Rocks, rocks, iron ore, mud, White Butterfly Shells, rocks, iron ore…
Dozens of resources lay scattered across a relatively small area. This was a treasure trove no one had discovered yet!
Yu Tang excitedly flicked his tail twice, stirring up the water around him.
[Obtained Stone x1]
[Obtained Stone x1]
[Obtained White Butterfly Shell x1]
…
With a grin, Yu Tang darted around, picking up every rock in a nearby pile. More than twenty pieces of stone appeared in his Inventory at once.
[Tool required. Unable to collect.]
“Hm?” Yu Tang looked at the new material in front of him: mud.
He needed a tool for this?
After thinking it over, he checked his Inventory, then scrolled through the Trading Market. He found a player selling wooden shovels and traded a few planks for one. Then he swung it at the strange stuff in front of him.
[Obtained Mud x1]
Yu Tang’s lips curled. Just as he’d thought.
When he tried to collect the iron ore, the panel gave him the same warning. So he went back to the Trading Market and bought a stone pickaxe, then swung it hard at the ore.
[Obtained Iron Ore x1]
Perfect!
Yu Tang: That’s me for you. Always one step ahead!
The rest was easy.
Pick, pick, pick. Dig, dig, dig. Yu Tang searched the seafloor for treasure like a hamster stuffing its cheeks.
It’s all mine! Mine! Hahaha!
…
The seafloor held even more resources than he’d expected. Along with the materials he’d already found, there were edible green seaweed and sea urchins.
Supplies that could help him get stronger were important, of course, but when you had no idea how long you’d be alive, good food was just as essential.
It took Yu Tang more than twenty minutes to clear out the entire area.
After making sure he hadn’t missed anything, he picked a direction and swam on.
When he’d traveled about two or three miles, resource information appeared on his Game Panel again.
Mud, mud, iron ore…
The next round of scavenging began.
The resources were distributed differently in each area.
The first patch had been rich in stone. There’d been other resources, but nothing close to as plentiful.
This area was the opposite. There was plenty of iron ore and mud, a few shells, and almost no seaweed, stone, or sea urchins.
But Yu Tang didn’t discriminate. He took everything, watching the amounts of each resource in his Inventory climb by the second.
Just as he was getting into the digging, the current suddenly shifted.
Yu Tang turned at once, his senses alert. Another man-eating shark had spawned.
Had an hour already passed?
He traded his stone pickaxe for the iron sword, aimed at the shark’s eye, and struck twice. Then he whipped his tail hard against it, and the shark’s Health Bar emptied in an instant.
He collected the chest and the drop and was about to get back to mining when he realized his arm was aching.
He’d been digging for nearly an hour. He’d never done this much physical labor in his life. Of course his arm hurt.
Yu Tang paused and decided to take a break.
Resources were precious, but that didn’t mean he had to work himself like a donkey.
He relaxed, stretched out in the water, and closed his eyes, letting the current carry him.
Twenty minutes later.
The ache in his muscles had eased. Yu Tang aimed his wooden shovel at the mud in front of him and was about to dig when the blade suddenly struck something hard.
Yu Tang: ? What was that?
He cautiously lifted the thing buried in the sand. His bright blue eyes went wide, even in the gloom.
It was a wooden chest!
At first Yu Tang was thrilled. Then he remembered that the chest might be empty, so he opened it on the spot to find out.
[Obtained Frozen Tangyuan x1, Self-Heating Rice x1.]
It wasn’t empty!
Once he realized there might be treasure chests hidden on the seafloor among the iron ore and mud, Yu Tang immediately swam back to the two areas he’d already searched and started digging everywhere.
Sure enough, he found two more wooden chests!
They were the lowest grade of chest, but they were still an extra windfall—nothing like supplies from a supply drop or a man-eating shark kill.
Thinking of all the wooden chests waiting to be dug up across the ocean, Yu Tang swished his tail back and forth in delight. His enthusiasm for treasure hunting shot through the roof.
—
On his raft, Yu Tang tossed the iron ore he’d collected into the Furnace, restocked his planks, and put the newly made iron sword up for sale. Then he took out the sea urchins he’d found.
Sea urchins in the Survival World were enormous. Every one was over four inches across, and some were nearly six inches.
They were packed with plump, bright yellow uni. Each one probably held an ounce or two, and it looked delicious.
Gulp.
Yu Tang swallowed. He pierced the shell with a sharp nail, then broke the thick shell apart piece by piece. He removed the digestive tract and dark innards, leaving only the yellow uni. Then he eagerly scooped some into his mouth.
“!”
Mmm!!!
Yu Tang’s blue eyes lit up.
How could it taste this good?
The texture was unbelievably smooth, almost melting in his mouth. There wasn’t a trace of fishiness, just the fresh, sweet flavor unique to seafood. It was so good he wanted to swish his tail.
Yu Tang quickly scooped out the rest and ate it, letting out a satisfied sigh. “A taste of heaven!”
It was already incredible on its own, but a drop or two of soy sauce made it taste completely different.
“Too bad I don’t have wasabi.”
Dipped in wasabi and soy sauce, it would be spicy and fresh. He couldn’t even imagine how good it would be.
Yu Tang decided to keep an eye on the Trading Market and see if anyone found wasabi.
In a world where the sea was full of seafood, a seafood feast without wasabi and soy sauce just wasn’t complete!
Yu Tang opened three more enormous sea urchins, then took out the self-heating rice he’d found earlier.
Fresh sea urchin was great raw, but it was also delicious steamed with egg or added to fried rice.
He didn’t have eggs, but he could still make fried rice!
He also washed the seaweed he’d brought up from the seafloor to remove the excess salt, blanched it, and tossed it with soy sauce, vinegar, and chili powder. It would go perfectly with the fried rice.
Sea urchin fried rice was simple to make, but it was every bit as good as any other kind. Yu Tang shoveled down a heaping spoonful after another and finished it in just a few bites.
There hadn’t been much rice, so Yu Tang opened another ten or so sea urchins. At first, he ate one piece of uni at a time. Before long, he was stuffing all the uni from an entire urchin into his mouth, cheeks bulging.
Chomp chomp chomp.jpg
By the time lunch was over, he’d gone through twenty enormous sea urchins. He’d also finished the orange juice from that morning, which helped cut through the richness.
Yu Tang patted his slightly rounded stomach, looking utterly content.
That was the life!
Once he’d eaten his fill, he counted up everything he’d collected from the seafloor.
Wooden Chests x12, Stone x82, Iron Ore x53, Mud x64, Green Seaweed x18, White Butterfly Shells x21, White Pearls x11, Sea Urchins x42, Glowing Clams x3, and a little over thirty pounds of fish meat.
The sea urchins and green seaweed were what remained after he’d finished lunch.
White Butterfly Shells were a kind of pearl-producing shellfish, but only about one in two yielded a pearl.
The whole reason he’d gone to the seafloor in the first place had been to get pearls. Who could have guessed that he’d end up with a mountain of everything else and hardly any pearls?
On top of that, several wooden shovels and stone pickaxes had worn out. They didn’t last long, either.
But compared to everything he’d gained, those losses were nothing.
With the Weapon Forge free, Yu Tang made two more Pearl Bracelets.
One gave +7 Constitution; the other gave +5 Defense.
The +7 Constitution bracelet was two points better than the one he was wearing, so naturally he switched to it.
He put the Defense bracelet aside and listed the old +5 Constitution bracelet on the Trading Market.
Yu Tang opened the Quest Panel and checked the Kill Progress Bar.
By the end of the morning, the number of people who’d completed the kill quest had risen to more than two hundred.
The number of people who’d died was even higher. Nearly three thousand had disappeared, a death rate of more than ten to one. The rate of loss was brutal.
Yu Tang knew these numbers represented human lives, but since he hadn’t seen any of it happen for himself, it was hard to feel the reality of it. The numbers alone didn’t quite seem real.
He sighed over it for a moment, then let it go.
As the number of players completing the kill quest increased, more weapons, equipment, and accessories began to appear in the Trading Market.
Fish-Tooth Bracelets, Fish-Tooth Pendants, Fish-Skin Boots, Bone Rings, Fish-Tooth Earrings. Nearly all of them were made from drops from man-eating sharks.
They vanished from the market almost as soon as they appeared. That included the Pearl Bracelet Yu Tang had just listed, which was more popular than the other gear because it increased Health.
Besides buying equipment, the thing players cared about most was how to kill man-eating sharks safely.
Regional Chat.
“Even with an iron sword, my Strength is only barely 30. I can’t even break through a man-eating shark’s Defense! Even if I do get a hit in, it only loses a dozen Health. How the hell are we supposed to fight this thing?”
“I got lucky and knocked off more than twenty Health, but then it healed and my damage was cut in half. It has a thousand Health. Who knows how long it’ll take to wear it down? I’m exhausted just thinking about it.”
“The worst part is when you’ve finally taken off most of its Health and you’re too tired to keep fighting. You have to watch it slowly heal all the way back up. Damn, all that work for nothing. My blood pressure’s through the roof!”
“So how did the two hundred people who completed the quest do it? Did they just keep throwing Molotov cocktails?”
“I don’t think so. At least, I know a player named Wen Yin killed one with an iron sword.”
Bao Bailing said, “Wen Yin’s a Wudang Sect disciple and a skilled swordswoman. Her starting Strength was as high as 15. Most people can only manage one strike at a time, but Wen Yin can stab repeatedly. She does more damage to a man-eating shark than a Molotov cocktail does, so the kill quest is much easier for her than it is for the rest of us.”
Yu Tang was a little surprised.
It had only been a few days, and people had already dug up that much about her?
The other players were shocked to hear about Wen Yin’s stats. They couldn’t help wondering how absurd the stats of Yu Tang and Big Shot Su must be if even someone like Wen Yin hadn’t been able to finish a kill on the first day.
One player who’d completed the kill quest said, “It took me over an hour to kill the shark. I was completely wiped out afterward. With stats that high, Wen Yin probably didn’t use much energy to kill hers. When the next one spawned, she could take it down again in no time. She’s got it good.”
Other players: ???
“What do you mean, ‘the next one’? Another shark appears after you kill one!?”
“Are you new here? The Big Shot had all those great items. Do you think he got them from killing one man-eating shark? I thought everyone knew that.”
Bao Bailing helpfully explained, “A man-eating shark respawns an hour after it’s killed. We don’t know yet whether there’s a limit, but sharks killed after nine at night won’t respawn before six in the morning. So as long as you kill them at night, you can still get a good night’s sleep.”
Yu Tang read the messages and added, “A man-eating shark can respawn up to ten times a day.”
The players who’d been chatting excitedly lit up.
“The Big Shot’s here!”
“Ten a day? You sound so sure. Did you hit the limit?”
“So Yu Tang was getting ten black-iron chests a day for the past couple of days!? Damn! No wonder he’s so rich!”
“I can’t even imagine what kind of stuff he’s pulled from those chests. I’m drooling.”
Players who’d finished the kill quest and still had some fight left in them were thrilled.
They’d already planned to rest up and go again, but they hadn’t realized there could be as many as ten man-eating sharks in one day!
They couldn’t promise they’d kill all ten, but two or three more ought to be possible, right?
The thought of getting more black-iron chests—and all the useful supplies and blueprints inside—lit a fire in the experienced players. They looked at the sea, or at the newly spawned sharks, with eager anticipation.
The other players took advantage of Yu Tang’s presence to ask him about his experience. Most wanted to know if there was a way to stop man-eating sharks from healing.
Their Attack Power wasn’t high to begin with. Having the shark regain Health after every hit was maddening.
Yu Tang: “The healing’s part of the game, so I can’t do anything about that. But speeding things up is simple. Just go for a swim. Let the shark come to you.”
Other players: ???
Go into the sea? Wasn’t that just asking to die?
Some of the quicker ones realized what he meant and blurted out, “I get it! You mean lure the shark in! As long as part of you’s in the water, you can draw it back after it loses Health and swims away. Then it won’t have time to heal!”
Yu Tang nodded. Good. You’ve got it.
The sharks attacking players was a game mechanic. It didn’t matter whether someone went into the water by accident or on purpose; if they were within range, the sharks would attack.
The players who’d been driven up the wall by the sharks’ healing finally understood.
So that was possible!
