Chapter 388 - 386: The Temper of the Number One on the Combat Power Ranking

The black seawater receded much faster than Faye Yardley had expected.

After just one day, the water level had already dropped below her raft’s protective shield.

At this distance, the monster fish would have to swim out of the black seawater and into the clear zone just to attack the raft again.

For the others who had managed to hold on this long, the fact that the rafts were no longer under attack was a cause for celebration.

The cold wasn’t a concern; after all, if things got too bad, they could just huddle by the fireplace to get by.

But just as the crisis beneath the waves was temporarily resolved, a new one began in the sky: hailstones the size of fists started to fall.

They came crashing down—BAM! BAM! BAM!—only to be blocked by the shield and slide off the sides of the raft.

Faye Yardley had planned to come up directly through an ice hole, but the sheer force of the hail was so great she didn’t dare get close to the surface.

Even hiding beneath the ice, she could hear the incessant PITTER-PATTER and feel the tremors as the hailstones hammered the surface above.

Sighing softly, she simply began walking under the ice, heading in the direction of her raft.

Once she was inside the raft’s protective shield, she shattered the ice above her head with a single punch. A second punch, and the ice completely broke apart.

Back on the raft, Faye Yardley looked up at the sky. Outside the Energy Protection Shield, the overwhelming barrage of hail felt truly apocalyptic.

Faye Yardley couldn’t help but mutter, "The difficulty is this high, huh?"

"Sis, what’s wrong? The late-night snack is ready. Wash up and come eat."

Faye Yardley just shook her head. ’I can’t worry about everyone else. Who among those who’ve survived this long isn’t mentally prepared to die anyway?’

’Besides, I’ve been ready for that myself for a long time now.’

’Who knows which will arrive first, tomorrow or disaster?’

’All I can do is live today to the fullest, and every today that I’m still alive.’

She was in comfortable loungewear, holding a warm cup of ginger and jujube tea, feeling the waves of heat from the fireplace before her.

Blackwood was once again perched on the bar in front of the fireplace.

Leaning back on the sofa, Faye Yardley stared blankly at the system screen in front of her, marveling at the sheer diversity of humankind.

Logan Langdon was taking this opportunity to recruit another batch of people to his island. He was upfront that it was for mining work, and not only was the number of applicants endless, but they were also dragging her through the mud. They claimed that even though she was the first to become an Island Master, she never thought about her fellow countrymen, and so on.

The sheer viciousness of their words set a new low in Faye Yardley’s experience.

It would have been one thing if they had just targeted her, but they were dragging in eighteen generations of her ancestors and "greeting" each one of them.

She took a sip of her tea, the warmth soothing the irritation that had been bubbling up inside her.

Then, she let out a long breath.

’I don’t care about my ancestors, but talking about my parents is not okay.’

Her gaze dropped to the teacup in her hands for a moment, then she suddenly broke into a radiant smile.

But this smile sent a malicious chill through Blackwood, who couldn’t help but let out a "mreow."

Faye Yardley glanced up at the cat. "Blackwood, I know. Some people are just trash-talkers, and in a place like this, there’s no way to find them and make them pay the price for their vile mouths."

However, Faye Yardley felt she should add a little excitement to the national channel.

She compiled a list of everyone who had viciously cursed her and insulted her parents. Then, she made an announcement on the national channel: these people, along with their friends and relatives, were permanently banned from setting foot on her island. She then pinned the post.

Ethan Yardley quickly responded, stating that his guild would also refuse to accept these individuals.

As an ally, Jay Jonas also had to take a stand. It also happened to be a convenient excuse for him to reject applications from certain ill-intentioned people. Of course, he only announced that he was rejecting the offenders themselves.

Then, Faye Yardley traded a blueprint for a small town’s sewage treatment system with Logan Langdon. Logan’s subsequent announcement completely extinguished those people’s hopes of ever getting onto an island.

As a result, the national channel once again fell silent. No one said a word.

It also made those people clearly understand the influence wielded by the number one person on the national combat power rankings.

And it let everyone know that this was not a place for them to vent their frustrations without consequence.

It had only been a little over a hundred days since they left a society ruled by law, yet it felt like a lifetime. The statements from these top players served as a harsh wake-up call.

You still had to watch what you said.

Unless you truly wanted to completely eliminate any possibility of yourself, your family, or your friends ever getting onto an island.

Yes, even if it was just a possibility. But with the increasingly harsh climate and the likelihood of even more brutal events to come, having a glimmer of hope was better than having none at all.

Faye Yardley looked at the now-polite national channel, snorted coldly, and felt no joy in her heart.

She would have much preferred to slap the faces of those who had spewed filth and insulted her parents.

Unfortunately, current conditions didn’t allow for it.

"Sis, are you still angry?"

Faye Yardley turned to the concerned-looking Willow Yardley and shook her head. "No, why would I get angry over such a trivial matter?"

"That’s true. You never get angry because of irrelevant people," Willow replied.

"Lucy White came back and went to take a shower. Cole Kensington has gone down."

Faye Yardley finally looked at the number of monster fish in the warehouse and couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise, "Wow, they’re really capable."

’They really are capable,’ she thought. ’With this many, I really want to just toss them into a lab and have someone research other uses for them.’

But she didn’t need to worry about that. She was sure Zachary Pierce’s research lab had already started studying them long ago.

’It’s strange, though. Isn’t their research progress a bit too slow? How has no one thought to just burn them?’

Er...

’Then again, unless a researcher in the lab made a mistake, they probably wouldn’t think to try burning them right off the bat.’

’In any case, they’ve been researching for a while now. If I want to share the results...’

RING RING RING~

The ringing of the phone interrupted Faye Yardley’s thoughts.

"Faye, one of my teammates here used that dead tree eye. He said that half a day after installing it, he developed a strange ability. At first, he couldn’t control it and had to wear sunglasses or cover his eye. He can control it freely now, but the superpower is pretty weak."

"Can it petrify people?"

"No, but it can slow down other people’s movements."

Faye Yardley said, "Oh," and then asked, "Are there any negative side effects?"

"Not yet. He said when it was installed, it felt like it was taking root in his eye socket. We had an ophthalmologist look at it, and he found it incredible. It seems like the roots connected with the nerves, so he can see with it like a normal eye."

Ethan Yardley continued, "It’s only been a little over a day, so we haven’t found any other problems yet. If anything else comes up, I’ll let you know."

"Okay. You don’t have any more tree eyes over there, do you?"

"Of course not. We were already lucky enough to find one."

Faye Yardley nodded. "True. Having more of them might not be a good thing anyway."

They exchanged a few more words before hanging up. The situation on his end was far more troublesome than hers. Aside from her brother’s raft, which had an Energy Protection Shield, the other rafts did not.

They had to organize their people to deal with the overwhelming hailstorm...