Video game I Can Turn Waste Into Treasure novel Chapter 11

Chapter 11 Eight Thousand Had Died

Before Bubba could even ask his supervisor, Andrea took out a small, bulging pouch.

She casually opened it. Inside were all gold coins. “200 total. Count it.”

Both kids were stunned.

The supervisor smiled and placed the coins on a small scale next to her.

“200 gold coins, correct.” She then pushed several boxes, each neatly packed with the items, toward Andrea.

Andrea handed the snacks and clothes to Bubba and put the rest into her space. “See you next time, Bubba.”

With that, she dashed out of the supply station like a gust of wind.

The others just stood there, staring at the door.

“Your grandma is pretty healthy,” the supervisor said first.

“Yeah… I guess,” Bubba replied, a bit dazed.

The boy who had been waiting to see Andrea embarrassed herself just clicked his tongue and said nothing.

With one minute left until 7 PM, Andrea made it back to her island.

She was still carrying a beat-up cardboard box she’d picked up by the entrance.

There seemed to be some writing on it, so she figured she’d help dispose of it.

She started up her underwater thruster and headed back out to the ocean.

As soon as she saw the ocean, a system notification came through.[Congratulations, player! You have completed the achievement: First Player to Enter a Sea Supply Station. Announce globally? You will receive a generous reward.]

[Yes.]

[System Announcement: Player Andrea has completed the achievement: First Player to Enter a Sea Supply Station. Everyone, keep up the good work!]

The chat channel instantly exploded.

[What’s going on? I feel like I’m not playing the same game as this big shot.]

[What’s a supply station? Can some big shot explain?]

[Is it just me, or has this Andrea gotten multiple achievements already? Every announcement has her name. She’s a real badass.]

[You’re not alone…]

[Andrea, do you have some kind of game guide? Share it with us. We’re all compatriots—we should help each other out and work toward a bright future.]

Jason: [I don’t know about a bright future, but I do know that you’re dreaming.]

[Yeah, I’d like to know too, but I also know that other people’s achievements didn’t come from lying around.]

[It’s tough, but look at how many people have disappeared just today.]

The chat channel fell silent for a rare moment.

Yesterday, there were over 99,000 people. Now, it was down to 91,145.

That meant nearly 8,000 had died today.

Most players were terrified, afraid that it would be their turn tomorrow.

Gwen: [Instead of relying on others, why not swim 6 miles in the sea every day? With that kind of physique, what’s there to fear?]

[Who can swim in this freezing weather? And who can swim 6 miles a day? You’re talking nonsense!] someone commented.

Gwen: [I swim 6 miles every day, towing my island. Got a problem with that?]

Denice: [I thought I was working hard swinging my hammer 10,000 times a day. I’ll follow your lead.]

Jason: [Following both of you!]

Andrea opened the chat channel just in time to see those amazing posts. Thinking about her own two hours of paddling each day, she felt a bit ashamed.

She decided that starting tomorrow, she’d add another hour.

‘If the lucky and the strong worked this hard, how could we ordinary mortals afford to slack off?’ she thought.

She skimmed the earlier chat logs, then typed out a message and sent it.

Andrea: [The supply station is triggered when you reach 300 miles. I won’t go into how to reach that.]

Her other experiences couldn’t be copied, so there was no point in sharing.

Besides, she wasn’t a saint. Sharing everything might even put her in danger.

After all, human beings were the scariest thing.

As soon as Andrea posted that, the chat channel exploded again.

Ernie Sanford: [What? 300 miles? I’m already dying from 6 miles a day, and it’s only day four. How is 300 miles even possible?

[Andrea, any tips on how to move faster?]

Last but not least: the Island Shield. It consumed energy cores to create a barrier. NPCs, monsters, and players could only land with the island owner’s permission. It could also block attacks.

For an island under 500 sq ft, it consumed one energy core every 30 days. External attacks would increase energy consumption.

Andrea set up the shield, planning to activate it at daybreak.

She’d gotten two energy cores when she obtained the underwater thruster and still had one left.

Currently, there was no danger at night, so she didn’t need to turn on the shield just yet.

So, she could stretch that one energy core even further.

The problem was that the thruster only had enough energy for fewer than 200 more miles.

The supply station didn’t even sell energy cores. Looked like she’d have to complete the mission to retrieve Bubba’s bow tie as soon as possible.

After a flurry of activity, it was already 8 PM.

Andrea still hadn’t eaten dinner.

She took out the plant growth serum she’d bought at the supply station and walked over to the cucumber vine.

The cucumbers weren’t due until the day after tomorrow, still just vining.

She carefully dripped one drop onto the base.

Instantly, the vine shot up—grew about one and a half feet in a flash.

She kept adding drops, watching it form buds, then flowers, then fruit.

A dozen cucumbers swelled rapidly before her eyes, growing long and thick, more than twice the size of normal market cucumbers.

After using about 0.2 fl oz of serum, the fruit stopped growing and new buds began to form.

She quickly harvested the mature ones—16 in all.

The new buds were slowly opening; the soil showed a harvest time of 8 hours.

That would mean another batch in 8 hours.

She planned to leave a few from the last batch to go to seed.

Once these were eaten, she’d plant more.