Ethan had no idea what schemes other districts were plotting.
He was currently immersed in the joy of harvesting the other districts.
[Message: "One resident for one kerosene lamp?"]
[Message: "I can provide materials for a kerosene lamp, you help me process them, I'll pay the processing fee, how about it?"]
[Message: "100 iron ore, trade?"]
[Message: "10 spirit stones for one kerosene lamp! This price definitely benefits you!"]
[Message: "Treasure map fragment 1/2, trade for 2 kerosene lamps!"]
[Message: "My lord wants to buy the blueprint for your kerosene lamp, name your price!"]
Picking out a few messages with decent value.
Looking at the prices they offered, Ethan was shocked.
"Residents can be traded?"
"Even if they can, someone actually wants to trade them?"
"What?"
"They don't like having too many residents?"
As for that guy who suggested contract manufacturing kerosene lamps, his brain was undeniably smart.
After all, for contract work he'd spend far less. Just needed to pay some manual fee.
For Ethan, there was no loss.
He could indeed agree.
And this was the method Ethan planned to use next anyway.
Contract work to earn processing fees.
He didn't need to worry about materials, and he could open permissions for his subordinates to handle it. Definitely a win-win, a free profit. Why not?
[Message: "I can provide materials for the kerosene lamp, you help me process them, I'll pay the processing fee, how about it?"]
[Ethan: "Sure! You give me two sets of materials, I'll process one kerosene lamp for you! Attached materials list: [Kerosene Lamp: Glass 14/2, Bronze 520/2, Cotton 0/1, Kerosene 0/1]"]
[Message: "Shady merchant! But I accept. I don't have glass, only glass shards!"]
[Shady Merchant Trait +1]
[Ethan: "Glass shards? What the heck? How do you even get that material?"]
[Message: "City ruins. That stuff is everywhere! But we've searched, none are intact, only broken shards. You need an alchemy furnace level 2 or above to melt them, then you can remake glass."]
[Ethan: "Interesting. What about kerosene? Don't tell me you can mine kerosene in the city ruins?"]
[Message: "Abandoned gas stations. You can collect a lot of kerosene there!"]
[Ethan: "I see! Fine, how many kerosene lamps do you want made?"]
[Message: "I'll give you materials for one hundred, you help me make fifty kerosene lamps! Since glass shards need remelting, I'll give you an extra fifty. A total of 150 shards, I won't let you lose out!"]
[Ethan: "Deal!"]
Very quickly, Ethan received the other party's trade request.
Since he was now a lord, he actually had a Lord Contract function.
It let him use his lord identity as collateral and sign a contract beforehand, so he didn't have to do immediate payment for each transaction. He could receive payment first, then deliver the goods.
And lord contracts also allowed lending and leasing to regional players.
These contracts were managed directly by the game system.
If a lord violated a contract, all their assets would be liquidated as compensation, and their lord identity revoked.
If a regional player breached a contract, their assets would be liquidated and they would fall to a resident with no personal will.
Contracts were sacred. The consequences of breaking them were extremely severe.
Absolutely no one dared violate them.
[Glass Shards +300, Bronze +200, Cotton +100, Kerosene +100]
After receiving the goods, Ethan chose to manufacture all of them at once.
While the workshop worked on its own, he continued replying to other messages.
[Message: "One resident for one kerosene lamp?"]
[Ethan: "Too little. Three residents for one lamp, take it or leave it, my kerosene lamps are in short supply!"]
[Message: "…"]
The other side stayed silent for a moment.
Then finally gritted their teeth and agreed: ["Five for two!"]
[Ethan: "Fine, sigh, such a huge loss."]
[Message: "Shady fu*king merchant!"]
[Shady Merchant Trait +2]
[Residents +5, Kerosene Lamps -2]
But what confused Ethan was, "What kind of lord would give up their residents?"
Residents were not easy to obtain, and torches weren't that hard to make.
No one would die without a kerosene lamp, why not just use a torch?
[Ethan: "By the way, can I ask where your territory is? Why are you selling residents?"]
[Message: "What do you want?"]
[Ethan: "Curious!" (Answering the question earns: 1 Wood)]
Rewarded Q&A or simply gifting items to area players were special permissions of a lord.
[Message: "My territory is in a desert. There are barely any trees!" (Answer incomplete, please supplement.)]
[Message: "…"]
[Message: "My territory is in a desert, there's almost nothing here. I can't support my residents. Selling some is for their own good! I need kerosene lamps because I need to explore farther areas. Otherwise we'll all starve! Is this enough?" (Received 1 Wood Reward)]
[Ethan: "Thanks!"]
[Shady Merchant Trait +1]
After getting the answer, Ethan was satisfied.
He called the service team to arrange the five new residents to rest and merged them into Stone Six's squad.
Stone was the next critical material he needed.
Ever since he became a lord, a lord-exclusive page appeared in his magic book.
The latest announcement read: [The Polar Night will arrive in three days. All district lords must prepare to help their players survive the extreme cold. PS: The district with the lowest death rate will receive a special reward.]
The previous cold wave already killed half the area's players.
This Polar Night sounded much more severe than that cold wave.
So, if Ethan wanted to help his area's players survive the crisis.
The only way was to collect a huge amount of stone and then lend it to them.
Let them quickly build stone houses, then they might survive the extreme cold.
During a break, Ethan responded to the remaining messages one by one.
[Message: "100 iron ore, trade?"]
[Ethan: "100 iron ore only covers processing fees. Kerosene lamps require expensive materials. Minimum 500 iron ore per lamp! No bargaining."]
[Message: "Gritting teeth, trade for two lamps!"]
[Kerosene Lamps -2, Iron Ore +1000]
[Shady Merchant Trait +1]
———
[Message: "10 spirit stones for one kerosene lamp! This price definitely benefits you!"]
[Ethan: "Hehe! You keep them. Who knows, maybe they can continue your family line!"]
[Message: "Are you insulting me?"]
[Ethan: "No, I mean your spirit stones can be heirlooms!"]
[Message: "You ARE insulting me!"]
[Ethan: (The party has enabled friend verification. You are not yet their friend. Please send a friend request. After they approve, you can chat.)]
[Message: "…"]
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