"Hm?"
Lan Qingyou had just stood up when she spotted Mickey Hayek's message in the channel, and paused.
'Protect me?'
'That's pretty much a direct threat.'
Mana potions were consumables — in fact, nearly all products of alchemy were consumables, and highly practical ones at that.
Under those circumstances, anyone with even a shred of ambition would want to control the person capable of producing them.
Lan Qingyou had been acutely aware of this ever since she first listed the Crude Mana Potions for sale.
Especially after learning that her District 666 was a "Villain Valley" crawling with criminals.
After all, the proportion of ambitious individuals among villains was considerably higher.
That was exactly why she had gone to such lengths to avoid meeting anyone face to face.
As long as no one could locate her shelter, she was absolutely untouchable.
And now, with alchemy at her disposal and the clever trick of trading potions for herbs, she didn't even need to leave the shelter to amass a mountain of base units and supplies.
Under these conditions, she couldn't imagine how she'd ever be exposed.
"Hah! Mickey Hayek, is it? If you can find me, you're welcome to try."
With a cold laugh, Lan Qingyou flew out of her shelter.
An hour later she came back briefly, then headed out again.
It wasn't until her third return, when a glance at the clock showed it was almost midnight, that she finally called it a night.
Mickey Hayek's thinly veiled threat had injected a new sense of urgency into her situation.
Knowing about the danger was one thing; having countermeasures was another.
That was why she'd ventured out so many times tonight — to stockpile more food and crack open as many supply boxes as possible.
The result: over thirty boxes, and aside from food and water, Lan Qingyou hadn't pulled a single blueprint.
She couldn't tell if that was good luck or bad.
'Maybe it's because I keep doing ten-pulls? Maybe I really do need to go one at a time for a miracle?'
With nothing to show for her efforts, Lan Qingyou had no choice but to pin her hopes on the exchange instead.
She had already made up her mind: from now on, she'd minimize going outside. She'd just hunker down in her shelter and brew potions day in, day out. Nowhere to go, nowhere to be.
At the current rate the Apprentice-Level Mana Potions were flying off the shelves, she'd have enough materials for a Level 3 Shelter by tomorrow.
But that still wasn't enough. She needed something that could save her life — something for self-defense.
For now, though, her output was extremely limited. Four hundred potions a day was her ceiling, and that was dictated by time.
'Unless... I increase the dosage?'
With that thought, Lan Qingyou decided to run an experiment first.
She opened the friends channel and typed in Li Huai's name.
Li Huai: "What do you need?"
The friend request was accepted almost instantly.
'So he's lurking too.'
Then again, it made sense. The "green ghosts" had been especially active tonight, and the regional channel was buzzing with nervous chatter.
Lan Qingyou: "Can you make wooden boards and stone slabs?"
That's right — Lan Qingyou had sought out this guy, who she suspected had a high-level combat talent, specifically to make him her subcontractor.
Li Huai: "Sure. What dimensions?"
Lan Qingyou: "Square. 10 cm, 20 cm, 30 cm, and 50 cm. At least one centimeter thick each."
Li Huai: "Give me a sec. I'll step out."
'Hold on — dude — you actually go outside at night?!'
Li Huai's reply left Lan Qingyou momentarily dumbfounded.
'Is he just that confident in his skills? Or does the Kalim night simply hold no sway over top-tier fighters?'
About two minutes later, Li Huai sent her a trade request directly.
Lan Qingyou opened it and found everything met her specifications — ten of each size, the surfaces still warm to the touch. She sent back an Apprentice-Level Mana Potion in return.
Both had submitted blank trade requests.
A so-called blank request was a trading method where you simply sent items over without requiring anything specific in exchange — the recipient could claim them freely.
Lan Qingyou: "Let me test these first. If they work, I'll place a bulk order. You in?"
Li Huai: "Sure. We'll talk price then."
Neither of them was the type to waste time. With the deal settled, Lan Qingyou immediately dove into the alchemy array experimentation phase.
That's right.
Exactly as you'd expect — those wooden boards and stone slabs were meant to serve as alchemy array bases.
After all, she had no iron ingots to craft a proper iron base for the alchemy array.
So she had to settle for the next best thing: wood and stone.
Thanks to her earlier success with the alchemy array, Lan Qingyou was now considerably more comfortable with the inscription process.
After nearly an hour of drawing and testing, she figured out the limits.
Wooden boards were a no-go as bases — far too fragile.
Stone slabs could function as bases, but they were single-use: one cycle of igniting and extinguishing the flame, and the slab would shatter on the spot.
No wonder the apprentice-level alchemy array base was made of iron.
Lan Qingyou: "I'll take stone slabs. 10 cm x 100 = 1 potion. 20 cm x 50 = 1 potion. 30 cm x 20 = 1 potion. 50 cm x 10 = 1 potion."
Lan Qingyou: "I need 1,000 of the 10 cm ones, 500 of the 20 cm, 200 of the 30 cm, and 100 of the 50 cm."
Lan Qingyou: "If that works for you, we trade tomorrow. If the price doesn't feel right, send me a counter-offer."
Having sorted it all out, Lan Qingyou yawned and fired off the messages to Li Huai.
With that done, she headed to the exchange and bought up every container she'd been eyeing — big and small.
A 1.25-liter enamel mug — bought.
A 3.6-liter double-layer stainless steel steamer — bought.
A 21-liter commercial stainless steel soup pot — bought.
A 20-liter heavy-gauge tin bucket — bought...
She scooped up quite a haul. The 1.25-liter enamel mugs alone numbered over a hundred — those were all for use as experimental vessels.
Shopping complete, Lan Qingyou pulled out the wardrobe and lantern blueprints she'd acquired earlier.
Single-use, just like the rest.
"Single-Use Wardrobe Blueprint"
"Materials: Wood x 100, Sand x 20"
"Function: A place to store your clothes."
"Description: Put all your cute outfits in here."
"Single-Use Lantern Blueprint (E)"
"Materials: Iron Ore x 10, Sand x 10, Glowing Mushrooms x 5"
"Function: Illuminates the path ahead in the dark."
"Description: No way. No way. Surely no one actually carries this thing outside at night."
'Hm, so furniture doesn't have quality tiers.'
'I'll make the lantern.'
She happened to have a few glowing mushrooms she'd swiped from Albert's basement.
After rummaging through her belongings, Lan Qingyou finally found the mushrooms — ones that hadn't yet shriveled up.
She counted them. Six. Enough for one lantern.
Without wasting another second, Lan Qingyou went zero-frame-startup and assembled the lantern on the spot.
"Magic Carriage Lantern (E)"
"Remaining Duration: 10,080 minutes"
"Function: Illuminates the path ahead in the dark."
"Description: No way. No way. Surely no one actually carries this thing outside at night."
'Hm?!'
'Something seems off.'
'Since when does a magic carriage lantern have a timer?'
'10,080 minutes is 168 hours... that's seven days.'
'Seven days?!'
Lan Qingyou jerked her head up and stared at the magic carriage lantern that had come standard with her shelter, hanging on the wall.