Red didn't know when he fell asleep, but by the time he woke up, it was already morning.
"Ugh." The constant knocking on the door yesterday night was too much for him to handle. The bastards outside kept on knocking without any rest. Frustrated, at one point, Red even wanted to rush outside to fight with them. But thinking about his miserable outcome, he suppressed the impulse.
Eating one jerky and drinking a mouthful of water, he walked outside with his trusty axe and looked at the endless trees in his sight before a sigh escaped his lips. No matter how much he wanted to refuse, this was his life now. Every day he would eat dry food and work tirelessly for six hours only to cower in fear inside his house.
The initial excitement of coming to a completely different world and a game panel was now completely gone; replaced by an impending sense of doom. He was already on the third day and four days later, the protection period would be over. By then... He didn't know whether he would be able to stay alive or not.
With a heavy heart, Red kept on logging. At first, he thought about exploring around him, but thinking about how there was nothing and it would be too risky without a proper weapon, he gave up this idea.
Six hours passed in the blink of an eye and soon the third night was here.
Sitting inside his dark room, Red was looking at the panel in front of him silently. Right now he had two options, either he could just exchange some wood for stone or he could combine them and bet on the result. The latter part was risky... If he got a useless item, then it would mean wasting an entire day. And right now, time is the most precious thing.
But if he succeeds in getting something valuable, then it would mean getting even more resources.
"Take a risk or not?" Just when he was thinking about his next course of action, the familiar footsteps outside his house sounded again. But this time, it was just one.
Red who was thinking about his future subconsciously ignored this detail and after a brief hesitation, looked in the direction of the wood placed in the corner of the tool room.
{Whether to combine 10/wood?} {Y/N}
This time, Red chose 'yes', and the moment he did, the pile of wood started glowing and soon ten pieces of wood disappeared from there, replaced by a grey piece of wood.
[Hardwood: A sturdy wood that is often found by chance. Can be used to craft or upgrade the house.]
As soon as Red saw the item description, his breath almost halted. It wasn't until a few more seconds passed did he realized what he had just gotten.
"Haha..." With a hollow laugh, he carefully picked up the hardwood and almost laughed out loud. Till now he was dreading as to whether combining ten woods would be worth it. But now... looking at the outcome, Red was filled with satisfaction.
Opening the Auction, Red looked for a while before looking at a request published by 'Lincon'.
[Buying Hardwood. Price can be negotiated.]
Looking at the request, Red thought for a moment before deciding to message the guy.
He had seen his capabilities and if there was one person who could pay him for his new material, then it would be this guy. Perhaps there might be others too who were capable of it, but at the moment, he was the only viable option for Red.
"Hello, I have a hardwood to sell. What are you offering?"
After sending this message, Red waited patiently for the other party's reply. It wouldn't come as a surprise if the guy was bombarded with private messages. Perhaps it would take him some time to read the message.
Red too wasn't in a hurry either, he still had eighteen hours to spend. After sending the message he began to think about the price he could get for the hardwood. And just when he was wondering, to his surprise, he received a reply from Lincon.
"How much do you want?"
Looking at the message, Red thought for a while before quoting his price.
"Twenty pieces of wood, food, and water."
As soon as he listed his price, he immediately received a reply.
"Impossible... This thing might be rare, but it is not so precious."
Red was already expecting this answer. He would have been more surprised if the other party immediately accepted his terms.
He then listed his price again.
"Twenty pieces of wood and some food."
There was a brief delay from the other side before a new message came.
"Still too much. I can give you two pieces of meat for it."
Immediately after sending this message, another message came.
"Think about it. Right now, no one needs this item. For you, it is useless. Two pieces of meat are more than enough for it. I believe it wouldn't be long before someone else gets this thing too. At that time, the price won't remain the same."
As soon as Red saw the message, he let out a sneer. At the current moment, perhaps both of them might not know whether this thing is precious or not. But Red was willing to bet. From the chat and this brief exchange, he was already sure that no one else had the ability to combine things like he had. Otherwise, the auction house would have been flooded with Hardwood.
Since this was the case, he was willing to bet that in the short term, no one was going to come across this material. And if somehow someone did actually get it, then he was willing to take a loss.
With this in mind, he sent his final message to Lincon.
"Well, in that case... You should wait till others find it."
Without waiting for the reply, he closed the chat and fell on the straw mat. After thinking for a while, he opened the auction and directly listed the item.
[1/Hardwood<=>20/Wood, 1/Piece Of Meat]
After hanging up the item, he threw two pieces of wood into the bonfire and sat in silence. The bright light from the fire soon enveloped the house as the coldness receded. The knocking on the outside stopped for a second before resuming once again.
Unknowingly amidst the background sound of constant knocking, Red somehow fell asleep.
.
.
.
.
Waking up the next morning, Red clenched his clothes. Now that the fire was extinguished, he could feel the bone-chilling cold once again which seemed to be heavier than usual.
Looking at the last piece of beef jerky, he let out a sigh and without much hesitation wolfed it down. Even the water in the jar was almost empty. It was already a miracle to survive three days with just two liters of water. If not for the cold temperature, it would have been an impossible task.
Habitually, Red looked at the panel in front of him, and to his surprise, there was a message of a successful sale.
"Huh!? Who bought it?" Red didn't think someone would buy it so soon. Looking at the name of the buyer, [Vira] he narrowed his eyes.
"It seems there are many capable people here." Muttering in a low voice Red looked at the newly formed pile of wood in the tool room before a smile ran across his face.
Other than the message of a successful sale, there was one more private message from the person who bought it, [Vira].
[Vira: If you have more of it, you can sell it directly to me. You can change the price, but it shouldn't be greater than the initial one.]
Carefully picking up a slab of meat, Red placed it near the bonfire and after thinking for a moment, Combined the newly gained twenty wood to get two Hardwood.
He then sent the message to Vira.
"I have two more Hardwood. But this time, instead of meat, I need water."
It took a while, but soon he received a reply.
"Okay."
It was a simple but direct answer that made him smile. Compared to the Lincon person, this Vira was much more pleasing.
Soon, the two newly combined hardwoods were exchanged for forty wood and ten liters of drinking water.
"Finally." Looking at the giant water jar, Red almost cried tears of Joy. Rushing to the water jar, he gulped down mouthful after mouthful of water. It wasn't until he couldn't drink anymore did he stopped and sat on the ground with a satisfied smile on his face.
Looking at the pile of wood, he thought for a long time but didn't immediately combine and exchange them. On one hand, he needed to craft some proper tools and on the other, he didn't want to raise any suspicion regarding himself. In a world like this, one doesn't need to mention just how absurd and precious his ability to combine things is. If there was even an ounce of doubt, it could be catastrophic. He didn't want to take any risk before he had the ability to protect himself from any harm.
With this in mind, he exchanged a few stones and looked at the item he wanted to combine.
[Normal Spear: 5/wood, 5/stone]
Now that he could already exchange the hardwood, he wasn't going to waste his precious time chopping the trees. He could take this time to explore his surroundings and see if there is anything of value there.
Soon, he was holding a long well-crafted wooden spear with a sharp stone as the head.
Holding it, he was already feeling safe. Even though he didn't know how to use it perfectly, he could at least use it to stab others just in case,
Taking a deep breath, he slowly walked out of his house and began his first exploration of this accursed world filled with death.