Chapter 26: The Luck-changing Stone

The Cat’s Eye Gem was split into five Cat’s Eye Shards, and the Workbench deducted one shard.

At the same time, it deducted Glass x2 and Iron Block x5, displaying a repair time of one hour.

While waiting, Mo Yubai slowly ate her lunch while asking Wen Ruyan what she was doing.

Wen Ruyan saw the message and replied, “Eating. Isolating.”

When Mo Yubai nudged her again, there was no response. She figured Wen Ruyan was probably annoyed by her nagging again.

With no other choice, Mo Yubai gave up trying to chat with her and opened the chat channel.

Sigh, Ou Ou and Little Wen-wen really were two extremes.

One was an extreme chatterbox who couldn’t stop talking once she started, while the other was extremely anti-social, refusing to speak if she could avoid it.

“Ah… I’m starving to death! When is the Cat Snack Shop going to restock? I’ll never complain about cat treats tasting bad again!”

“There’s a gorgeous robot in the Service Area who is super gentle. Brothers, if you go to the Service Area, you absolutely have to check her out!”

“You really never change, do you? You only have a three-hour rest period and you’re still wasting it visiting a robot girl?”

“I got a lot of windproof and sandproof protective masks and suits from my chests today. I think there might be a dust storm crisis once the novice period ends.”

“I got parasols, sun hats, sunscreen, and sunblock spray. By that logic, I could say the post-novice period will be an extreme heat crisis.”

“Why hasn’t Zhao Facai come out of the dungeon yet?”

“I’ve been waiting forever!”

“That dirty scammer! I hope he dies a horrible death!”

“The amount of bottled water from chests has clearly increased today. Plus, with that massive water trade in the chat channel last night, we aren’t short on water anymore. If a desert crisis comes, we’ll be better prepared to handle it.”

“You guys traded for water last night? Where? How? What time? I didn’t go to sleep until two, how did I miss it?”

“This time it was Big Boss Zhu and Big Boss Wen trading. Of course you didn’t see it if you went to sleep at two. The bosses didn’t start trading water until four or five in the morning. The price was incredibly reasonable, and it was clean drinking water. I traded for a ton, so I have plenty of water now.”

“Huh? Can the bosses send a message before the next water trade? I won’t sleep, okay? I just won’t sleep! ⑉꒦ິ^꒦ິ⑉”

“Stop crying. With your IQ, you should be glad you went to sleep at two. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gotten Big Boss Mo’s mineral water, but rather Zhao Facai trying to swindle you out of nothing.”

“Hahaha, I managed to trade for water! Last night I got up to pee outside my tent, and when I came back, I saw everyone talking about getting scammed. My Luck stat of 8 really isn’t just for show.”

“We unlucky players hate you lucky bastards the most! Hmph!”

“How high do you think Big Boss Mo’s Luck stat is, since she’s such a lucky Emperor?”

“It’s got to be 9 or 10, otherwise how could she gather resources and upgrade so quickly?”

Reading the messages, Mo Yubai suddenly felt targeted. With a Luck stat of only 5, I’ve really let down your high expectations.

“Sigh, the difficulty is currently reduced by fifty percent during the novice period, yet hundreds of thousands of people have already died by today. I really can’t imagine how high the mortality rate will be after the novice period ends.”

“I’m still riding a crappy bicycle. I got a strange stone from a chest called a Luck-changing Stone. I want to trade it for all the materials needed to upgrade my bicycle. PM me if you’re interested.”

“You want to trade a stone of unknown use for all the materials to upgrade a bicycle? That’s way too greedy!”

“Trade if you want, don’t if you don’t. It’s my choice to trade this way! None of your business!”

“Sigh! I was just trying to be helpful. Why do you have to be so rude?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m rude. If you don’t like it, come hit me. You’re welcome to try anytime!”

Mo Yubai’s eyes swept over the message about the Luck-changing Stone. Raising an eyebrow, she tapped the avatar and sent a friend request.

“Wow, it’s Big Boss Mo! Boss, do you want this stone? Do you know what it does?”

Xu Chun stared at Mo Yubai’s avatar and asked curiously.

“Regardless of what it does, isn’t what you need most right now the upgrade materials? If you want to trade, send it over, and I’ll send you all the materials to upgrade your bicycle.”

“Fine, keep your secrets. But how do I know you won’t just delete and block me once you get the stone?” Xu Chun was still a bit uneasy. She was naturally timid and cautious, which was why she hadn’t upgraded to an electric vehicle yet.

“It’s a voluntary trade. However, when I do business, I only accept receiving the item first before sending the payment. It’s fine if we don’t trade, it’s entirely up to you.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll send it to you. You can’t trick me. If a big boss like you scams me, I’ll curse you to find monsters in every single treasure chest!” Although Xu Chun was still unhappy, she could only compromise.

Her resources were truly scarce. She didn’t dare ride at night or open Bronze Treasure Chests, relying solely on Wooden Treasure Chests to survive. But her bicycle was too slow, and she could barely find a few Wooden Treasure Chests a day.

Mo Yubai stared at the message, a black line practically appearing on her forehead. It was an utterly toothless threat.

She clicked to accept the Luck-changing Stone, then sent over the bicycle upgrade materials.

“Alright, Boss, I got them. Consider yourself lucky.” Xu Chun happily selected to upgrade her bicycle while replying to Mo Yubai.

Mo Yubai didn’t bother replying. She deleted her from her friend list, opened the chat channel, and posted another trade offer for water.

She quickly finished her meal, packed the leftovers into her backpack, and got busy again.

She didn’t spend much time on it this time. For one, the previous two major water trades had left the players with plenty of water. For another, she didn’t want to waste time waiting around, so she only set the trade duration to forty minutes. It was the last day of the novice period, and she wanted to head out early to open treasure chests.

By one in the afternoon, after trading for another eighty bottles of water, Mo Yubai closed her friend requests and ignored the wailing in the chat channel.

They had hesitated through so many opportunities to trade for water, and now that she was stopping, they were getting anxious. She couldn’t be bothered to deal with people like that.

After packing her things, Mo Yubai cast another reluctant glance at the Medical Pod. Just as she was about to leave, she spotted the little robot coming over to clean.

Her eyes lit up, and she walked over to chat her up. “Hi, lovely lady, may I know your name? Your hairstyle today is really tasteful.”

A9000 looked at the distinguished Black Gold VIP greeting her with a bit of shyness, replying timidly, “Honored Black Gold VIP, I am A9000. Thank you for your compliment.”

Mo Yubai pressed on, pulling out a small decorative heart pendant from her backpack and offering it to A9000. “A gift for you. I hope you like it.”

A9000 looked at the heart pendant in surprise. This was the first time anyone had ever given her a gift, and her eyes crinkled into happy slits.

Revealing her true intentions under the guise of casual curiosity, Mo Yubai asked, “Are the items in this suite replaced for every new guest?”

The innocent A9000 nodded in response. “Yes, most of the used items in our Presidential Suite are replaced for every guest.”

Hearing this, Mo Yubai’s eyes shone as she stared at A9000. “Then let me help you clean up. Just toss all the items you want to replace to me, and I’ll help you destroy them.”

A9000 looked a bit flustered at this. “But hotel regulations state that all items must be collected and recycled together.”