"Blueprint: Small Hydroponic Grow Box?"
Chen Chen sat on his warm wooden bed, a half-eaten chocolate bar in one hand, staring at the holographic listing in the Trading Hall.
In the midst of a frozen apocalypse, where people were literally freezing into statues, someone was trying to sell a farming tool.
Chen Chen rubbed his chin. He had plenty of meat. He had water. But humans were fragile omnivores. If he lived on nothing but pork and chocolate for a month, scurvy would rot his gums before the cold killed him. Vitamins were the next bottleneck.
He tapped on the listing.
[Seller: Farmer Han]
[Item: Blueprint - Small Hydroponic Grow Box]
[Description: Allows for indoor cultivation of vegetables without soil. Includes nutrient solution recipe. Needs temperature above 10°C to function.]
[Required: 5 Liters of Drinkable Water.]
Chen Chen raised an eyebrow.
Five liters. That was ten standard bottles. In the current market, that was an astronomical price.
He opened the World Chat to see the reaction. As expected, it was a roast fest.
"Five liters? Are you insane? Do you think we are water trucks?"
"Bro, I haven't peed in two days because I have no fluid left in my body. And you want 5 liters?"
"Who is going to grow vegetables? It takes weeks! I'll be dead by Tuesday!"
"The requirement says 'temperature above 10°C'. My shelter is -5°C. Even if I plant them, they'll turn into popsicles."
"Farmer Han, I'll give you a piece of wood. Take it or leave it. That blueprint is toilet paper."
The chat was filled with the sour grapes of the desperate. Most people couldn't afford it, and those who could didn't see the value.
But Chen Chen saw it.
He had a heater. His room was 22°C. He had the [Basic Water Filter] and a mountain of snow outside. For him, 5 liters of water was just ten minutes of work melting snow on his heater.
"The gap between players is widening," Chen Chen mused. "While they worry about surviving the night, I'm worrying about a balanced diet."
He prepared the goods. He took five empty 1L plastic bottles (scavenged from the 7-Eleven ruins) and filled them with freshly filtered water.
He placed a bid.
[Bidder: Chen Chen]
[Offer: 5 Liters of Pure Filtered Water.]
The notification popped up in the Regional Channel, and the chat exploded instantly.
"Chen Chen?! Again?!"
"He just bought the crossbow blueprint, and now he has 5 liters of water to throw away?"
"Is he living in a hot spring? How does he have so much liquid water?"
"Big Boss Chen! Please, I'm dying of thirst, spare a cup!"
"Forget the cup, I want to know where he's getting it. Does he have a purifier?"
Chen Chen ignored the noise. He waited for Farmer Han to accept.
Ding!
A private message from [Farmer Han].
"Mr. Chen! I saw your offer. But... I changed my mind. I saw you selling that fried meat earlier. If you have that much water, you must have food too. I want the water PLUS 1kg of cooked meat. That's my final offer."
Chen Chen stared at the message, his expression going flat. Greed.
It was the most common disease in the apocalypse, deadlier than the cold.
This farmer saw Chen Chen's wealth and tried to gouge him. He assumed Chen Chen was desperate for the blueprint.
"You want meat?" Chen Chen whispered to the empty room. "Eat air."
He didn't bargain. He didn't argue. He simply clicked [Cancel Bid]. Then he blocked Farmer Han.
The blueprint was useful, yes. But it wasn't essential today. There were other blueprints. But setting a precedent that he could be extorted? That was dangerous.
"Let him hold onto that paper until he dies of thirst," Chen Chen said coldly. "Then I'll buy it off his frozen corpse for a single piece of wood."
He drank the water he had prepared himself. Refreshing.
He stood up and stretched. The rejection of the trade reminded him of something important: he needed to secure his position by force.
The "Snow Wolves" threat was still looming. He had the [Crossbow Blueprint], but he was missing the key ingredient: [Animal Tendon] or a strong rope substitute.
He checked his inventory.
Wood: 45
Iron: 18
Meat: Plenty.
Weapons: Iron-Tipped Spear, Stone Axe.
"I need to hunt," he decided. "And I need to go further than before."
He equipped his gear. Frost-Resistant Boots, Stone Skin Poncho (which he still needed to craft once he got leather), and his spear.
He stepped out of the cabin.
The sun was blinding, reflecting off the infinite white. The air was crisp, smelling of ozone and pine.
Chen Chen circled his cabin first. The "novice zone" around his shelter was indeed drying up. The snow was trampled, devoid of the small bugs and slimes from day one.
He looked toward the north, past the 7-Eleven ruins, toward a cluster of jagged rocks that looked like broken teeth jutting from the snow.
"Rocks imply caves. Caves imply spiders or reptiles," Chen Chen analyzed.
He trudged through the deep snow. The walk was grueling, burning calories rapidly. He kept an eye on his stamina bar.
Twenty minutes later, he reached the rock formation.
A sound, like dry leaves scraping together.
Chen Chen froze. He scanned the rocks.
There, clinging to the underside of a granite overhang, was a creature the size of a garbage can lid. It had eight legs covered in white fur, and multiple eyes that glittered like black glass.
[Mutated Creature: Frost-Web Spider]
[Level: 2]
[Ability: Spits freezing silk. Bite causes paralysis.]
"Silk," Chen Chen smiled. "That works."
Spider silk was often stronger than steel wire. It would be a perfect substitute for animal tendon.
He picked up a snowball and packed it tight. He threw it at the spider.
The spider hissed, dropping from the rock with a soft thud. It raised its front legs, revealing dripping fangs.
It shot a glob of white webbing at him.
Chen Chen sidestepped. The web hit the snow behind him, instantly freezing into a hard, sticky patch.
"Nasty," Chen Chen noted. "Don't get hit."
He charged.
The spider was fast, scurrying sideways, but Chen Chen had the reach advantage. His Iron-Tipped Spear was two meters long.
He thrust at the creature's head. The spider dodged, the spear skidding off its rocky shell.
"Armored?"
Chen Chen adjusted. He feinted a high strike, causing the spider to brace, then swept the spear low, aiming for the soft underbelly where the legs connected.
The iron tip found purchase. Green blood sprayed onto the white snow.
The spider shrieked and curled up.
[System: You have killed a Frost-Web Spider.]
Ding!
A [Bronze Treasure Chest] appeared.
"Bronze?" Chen Chen blinked. "Level 2 mobs drop Bronze now? Or is it my luck?"
He quickly finished off two more spiders that came out to investigate the noise.
Ding! Ding!
Two more Bronze Chests.
Chen Chen looked at the glowing chests in the snow.
"Three kills. Three Bronze Chests.. I love this talent!"
He dragged the loot behind a rock, out of the wind, and opened them.
[You have obtained: High-Tensile Spider Silk x6]
[You have obtained: Poison Sac x2]
[You have obtained: 500ml Milk x3]
[You have obtained: Bread x5]
"Spider Silk!"
He checked the description.
[High-Tensile Spider Silk: Can be used as rope, bowstrings, or sewing material. Extremely durable.]
"This is it."
He immediately opened the Crafting Menu.
[Crossbow]
Materials: Wood x4, Iron Ingot x2, Spider Silk x1 (Substitute for Tendon).
"Craft."
A heavy, mechanical click echoed as the weapon formed in his hands. It was a military-grade survival crossbow, made of polished wood and cold iron, with a thick, braided white string.
[Weapon: Iron-Reinforced Crossbow]
[Attack: 40-50]
[Range: 50 meters]
[Note: Silent and deadly.]
"Now I need bolts," Chen Chen realized.
[Iron Bolt x10: Wood x2, Iron Scrap x1]
He crafted fifty bolts. He had the resources. He was rich.
He loaded a bolt into the crossbow, pulling the string back with a satisfying crank-crank-crank. He aimed at a nearby icicle.
The bolt vanished. The icicle exploded into powder.
"Range and power," Chen Chen grinned. "Now let's see the Snow Wolves try to raid me."
He packed up his loot. But as he turned to leave, he noticed something near the base of the spider's rock. It was a backpack.
A human backpack. Bright yellow, half-buried in the snow.
Chen Chen's smile faded. He approached cautiously, crossbow raised.
He brushed the snow away. It was a hiker's pack. Frozen stiff.
He opened it. Inside was a diary, a frozen bottle of water, and... a map. He unfolded the stiff paper map. It was a hand-drawn map of the local area.
Someone had marked his location with a red circle.
And next to the circle, they had written: "Smoke spotted. High value target."
Chen Chen felt a chill that had nothing to do with the weather. This wasn't a random hiker who died. This was a scout.
The Snow Wolves weren't just "forming." They were already here.
He looked at the spider corpses. The scout must have run into the spiders and died before he could report back.
"They know where I am," Chen Chen whispered.
He looked back toward his cabin in the distance. Smoke was curling gently from his chimney, a beacon of warmth in a dead world.
He shoved the map into his pocket.
"If you want my shelter," Chen Chen said, loading another bolt into his crossbow, his eyes narrowing, "you'd better bring more than just a map."
He began the trek back home.