From Robinson Crusoe

The book on rattan weaving crafts is already a rare surprise, but what makes Chen Zhou even more excited is that this book is only part of the "big gift package".

In other words, there is much more to this reward.

Chen Zhou carefully wrapped this "textbook" worth as much as gold with the plastic film, put it into the mountaineering bag, and then placed it under the rain shelter to prevent it from getting wet due to any accidents. Then he took out another item from the box.

At first glance, this thing looks like a black round glass cup, with a diameter of about 18cm and a height of about 30cm. It feels very heavy in the hand.

Although it looks like a cup, Chen Zhou is very clear about its name and actual use——

This is a graphite crucible.

It is usually made by firing high-temperature resistant raw materials such as graphite, clay, and silica. It is mainly used for smelting non-ferrous metals and alloys such as copper, gold, silver, lead, and zinc, and occupies an important position in the field of modern metallurgy.

Don’t be fooled by its “plain appearance”, it looks like a small pickle jar in the countryside.

In Chen Zhou's opinion, its role is no less important than those two hand axes, and it may even be more important.

Among all types of crucibles, graphite crucible is one of the best for melting metals.

It can withstand high temperatures of 1800° and has extremely excellent thermal conductivity. In addition, the surface of high-quality graphite crucibles usually has a special glaze layer, which can greatly improve its corrosion resistance.

The service life of graphite crucible is also longer than other crucibles. It has certain resistance to rapid cooling and heating, excellent chemical stability, and will not produce chemical reactions during the smelting process.

Its inner wall is smooth, and it is not easy for the molten metal liquid to adhere to the inner wall, which is suitable for pouring out the metal liquid and casting the mold.

It can be said that graphite crucible is one of the most important tools for "small workshop" type private smelting.

Without it, even the best fireproof mud is useless. The molten metal liquid not only contains many impurities, but may also adhere to the inner wall. It can basically only be used as a disposable product. In addition, the thermal conductivity of fireproof mud is poor. For the same volume of metal block, it may take several times more fuel to melt the metal using fireproof mud.

However, it is not easy to melt metal using only a graphite crucible.

According to Chen Zhou, a qualified crucible, in addition to the crucible itself, should also have accessories such as a skimmer, a crucible cover, a coupling ring, a crucible stand and a stirring rod.

Unfortunately, these items are not included in this gift pack. If he wants to use the crucible, he has to complete these accessories by himself.

Despite this, this black "cup" is very useful to Chen Zhou.

When the next dry season comes, he will be able to build a charcoal kiln and produce charcoal in large quantities - which can be used both in large pottery kilns and for smelting metals.

All kinds of iron products unloaded from the ship can be used as raw materials to be cast into iron pickaxe heads, rakes, iron rods, or made into armor parts, adding a bit of safety to his fight with the natives.

As for those lead plates, they can also be melted into molten lead and then made into spherical lead bullets.

Chen Zhou even considered how to cash in those precious metals after the challenge was over and he returned to the modern era.

As an ordinary member of an ordinary family, it was difficult for him to explain where he got the large number of gold and silver coins from Europe, which were minted with pure 17th century craftsmanship.

If more than 20 years later, he successfully captured the Spanish looting ship and the wealth in his hands would reach a staggering level, then how to move the huge amount of real money would become a problem that he would have to consider.

If we were to smelt these metals again in modern times, whether we bought crucibles, gasoline spray guns, liquefied gas tanks and oxygen tanks online or asked someone to help us, it would attract other people's attention.

With the developed network and ubiquitous surveillance, he cannot guarantee the secrecy of his actions, let alone explain the source of his huge wealth.

At this time, it is necessary to process the precious metals in advance during the challenge.

Although converting collectible gold and silver coins back into scrap gold and silver will significantly reduce their value.

If you think about it carefully, even if they are not melted down but sold on the market, a pile of antique coins that exceeds the existing market supply will definitely cause the prices of gold and silver coins to shrink rapidly.

It would be better to keep only a small number of gold and silver coins, and sell most of the precious metals in the form of gold and silver without specific markings that are easy to explain.

Once his wealth has raised his social status, expanded his social circle, enabled him to meet more capable people, and consolidated more secure channels, he can then sell the rest of his property through overseas auctions or private transactions.

When smelting gold and silver on the island, the role of graphite crucible is very important.

However, Chen Zhou doubted whether this graphite crucible could last for more than 20 years until he captured the Spanish pirate ship.

Graphite crucible is resistant to high temperature and corrosion, and is not fragile, but it is afraid of moisture.

If a graphite crucible is damp, it is very likely to crack, burst, fall off the bottom or side, and even cause work-related accidents.

All other storage conditions on the island are easy to deal with, except for the high humidity.

Especially in the rainy season, the air in coastal areas seems to contain tiny dewdrops. In such an environment, it is very difficult to keep an item dry.

Chen Zhou happened to have a guide to rattan weaving, and planned to wrap the crucible with toilet paper - because he used it very restrainedly, he still had a lot of toilet paper left.

Then weave a rattan basket, put the tightly wrapped crucible into the rattan basket, and hang it on the wall.

After the fire wall is built, the crucible is hung above the fire wall and can be baked when making fire and cooking every day to remove moisture and keep the environment for storing the crucible as dry as possible.

Holding the graphite crucible, he did not put it into his backpack because its diameter was too large. Instead, he put it back into the gift box steadily and took out several other items to check.

……

The wicker book and the crucible are the two most eye-catching items in the box, and they can also be said to be the two most useful rewards in the entire gift box.

As for the other rewards, although they are not as useful as these two, they are far better than purely spoof industrial waste such as mobile phone cases, butt plugs and shoe horns.

These included ten boxes of soap - one of the daily resources that Chen Zhou needed very much.

Soap can remove bacteria, inhibit bacteria, clean the body, and remove odors. With this thing, he can have a better experience whether washing his hair, face, or taking a bath.

However, ten bars of soap obviously won’t last too long. If you use soap every time you wash your hands and face, these soaps may not last even a year.

In this regard, Chen Zhou could only understand these soaps as compensation given to him by the program crew because they saw how hard he had worked to solve the code.

Or it could be his anniversary benefit if he successfully spends a year on the island.

In addition to the soap, there is also an outdoor fire lighter in the gift box.

The device is equipped with three solid magnesium rods with a diameter of about 1 cm, a fire stick, and a scraper with a scale. They are neatly arranged in a small leather bag.

Before obtaining this outdoor fire lighter, Chen Zhou already owned two types of ignition equipment: a flint and a lighter.

He can also make his own large fire bow to quickly make a fire in the cave, so in terms of fire-making equipment, the magnesium rod can only be regarded as icing on the cake.

If he had been given one of these on the day he landed on the island, he would probably have danced with joy.

Now it is almost the first anniversary, and the effect of the magnesium rod has been greatly reduced and it can no longer bring him a sense of surprise.

As for the other things besides the lighter, they are not icing on the cake, but rather timely assistance.

This includes a very small handsaw, about 40cm long, which comes with 15 spare hacksaw blades.

There was also a bottle of 1L soy sauce, a high-intensity flashlight, and two bags of refined salt. Finally, at the bottom of the gift box, Chen Zhou saw something very familiar - a small cube.

It was a wooden cube that was slightly larger than the puzzle cube, and looked exactly the same as the one he had solved just last night.

However, the origin of this wooden block is not as mysterious as the previous one. It comes with a simple instruction manual.

The instruction manual was a thin piece of colored paper with a picture of a square and two lines of words printed on it:

Holy sword puzzle.

Difficulty: Level 10.

This wooden cube was placed in the bottom corner of the gift box, like an Easter egg, waiting for Chen Zhou to discover.

In fact, the torture in the previous half month had already caused Chen Zhou to develop mild PTSD about this thing.

The moment he saw the small cube, he couldn't help but recall the decryption process while sitting at the table, and even had the urge to throw the cube into the sea.

But he ultimately failed to turn this impulse into actual action. He just took a deep breath and put the rewards such as soy sauce, flashlight, refined salt and fire stick into his hiking bag.

Then he put on a wide-brimmed hat, carried his backpack, picked up the gift box, called Lai Fu, and returned to the cave.

Without the graphite crucible, he might have stayed on the beach, finishing and building the wooden and stone walls before going home.

But with the graphite crucible, he couldn't risk it getting wet and stay on the beach.

There are not many sunny days in the rainy season. Now that the rain has stopped, the sun is shining, and the humidity is not so heavy, he should hurry home, find a suitable container and a dry place to properly store the crucible.

……

On the way home, looking at the festively packaged box in front of him and thinking of the small cube inside, Chen Zhou had a terrible idea -

Is the content of this reward useful? Is it affected by the last puzzle?

Suppose he gives up solving the problem, or fails to solve the puzzle, is it possible that he will also lose these useful rewards while losing the powerful help of time and space cutting?

If this is not the case, how do you explain the identical little square at the bottom of the box?

Thinking of this, Chen Zhou remembered the post in the forum that was soliciting challengers to sign up.

He thought that he must be more than the only one taking part in the challenge, and it was unlikely to be limited to Asians.

Among the other people participating in the challenge, there may be diligent ones, lazy ones, and there will also be people who are clever in their own way and use bugs to benefit themselves.

What would they do if they were faced with puzzles like the safe and the cube?

If they use the time-space cutting to be lazy and give up cracking the small cube, what will the rewards they get later be like...

Although there was no clear explanation, Chen Zhou could feel the malice hidden in the actions of the Space-Time Administration from his own experience.

He could imagine the tragic end for those daring people who tried to challenge the program production team with their own tiny "wisdom".

Perhaps, the subsequent rewards for those people will become industrial waste.

Maybe it will be worse, their mysterious reward session may be cancelled directly...

"struggle".

Whether it is psychological or physical "struggle", it is the main theme of this reality show.

"Taking shortcuts" and "giving up lying down" are bad behaviors that the program team does not encourage or even opposes because such behaviors are not entertaining.

As he thought about it, Chen Zhou's pace gradually slowed down, and an indescribable chill grew in his heart.

He didn't know whether his guess was correct, but based on his intuition, he felt that it was almost right.

He even had an even more outrageous idea - if the safe was disassembled in a different way, the items inside would also change.

If he had not violently dismantled the box overnight, but instead used time-space cutting to open the box, what was inside might not be a revolver, but a glowing toy gun.

Based on his understanding of the Space-Time Administration, this possibility is not only possible, but also very high.

The reason why he lives so smoothly is partly due to his own hard work.

On the other hand, it may also be because his behavior has always been in line with the wishes of the program team or those "audiences in high places".

Looking at it from another perspective, in that unpredictable future world, perhaps he has become a big star like "Truman".

"But I will leave here one day."

Putting aside the vague speculations, holding the gift box tightly, and stepping on the solid ground, Chen Zhou walked the rest of the way.

……

After returning to the cave, he ignored the three kittens that came to greet him.

He immediately started a fire, took out the graphite crucible and toilet paper, and while lowering the humidity in the cave, he wrapped the graphite crucible like a mummy to prevent it from getting damp.

He then pulled out a large book from his backpack and placed it on the desk.

In modern times, such a boring book might be placed on the bedside table for three years without him even looking at it.

Those fast-paced and eye-catching short videos had long since drained his energy and raised the threshold of his brain's stimulation, making him lose interest in traditional books and slow-paced movies and TV dramas.

But when he arrived at the isolated island, his attitude towards those "nipple music" and "entertainment to death" contents had undergone a drastic change.

Here, ten thousand meaningless short videos, scripts, and abstract posts put together are not as valuable as this book.

He was even willing to give away some of his gold and silver coins in exchange for useful books.

It doesn't matter if it's not a book that teaches technology, but a thick and lengthy world classic or professional book.

In particular, he needed a book on traditional wooden architecture, a book detailing the flora and fauna of South America, and a book that taught how to sketch and paint, or ink painting and fine-brush painting.

Unfortunately, this precious knowledge that can be obtained by spending tens or hundreds of yuan on the Internet cannot be obtained even if you spend thousands of yuan worth of gold coins on an isolated island.

Just like fresh water in the desert, there is a price but no market for it.

In this regard, Chen Zhou can only look forward to the next mysterious reward.

He felt that the program team had a good impression of him and would definitely not be stingy with high-quality rewards in the future. (End of this chapter)