[Leo Sloan: Help! Somebody save me! I just fell into the sea and tried to catch a fish with my bare hands, but a big crab clamped onto my calf. It won't stop bleeding. Am I going to bleed to death?]
[David Hughes: Who the fuck is playing this joke on me? Get me out of here right now, or you'll all be sorry!]
[Hailey Miles: Everyone, hurry up and get your fishing rods from your backpacks. It's six o'clock. Leo Sloan, you should try to fish for a treasure chest. Maybe you can get something to stop the bleeding.]
Although the chat channel was constantly scrolling, Faye Yardley's gaze was fixed on one name: Hailey Miles.
The screen scrolled by quickly, and Hailey Miles didn't post again, so her name was soon pushed out of view by other messages.
[Wade Warren: I just finished reading all the game prompts. We're the first wave, all between 18 and 50 years old. Those under 18 and over 50 are the second and final wave. If you have family members in those age groups, we need to upgrade our rafts and strengthen ourselves now, following the game's instructions. That's the only way we'll be ready for our families when they arrive.]
[Kyle Lewis: Mommy, Mommy, where are you? I don't want to play games anymore. Please take me home.]
[Kyle Lewis: Mommy, Mommy, where are you? I don't want to play games anymore. Please take me home.]
[Miles Hughes: Kyle Lewis, will you give it a rest? You're a grown man, stop crying for your mommy. Instead of wasting time on that, you should be getting your fishing rod out of your backpack.]
[Kyle Lewis: Mommy, Mommy, where are you? I don't want to play games anymore. Please take me home.]
[Wade Warren: It's almost six o'clock, time for the treasure chests to respawn. Everyone, get ready. The sun is up, so the temperature is only going to rise. We should use this cool time to pull in a few chests and catch some fish.]
[...]
People were constantly talking in the regional channel. Some offered helpful reminders, while others were crying, wailing, and cursing.
'What a strange collection of freaks and weirdos.'
'Hailey Miles, huh?'
'The grudge from the book could be set aside for now.'
Faye Yardley had gotten over her initial fear and was gradually calming down.
Just as it turned six o'clock, she saw a Wooden Treasure Chest bobbing on the waves, drifting toward her small raft.
She picked up her fishing rod to cast it, only to find it felt like she had already hooked something.
Her spirits surged. She pulled hard on the rod, and just as Faye Yardley felt her strength giving out, a large fish landed on the raft with a SLAP.
'You really can catch fish with an empty hook!'
The moment Faye Yardley's hand touched the fish, a system prompt appeared: [Mackerel discovered. It can be dismantled. Dismantle?]
'Of course I'll dismantle it,' she thought. 'Otherwise I'd have to tear it apart with my bare hands.'
After she selected "Yes," a white light flashed, and a new prompt appeared: [Obtained Clean, Uncontaminated Fish Meat ×3].
'Uncontaminated Fish Meat?'
'So if I had tried to butcher it myself, I might have ended up with contaminated meat? And if I ate contaminated fish, I'd probably become contaminated myself?'
'Why wasn't there any explanation for this in the novel?'
'Could it be that some of the rules changed because I transmigrated into the book?'
'Or maybe it was mentioned, and I just don't remember?'
There was no time to dwell on it; a treasure chest was waiting. Faye Yardley immediately cast her fishing line toward it.
She reeled it in and excitedly hauled the Wooden Treasure Chest onto her raft. Faye Yardley rubbed her hands together, muttering a little chant, "Oh spirits of heaven and earth, may The Supreme Lord grant my wish!"
The chest opened to reveal three orbs of light.
Faye Yardley reached for one of the orbs, and a system prompt appeared: [Obtained wood × 10].
The other two orbs yielded [Obtained Mineral Water ×2, Delicious Little Bread ×5] and [Obtained wood ×5, iron block ×1].
'Great! Food, water, and materials. What a perfect start!'
"System, what do I need to upgrade the raft?"
The void screen immediately displayed the requirements—Raft Upgrade - Level 1: Requires wood × 20 (15/20).
Faye Yardley was instantly filled with motivation. 'Just five more pieces of wood and I can upgrade the raft!'
'It seems upgrading the raft during the safe period is pretty easy after all.'
She stored all the items in her backpack. As for the Wooden Treasure Chest, she kept it beside her. She could lean against it when she got tired, and it gave her a small sense of security.
She took out a bottle of mineral water and drank about a third of it, calming the waves of anxiety and fear that kept surfacing.
She cast her fishing rod out again. 'Whatever I can catch is a resource,' she thought.
From then on, Faye Yardley focused solely on fishing and scanning the nearby water for floating treasure chests.
She had no time to look at the regional channel at all.
'Once the chests stop spawning, there'll be plenty of time to chat and trade for supplies.'
'I know what the priority is right now.'
When she felt a tug on her line, Faye Yardley's eyes lit up, and she began to pull with all her might.
Whatever was on the line was even heavier than the large fish. 'This is killing me!' she thought, lying flat on the raft, terrified she'd be pulled into the sea.
"Whoa! What kind of chest is this? Is it bronze or iron?"
Whatever it was, Faye Yardley was so excited she couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear.
[You have obtained one Iron Treasure Box. Open it?]
'No question. Of course I'll open it!'
Before opening it, however, Faye Yardley recited her little spell: "Heaven protect me, Heaven protect me... Open!"
She opened the Iron Treasure Box. It didn't contain more items than the Wooden Treasure Chest; there were still only three orbs of light.
She picked up an orb and received a notification: [Obtained Backpack Expansion × 10 Diagrams ×1].
'This is great, but it's just a diagram. I still have to gather the materials myself.'
The diagram showed that expanding the backpack required cloth ×2 and Space Stone ×1.
'Great. I don't have either of those things.'
'Now this diagram is just taking up a backpack slot.'
'Maybe I can put the smaller items into the chest and then store the chest in my backpack. That should save a lot of space.'
She quickly grabbed the other two orbs, obtaining [wood ×35] and [High Level Fish Spear Manufacturing Diagram ×1].
Huh?
'I have enough wood! System, quick, upgrade the raft!'
[Upgrade to Level 1 Raft? wood 50/20]
"Yes, yes, yes!"
A white light flashed. The raft was now a 2x5 platform—ten square meters. It had gotten much longer, but its width was still worryingly narrow.
The Iron Treasure Box was quite heavy, so Faye Yardley decided it would work well as a stool or a backrest on the raft. She put the diagrams, mineral water, and Delicious Little Breads into the wooden chest; that way, it would only take up a single slot when she stored it in her backpack.
After that, she became a relentless robot, doing nothing but fishing for fish and chests, constantly casting and reeling in her line.
Not every cast was successful; sometimes, she just reeled in ocean junk.
Sometimes, she'd hook two chests in a row and wouldn't even have time to open them right away. It was a happy problem to have, one that filled her with so much motivation that she temporarily forgot her fear of the open sea.
'Treasure chests, fish, shrimp, crabs—they're all mine!'