Wang Qi spent the next three nights fighting with the axe. In the early morning before the full moon night, he changed the ax handle again.
There is no doubt about the results. As his proficiency with the ax improved, the trajectory of the ax gradually stabilized, which improved the cutting efficiency. He finally knocked down the largest oak tree in the corner park!
Sixty-eight growth rings, absolutely high-quality wood. In a peaceful era, the main trunk could be sold for tens of thousands of yuan. Excluding cutting boards and internal damage, and only for the price of logs, the whole tree might be sold for hundreds of thousands. ?
Because it can't be pulled back at all, it can only be left to dry in place temporarily.
The influence of outdoor wind and sunlight can cause it to be hot and cold, and the drying speeds inside and outside the logs are different, which will cause the wood to crack, and cracks that may penetrate the entire wood may appear. For board manufacturers, having more than one crack like this is like a natural disaster.
But it’s not necessarily true. If the local snow cover lasts for more than three months and the snow never melts, covering the wood with snow will lessen the impact of the sun after a few months. After all, Wang Qi doesn’t need to use it. Making big things like solid wooden table tops, mainly used for processing axes/guns/spear, spreaders, vehicles, etc. In the future, I may make furniture for carriages, but I don’t know where to find horses and similar tool beasts yet. .
Wang Qi had no idea about the local climate and could only rely on the weather. He would do some work later to bring at least part of it indoors.
Having said that, after using an ax to knock down this meter-thick thing for several nights, Wang Qi still felt quite accomplished. Being able to add attributes was different. A normal person would probably have broken his hand with his axe-swinging ability.
On the day I put it down, I cleaned up some twigs in the crown of the tree and removed as many leaves as possible.
There were probably some survivors coming over to trade in the afternoon, and they needed to rest in case of an accident. There was no way to continue, so other work could only be postponed.
In the afternoon, Wang Qi got up from the bed and glanced downstairs from the observation point.
The survivors have arrived.
There were two people, but their bodies seemed to be wrong, and they were different from the memories.
The sled was still the same, but there weren't many supplies on it.
After thinking about it for a moment, I checked my equipment, wiped it with a wet towel with the water bottle I had brought with me, and was already going downstairs.
After scrubbing, I put the towel in the kitchen on the fourth floor and knocked on the debris pile.
Li Xiang also traveled at night and did not appear soon. Wang Qi went to the end of the corridor to observe who was coming.
It seems like two women?
Honey trap?
Aren't you afraid of the sheep entering the tiger's mouth?
Without thinking much, he returned to the central corridor, and Li Xiang had already appeared on the opposite side.
Very good, vigilance has not been reduced by a few meals of meat.
Wang Qi made a gesture, and Li Xiang quickly understood and walked around the material room.
Wang Qi was immediately stunned.
This was the first time he saw Li Xiang in the daytime. He had not noticed it because of the poor lighting in the corridor. Now when he got closer, he realized that Li Xiang's pupils were pure white, with only a black dot the size of a sesame seed in the center. The black dot was still Not round, but horizontal pupils like sheep's pupils.
If I remember correctly, her eyes don't look like this under the firelight at night.
Is it the same for myself? The night ghost just changes the color of its eyes?
That's it?
After not being stunned for too long, Wang Qi took her to the window where she could observe the back door of the compound.
As soon as Li Xiang saw an outsider, he took the crossbow from behind.
Wang Qi didn't stop her. When she was about to wind the string, he stretched out his hand to block it, attracting her attention.
As he spoke, he pointed around the compound: "I'll go down and trade with them. You stay here and watch for me. If another survivor appears from other directions, shoot him."
Of course Li Xiang didn't understand, but she knew how to think, and by the way he pointed, she knew he wasn't asking her to shoot people directly.
Wang Qi went back and took out the meat that he had planned to trade from the supply room, then went downstairs and put it on the cart.
This is a cart used to clear tabletops in restaurants. It has two and a half floors. It has rusted through many large and small holes, but it is not a big problem to use it as a trading display stand.
Two of the four caster wheels of the cart are broken, which is not a big problem. It can be used as a sled when out of the house.
There are many reasons for not trying to recruit survivors into indoor trading. I believe they themselves are not willing to step into a stranger's base with unknown risks.
There has been no heavy snow recently, and light snow occasionally falls. Wang Qi comes in and out, making the snow in the compound slightly shallower. It is not particularly troublesome to follow the movement traces.
As he approached, Wang Qicai realized later that the transaction was at dusk, because at this time, he was facing the back door and was in a backlight state. Even if his vision was beyond ordinary people, he could not see the details of the other party's face clearly. The day of the full moon is probably just an additional safety feature.
There were still more than ten meters away from the back door of the compound, so he stopped and moved two steps sideways so that the other party could see the things on the cart.
The woman who spoke first was a woman she had never seen before. She was wearing a cotton-padded jacket. It could still be seen that her frame was not as big as the one next to her that she had met before. She might not be the main force in outdoor operations.
Team members specifically responsible for trading and material management? How many are there?
"Dear sir, hello, I am Anna, a deserter from the northern suburbs, and I am here to seek a deal in compliance with the agreement."
Wang Qi is like a blind man trying to learn a foreign language. He has no idea what the pronunciation is... Anyway, he can't understand it at all.
"Wang Qi." He pointed to himself, introduced himself, and then pointed to the cart, "What I can provide is here, in exchange for the map and the car battery."
Wang Qi didn't expect anyone to understand him since he had only seen one book in his mother tongue. He took out a hand-painted wooden board that took a few minutes to draw and indicated that he needed a map and a car battery.
Wang Qi, who used to be an architect, has not had enough time and energy in his life to rebuild the muscle memory of drawing straight lines and circles with freehand, but his health has improved, his control is not bad, and his expression is definitely accurate enough, at least not on maps. Mistaken for a bedwetting picture.
Anna has been observing him.
There is good news and bad news.
This nocturnal ghost is not sick, and his thinking is normal, even a little too normal. From the time Anna can remember, she has never seen such a calm expression, and has never heard such a steady voice.
Ferocious, hysterical, cowering, gloomy, reckless, flattering... all the words she could think of to describe the people in the desert could not describe the nocturnal ghost not far away.
Was it the self-confidence brought by his strength that could single-handedly kill the scorpion ant guard that gave him such peace?
If you don't understand, it will be difficult to bargain in a targeted manner. And since he is still using Qin language, there are problems with normal communication, so he can only try his luck.
After a while of silence, Anna motioned to Sister Shana to take out her things first, and at the same time she took out the map from her pocket.
She understood what was painted on the other party's wooden board.
Don't worry about the car battery. You can probably only find it in the south and the bandit den. Maps are available in every deserter team.
The capabilities of each surviving team are different, and the value of intelligence in the same location to different teams is very different. Map copies have long been the focus of trading. Usually, maps are exchanged for maps or verbal intelligence. If you can exchange maps for meat today, you will make a lot of money.
Some of the lashings on the sled were also unpacked and displayed.
Weapons, handmade woodware, hand-sewn backpacks and more.
Wang Qi was cautious, and the other party was not a fool. He thought for a while, pointed at the wooden board, and then pointed at the snow surface three meters away in front of him.
Meaning: I want to look at the map first.
If this is a fair transaction, his request is an unfair request, because the regional map is information that will be invalidated at a glance, and the high-precision world map is another matter, but normal people should not carry a world map with them.
Clearly the deal wasn't fair.
It was the other party who made the trade request out of necessity, and their goods didn't look that good either. They were typically asking for things from others. It's no wonder that the two women who came here might have the intention of not being worth enough to pay for it.
From the point of view of force, if there are no more two strong men, Wang Qi will have the upper hand.
After adding points to Li Xiang for the second time, he was worried that Li Xiang would accidentally knock him out, so he added the attributes of strength and constitution. He added two more points to the overall [muscle fiber strength], which already reached eight points, and the limbs [resistance to cutting]. 2+1, anti-joint dislocation 3+1].
The quality of her muscles and tendons exceeds that of ordinary people, and she also has extra resistance to strikes. There is also Li Li who wants to provide long-range support upstairs. Even if she can't shoot accurately, as long as she can interfere with the enemy's movements, Wang Qi is confident to knock down several nutrients. Bad survivors.
The survivors of the apocalypse probably have little sense of morality, so asking to see the map first is not particularly outrageous when the situation is advantageous.
Sure enough, the woman opposite thought for a moment, wrapped the map in cloth, stuffed it with snow, rolled it up and threw it over.
Wang Qi looked at the bayonet on the waist of the silent woman, stepped forward to pick up the cloth bag and opened it.
The first time he saw the map, he frowned.
So spicy!
This poor map is not as good as his hand-drawn ones. It lacks all kinds of information and often has some blank spaces with nothing. It is a bit like the maps drawn hundreds of years ago when everyone knew nothing about the world.
I endured my headache and looked at it for a while. I changed a few directions along the way and found that the survivor's map was drawn from the street where the bookstore is located to the north. Judging from the size of the single-family area to the north of the bookstore street, it is about ten kilometers from north to south and less than eight kilometers from east to west. Kilometer range.
He looked up at the woman who spoke.
Because of the backlight, I couldn't see clearly.
The dozens of square kilometers of terrain and building distribution maps probably did their best for the malnourished survivors.
I haven't seen other survivors, so it might not be easy to come here, so I have to give them some sweetness.
With this in mind, he took out about five kilograms of air-dried meat from the cart and threw it over.
It's not an insult, but the trust between the two parties is really limited. He won't leave Li Xiang's shooting range easily, and he doesn't trust to walk away and let the two of them go shopping in front of the cart.
Five kilograms of air-dried meat is a lot, and twelve to fourteen kilograms of raw meat is needed, because it is just water loss and the caloric value does not change.
The expression was unclear due to the backlight, but the woman immediately began to chatter and introduce the goods in a lively manner, presumably because the price was high.
Wang Qi didn't care. Those dried meats were made before winter. Because he couldn't bear to add salt and had no experience, the quality was really average. If he had the choice, he wouldn't like to eat it himself, so the extra part would be used as a greeting gift.
After listening to the completely incomprehensible introduction, I still wanted to give the other party something sweet for the future, so I reluctantly spent some more dried meat and a wrench, exchanged two hunting knives with the other party, and ended the transaction.
As expected, there was indeed a blacksmith among the survivors. The hunting knife was hand-forged, seemingly using a stacked steel forging method. It felt better than the one turned from construction steel by the previous generation of survivors.
