Chapter 8: Crafting Goggles

In fact, goggles can be crafted.

Ryan had watched a documentary about the residents living in the Arctic, the Eskimos. 

The Arctic is covered in ice and snow year-round, so during the sunny summer months, Eskimos can also suffer from snow blindness. 

To combat this, they would make glasses from animal bones, creating a small slit at the eye area. 

This design not only preserves their field of vision but also significantly reduces the amount of ultraviolet light entering their eyes. 

In fact, the process is quite simple, and the results are very effective. 

Moreover, he just happened to have a large supply of animal bones on him, the bones from the wild buffalo he had hunted would come in handy now. 

Without hesitation, Ryan parked the truck and opened the cargo area. 

He took out several suitable cow bones and began attempting to craft the goggles. 

Twenty minutes later.

Ryan completed his first pair of bone goggles. 

He removed the sunglasses and held the goggles up to his eyes, using the horizontal slit to observe the outside world. 

The slit was close enough to his pupils, so it had very little effect on his field of vision. 

Ryan sighed, "There's definitely a market for selling these, but making them is a bit of a hassle..." 

He glanced at the time and did a quick calculation. 

It took him about 25 minutes to make these goggles. 

That was far too slow. 

First of all, this was the early stage of the game, and many players lacked resources, most were using the items they brought into the game to trade for supplies with other players. 

If crafting took too much time, the corresponding selling price would have to be higher. 

As a result, players with limited resources might not be able to afford them, leading to a large surplus of goggles. 

This illustrates the difference between handmade crafts and mass-produced goods. 

Sometimes, it's really not true that a more expensive product sells better. 

A variety of factors need to be considered. 

Ryan looked at the workbench, "It would be great if I could mass-produce these, then the price could be lowered accordingly." 

He approached the workbench and began experimenting. 

Ryan first took a cow bone and placed it on the workbench. 

His system panel automatically unfolded. 

However, there was only one processing method for the bones: to crush them into bone meal for use as fertilizer in planting. 

"It seems the basic crafting methods don't include goggles." Ryan scratched his head. 

Such a simple item surely wouldn't have a blueprint. 

Was he only able to make them by hand? 

Ryan hesitated for a moment, and then an idea suddenly struck him. 

He picked up the goggles he had just made and placed them on the workbench. 

[New crafting method detected] 

[Bone goggles have been recorded] 

Ryan's system panel automatically unfolded, and now there was an option for bone goggles under the bone crafting methods. 

"Success!" Ryan exclaimed excitedly, pumping his fist in celebration. 

He then gathered more cow bones and placed them in batches on the workbench. 

In just a few minutes.

Over a hundred pairs of bone goggles were completed. 

Ryan picked one up to examine it, this batch of goggles was remarkably similar to the first pair he had made. 

"It should be because I crafted the first one myself, so it's like I have a blueprint now." 

"The next step is to consume materials for mass production." 

Ryan stored the goggles in his system backpack and then counted the quantity. 

He had used about one-third of the cow bones and produced a total of 243 pairs of bone goggles, which would be enough to sell for some time. 

As for the remaining cow bones, Ryan decided to keep them for now. 

After all, they were still fresh and could be used to make soup, and the marrow inside was a great source of calories. 

He really didn't have much of a source of calories at the moment. 

Most of the beef was lean meat. 

The only thing that could provide some fat was the canned chicken. 

But the number of cans was also limited, so Ryan planned to extract the remaining calories from these cow bones. 

If he could enjoy a bowl of delicious bone soup every night, that would be a rare treat. 

Ryan said, "I should list the goggles on the marketplace..." 

He opened the eyewear category in the marketplace. 

At that moment, Ryan suddenly noticed that all the sunglasses from before had completely disappeared from the marketplace. 

"Oh?" Ryan raised an eyebrow. 

He had originally intended to check and make a price comparison.

After all, the goggles he made would definitely be cheaper than the commercial sunglasses. 

But given the current situation, it seemed that those sunglasses had been completely bought out, likely by someone trying to monopolize the market and sell them for a high price. 

Without sunglasses, snow blindness would significantly affect the ability to gather resources. 

In fact, whether it was cold-weather gear or goggles, their purpose was to help players cope with the extreme environment and extend their daytime activity time. 

In a sense—time is life for every player. 

In seven days, the "Extreme Cold Hell" event would begin. 

At that time, many would lose their lives to the cold due to insufficient gathered resources or lack of heating tools. 

So this was another case of taking advantage of a crisis. 

Ryan sighed, although he wasn't a saint, he understood. 

Only if there were enough players, with more supply crates opened, and various resources circulating in the marketplace, could everyone get what they needed. 

That way, life would gradually improve for everyone. 

In fact, people were the most valuable resource in this survival game. 

Ryan wanted to accumulate wealth, hold more resources, and achieve initial capital accumulation to be able to deploy more people. 

After all, only he knew. 

Behind this survival game, there was a group of administrators with ulterior motives. 

Ryan didn't know their goals. 

He didn't even know if they were human, but he knew one thing— 

That was, the administrators almost controlled everyone's lives, they could deliver devastating blows with just a slight adjustment. 

So, Ryan wanted to unite the players.

At least that way, there would be a better chance of success. 

"Sigh, I'm thinking too much..." Ryan sighed, realizing that it was still too early to ponder these things. 

He clicked to open the chatroom. 

Ryan glanced at the group chat messages and, as expected, the players were all struggling with snow blindness. 

[Ahhh, my eyes, what's going on?] 

[I thought if I just bore it, it would get better, but suddenly I can't see anything, what is happening?] 

[Damn it, I'm stuck in the snow, I feel like I can't get out.] 

At that moment, the player who had previously advised everyone to eat moss posted a message. 

[Ethan Hao: This is snow blindness, the snow reflects excessive UV rays from the sun into your eyes, causing these symptoms.] 

[Ethan Hao: Everyone, try to squint your eyes or tear off a piece of thinner clothing to tie over your eyes. If you have sunglasses, put them on.] 

[Ethan Hao: Or find some wood or bones to make simple goggles.] 

This player named Ethan Hao also sent a picture. 

It showed the simple goggles he made from a piece of wood. 

Ryan was impressed by Ethan Hao, this guy probably had plenty of outdoor survival experience. 

Moreover, he seemed to be a good-hearted person who had shared a lot of knowledge in the group. 

[Where did you find the wood?] 

[Yeah, there don't seem to be any trees around here, I haven't seen any along the way.] 

[Ethan Hao: I got the wood from a supply crate and made it into goggles myself.] 

[Sigh, looks like I'll have to buy wood from the marketplace.] 

[What the heck, why did the price of wood suddenly go up? Don't those vendors have any conscience?]

"Oh?" Ryan frowned and opened the marketplace interface. 

As expected, just as the group chat had mentioned. 

The price of wood, which had been normal just a moment ago, had suddenly skyrocketed. 

If it was just one or two price increases, it could still be understood, but with so many people raising prices at once, it couldn't be just a coincidence. 

Perhaps some players were secretly banding together. 

They had manipulated the market price ahead of time and had even gained a certain scale. 

Ryan took a deep breath and a meaningful smile appeared on his lips: "It seems my enemies have shown themselves..." 

In fact, it isn't difficult to influence the entire market. 

As a professional trader who is well-versed in the stock and futures markets, Ryan certainly understood the principles involved. 

To manipulate prices, a group only needs to control 50% of a certain commodity. 

When other individual traders see the price rising, they feel compelled to follow suit, fearing they will miss out if they don't. 

Moreover, those who are driving up the prices can purchase resources from individual traders at a lower price. 

This way, they can easily manipulate the market price.