90: Chapter 90 Special Water Purifier.

Bai Nian rested her hand on her sword hilt, the blade vibrating slightly as an oppressive murderous aura permeated the hall.

"I will handle it."

"No rush."

Lin Qing lay sideways at the head of the bed, adjusting his posture slightly to make the newly recovered Su Xixi in his arms lean more comfortably, his fingertips casually brushing across her smooth hair.

He fiddled with a strand of Su Xixi's hair, his tone as casual as if they were discussing the weather.

"Is a fly that just crawled out of a cesspool worth us making a trip right now?"

His gaze fell upon An Mumu, who was giggling foolishly.

"Mumu."

"Ah?" An Mumu was currently immersed in the joy of carrying the "Child of Destiny" in her womb, and she froze at the words.

"Your body is precious now, so don't get involved in the rough work of fighting and killing."

Lin Qing slowly announced, "Starting from today, all external transactions and material pricing on the Ninth Floor will be handed over to you."

An Mumu's eyes lit up instantly, her lips trembling with excitement.

This... this directly puts her in charge of the financial authority?

Her eyes rolled, and she asked, "Brother Qing, really?"

Lin Qing nodded, his gaze turning to the other girls in the corner.

"Windsor, you used to be in the student union and have a sharp tongue, so you will handle external communications from now on."

"Ye Yao, Gu Lingshan, Sun Qing, the four of you will assist Mumu, starting with taking stock of the existing materials on the Ninth Floor."

Windsor, whose name was called, had her cheeks flushed with excitement and stood straight, "I guarantee I'll complete the mission!"

An Mumu was more concerned with the immediate problem: "However, Brother Qing, what if that guy really integrates the Eighth Floor and becomes a Floor Walker?"

"Him?" Lin Qing sneered, as if hearing some kind of joke.

"That person's reliance right now is nothing more than that bit of water. With a single word from me, I can cut off his roots."

Lin Qing didn't rush to explain; instead, he looked at An Muxi:

"Have the conditions for upgrading the dorm been refreshed? How many more bones are needed for the Skeleton Gate?"

An Muxi nodded, having prepared it long ago.

"The dorm is currently at Level 4. Upgrading to Level 5 requires two thousand wood, two thousand stone, and five hundred iron ingots. The wood and stone are enough, but we're still short half of the iron ingots."

"As for the door, the bones of the Skeleton Monarch are of very high quality, enough to upgrade the Skeleton Gate to Level 5."

"Oh, right, it also dropped an epic-grade chest, which hasn't been opened yet."

Bai Nian took out an epic-grade chest glowing with purple light from the dorm resource database and placed it on the table.

Lin Qing glanced at it.

"The chest can wait."

He had already made up his mind.

He directly opened the central screen, summoned the Regional Chat Room, and edited a message.

[Building 0, Dorm 901: In one hour, at the Ninth Floor staircase, clean water trading will begin.]

[Trade Content: Supplying sufficient pure water.]

[Items for Exchange: Priority given to exchanging for iron ingots. Secondarily wood, stone, blueprints, equipment—we accept anything of value.]

This message, like a depth charge, instantly detonated across the entire District 91!

[Building 0, Dorm 604: What the fuck? Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Is the Ninth Floor big shot crazy? It's currently the polar day! With three suns hanging in the sky, where did he get so much pure water?!]

[Building 7, Dorm 109: Is this real or fake? Water is more expensive than life right now! Can we who are not from Building 0 come to trade? Please! I'll trade my wife!]

[Building 8, Dorm 414: Upstairs, you're acting sus! But I also want to ask, with the Trading House around, who dares to trade offline? Could it be that they're tricking people over to wipe them out all at once?]

[Building 0, Dorm 507: I heard the Ninth Floor big shot single-handedly wiped out the taboo existence on the Eighth Floor! I actually think this doesn't look fake! Laozi hasn't had water in two days; even if it's a trap, I'll accept it!]

...

Meanwhile, on the Eighth Floor.

Inside Dorm 8013.

A fierce-looking man with a buzz cut was stepping with one foot on the shoulder of a survivor in front of him.

He looked down at the thirty-some men and women in the room who had just sworn allegiance to him.

"Starting today, on this Eighth Floor, I, Zhao Feng, call the shots! Follow me, and there will be water to drink!"

Behind him, a lackey was holding a glass bottle with an expression mixed with worship and disgust.

The liquid in the bottle looked indistinguishable from clean water, with only a wisp of extremely faint pale yellow floating in it.

That was the potable water purified by Zhao Feng using the newly acquired Urine Water Purifier.

"B-Brother Feng, c-can this... this thing... really be drunk?" The lackey swallowed his saliva, his face turning somewhat green.

"Trash!" Zhao Feng snatched the bottle, held it high, and said, "Why can't it be drunk? Before I transmigrated, I managed sewage treatment! This is purified water! The system has recognized it!"

He tilted his neck back and gulped down a large mouthful in front of everyone.

After drinking, he exaggeratedly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and let out a satisfied sigh, "Ah—sweet!"

The kneeling people around him had both desire and thinly veiled suspicion in their eyes.

Just at this moment.

A lackey responsible for keeping watch rushed in tumbling and crawling, his hand pointing at the central screen trembling.

"B-Brother Feng! This is bad! Y-You look at the chat room!"

"What are you panicking for!"

Zhao Feng turned around impatiently, about to flare up.

But when he saw the message posted by 9001, the smugness on his face froze inch by inch.

Pure water...

Supplied in sufficient quantities...

Not recycled water like his, which had weird operations and psychological burdens.

It was genuine, pure water!

He had just gathered people together with the pie-in-the-sky promise of "having water to drink," and the other party directly opened the granary to distribute food.

Pulling the rug out from under him?

No, this was directly taking away the pot he used to eat!

How is this still playable?!

"Snap!"

His hand holding the glass bottle shook, and the bottle slipped from his hand, smashing to pieces on the ground.

The pale yellow liquid splashed onto his lackey's trouser legs, and an extremely faint smell suddenly permeated the scorching air.

The survivors, who had just worn fanatic expressions, instantly had their expressions turn extremely odd upon smelling this odor.

"I-Impossible!" Zhao Feng roared like a madman, "Where would 9001 get so much water? It's fake! They must be bluffing! Yes! It must be!"

Behind him, the lackey who had just been holding the bottle rolled his Adam's apple violently.

He looked at Zhao Feng, then looked at several companions nearby whose eyes were similarly flickering and quietly backing away, and finally mustered up the courage to ask in a low voice:

"Brother Feng... how about we... also go up... and trade for some?"

This sentence seemed to drain all the strength from Zhao Feng's body.

"Trade?!" Zhao Feng whipped his head around, his gaze looking like he wanted to eat people, "A bunch of trash! All of you, go guard the staircase for Laozi; nobody on the Eighth Floor is allowed to go up!"

However, no one moved.

Those people who had previously knelt in allegiance were now looking at him with expressions like they were looking at a fool.

A man who had kowtowed the loudest earlier quietly moved backward.

He looked at the puddle of liquid on the ground, associated it with what he had just drunk to save his life, and a tumult surged in his stomach, unable to hold it in anymore.

"Blech—"

A loud dry heaving sounded like pushing over the first domino.

"Blech..."

"Blech!!"

The sound of disgusted dry heaving spread rapidly among the crowd.

Zhao Feng's heart sank inch by inch, as if falling into an ice cave.

The empire he had just established collapsed even before it could be crowned.

After finishing vomiting, the man who dry-heaved first raised his head, looked at him with a gaze mixed with hatred and pity, turned around without a word, and was the first to walk outside the dorm door.

He was going to trade for water.

Even with his life, he had to trade for real water.

The door of Dorm 8013 was wide open.

Hearing the commotion coming from downstairs, the crowd that had just crowded into the room to pledge loyalty completely changed their attitude.

The skinny man by the door rolled his Adam's apple.

No way.

He had to hurry and get ahead; going late might mean not even being able to trade for a single sip of water.

Once this thought arose, he could no longer restrain himself; his footsteps turned abruptly, his shoulder heavily slamming open the half-closed wooden door, squeezing straight out like a mad wild dog.

Without greeting, and without even glancing back at the man he had just called "Brother Feng."

Seeing this, the last shred of hesitation in the eyes of the remaining people was swallowed by the instinct to survive, and they immediately took off to follow.

In less than half a minute, the originally crowded room was completely empty.

Only Zhao Feng and his two most loyal lackeys stood in place, looking at each other in dismay, with a suffocating awkwardness permeating the air.

Outside the corridor, countless dorm doors were violently knocked open, dilapidated wooden boards slamming against the wooden walls, making dull, heavy "bang, bang" noises.

Those survivors who had just been obsequious and submissive had bloodshot eyes at this moment, desperately rushing toward the Ninth Floor staircase.

Shoving, cursing, trampling.

"Get lost!"

"Laozi is going to trade for water! Make way!"

The roar converged into a torrent, passing through the open door and smashing head-on onto Zhao Feng's face.

He froze in place, the muscles on his face twitching uncontrollably, the corners of his eyes twitching violently.

The team he had just managed to prop up, the pie-in-the-sky promise he had just drawn, his unformed amateur troupe...

Just like that, it scattered.

There wasn't even a decent mutiny.

"Brother Feng..." A lackey shrank back half a step, his voice trembling, "W-What do we do?"

Zhao Feng didn't make a sound.

His ears were filled with the increasingly distant, chaotic, and hurried footsteps in the corridor.

He could no longer hold it back, a strong sense of nausea rushing straight from his stomach to his throat.

Supporting himself against the wall, he began to dry-heave violently.

...

Ninth Floor staircase.

An Mumu crossed her legs and sat on a wooden chair, her fingertips lightly tapping on the armrest, putting on a bored queen's air.

Behind her, Windsor was holding a notebook with a solemn expression, like a dedicated female secretary.

On the long table in front of them, a row of bottled clean water was neatly arranged.

And in front of the table was hell.

A dense sea of bobbing heads almost crushed the entire stairwell to its bursting point.

Everyone's lips were chapped and peeling, their eye sockets deeply sunken, staring fixedly at the water bottles on the long table, their eyes burning with wild greed.

"Quiet!" Windsor raised her volume, "Line up! One by one! Anyone who dares to cause trouble will be thrown straight downstairs!"

The crowd stirred for a moment, and several burly men attempting to squeeze forward stopped in unison after meeting two cold gazes.

On both sides of the table, Bai Nian rested her hand on her sword hilt, her eyes calmly sweeping across a few eager hands in the front row of the crowd, quietly judging the possibility of them suddenly revolting.

Su Xixi held a short blade, her face devoid of any unnecessary emotion.

The surrounding people were sweating like rain from the heat, yet she was shrouded in a faint, ethereal chill—a bone-chilling coldness originating from the depths of her soul.

A few bold survivors inadvertently noticed the mysterious blue eerie pattern between her eyebrows.

Just a single glance made them feel as if their entire body's blood was about to freeze, and they hurriedly lowered their heads, not daring to look anymore.

"The trade begins." An Mumu snapped her fingers.

A scrawny man tumbled and crawled to the front of the table.

He trembled as he fished out an iron ingot, holding it out with both hands.

"B-Big shot, I have ten units of iron, how much can I trade for?"

An Mumu extended a finger and tapped the table.

"Three bottles."

The man's eye sockets were red, his knees shaking straight.

Windsor pulled three bottles of water from the box and handed them over.

The man took them into his hands, even the action of opening the cap trembling.

He unscrewed a bottle on the spot, tilted his head back, and chugged it into his mouth.

Water flowed down the corners of his mouth and dripped onto the ground, dampening the dry concrete floor.

He slumped down, hugging the empty bottle and wailing loudly.

The trade was real.

The crowd exploded.

"I have wood! Trade for water!"

"Iron ingots! I'll trade with iron ingots!"

A bespectacled girl squeezed out half her body, holding up a piece of parchment.

"I have a blueprint for a Primary Relief Defense Tower! Can I trade it for five bottles of water?"

An Mumu glanced at the girl, the corners of her eyes curving before forcibly suppressing it.

Today, not only iron ingots were to be collected.

Those rare blueprints and items had to be looted as well taking advantage of this opportunity.

However, she had to leave them hanging for a bit first.

Her chin lifted slightly, her voice calm.

"Iron ingots take priority! Those with iron ingots come to the front! Hurry!"

The crowd forcibly squeezed out a path.

An Muxi led the Logistics Group, moving out water box by box.

Iron ingots and wood quickly piled up into small mountains behind the table.

An Muxi wiped the sweat from her forehead.

At this speed, the materials for the Level 5 dorm could be gathered in half an hour.

Suddenly, pushing sounds came from the back row.

A dozen men knocked aside the people blocking the way and squeezed to the front.

The man leading them was a square-faced man. As soon as he reached the table, he bowed deeply to An Mumu, his waist bending at a standard ninety degrees.

"Big shot, we are the Dorm Leaders of the Eighth Floor."

An Mumu's action of counting the iron ingots in her hands did not stop at all, and she didn't even lift her eyelids.

"Go in line if you want to trade water. What's so special about being a Dorm Leader, want to cut in line?"

The square-faced man buried his head lower, a hint of trembling in his voice.

"We... aren't trading for water. We... request to merge into 9001!"

As soon as the words fell.

Thud!

The twelve men behind him, as if rehearsed countless times, knelt uniformly on one knee.

"Dorm 8004 leader Wang Hai, ten people currently in the dorm, request to merge!"

"Dorm 8007 leader Li Jie, thirteen people currently in the dorm, request to merge!"

...

Shouts of allegiance echoed throughout the entire hallway.

The people in line were completely dumbfounded.

These Dorm Leaders who threw their weight around in their respective dorms were now, like a pack of stray dogs, kneeling on the ground just to beg for a spot to be taken in.

An Mumu finally stood up, sweeping her gaze over this group of people from on high, her eyes carrying scrutiny.

Taking in this batch of people meant that the integration of the Eighth Floor was basically more than halfway completed.

"Want to merge? Sure."

She deliberately slowed down her speaking pace.

"But we only accept annexation. Starting today, your dorms, your people, and all your resources belong to 9001. Orders must be unconditionally obeyed. You hold a slave status."

"9001 can provide you with a guaranteed water source, but you must bring out sufficient value in exchange. Those who can't do it can get lost right now."

The square-faced man did not hesitate; he knew this was a slave contract.

But if he didn't sign it, let alone tonight, he probably wouldn't survive the next hour.

Being annexed by 9001 was ten thousand times better than being annexed by Zhao Feng, who fooled people with a urine water purifier.

He whipped his head around and roared forcefully at the survivors behind him who were still hesitating:

"Under the polar day, water is life! 9001 has water, they are gods!"

This sentence completely shattered everyone's psychological defense line.

Thirteen men knocked their heads on the ground, their voices fierce.

"We'll completely follow the arrangements of the 9001 big shot!"

The Skeleton Gate slid open silently.

Lin Qing paced out.

The noisy crowd around quieted down entirely.

An Mumu stood up and leaned forward.

"Brother Qing, I've incorporated thirteen dorms from the Eighth Floor!"

Lin Qing patted her head.

His gaze crossed the crowd and landed on the piled-up mountains of supplies.

"Well done." A faint light rippled in the depths of his eyes, "The trade continues."