Ye Shu gathered the energy of her ice ability, freezing the relentless larvae that squirmed toward her.
With all her strength, she spread a thin sheathe of ice over the seahorse monster, then drove her peachwood sword through its belly. Stroke after stroke, she hacked the creature to pieces; even its formidable regenerative power could not keep pace. The deck was soon piled high with heaps of decaying black flesh, reeking with a pungent stench.
Thump…
Ye Shu diced the seahorse into eight segments, smashed them, and tossed the remains—along with the frozen larvae—into the sea.
Of course, it was Xiaobai and Da Piaoliang who got rid of the bodies. Ye Shu herself didn’t want to lay a finger on those vile things. Who knew if that bizarre sea monster was truly dead, or if its lingering eggs might somehow try to parasitize her?
The battle was over.
A system chime rang in Ye Shu’s ear.
[Ding! Congratulations, player Ye Shu, for slaying a super-advanced seahorse creature. You have earned 50 points. Keep up the good work!]
How ironic! The larvae of a creature from the abyssal deep were terrified of the cold.
No wonder the seahorse had hidden itself in the treasure chest, biding its time. The moment a player unlocked the black chest on their boat, their personal banquet of flesh and blood would begin!
Desperate to survive, the players dared not use destructive explosives. Ice abilities were staggeringly rare in-game; had it not been for Ye Shu’s unique skill optimization and the luck of drawing an ice-ability card before entering, she’d be lucky to escape death—let alone victory—this round.
Fifty points. Not bad at all.
She remembered the over 9999 resignation cards in the game shop and suddenly found herself looking forward to what the black chest might hold.
“Fu Jingchuan, I’ll share some of the loot from this chest with you—as thanks for the warning just now.”
Ye Shu had always been a woman of clear distinctions between gratitude and resentment. Though she coveted profit, she took it openly and fairly like a gentleman—never stingy, either. Fu Jingchuan had indeed lent her aid; he deserved his share.
“No need. Even if I hadn’t warned you, you’d have slain that monster sooner or later.”
Fu Jingchuan refused outright. He knew well enough; with Ye Xiaoshu’s prodigious strength, the seahorse beast’s demise was inevitable—his own help little more than a timely flourish.
“I just don’t like owing people favors.”
“Resources for surviving at sea are scarce, and your luck hasn’t exactly turned. Take the supplies—if I’m not mistaken, Shiyi just unlocked the basic fire brazier blueprint. You’ll need this round.”
Fu Jingchuan’s heart twinged strangely; he knew he was unlucky, but hearing Ye Xiaoshu point it out just stung that much more.
Ye Shu, not to be refused, divided up the loot: 99 steel, 10 glass, 66 coal, and 5 bolts of cloth.
Seeing this, Fu Jingchuan let it be and put the tools in his warehouse without further protest.
……
Pang Pangzi, seeing all was quiet above deck, summoned his courage and climbed up with Fu Shiyi.
“Ye… Lady Hero, you’re alright! I thought… Well, I knew a high-level monster was nothing but a paper tiger to you, finished off in minutes!”
Seeing the deck spotless, Pang Pangzi knew the matter was settled.
Fu Shiyi had only met Ye Shu three times in total, and not so intimately as Pang Pangzi, so didn’t know her immense combat prowess. He’d been worried at first, but seeing Ye Shu so nonchalant, dared not ask further.
Everything slipped back to its old quiet.
The Fu brothers had enough blueprints and tools for fire braziers, and returned to the fishing boat to get to work. The Fu family was vast; Fu Jingchuan and Fu Shiyi were hardly the only ones forced into the game.
With a fire brazier now made, Fu Jingchuan wanted to provide for the family first.
Pang Pangzi decided to stay aboard the big ship as cook, skilled and eager for the job.
Ye Shu turned her hand again to fishing.
[You’ve caught a short-legged bread crab.]
[You’ve caught a fresh queenfish.]
[You’ve caught a scrap tire.]
[…]
She baited with seaweed and cast again, still waiting on a treasure chest. Frustrated, she scratched her head and, upon reeling in a rusted copper coin, tossed it aside in annoyance.
“Master! I’ve found a chest for you. Quick, start fishing!”
Ye Shu glanced down. Xiaobai was pushing solid wooden chests, floating them to the surface. Hooking one by the edge, Ye Shu hauled them in until a dozen chests formed a mound on deck.
Just as Pang Pangzi emerged from the galley with dinner, he witnessed this smooth operation. “Six!” he blurted involuntarily—a gamer’s exclamation of awe.
“Lady Hero, so there are new ways to beat this game!”
Pang Pangzi figured his own horizon had just been broadened. Nowhere in the survival guide did it say you couldn’t get outside help; after all, Jiaoren was a contract beast, not considered cheating…
“Of course. The system didn’t announce any foul play, did it?”
Pulling up chests, Ye Shu’s mood improved. She grinned with sharp, white teeth, the picture of satisfaction.
The feast was a riot of color, fragrance, and flavor: stir-fried wild greens, shark meat stew, pan-seared fish, braised rabbit, a vat of rice, and fruits carefully sliced and topped with cream. Pang Pangzi stood by waiting to serve, respectful as a courtier.
Ye Shu served herself rice. Glancing at Pang Pangzi’s pitiful face, she relented and motioned him to sit. He wisely did, picking at rice and only eating vegetable leaves, murmuring to himself: This is meat, this is meat—I must lose weight, lose weight…
“Fairy—little fairy master—may I eat too?”
Xiaobai adored strange fish from the deep sea, so Ye Shu handed it the rod: “Go fish for yourself if you’re hungry.”
Every meal, Da Piaoliang was steadfast in seeking out strawberries and scrounging for leftovers.
Compared to the eerie black tiger and mermaid Xiaobai, the little clownfish—far weaker by nature—had almost no say on the boat, resigned to drooling over its washbasin hideout.
Xiaobai cracked open a bread crab, shooting a cold look at the pitiful clownfish. To think a gutless, gluttonous kin waited in these seas—how disgraceful!
That night, the sea was calm and serene once more. Another peaceful day passed by.
……
Sea Survival Log—Day Seven. 6:11 AM.
Weather: Overcast to mostly cloudy. Temperature: -4°C.
Seas: Gentle.
Dawn had barely broken, but already, the game chat had erupted into chaos.
[It’s -5°C here. What about where you are?]
[-6°C, so cold! If it weren’t for the brazier, I’d have been frozen stiff last night. It might throw black smoke, but that’s a small price to pay—just put on a mask! I can endure.]
[My brazier’s out! They’ve been ‘delivering’ a new one since last night, still hasn’t come. No refund on the deposit either. Damn it all!]
[Folks, buy your braziers from the Glutton Guild. They’ve got piles! If it wasn’t two per person, I’d buy the whole lot. Their regular braziers last eight hours and there’s no smoke. D-star folks don’t scam D-star folks! Hurry, the supply’s almost out…]
[Dammit! Missed out by seconds. Only 10 steel for one—so cheap! And guaranteed delivery in half an hour… Why the purchase limit?!]
[Seriously, are the rest of the players born octopuses? They beat me every time! Am I just slow?!]
[Gang of Roughnecks (Big Mao): Who is it? Stealing my business—don’t let me catch you… I’ll kill you a million times over.]
……
Beside the large fishing vessel's crafting station:
Fu Shiyi’s arms were sore from hammering.
“Third Brother… heh-heh… If this station could churn out more than five hundred braziers a day, I’d pump out thousands, let the He family try to act smug—we’d rack up braziers too!”
“Less talk, more work,”
Fu Jingchuan shot the boy a stern look, brows furrowing even deeper.
His gut told him: keeping as many D-star natives alive as possible was to their advantage, as outsiders here. And last night… the precognition from his ability… endless, bottomless sea… he had a bad, bad feeling. This survival at sea was already starting to feel a tier above even the hardest ghost story instance.