Lan Qingyou knew the potion she'd made was bad, but did the appraisal really have to roast her this hard?
"Back to the drawing board."
'Is there any chance — just maybe — that the "master" who made this literally just crawled out of a furnace?'
'Too much dosage, huh? Then I'll reduce the dosage!'
Stung by the small screen's savage assessment, a slightly shaken Lan Qingyou picked up the potion, poured out roughly a third of the liquid, and appraised it again. Sure enough, the complaint about excessive dosage was gone.
'Hmm, so one standard dose of potion is 10 milliliters?'
Looking at the tube now filled to only two-thirds, Lan Qingyou guessed as much.
But regardless — the fact that the small screen could appraise it at all meant the potion was a success.
Crude and shoddy, yes. But a success.
So she immediately launched into a shopping spree at the Exchange.
Test tubes were a given. Anything cheap and potentially useful for alchemy — the instant she spotted it, she bought it.
Her material reserves weren't huge; between yesterday's daytime and last night's gathering, she had about five hundred units total.
But for bargain shopping like this, it was more than sufficient.
Ten units for a wine dispenser — useful for portioning potions. Buy!
Five units for a wooden ladle — useful for scooping water. Buy!
Three units for a wooden soup spoon. One unit for a bamboo winnowing tray. One unit for a bamboo basket. One unit for a bar of soap...
Buy, buy, buy, buy, BUY!
While prices were dirt cheap, Lan Qingyou swept up everything she could. She even grabbed two more boxes of test tubes.
"Oh! There's even a book! 'Basic Symbology' — ten units of Wood?!"
"Mine! I must have it!"
By the time she'd burned through more than half of her five hundred-plus basic units, she finally exited shopping mode and turned to survey the pile of goods beside the desk.
After all, the storage only had ten slots. While identical items could stack, it still couldn't hold all of this.
A thoroughly satisfied Lan Qingyou floated up and began organizing everything.
Large items went against the wall or were hung up. Small items went into the Supply Box chests.
Just like that, the room instantly felt lived in.
"Aah—"
When she finished, Lan Qingyou let out a yawn and stretched. Gazing at the fiery red horizon, she realized it was nearly dawn.
'I just picked up soap, and I already have a towel. A bath first, then.'
The instant she thought about bathing, her entire body began to itch.
So she sprang into action before it was fully light.
The water in the bucket certainly wasn't enough for a bath — not even enough to wipe herself down.
That left only one option: sneaking down to the stream for a wash while no one was around.
And of course, the most important reason: the Shelter simply didn't have anywhere she could bathe.
Even though the sun was coming up, she needed to stay alert for potential threats and monster attacks.
Daylight didn't mean absolute safety, after all.
The icy stream water hitting her body sent a shiver through the fatigue-laden Lan Qingyou.
But she had no time for delicacy. At top speed she scrubbed herself from head to toe, lathered up with soap, rubbed vigorously, rinsed off one more time, then immediately flew back to the Shelter.
She tossed the hospital gown into the wooden bucket to soak, brought inside the now-cooled crucible, the lantern, and the alarm clock from outside the door, locked the World and Regional Channel screens, and — not bothering to wait for her hair to dry — threw herself onto the mattress and sank into a deep sleep.
After being awake for a night and a day straight, even with her Spirit at 8, she was reaching her limits.
She slept a full ten hours, not waking until after four in the afternoon.
And even then... she'd been woken by hunger.
Last night during the brewing, she'd been too excited to eat. By morning she'd been too exhausted — bath and straight to bed.
She put on the sundress, surveyed her remaining food supplies, then pulled out a sourdough bread and began gnawing on it while scrolling through the chat logs on the desk.
The World Channel was same as always.
But people who'd snapped out of their initial shock and disorientation had launched a mass search for loved ones.
Countless messages were posted, each hoping to find family members — to know whether they were still alive.
After one day and two nights, the World Channel's original population of 22.658 billion-plus had dropped to just over 22.658 billion.
Meaning roughly 440,000 people had died in just over thirty hours.
And this was during the so-called Novice Protection Period. Without it, the death toll would be unimaginable.
Forget the world — even District 666 had lost quite a few. From morning to afternoon, just half a day later, only 9,971 remained.
Several more dead.
How many of those were accidents and how many were deliberate — that was anyone's guess.
"You probably won't believe this, but I woke up to find that someone actually bought a book I listed on the Exchange."
"Huh? A book? You sure?"
"Positive. Sold it for ten units."
Since every transaction left a record, anyone could see who bought what.
"Lan Qingyou, right? Let me take a look..."
"Whoa, she's actually pretty cute. What's this girl's deal? She bought so much stuff — does she just have too many materials?"
"Who knows."
"What book did you sell, bro?"
"Something called 'Basic Symbology.' Sold for ten units."
"She doesn't actually think she can learn from it, does she?"
"Cut her some slack. Maybe she just likes studying."
"Studying? In a survival situation? That's wild."
"I looked through that book. I thought it was going to be a skill book, but nope — can't learn anything from it. So I tossed it on the Exchange hoping for a lucky sale. Didn't think anyone would actually buy it."
"Hahahaha. I think it's great, honestly. Never stop learning while you're alive! I've got a book too — let me put it up and see what happens."
"I'll list mine too. Don't even need ten units — five will do. Maybe that airhead will buy it."
"I'll go too. I'd take three units."
"I'm jealous. I found a book yesterday too, but couldn't read it so I tossed it. If I'd known I could trade it for materials, I would've kept it."
Ahem, ahem, ahem...
After reading through their morning conversation, Lan Qingyou couldn't help but cough out loud.
'Well, well! Since when did good things come knocking on the door?!'
She'd just been fretting about having no books to study this world's knowledge, and here they were, practically lining up to deliver them.
So without the slightest hesitation, she set down her sourdough bread and dove back into shopping mode.
One haul later, she had several more books and two more boxes of test tubes.
"Basic Drawing." "The Proper Use of Salt." "Four Elements and Their Four Properties." "A Guide to Mushrooms" — an eclectic collection, to say the least.
Indeed — shopping felt amazing!
Looking at the books in her hands, Lan Qingyou didn't even try to hide her grin. Her face was practically splitting from the smile.
Her shopping spree naturally attracted some attention.
"Holy crap! That Lan Qingyou is back — she actually bought the books!"
"You can't be serious. She's really going through with this?"
"Could this knowledge actually be learnable?"
"Beats me. Why don't you buy one and find out?"
"Try it and die trying. I'm not wasting precious materials on something pointless. Give me four or five more days of gathering, and I can upgrade my Shelter to Level 2 before the Novice Protection Period ends."