When Yun Luohe asked Lin Zhu if he had a way to obtain pearls, Lin Zhu thought she had somehow found out about his Pearl Oyster farming.But he had never told anyone about this matter, so he immediately became cautious.He tested her with a few indirect questions and only then realized that Yun Luohe did not actually know.Only then did he relax and tell Yun Luohe that he had pearls, asking her how many she needed.Yun Luohe genuinely had no idea how many pearls Lin Zhu had in reserve, so she simply said that she needed a lot, estimating that he probably did not have enough.“I have a high-grade blueprint for armor that uses pearls. It requires a large amount of pearls. Can you tell me where you got your pearls? I’ll figure out how to gather them slowly.”Lin Zhu smiled faintly. How could he possibly not have enough pearls on hand?“Show me how many you need.”Yun Luohe had no choice but to tell him, “It takes 100 pearls to craft one set of Pearl Scale Armor. You also need Silver Spider Silk. If I can actually make it, the defensive properties will definitely be strong.”Lin Zhu thought to himself, that really is quite a lot—but he could provide that.However, if he took them out so casually, it would definitely arouse Yun Luohe’s suspicion.But after hearing that crafting Pearl Scale Armor required so many pearls, Lin Zhu could imagine the effect would be extraordinary. Coincidentally, he needed a set of high-grade armor himself, since in a few days he would be landing on an island again.After his recent upgrade, he had obtained a Basic Pet Contract as well, so he was eager to head to an island and find himself a suitable pet.“How about this—I’ll find a way to gather enough pearls for you. You craft one set of Pearl Scale Armor for me, free of charge.”“Then you’ll need to gather enough pearls for two sets of armor. That’s 200 pearls total.”Lin Zhu: “Deal. I’ll have them ready for you in two days.”He already had enough pearls on hand, but in any case, he was not in a rush to land on an island. It would be a few more days before a week passed, only then would his island landing permissions unlock.Seeing how confident he sounded, Yun Luohe agreed. From her perspective, it was not a loss.—The sky was already growing dark. Yun Luohe crafted several more of the blueprints she had set aside earlier.As for a few recipes, she lacked the necessary raw materials, so for now, she had to set those aside.After finishing the blueprint work, Yun Luohe had to begin preparing for the upcoming disaster.In fact, she had already gathered all the required materials. Once Yang Mian returned, she would be able to produce the Anti-Acid Coating.But before that, she decided to widen the drainage channels.Even if she managed to craft enough acid-resistant materials, if the rainfall was too heavy, it would still impact the Reef. Besides, she could not possibly protect every area.It was always better to be over-prepared.Additionally, she had instructed ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) Mu Zitang to notify everyone in the Mutual Aid Association’s main group chat that tonight's disaster escalation might bring acid rain.Everyone should make preparations in advance.She also asked him to spread the news under Tianji Pavilion's name, which could help improve their reputation.Yun Luohe had already crafted plenty of Waterproof Cloth earlier, and in the past two days, she had obtained a new Waterproof Cloth Recipe.She directly assigned one of the players from the Management Trainee group to produce it continuously.After two days, Yun Luohe now had 200 pieces of Waterproof Cloth.Once she received the Black Sludge, she could apply Anti-Acid Coating to all of them.By then, at least every player in the Association would be able to receive one piece each.Yun Luohe also needed to use Anti-Acid Waterproof Cloth to construct a Rain Shelter, protecting her crops and fruit trees.She planned to build a brick enclosure around them to minimize the acid rain's impact on the farmland.Ròubāo was helping nearby as well. Ever since the two had completed their contract, communication had become much more convenient.As long as Yun Luohe could understand Ròubāo's speech, she knew exactly what it wanted to eat.As long as she fed it its favorite food, it was willing to do anything.Sure enough, after she made it a bowl of Fish Paste Porridge, it ate until its mouth was sticky and gooey, happily excited for quite some time. Now, it was using its paws to help Yun Luohe dig soil to widen the drainage channels.—The sky was growing darker, but Yang Mian still had not returned.Yun Luohe paused her work and opened the Light Screen, only to see that Yang Mian had messaged her ten minutes ago saying he had run into trouble.He had indeed found the Parasitic Vine, but the entire plant was highly corrosive, making it impossible to touch.After a great effort, he managed to kill one, but just as he was about to dig up the Parasitic Vine's roots, venomous insects began crawling out from the soil in endless waves—completely impossible to kill them all.His supply of insecticide had already been used up.For now, Yang Mian did not dare continue digging, because the more he dug, the more venomous insects emerged—he could no longer handle them.Yun Luohe thought for a moment, then simply sent him the Golden Silk Armor she had just crafted.“You might as well use fire attacks. Burn the Parasitic Vine directly. Plus, Golden Silk Armor provides poison resistance. If you put it on, you shouldn't need to fear the venomous insects.”She also sent him the Anti-Corrosion Gloves. “Take these too. If you dig something out, make sure you wear gloves when handling it—it could be poisonous.”Yang Mian had not expected Yun Luohe to be so generous, lending him two high-quality pieces of equipment.After all his effort, he was just one step away from success, so he agreed to try again.“It’s getting dark soon. If it really doesn’t work out, just retreat. I won’t have time to craft enough Anti-Acid Coating otherwise.”She sent the message, then got back to work.—While waiting, Yun Luohe began preparing dinner.She also smoked two fish.The Mining Illustrated Manual she had obtained was given to Mu Zitang, since he had the [Gathering] skill related to mining. Keeping it for herself would be useless.If she learned mining later, she could always take it back to review.The two Planting Guides she had acquired earlier were also copied by Mu Zitang and sold as intelligence.Many players had started growing crops on the Reef, and they all needed agricultural knowledge.After all, in this modern era, not everyone knew how to farm.As for the Cooking Manual, it recorded many different recipes, providing Yun Luohe with numerous new ideas.Smoking fish was one of the techniques she learned from that manual.It was very simple. She could smoke several fish at once, and it would also provide Cooking experience.However, one skill action could only add up to 5 experience points per day, so she only needed to smoke five fish each day, no more.In fact, making jam also counted as a [Cooking] action, but using the Jam Barrel to produce it did not, since that was not considered her personally making it by hand.So Yun Luohe prepared the fruit by cutting it into small pieces, boiling it until soft, then adding an appropriate amount of sugar to process it.Personally making jam also increased her [Cooking] experience.Coincidentally, Lin Zhu had given her some White Sugar last time, so Yun Luohe tried it out.The manual also taught her how to brew alcohol and make apple cider vinegar. Unfortunately, she lacked the necessary ingredients, otherwise, she would have tried those as well.And this was only the third volume of the [Cooking Manual], yet it already contained so much content. Yun Luohe made up her mind—she had to obtain the full set. That way, her [Cooking] skill would definitely level up faster.—After nightfall, Yun Luohe placed a large amount of Black Sludge on the Workbench.This was what Mu Zitang had just delivered to her.He had settled accounts with Yang Mian, and when Yang Mian returned, according to the agreement, he had to hand over 5% of all obtained materials to Tianji Pavilion, which also included three-fifths of the Black Sludge. This had been arranged beforehand.Yang Mian had dug up some Symbiotic Crystals at the roots of the Parasitic Vine, along with some strange fragments.According to the prior agreement, half of those were sent to Yun Luohe. But Yun Luohe had no time to examine them right now—it was too late. She had to produce the Anti-Acid Coating first.The amount of Black Sludge was considerable, enough for Yun Luohe to produce two large barrels of Anti-Acid Coating.Once she was done, she distributed all the Waterproof Cloth and Anti-Acid Coating to the Management Trainee group, instructing everyone to hurry and use the Workbench to combine the Waterproof Cloth and Anti-Acid Coating, producing Acid-Resistant Waterproof Cloth.The remaining Anti-Acid Coating Yun Luohe kept for herself, intending to apply it to the Biogas Tank’s protective cover, the house’s rooftop, the drainage channels—essentially every area she could think of needed a layer of coating.At that moment, Tianji Pavilion had already spread the news in the chat channel that acid rain was imminent.Many people did not believe it.Some claimed Tianji Pavilion was fearmongering, probably just to sell products.Recently, Tianji Pavilion had suddenly risen to fame, earning a lot of materials by selling intelligence, which triggered resentment among some players.After all, the freeloaders and handout-seekers always hoped that all information would be provided freely and made public.Indeed, some altruistic or kind-hearted players did share their experiences openly on the forums without asking for anything, gaining many followers.These players who shared survival knowledge also disapproved of Tianji Pavilion, believing that players should unite, share useful knowledge and information with everyone, so that more people could survive.If materials had to be exchanged for information, wouldn't the lucky or wealthy players have an unfair advantage?Mu Zitang saw people cursing him every day.In everyone's eyes, he was undoubtedly the person in charge of Tianji Pavilion.But, as Mu Zitang himself put it: "Let them curse, it doesn’t affect my profits. Negative fame is still fame. There are so many people buying information from Tianji Pavilion daily, I can barely keep up with the demand."Still, these matters were indeed annoying.Yun Luohe had discussed it with him several times, and together they devised a reform and upgrade plan. They intended to implement it after surviving the acid rain crisis.For now, the entire Mutual Aid Association was busy. After the acid rain news was released, Tianji Pavilion had no time to sell intelligence.But the plan had already been outlined:First: Establish an information grading system, dividing intelligence into three levels.S-Rank Intelligence: High-grade intelligence, such as Treasure Caves or the Spider Island Queen’s Sacrifice Ritual mission. These could only be traded with Yun Luohe’s personal approval.A-Rank Intelligence: Equivalent to the previous bundle packages, containing multiple pieces of information, requiring a tripartite agreement and system notarization, handled solely by Mu Zitang.B-Rank Intelligence: Regular island information and resource distribution details, which could be broken down for retail sales by Tianji Pavilion members.Additionally, recently, some people had deliberately targeted Tianji Pavilion, spreading false rumors, claiming Tianji Pavilion sold fake intelligence.Others, driven by profit, had formed their own intelligence groups, purchasing information from Tianji Pavilion and reselling it at low prices, stealing their business.To counter this, Yun Luohe came up with two countermeasures:First, release two pieces of free false intelligence each week to confuse competitors.Second, infiltrate competing groups as buyers, confirming their identity before setting up "Intelligence Traps" such as false coordinates to drain rival resources.This carried risks—it could accidentally harm genuine customers, so it had to be handled with caution.Therefore, it was best to establish a membership system, strictly limiting sales to new customers, unless recommended by existing members or after signing an agreement.The membership system would be directly tied to Tianji Pavilion’s currency system, introducing the "Tianji Token" (1 Token = 5 units of Iron Ore = 2 Intelligence Points).Members would exclusively purchase information using Intelligence Points, with bonuses for bulk purchases.A quarterly membership would be launched, offering resource prepayment for priority access, along with "Buy One, Get One Free" intelligence deals.After reading the entire proposal, Yun Luohe thought Mu Zitang was truly wasting his talent by not running a real-world business.But, doing business within the game was still business.—That night, the acid rain fell precisely at midnight.Usually, the rain would begin as soon as nightfall arrived.But since the system had promised the disaster escalation would start after three days, tonight it deliberately waited until midnight to begin.Darkness shrouded the Reef, and pea-sized, greenish acid rain poured down in torrents.The once-vibrant crops withered the moment the acid rain struck.Tender green leaves were instantly covered in dense brown spots.Moments later, the leaves curled, shriveled, and lost all moisture as if it had been instantly drained away.The chat channel exploded:“Holy crap, it’s really acid rain! Tianji Pavilion was right!”“No way… it’s real… terrifying! The acid rain corroded my wooden house!”“Disaster escalation shouldn’t be this brutal! System!”“What do we do?! My crops are all dead!”“Help! The seaweed grew out of control! I didn’t harvest the seaweed during the day, now they’re going crazy! Why isn’t the seaweed dying in acid rain? It’s growing even faster!”Yun Luohe stood under the eaves, holding the Resin Lantern, her expression extremely grim.It seemed the situation was worse than she had imagined.[Disaster Escalation: Players who fail to reach Level 5 within three days will be eliminated.][Acid Rain is both a disaster and an opportunity. Starting today, a three-day Lucky Period begins. Five thousand Diving Cards will be distributed. Players can use Diving Cards to search for more materials beneath the sea.]A slap with one hand, a sweet date with the other.The system truly knew how to give people a glimmer of hope amidst despair—deliberately to push everyone’s potential to the limit.Those players who had yet to reach Level 5 were all cowering in the corners of their wooden houses, filled with fear.But wooden houses could not protect them for long.Under the relentless assault of acid rain, rooftops corroded with a sizzling sound, becoming increasingly fragile and unstable.If they had slacked off during the day and failed to clear the seaweed from the Reef, the situation now would be even worse.If more than 50 Seaweed remained on the Reef, they would all transform into Giant Seaweed Monsters.These creatures were more vicious than the Fish Monsters, capable of growing larger and longer, relentlessly attacking wooden houses.

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