Chapter 7: The Girl Floating at Sea

Chen Qing estimated that the mechanical garbage obtained from Qing Xian could still be fashioned into over twenty finished products.

Those pieces of mechanical garbage that couldn't be utilized, as long as Chen Qing had enough tools, could actually be melted down and remade; they were not truly waste.

With enough finished products on hand, Chen Qing immediately found the survivors she had dealt with before and bought all the Mechanical Arms and Mechanical Ants they had.

The Mechanical Arm cost Chen Qing 5 finished products, while the Mechanical Ant cost a total of 18.

If it hadn't been for the early game, Chen Qing might not have been able to purchase items of the Deep Blue quality so cheaply.

Of course, Chen Qing's Automatic Fishing Net Machine could save the survivors a lot of effort as well.

With the Mechanical Ants acquired, Chen Qing could be freed from repair work and focus on assembling and transforming mechanical finished products.

The remaining finished products were then used by Chen Qing to purchase mechanical-related blueprints and Skills, or some precious items.

Whether it was fishing net and fishing rod or Water Purifier, Chen Qing's selling prices were not high, and with her own efforts, she managed to lower the price of fresh water in the world of survivors.

Although it was only a small area, this did not prevent the majority of survivors in that area from developing a fondness for Chen Qing.

This fondness was enough to make them prefer to sell their valuable possessions to Chen Qing first.

After the rain had passed, the sky was clear and the clouds were untainted, exceptionally beautiful.

Even the sea was calm, with seagulls soaring in the sky, emitting comfortable cries, as if there were no dangers at all.

Chen Qing sat quietly assembling an extra-large Sea Water Purifier on a deck behind the bow of the ship.

Its water tank had a capacity of 300L, and it used a total of 10 Primary Power Cores, giving it strong endurance.

She planned to install this Sea Water Purifier on the ship and connect it to each cabin with water pipes, so the water usage problem on the ship could be resolved.

And it would be very convenient, enough to support Chen Qing's daily needs.

After all, as the only Mechanical Apprentice among the survivors, Chen Qing's time was very precious.

After finishing this Water Purifier, Chen Qing planned to go and slightly modify her mechanical workshop to allow for assembly line repair operations.

Assembly line production was temporarily out of reach, but Chen Qing was already lucky to have gotten hold of a Repair Ant.

The "Mechanic's Beginner's Guide" indeed provided Chen Qing with a lot of help; she self-taught many Skills, and now even repair work was no issue for her.

Later, she could even slightly transform the ship to cultivate some special plants on it.

"Thump—!"

Having finished the task at hand, just as Chen Qing was about to return to her workshop, she heard a collision sound.

It seemed the ship had collided with something.

Chen Qing frowned slightly and followed the sound to the front of the ship.

Somehow, a person bound to a log had appeared on the sea surface; the sound just now was of the log hitting the ship.

The person in the water was covered with wounds of varying sizes, from cuts to gunshot wounds and even burns from fire; Chen Qing could not tell what had caused some of the injuries.

The wounds had long been soaked white by the sea, and from such a distance, Chen Qing could smell the stench of rot; this person was hanging by a thread even if he wasn't already dead.

To save him, Chen Qing would have to spend a lot.

Both time and money.

And instinct told Chen Qing that this guy in the water was bound to be big trouble!

Both reason and emotion dictated that Chen Qing should pretend she saw nothing, leaving him to sink to the bottom of the sea.

The best course of action would be for Chen Qing to kill him herself, to destroy the corpse and eliminate future troubles.

But...

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Perhaps sensing the danger in the water, the person who had fallen unconscious due to severe injuries miraculously woke up.

"Save... me... please..."

The voice hoarse and dry from severe dehydration belonged to a young and immature face.

It's a child.

After crying out for help to Chen Qing, the child once again slipped into unconsciousness.

Chen Qing's gaze lowered, and she made no move.

It took quite a while, but eventually, Chen Qing let out an almost inaudible sigh and threw down a fishing net, scooping the person up.

To save her was, without a doubt, inviting trouble.

However, high risk often comes with high reward.

Besides, Chen Qing genuinely couldn't just watch as a child died before her eyes.

Call her a saint or nosy, the education she received didn't permit her to ignore a vulnerable person when she had the ability to help.

Chen Qing was an abandoned child, thrown into a hospital's trash can at birth. If not for the kindness of strangers, she wouldn't have made it this far.

Of course, Chen Qing wasn't the type to help others without considering the consequences. She had observed that the child couldn't overpower her.

There were no signs of physical training on the child's body, and, with severe injuries, there was no threat to her.

After pulling the person up, Chen Qing quickly checked her, finding she carried no possessions other than tattered clothes.

This child was very thin, her bones distinctly visible, indicating long-term malnourishment, never having eaten her fill, and constantly engaged in an overload of labor.

This child was likely not a survivor; she was a native of this world.

Was there anything about a chronically malnourished child that warranted such treatment?

She must harbor some great secret.

It might be intrinsic to her or something she had seen or heard that she should not have known.

Chen Qing's brows furrowed as she quickly opened the chat panel to find Qing Xian.

As a black-market dealer, she should have some potions on hand.

Qing Xian didn't disappoint Chen Qing's expectations and immediately sent three kinds of potions.

[No.5 Magic Potion (E)], [Bai Lu Ointment (E)], [HY-163 Recovery Potion (D)]

Upon receiving Chen Qing's message, Qing Xian immediately sent the best potions she had on hand.

She had thought Chen Qing needed them for herself and had never imagined Chen Qing would use them to save someone else.

Qing Xian had more good stuff than Chen Qing had anticipated. After weighing her options, Chen Qing chose the Bai Lu Ointment.

The child's external wounds were severe. With her constitution, if she had internal injuries, she wouldn't have lasted until meeting Chen Qing.

Cleaning her wounds with fresh water and applying a thin layer of Bai Lu Ointment, Chen Qing temporarily settled her in the kitchen.

There weren't many cabins on the ship, and Chen Qing's room was connected to the workshop, making it inconvenient for the child.

No sooner had Chen Qing settled the person in the kitchen than she came out of the cabin to see a ship rapidly sailing towards her direction in the distance.

The mast bore a black sail adorned with a massive skull and crossbones, the sail ragged as if it had sustained serious damage.

Chen Qing could hear the noise coming from the ship afar, filled with thick malice.

It was the pirates!

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