Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse-Chapter 52: Ironclad Deal

Xu Xin, feeling full and satisfied, video-called Li Wenxi.

The call connected quickly, but it wasn’t from her treehouse; it was connected via her watch.

"You’re back? Once I’m done here, I’ll go up and return the pork to you. Like we agreed this morning, I’ve already cut off the tenth portion." Li Wenxi’s face was dirty, she held an iron pickaxe in her hand, and it was quite dark around her, seemingly mining in a cave.

Even the pickaxe has been upgraded to iron?

No surprise, she’s a rich woman with iron mines at home.

"Alright, if you want to keep more, you can trade me with iron ore."

"No need, no need, I can’t even finish that tenth portion." Li Wenxi shook her head and then moved the camera away from her face, "I’ll hang up then, I’m mining, all dirty and looking unpleasant!"

"Okay."

Ending the call, Xu Xin, having everything prepared, decided to conserve energy for tomorrow’s activities — commonly known as: embrace laziness.

He lay in bed, petting the dozing Keke, and began browsing the regional channel using his watch.

The regional channel was still lively at this time. With the novice protection period over, beasts had returned to the jungle, fraught with danger. With sufficient water and food, most chose to stay cooped up in their treehouses.

Xu Xin noticed that the number of people in the channel was only 6998, less than seven thousand.

Yesterday, even after eliminating those 50, there were still over seven thousand?

"Friends, have you noticed, there are no beasts around today!"

"You’re too late to the discovery! This morning Big Brother Ji Chaoyang already informed us, and suggested we go out to scavenge more supplies."

"Ah? I went out early in the morning, spent the whole day on edge. Should’ve checked the regional channel first!"

"The [Benevolent Healers] organization has listed the [Hemostatic Grass] procured today on the trading platform. Go check it out!"

"What organization? It’s just a lousy group. The name sounds so grand."

"New activities are up tomorrow, only giving us a day to rest and prepare..."

"Sigh, I wonder if there’s elimination by the end of this activity."

"End-of-the-line elimination might be lucky. The first friend I made here got a bronze chest yesterday, ranked even in the top 1000, but suffered too grievously in a monster fight, couldn’t get treated here. His name turned gray today."

"Oh my god!"

"Left to wait for death! Terrifying!"

"So I’m telling you all, act within your means, don’t sustain serious injuries! Even top 1000 ranks can’t save you."

"I need to buy some hemostatic grass!"

"Was that guy shilling just now?"

It seems besides the Explorers, there are also some choosing to huddle together for warmth. However, their Explorers haven’t spoken in the regional channel, probably because they haven’t gathered yet.

Though it’s not anonymous on the leaderboard, one can still speak anonymously in the regional channel. So Xu Xin anonymously asked, "Is there really no beasts around anyone?"

"Yes, someone even reached the boundary and didn’t see any beasts."

Xu Xin thought about it. He went hunting three kilometers away, and within his treehouse’s three-kilometer range, there were indeed no beasts, which he could see on the map at a glance. Of course, except for those piranhas in the center of the lake.

Looks like today really is a rest day.

Ji Chaoyang probably also hunts beyond the three-kilometer range.

He also understood why dozens died today, some of them succumbed to serious injuries they couldn’t heal from, and some might’ve had a screw loose and wandered out of the safe zone.

"Currently, there’s no way to heal serious injuries; you absolutely can’t get seriously hurt during exploration."

Thinking this, he opened the trading platform to see if there was anything he needed.

As expected, there were still no blue-grade resources on the trading platform. Blue-grade resources were generally traded privately, and those capable of obtaining blue-grade resources mostly belonged to the Explorers organization he was in.

However, there were quite a few green-grade resources, some of which even he hadn’t acquired.

"Mountain celery? Green vegetable, bought."

"What are these weird edible fungi? Bought."

"Whoa, even dandelion, such wild greens? Bought."

After a while of scavenging on the trading platform, he didn’t find many useful resources. Instead, he exchanged some negligible green wood from his stockpile for various wild greens.

Eating meat all the time isn’t healthy, better to have more green vegetables.

He also saw that some were selling hemostatic grass on the trading platform, quite a lot of them, likely picked by the people from the [Benevolent Healers] seen earlier.

Xu Xin looked towards his group, the Explorers were relatively quiet, as everyone wasn’t the type for idle chatter.

Just then, Li Wenxi finally initiated a video call with him. Once connected, she was no longer the dirty-faced miner, her hair still slightly damp.

"I’ll trade it back to you now, I’ve kept a tenth portion."

"Okay." Xu Xin agreed to the trade, kept some for himself, and listed the remaining pork.

"By the way, I wanted to ask, why are there beasts around your treehouse? I didn’t see anything after walking around." Li Wenxi curiously asked, "Is it related to your gold chest?"

"Hmm... I have a bigger area to move around compared to you all."

"That’s nice, I want to hunt some beasts too, can’t make a heavy crossbow without beast tendons. Do you have any extra? I’ll trade you some resources!"

Xu Xin shook his head, "No, I’ve already used it all myself."

"Oh, alright then." Li Wenxi seemed a bit disappointed.

"There should be beasts during tomorrow’s activity, you have iron armor, you can handle them."

"That’s right!"

"I want to trade some wood for your iron ore. You still have plenty, right?"

"I have so much of it that I don’t even want to keep mining anymore."

Li Wenxi directly took out some refined iron blocks and exchanged them with him.

After hanging up the video call, the sky had already darkened. Xu Xin cuddled Keke and slowly fell asleep.

Xu Xin was woken up by the vibration on his wrist; it was a voice call from Ji Chaoyang, one of the only two people allowed to voice or video chat with him.

He looked at the time, it was half-past ten in the evening.

Xu Xin answered the call.

"What’s up, calling so late?"

"Late? You slept? Everyone’s gathered in the group, come show your face," Ji Chaoyang didn’t expect Xu Xin to sleep so early on the eve of an event.

"Oh? That last person, what’s their name..."

"Qi Xuefei, ranked eighth."

After hanging up the call, Xu Xin looked at the [Explorers] group chat, where everyone was welcoming Qi Xuefei.

This Qi Xuefei seemed to be a very quiet girl, simply saying "Thank you all" and nothing more.

Ji Chaoyang: "Alright, now that everyone’s here, I’ll repeat what I told you."

Xu Xin watched as Ji Chaoyang typed out the purpose of the organization’s creation and its tasks, his eyelids getting heavy.

"...Yawn?"

Keke was disturbed by Xu Xin’s movements, glanced at the screen projected by the watch, turned around, and went back to sleep.

"Does anyone have any questions?"

"No, boss!"

"No problem."

"I have a question." Suddenly, the new member Qi Xuefei spoke up, "I want a set of iron armor right now. Can you or Xu Xin make it for me?"

Qin Yunlong: "We also want two sets of iron armor."

Ji Chaoyang: "Do you have the raw materials? Iron ore is scarce now, and I don’t have any extra."

Both were silent.

Just then, Li Wenxi suddenly sent him a private message: "Should I provide them with iron ore?"

Xu Xin replied: "It’s up to you."

"It’s a bit troublesome. How about this: I trade iron blocks with you, and you make it for them, how about that?"

"You could directly trade iron ore with them."

"I kind of don’t want others to know I have a lot of iron ore, and you have to keep it a secret for me! Also, selling raw materials to consumers isn’t the right way; selling to producers is the normal way."

"Hmm, that makes sense. Alright, happy cooperating."

Having resources and not profiting would be a waste.

After trading with Li Wenxi, Xu Xin directly said in the group, "I have a source of iron ore that I can sell to you, but you need to offer a price that satisfies me."

Of course, this price referred to the materials for exchange.

Qi Xuefei, Qin Yunlong: "Private chat."

In the next second, Qi Xuefei sent him a private message, showing a resource’s attributes. Seeing this resource, Xu Xin’s pupils contracted.

[Hemostatic Herb (Blue): A miraculous herb that can quickly heal severe wounds! Cannot regenerate limbs or organs.]

She actually has blue-grade Hemostatic Herb!

"Blue-grade Hemostatic Herb, it can save lives at critical moments, trade one for a set of green-grade iron armor."

Honestly, this deal wasn’t a loss for Xu Xin. He only used green-grade wood and blue-grade consumable fruit to trade with Li Wenxi for iron blocks, making his cost very low. But holding the technology, he naturally knew how valuable this iron armor was to others.

"Three Hemostatic Herbs for one set of iron armor."

"...Three is too many, this is life-saving herb. Iron armor is just green-grade armor; at most, two herbs."

"Deal, just a reminder, iron armor is heavy, you might not be able to move in it."

"That’s none of your concern."

Xu Xin immediately made a set of green-grade iron armor and initiated a trade with Qi Xuefei. The other side quickly accepted the trade.

With two blue-grade Hemostatic Herbs in hand, Xu Xin couldn’t help but smile as he looked at the small herbs glowing blue. Now, he’s not even afraid of getting hurt, as long as he doesn’t lose limbs, there won’t be a big problem.

Over there, Qin Yunlong took out blue-grade Large Red Berries, which Xu Xin also had, and he knew that a single berry bush could yield over thirty berries, so given the apple tree’s fruiting cycle, Red Berries could probably be harvested every ten days or so, making them not too precious.

Nonetheless, as Keke’s feed and a major nighttime resource consumption, the more, the better.

"Fifty Red Berries for two sets of iron armor."

"Fifty?! These are blue-grade resources!"

"Don’t think I don’t know; I have these too. The Red Berry bush is the truly precious blue-grade resource, while the berries are just its products. A single bush can produce over thirty berries, so fifty is the base price."

The other side realized Xu Xin wasn’t easy to fool, so their tone softened, and after quite some back and forth, Xu Xin traded two sets of green-grade iron armor for forty Large Red Berries.

"Time to sleep, time to sleep, need to replenish energy." Once finally done, Xu Xin lay down on the bed and gradually drifted off to sleep.