After finishing lunch, An Ling took a brief rest. Looking around at the changes inside the house, she felt increasingly satisfied.
“If only I had a companion, it would be even better.” As she thought this, she reminded herself that humans were, after all, social creatures—after being alone for a long time, a bit of loneliness was inevitable.
Still, for An Ling, this was only a minor problem. With the pressure of her environment, who would still care about such things?
She inserted the Positioning Card she had just exchanged into the machine beside her. It was just like putting a card into an ATM—the card was immediately swallowed, vanishing without a trace.
At that moment, the Navigation Locator began to beep, and the green pointer on it spun rapidly. An Ling stared intently at the screen before her.
With Fortune’s Favor on her side, she couldn’t believe the positioning would fail.
[Positioning successful. Supply Island coordinates (21, 35).]
A small dot appeared on the screen. Judging by its location, it didn’t seem far from her current center. Although An Ling didn’t know what these coordinates meant, she trusted that as long as she followed the directional indicator, she would find the Supply Island.
She planned to explore the Supply Island that afternoon, hoping to discover something valuable.
Now that she had all the necessary tools and Fortune’s Favor, it was the perfect time to head out to sea.
Her only concern was how far this island actually was from her—something she did not know.
However, the system definitely wouldn’t send her to a dead end. If the Supply Island could be found early on, with the Raft available, she figured it must be reachable as well.
No time to lose, An Ling decided to set off immediately. There had to be similarities between the Supply Island and Survival Island—such as not being allowed to stay on the island for long periods, and so on.
Just as she walked to the side of the boat, she was stunned by the sight of the empty deck.
How was she supposed to tell directions out on this boundless sea? And how could she make sure she could return to her own island?
“Isn’t there something missing on this boat?” An Ling wondered aloud. “At the very least, there should be a Compass or something… Wait, the Navigation Locator—could it be placed on the boat?”
She immediately used the construction module to rearrange the furniture and discovered, to her surprise, that the Navigation Locator could indeed be placed on the boat.
Alright, An Ling admitted to herself that she’d been a bit dense.
“Now it finally looks right.” She shouldered her backpack and carefully climbed aboard. The gentle rocking of the boat immediately made her feel less secure.
She couldn’t swim—if she fell into the sea, it’d be game over for her.
Raising the anchor, An Ling steadied herself, then slowly set off by turning the propeller.
As she drifted farther and farther away, she glanced back at the little island shrinking in her view. After checking her Light Screen Ring again and finding everything normal, she finally relaxed.
Just like that, An Ling’s first voyage at sea began. There were three points on the Navigation Locator: a small green dot representing her Construction Island, a green triangle representing the Supply Island.
As for the center, it represented her current location.
Soon, the little island behind her vanished from sight, though An Ling didn’t feel like she was moving very fast.
“Maybe surviving on a boat is actually a pretty good idea.”
An Ling discovered that the boat’s functions were almost the same as the island’s—it could be expanded infinitely, and maybe one day it could be upgraded into something like an aircraft carrier.
And even without a Navigation Locator, drifting on the waves might lead her to a Supply Island by chance. Fishing for materials floating on the sea would also become much easier.
Just then, An Ling suddenly noticed a gray triangular flag quickly drifting her way from afar.
What’s more, it was standing upright, immediately arousing her curiosity.
But as the distance closed, she began to sense something was wrong.
“Damn, that’s a shark!” An Ling jumped in fright, instantly recalling the previous warnings from the Light Screen.
Rashly entering the sea was extremely dangerous.
She had thought that, since she had a boat, she wouldn’t be included in that warning.
An Ling didn’t try to speed away—she knew there was no way she could outrun a shark.
She quickly pulled out her Antler Bow from her backpack, nocked an arrow, and fired at the shark.
Whoosh! The arrow splashed into the water, making only a tiny ripple, without any effect.
An Ling realized she had missed.
She immediately fired a second arrow, and with the shark getting closer, the target grew larger. She wasn’t a perfect shot, but at this distance, it was enough.
Thunk! This arrow successfully pierced the shark’s back, instantly staining the surrounding seawater a bloody red.
But not only did the arrow fail to drive the shark away, it only enraged it further. An Ling quickly launched another attack.
After firing five or six more arrows and hitting the shark a few more times, An Ling was just about to pull out her pistol to finish the job, when the shark finally gave up and swam off in defeat.
“Consider yourself lucky,” An Ling snorted coldly. “There’s nothing a single shot can’t solve. If there is, then two shots will do.”
“But is the Antler Bow really that weak?” She held the bow in her hand, turning it over and over, and finally put it away helplessly.
After this little incident, more time had been wasted. She had no choice but to speed up her journey.
Glancing at the time left on her pendant, she saw she’d lost half an hour—nearly a full hour in total, and she still wasn’t even halfway there.
An Ling felt she’d been careless. If there was only one day, she’d have really lost out.
The scorching sun was still hanging overhead. Even while hiding under the wooden canopy, she still felt a burning heat. Sweat seeped down her back, leaving her feeling sticky and uncomfortable.
The weather was hot to begin with, and now with all the physical exertion, it felt even more stifling. She could only roll up the sleeves of her sweatshirt to help release some of the heat.
“Does it feel like the weather has gotten much hotter since coming back from the last island visit?” An Ling raised her brows slightly. The sunlight reflecting off the sea made her squint her eyes.
She had originally planned to pick up some materials as she traveled, but realized it would waste time and energy—not to mention, there was nowhere to put a chest even if she did fish one up. It was too much trouble, so she simply gave up.
“That’s right, I’m an Awakened now!” An Ling slapped her forehead, suddenly remembering. She immediately tried to use her ability to control the propeller.
“It works!” An Ling was overjoyed. Now she could free her hands. She quickly grabbed a bottle of mineral water and gulped it down, then lay down in the shade to rest.
Soon, most of the journey was behind her. Along the way, she kept getting up to check her coordinates so she wouldn’t go off course. Everything went smoothly, and she encountered no more dangers like sharks.
In the distance, a small island gradually appeared in her sight.