Wasteland: I Awakened A Plant System-Chapter 6: Trading

With the Plant Life System, he believed he would eventually build the comfortable wasteland life it had promised.

Shaking off those thoughts, he looked out the window.

The sky was already beginning to darken.

He dismissed the idea of going out again to chop wood and mine. Yesterday, he had simply been too stubborn. He had wanted to save time and gather more resources.

But after today’s series of events with the wild buffalo, Vikram felt it was better to lie low when it got dark.

"Daytime is fine; I can see things clearly and know the monster’s rank through the plant system."

"At night, I can’t see anything. If a Blue or higher-ranked monster pops out, even if my weapon can damage it, I can’t withstand its attacks."

He immediately decided that evenings would either be reserved upgrading the Treehouse or looking for worthwhile trades in the trading market.

He first opened the regional chat channel and glanced at it.

As expected, most of it was still filled with various cries of anguish and pleas for help.

Besides that, to huddle together for warmth, some people were already reporting their locations on the map. Although the people in the regional channel were all within a not-too-distant range, none of them had a map; they merely described their surroundings.

Vikram was somewhat dismissive of this situation.

Unless they were close friends or relatives, or people with official backgrounds, it was unlikely that they would waste time looking for cooperation in such a time-sensitive environment where they couldn’t even eat their fill.

After all, according to the Wasteland Survival Encyclopedia in his backpack, each Survivor’s initial teleportation point was at least 15 kilometers apart.

Even if you had excellent stamina and could run continuously, 15 kilometers would take at least two hours. Not to mention, you wouldn’t know the other person’s exact location and could only rely on vague descriptions to find them, which would multiply the journey.

Furthermore, even if cooperation succeeded, it was more likely that your Shelter would gain another mouth to feed, not to mention the risk of exposing your location to those who might kill and steal.

Shaking his head, he turned his attention to the market trading interface, skimming past idiotic trades like ’dirt for bread,’ ’weeds for mineral water,’ and ’wood for wood.’

[?]

[Wood for wood, what are you doing?]

[The more wood you have, the less wood you’ll have, right?]

Vikram didn’t know who was so bored. With the apocalypse approaching, someone could still crack such a speechless joke.

After some searching, he finally filtered out a few trades that seemed relatively reliable:

[Trader: Rohan Mehta | Item: Iron Pot Blueprint | Required: Water]

[Trader: Arjun Malhotra, Item: Simple Drainage Ditch Blueprint, Required: Food]

[Trader: Divya Rajput, Item: Corn Seeds X300g, Required: Stone]

[Trader: Aamir Khan, Item: Bandage X1, Required: Stone].

He immediately sent friend requests to all of them.

Only one person responded instantly, Arjun Malhotra, the one selling the drainage ditch blueprint.

[Arjun Malhotra: My brother, are you interested in buying my blueprint?]

Arjun Malhotra immediately greeted him as ’my brother’ with a hint of flattery.

[Vikram: I am. How much food do you want?]

[Arjun Malhotra: Well... I won’t mislead you. This blueprint of mine is a good green-grade item. Can I ask for 5kg of food?]

Vikram knew he was testing how deep his pockets were, but being asked for 5kg of food right off the bat made him feel like he was being taken for a fool.

Even the bread provided by the Survival Platform weighed only 250 grams each.

[Vikram: If you can’t make a proper offer, I’ll leave. After all, a drainage ditch isn’t something that absolutely requires a blueprint to make.]

It seemed the other party was truly desperate for food. Hearing Vikram say he would leave, he immediately changed his tone:

[Arjun Malhotra: Don’t be so hasty, big brother. We can discuss this slowly. Look, for us to meet among so many Survivors, it must be fate. How about 3kg of food? Is that acceptable?]

[Vikram: I can give you a maximum of one and a half catties of food, but it’s green-grade rare meat. If you agree, we’ll trade. If not, then forget it.]

A silence followed, making Vikram wonder if he had driven the price down too hard and scared the other party off.

After all, while it was a probing offer, dropping from ten catties to one and a half catties seemed a bit too aggressive.

In reality, he was overthinking it. On the other side of the chat box, Arjun was already beaming.

He had obtained this blueprint by accidentally crushing a green-grade squirrel with a falling tree while chopping wood. He initially thought it was a good item, but upon seeing it was a drainage ditch blueprint, he immediately scoffed.

He figured it was better to sell it for some food to get through the first natural disaster, so he immediately put it up on the trading market.

However, it had been listed for half a day with no one contacting him. Just as he was about to sell it cheaply, someone came along and offered a good price.

"Rare-grade meat, hehehe."

But he also had a bit of cunning. He deliberately remained silent for a while to make the other party think he was hesitating, to avoid agreeing too quickly and having the other party suddenly back out.

However, he didn’t dare to drag it out too long and immediately initiated the trade.

Just as Vikram was about to close the page, thinking the trade was falling through, he suddenly received a trade request again.

[Trader: Arjun Malhotra, Item: Simple Drainage Ditch Blueprint, Required: Rare Food X750g]

The sudden trade information made him a bit suspicious. He suddenly felt that 750g food might not have been the other party’s bottom line, and they probably would have agreed to an even lower price. The hesitation earlier was likely an act.

However, he had proposed the price himself, and the trade request had been sent. Changing his mind now would be a bit shameless. He sighed, admitting he was still a bit young.

Still, the other party might make a small profit, but Vikram would never lose.

He directly placed 750g of wild buffalo intestines on the trading bar and happily completed the transaction.

As for how much filling was in 750g of intestines, that was no longer his concern. The trade was complete.

[Arjun Malhotra: Happy to cooperate, Brother Vikram. Let’s trade again if there’s an opportunity.]

[Vikram: No problem.]

Vikram was, of course, happy to continue trading with Arjun Malhotra.

Although his personality and tone were somewhat obsequious, he clearly didn’t realize how important these blueprints were. Vikram didn’t mind milking him a bit more.

There was no built-in option to create a drainage ditch in the crafting menu.

Saying that building a drainage ditch didn’t require a blueprint was, of course, that was a lie. Without a blueprint, he couldn’t rely on the crafting function, which meant he would have to build it manually.

Acid rain was coming, and simply digging a trench in ordinary dirt for a drainage ditch would definitely not work.

As for why he was so fixated on building a drainage ditch, it was because he judged that a week of continuous acid rain would very likely seep into the soil around the Treehouse, and will start eroding its roots.

So, when he saw someone trading the blueprint for this item, he immediately sent a friend request.

Closing the chat channel, he opened his backpack, selected the newly acquired blueprint, and used it directly.

Since the Treehouse stood at the center of three converging hills, only one side remained open, a roughly two hundred-meter-wide entrance area leading into the territory.

At present, aside from a single Thornvine planted near the entrance, nearly ninety-five percent of the territory remained undeveloped. Most of the ground surrounding the Treehouse was still bare soil.

However, the Treehouse stood on slightly elevated ground compared to the entrance. Earlier, while clearing debris and leveling the area, Vikram had deliberately adjusted the terrain so that the soil sloped gently outward toward the only open side of the hills.

With this subtle gradient in place, rainwater would naturally flow toward the entrance rather than pool around the Treehouse’s root system.

Therefore, only the exposed entrance area required a drainage ditch to redirect the incoming acid rain and prevent it from accumulating inside the territory.

He checked the required materials. For a drainage ditch covering such a small section, it required only 15 stones.

He stepped outside and spent 15 stones at the entrance.

A simple stone drainage ditch quietly appeared before his eyes. It wasn’t finely carved, but it carried the important task of helping them survive the natural disaster.

"System, check this drainage ditch for me."

[Simple Stone Drainage Ditch: Resistant to acid rain erosion]

He casually tested its hardness a couple of times with an axe, and found it satisfactory.

Then, he turned his gaze to the wild chicken.

Looking at the wild chicken leisurely pacing around the room, he remembered he hadn’t named this intelligent wild chicken yet.

"Hmm... such a smart chicken definitely needs a resounding name."

"I’ll call you Pinku," Vikram said, his lips curved slightly, with a hint of mischievousness.

He picked up the chicken and said, "Pinku."

Pinku only tilted its head, seemingly puzzled.

He carried Pinku to the chicken nest, stroked its head, and murmured, "Your new home. Do you like it?"

"Cluck cluck."

"You like it? Then you must lay many eggs in your nest. As long as you lay eggs obediently, I definitely won’t have the heart to eat you."

Pinku, who had been enjoying Vikram’s petting with its eyes closed, immediately turned its head upon hearing this, burying its head in the freshly kneaded chicken nest, leaving only its trembling chicken butt facing Vikram.

After that, he returned to his room.

He noticed that the other three people he had contacted hadn’t accepted his friend requests yet, but he didn’t pay much attention. After all, everyone had to race against time to survive, so it was normal for them not to have time to check messages.

The exhausting day finally ended, and Vikram relaxed on his bed.

He suddenly sat up, remembering he still had a pure cotton coat given by the system.

He took out both the pure cotton coat from the system and the straw clothes given by the Survival Platform.

The pure cotton coat, spread open, was just right as a mattress on the bed.

The straw clothes weren’t wasted either; he kneaded them into a chicken nest and placed it in the corner at the foot of the bed.

Amused, he lay back on the bed, savoring the feeling of his new bed.

"Having a mattress is so nice. It would be even better if I had a companion to enjoy it with..."

[Daily Territory Settlement Complete]

Treehouse (Purple): +50 Plant Essence

Thornvine (Blue): +10 Plant Essence

Guardian Sprout (Blue): +12 Plant Essence

Spikevine (Green): +3 Plant Essence

Treehouse Core Maintenance Cost: -50 Plant Essence

Total Plant Essence Gained: +25 Plant Essence]