He Ni wanted to smack herself.
How could she miss such a good item?
But she really couldn’t keep up.
With Xiao Luo Hao’s scurvy risk looming, and the crazy coconut market soaring, she was reading nonstop twenty-four-seven.
Players like Sweet Donut, who asked every few hours and pinned unread messages to the top, were not the only ones—she simply couldn’t catch up.
Fortunately, the lantern was still listed in the Trading Hall; she still had a chance.
After some thought, He Ni carefully replied: [Sorry, I’ve been too busy to reply. I still have coconuts and am willing to trade.]
[How do you plan to trade?]
Lao Yue Liang replied almost instantly: [This is a great item. Look at the prices of Fire Starters and Tinderboxes in the Trading Hall—sky-high. Even a simple tar torch costs several liters of water. This lantern can be used repeatedly for a long time. I’ll only consider trading for at least 20 coconuts plus 20 wood.]
Twenty coconuts plus twenty wood?
And only then he would consider it?
He Ni twitched her mouth, wanting to suggest Lao Yue Liang come and snatch it from her raft himself.
Even if she had that many coconuts, at this critical moment with [Fatigue] just appearing and coconut juice at a high price, she wouldn’t agree to that trade.
She replied bluntly: [After [Fatigue], it’ll probably turn into [Mild Scurvy] with all three major stats affected. Coconuts are basically lifesaving medicine now. I can trade a few hundred tar torches for 20 coconuts. If I hold out a few more days, there will be other lighting options.]
[Of course, your lantern is indeed good, and I sincerely want it. How about this: I trade you 3 coconuts for one fish oil lantern. If you agree, I can pay in installments—1 coconut now, then 1 each day for the next two days. How’s that?]
Three coconuts for a precious fish oil lantern with installment payments?
Lao Yue Liang was speechless: [Are you serious? What kind of daydream are you having?]
[I’m serious about trading. Are you treating me like a joke? Three coconuts? Plus installments? This lantern has 2000 hours of durability. If you light it every day while sleeping, it can last 200 days. You dare ask for just 3 coconuts? At least 18 coconuts, no negotiations.]
His tone was harsh, full of anger, with message after message accusing her of being heartless.
He Ni considered carefully.
She wasn’t angry.
This person had been messaging her repeatedly since yesterday.
Now that he was so upset, he hadn’t blocked her but had even lowered his price.
After a few messages without a reply, his offer had dropped from “at least 18 coconuts” to “I won’t consider anything less than 17 coconuts.”
His attitude showed how much he wanted coconuts.
Since that was the case, the initiative was in He Ni’s hands.