Chapter 532

Chapter 532: Crowdfunding

Right after He Miaomiao completed her upgrade, she saw her small boat rapidly transform into a small ship.

This small ship was five to six meters long and two meters wide, with a small canopy in the middle, resembling a black awning boat.

【System Announcement: Congratulations to Chosen One number 46754358 for being the first to upgrade to a small ship. Reward: low-grade spirit stones +50.】

As the upgrade of the small ship completed, the game announcement quickly spread throughout the entire area.

Upon hearing the game announcement, the chat channel erupted.

【What? I’m still just a small raft; how did someone upgrade two levels to a small boat?】

【It’s not fair! How did they do that?】

【I opened a wooden treasure chest and only got five pieces of wood! How much wood does it take to upgrade a small raft to a small boat?】

【There are treasure chests? How does one get treasure chests?】

【Help! Does anyone have water and food? I’m so thirsty and hungry; please, kind-hearted person, share some water!】

Messages rained down in the chat channel like barrage fire.

Fortunately, each person could only send three messages a day; otherwise, it would be impossible to read anything with how fast the messages flew by.

After upgrading her small ship, He Miaomiao was also checking the chat channel.

She noticed that she wasn’t the only one who had discovered Small Wooden Boxes; many people had found them too.

However, it seemed that not many had gathered enough wood to upgrade their small rafts.

“Hmm?”

He Miaomiao looked at the number of people in the chat channel and noticed that there were only 9994 people online at that moment.

This meant that six people had already died?

“Didn’t they say there was a safety time of three days?” He Miaomiao felt puzzled.

She was curious about why six people had died.

Actually, this wasn’t entirely due to the three-day safety time; some people just made foolish choices.

Two of them had jumped into the sea, not knowing how to swim, and ended up drowning.

The other four slipped and fell into the water and drowned as well.

Of course, those who drowned hadn’t actually died; they were directly sent by Li Xiaojun to Mars using the teleportation array.

Li Xiaojun was not the kind of powerful being who viewed life as inconsequential, so he always made arrangements for those who "died" in the game.

On Mars, Li Xiaojun transformed a continent using formations, covering an area of 9.6 million square kilometers with lush vegetation, rivers, lakes, seas, and an ecological system.

Now it was up to those people to figure out how to survive there.

Once they got there, if they died again, Li Xiaojun would no longer intervene.

……

After looking at the chat channel, He Miaomiao opened the trading mall page.

At that moment, the trading mall page was completely different from when it was initially empty.

At that moment, the trading mall had many more items available.

Most of these items were water, food, wood, and similar things.

However, the prices for these items were quite ridiculous.

For example, someone priced a bottle of water at the cost of ten portions of food.

Another person asked for one portion of food in exchange for ten bottles of water.

There was even someone pricing a piece of wood at the cost of five bottles of water.

He Miaomiao also saw someone was asking for a spirit stone in exchange for fifty bottles of water and fifty portions of food.

No wonder these items could be listed here; only a fool would make such a trade.

Soon, He Miaomiao discovered that the mall page could be sorted.

She changed the sorting to order by price from low to high, and the high-priced items immediately disappeared.

Then, He Miaomiao saw the regular prices.

Normal prices included one bottle of water for one portion of food, or two portions of wood for one portion of food, or one portion of food for one bottle of water.

Although it took about five treasure chests to get one with wood, wood couldn’t be eaten or drunk, so no one valued it.

However, the hardest item to find was the spirit stone. He Miaomiao had opened over fifty treasure chests and had only found one spirit stone.

Although she currently had more than fifty spirit stones, they were all game rewards she received for upgrading her small boat to a small ship.

【System Announcement: Congratulations to Chosen One number 4675791 for being the second to upgrade to a small boat. Reward: low-grade spirit stones +3.】

At that moment, the system announcement rang out again.

Clearly, this was the second person who upgraded their small raft to a small boat.

On the sea, a young boy looked at the eight pieces of wood inside a treasure chest and hesitated a bit.

But soon, he made up his mind.

Moments later, he traded two portions of food from the trading market for one piece of wood.

After that, he decomposed the Small Wooden Box to obtain another piece of wood, bringing his total to ten pieces of wood.

“Upgrade!”

【System Announcement: Congratulations to Chosen One number 54864265 for being the third to upgrade to a small boat. Reward: low-grade spirit stones +1.】

……

On Huayang Star.

“Mr. Prime Minister, after our investigation, we found that about seventy million people have suddenly disappeared. These people vanished suddenly and have not reappeared since…”

“Now, many relatives of these missing individuals have reported it to the police, demanding that our government quickly find them…”

“Furthermore, with so many people disappearing at once, we can’t hide it from the public any longer. Although we have been controlling the spread of information online, it probably won’t hold for much longer…”

Hearing this, the Prime Minister felt a headache coming on.

Where could he find over seventy million people who suddenly vanished?

However, he had already issued an order for a thorough investigation, hoping to find some clues soon.

The seventy million people who disappeared had all participated in the survival game on the sea.

One common trait among these over seventy million people was that they all possessed spirit roots.

Those who were not chosen by the survival game on the sea did not have spirit roots.

With a global population of seven billion, the disappearance of seventy million people accounted for nearly one percent.

Such a significant disappearance was impossible to hide from the public.

While countless people were scrambling to understand the sudden disappearance, one day, many live broadcast screens suddenly appeared in the sky.

On these screens, images of small rafts, small boats, or small ships were displayed, and there were people on board.

“What is this?”

“Oh my gosh, what is happening?”

Many people showed shock at the unexpected live broadcast screens in the sky.

“Isn’t that the missing Chen Zian? How did he appear up in the sky?”

“This is my son! Where is he?”

Many people recognized those who had gone missing from the live broadcast screens.

They were able to recognize them mainly because each screen appeared directly above where the individuals had vanished.

For example, He Miaomiao’s live screen appeared above the office building where she had disappeared.

So, many people who knew He Miaomiao immediately spotted her and recognized her on the live broadcast.

“Miao Miao, it’s Miao Miao!”

He Miaomiao’s parents, who had been searching for their daughter all day, couldn’t help but be filled with tears of joy upon seeing her on the screen.

“What is Miao Miao doing?”

On the live broadcast, many people saw He Miaomiao rowing her boat quickly in a certain direction.

Moments later, everyone watched as He Miaomiao picked up a Small Wooden Box from the sea.

After opening the Small Wooden Box, all the viewers saw that He Miaomiao took out a thumb-sized object that looked like a gem.

……

On the sea.

This was already the fifty-sixth wooden treasure chest He Miaomiao had found.

Once again, He Miaomiao heard the System Announcement, but she didn’t pay it much attention.

She felt it was impossible for anyone to catch up to her in upgrades, as she had the system, enabling her to find one treasure chest after another very quickly.

Others, without a doubt, couldn’t find too many treasure chests, as could be concluded from the information in the chat channel.

The vast majority had found only a few treasure chests so far.

However, He Miaomiao was surprised when the System Announcement rang out again two hours later.

【System Announcement: Congratulations to Chosen One Number 4675791, who has upgraded to a small ship, earning a game reward of +30 low-grade spirit stones.】

“Hmm?”

Upon hearing the announcement, He Miaomiao immediately became alert.

She remembered that this person had just upgraded from a small raft to a small boat two hours ago. How could they upgrade to a small ship in just two hours?

Upgrading from a small raft to a small boat required ten pieces of wood, which was easy to find; a bit of luck with opening one or two treasure chests could accomplish it.

However, upgrading from a small boat to a small ship needed one hundred materials! How was that possible?

“Could this person also have a hack?” He Miaomiao thought to herself.

With this thought, she felt a sense of urgency.

Based on her calculations, upgrading from a small ship to the next level would require about one thousand pieces of wood, and she currently had only a bit more than two hundred pieces. This was after opening so many treasure chests!

What He Miaomiao did not know was that at that moment, a middle-aged man was contacting the owners of high-priced wood in the trading mall.

“Hello, I am the second person to receive a game reward. I am currently preparing to crowdfund materials to aim for the next level reward. According to the game rules, the next level’s reward is about five hundred spirit stones. Reaching this reward will require one thousand pieces of wood. If you are willing to sponsor five pieces of wood, I will give you one spirit stone once I achieve first place and receive the next level reward.”

The middle-aged man sent a private message to the other party.

Soon, the other party replied, “I have five pieces of wood, but I need five spirit stones.”

“Impossible! For one thousand pieces of wood, I need to gather over two hundred people. If I give each of you five spirit stones, I would still owe you…”

“How about two stones?”

“That’s not possible! I suspect the person in first place is also crowdfunding. If I only get second place, I’ll only have three hundred spirit stones, which won’t be enough to pay you!”

“How about this: you give two stones for first place and one stone for second place.”

“Not an option! I can’t take that risk. I have already found over eighty people and only need one hundred and twenty more. If you invest five pieces of wood, I can only give you one spirit stone at most. If you don’t want to invest, then forget it.”

“Fine, one spirit stone it is.”

In the end, the other party finally agreed.

The middle-aged man was able to upgrade quickly from a small boat to a small ship using this tactic.

He previously gathered twenty people to reach his goal. Although he gave out twenty spirit stones, he also earned ten stones.

Now, he was preparing to aim for first place at the next level, and according to the game’s previous rules, the reward for first place at the next level should be five hundred spirit stones.

While the middle-aged man began his crowdfunding, the situation quickly became exposed in the Regional Chat Channel.

This was mainly because when the middle-aged man contacted them, most had exchanged their wood for food and water, leaving them with only one or two pieces of wood.

However, the middle-aged man wasn’t going to give a spirit stone for just one or two pieces of wood, so he naturally refused.

Those who were rejected by the middle-aged man soon leaked the information in the chat channel.

He Miaomiao also saw this information in the chat channel.

The situation made her immediately tense.

She hadn’t expected someone to obtain rewards through crowdfunding!

“No way, I can’t let anyone surpass me.”

He Miaomiao immediately felt tense.

During her first upgrade, she received 5 spirit stones. For her second upgrade, she earned 50 spirit stones. Following this pattern, wouldn’t the reward for the next upgrade be five hundred spirit stones for first place?

Such a large amount of spirit stones was something she absolutely didn’t want anyone else to take.

“What should I do?”

He Miaomiao quickly thought of a plan to gather a large amount of wood.

A large amount of wood.

He Miaomiao remembered the trading market.

Immediately, she opened the trading market and filtered for wood, from low to high.

She saw that many pieces of wood were listed in the trading market.

The cheapest was two pieces of wood for one bottle of water or food, which had around fifty listings.

Seeing this, He Miaomiao’s eyes lit up.

Without any hesitation, He Miaomiao chose to exchange for food and water.

In the next moment, He Miaomiao exchanged over twenty bottles of water and more than thirty portions of food for 118 pieces of wood.

Then, He Miaomiao looked at the remaining wood in the trading market.

Next, the lowest price was one piece of wood for one bottle of water or food.

Without any hesitation, He Miaomiao exchanged all her remaining food and water for wood.

In this way, He Miaomiao acquired over fifty additional pieces of wood.

Adding to the more than two hundred pieces of wood she already had, she now had over four hundred thirty pieces of wood.

However, four hundred thirty pieces of wood still weren’t enough.

According to the previous pattern, she probably needed about five hundred sixty pieces of wood.

If she wanted to crowdfund, she’d need to find over one hundred people.

One hundred people meant she would have to spend over one hundred spirit stones, leaving her with about three hundred spirit stones.

After some thought, He Miaomiao used the market to search for ways to exchange wood for spirit stones.

To her surprise, she actually found someone trading wood for spirit stones.

She saw offers ranging from one piece of wood for one spirit stone to others wanting up to eight pieces of wood for a single spirit stone.

He Miaomiao quickly blocked transactions offering less than five pieces of wood for one spirit stone.

Then, she used her remaining 56 spirit stones to directly acquire 336 pieces of wood.

Adding 336 to her previous 434, she had a total of 770 pieces of wood.

This meant she now only needed 230 more pieces of wood.

Under these circumstances, if she crowdfunded, she would only need to find 46 people.

He Miaomiao began posting information in the chat channel: “I am the first place from the two system announcements. I am now crowdfunding for 230 pieces of wood at a price of 5 pieces of wood for one spirit stone. If you want to participate, please contact me. Serious inquiries only.”

After sending the message, He Miaomiao immediately disabled private chat messages, as too many people had messaged her after she received her rewards.

As soon as she disabled private messages, someone quickly sent her a private chat message.

Half an hour later, He Miaomiao successfully crowdfunded the 230 pieces of wood.