Ethan quickly realized that giving some permissions to the service team was absolutely a good arrangement!
Because the service team not only set up showers and toilets on every floor of the dorm building.
She even installed a water purifier on every floor.
She also thoughtfully installed one in the cafeteria.
A total of 4 water purifiers.
[Water Purifier +4, Stone -12, Wood -12, Charcoal -12, Bamboo -4]
Every purifier could produce 18 liters of water a day. Four purifiers meant 72 liters a day. With each person drinking 1.5 to 2 liters a day, that was roughly enough.
If it still wasn't enough, Ethan had another one in his villa.
Anyway, he definitely couldn't finish all the water by himself.
But more purifiers also meant more water expenses.
Ethan had no choice but to preorder a large amount of wastewater from the water-source boss. It didn't matter in the short term, but over time, it would add up to quite a water bill.
This made Ethan even more determined to send Team Five out to explore the map as soon as possible.
He needed to find a nearby water source quickly.
After eating and drinking, Ethan returned to his villa. He was the only one lying on the big bed.
As for Daji, who knew where she went to play.
Originally, Cook Four said she wanted to come up to serve him.
But Ethan rejected her immediately.
Serve what?
There was nothing to serve when sleeping, so he refused without hesitation.
Lying in bed, he thought about the squads. Right now, besides each squad having two sets of bows and arrows, it seemed they didn't have any other weapons or gear.
Ethan couldn't fall asleep.
So he simply got up and went to the tool room to prepare equipment for the four squads that needed to go out.
For the logging team, Ethan decided that giving the sharp metal axe to Captain Wood Eight alone was enough.
Since the axe had a critical strike +100 percent effect, he could do all the chopping by himself. The others only needed to carry the wood back.
If that was the case, one team needed five intermediate backpacks.
[Intermediate Backpack: Capacity 1000. Crafting requirements: Beast Hide 3/2, Linen Thread 7/1, Wind Beast Core 50/1]
He checked his warehouse.
He found that with the materials he currently had, he could only make one backpack. It wasn't even close to enough for one team, not to mention that Wood, Herb, Stone, and Hunter Four Team together needed twenty intermediate backpacks.
Anyone who ever played a game knew that backpack size was directly related to how much you could bring back.
The smaller the backpack, the less you could collect.
And you'd constantly struggle over what to bring, what not to bring, and even whether to toss something out.
But some things seemed useless at the moment, yet when you needed them and didn't have them, it was extremely annoying.
So Ethan decided that no matter how hard things got, he couldn't let his residents suffer.
After all, these people were all working for him.
Happy residents, happy lord.
If everyone was good, then everything was truly good.
Twenty intermediate backpacks required 40 beast hides, 20 linen threads, and 40 wind-type beast cores.
The only thing he had enough of was wind-type beast cores.
He scanned his warehouse.
Ethan had 46 kerosene lamps in storage. Eight squads needed two lamps each, so he could sell 30 of them.
He opened the trading channel. He would gather the materials for the backpacks first.
[Kerosene Lamp: Can burn for 10 hours, saves a lot of torch-making materials, and has a lighting range of up to 10 meters.]
[1 Kerosene Lamp: 10 Beast Hides (Alt: 100 Linen Thread). Remaining: 30]
As usual, Ethan first yelled in his own area.
After all, he and the other areas were basically enemies now. He should sell good stuff to his people first.
If his own people couldn't use it all, then he would sell it at a high price to the enemy.
That way he could drain the enemy's resources from within.
That counted as weakening the enemy too.
"Not bad!"
Ethan praised himself again for being so clever.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
[Regional Channel]
[Ethan: "Kerosene lamps. They burn for 10 hours with a lighting range of 10 meters! Anyone want them?"]
["Damn! The boss has new goods again! Kerosene lamps sound way better than torches!"]
["Of course they do! But boss, can I ask quietly… does that 10-meter lighting range mean diameter or radius?"]
["Does your kerosene lamp light up diameter or radius?"]
["Uh, seems like it lights a 10-meter range centered on yourself, so that's 5 meters radius on each side."]
["I don't really get what the guy above is talking about, but it sounds amazing!"]
["Don't understand but sounds awesome!"]
["You guys chat slowly, I'm going to buy one first!"]
["Wait for me! I'm coming too!"]
["Damn! Boss released goods in the middle of the night! Good thing I set up an alert for boss's releases or I would've missed it!"]
["When did the system get this feature? How the hell do you set that?"]
["I'm going to sweep up stock first, DM me later!"]
Within one minute, most of Ethan's kerosene lamps were exchanged.
[Kerosene Lamp -1, Beast Hide +10]
[Kerosene Lamp -1, Linen Thread +100]
[Kerosene Lamp… ]
["Anyone got extra beast hides? I can trade other stuff!"]
["You above, go negotiate with the boss!"]
["Boss Ethan is really easy to talk to!"]
["Agreed!"]
Players without beast hides or linen threads quickly contacted Ethan.
[Message: "Boss, I have a Perfect Bronze Pickaxe Blueprint and 1000 stones. Can I trade them for a kerosene lamp?"]
"Hm?"
Ethan's eyes lit up when he saw the Perfect Bronze Pickaxe Blueprint.
This was perfect for the stone-mining squad, and based on the person's message, he guessed they might be near the mine.
Because the items they offered were exactly mining-related.
Ethan asked a bit more: ["Then do you have Advanced Stone?"]
Message: ["Yes, yes! But only 10 pieces!"]
Ethan: ["I can give you 10 portions of kerosene, so your lamp can run for 100 hours straight!"]
Message: ["Thank you boss! I'm so grateful!"]
[Kerosene Lamp -1, Kerosene -10]
[Perfect Bronze Pickaxe Blueprint +1, Stone +1000, Advanced Stone +10]
Trade successful.
However, just as Ethan was happy about completing the trade.
He suddenly got a system notification.
[System Notice: Shady Merchant Trait +1]
"…"
"What kind of stupid trait is this?"
He opened the trait panel and looked at this so-called Shady Merchant Trait.
[Shady Merchant Trait 2/10: No shady, no business. No business, no shady. Once you reach a certain level of shadiness, you naturally awaken the Shady Merchant Trait.]
[PS: This is not a bad trait. It increases buyers' trust in you by +1]
[When the Shady Merchant Trait reaches level 10, you can change class to Merchant.]
"…"
Ethan was speechless.
"How am I shady?"
"I clearly only used 10 kerosene to trade for 10 pieces of Advanced stone."
"Forget it, as long as the trait is useful, I don't care."
Right after he finished one trade, Ethan saw another decent message.
Of course, he received many messages.
Some people wanted to use ten pieces of wood or ten stones to trade for a kerosene lamp.
Naturally, Ethan ignored them all.
Some buyers were ridiculously confident. For example…
[Message: "How about I trade ten maggots for your kerosene lamp? You know, everyone lacks protein right now. Whether you eat them directly or keep them as pets, they're a great choice. After all, maggots are easy to raise. One pile of poop is enough."]
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