Seeing the hostile fishmen glaring at her not far off, An Xiaomei merely narrowed her eyes and mentally asked the game, "What exactly does this 'death order' mean?"
The game replied mechanically:
"This is a death order that only a tribe's supreme ruler can issue. From now on, if you encounter other indigenous groups, they may join the hunt for you in exchange for the reward promised by the Mutant Fishmen Tribe.
In short: you will likely face danger from all sides."
Hearing the game's explanation chilled An Xiaomei to the bone.
She hadn't expected that killing a few fishmen would lead to such severe consequences. If she'd known, she might have acted more cautiously. It looked like from now on she had to regard all natives as potential enemies.
At that moment the Fishman Emperor standing on the shore roared in fury: "Wretched adventurer! You dared to kill my only prince and dozens of my followers—this is an unforgivable crime. Send word to the other twenty-three tribes: whoever kills the enemy shown in this portrait will receive one thousand Energy Stones from my tribe."
All twenty-three indigenous chieftains had now received the death order. The promise of such huge rewards set every tribe abuzz; no native could resist such temptation.
Dragon Nation viewers watching the broadcast read the game's explanation and panicked.
"What do we do? Auntie An really stirred up a big hornet's nest this time!"
"It's over — I can already picture the bloodshed to come and Auntie An's frantic escape."
"Who knew the Mutant Fishmen had such authority? The adventurers and natives in this game were always bound to clash. Monsters attack on sight, and natives gain chances for resource boxes if they kill an adventurer."
"Exactly. By all rational analysis, the conflict between adventurers and natives is irreconcilable — it was only a matter of time."
"I just saw a foreign stream where a hero got a death order from the Mutant Bull Tribe — he's in the same dire situation as Auntie An."
Yang An, An Xiaomei's only living relative, read the notice with a tight chest. Ever since his mother entered the National Fate survival world, he couldn't focus on training; his superiors noticed and gave him leave because he looked distracted.
Now he slept only when his mother slept. Tonight he hadn't dozed off — his eyelids had been twitching. After learning about the death order, he couldn't sleep at all; he watched his mother's stream constantly, terrified something worse would happen.
An Xiaomei decided to put the past behind her and opened the resource boxes she'd collected that night to cheer herself up.
"Ding — you have opened two Intermediate Resource Chests and obtained: one Mutant Mask, one Speed Boots, three apple tree seeds."
Only three types of items from two intermediate chests? That seemed stingy — was the game targeting her? But when she checked the descriptions, she relaxed.
The two items were high quality, which explained the smaller quantity.
Mutant Mask: When worn, an adventurer can randomly change their facial appearance to that of the opposite sex (body stats unchanged). Usable for 2 hours within a 48-hour period.
Wow — this was exactly what she needed. Though the cooldown was long, the effect was perfect: it finally gave her a countermeasure to the fishmen's death order.
Speed Boots: Increase an adventurer's sprint speed by 20%. Usable 2 hours within each 24-hour period.
A useful escape item — it felt like the game was tipping the scales in her favor by handing her two flight-oriented tools.
Apple Tree Seeds: Plantable on farmland. Each seed bears fruit in 7 days; fertilizer speeds maturation. Every planting reduces field fertility by 5%. If a field's fertility drops below 40%, it becomes unarable.
If farmland were permanently productive, farming in the game might be viable — but this rule made long-term farming feel like a pipe dream.
She then opened the six Primary Resource Chests at once — no point waiting; in this world there was no "luck" stat for chests.
"Ding — all six Primary Resource Chests opened. You received: 3 Energy Stones, 2 bowl-and-chopstick sets, 2 warm quilts, 1 thermos, 2 wooden buckets."
Strange — many of the basic chests contained insulation and warmth gear. Perhaps the game was signaling an imminent cold snap.
From the original body's fragmented memories, An Xiaomei only knew that during this period she'd once suffered material shortages and had not encountered mutant fishmen. Later her body had grown cold, and then she encountered that damned island man. So now she suspected a major temperature drop might be coming.
She needed to speed up stockpiling — especially of cold-weather supplies.
Before sleeping she dumped more cotton, flax, and thread into the crafting queue so the game would hasten the winter outfits, then dozed off in her tent.
That night other adventurers suffered: some were raided, others hunted by ferocious natives. Only a rare few encountered peaceful resource islands.
The next morning, after breakfast, An Xiaomei took the Energy Stones and the Control Compass from her pack. She planned to use the navigation device she'd bought in her past life to return to resource Island No. __ and fill her expanded pack.
Viewers were astonished: An Xiaomei's ice island began moving at an incredible speed in an unknown direction. That was when everyone realized — the main island's movement could be controlled by its owner.
Her plan was good — but she didn't first run into her intended resource island. Instead, she collided with another adventurer's ice island.
Looking closely, it was a coincidence — wasn't this the island man who'd harmed her in the previous life?