After dealing with the school of sharks, Ye Shu and her companions were rewarded with a heap of shark meat.

Staring at the patched-up boat, Fu Jingchuan fell silent for a long moment, then bowed his head like a guilty child to apologize. "Ye Xiaoshu, I didn't know... Bad luck would strike like this... As for your special item ability, we won't tell a soul."

So misfortune could directly threaten a player's safety!

No wonder—even at the start, his raft was about to fall apart, the fishing rod half-broken, and if Shi Yi hadn’t been nearby, he’d have been eliminated already.

Ye Shu could only rub her forehead helplessly. "It’s fine."

Judging by the situation, her luck wasn’t all that bad after all.

At least her rod never returned empty—if it wasn’t trash plastic, it’d be a Queenfish, which could always help supplement their supplies.

As for the buffs on her—those were impossible to take away. Ye Shu wasn’t worried in the least.

The group went back to brewing tea around the fire.

Yet, the mood was heavier than before.

……

On the Sea Survival chat channel, the heated topic was 'Qiumo Shi Ni Die' selling fire pits.

[Ahhh! Damn it! As if being dragged into this game isn't bad enough, but now the temperature’s dropping. I’m here in just a sweater, turning into a walking popsicle... Tomorrow will be even colder, and now piranhas are chewing through my sailboat.]

[Heh, at least you have clothes and a sailboat. I've got nothing but bitter tea-seeds. What about those of us on dugouts? My durability’s down to 34%, the sea’s leaking in—I won’t make it through the day. Goodbye, cruel world!]

[Wasn’t there some big shot selling fire pits before? What was the name... Qiumo Shi Ni Die???]

[Hey! Don’t insult people in the comments!]

[I meant—the player was called Qiumo Shi Ni Die! I heard normal fire pits used to only cost 3 steel and 1 coal. Don’t know if that’s true?]

[I can vouch for that! It’s true!! I bought one, way better than the Sang Biao Squad’s junk. Even a normal fire pit lasted ten hours. Only... new players back then didn’t get it, thought it was too expensive and asked for returns. Then the seller delisted them—just thinking about it makes me mad! I tried DMing, but got refused—because of those idiots!!]

[Three steel and a coal? That’s a steal!

[Sang Biao Squad (the 'Russians'): Who’s your daddy? Daring to compete with us? You’ve got a death wish, better hope I don’t catch you.]

[Russian: Three steel, one coal? How’s it so cheap? To craft a fire pit you need at least a workbench and a blueprint, plus 1 coal, 2 steel—that’s selling at a loss! Which moron did this? Are you trying to crash market prices? Show yourself!!]

[What? Ahhh! Fire pits cost that much to make?!]

[And those guys who called the seller a shady profiteer—where do they get off? It’s not expensive—it’s a loss! Nobody else would do it for that price!

[Please, Qiumo Shi Ni Die, come back!!]

[……]

The chat descended into chaos thanks to the Russians spilling the fire pit recipe. The players who’d previously returned their fire pits now found themselves in an awkward bind.

What they’d thought was a crude, easy-to-make item turned out to be complex. Synthesizing a workbench wasn’t hard, but getting the blueprint was nearly impossible. And since they’d clamored for returns, even if the seller put fire pits back up, they’d never get one.

……

Aboard the steel ship—

Ye Shu set up Chou Bagai the clownfish in a stainless steel basin. The ship had everything but a fish tank; and a level 0 clownfish couldn’t live out of water, so this would have to do.

Fu Jingchuan took a bite of burnt peanut—bitter—while the roasted chestnuts were charred so badly they glowed red. Definitely inedible.

He traded his peanuts and chestnuts with Fu Shiyi for a single strawberry. Trusting Fu Jingchuan, Fu Shiyi was entirely engrossed with a treasure chest and didn’t suspect a thing, even thanking him effusively: "Third Brother... You really are good to me! So many—pfft, why is it bitter?! Third Brother, you tricked me!!"

Fu Jingchuan didn’t argue, simply bit into a wild strawberry—sweet as honey. Fishing rod in one hand, tongs in the other to scoop out cooked chestnuts, his eyes never left the Sea Survival chat.

Now that he had Ye Xiaoshu's contact, he knew exactly who the players in the chat were talking about—the person was right in front of him.

But as cool and detached as Ye Xiaoshu was, for her to willingly sell fire pits at a loss was bizarre.

The supermarket tea, chestnuts, and peanuts, each delivered for 9.9 with free shipping, all needed treasure chests to trade for… Trading three steel for a fire pit didn’t sound like her style at all.

Fu Jingchuan spoke up just to warn Ye Shu, urging her to check the chat.

"Hm?"

"They want me to make fire pits again?

"Still at three steel apiece… Hah, that's rich. These people’s wishful thinking is about to smack them in the teeth."

"Naïve. Do I look that easy to manipulate?"

Ye Shu tossed a human-faced starfish into a wooden bucket, a sly smile playing on her lips as she pulled a loudspeaker from the storeroom.

[Qiumo Shi Ni Die: Three steel for a fire pit? Dream on, you fools! Even if I still have fire pits, I’d never sell to backstabbers. Come fight me if you dare!]

The robotic, almost androgynous voice boomed across the game for every player to hear.

Simultaneously, a message was pinned in the Sea Survival chat.

[Damn! Who’s this, so cocky?]

[It’s the boss! The fire pit boss!]

[Spotted a wild boss in the chat zone.]

[So the legend was true! I thought it was a joke! Boss, do you still have fire pits? I’ll pay five steel, no—maybe even ten!]

[I didn’t return mine last time—Boss, you’re back! Can I get another? The Sang Biao pits barely last seven hours, terrible quality, fill my tent with black smoke, nearly choked me...

[Whoa, so normal fire pits can burn clean? I thought the smoke was a feature.]

Lu Xiaochá watched public opinion shift in the chat, crushing her dried salted fish in frustration. She had hoped that stirring up complaints would force that person to share the fire pit recipe. Now it was all backfiring.

Worse, the community in the chat now blamed Lu Xiaochá for everything:

[I remember it was that Xiaolüchá girl who said prices were too high.]

[Yeah, that’s her!]

[All her fault! We wronged the boss because of her, now we’re blacklisted—not just for fire pits, but clean water too! Blame her!]

[If not for her, we wouldn’t have returned ours.]

Ye Shu hurled her insults and left, oblivious to the fallout—or that Lu Xiaochá would come to hate her for it. Even if she knew, she wouldn’t have cared a whit.

Half a day slipped by. Night descended.

The tea-and-fire gathering was finally done.

Before leaving, Fu Jingchuan pre-ordered over a dozen low-grade fire pits, tipping five extra steel for each. For such a high-quality customer, Ye Shu agreed without hesitation.