He Ni reassessed this game carefully.
This was obviously not just a simple gathering survival game; merely eating and drinking enough wasn’t sufficient.
She not only had to collect food and fend off monsters, but also manage and upgrade her “Sanctuary”—the wooden raft beneath her feet.
The “Expanded Facilities” mentioned in the raft’s description referred to enlarging the raft itself.
Players could spend 16 pieces of wood to increase the raft’s area.
Expansion and upgrades both required a large amount of materials at every step.
But now was not the time for complaints.
The urgent task was to test the Hook Claw and the Newbie Fishing Rod.
Upgrading and expanding the raft wasn’t her top priority.
First and foremost, she needed to ensure she wouldn’t die from heatstroke, thirst, hunger, or monsters.
The temperature rose little by little as the sun climbed higher, and the Virtual Screen’s weather display showed a current temperature of 35 degrees Celsius.
Sunlight beat down directly on He Ni’s body, hot enough to sting her skin.
After about ten minutes, she learned quite a few tips about using the iron Hook Claw and Newbie Fishing Rod from the World Channel, and gradually got used to the raft before standing up holding the Hook Claw.
Counting the drifting items within a ten-meter radius of the sea surface, there were several foam boards, two pieces of wood, a tangled fishing net, a few large tree leaves, several plastic bottles of various sizes, a sun-bleached large plastic bucket, some torn clothes, a few big supermarket shopping bags, and miscellaneous debris like plastic sheets, short ropes, and clumps of seaweed.
He Ni had considered swimming over to salvage these items directly.
But first, she was a complete landlubber; she’d never even been in a swimming pool before, and standing on the raft her legs trembled uncontrollably.
Second, players in the World Channel had tried swimming over, boasting of their swimming skills, but as soon as they hit the water, they felt something underwater grab their legs and drag them down.
If not for the Starter Period Aura, those who entered the sea early on would probably have lost their lives at the start.
He Ni didn’t dare take that gamble.
Gripping the Hook Claw tightly, her gaze burned onto the drifting debris.
The closest item to the raft was an empty mineral water bottle—light and smooth, clearly hard to hook.
He Ni settled for the next best thing, took a deep breath, and threw the Hook Claw toward the tangled fishing net behind the bottle.
Her first attempt was awkward with the force, but luckily the net was large, and the Hook Claw caught a tangled thread at the edge.
She carefully dragged it closer and grabbed it just in time.
【Obtained Broken Fishing Net x1】
【Broken Fishing Net: A tangled, damaged fishing net; after repair, it may be used for fishing】
To prevent monsters hiding inside, she cautiously rummaged through it and found nothing but a few black-and-yellow small leaves stuck in the net.
The net was woven from special synthetic fibers—tough and rough.
Even if it couldn’t be used for fishing, it would be a good binding tool.
Not wanting to lose the few leaves either, He Ni placed them along with the net on the raft.
Just as she was about to continue, a red warning popped up:【You created filth. Sanctuary environment value -25】
【Warning! Your sea Sanctuary environment value is too low. Spirit -2 per hour】
The discarded broken fishing net and four dry leaves each cost 5 environment points, the raft itself cost 25, totaling -50 environment points.
If it was only point deduction, that would be fine, but the filthy environment also affected her spirit.
He Ni felt increasingly that this game was tricky.
No wonder the system had guided her to put supplies into the Personal Backpack after opening the newbie gift pack—apparently it was best not to leave debris on the raft.
She reluctantly put the fishing net and leaves into her Personal Backpack along with the fishing rod, water, and compressed biscuits.
Suddenly, only ten Storage Slots remained.
Fortunately, those four leaves could stack.
It seemed there were rules about what Drift Items she could salvage—not everything was worth picking up.
He Ni hesitated a moment and aimed at a drifting plastic bucket.
The bucket’s capacity looked to be at least ten liters.
Since it floated on the sea, it was relatively intact.
So she was extra careful when throwing the Hook Claw, aiming only at the plastic handle.
This greatly increased the difficulty, but after two failed attempts, the Hook Claw finally hooked the bucket’s handle.
He Ni held her breath and slowly dragged it in.
The effort was worth the nine points of stamina spent:【Plastic Bucket: An old plastic bucket. Although the handle is damaged, it’s still a good storage helper】
The bucket had only a small crack, and inside was a small puddle of water with two lively Sea Crabs.
He Ni’s initial joy quickly turned to alarm.
Snails were monsters; crabs might be too.
She cautiously kicked the bucket a little away and poked at the crabs with the long fishing rod.
Both crabs snapped their large pincers with a clicking sound, then a message popped up:【Sea Crab: Nutritious sea crab. Crushed crab shells have various uses】
Great! Not a monster!
The crabs were bigger than her fist and plump.
A smile broke across He Ni’s face; food was limited, so these two crabs could at least make for half a meal.
However, with negative Status Effects like dehydration and heatstroke, it was reasonable to suspect food poisoning or infection might also be possible.
Eating them raw was risky; she’d wait until she could cook before eating the crabs.
Trying to put the plastic bucket into the Personal Backpack, a prompt appeared:【Personal Backpack cannot store living creatures】
The system must have detected live crabs inside.
He Ni thought for a moment and placed the bucket back on the raft, which triggered a -5 environment value.
Then she threw the fishing net and leaves from her backpack into the bucket, but the environment value stayed at -5.
She couldn’t help but feel pleased—since the debris inside the bucket didn’t directly contact the raft, it didn’t reduce the environment score?
Those nine stamina points were well spent!
Seeing two Storage Slots open up, He Ni happily picked up the Hook Claw again.
Her third target was a large leaf drifting nearby, which looked like a Coconut Leaf.
The leaf was about seventy to eighty centimeters long, made up of linear, sword-shaped leaflets forming an almost circular shape.
The leaf was soaked and slippery, and it took He Ni two tries to hook it:【Coconut Leaf: A fallen coconut leaf, an important source of plant fiber】
Fiber was one of the raw materials for upgrading the raft.
Moreover, such a large leaf, once dried, could serve as fuel.
Combined with wood and rope, it could make a simple sunshade, and collecting more could also serve as a sleeping mat.
There was another leaf nearby, and this time she hooked it on the first try.
Both Coconut Leaves were stacked on the plastic bucket, providing shade for the crabs.
Checking her Player Panel, He Ni saw her stamina was down to 79.
Her total haul so far was Coconut Leaf x2, Plastic Bucket x1, Broken Fishing Net x1, and Sea Crab x2.
There were still many drifting items around, but either they were too far or too small and difficult to hook.
Like the two logs eight meters away—though urgently needed—
He Ni wasn’t confident she could hook them within three tries.
She decided to wait for them to drift closer.
By nearly noon, the sun grew even hotter, and the negative Status Effect of [High Body Temperature] changed to [Mild Heatstroke Risk] on her Player Panel.
Sweat dried and wetted her skin repeatedly, and within moments, her lips had cracked and peeled.
Her throat felt as if it were on fire.
She took out her drinking water and sipped lightly, then took out the Newbie Fishing Rod.
According to other players, the fishing rod didn’t require bait; if she could catch a treasure chest or even a fish, her water and food problems might be solved.
Leaning against the plastic bucket, He Ni cast the hook and float into the sea and began patiently waiting.
It was a tedious process, but sitting relaxed could trigger the [Rest State], recovering 1 stamina every 5 minutes.
He Ni barely moved her body but kept her hands busy, opening the Virtual Screen.
She needed to gather more information and see if she could trade useful items with other players.
After some time, she noticed several goods were sparsely listed in the Trading Hall:【Wood x1 Price: Any food】
【Empty Bottle x1 Price: 50 ml Drinking Water】
【Broken Shoe (Right Foot) x1 Price: Any food】
He Ni focused on searching for fire-related resources but found none.
At the top right of the page was a Magnifying Glass Icon to search keywords, like an online shopping page.
She tried entering “lighting,” “fire,” “light,” and more, all with zero results.
Searches for “weapon,” “stick,” “rod,” “hook,” “fork” also yielded no products.
It made sense; she only had these scraps, so few people had obtained higher-level resources.
While repeatedly entering keywords, the float two meters away suddenly twitched, snapping He Ni’s attention back.
After several trembles, the float suddenly sank sharply, as if something bit and dragged it.
He Ni’s heart leapt; gripping the Newbie Fishing Rod tightly, she seized the moment and pulled hard.
The sound of splashing water rang out, the sparkling sea spray refracted sunlight into rainbows.
A mud-covered high-top shoe dripped water, hooked by the fishing rod, swaying before her eyes.
No wonder someone had listed a broken shoe in the Trading Hall.
Quickly reeling it in, she removed the shoe from the hook:
【Obtained “High-top Shoe (Right Foot)” x1】
He Ni didn’t discard the shoe; at her current stage, anything might be useful.
She wondered if anything was hidden inside.
Tossing the shoe aside, she poked inside with the rod handle.
A fishy smell of mud arose, and a sea snail larger than her thumb fell out.
He Ni was startled but the Virtual Screen promptly displayed:【Sea Snail: A slow-moving sea snail that looks delicious】
It wasn’t a saw snail—good, most marine creatures here seemed normal, and monster appearances were rare during the Starter Period.
Confirming nothing else inside besides mud, He Ni threw the shoe and sea snail into the plastic bucket and resumed fishing.
Her luck was average on the second cast, hooking an empty soy sauce bucket filled with seawater.
He Ni scratched her head; she understood there was a lot of underwater debris, but how did underwater trash get caught on the line?
She had hoped to catch treasure chests or fish, but no such luck, not even shrimp, crabs, or turtles.
Not willing to give up, she cast the third time.
Then she glanced at the crabs inside the bucket.
Though everyone said bait wasn’t needed, would adding bait increase the chances of catching fish?
She decided to try.
Reaching in, she grabbed the fatter crab and tore off one of its legs.
The shell was hard and spiked; to avoid injury, she didn’t snap it but instead used the newly acquired soy sauce bucket as a hammer, cracking the leg shell and breaking it into several pieces.
Unsurprisingly, the third cast only caught junk—a basketball with a hole in it.
No fish, snails, or crabs inside, but a few multiple-legged bugs scurried along the muddy water dripping from the basketball and quickly slipped back into the sea through the raft’s cracks, startling her.
The basketball was filled with silt and gave off a slightly rotten fishy smell.
She didn’t want to waste it either, tossing it into the bucket.
Salvaging this plastic bucket was the best decision ever—she could throw anything inside.
After three casts, stamina was down to 64.
Though she caught only junk, she never blanked—both unlucky and lucky at once.
Washing the hook, He Ni carefully hung a broken piece of crab meat on it and cast out the fourth time.
She didn’t check the Trading Hall again but focused intently on the float.
Time dragged painfully slow.
Fighting the urge to reel in the line to check if the crab meat was still there, she waited over half an hour.
Her stamina had recovered by seven or eight points when the float twitched.
Her heart raced, and her hands trembled gripping the rod.
Suppressing her excitement, she waited until the float sank straight down, then pulled hard.
A dazzling silver flash cut across the horizon.
He Ni’s eyes brightened sharply but turned from joy to disappointment the next second.
She’d hooked a bunch of keys.
The clinking of alloy keys rang clear and pleasant.
He Ni hadn’t expected that using crab leg meat wouldn’t catch a proper fish or shrimp, which was a little disheartening.
Reeling in, she removed the keys from the hook.
The Virtual Screen displayed:
【Keychain: A bunch of keys someone discarded. Maybe they can be used for something???】
What could they be used for?
He Ni’s eyes lit up at the three question marks in the description.
This keychain might still have some big use after all.
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