Chapter 9: Blueprint for Backpack Synthesis

Su Ya was determined to defend her rights using this extreme approach.

She had come to realize that in this chaotic world of highway survival, there were far too many people willing to break moral boundaries to do things that harmed others without even benefiting themselves. "Apology or Household Registration" was a prime example. If she indulged him once, he would only become ten times more brazen.

Su Ya didn't want to get involved in disputes, but that didn't mean she could tolerate others defecating on her head. Hoping for the other party to have a change of conscience and proactively admit their mistake was less likely than Su Ya running an eight-hundred-meter test in under two minutes.

In such a situation, an extreme approach was actually the most effective.

What was the purpose of "Apology or Household Registration" conducting those trades? It was to use defective goods to scam innocent players out of their supplies. So, Su Ya used defective goods to trade with him in return. Exchanging one pile of trash for another—no one would be willing to engage in such a losing business.

And sure enough, the other party came looking for her.

[Apology or Household Registration: What is your problem?]

Su Ya immediately blocked his private messages. She wanted to let the kid see the red exclamation mark for himself.

Before long, someone tagged her in the trade hall.

[Apology or Household Registration: (Image) (Image) (Image) What is the meaning of this? @Invincible Tyrannosaurus Rex @Give Me An Explanation]

[Must Make You Rave With Reviews: Oh ho ho, a big shot bullying a small player.]

[Player 1128: @Invincible Tyrannosaurus Rex, how could you be like this?]

[Invincible Tyrannosaurus Rex: Passersby who don't know what happened, scroll up and look at this guy's outrageous comments.]

[Invincible Tyrannosaurus Rex: @Apology or Household Registration, I'm just giving you a taste of your own medicine. From now on, every time you initiate a trade, I will trade you with defective goods, so you won't be able to scam even half a supply item. Let's see who can outlast whom.]

[Invincible Tyrannosaurus Rex: The game has only just begun. Can you guarantee that you won't have a real need to trade supplies in the future? Friend, you wouldn't want to receive defective goods when you're trying to make a serious trade, would you?]

When the needle doesn't prick one's own skin, anyone can stand by and watch. But once it concerns them personally, everyone starts to weigh their options.

[Apology or Household Registration: @Invincible Tyrannosaurus Rex, what exactly do you want?]

The other party's attitude had clearly softened. Su Ya felt a bit better and unblocked his private messages.

[Invincible Tyrannosaurus Rex: It's simple. Send the five batteries you were supposed to give me and the three bottles of mineral water for @Give Me An Explanation in full. As for the other orders, consider it a mental distress fee.]

Using a pile of defective goods as a "mental distress fee" for someone else—even Su Ya thought she was being a bit wicked.

[Invincible Tyrannosaurus Rex: @Apology or Household Registration, I also want you to promise in front of all the players in the district that you will no longer use defective goods to scam others' supplies. If you don't agree, I'll keep trading with you like this.]

[Apology or Household Registration: Fine, you win. You just wait.]

"Apology or Household Registration" quickly sent over the five batteries. Su Ya checked them; this time, the batteries were brand new. "Give Me An Explanation" also sent a message saying they had received the three unopened bottles of mineral water.

That matter was finally settled.

Su Ya blocked "Apology or Household Registration" again and vowed never to trade with him again. Some lessons are best learned once.

The time had reached 8:39, and the system had already announced the travel mileage for the day.

[System 2712 is very unhappy to serve you. Next, announcing today's mileage.]

[Today's mileage is: 10 kilometers (Novice Protection Period)]

Su Ya suddenly remembered something. After reporting the trade bug to the system, she happily rode her beloved little electric scooter to cover the mileage.

...

The second the mileage ticked from "9.9" to "10," Su Ya stopped her scooter right on time. Her "salted fish" status didn't allow her to exceed the mileage, and she wasn't about to risk losing luck points by breaking the rules.

There were quite a few supply crates within these ten kilometers. Su Ya collected one silver crate, two bronze crates, and three wooden crates.

After a brief rest, Su Ya picked up her Five-Gold Holy Hammer and began opening the crates.

A large white rat jumped out of the first silver crate and charged at her the moment it saw her. Su Ya raised the hammer and smashed it repeatedly. After dealing with the rat, the attack power of the Five-Gold Holy Hammer increased by 2 points. Su Ya was also pleasantly surprised to find that her own strength had increased by 1 point.

The supplies in the silver crate weren't many, but they were all useful.

[Supplies: Backpack Fusion Blueprint x1, Vehicle Upgrade Card x1, Water Kettle x1, Battery x1, Instant Noodles x5, Potato Chips x5]

Seeing the Backpack Fusion Blueprint, Su Ya’s eyes lit up.

When she was bored yesterday, she had studied the information about backpacks. There were ten levels of backpacks, and the higher the level, the greater the capacity. Below level five, they couldn't be expanded, but level five and above could have their capacity doubled using a backpack expansion card.

At the same time, backpacks could be upgraded. There were two ways: one was to use a backpack upgrade card, and the other was backpack fusion. Two primary backpacks could be combined into one level-two backpack, two level-two backpacks into one level-three backpack, and so on.

Now that she had the backpack fusion blueprint, upgrading her backpack would be much simpler.

Without a second thought, Su Ya placed the blueprint on the crafting table. The crafting table glowed, absorbed the blueprint, and displayed a line of information.

[Crafting Table Function Unlocked]
[1. Crate Deconstruction]
[2. Backpack Fusion]

Su Ya: ?

The crafting table had the crate deconstruction function the moment she got it? Then what about all those empty crates she had thrown away?

If she had known, she would have checked it thoroughly when she first received the crafting table. Su Ya, the person involved, expressed regret—deep, deep regret.

Placing the silver crate on the crafting table and clicking "Confirm Deconstruction," the crate vanished instantly.

[Supplies: Silver x1]

After organizing the items from the silver crate, Su Ya opened the remaining crates. Her luck was quite good; for several crates in a row, no nightmare monsters appeared, just supplies.

[Supplies: Level-2 Backpack x1, Crafting Table Blueprint Fragment x1, Insulated Cup x1, Hemostatic Bandage x5, Iron Block x3, Wire x4, Wood x3, Plastic x5, Pork Floss Strips x5, Canned Cola x1, Mineral Water x1, Cup of Milk Tea Powder x1, Fresh Lettuce x1]

"My luck is off the charts today! It’s like getting a pillow right when I’m feeling sleepy!" Su Ya was incredibly excited. She had just obtained the backpack fusion blueprint and then pulled a level-two backpack—nobody could beat this luck.

Without a moment's hesitation, Su Ya took two level-two backpacks, placed them on the crafting table, and clicked "Confirm Upgrade" to obtain a level-three backpack. She then placed two level-three backpacks on the table. After a series of operations, she obtained a level-four backpack.

After doing all this, Su Ya put all her supplies into her backpack, except for the fresh lettuce, which left her in a dilemma. She didn't have any cooking tools yet, so keeping the fresh lettuce felt like a waste.

"Might as well sell it."

Thinking this, Su Ya took out her game manual.