In the chat channel.
"Time to eat, time to eat!"
"Let's go, let's go, I'll see who dares to snatch with me!"
"Coal, Big Boss Chen Yu is collecting coal again. I still don't know what coal is used for?"
"Who has coal? Can you sell some?"
"I have a lot here, 1 unit for 35ml of water. Hurry if you want to buy."
"Big Boss Chen Yu offers 25, are you ripping people off selling at 35?"
"Buy it or don't, that's the price!"
Due to Chen Yu's purchases, the quantity of coal in the trading channel increased significantly, with prices ranging from 30 to 50.
Chen Yu was not in a hurry.
His 200 portions of food would sell out quickly.
This was inevitable.
Even now, dozens of portions had already been sold. Chen Yu, having obtained Fire Element Shards and dozens of units of coal, immediately crafted 10 more furnaces.
Consuming 200 Iron Blocks, 200 Copper Blocks, 10 Obsidian, and 100 Fire Element Crystal Shards.
All 10 furnaces were of rare quality.
After placing the furnaces in the sub-camp, Chen Yu began smelting metal ingots.
Smelting any metal ingot requires 10 units of metal and 1 unit of coal or soul essence.
The materials were placed in front of the furnace.
The light projected by the furnace would absorb the materials, and then the furnace would ignite, starting the smelting process.
It was quite simple.
Glancing at the 11 furnaces placed side by side, Chen Yu took 200 units of Iron Blocks, 220 units of Copper Blocks, and Silver Blocks from the warehouse and placed them in the smelting area.
"You few."
Chen Yu pointed at several kobolds.
"Watch these furnaces here. This is your job from now on. Once the furnaces are smelted, you will continue to add raw materials, understand?"
The kobolds dazedly responded and began to busily transport the raw materials.
After throwing them into the furnaces, they turned back to look at Chen Yu.
"Yes, just like that!" Chen Yu nodded slightly. "From today, this area belongs to you. You are officially part of the team."
Hearing this, the kobolds puffed out their chests.
Their expressions were solemn!
They looked as if to say: Please rest assured, leader, we will not disappoint you.
Smelting was actually very simple in terms of operation.
It was unlikely that the kobolds would cause major problems doing this, but Chen Yu was still a little uneasy, so he sent Hei Dou to supervise the smelting area.
Immediately after, Chen Yu opened the camp interface again.
The camp bed, warehouse, and stove could all be upgraded again.
[Camp Bed (Level 3): Upgradeable]
[Wood: 1696/160, Stone: 1090/80, Iron Block: 435/40]
[Time: 12 hours]
[Camp Stove (Level 3): Upgradeable]
[Upgrade Requirements: Fire Element Crystal Shards 57/8, Water Element Crystal Shards 74/4, Stone: 1090/160, Dirt: 939/120]
[Time: 12 hours]
[Camp Warehouse (Level 4): Upgradeable]
[Upgrade Requirements: Stone: 1090/200, Dirt: 939/160, Earth Element Crystal Shards 117/8, Time Required: 9 hours]
The resources were abundant.
Without hesitation, Chen Yu chose to upgrade all of them.
[Cave Dwelling Reminder: Camp Bed upgrade successful]
[Cave Dwelling Reminder: Camp Stove upgrade successful]
[Cave Dwelling Reminder: Camp Warehouse upgrade successful]
With Efficient Learning (Volume 2), Chen Yu could instantly complete upgrades and learning for facilities within 12 hours.
Continue upgrading.
Camp bed upgrade cost: 320 Wood, 160 Stone, 80 Iron Blocks, 40 Copper Blocks.
By the time Chen Yu wanted to upgrade the twin stoves again, the stone resources were insufficient.
Upload resources.
100 portions of bread meals.
Demanding any resources.
These meals with no specific resource requirements were obviously more popular than those requiring element shards.
Bread meals.
Sold out at a visible speed.
After receiving the resources, Chen Yu upgraded the twin stoves and the camp warehouse.
Twin stove upgrade cost: 32 Fire Element Crystal Shards, 16 Water Element Crystal Shards, 640 Stone, 480 Dirt.
Camp warehouse upgrade cost: 400 Stone, 320 Dirt, 16 Earth Element Crystal Shards.
[Camp Warehouse (Level 5): Cannot be upgraded]
[Warning: Camp building levels cannot exceed the main camp level]
Cannot upgrade further.
Chen Yu shrugged upon seeing this.
This time, he had significantly improved the camp. The twin stoves, camp bed, and camp warehouse were all upgraded to Level 5, the same as the main camp.
From now on, upgrading them would not be so hectic.
He only needed to upgrade them in accordance with the main camp's level progression.
Element shard reserves were sufficient.
Chen Yu clicked to upgrade all six sub-camps.
All Element Shards -120.
[Cave Dwelling Reminder: Sub-camp expansion in progress, remaining time 3 hours]
3 hours.
Based on Chen Yu's estimation, the next upgrade for a single sub-camp would require 40 of each element shard, and upgrading 7 sub-camps would require 280 of each element shard.
A total of 1120 units of element crystal shards.
Keep in mind, this was only the resources required for upgrading from Level 3 to Level 4. Upgrading from Level 4 to Level 5 would require 2240 element shards, and then 4480 for the next level.
Upgrading sub-camps.
It was truly not something ordinary people could afford to do.
Perhaps,
This is how the wealth gap was widened.
The people at the bottom struggled for survival, economizing to save a little bit of resources to upgrade their camps, while those who controlled advanced resources, by acquiring resources from the bottom, upgraded their camps into castles and fortresses.
Opening the trading channel, Chen Yu listed food items again.
[Seller: Chen Yu]
[Trade Item: 350g Black Bread, 350g White Bread, Ham, 150ml Drinking Water]
[Unit Price: 900]
[Quantity: 200]
[Requirement: Any 3 Element Shards]
[Purchase Limit: 50]
[Minimum Purchase: 10]
The 300 portions of bread meals sold earlier had almost extracted all the resources from those struggling on the edge of survival.
If the purchase limit was lowered to "1," it would affect his meal sales.
This time, he aimed to "milk" those survivors who were in better condition, allowing Chen Yu to directly understand their economic capabilities.
Those who could consume 50 portions at once.
It meant they must have some skills, either adept at this wilderness survival, or like Jiang Yaqing and her group, having a team of subordinates or enslaved laborers to acquire resources.
Even buying just 10 portions was worth 9000.
That still showed some capability!
Chen Yu needed to gather information about these people.
Know yourself and your enemy, and you will win a hundred battles.
Being in the same area, they might encounter each other at some point, and Chen Yu needed to understand them better.
Gathering intelligence was very important!
Having done what needed to be done, Chen Yu stretched lazily and patted his stomach.
"Time to eat, time to eat!"
--
Author's note:
Good noon, have you eaten?