Ye Shu stood up. Beneath her, the makeshift raft was barely held together, with little more than a battered wooden crate accompanying her. The boards creaked and gapped underfoot, letting seawater seep through. All around, strange fish nibbled away at the precious planks—what little wood remained was being devoured.

Even her fishing rod was falling apart—no line, just a broken stick utterly useless for gathering supplies.

[Ding ding ding—Raft durability down to 56%! Please upgrade your raft soon!]

[If raft durability reaches 0%, the game ends and the player dies!]

The warning chimed in her ear. Ye Shu snatched up the rickety fishing rod and swung it at the swarm of fish—creatures she’d never seen before, black-scaled monsters with eerie, glassy eyes and razor fangs, their tails grotesquely mutated to resemble a human leg, darting through the sea with unnatural speed.

[Ding! Survival Log at Sea: Human-Legged Sardine Piranha spotted. Caution: These fish can consume any material, including metal. Their favorite snack is the raft itself. The human-legged sardine piranha is a pack hunter. If you encounter them, steer clear!]

Ye Shu chased them away, only for the swarm to return moments later, gnawing mercilessly at her raft. No matter how recently strengthened, its durability dropped relentlessly—two percent chewed away every hour.

Back and forth it went, a perpetual cycle with no end in sight.

At last, she gave up resisting. As long as she didn’t enter the water, the fish couldn’t reach her.

Then an idea struck. She summoned Da Piaoliang from her storage—the big, beautiful black cat. It might be an eerie creature, but a cat’s a cat, and surely a cat could eat fish, even these monsters.

The black feline paddled out with a comical doggy-paddle, and as it plunged into the shoal, the piranhas scattered as if a wolf had leapt into a flock of sheep.

“Aowu... strange taste, but it’s edible,” Da Piaoliang called out, gnawing on one of the gray-black fish legs and swimming back to the raft. Full, the peculiar creature groomed itself atop the crate, basking lazily in the sunlight.

Ye Shu used the optimization feature to restore the battered rod to its original state.

She snapped her line out with practiced force, peering skeptically at the bare hook. Half an hour passed with not so much as a nibble.

Another thirty minutes of patient waiting brought the same result: nothing.

The sun was unrelenting out here—no shade, no water. Heatstroke and dehydration threatened, and even the pros in the fishing channel were suffering defeat after defeat.

[Xi Tailang: Dammit, is this rod a joke? There’s no bait—how am I supposed to fish? Wait, actually, we’re supposed to hook supplies, not fish. But I’ve been sneaking out for night-fishing for years, and now I can’t even catch so much as a minnow? Is this game mocking me?]

[Houzi Bei Hu Xianfeng Diao Da: Chill, man. The rod doesn’t need bait! My golden fishing rod’s already snagged several silver treasure chests—bottled water, biscuits, congee... Ha! Enough rations to last two days!]

[Zhuzhu Ai Ni: Golden rod? I’ve got a busted old stick! Suffering really isn’t universal. The game must hate me—it dumped me out here with a rotten raft and a useless rod. Where’s the justice?]

[Kao Lian Hun Fan Chi: This is just sickening, game. Why the bias? My rod’s line snapped off. I thought everyone had it tough!]

But Ye Shu was the exception.

Effortlessly, she produced a sun umbrella from her spatial inventory and, lunchbox in arms with a sweet mung bean soup in hand, looked less like a castaway and more like a day-tripper on a pleasure cruise.

Half her eight-cubic-meter storage was devoted to weapons, but she’d carved out a meter just for daily necessities—the umbrella included. The remaining three meters brimmed with gourmet food.

Not far away, she spotted a few driftwood logs floating on the waves. Ye Shu flicked out her rod and, with practiced accuracy, hooked onto the wood.

[Ding! Congratulations, player, you’ve gained 3 pieces of wood. Your raft is Level 0, speed: 1 knot per hour. Next upgrade requires 30 wood.]

[Ding! Congratulations, player, you’ve gained 1 piece of plastic waste.]

Ye Shu’s heart gave a lurch as she noticed the raft’s speed. Upgrading wasn’t just for protection—the raft’s speed depended on it as well.

The whole morning, Ye Shu directed Da Piaoliang to paddle the raft by hand while she busied herself fishing for wood. Food wasn’t her main concern; upgrade materials were more urgent.

She took out several bottles of purified water and listed them on the survival channel’s trading platform—five pieces of wood for a bottle. The water sold out in an instant.

[Badao Nu Zongcai Xiao Jiaofu: You bloodsucker! Water’s that expensive? With all this seawater around, how dare you charge so much? I’m filing a complaint!]

[Xiao Fengche: Five wood for a bottle’s a fair trade. If I had five, I’d buy in a heartbeat. With this blazing sun, dehydration could kill me, and this is purified water, not hastily distilled seawater.]

[Qin Shi Mingyue: That rough-filtered seawater gives you the runs—don’t ask how I know!]

With four bottles of water, Ye Shu traded for twenty pieces of wood.

Counting her reserves, she realized she still had dozens of cases of mineral water and ten tons of tap water—enough to keep going for quite a while.

She was about to try trading more tap water when another system announcement chimed in:

[Survival at Sea Alert: There are resources everywhere. Never pass up a treasure chest, but beware—danger lurks as well. Upgrade and reinforce your boat as soon as possible. The Safe Zone has been updated. Black mist is spreading at 5 knots per hour. Remember: avoid the black mist at all costs! Touch it, and you die!]

[Crap! There’s a safe zone? I thought this was a management sim, but it’s actually an escape game! The mist travels at five knots—my canoe’s only three, and that’s with manpower. I’m only a few miles from the mist now. Ha... I’m doomed!]

[I’m in the safe zone, thank god.]

[Yangfan Qihang: I’m outside too—let me show you all the black mist! My sailboat does five knots. I can outrun it, so I’m safe!]

Yangfan Qihang posted a picture to the chat: thick, soupy darkness creeping over the sea like a living entity, devouring everything in its path. Where it passed, the world behind it simply ceased to exist—only blackness remained.

Even through a screen, Ye Shu felt the pressure, suffocating and real.

Unfortunately, she was not in the safe zone.

Worse, she was on the far edge of the region, the black mist looming on the distant horizon.

The black mist moved at five knots. Her Level 0 raft: one. At that pace, it was only a matter of time before she was swallowed.

Desperate, Ye Shu scrambled to trade for wood, but the price had soared since the announcement. Now, a single bottle of water would only net a single piece of wood.

You can last a day or two with no water.

But outside the safe zone, without the ability to flee, the black mist meant immediate death. Players in safe zones could now demand outrageous prices for their surplus wood—and they did.

After trading several more bottles of water, Ye Shu finally scraped together enough wood for the upgrade.

[Ding! Synthesize 30 pieces of wood?]

[Yes.]

She pressed confirm. The raft began to morph.

[Synthesis complete. Upgraded to Level 1 Human-Powered Canoe. Upgrade requirements for Level 2 Sailboat: 3 pieces of cloth, 50 wood, 20 nails.]

In moments, the fragile raft transformed beneath her feet into a sturdy canoe, five meters square, two oars thoughtfully fitted to each side.