Chapter 13: Water Crisis

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[Skill Book Acquired: Holy Light Healing (Cleric Exclusive)]

Although it wasn’t a hunter’s skill book, Han Xing recalled that Shen Yun had chosen the cleric profession.

At that moment, someone suddenly private messaged him on the trading channel, wanting to exchange for his green longbow.

“Oh? Has someone finally got a green equipment blueprint?”

Han Xing opened the private chat and saw a message from someone named “Clever Little Lamb.”

A voice message appeared in the chat, and Han Xing clicked to play it.

“Hello… I want to exchange for your weapon. Are you available now?”

The voice sounded like a young girl’s, soft and gentle, yet natural and not affected, as if it was her true voice.

Han Xing replied, “Yes, what do you want to trade for it?”

Clever Little Lamb: “I… I noticed you need a green equipment blueprint, and I happen to have one… Would you like to take a look?”

She seemed a bit fearful of Han Xing, or perhaps she wasn’t very adept at social interactions.

“Send it to me,” Han Xing said directly.

“O-okay…”

[Survivor ‘Clever Little Lamb’ has sent you a trade request.]

Han Xing was speechless.

“You said you wanted to show me the blueprint first. Why the sudden trade request?”

Clever Little Lamb hurriedly said, “Ah? Don’t you need to receive the item first to see its stats?”

Han Xing was dumbfounded.

“What are you talking about? If you give me the item, that completes the trade immediately. What if I run off with your stuff? Who would you trade with then?”

Clever Little Lamb: “???”

“No way… You mean you’d run off with my stuff?”

Han Xing felt exasperated; this girl’s logic seemed a bit off.

He was tempted to say, “I would.”

But after some thought, he said instead, “Forget it. Put the item in the trade window, and I’ll check the stats.”

“Ah? Okay… okay!” Clever Little Lamb replied hesitantly.

Then Han Xing saw a green blueprint appear in the trade window.

[Beast Leather Coat Blueprint (Green)]

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Sure enough, it was a green equipment blueprint, for an upper garment.

Instantly, Han Xing felt inclined to take it.

In the past, he might have bargained longer to extract a bigger concession.

But considering this girl seemed a little slow, he abandoned that idea.

He placed his excellent-quality longbow into the trade window and completed the exchange.

[You have obtained the Beast Leather Coat Blueprint (Green). Learn it?]

“Learn.”

A fifth blueprint appeared in his blueprint list, and Han Xing smiled with quiet satisfaction.

At that moment, Clever Little Lamb sent him a message.

“Th-thank you…”

Han Xing replied, “No need to thank me. Just a fair trade. Next time, don’t trade items casually.”

Clever Little Lamb: “Mm-hmm! Thank you!”

After closing the private chat, Han Xing’s expression changed as he looked again at the blueprint list, excitement welling up inside.

[Materials required to craft the Beast Leather Coat: Star-level Beast Leather x3, Spirit Cores x20, Aether x50, Warrior’s Emblem x1.]

The materials needed were quite a few, with three star-level beast leathers alone.

However, the three snake skins he had dismantled earlier could substitute.

He also had 20 spirit cores and 30 aether, but the last item, the Warrior’s Emblem, was unfamiliar to him.

So, he began searching the trading channel for more information.

Soon, he found a survivor named “Cola” who was selling Warrior’s Emblems for 500g of food.

The price was reasonable, so Han Xing sent a private message.

“500g snake meat for a Warrior’s Emblem.”

Two seconds later, Cola replied, “Bro, I don’t want food anymore. Do you have water? Give me 400ml, no, 300ml will do!”

Han Xing checked his backpack’s water supply: after his own consumption, less than 600ml remained.

He realized that despite all his exploration and fighting, he hadn’t found much drinking water.

Given that he was actively exploring and battling, other survivors likely had even less water.

Han Xing guessed that everyone was in a severe water shortage.

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He glanced at the trading channel and saw many people changing their trade offers to water.

The chat channel was filled with desperate cries.

“So thirsty… so thirsty…”

“I’m thirsty too. There’s so little water in this world. At this rate, everyone will die of thirst!”

“Does anyone have water? I’m about to give out…”

Suddenly, Han Xing recalled that when he played this game on his phone, the character nearly died from lack of water, almost failing the game.

Only after several hard days did a heavy rain solve the water shortage problem.

He didn’t know the situation in other regional channels, but judging by the 107 channel, everyone would have to wait for a rainstorm before the water crisis eased.

The question was, how many would survive until then?

With this in mind, Han Xing messaged Cola directly.

“Bro, I don’t have much water either. The most I can give is 200ml.”

He had to consider himself; trading away 200ml would leave him just enough water to last another day.

He expected the other party to bargain but was surprised when Cola eagerly replied, “Okay! 200ml it is. Let’s trade now!”

As if afraid Han Xing would back out, Cola immediately sent a trade request.

[Trade completed. You received Warrior’s Emblem x1 and lost 200ml drinking water.]

Han Xing held the leather emblem in his hand, deep in thought.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Sky Island territory, Levi looked grimly at the discussion group he organized.

Many opposed the decision he had just made.

As the major shareholder of the Levi Group, Levi stood up and said, “Everyone, listen to me. Levi Group is one big family. If you join us, you’re family.”

“I know water is scarce right now. I’m asking you to hand over all your water not to hoard it, but to fairly distribute it to those without water, those who are dying of thirst.”

“In tough times like these, Levi Group must unite and overcome this crisis together.”

“Trust in my integrity. Anyone who voluntarily contributes water this time will have their contribution recorded and will not be treated unfairly in the future.”

The discussion group fell silent; the atmosphere was tense.

Then someone named Chen Anjiang spoke up.

“President Levi, when you asked us to hand over materials and equipment before, everyone complied, even food. We did so because we believed you could lead us to survive and thrive.”

“But water is different. It’s our lifeblood. We don’t even have enough for ourselves…”