Volume 1, Chapter 53: Beautiful Troubles

Lin Yifan came back to his senses only after finishing the entire pot of meat with complete satisfaction.

It had been too long since he last tasted anything delicious, leading him to eat with wild abandon.

After finishing the entire pot of meat, he found that a large portion of the exhaustion weighing down his entire body had miraculously vanished.

"Could this be the effect of stamina restoration?"

Feeling the physical reaction in his body, Lin Yifan was filled with pleasant surprise.

Although his current physical fitness had grown considerably stronger compared to before, venturing out during the day basically meant risking his life to search for supplies, leaving him virtually no time to stop and rest.

Even an iron man would inevitably feel physically exhausted under such a high-intensity environment.

Yet, the delicacies cooked using this iron pot were capable of restoring stamina, which effectively meant extending his endurance.

In this way, not only would he feel less fatigued, but his efficiency would also be enhanced.

For Lin Yifan, this was naturally a wonderful thing.

Because of this, he intended to keep the iron pot for himself.

Although the utility this iron pot could unleash in his hands was far inferior to the effect it would have if placed in Ruan Qintan's possession—after all, Ruan Qintan had already learned the cooking skill, and the delicacies she prepared naturally had a chance to carry attributes—adding the bonuses from this iron pot would definitely yield twice the result with half the effort!

However, his current level of trust in Ruan Qintan did not yet meet the standard required for him to hand over the iron pot.

What if she took it away and never returned it?

To Lin Yifan, this iron pot was practically a cheating artifact in the early stages, so he naturally could not take that risk.

Still, who was this "Barolint"?

He was merely a blacksmith's apprentice, yet he was capable of crafting equipment of this "unique" tier. He must have been an incredible figure.

Who knew where this person had ended up?

Could he be the owner of that cave?

A faint sense of unease stirred in Lin Yifan's heart. He had a lingering feeling that this person named "Barolint" would bring him danger.

After all, this iron pot was Barolint's prized possession. If he ever found out that Lin Yifan had taken this item, retaliation would be inevitable.

However, he quickly suppressed the emotions rising in his chest.

Who knew whether Barolint was even still alive?

He was probably dead!

If he wasn't dead, how could he have left such an important item abandoned inside the cave?

So he must be thoroughly dead!

Lin Yifan continuously comforted himself in his heart while beginning to stew the crocodile meat once again.

He had already made up his mind to stew a portion of cooked crocodile meat in the iron pot and store it in his spatial inventory, so that he could use the crocodile meat to replenish his stamina while out searching for supplies.

However, looking at the crocodile meat—from which he had cut two large portions, yet the block had barely lost a small notch—Lin Yifan began to feel a headache coming on. How should he deal with this massive batch of crocodile meat?

His ring inventory was already crammed full of items. If he stuffed the crocodile meat in as well, he would lose the freedom of backpack space needed when venturing out to scavenge for supplies!

Therefore, he still had to find a way to dispose of the remaining crocodile meat.

The best solution was to trade it for supplies he could actually use right now.

However, the amount of food he currently had available to trade for supplies was simply too vast.

He still had a portion of the toast left over from yesterday, and a considerable amount of wild boar meat given to him by Hong Shaoqiang as well.

Even the fifteen pounds of wild boar meat used to lure the crocodile today had mostly been snatched back by him.

Though he certainly wouldn't eat it himself, considering it had been gnawed on by a crocodile, there were bound to be plenty of people willing to take it if he put it out to trade for supplies.

The troublesome part for Lin Yifan was that he realized he didn't even know what supplies he needed to trade for.

His sanctuary had already been upgraded to level three. To advance to level four, blueprints were an absolute necessity.

However, up until now, not a single person in the entire 10086 district had managed to acquire a city-level sanctuary blueprint.

Since there were no blueprints, gathering all the other supplies in advance was useless, and there was simply no need to rush.

As for food, he currently lacked nothing at all, so the things he actually wanted to exchange for were truly few and far between.

Because of this, his enthusiasm for organizing supplies had waned considerably.

Yet, he didn't dare to simply stay idle and do nothing.

Tonight was destined to be a very crucial night!

Because the insect attack would happen tonight!

Yet, up until now, Lin Yifan hadn't spotted a single mosquito, which left him somewhat baffled.

If there was one thing Lin Yifan lacked the most right now, it would have to be a diving suit.

Tomorrow, he still planned to head to the bottom of that deep pool to complete the remaining chained quests and accumulate another batch of random attribute points for himself.

Thus, he opened the trading house and began searching meticulously to see if anyone was selling a diving suit.

If he could purchase a diving suit from the auction house, his underwater tasks could be completed with much greater ease.

However, to his disappointment, there were none! Absolutely none at all!

Although there were no diving suits, Lin Yifan wasn't entirely empty-handed.

He discovered someone selling potatoes on the auction house, and the person selling these potatoes was clearly targeting him.

Because the item requested for exchange by this person was precisely the [High-Efficiency Mosquito Repellent].

Five pounds of potatoes in exchange for one portion of [High-Efficiency Mosquito Repellent]—this trade was actually quite sincere.

At a time like this, five pounds of potatoes could keep a person alive for several days; it was an absolute life-saving resource.

And while the [High-Efficiency Mosquito Repellent] was extremely useful, its utility was limited to today.

Once the crisis of the normal mosquito swarm riot passed, the [High-Efficiency Mosquito Repellent] would basically become useless.

Lin Yifan still had quite a few portions of [High-Efficiency Mosquito Repellent] in his possession. Although he hadn't returned to his sanctuary all day today, he had crafted several hundred portions of [High-Efficiency Mosquito Repellent] and listed them on the auction house before heading out.

Moreover, he had brought the remaining raw materials along with him inside his spatial ring.

Whenever he cleared a path and paused to rest, the moment he sat down, he would immediately start hand-crafting [High-Efficiency Mosquito Repellent].

Therefore, throughout the entire day today, he had scattered over 2,000 portions of [High-Efficiency Mosquito Repellent] onto the market.

And yet, up to this moment, the [High-Efficiency Mosquito Repellent] listings had not been completely bought out.

This showed that quite a few people had found their own ways to deal with the complete swarm riot.

Still, none of this mattered to Lin Yifan. He had already given all the warnings he could. Since some chose not to buy his [High-Efficiency Mosquito Repellent], their deaths would naturally have nothing to do with him either.

Meanwhile, this batch of [High-Efficiency Mosquito Repellent] had also brought Lin Yifan extremely bountiful rewards.

The price he set was not particularly high. Aside from trading for various blueprints and skill books, the rest were traded for basic supplies.

The lowest tier required trading for 100 units of elementary materials. By now, he had already accumulated tens of thousands of basic resources such as wood, stone, and pig iron.

These materials had piled up his entire sanctuary until it was packed to the brim.

Especially the living room and the kitchen—there was barely enough space left to stand.

Looking at these basic supplies, Lin Yifan couldn't help feeling a slight headache for a moment.

He wanted these basic materials to synthesize higher-tier resources in order to build his level-four sanctuary.

The problem, however, was that he still hadn't obtained the blueprint for a synthesis chamber.

Yet this batch of basic supplies was simply too massive—so massive that he was running out of places to store them. Truly, it was a sweet burden.