The entire school embarks on a survival journey, starting from a primeval rainforest.

"I...I'll get it, I'll go get it right now..." Huo Xuan's voice began to tremble, and she dared not make any more demands. She hurriedly turned around and ran towards their temporary gathering point.

Watching her retreating figure, Jiang Fan said to Zheng Xiuyuan, "Follow her and watch her take it. Make sure she distributes the meat according to the previously registered list of wounded. Once she's done, tell her to get lost and not to show her up in front of me."

"Okay!" Zheng Xiuyuan readily agreed and strode after him.

Then Jiang Fan looked at Zhao Yi, the physical education student, who was also one of the four members of the Anaconda group.

"Go after him and see if Zheng Xiuyuan is alright."

"...Okay!" Zhao Yi paused for a moment, then quickly followed.

Watching Zhao Yi's departing figure, the coldness in Jiang Fan's heart did not completely dissipate.

He turned to Li Chuxue, who was standing to the side, and was about to ask her to follow, but he saw that she had her head slightly lowered and her hands unconsciously clenched the hem of her clothes.

"Jiang Fan, thank you." Li Chuxue suddenly raised her head, her voice soft but clear.

Her eyes were a little red, not from feeling wronged, but from a complex mix of relief, guilt, and gratitude.

At this point, she realized that someone must have come to Jiang Fan because they didn't get any meat, but he didn't suspect her.

Even when asking me about the situation, he would do so indirectly.

Instead of confronting people face-to-face, he saved face for himself.

"It's my fault for not handling things well. I was too trusting and made you worry." Li Chuxue lowered her head, her tone sincere.

Congratulations on receiving 110 gratitude points from Li Chuxue!

This time, Jiang Fan laughed heartily; the matter was resolved more quickly than he had expected.

He stood still, his gaze sweeping over the outlines of other dormitory buildings that were faintly visible in the thick fog in the distance.

Resources, morale, power... even within this small group of survivors, the corruption of these things comes so quickly.

Huo Xuan was just the beginning.

With over 300 people gathered in four buildings, the pressure to survive intensifies, and similar conflicts are only likely to increase.

He recalled Tang Qingyu's assessment of Cao Bin: "He is rather vengeful."

He dealt with Huo Xuan today, seemingly decisively, but could this have sown the seeds of another hidden danger?

After all, she was Tang Qingyu's roommate.

However, Jiang Fan did not regret it.

Some lines must be drawn clearly.

If you compromise once, you'll compromise again.

If he lets Huo Xuan's behavior go unpunished today, more people may follow suit tomorrow.

Rules must be established.

Especially in a world on the verge of losing its old order.

...

When he returned to his dormitory building, he was surprised to find that quite a few people had gathered there.

A spontaneous "trading place" seems to be quietly taking shape here.

Because of the tree-cutting for bridge construction, many trees in this area have been cleared, revealing a relatively open expanse of muddy land.

They could have used the available materials from the grounds of the dormitories, but Jiang Fan, wanting to make it safer for them to enter and exit "at their own doorstep," ordered Ding Hang and the others to cut down all the big trees on this side.

Unexpectedly, there was an additional benefit.

At first, it was just people exchanging things they didn't need for food or medicine from other people.

Later, more and more people joined.

Someone traded half a packet of cold medicine for two kilograms of smoked jerky.

Someone traded a pack of toilet paper for a small bottle of clean water.

Someone else found a rusty pair of scissors from somewhere and traded it for three wild fruits.

Jiang Fan did not stop the transaction.

On the contrary, he felt it was a good thing.

It's better for goods to circulate than to rot in the hands of individuals.

Moreover, these spontaneously formed markets can, to some extent, ease tensions between different buildings.

Everyone gets what they need; there's no need to ruin things.

Jiang Fan was not idle.

There's still a lot of leopard meat left. It's hot and humid here, so rather than letting it spoil, we'd better get something else to replace it with.

Although he had a meat drying room, that thing occupied 5m*10m, while he only had a 5m*5m space expansion card, which was simply not enough to fit it all.

He carried dozens of kilograms of meat to the open space and set up a simple "stall".

He did not do it for food or clothing.

He only wanted the cards.

Especially those cards related to the "Homestead System".

"White Function Card - Expansion Card (5m*5m), one card for five pounds of meat!"

"White Building Card - Level 1 Meat Drying Room, one card can be exchanged for ten pounds of meat!"

"For the other cards, see the goods and get the meat!"

"Mutant beast meat, a cure-all, essential for murder, robbery, and jungle exploration. Don't miss out!"

Soon, a group of people gathered around.

A boy wearing glasses hesitated for a moment, then pulled out a card: "I...I have a [White Function Card - Soil Improvement], would you like to exchange it?"

Jiang Fan took the card and glanced at it.

【White Function Card - Soil Improvement】

[Note: After use, it can improve the soil fertility of a designated area (5m*5m), making it suitable for planting common crops.]

"Change it." Jiang Fan nodded. "Four catties of meat."

The boy's eyes lit up, and he nodded quickly: "Change! Change!"

A tall, thin girl squeezed through the crowd behind him, holding a card in her hand: "[White Resource Card - Water Storage Bucket (50L)]"

Jiang Fan took it and looked at it.

The effect is simple: it summons a 50-liter plastic water tank.

Although his Heavenly Cloud Vine has a "life filter" function, it can store water.

However, the capacity is limited, and it is only enough for one person's daily consumption at most.

But its filtration capacity doesn't stop there; when it's at full power, it can filter more than 10 liters of clean water overnight.

This makes the 50L water storage tank all the more precious, especially for someone like him who can filter and purify water.

"One piece can be exchanged for two pounds of meat," Jiang Fan said.

"Okay!" The girl quickly handed over the card, afraid that Jiang Fan would change his mind.

The transaction proceeded exceptionally smoothly.

Most people receive cards of white quality, primarily resource cards and utility cards.

These cards are of limited use to them now.

What's the use of a soil improvement card if there's nowhere to farm? Without a stable water source, water storage tanks are just for show.

For them, the most important thing right now is to fill their stomachs and survive.

But Jiang Fan is different.

He traded meat that was about to rot, so he wasn't losing out no matter how you look at it.

In a short while, Jiang Fan exchanged over sixty kilograms of leopard meat for eleven cards.

Seven of them are function cards, three are resource cards, and one is a building card.

The function cards include three "expansion cards", two "soil improvement cards", one "simple irrigation card", and one "basic fence card".

The resource card contains two water storage buckets and a packet of vegetable seeds (tomatoes).

The building card represents a level one fishpond.

Besides that, the most satisfying gain for Jiang Fan was five packs of instant noodles.

He's a typical carb addict; he feels uncomfortable if he doesn't eat carbs for a meal.

He was really upset when the girls in his dorm didn't even have a pack of instant noodles left.

This time, a boy asked him if he could exchange instant noodles for some meat. Jiang Fan immediately waved his hand and gave him five pounds of meat.

As darkness fell, thick fog began to drift in from the depths of the rainforest.

The crowd at the trading site gradually dispersed, and everyone returned to their respective dormitories.

Jiang Fan also packed his things and returned to his dormitory.

A fire has been lit on the rooftop, and wild vegetables and berries gathered today are cooking in a pot, mixed with a few pieces of meat, emitting a light fragrance.

Jiang Fan ladled out a bowl, tore open a packet of instant noodles and threw it in, then sat on the edge of the rooftop and began to eat heartily with the undercooked noodles.

The wild vegetables were a bit astringent, the berries were sweet and sour, and the meat chunks were cooked until very tender.

The taste isn't particularly good, but it's rich in flavor.

He looked at the Heavenly Cloud Vine mark on his wrist.

I've fed it quite a bit of meat these past two days, and the color of the markings seems to have deepened, while the pulsation of the vines is more pronounced.

After opening the empty room on the fourth floor to distribute supplies and to help the injured and sick, the gratitude value has reached 6852 points, getting closer and closer to the next purchase of pink blind boxes.

Back in his dorm room, he couldn't wait to start using the various cards he had collected that day.

The expansion card shattered first, flashing with light, and a 5m x 5m space appeared out of thin air in a corner of the dormitory.

Then, three more identical spaces appeared, turning a room that was originally only 20 square meters into a room that was over 120 square meters.

Then a house suddenly appeared, containing 45 meat drying racks.

Immediately afterwards, a fishpond measuring 5m by 5m appeared.

Then there were two large water buckets, and a fence around them...