Citizens of Cao County have been posting pickup requests one after another, averaging two per hour.
Jiang Ye scrolled through them and summarized.
Jiang Ye: So, it's 7 stamina boosters, 3 sets of clothes, and 10 pots, right?
Citizen of Cao County: Yes, yes, yes! Big shot, you're finally back, please ship quickly! The customers can't wait!
Jiang Ye immediately shipped, buying them from the Galaxy Mall and reselling them to Citizen of Cao County with a 500 yuan markup on each item, quickly earning ten thousand yuan from 20 items.
Next, Citizen of Cao County transferred another eleven thousand yuan, which was today's profit sharing.
It was clear that business hadn't been great today. There was only this much money.
Jiang Ye's personal assets rose to 422,067 yuan.
If luck was on his side, he might be able to upgrade to a Level 5 base by tomorrow morning!
He felt his standing in the community was stable, and he continued to maintain the level difference with Citizen of Cao County.
With his energy levels high tonight, Jiang Ye opened the public messages in the chat channel and browsed aimlessly.
He had been busy for the past two days and hadn't checked the public channel, accumulating a large pile of miscellaneous information.
Someone else had encountered a new species of animal.
Someone, like Jiang Ye, had dug a well and was selling well water.
Someone had upgraded to a Level 3 base and was showing off wildly in the channel, extremely happy.
Even more common was this kind of exchange:
Gattuso: I'm really starving to death, penniless, please, kind stranger, save me!
1.8 Meters Tall and Unbothered: Can you bear to see a handsome guy who is 1.8 meters tall starve to death? Please, spare some food!
Workaholic: I tried eating dirt today, but I really couldn't swallow it, it's too difficult.
Stolen Battery: Even if you gave me a Chinese textbook, I could tear it up and eat it. Please, everyone, give me anything edible!
Zhang San is Me: I have food for one more day. After I run out of food, if no one gives me any, I'll travel on foot to find someone else's base, find anyone and kill them, rob them for food! I have a gun! Da Feng Novel
A considerable number of people were begging for food, with begging messages filling seventy percent of the chat records.
Sadness, anger, despair, and pleading, all sorts of negative emotions filled the entire planet.
Some were willing to give up all their possessions for a bite to eat, though they didn't have much. Some threatened to kill if they starved, killing one if they caught one, and a pair if they caught a pair. Some viciously cursed other colony leaders, wishing them a terrible death for not helping.
The taste of starvation was not good, and Jiang Ye sympathized with them, but he was also unable to help, as the remaining food in his base was only enough for a few more days.
He couldn't help strangers and starve himself, could he? Jiang Ye didn't have that kind of moral high ground.
Judging by the situation, he still needed to find a way to get food in the next few days.
A crisp notification sound, and a new message arrived in the background.
Opening it, he saw it was a private message from an old acquaintance. The one who sold him the leg photos and sponge pads.
Cannot Twist Bottle Cap: Is Big Shot Jiang here?
Jiang Ye: Yes, what's up?
Cannot Twist Bottle Cap: Do you have any food left?
Jiang Ye: Not much.
Cannot Twist Bottle Cap: Can you give me something to eat? Please, I'm really starving to death, my hands are numb, and I don't have the strength to breathe.
Jiang Ye: Do you have anything to trade with me?
Cannot Twist Bottle Cap: I have a blood grenade.
Jiang Ye: I don't need that.
Cannot Twist Bottle Cap: How about photos? Where do you want to see?
Jiang Ye: No, I don't need it. How about this, I'll give you half a corn, and you can try to figure out the rest yourself.
Cannot Twist Bottle Cap: Thank you, Big Shot! Big Shot, you're so kind! I've begged over a hundred people, and only you gave me food! I will remember this forever!
Jiang Ye broke off half a corn cob for her and closed the chat window.
He didn't know why, but after not paying attention to others' movements for more than two days, a severe famine had broken out again.
He also checked the number of people in the chat channel, which had dropped to 87,602 people!
You must know that when they first arrived on this planet, there were exactly 100,000 people. In less than a month, over 12,000 people had died!
It was terrifying, truly terrifying.
Besides being eaten by wild beasts, most died from illness and starvation. Currently, violent murders should be few, as the distances between people were great and transportation inconvenient.
Jiang Ye prayed silently, hoping he would be among the last survivors.
He lay down and went to sleep!
As soon as dawn broke, he got up on time to get busy.
First, he bought a stamina booster and injected himself with it.
As with the previous few days, he ate corn. Jiang Ye's fire-starting skills were already very proficient, and he cooked the corn in ten minutes.
Thinking about the tens of thousands of people struggling with hunger at this very moment, some on the verge of death from starvation, the corn in his hands tasted exceptionally good. It was good enough to have something to eat; why be picky?
He boiled five ears of corn in the pot, ate two, and soaked the rest in the pot, covering it with the lid.
Then, he picked up his weapons and tools and went to mine.
Jiang Ye really liked his newly purchased shotgun. Carrying the gun and walking across the desolate plains gave him the illusion of being a lone cowboy in a Western movie.
He soon reached the mine pit and was pulled back to reality. He had to be an honest miner!
Holding the pickaxe, he swung it with all his might.
After digging down half a meter, rose quartz began to appear again. It was pink and especially beautiful in the morning sun.
However, Jiang Ye soon frowned.
This rose quartz mine was special. Only a small amount of powder fell into the soil; most of the rose quartz was deeply embedded in the gray-black rock.
It was like the chocolate chips on a Quqi Duo Duo cookie, tightly embedded.
The only way was to forcefully break open the rocks and smash out the rose quartz inside.
This was manual labor, and the rocks were very hard.
Jiang Ye struck one blow after another, and sparks flew from the pickaxe with each strike.
After more than ten blows, a large rock cracked open, revealing the rose quartz inside, a piece the size of a fist.
Jiang Ye quickly smashed that piece of rose quartz out and put it in his pocket, then looked for the next piece.
This mine was not large, with only a few large ore rocks.
It only took less than half a morning to mine it all!
He obtained a total of 12 fist-sized pieces of rose quartz, which was pitifully little compared to the pots of ice crystal stone he had collected in the previous few days.
However, with ore, quantity was only one aspect; quality was more important.
Jiang Ye carried his tools and returned to his base.
Too lazy to open them one by one, he directly threw all 12 pieces of rose quartz into the trading pod.
This time, the scanning took a longer time, and finally, a very satisfactory result appeared:
[Estimated value: 280,000 yuan]
Earning 280,000 yuan in half a morning was incredibly fast!
Jiang Ye was almost certain that he was now the fastest earner on the entire planet. As long as he had a good mine, money would flow in like water.
Unfortunately, the rose quartz mine was depleted, and he would have to go out to find a new mine in the afternoon.
While calculating in his mind, he clicked to sell.
The 280,000 yuan was credited instantly, and his personal assets increased to 701,067 yuan!
He could now upgrade to a Level 5 base.
He clicked on base upgrade and upgraded without hesitation.
Five hundred thousand yuan disappeared instantly, leaving only 201,067 in his personal account.
The base panel popped up a prompt:
[This upgrade will take a considerable amount of time, please wait patiently.]
[Upgrade will take approximately: 1 hour and 30 minutes.]