7:43 AM. The sky gleamed bright, drifting into light clouds.
Survival log, gentle reminder: Sixteen hours remain in the Novice Protection Phase! Players, stay vigilant and ready.
Ye Shu awoke early and returned the newly repaired fishing rod to Zhang Yingying.
"Ye Dàlǎo, the fishing rod is really fixed!"
Zhang Yingying stared bewildered at the rod in her hands. She’d harbored no real hope for repairs, yet here it was, not just fixed, but restored as if untouched by accident. It felt utterly unreal, like waking into the best part of a dream.
Ye Shu gave a gentle nod. The power of optimization reached far beyond this—something as trivial as a fishing rod was fixed in minutes, hardly an effort at all.
She posted a few more odd fish onto the trading platform.
Almost instantly, a player named Taotie snatched up every last monstrous fish she’d listed.
Ye Shu was speechless. Whoever this was, they clearly had some peculiar cravings. She’d tried the human-faced starfish before: its rank, gamey flavor was barely edible—even in desperate straits she’d hesitate to eat it again.
Today, Ye Shu planned to search for the island marked on the map. It was only a few hundred nautical miles away; with her sloop gliding at twelve knots an hour, she'd reach it before sundown.
With the Dinghai Compass in hand, Ye Shu set the parchment map into the groove and triggered autopilot mode.
1:21 PM.
Her sloop coasted to a halt in the bay of an island.
Even from several nautical miles away, Ye Shu could spot coconut palms dotting the island’s shoreline, the thicket of emerald mountains standing sentinel beyond.
She leapt overboard, meaning to stow the sloop in her inventory, but the vessel refused to budge.
[Nautical vehicles cannot be stowed in inventory!]
[Nautical vehicles cannot be stowed in inventory! (Warning: Your ship can be stolen. If your ship is seized, the game ends—player dies!)]
Ye Shu spat on the sand. This damned game had a special way of screwing people over.
She paused, her gaze sweeping the length of the island before her.
The sea washed up shells and conchs upon the shore. A few crabs scuttled beneath the rocks. Golden beaches glowed under a canopy of coconut trees—food everywhere, as far as the eye could see. She really had no reason to leave.
"Da Piaoliang, you keep watch. I won’t be long."
Da Piaoliang was a high-level Anomaly—almost untouchable in this game.
With a few brief commands to the black cat, Ye Shu set off along the sand, collecting scattered kelp, sea snails, and coral shells along her way.
After two harrowing days of fishing for mutants, the sight of ordinary seafood almost startled Ye Shu. She gathered whole baskets full until curiosity finally waned, and dumped the snails and shells into her inventory.
[Player discovered: Coconut palm. Description: Non-toxic, edible coconuts; sweet white flesh high in nutrients.]
Like a monkey, Ye Shu scrambled adeptly up one of the slippery trunks, plucking down several coconuts. She cracked one open barehanded and the sweet, cool milk washed away a trace of her restless fatigue.
There were plenty of coconut palms lining the island’s fringe. Ye Shu kept gathering until she’d amassed more than a hundred coconuts, surveying the just-bared trunks. She pondered: Bigger nautical craft would require a heap of wood—weren’t these coconut trees just as good?
Almost as if the game could hear her thoughts, a chime rang out.
[Felling coconut trees can be disassembled into timber. You must craft an axe!]
"An axe…" She didn’t actually have one. Was she really about to leave empty-handed?
Ye Shu, of course, wasn’t leaving with nothing. She clenched her fist and delivered a punch to the trunk. With an echoing crack, the thirty-meter palm toppled.
[Player has successfully felled a coconut palm. Disassemble?]
[You acquired: Timber x10.]
The survival system fell silent.
How was this foreign player so utterly heedless of normal logic?
If it weren’t bound by duty as the system, it would honestly have praised her: ‘Marvelous strength, heroine!’
Ye Shu banked her timber, then moved to the next coconut palm.
She didn’t indulge, taking down just over a dozen in all—a quick, simple sweep. The island was vast, and according to the map, would be lost to the sea by nightfall. She needed to probe deeper inland.
The forested hills were immense; every plant seemed magnified several times larger than its modern-day kin.
She found a clump of wild strawberries—each fruit as big as half her palm, blushing red. She’d hardly stepped forward when a wild snake uncoiled among the bushes, tongue flicking and emerald eyes narrowed in her direction.
Ye Shu used to be terrified of snakes.
But after several rounds of life-and-death games, slippery cold-blooded creatures meant nothing. She drew her peachwood sword and aimed straight for the serpent’s vulnerable spot.
The wild snake was butchered into several bloody sections.
[Player has slain a level-0 wild snake. Description: Non-toxic and edible. Snake gall clears heat and detoxifies; lean snake meat makes excellent snake soup or stew, and can even be used to brew spirits—a high-quality ingredient!]
[Wild Strawberries. Description: Non-toxic, edible, rich in vitamins A, B, C; rumor has it, strawberries and milk make the perfect pair!]
Ye Shu was never one to waste. She grabbed her optimized plastic wrap for the chopped snake meat, then picked every last wild strawberry she could reach, yanking up some wild scallions for good measure.
Not far from the bushes, she spotted more burrows dotting the ground.
Rabbit dens—Ye Shu had seen such little holes in the mountains as a child, hunting rabbits with her grandmother. She’d even watched the whole capture unfold.
Soon there’d be rabbit on the menu, she thought, remembering the springy bite of wild grass-fed meat. Spicy rabbit head—that was a favorite. A rare smile touched her lips. "Come to mama, little rabbits…"
She sealed off all other exits and set a small fire, thick smoke billowing into the warren.
Within minutes, desperate rabbits burst from the ground, hopping out in a rush.
Ye Shu waited with her net, each catch swift and sure—none escaped her grasp.
The rabbits kicked and scrabbled, grey paws tearing at the net, but none escaped her iron grip.
[You secured: Live rabbit x8. Description: Healthy wild rabbits, edible and great for slimming—rumor says you’ll lose ten pounds in a month eating nothing but rabbit; also makes a cute, tamable pet—or a hearty meal.]
[Live rabbit—disassemble all?]
Ye Shu opted 'no.' Live rabbits might fetch a fine price.
[Live rabbit x5, disassembled for 5000g rabbit meat, 0.5 meters of rabbit pelt.]
The meat and pelts went into storage. The live rabbits, Ye Shu kept in her net.
3:23 PM.
Plenty of daylight remained—at least two hours before sunset. This marked the last few hours of the Novice Protection Phase, the safest time. And, knowing how ruthless the game could be, it was the wisest moment to hoard supplies.
She picked wild greens all along her trek.
[You acquired: gray herb x5.]
[You acquired: water celery x3.]
[You acquired: wild bracken fern x9. Description: A tasty, healthy wild green; aids digestion and can be eaten as salad, stir-fried, or preserved for storage.]
[You acquired: wild scallion x19. Description: A simple, flavorful seasoning, said to ward off dementia; perfect as a dip with soybean paste—the pride of Dongshan. Delicious, affordable, non-toxic.]
Ye Shu stripped the land as she walked, filling more than half her inventory with wild herbs.
She gathered armfuls of earth into her spatial pouch too, planning to plant vegetables on the sloop.
Just then, at the corner of her eye, she spotted a cave mouth cloaked by creeping vines.