Jiang Li was so happy she practically started bubbling all over.
Wow, no wonder rich people lived so well. She was utterly stunned today… the easter egg was actually a top-grade crafting table.
To have a top-grade crafting table this early in the game, she was about to get rich.
Looking at the six dishes that followed, Jiang Li chose the “Seafood Mixed Noodles,” second only to Road Fried Rice.
The next instant, she found herself on a vast, deserted stretch of sea, with a large sailing ship beneath her feet.
From behind her came the sound of a dry branch snapping. Jiang Li turned and saw a dashing, heroic-looking woman cooking a hotpot.
The hotpot was steaming, oil sizzling. She watched the woman lift a slice of fish coated in dipping sauce with her chopsticks and send it into her mouth, while on the plates were large prawns, cuttlefish, clams, and hairy crabs…
Jiang Li’s mouth watered. “Excuse me, could I have a taste? I won’t eat for free… I’ll trade you some supplies for it.”
The woman kept eating with hearty relish.
Jiang Li repeated herself, but the woman seemed not to hear. So Jiang Li decided to help herself. She picked up a spoon and was about to scoop out a slice of fish for a taste.
But her hand passed straight through the spoon. She couldn’t touch anything at all.
Jiang Li watched the woman finish the hotpot, stretch her body, and then leap straight into the sea.
The woman was formidable. Her weapon was a long saber.
Before long, the calm sea began to churn, and the smell of blood spread.
A giant shark swam out, and sprawled on top of the shark’s head was none other than that woman.
The shark twisted and thrashed its body wildly, trying to fling the woman off.
The woman clamped her legs tightly around the shark’s dorsal fin, her right hand gripping the long saber and stabbing it again and again into the shark’s hide.
Shrieking in pain, the shark leaped out of the sea again and again, crashing heavily back into the water and sending spray several meters high.
As time passed, the shark grew exhausted.
The woman spotted an opening at the shark’s flank and split open the shark’s belly directly.
Stricken with pain, the shark twisted its enormous body in fury.
Relying on her astonishing sense of balance, the woman quickly adjusted her posture.
At that moment, the shark opened its bloody maw in a final desperate struggle and turned to bite the woman.
Instead of retreating, the woman advanced to meet the shark’s attack, holding her long saber horizontally before her chest.
Just as the shark’s teeth were about to close on her… “Pfft!”
The long saber pierced precisely into the shark’s left eye, and black-red blood instantly gushed out.
The shark thrashed madly, its tail slapping the sea with great force.
The tail struck the woman’s arm, and the shark bit her body, yet she never let go of the saber’s hilt.
The long saber sank deeper and deeper, churning around inside the shark’s skull.
Jiang Li sucked in a breath. Tsk, tsk, tsk… it looked so painful just to watch.
At last, the shark’s enormous body slowly sank to the bottom of the sea, and then a purple-gold treasure chest floated up.
The woman floated on the sea’s surface, gasping heavily for breath.
She stowed the chest away and crawled back onto the deck.
Watching the black blood flow steadily from the woman’s wounds, even Jiang Li realized something was wrong… the shark was poisonous.
The woman realized it too. She kept tapping on her screen.
She tried to find an antidote pill in the trading system, but the search results came up empty again and again.
In the end, with trembling fingers, she opened the purple-gold treasure chest.
The lid slowly sprang open, and a dazzling golden light instantly illuminated the gloomy sea.
Jiang Li stared at the chest nervously. When the light faded…
Inside the chest lay three blueprints, two blue beads, and a scroll… but no life-saving medicine.
The woman’s fingertips trembled uncontrollably, and she staggered and collapsed onto the deck.
Blood mixed with seawater spread around her, and before long, two more sharks were drawn over.
The woman smiled bitterly, her voice faint but steeped in sorrow: “This is fate.”
Jiang Li watched it all with an expressionless face. Weakness was the original sin.
If she herself were in mortal danger, would she too stop caring about everything and turn into a killing machine?
At that thought, the girl fell silent.
Jiang Li sat quietly against the back of her chair, while Little Qing stood nearby, ready at all times. Letting a guest come to harm in the shop was absolutely not allowed.
『Experience the battle memories of dead player Chen Xiaoyun and obtain basic combat skill. Agility +20.』
A memory fragment could only carry so much memory. In merely a moment, Jiang Li had already come back to herself.
“Guest, are you all right?” Little Qing asked, looking at Jiang Li with concern. After all, this was a major client she had only managed to find with great difficulty.
Jiang Li took stock of her body. Apart from the extra memory, there was no other discomfort.
“Thank you, Little Qing. Hearing your voice puts me so at ease.”
Next, Jiang Li consumed the other dishes one after another.
Sandstorm Sushi trapped her in a sandstorm for three minutes, granting her Constitution +10.
The Bullet Stuffed Pancake triggered the transaction record of an arms dealer just before his assassination, and the original owner’s residual shadow came to claim her life. Fortunately, she swallowed an Aftereffect Removal Pill in time.
The flaky crust wrapped a sweet-and-sour cherry sauce; the crab roe was dense and soft, suffused with the fragrance of flowers and fruit; and the balls slid through her mouth, leaving behind the sweet aroma of cake.
The Cherry Crab-Shell Cake, Fruit and Flower Thick Soup, and Mousse Balls left Jiang Li wanting more. She gained cherry lips, fair and luminous skin, and her formerly dull eyes now sparkled with vigor… her eyesight had become even better.
Apart from the improved eyesight, Jiang Li felt the rest was useless. When you’re fighting for survival, what good was being pretty?
“Miss Little Qing, are there any other dishes today?”
“I’m sorry, guest. Not for the time being.”
Jiang Li picked up the packed lotus-root osmanthus cakes and pine-nut crisp rolls, bade farewell to Little Qing, and returned to the road.
The day had been somewhat perilous, but fortunately the gains were substantial.
Jiang Li lay wearily on her padded coat. Having seen the exquisiteness and splendor of the relay station, she secretly resolved to upgrade her vehicle as soon as possible… no matter what, she was determined to get herself a bed.
When she got back, it was already dark. Today, the Potential System had completed only one driving task.
Jiang Li swapped the God of Gamblers title back to 666 and claimed the package. Inside was an unremarkable bottle of sunscreen spray.
Following her usual routine, she did 300 front kicks and held a horse stance for 2 hours.
Finally, she used instant noodles (5-pack) ×2 and the remaining KFC family bucket to successfully trade for basic supplies: glass ×40, Wood ×100, Iron ×50, a beige underwear set ×1, and earplugs ×1. Jiang Li simply couldn’t hold off her drowsiness any longer and sank into a deep sleep.
When she woke up the next day, it was already 11 o’clock.
She opened the chat channel. Sure enough, once the players all had earplugs and could no longer be lured in, those monster mermaids all retreated.
Jiang Li paid no heed to anything else. She quickly walked to the driver’s seat and hit the road.
Time is life, and life comes but once.
The road was straight, with not a single vehicle on it, so there was no need to worry about crashing into anyone.
The temperature had dropped a bit today… around 20°C, which was quite comfortable.
Her maxed-out Luck meant she hadn’t been driving long before she came across a golden chest. This was the first time she had encountered a golden chest since entering the game.
Jiang Li stopped the vehicle and prepared herself… one hand on the crossbow’s trigger, the other holding a tree branch to pry open the crate. A giant rat half a person’s height charged out, but before it had even fully leapt out of the crate, it was shot dead.