Chapter 213 - 184: Rowan Rhodes Tells You and Rowan Rhodes Teaches You Series

Chapter 213: Chapter 184: Rowan Rhodes Tells You and Rowan Rhodes Teaches You Series

Wasting no time, Rowan Rhodes immediately began organizing the written documents.

Instead of simply writing out her own deductions about the world’s background, she decided to let the players piece it together themselves. Conclusions reached this way would carry far more credibility. After all, most people believed what they saw with their own eyes rather than what they were told.

Once everything was sorted, Rowan immediately listed it as an informational product for sale.

[Item: "Rowan Rhodes Explains the Background of this World"]

[Price: 1 Trading Coin]

After listing the item, Rowan remembered her promise to Wendy Thorne about sharing the method for crafting gunpowder. She immediately began drafting a second listing.

[Item: "Rowan Rhodes Teaches You How to Craft Gunpowder"]

[Price: 99 Trading Coins]

The first item was essentially a gift to the entire player base. The second, while still a generous offering, was targeted at highly capable players—meaning it was only fair they paid a few more Trading Coins for it.

Besides, she had a sneaking suspicion that some players might have already figured out how to make gunpowder. They were likely just keeping it under wraps to use as a secret weapon. Flushing them out with this listing wouldn’t be a bad idea. Since she already knew three different methods for crafting gunpowder, perhaps other players had come up with their own innovations!

And just like that, Rowan’s two new informational products hit the shelves of the Sea Survival Shop. They drew attention the very second they went live; after all, anything published under her name now carried a certain brand appeal.

Meanwhile, in the Sea Survival Shop’s main chat group, the resident players from various districts were still busy discussing their progress in exploring different islands. It was an effective form of information sharing. However, the moment Rowan’s new listings appeared, all eyes were instantly drawn to them.

"Am I seeing things? I must be going blind."

"I can tell you with absolute certainty that your eyes are working fine. Rowan is really selling the method for crafting gunpowder, and it only costs 99 Trading Coins!"

"That’s basically a massive steal!"

"Why would she sell it, though?"

"Probably because she leveled up. Weren’t we just talking about how her raft level went from Level 8 to Level 9, and how ridiculously high the difficulty was?"

"The name Rowan Rhodes is just too authoritative at this point."

"Thank god for Rowan. This is another massive blessing for the entire player base."

"Did you guys only notice the gunpowder method? Did you completely miss the other listing about the game’s world background?"

"Wait, this game world has a background lore?"

"Of course it does! Sunken ships, abandoned airplanes, island trading posts, Native People... All of these point to one thing: a civilization exists within the background of the Sea Survival Game."

"So what if we know the lore?"

"It lets us know how our rafts are supposed to develop in the future!"

"Speaking of which, looking at how the rafts are currently structured, they’ll likely hit their maximum cap at Level 10. The core gameplay might completely change after that."

"Haven’t we all been guessing that the game might shift toward a cooperative route?"

"Sure, but that was just speculation. We actually need solid information to back it up."

"Besides, even if it is a cooperative route, what happens after players form factions? Will these factions end up working together or fighting each other? That’s the most crucial detail."

"I personally lean toward cooperation! Before I gained access to the Sea Survival Shop, we couldn’t contact other districts, and the players in my district fought to the death just to compete. So many people died. Now, I try my best to relay all sorts of information back to them, keeping things relatively peaceful. If a massive war breaks out later, countless more players will die. Honestly, I just feel like having too many players die won’t benefit anyone."

"Agreed with the person above."

"I just bought the document. I can confirm that the game is actively encouraging players to establish their own factions."

"It might be more than just building factions—it could be about rebuilding civilization itself! I wonder if there are actual cities out there in the deeper waters."

"The document’s timeline ends during the post-apocalyptic civilization rebuilding phase. But didn’t they face another major disaster after that? The civilization they rebuilt might be completely gone by now."

"It’s gone, so the game wants us to rebuild it. Doesn’t that make logical sense?"

"That puts my mind at ease. Building a faction is definitely the right move."

"I can’t believe Rowan actually gave us access to such raw, unfiltered information."

"It’s great that she shared it! At least now everyone has a clear goal for their raft’s development."

"But seriously, between selling lore documents and the gunpowder recipe, Rowan is making an absolute killing right now!"

"You can tell just by looking at it that this info came from a sunken ship. Putting two and two together, Rowan probably found another shipwreck, looted a mountain of resources, and secured the key equipment blueprints she needed to upgrade to a Level 9 Raft."

"That’s definitely what happened."

"..."

As the discussion progressed, the resident players managed to accurately piece together exactly what Rowan had been up to. Then again, Rowan had never intended to hide any of this; looking at the timeline of events, it was fairly easy to draw the right conclusions.

However, as the conversation died down, many of the players gradually vanished from the chat. One by one, they all hurried off to craft their own gunpowder. Back when the recipe wasn’t available, they would have had to painstakingly research it themselves just to stay ahead of the curve. But now that the recipe was publicly accessible, it was even more imperative that they learn and craft it immediately. After all, if everyone else had gunpowder and you didn’t, you would quickly find yourself on the receiving end of a beating.

Zelda Parrish and her companions were also watching the heated discussion unfold in the main chat. Because Zelda, Skye Schuyler, and the others were all loyal followers of Rowan, the internal affairs of District 122 were kept strictly under wraps and never leaked to the main group. Only the information they were explicitly permitted to share ever made it out.

Meanwhile, a few smaller private groups were just as lively.

[Rowan’s Behind-the-Scenes Team]

Zelda Parrish had created this group with a brilliantly blunt name. Everyone currently in the chat was a close collaborator of Rowan’s and a top-tier expert in their respective profession. The group was already meticulously organized into distinct professions and teams, though they were still actively recruiting. Whenever a team captain selected a new member, the candidate didn’t just have to pass their captain’s screening—they also had to pass Zelda’s evaluation before their name was finally submitted to Rowan.

This stringent process naturally only applied to the resident players. As for recruitment within their own district, that was left entirely to the discretion of the individual team leaders.

Now that the dust had settled, Zelda finally had the time to update the group on Rowan’s current status.

"Secretary - Zelda Parrish: Ms. Rhodes has successfully upgraded to a Level 9 Raft! She’s also listed two new informational products... Feel free to ask if you have any questions."

"Carpentry Lead - Owen Caldwell: No questions here."

"Medical Lead - Jaina Harmon: Ms. Rhodes is amazing as always!"

"Farming Lead - Ian Sinclair: Is Ms. Rhodes selling readymade gunpowder?"

"Secretary - Zelda Parrish: Ms. Rhodes said that if you need it for a raft upgrade, you can submit an application for it. Otherwise, you’ll have to figure out how to craft it yourselves."

"Tailor Lead - Faye Sinclair: How generous of Ms. Rhodes! Now I can finally upgrade to a Level 8 Raft."

"..."

Those actively chatting in the group were quick to reply. But whether they spoke up or not, the news that Rowan was willing to provide readymade gunpowder immediately reached the ears of all relevant players.

Zelda also posted the announcement directly to the District 122 world channel. Upon seeing the news, the players of District 122 broke into an excited chatter of their own.