Since she was here, she couldn’t leave empty-handed.
[Obtained Dungeon Map x1.]
[Players must reach the location marked in green on the map within three days.]
The strange synthesized female voice quickly faded.
The air carried the salty, briny scent unique to the sea. The blue ocean was calm, and sunlight shimmered on the waves like scattered diamonds.
As expected, this was an island dungeon.
Yan Yiqiu breathed a sigh of relief and scanned her surroundings.
The island she was on was tiny, only a few dozen square meters. She could see the whole island in one glance. Around ten trees stood there, all bare and leafless.
Since she was here, leaving empty-handed wasn’t ideal.
Yan Yiqiu pulled out her axe, chopped down all the trees on the island, and readied her wooden boat to sail toward the target island.
The weather was perfect. The sea was calm, a blue mirror reflecting her face clearly.
Yan Yiqiu touched her face.
Her eyes were bright now, unmarked by the weariness and cynicism she had in her previous life. Her energy and spirit were full, her vitality abundant.
A black shadow shattered this calm, moving at incredible speed as it leaped from the water into her line of sight.
It was a black fish nearly half a meter long, with a grotesque shape. Its eyes bulged like copper bells, and its mouth, filled with inverted triangular teeth, snapped at her face.
Yan Yiqiu swung her axe at it.
[Player dealt 736,462,849 damage to the mutated fish, with 2,351 effective damage.][Obtained Fish Meat (Green) x1, Wood x8, Tier 1 Ore x4, Silver x12, EXP +50.]
Starting from the second dungeon, even small monsters dropped wood and ore.
Yan Yiqiu waited a moment. Seeing no other mutated fish leaping to challenge her, she reluctantly set down the axe and slowly pedaled her wooden boat forward.
The boat drifted lazily.
No one knew how vast this sea was. The tiny island behind her gradually shrank until it disappeared. From above, her little wooden boat looked fragile on the endless ocean, as if it could be swallowed by the sea at any moment.
It was a bit dull.
Yan Yiqiu opened the chat channel. As expected, it was full of complaints.
“Damn! What kind of screwed-up game is this? How am I supposed to reach the target location? It’s all water around me! Am I supposed to grow wings and fly?!”
“You’ve only got three days. Stop whining. The island has wood, right? Just use it to build a floating wooden boat!”
“Good news: I’m a carpenter before entering the game. Bad news: I chose a combat class! I’m making the boat alone, and the dungeon will end before I’m done…”
For life-simulation players, crafting their own specialty items is much faster. But if you aren’t one… congratulations—you have to follow the normal crafting times.
“Friends, I’m heading into the sea first. Just a heads-up: there are fish out there.”
“What kind of obvious nonsense? Of course there are fish in the sea.”
“Idiot, they obviously mean not normal fish! Think back to the last dungeon—do you really think the fish here are ordinary?”
“Yan Yiqiu: I can testify. This fish is definitely not ordinary. It just tried to leave a scar on my perfect face! Outrageous!”
“So, can you tell us, how strong is this abnormal fish? How thick is its HP bar?”
Strong…
Yan Yiqiu recalled the fish that nearly killed her last time and paused for a moment, replying seriously: “Very strong. Its HP is nearly 3,000. I fought it for over an hour, and this didn’t even seem to be the highest-damage mutated fish.”
That was all she could reveal.
Yan Yiqiu closed the chat and took out a fishing rod from her bag, preparing to fish.
She had made this rod while crafting her boat, using a small piece of beast meat as bait, hooked, and tossed it into the water.
Almost immediately—within five seconds—a shadow twice as large as the previous one surged toward her.
She lifted the rod. A green, loach-like mutated fish over a meter long leaped out, splashing water all around.
A swing of her axe followed!
[Player dealt 643,298,234 damage to the mutated fish, with 3,221 effective damage.][Obtained Fish Meat (Green) x2, Wood x10, Tier 1 Ore x6, Silver x23, EXP +50.]
She stayed calm at her fishing station. One small piece of meat caught around ten mutated fish before it became waterlogged and white, then she replaced it with fresh bait.
[Level: 5 (56/6000)][Stamina: 67/100][Energy: 80/100][HP: 3500/3500 (with defense gear bonus)][Fullness: 77]
She leveled up.
Yan Yiqiu casually glanced around, continuing to pedal while fishing. Wood and ore steadily increased in her bag.
The blue sky floated with large, slow-moving white clouds. The sea remained calm, with ripples only when mutated fish leapt.
A salty breeze brushed past, sunlight warm and pleasant. Ignoring the game entirely, it felt quite nice.
Just as the thought passed, the previously clear sky was swallowed by dark clouds, black and oppressive, ready to drop rain at any moment.
The sea’s weather was unpredictable.
Prepared, Yan Yiqiu immediately stored her rod and axe and crawled into the small wooden cabin just large enough for her.
She closed the door, and heavy rain pounded the boat with a crackling sound. Predicting it wouldn’t stop soon, she took ten seconds to assemble a small wooden table from nearby materials.
Once assembled, a steaming bowl of plain noodles appeared on the table.
The noodles were simple; a portion of braised pork completed the meal.
Yan Yiqiu curled up in the small, safe-feeling cabin, slurping noodles, thinking: When will vegetables drop? Eating only meat isn’t sustainable. And there’s no chili in the condiments—how cruel for someone who can’t live without spice.
[Damn, why did it suddenly start raining?]
[You jerk, my food just got drenched. Fullness dropped from 10 to 5. Too realistic! ]
[Damn this game…]
[Don’t worry. Based on my twenty years by the sea, this rain will last at most two hours! But don’t take my word for it—anything can happen in-game.]
[Guys, I just saw another player… he was eaten by a giant shark! I panicked and paddled frantically. Luckily it didn’t chase me. Be careful!]
Sharks!
Yan Yiqiu finished her noodles and pork, eyes shining at the mention of the shark.
She remembered the previous dungeon: sharks were small bosses, similar to the reinforced bear in the first dungeon, dropping much better loot but being far more dangerous.
Her small wooden boat had been destroyed by one last time. She’d fought back hard, taking down the creature and looting a lot of high-quality gear and materials.
Should she hunt the sea monster now? At her current damage, she could one-shot smaller sea monsters.
Yan Yiqiu quickly dismissed the idea.
The sea monster spawns randomly; encountering one is luck. Better to spend time reaching the island and gathering resources.
The rain stopped.
Yan Yiqiu opened the door. The salty sea smell had faded, and the sky was now a clear, beautiful blue, as if it hadn’t rained.
She took a deep breath and checked the dungeon map.
The red dot moved slowly toward the green-marked location. She closed the map, sat back on the pedal, and took out her fishing rod to continue.
[Beep.]
[Lin Siyuan: Damn, Qiu Qiu, are you still on the deserted island?]
She raised her rod, killing a mutated fish drawn by bait, and calmly replied: “I’m already floating at sea.”
[Lin Siyuan: Wow, you’re fast. I just finished my boat. I could’ve left earlier, but the rain came. What happens if we don’t reach the destination in three days? Instant death?]
Not exactly.
The game didn’t allow instant player deaths. Like upgrading a territory, players don’t die just for not reaching a level. But failing to escape monsters in the misted area can be deadly.
This dungeon required arrival within three days because a massive storm and giant waves would strike afterward.
Yan Yiqiu vaguely remembered the storm lasting two days… or three?
[Yan Yiqiu: Not sure. But better to reach the target island quickly. The sea is dangerous.]
[Lin Siyuan: Indeed. Gotta go, beauty. 88.]
[Yan Yiqiu: Bye.]
Another mutated fish leapt at her bait. Yan Yiqiu swiftly cut it down for EXP.
The sky darkened gradually. The full moon rose overhead, large and bright, seemingly within reach.
Yan Yiqiu entered the cabin to rest and eat, restoring fullness.
At this pace, she’d probably reach the target island tomorrow.
She might even be the first player to arrive.
After eating, she was about to sleep when a strange sound erupted outside—things breaking with splashes in the water.
Yan Yiqiu opened the wooden door.
Moonlight illuminated everything. She saw scattered wooden debris floating dozens of meters away, players frantically swimming apart. Behind them was a massive shark-like sea monster.
Its mouth opened, full of triangular teeth, snapping at the nearest player, instantly painting the water red with blood.
Several players, terrified, immediately quit the dungeon. Only one stubborn girl remained, holding onto a piece of wood.
Wait—it wasn’t just stubbornness.
Yan Yiqiu realized the girl had been knocked out. No wonder she hadn’t let go of the wood.
Since she saw her, she decided to help.
Yan Yiqiu pulled out the crossbow she made in the previous dungeon and shot the sea monster, drawing its attention.
The monster’s focus shifted, diving beneath the waves, leaving a one-meter-high dorsal fin visible before surging toward them.
Water splashed as the fin cut through the surface.
Unsure if her boat could withstand a collision and not wanting to test it, Yan Yiqiu leaped forward when the monster was five to six meters away, grabbed its dorsal fin, and swung her axe down.
[Player dealt 736,452,981 damage to the sea monster, with 107,219 effective damage.][Obtained Blue Chest x1, Wood x2,103, Tier 1 Ore x1,111, Tier 2 Ore x452, Tier 3 Ore x102, Gold x200, EXP +800.]
A massive haul.
As she marveled, she fell into the sea.
Calmly, she swam back to her boat, retrieved the girl still holding the wood, and tossed her onto the stern.
The girl was soaking wet—definitely couldn’t go in the cabin.
Yan Yiqiu checked her own wet clothes, muttering about basic gear not being waterproof. She lit a fire pit she had made and began drying her clothes.
She also opened the blue chest to see what loot had dropped.