Chapter Twelve: Another Skill Card?

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As usual, Jiang Ran checked the transaction information. Because of the earlier discussions, the price of water had been driven down somewhat, but prices for salt and various electrolyte drinks had surged. Tentatively, she listed five bottles of functional drinks, pricing each at 30 health points. To her surprise, they sold out in less than a minute. She then posted another five bottles, and despite grumbling, everyone bought them all.

“Damn profiteer, selling so expensive! I’ve noted your ID—next time I’ll mark up prices when selling to you!”

“Damn it, I worked hard all day, and my hard-earned health points got handed over cheaply to him.”

“Boycott the profiteer! Everyone needs electrolyte water right now. If you have extras, you should help each other! Don’t buy from him!”

Some mocked, “Who forced you to buy? Everyone with electrolyte water is hoarding it for themselves. Why don’t you find someone else selling it?”

“If you don’t want it, give it to me—I missed out because I was too slow.”

...

Jiang Ran did not indulge such people at all. With a powerful strike, she said, “Don’t worry, those noisy people upstairs are blacklisted. Your mother will never have to worry about me cheating you out of health points again.”

At that, those few instantly panicked, shouting and even threatening Jiang Ran, warning her, “Don’t let him find you!”

After blacklisting them, Jiang Ran ignored the impotent rage and busied herself choosing what to eat for dinner. Just as she took out a portion of small seafood tossed in sauce with an ice-cold beer, she suddenly received a message from Little Gyroscope.

Little Gyroscope: “I got a new skill card and want to trade for electrolyte water and food.”

The small seafood in Jiang Ran’s mouth lost its flavor instantly. In her previous life, she had dug for seven straight days, nearly tunneling through a mountain, yet barely saw any skill cards. To be precise, spotting a silver box was considered lucky; a gold box was a jackpot.

But Little Gyroscope, in just one day, already obtained two skill cards that only came from diamond boxes, plus an item card that required at least a gold box to unlock?! Was that even reasonable?

Who was really the paying player here?

Jiang Ran bit hard into the sweet, juicy Brittany blue lobster and responded expressionlessly, “You’re so lucky opening boxes, why are you short on supplies?”

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Little Gyroscope: “…”

Little Gyroscope: “Because all I got were item cards, which can’t be eaten.”

That balanced things out a bit in Jiang Ran’s mind.

Recalling what the Black Silk Lady had said about Little Gyroscope’s incredible luck, Jiang Ran had an idea: “I can trade food with you. Whenever you get these item or skill cards, come to me first. If you have fragments or anything you don’t know what to use, ask me first—I get all supplies and medicine from my boxes.”

Little Gyroscope: “OK.”

He was straightforward and immediately sent a trade request.

Jiang Ran thought for a moment—since this was to be a long-term partnership, she should show some sincerity. For the previous skill card, she had traded him a practical sun-protection suit and ice water, so the value this time shouldn’t be too different.

She placed five bottles of mineral water, two bottles of electrolyte water, and five packs of instant noodles into the trade circle.

Little Gyroscope confirmed the trade at lightning speed, clearly very short on food.

Little Gyroscope: “Do you have any heatstroke medicine?”

Jiang Ran raised an eyebrow. “What do you want to trade for it?”

Little Gyroscope: “How about this? I saw you were looking for manufacturing station fragments before.”

[Little Gyroscope initiated trade request: Desert Eagle manufacturing blueprint.]

It was a weapon blueprint.

Jiang Ran was somewhat interested, but since he specifically mentioned manufacturing station fragments, she frowned and grew cold. “Manufacturing station fragments are too hard to collect. Even if you manage to build the station, making these requires corresponding materials and compatible bullets... It’s not very useful for me.”

She wasn’t in a hurry; with her reserves, she wouldn’t lack weapons for a long time. Besides, as she said, even if you have the blueprint and build the station and gather materials to make a Desert Eagle, it’s useless without bullets.

In the game, golden boxes sometimes drop firearms, but mostly revolvers or shotguns, each equipped with only one magazine that disappears after use.

After a few dungeons, players open many boxes and get various weapons, but bullets are the real scarce resource.

If the blueprint was for different types of bullets, Jiang Ran would offer extra supplies to get her hands on it. But Desert Eagle? Not quite worth it.

Mainly, she didn’t want to be easily manipulated by Little Gyroscope.

Little Gyroscope probably guessed Jiang Ran’s reaction and replied gloomily, “Alright then...”

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She thought the topic was over, but half a minute later, Little Gyroscope sent another message, refusing to give up.

Little Gyroscope: “Really not accepting? What if it comes in handy later? I can tell you’re strong and not short on supplies. Keeping the blueprint to trade for other things later is worth it.”

Jiang Ran noticed his sudden eagerness and instinctively grew wary. She probed, “Why are you pushing this so hard? Are you heatstroked?”

Maybe because Jiang Ran had already traded him useful supplies, Little Gyroscope was quite honest: “I’ve been digging boxes all day and only found these things. I have a bit of a headache now and worry I won’t hold up tomorrow.”

What? He’d been digging all day?

He was tough, no wonder he was so eager to offload items that might be useful later.

Jiang Ran suddenly felt a pang of regret—she wished she could trade all the supplies she found today for skill or item cards!

But then she thought of a question.

She had initially believed Little Gyroscope died at the hands of the Black Silk Lady in the previous life, but now she suspected Xu Yunxuan might have been involved.

The Black Silk Lady likely ran into Xu Yunxuan’s group first, exposing Little Gyroscope and his incredible box-opening luck.

Knowing Xu Yunxuan as she did, someone like Little Gyroscope would either be recruited or killed.

Yet Little Gyroscope still died in the end—what exactly happened in between, only last life’s Xu Yunxuan knew.

With a powerful strike, Jiang Ran said, “I do have two bottles of heatstroke medicine, but I was planning to keep them for myself...”

Implying she hoped Little Gyroscope understood.

[Little Gyroscope initiated trade request: Desert Eagle manufacturing blueprint, manufacturing station fragments x2.]

Jiang Ran was pleased that Little Gyroscope was coming around.

By comparison, she felt she’d lost badly in her previous trade with Whirlwind Slash!

Heatstroke medicine’s value in this dungeon would only grow as time went on. Such an important item, yet she had lightly given two bottles to Whirlwind Slash before!

No, she had to find a way to recoup that loss!

Jiang Ran took a fierce gulp of ice-cold beer and opened the newly acquired skill card.

She noticed this one seemed somewhat different.