Dream Delivery System: My Delivery Jobs Keep Changing History – CH124

Chapter 124

The tasker knelt on the ground, saying, “Oh, Otter God, please favor your devoted worshippers.”

The Otter God was probably busy tapping shells and didn’t respond. Passing by, the system detected the signal and released its trump-card courier.

‘I trust you.’ And so, the task fell to Jiang Jitang.

Jiang Jitang watched the task videos several times, then read through the task details once more:

“This isn’t just asking me to make soup—they want me to teach them how to use the materials at hand—seawater, fish, shrimp, seabirds—to cook a meatball soup suitable for all ages.”

“The first difficulty is ‘cooking soup with seawater.’ They’re humans—if they really drank soup made of seawater daily, no one would survive. So this condition essentially asks me to convert inedible seawater into drinkable freshwater.”

Well, that’s convenient. There really was a cooking tool capable of converting seawater to freshwater—a steam pot.

The steam pot had appeared in a gourmet comic, known as a legendary kitchen tool.

It had a round pot at the bottom filled with seawater. On top was a tightly fitted special lid. Around the lid was a circular groove, in the middle a volcano-shaped protrusion with an opening.

The seawater at the bottom boiled and evaporated; the steam shot out through the volcano vent, cooled on the lid, and flowed into the surrounding groove.

The most remarkable part: researchers inferred from oracle bone inscriptions that as early as the pottery era, people used steam pots for cooking—mainly turtles and birds back then.

The pottery era was over 1,000 BCE.

So using such an improved steam pot now was completely reasonable and fulfilled the task requirements.

“The instructions require sourcing materials locally. The Otter Tribe can provide fish, shellfish, seaweed, seabirds, wheat grains, and salt. Staples are sufficient, but how about removing the fishy smell without green onions, ginger, or garlic? No cooking wine either.”

Seafood must be fresh, but also comes with strong odors. As a C-Nation person, Jiang Jitang couldn’t tolerate seafood without deodorizing it.

“System, are there wild onions, wild ginger, or wild garlic nearby?”

Judging from Blue Star’s otter habits, they likely lived in cold waters—northern regions. Among these three seasonings, onions originated in the north, ginger in the southeast, and garlic: big garlic from the western regions, wild garlic from the north.

Jiang Jitang thought he might get lucky and find one or two.

“Within a one-kilometer radius, there are wild onions and wild garlic.” The system gave a straightforward answer.

Jiang Jitang immediately gave an OK sign: “I’ll dig them up when I get there. Looks like I just need to prepare the steam pot and other tools; the tribe can help catch seafood… Isn’t this money coming way too easily?”

He, a man destined for hard work, found it too easy and unchallenging.

Time to up the difficulty.

“One pot of soup won’t feed everyone?” The combined otter tribes numbered several hundred. If everyone took a sip, one pot wasn’t enough. He would prepare the steam pot; they would provide ingredients. To motivate them, he could offer dried fruit or honey—sweet treats to encourage the tribe to catch seafood and seabirds for exchange.

He could claim the red meat, nuts, and honey were ingredients for the soup.

Jiang Jitang had used such “bug exploits” before—exchanging materials for materials. The system would turn a blind eye.

If sugar-making hadn’t yet existed before 1000 BCE, he might have even tried cheap candies for seafood.

“Sugarcane planting dates back to the Eastern Zhou period… just missed it. The ultimate sugar weapon is unavailable.”

“Sugarcane planting and sugar-making can trace back 5,000 years; the Vedas in India already mention it. Of course, bleaching hadn’t appeared, so you can use brown sugar.” The system corrected him.

“Nice,” Jiang Jitang said. Although restricted to brown sugar, it was better than nothing.

Aside from sweets, wheat and salt had to be bought—the Otter Tribe didn’t have much.

Jiang Jitang planned his purchases all the way back. He didn’t even go home—he went straight to a pottery wholesale market.

“So expensive?” Ordinary unpatterned ceramic steam pots, medium size, wholesale price 32 yuan. These modern steam pots had no bottom pot, so he had to prepare the base pot for boiling seawater.

At 1,800 yuan, he could buy 50–60 units.

“Boss, if I only take the bowl without the lid, can it be cheaper?” He tried to bargain—lids could be substituted with tightly woven bamboo covers.

“This comes as a set—who would just boil the bottom without the lid?” The boss laughed in disbelief.

Jiang Jitang persisted: “I can accept slightly defective ones—small black spots, minor chips, slightly irregular shapes.”

Eventually, the boss called the factory. There were some leftover flawed units, though sizes varied.

“The lids and bowls are flawed. The factory will sell at half price, but you cannot choose.”

“Thanks, boss, may you get rich.”

Thus, Jiang Jitang bought 50 sets of various-sized flawed steam pots for 16 yuan each, spending 800 yuan.

Next were some ingredients.

Refined iodized salt, 520 yuan per ton. He bought a quarter ton—100 kg bags, five bags.

500 kg of salt cost only 130 yuan.

“I love industrial society!” Jiang Jitang kissed the bags, “Pah, pah, pah.”

But nylon bags couldn’t appear in the task world—too high-tech.

So he bought burlap bags. After use, they could be washed and reused. These were coarse hemp, unsuitable for clothing, only for storage. Five bags, 20 yuan.

Wheat with husks, 2.5 yuan per jin. He bought 200 jin, and ground some extra—one 10-jin bag as bonus.

According to the task, the Otter Tribe would exchange wheat at high cost. Using their wheat might get him expelled, so better to buy his own.

210 jin of wheat, 500 yuan.

Not flour—dry wheat preserved better, and the store let him choose burlap bags directly—saving money.

Next, a “labor lure” for the Savage Realm—sweet food: dates.

Brown sugar was fine too, but at similar prices, he chose dates.

Dates are sweet and nutrient-dense: fructose for energy, plus vitamins, proteins, and minerals—ideal for humans in a harsh era. Could be eaten dry or in soup.

So Jiang Jitang ignored brown sugar or other nuts; his first choice was dates.

Dates were affordable—black dates wholesale 7.5 yuan per jin, 1,000 jin price 6 yuan. He bought 50 jin, price negotiated to 6.5 yuan.

50 jin of dates, total 320 yuan.

Out of 1,800 yuan, only 30 yuan left.

He decided to scavenge at the stone-processing factory.

Same place as before, but now he collected discarded stones from the yard, keeping a low profile—parked his million-level car far away.

Behind the factory were many useless stone scraps, irregularly shaped and small. After searching, he found two suitable blue stones: A flat slab, washing-board sized. A cylindrical column, rolling-pin sized.

Together, they formed a primitive “grain grinder.”

Used by kneeling and rolling the cylinder over grains, repeating until slightly coarse powder formed.

Seven thousand years ago, the Yangshao culture used similar grinders.

Later came the stone mill, supposedly invented by Lu Ban—saves labor, produces finer grain.

But too advanced, not suitable for the task.

The Otter Tribe would have to grind flour primitively. They could use it to thicken soup or make bread—a hard loaf that could last a week or longer.

Though their homes had only primitive hearths, so bread was a later step—still better than eating raw grains.

He would demonstrate grinding, then let the tribe practice. Learning as much as they could was up to them.

Jiang Jitang needed starch—wheat would be ground into flour, then processed for gluten and starch. The two-piece grinder was just one tool for the meatball soup.

Strictly speaking, this was part of the first task.

“30 yuan left… what to do?” Jiang Jitang clapped. “The pottery factory still has bowls.”

The Otter Tribe used crab shells and shells as dishes—easy to get, but fragile and could cut hands.

Seafood leaves a persistent smell in these shells, ruining taste. Jiang Jitang couldn’t allow that.

He returned to the small factory, bought 25 coarse ceramic bowls at 1.2 yuan each—30 yuan total.

Shopping funds were used up; remaining 1,800 yuan was gift funds. Free to spend, only constraint: pre-1000 BCE tech.

He planned to buy common living and production tools.

By 2,500 BCE, iron-bladed daggers existed; by 1,300 BCE, artifacts included iron bars. By 1,000 BCE, humans were exploring iron-making.

He wanted iron tools.

No steel—1,000 BCE forging tech couldn’t produce steel below 2% carbon; otherwise, bronze would not dominate.

The tools must not easily become weapons—they were to aid survival, not slaughter.

He decided 12 cm short knives were ideal—practical and defensive, but not deadly weapons. Bone knives and flint knives existed too.

He went to a wholesale iron store, picked a small knife. Done.

“Iron won’t work,” the system slowly appeared.

Huh?

“Currently it cannot be verified whether iron blades or blocks before 1000 BCE are meteorite iron or smelted from ore. As disputed items, iron cannot enter the task world.”

Jiang Jitang: …

“Why not say earlier?”

“I thought the tasker would enjoy shopping, interrupting might be bad.” The system added, “There’s a bronze store nearby. Iron is out, bronze is allowed.”

All these years being the stubborn mule, today the system mule’d him—karma, perhaps.

“Where’s the bronze? Cheap or not?”