Ye Shu eyed the canoe beneath her feet with a twist of her lips. All things considered, this upgraded raft was barely better than nothing, but at least its speed had risen to a sluggish three knots per hour. If the game wanted her to be a human-powered fisherman, so be it.

Da Piaoliang had transformed into a two-meter-tall black tiger, its fluffy paws splayed wide as they paddled at the water with wooden oars. Occasionally, the great beast let out a warning roar at the swarming sardine man-eating fish below, a bizarrely earnest performance that had Ye Shu stifling laughter no matter how many times she saw it.

“Awoo, awuu... Master, what's so funny?” Da Piaoliang turned to Ye Shu in confusion, her big green eyes exuding a goofy innocence.

“It's nothing. Keep going.” Ye Shu coughed and refocused her attentions on her fishing rod.

[You’ve obtained a pile of rusty junk!] [You’ve acquired some plastic!] [You’ve acquired: Torn Fishing Net ×1, Fabric ×1. Synthesize new fishing net?] Ye Shu was hardly picky. Slapping her hand on the heap of scrap, she summoned a flash of white light. Before her eyes, blackened junk, flecked with green rust, became gleaming steel; the ripped fishing net repaired itself.

[Congratulations, player has obtained 10 Iron Nails.] [Congratulations, player has obtained 1 Fishing Net.] [Congratulations, player has obtained 5 Fine Steel, 1 Fabric.] Perhaps it was just her imagination, but the genderless system voice seemed to ring out in her skull with a note of exasperation.

After half a day, her fishing line had hooked nothing but trash, yet every single item was promptly transmuted by Ye Shu’s hands into something of use: plastic shards became bottles, scrap metal turned into fine steel, ragged cloth into serviceable fabric...

Da Piaoliang paddled swiftly, yet the spreading black mist advanced even faster!

In less than two hours, the looming darkness was just three kilometers away, shrouding even the sky in oppressive gloom.

Ye Shu abandoned her fishing and grabbed an oar to help Da Piaoliang row.

Human and uncanny beast – their partnership was oddly seamless.

Wood was now a precious lifeline for players at sea, its price soaring sky-high in a matter of hours. From a single stick of wood per bottle of water at the start, to three bottles for just a single plank now. Even spamming the chat to barter, Ye Shu still couldn't get her hands on the lumber needed to upgrade.

As dusk settled in, the ocean air turned biting cold.

Many players wearing nothing but short sleeves cursed their luck.

“I was teleported in shirtless! Anyone want to trade? I’ll give wood for fabric.”

“Weren’t we meant to be in newbie protection? Where’s the protection?”

“Hahaha... I hooked a treasure chest! There’s food, water, and a sleeping bag inside. Hit the jackpot!”

“Temperature’s down ten degrees – no wonder it’s freezing. Haven’t fished up a thing all day. Got a few warm jackets to trade for supplies, anyone?”

The survival interface indeed showed the temperature as 17°C.

Physical enhancements meant Ye Shu barely noticed the drop, but she knew if they didn’t pick up the pace soon, they’d be out of the game for good.

“Awuu... This damn fog moves so fast—it’s our boat that’s too slow!” Da Piaoliang finally complained, though her paws never stopped striving.

Ye Shu also noticed that, no matter how hard they rowed, the canoe never topped five knots—likely another cruel rule of the game. No wonder the system marked upgrades as the only real survival tactic.

They were now just one nautical mile from the encroaching black mist.

The thick, inky fog rolled toward them with a suffocating threat. Ye Shu cursed, digging her oar into the water with renewed desperation.

She was not the only player assigned to this edge-of-safety region—several other small boats bobbed in the gloom. Some players raged, some wept in despair, all shadowed by the creeping dark. With horror, Ye Shu watched as bodies and boats alike were slowly dissolved by the black mist, leaving not so much as a fragment behind.

“Awoo... What the heck? This game world is even scarier than us uncanny things!”

Da Piaoliang’s howl was tinged with fear, but she only paddled harder, yet for all their effort, the gap to the mist never widened, trapped by the unyielding rules.

8:12 PM. The fog still pressed forward.

The weak beam of Ye Shu’s flashlight was the sole glimmer amid the gloom.

Her arms ached from hours of relentless paddling; sweat beaded her brow, her face gone pale, yet she moved without rest.

She pulled up the sea-map: the nearest safe zone was only a few hundred meters away.

Just then, her oar snapped with a crack. She moved to repair it, but it slipped from her grasp and disappeared into the sea.

Frantic, she fished a plank from her inventory to serve as a makeshift paddle.

[Beep—You have entered the Safe Zone!] [Absolute safety. Black mist cannot threaten players here.] [Newbie protection: Safe zones refreshed every three days. Have fun!] Her canoe was first into the zone, but Ye Shu didn’t relax. Only after paddling several hundred meters inward and confirming on the map that she was deep within the area’s bounds did she ease her guard.

Not five minutes later, the black mist was churning just outside the safe zone boundary.

A cluster of players arrived in time, separated from oblivion by a wall’s width at most.

Zhang Yingying stood nervously on her canoe, shivering as she stared at the ruin outside. One more second and she would have died in this game. She still had family she could reach in the chat—how could she die now?

“Damn this murderous fog—my arms are about to fall off,” one player spat.

“Let’s get inside!” someone called.

The speaker was her ex-best friend’s boyfriend, the one whose childhood bond with her had shattered. Zhang Yingying never expected to run into Chen Chen at the game’s outset. Though still irritated, she offered a word of warning.

“Tsk, Zhang Yingying, just as stubborn as ever. It’s a safe zone—what could happen? Seems this game isn’t so difficult after all...”

Chen Chen gave her a pitying glance. If his childhood love hadn’t been so unapproachable, would he have been tempted by another girl? Escaping death, now with a level-two sailboat—clearly, fate was still on his side.

But Zhang Yingying, having grown up with him, could see right through his thoughts.

Just as Chen Chen smugly stretched out his hand to touch the fog, disaster struck: a gigantic tentacle shot from the mist, dragging his boat into darkness. Zhang Yingying could still hear the sickening crunch as the timber splintered.

She watched coldly as Chen Chen reached for her, silenced before he could even scream.

Ye Shu took it all in. This game was a death trap. Within three meters of the outer safe zone, something from the black mist could reach in. Examining the map closely, Ye Shu realized only within five meters of the line was it truly safe.

The ocean breeze was sharp.

Ye Shu burrowed into her sleeping bag, soon enveloped in warmth and sleep.

The uncanny Da Piaoliang stood guard through the night. Having been left to starve alongside Ye Shu for days on end, the big tiger fished a few human-legged fish from the water, crunching the bones with gusto.

Naturally, Zhang Yingying noticed the lone canoe. Finally encountering another player, she almost went over to say hello, but at the sight of the gigantic black tiger, she stayed put.