Chapter Bonanza (4/5)

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【Raspberry Jam★】

【Type: Processed Item】

【A sweet and tangy jam that tastes even better spread on bread. Consuming one jar restores 10 Stamina.】

【Suggested Price: 221 Sol.】

【Condition: Fresh】

【Apple Jam★★★】

【Category: Processed Food】

【A crystal-clear jam bursting with fruity flavor! Eating one jar restores 12 HP.】

【Suggested Price: 450 Sol.】

【Status: Fresh】

【Canned Apples ★★★】

【Category: Processed Food】

【Apple chunks soaked in syrup—soft, sweet, and delicious! Eating one can restores 30 Stamina.】

【Suggested Price: 510 Sol.】

【Condition: Fresh】

【Candied Apples ★★★☆】

【‌Category: Dish】

【A brilliant combination of orange juice, honey, passion fruit, and apples—it tastes even better after soaking overnight! Restores 10 Stamina.】

【Suggested Price: 640 Sol.】

【Condition: Fresh】

【‌Unlocked a new recipe: Candied Apples.】

“Huh? Is this the only recipe I got?” Nan Liujing looked at the small stainless steel bowl in front of him, which contained a serving of the candied apples he had just made.

Cut an apple vertically into thick strips, tossed into the bowl, squeezed with the juice of one orange, scooped out the pulp of two passion fruits, and, if available, added a dried plum, drizzled with a bit of honey, then tossed it all together—and just like that, these incredibly simple candied apples were ready.

Nan Liujing didn’t even make it to extend the shelf life; it was simply that he happened to have passion fruit and oranges from a private chat where someone traded apples with him, which sparked a sudden memory of a snack he’d once eaten at a party.

He had a classmate named Liuzi who liked to use candied apples to make drinks—either with soda water or alcohol—which tasted sweet and slightly tart.

He didn’t think about it much normally, but once the memory surfaced, he found himself craving it. That’s why Nan Liujing made a small bowl of them, planning to have them for lunch.

Unexpectedly, the various jams and preserves he’d spent so much time and effort making received no feedback, whereas these casually prepared candied apples not only unlocked the recipe but also earned an extra half-star.

“Why is there such a difference? Where did I go wrong?”

Picking up a piece of apple and popping it into his mouth, Nan Liujing pondered the question while munching away. Sometimes he really wished he had a manual for *Island Survival*—the feeling of having all the settings hidden in a fog, forcing him to explore bit by bit, was novel, but it was also incredibly taxing on his brain.

“No good. There aren’t enough clues to figure anything out.” Shrugging, Nan Liujing decisively gave up on brainstorming and turned to tidy up the pile of jars and bottles he’d just made.

He’d made 12 jars of apple preserves, each holding 1 liter. On average, each jar used two and a half apples, plus two 500g bags of rock sugar—the rock sugar alone had cost him five wooden planks and an apple.

In the pale golden syrup, white chunks of apple were packed tightly together, as crowded as a subway during rush hour, evidently showing how hard Nan Liujing had packed them in—he only stopped when he simply couldn’t fit any more.

He made 10 jars each of raspberry jam and apple jam, using small glass jars with capacities of 220ml and 350ml. This used up 20 raspberries, 10 apples, 6 bags of 500g white sugar, and 1 jar of honey.

Of the finished jams, the deep red raspberry jam still reveals the fruit pulp and seeds through the glass, while the amber-colored apple jam—because the fruit was chopped too finely—had already melted into a jelly-like consistency during the simmering process.

Whether it’s canned goods or jam, the finished products are an absolute failure in terms of their sole function: restoring stamina. You’d have to eat an entire jar just to regain a tiny bit of stamina. Not only is the cost-effectiveness poor, but who could possibly eat that much sweet stuff in one go without anything to wash it down? 

Nan Liujing had anticipated this. He hadn’t made these items specifically to restore stamina in the first place; they were simply food reserves.

Pickled foods have unparalleled advantages in preservation compared to other types of food. If they were on Blue Star, these jars and bottles could last at least a year.

They were likely to encounter extreme weather conditions soon. How long could ordinary food last under such conditions? Nan Liujing wasn’t sure, so he could only try his best to extend the shelf life. 

With 78 raspberries and 111 apples remaining, Nan Liujing thought it over and decided to set aside 50 raspberries and 50 apples to dry and preserve.

But this task would have to wait until tomorrow. The weather forecast stated that it would rain tomorrow.

While Nan Liujing was busy making jam and preserves, the apples he’d listed in the trading zone had already sold, bringing in 20 iron nails, 224 stones, and 28 clay.  

Stones are a basic material that can be easily gathered to your heart’s content in the coral forest next time, so their difficulty in obtaining is completely incomparable. Even players without access to the coral forest can easily pick up a huge pile of them on a Resource Island with just one trip out to sea. On the other hand, there are very few blueprints that require stones, which led to stones being completely unsellable on the market for a while.

Eventually, players stopped bothering to gather stones or list them on the trading board; after all, no one was buying, and gathering them wasted precious stamina.

It was only because Nan Liujing had spent ages searching the trading board without finding a single stone for sale that he decided to put out a specific buy order—a move that instantly caught the attention of other players.

Was someone actually trading 3-star apples for unwanted stones? What a sucker! I’ve got to jump on this bargain!

And so, while Nan Liujing busied himself boiling jam by the campfire, countless players rushed out of their makeshift shelters and dove straight into the coral forest to fish out stones.

Thanks to their efforts, Nan Liujing’s apple orders were snapped up in no time.

He fell silent for a moment when he checked the trading board himself.

He’d been careless; he shouldn’t have set up an automated trade. Seeing how scarce stones were on the market, he had assumed they were hard to come by—who knew everyone else was sitting on such huge stockpiles?

If only he’d chosen the “Requires buyer’s confirmation to complete transaction” mode.

“Never mind, I’ll just stockpile them. Maybe they’ll come in handy later.” Nan Liujing silently closed the trading interface, muttering to himself in consolation.

Fortunately, he’d managed to trade for 28 clay blocks—enough not only for the fireplace but also for building the Lime Ranch.

But Nan Liujing hadn’t decided yet whether to build the Slime Ranch. If limes were a bit pricey on the market, he just couldn’t see how a single lime was worth that much.

As for the fireplace, there was no need to hesitate—the sooner he built this gem, the sooner he could enjoy it. Nan Liujing brought up the construction interface, tapped quickly, and chose to place the fireplace right in the center of the farmhouse’s north wall, directly opposite the front door.

Center stage!

【Fireplace】

【Type: Building】

【A warm fireplace that can be built inside a shelter, allowing you to safely enjoy warmth, ward off the cold and damp, and cook food.】

【Crafting Materials: Stone x20, Clay x16.】

After 10 seconds of clanging construction sounds, silence returned. Nan Liujing couldn’t wait to push open the door and step into the farmhouse, where he immediately spotted his new fireplace.

The fireplace was square, built flush against the wall, reaching up to his hips. At the top was a narrow, square ledge that could be used for placing items.

The entire structure was built with smooth, square stone bricks held together with clay, with the base raised to form a square platform that jutted slightly beyond the fireplace itself. This design both prevented the wooden floor from coming into contact with open flames and provided a space for cooking. A pitch-black chimney ran along the wall, rising straight up and extending beyond the roof.

The fireplace has two features for cooking: one is the platform at the base, suitable for placing pots or setting up a grill; the other is an iron hook suspended above the firebox, where pots can be hung to heat.

Nan Liujing walked up to the fireplace and had just touched the top platform when the tablet in her arms suddenly vibrated.

【Congratulations! You have obtained a building suitable for cooking. Cooking functions are now available!】

“What?”

He took it out to look, and sure enough, an app slot had appeared on the screen, its icon depicting a frying pan being tossed in the air.

Curious, Nan Liujing tapped it. The next second, a look of relief spread across his face—as if he’d finally found a key he’d lost for half a month in the shoe cabinet: “So the recipes were here all along!”

The page that opened was densely packed with nothing but blank, unlocked slots—too many to take in at a glance. Only the first two slots contained images—specifically, the Garlic-Infused Oysters in Oil and Candied Apples that Nan Liujing had previously unlocked. 

At this moment, both recipes were grayed out, indicating they couldn’t be prepared. Nan Liujing tapped on them, and the system prompted him: “Missing required cooking tools.” 

“What’s missing? Where is it missing? I’ve made these before!” Nan Liujing frantically scrolled through the cooking page and finally found the explanation. Before this, Nan Liujing had actually been skeptical about this feature—he cooked every day even without it, and the meals not only filled his stomach but also didn’t drain his stamina. So was it really necessary for the system to introduce a dedicated cooking feature?

As it turned out, it was necessary. The newly unlocked cooking feature relies on buildings and tools designed for cooking, such as Nan Liujing’s fireplace. It can only produce food that the specific building is capable of making—trying to make ice cream with a fireplace is absolutely out of the question. The advantage of the cooking feature is that, as long as he has a recipe and a cooking structure, Nan Liujing can prepare dishes ten times faster. 

The cooking process is fully managed by the system, so even the “King of Dark Cuisine” can create delicious, aromatic meals. It saves time and guarantees great taste. It just consumes stamina. 

Yes, stamina. 

It’s been six days since he entered this damn game, and Nan Liujing has finally discovered the purpose of the stamina bar. Heaven knows how agonizing it is to watch his stamina bar go on a rollercoaster ride every day while the stamina bar remains completely stagnant. 

He has a full bar of stamina right here, yet he can’t spend a single bit of it—he’s forced to go to sleep with it all still intact…For a seasoned grind-and-power-leveling player, this is such a wasteful squandering of resources! It’s absolutely outrageous!

Rounding up, that’s like losing a hundred million! No way, he has to try using it.

“Food that can be made in the fireplace…” Nan Liujing stared silently at his inventory. All he had in his hands… were fruits… and eggs…Roasting a raw egg over an open flame… will it explode? 

After pondering for a while, he finally dug up a memory from the depths of his mind: the plain rice he’d once seen in the school cafeteria. The reason he “saw” it rather than “ate” it… Well, let’s just say that back then, Little Nan—who’d only been abroad for a few days—was still too young. 

He hadn’t experienced any hardships yet, and certainly wouldn’t go out of his way to make life difficult for himself. But now…

“This’ll do!”

At this point, whether it tasted good or not didn’t matter; what mattered was testing the cooking function!

Nan Liujing stepped outside, returned with a bundle of firewood, piled it in the fireplace, and lit it with a lighter. Bright yellow flames danced from one log to the next, crackling loudly as the heat slowly rose, the firelight flickering across Nan Liujing’s face. He took an apple from the storage room, used an oyster knife to make an incision at the top, cut a small square around the stem, scooped it out, and then inserted a spoon to remove the apple seeds.

He poured honey into the small square hole until it was full, and the preliminary preparations were complete.

Nan Liujing silently stirred the burning firewood, dug out a piece of black charcoal from the bottom, and placed it nearby—close to the flames but not in direct contact with them—then set the apple neatly on top.

Yes, that’s the entire process. Now all that’s left is to wait for the residual heat from the charcoal to roast the apple. There’s no difficulty to the process at all. At most, you need to replace the charcoal fragments with fresh ones before the heat fades, and make sure the open flame doesn’t burn the apple. 

Forty minutes later, the apple’s originally smooth skin had become wrinkled. After the moisture had been baked out, it had shrunk noticeably, and its color had shifted from a vibrant red to a yellowish amber. The aroma of the baked apple wafts through the air, mingled with the sweet scent of honey. Nan Liujing bent down to take a whiff, raising an eyebrow in surprise.

“It’s actually not bad? Maybe it’s not as bad as I imagined.”

Carefully picking up the apple with chopsticks, Nan Liujing immediately saw the new item description.

【Baked Apple ★★★】 

【Category: Cuisine】

【Perfect for cold weather; baking brings out the apple’s natural sweetness. Restores 30 Stamina upon consumption.】

【Suggested Price: 500 Sol.】

【Status: Fresh】

【Unlocked new recipe: Baked Apple.】