43: Chapter 43: Heated Discussion

The World Echo was flooded with a single topic.

"The Trading Realm! It can remotely transport items! Have you all gone in to check it out yet?"

"Just went in! My god, that black rock platform looks like something an ordinary person can't afford to use. Do I, such a pathetic seeker, really deserve to use it?"

"The point! The point is that we can buy and sell! I just listed three salted fish, priced at two karma points, and they were snapped up in ten seconds! The fish vanished from my boat into thin air, and the other party already received them! And they are three hundred nautical miles away!"

"Someone bought it already? Who is so fast?"

"Three hundred nautical miles???? That fast????"

"The buyer and I each paid less than 0.5 karma points for shipping. I feel it's worth more than the price. Being able to trade things I don't need for things I do—who knows, it might save my life someday—so paying a service fee is only right!"

"Brothers, I have six bottles of hemostatic potion that dropped during yesterday's beast tide. I never used them and thought they were going to rot in my hands—now I've listed them all. Bartering, and two bottles have already been traded!"

"I need hemostatic potion! Let me go in and check!"

The speed at which messages flooded the screen went from fast to terrifying.

Meanwhile, as time passed, another wave of discussion was fermenting wildly.

"Wait, did you guys notice? There are other updates in 3.0! Video calls! The Fate Platform has launched video calls! And we can even livestream?"

"Holy crap, really? Let me try—it really works! I just had a video call with an old classmate three hundred nautical miles away, and I saw them! A real person! But this thing is a bit expensive—"

"I finally saw my mom. Before, I could only look at photos. Sob!"

"Video release is also open. I just scrolled past someone who posted a recording of a sea beast hunt. It's like watching a movie."

"I saw it too. Someone actually started a livestream directly. They must be rich. Do they have that many karma points?"

"What is the Fate Master trying to do? The Trading Realm is already outrageous enough, and now they're giving us videos?"

"Socializing! After chatting via text for so long, we can finally see living people!"

"Think deeper—if videos can be sent, it means they can be recorded. Sea conditions, beast tides, resource points, dangerous areas... Before, we could only rely on text descriptions. Now, with video evidence, the credibility of information has increased how many times over?"

"And remote command! In the future, when we encounter a beast tide, experts can guide tactics directly via video. The compass function has been greatly enhanced!"

"This wave of updates... how should I put it? The Trading Realm is a timely help, and the video function is the icing on the cake. But icing on the cake is sweet too. Fourteen hundred million people can finally see each other moving."

There was another group of people discussing the devices on both sides of the trading platform in the Karmic Trading Realm that appeared locked and unavailable.

On the right was a jade-white spring, embedded in a golden base. The spring mouth was dry, and the whole thing was a dull gray color. Floating above it were two characters—"Life Spring."

It could not be clicked or interacted with.

On the left was a shrine shaped like an altar, with golden inscriptions surrounding the base, also dull gray. Above it were two characters—"food god shrine."

Equally locked.

"What are these two things? Why can't I click them?"

"Life Spring? Spring water? The kind you can drink?"

"food god shrine, food—food?"

"Brothers, let's make a bold guess. Could the Life Spring be Life Spring water? The kind that restores health when you drink it?"

"You're dreaming. If it really were that thing, one sip and all your wounds would be healed. Why would we need hemostatic potion then?"

"That's why it's locked! The Fate Master must not have opened it yet! Maybe in the future, we'll be able to use karma points to buy spring water and food directly!"

"If that's really the case... then this Trading Realm isn't just a trading platform; it's—"

"A shopping mall."

"No, a supermarket."

"No, this is Taobao."

"The Magic Sea version of Taobao, Fate Master brand."

The discussion quickly slid from functional analysis into the joke section, but more people were too busy to chat—they were busy listing goods on the trading platform.

Sea beast meat, thick hemp ropes, stone tools, damaged bronze-grade equipment, excess fresh water, ship repair planks... all kinds of supplies poured into the Trading Realm at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Bartering and trading with karma points were running in parallel.

Prices were chaotic, and supply and demand were mismatched, but the supplies of the Yanhuang Camp were truly and comprehensively circulating.

—

Little Life Society, inside the bronze-grade Houseboat meeting room.

President Shen Qing convened all the senior management the moment the Fate Platform update notification popped up.

The five vice presidents arrived. Personnel, logistics, armed forces, development, and planning—all connected, not one delayed.

"Have you all seen it?" President Shen Qing began.

"Seen it." The logistics manager was the first to speak, unable to suppress the excitement in their voice. "Sister Shen, this trading platform function is so timely for us. I have over forty excess bronze-grade ship repair Materials piled up, and nobody within twenty nautical miles wants them, but the South District detachment reported an urgent shortage yesterday. Before, there was no way to send them, but now I can just list them, and it's solved with a few karma points for shipping."

The development manager nodded along: "It's not just internal allocation. We've stockpiled quite a bit of sea beast meat from the beast tide hunts over the last three days. We can just list it to trade for weapons, tools, and supplies to restore energy and spirit. We are short in all these areas, and before, we couldn't buy them even with money, but now—"

The planning manager took over, but their tone suddenly sank: "The trading function is a good thing, but have you thought about... that locked 'Life Spring' function? If it really can produce Life Spring water as speculated, what does that mean for us?"

The atmosphere in the meeting room changed subtly.

The development manager frowned, speaking faster than usual: "It's not just a value issue. If the Life Spring water produced by the Life Spring can be traded, then anyone with karma points can buy healing resources."

"What does our Little Life Society rely on to gather people and have influence on the Fate Platform? It's your gold-grade talent, Minor Life Technique, President, it's your ability to bring the dead back to life and regrow flesh and bones. Before, people who needed healing could only come to us. That's how we accumulated our influence in the surrounding seas, and that's how the entire Yanxia Camp's reputation on the Fate Platform was earned."

The personnel manager also spoke up, their voice steady but filled with worry: "The decrease in survivors' demand for us means we've lost the opportunity to contact new members, and at the same time, our influence on the Fate Platform will inevitably be impacted. Our positioning has always been a medical organization. If we want to occupy an important position in the Yanxia Camp and obtain a large amount of merit, our healing ability is our lifeline. Once the trading function is open and medicine starts circulating, it has already weakened our advantage. If the Life Spring opens a batch production function for healing resources—"

"Then the Foundation we rely on to stand will be dug out." The armed forces manager, Zhao Zheng, concluded firmly.

Silence spread for a few seconds.

The logistics manager's excitement from earlier faded, and they said in a low voice: "So are we... being targeted by the Fate Master?"

President Shen Qing had remained silent.

Just when the senior management of the Little Life Society was worried.

She, looking as if she had been prepared for a long time, opened a wooden box that had been placed on the conference table in front of her.

Inside was a white, crystal-clear bead, about the size of a longan, emitting a faint, soft halo.

The five vice presidents' gazes were instantly attracted to it.

"This is...?" Zhao Zheng leaned in to look.

"A Life Crystal I condensed using the Minor Life Technique," President Shen Qing said. "One of these can be soaked in tons of water. Although the healing effect per ton of water isn't as good as me casting the spell directly, it's enough to treat minor injuries, stabilize conditions, and keep people alive. The key is—it can be traded."