Volume 1, Chapter 54: Repaying Good Intentions with Malice

Besides, it was already the middle of the night, and Lin Yifan had no way to move these supplies outside the door.

Furthermore, a synthesis room was an absolute necessity. Otherwise, how could he upgrade his shelter to a higher tier?

Therefore, he simply posted a purchase order on the trading house!

He offered five pounds of crocodile meat in exchange for a blueprint of the synthesis room.

Anyway, crocodile meat was the one thing he had in abundance right now—several hundred pounds of it, in fact!

He even carved off two large chunks of meat, weighing about four or five pounds each, and gave them directly to Ruan Qintan and Hong Shaoqiang.

Hong Shaoqiang had originally intended to give the remaining wild boar meat to him, but Lin Yifan had no shortage of food right now and directly refused.

After bustling about for half a day, well-fed and content, Lin Yifan finally remembered that the medicinal herbs and fruits planted in the cultivation soil boxes had not been harvested yet.

If the fruits in the cultivation soil were not picked after ripening, they would soon rot slowly and then enter a new growth cycle.

Although Lin Yifan was not short on food at the moment, he had no intention of wasting anything.

He harvested all the ripe blueberries, yielding a full twenty-plus pounds.

Perhaps because the market for wild fruits was already saturated, blueberries were not very filling and could only serve as temporary snacks, basically fetching nothing more than basic supplies.

However, Lin Yifan was not lacking in basic supplies right now, which momentarily left him wondering how to deal with the blueberries.

After hesitating for a moment, he suddenly thought of Ruan Qintan.

She had already learned the primary cooking skill, so making some candied fruit shouldn't be a problem, right?

With that in mind, he directly opened a private chat with Ruan Qintan and asked:

"Can you turn blueberries into candied fruit?"

"Turn blueberries into candied fruit?" Ruan Qintan was busy tidying up her things at the moment. Seeing Lin Yifan's private message, she quickly replied:

"I suppose I can, but blueberries are small fruits. Using them to make candied fruit might not be very cost-effective."

"I reckon it would take at least six or seven pounds of fresh fruit to make a single pound of candied fruit. We'd be better off making blueberry jam, which can be used as a spread for bread or diluted in water to make fruit juice."

"The only problem is that making blueberry jam requires white sugar, and I can't produce white sugar right now. That's a rather troublesome issue, though we could make it without white sugar, but the taste might be a bit tart."

"You need white sugar?" Lin Yifan thought for a moment and opened the trading house.

Since he wasn't short on basic supplies right now, he was too lazy to waste time searching for anything that could be acquired through trade.

Sure enough, white sugar was available in the trading house. Although the exchange rate was somewhat exorbitant—fifty grams of white sugar cost fifty units of wood.

That meant one gram of white sugar traded for one unit of wood. While white sugar was indeed a good item that could replenish physical energy or even serve as an emergency medicine for injuries,

this exchange price was still ridiculously high for most ordinary survivors.

However, it didn't matter to Lin Yifan at all. He directly spent five hundred units of wood to acquire five hundred grams of white sugar.

Then, he initiated a trade with Ruan Qintan.

"Is five hundred grams of white sugar enough? I have around twenty pounds of blueberries here. If it's not enough, I'll acquire some more."

Looking at the white sugar sent over in the trade, Ruan Qintan was instantly overwhelmed with excitement:

"It's more than enough! Team leader, you trust me way too much. This is precious white sugar! You actually traded it to me just like that—aren't you afraid I'll pocket it?"

"If this little bit of stuff can expose someone's character, I can afford the loss," Lin Yifan replied indifferently, and then traded over the remaining blueberries.

After that, he paid it no more mind.

If you employ someone, do not doubt them; if you doubt them, do not employ them.

Since he had decided to take Ruan Qintan as a teammate, he should still extend the necessary trust.

Of course, all of this was premised on the fact that he could afford the loss.

After dealing with the blueberries, Lin Yifan harvested the mugwort and mint planted in the quality cultivation soil.

He directly obtained twelve hundred portions of mugwort and fifteen hundred portions of mint.

Lin Yifan truly hadn't expected their yield to be so high.

But since they were already grown, they naturally couldn't be wasted.

So he simply opened the chat channel and sent a message:

"Hey everyone, does anyone still need [Potent Mosquito Repellent]? Tonight marks the beginning of the mosquito swarm disaster. If you still lack anti-mosquito items in your hands, you can contact me."

"Considering we are all compatriots in District 10086, I can provide everyone with [Potent Mosquito Repellent] at a low price."

Every little bit counted, and Lin Yifan still wanted to consume this batch of mugwort and mint.

Actually, according to his original projection, his [Potent Mosquito Repellent] should have been in short supply.

Yet reality slapped him across the face. Over the past two days, he had only sold about a thousand portions of [Potent Mosquito Repellent], and the several hundred portions he had put up on the trading house this morning still had dozens left.

Still, he could understand it.

Everyone came from Earth, and District 10086 was entirely populated by Chinese people. When it came to driving away and preventing mosquitoes, Chinese people had thousands of years of history.

Even if this survival world lacked certain medicinal herbs, people could always think of other ways.

If everyone could find more convenient and material-saving methods of mosquito prevention, it was completely normal that they wouldn't want to buy his [Potent Mosquito Repellent].

Not to mention there were other lucky individuals who had also unlocked recipes for mosquito-killing and anti-mosquito sprays.

It was just that none of their recipes reached the potent tier.

However, their selling prices were lower, and most people whose supplies were already tight would naturally choose cheaper alternatives.

That being said, understandable as it was, Lin Yifan couldn't shake the feeling for some reason that the appearance of the [Potent Mosquito Repellent] was likely tied to the trajectory of this disaster.

Perhaps in the end, this [Potent Mosquito Repellent] would be the true key to victory; otherwise, why would it exist?

Moreover, the moment this potion recipe appeared, he had encountered the mosquito swarm. Given the way this world's system tended to push recommendations onto survivors, Lin Yifan refused to believe there was no direct connection between the two.

Furthermore, he had a vague premonition that the number of survivors in each district might also be a crucial factor.

At present, District 10086 still had over 85,000 survivors.

Lin Yifan didn't know how many people remained in other districts, but he still wanted to save as many lives as he could.

Therefore, he wanted to send a message in the chat channel to give everyone a warning.

However, at that moment, he discovered that the scrolling messages in the chat channel were entirely full of insults directed at him.

"Oh, look, look, look! This fellow surnamed Lin has finally popped out again. To think he used to posture as so noble all the time! And what happened? Knowing full well there's a mosquito swarm crisis, knowing full well all our lives are hanging by a thread, he still hung up [Potent Mosquito Repellent] at sky-high prices. What kind of nobility is that!"

"How does that saying go? A hypocrite fishing for fame! Exactly, I figured it out long ago. That cold-hearted, unfeeling bastard Lin Yifan talks a good game, but in reality, he's never done a single thing that benefits us all."

"Spot on! Lin Yifan is just an ultra-refined egoist. He must have realized his [Potent Mosquito Repellent] failed to rip everyone off, so he's hypocritically lowering his stance now. Don't you guys dare believe him!"

"We wouldn't dream of believing him! We've already found mugwort. That stuff is the bane of mosquitoes. Who needs his piece-of-crap invention anymore!"

"That's right, we don't need [Potent Mosquito Repellent] at all anymore, so Lin Yifan, stop putting on this hypocritical act. Nobody's going to believe you again, and nobody's ever going to buy bug spray from a cold-blooded, heartless person like you!"

"Besides, Lin Yifan isn't the only one selling mosquito repellents right now. The 'Heaven and Earth Alliance' is selling them too, and their prices are even lower! If anyone wants to buy, go to the Heaven and Earth Alliance. Don't ever let a scumbag like Lin Yifan earn a single piece of wood from you!"

...

Lin Yifan truly hadn't expected that after merely being busy for a day and failing to speak up in the chat channel, he had somehow transformed into a cold-hearted, unfeeling pariah that everyone wanted to beat up.

It really was—laughable just to think about it!