A mechanical voice thundered across the heavens and the earth.
"Ding!! The Safe Zone is about to refresh—Endless Black Sea, Black Mist velocity increases to 30 knots, safe area shrinks by another tenth. Remember: contact with the Black Mist means death for players. Good luck!"
Ye Shu, curled up in her warm bed, cast aside her covers and raked her hair into some semblance of order before stepping outside.
She nearly collided with Pang Pangzi, who was walking straight for her room.
"Lady Ye... if the safe zone refreshes, we might be scattered to the four winds... This is a team card... Should we... Should we..." Pang Pangzi hesitated, adrift in uncertainty.
Ye Shu had never been one for unnecessary actions. If she said no, he’d have no choice but to abandon this steel ship—so full of security and reassurance—for somewhere far more precarious.
"Fine," she replied.
"Ah...?"
Ye Shu frowned, repeating herself, "I said, we may bind the cards."
For a moment, Pang Pangzi looked as though he had won the lottery. He danced a peculiar jig—though as the seconds pressed forward and he fumbled to bind the team card, Ye Shu’s reminder finally jolted him into action. He managed to link the card at the very last possible moment.
Naturally, the S-rank card supported multiple bindings.
Pang Pangzi had already bound himself to Fu Shiyi and Fu Jingchuan. The two ships tethered together vanished from their original spot... and so it was for all remaining players—their vessels disappeared beneath the shadowed night, leaving the midnight blue ocean wholly, eerily empty.
...
And once again, she found herself teleported to the sea’s farthest edge from the ever-shrinking safe zone.
There were four members in the team, three cursed with bad luck, routinely tossed outside the zone—Ye Shu was long used to this misfortune.
With the cards bound, Ye Shu started up the steel ship and promptly went back to bed. What could a black mist, moving at only 30 knots, do against her vessel?
The Fu Family, carried effortlessly by Ye Shu’s overpowered hand, had the rare pleasure of enjoying the ride.
Fu Shiyi stared in horror at the monstrous black fog sweeping across the horizon, its inky fullness devouring the world. It was his first time cast into the outer limits, where even in the pitch-darkness you could hear the bloodcurdling screams of other players.
Had he not been fastened to Ye Xiaoshu’s ship, he might’ve lost most of his life this very night.
The steel ship ran tirelessly all night long.
Thanks to the humane design of this sea-survival game’s system, ships only required upgrades—fuel was never in question, or else the game would have ended for everyone long ago.
Day ten of the Ocean Survival Log.
Weather: Sunny, turning to partly cloudy.
Temperature: -20°C.
Waves: Low.
Ye Shu lazily slept in until eight o’clock, emerging just on time from her cabin.
The sun hung high up in the sky, bright and glaring, but nothing could coax the temperature upward.
Players without fire-pits had no choice but to layer every scrap of clothing they possessed in a desperate bid to conserve warmth.
Those more fortunate—armed with fire pits and abundant supplies—spent the day gazing out over the ocean from their ships.
Ye Shu, following her usual routine, grabbed a quick bite, cut the engines, and set up to go fishing.
By chance she glanced into the distance—and found, to her amazement, that the sea had turned black.
Thinking herself still half asleep, Ye Shu rubbed her eyes. But the scene remained: the entire stretch of sea was an endless sheet of impenetrable, inky black.
It made an uneasy shudder curl up in her heart, as if some unseeable monster would surge up from below at any moment.
"Lady Ye, don’t fish! It’s all black chests down there, and inside are nothing but tiny monsters—absolutely no food!"
Pang Pangzi clambered onto her boat as soon as he saw her cut the engine.
She looked him over. Pang Tong’s military-green winter coat was smeared with oily-black blood—a sure sign he’d already run into creatures from the deep.
"Monsters? Interesting," Ye Shu said, eyes bright with amusement.
Far from discouraging her, the news that the black chests contained only monsters instead of supplies made Ye Shu even more excited.
After all, armed with her peachwood sword, every last monster was a chance for points!
She opened the chat window—player after player commented on the black chests, each reporting a monster inside.
[Safe zone just refreshed, so did the map get a whole makeover too?]
[The blue sea was oppressive enough—but now, black? That’s truly unsettling.]
[I just opened a black chest. Something the size of a human head—a human-faced sea urchin—came wriggling out! Nearly scared me to death! Thankfully, my game items and talisman kept me safe.]
[Don’t open the black chests—they’re all crawling with monsters!!]
[Are they really all black chests? I just picked up a blood-red one. Wait, I’ll open it... let’s see...]
[No, don’t! If it’s red, bet there’s something even worse inside. Couldn’t be anything good...]
[What happened to the one who said they’d open the red chest?]
[Pai Xiaoxing: That player’s probably gone... My ex-husband just fished up a red chest, too. Now he’s silent—not even rising to my taunts about him and his white moonlight mistress. Usually he’d snap back in a heartbeat.]
[Wow, are we really posting this in the open chat? Sis, tell us more about you and your ex—this blood feud is getting juicy.]
[...]
Most of the bullet comments were about black chests, with a few mentions of red ones mixed in. It was clear now: every one contained some monster from the deep sea.
No one yet knew the true danger lurking in these jet-black waters.
The little merfolk, Xiaobai, was immune to the darkness. He frolicked happily below the surface, sometimes even delivering chests to Ye Shu.
She fished up a dozen or so black chests before she was satisfied—ready to see what they held.
Unlike previous chests, these bore no runes, no strange scribbles—just plain, heavy black wood. The monsters inside, presumably, would not be too difficult to deal with.
[Black wooden chest opened: you’ve obtained a Level 0 Deep Sea Puff Fish! Description: Beware—the puff fish, when angered, will continually swell up until it explodes.]
With a damp slap, a barrel-shaped gray fish leapt forth from the chest. Its eyes spun wildly, and the instant it saw Ye Shu, its body ballooned like an inflatable toy, its gray flesh turning eerily translucent.
Ye Shu coolly poked a hole in the puff fish with her peachwood sword.
"Shhhoo—"
The fish’s swollen body deflated with a hiss before being promptly chopped into pieces.
A little clownfish munching blueberries from a basin nearby froze in horror. How vicious! Thank all that is wise it had surrendered to her early on, or it too would’ve been minced and hurled back into the abyss.
[Ding! Congratulations, player Ye Shu, for gaining 0.5 points.]
Ye Shu popped open every other black chest in quick succession.
No exceptions: all contained Level 0 puff fish; the rare Level 1, too, didn’t last a second under her sword—all ended up as scraps.
[Ding! Congratulations, player Ye Shu, for gaining 0.5 points.]
[Congratulations, player Ye Shu, for gaining 1 point.]
The notification tones chimed on and on.
Pang Pangzi, stunned, resigned himself to clearing the deck. Still, with a lady knight like Ye Shu aboard, he felt oddly secure. If possible, he would choose to serve as Ye Xiaoshu’s loyal lackey every round of the game.
Meanwhile, the black mist kept creeping closer.
Unhurried, Ye Shu activated the ship’s auto-navigation system.
Their steel boat swept past several smaller vessels—players on those boats gazed at them with envious eyes.
Was this the sweet taste of being protected by a true powerhouse?