Chapter 41: Important Clue—Faction Confrontation?

Chapter 41: Chapter 41: Important Clue—Faction Confrontation?

[Congratulations to the player. You have successfully survived the Extreme Heat Disaster.]

[Your game district is District 122. The current number of survivors is 97,902. There is no need to merge with other districts.]

[During the Extreme Heat Disaster, the Aesthetics Leaderboard and Practicality Leaderboard have been added.]

[Congratulations to the player. In this stage, you have ranked first on the Personal Level Leaderboard, Raft Level Leaderboard, Resource Leaderboard, Explored Islands Leaderboard, Aesthetics Leaderboard, and Practicality Leaderboard. You are currently ranked first across the entire server. You are rewarded with Wooden Chest x60.]

[Server Announcement: In the first stage, the Extreme Heat Disaster, District 122 ranks first in the number of survivors among all districts. All players in District 122 are rewarded with Wooden Chest x10.]

[Server Announcement: The leaderboards are calculated at the end of every stage. Players, please continue to work hard and strive to make the rankings.]

Rowan Rhodes had already finished reading all the messages. Seeing the extra seventy wooden chests, she couldn’t be happier. Since she was about to open a shop, these items would be perfect for stocking up her inventory, making her store look much more official. Without a second thought, Rowan began opening the chests one by one.

[Obtained: Cake x2, mineral water x2, Metal Ingots x3, leather x1]

[Obtained: Dumplings x2, Cola x2, plastic x5, fragments x3]

[...]

As the wooden chests were opened, all sorts of resources poured out. Because Rowan’s inventory was already full, these resources were stacked directly on the raft. Nearby, the Seagull Family was busy admiring the newly transformed raft, but when they noticed Rowan’s extravagant display of unboxing, every single Seagull was stunned.

They tilted their heads and looked toward Seabird One. Seabird One SQUAWKED happily and CHIRPED something to its family. Consequently, the family of five eagerly flocked to Rowan’s side, signaling that they wanted to help.

"I’m going to list all these in my shop first, so I don’t need your help for now," Rowan replied casually. "If you really want to help, why don’t you go look around and see if there are any sunken ships on the seafloor!"

However, she was dead serious about that last part. Seagulls naturally possessed an advantage on the ocean, and the Seagull Family were clearly Native People who had lived at sea for a very long time. Asking them might just yield some unexpected surprises. At the very least, they were guaranteed to locate a third island. If they succeeded, she would have nothing to lose and could even equip her raft with an Engine ahead of schedule.

Upon hearing Rowan’s specific request, Father Gull and Mother Gull of the Seagull Family immediately took to the sky, leading Seabird Two and Seabird Three with them. As for Seabird One, it continued to linger by Rowan’s side.

Seeing this, Rowan paid it no mind and continued opening her chests. While doing so, she dismantled the empty wooden chests along the way. One of the perks of listing items in the shop became apparent here: the store would automatically consolidate identical goods. Her unboxing Speed grew faster and faster.

Finally, after a dozen minutes, Rowan managed to open all the wooden chests. Only then did she have the mood to check the World Channel.

"Haha, I’m so happy! I just finished opening my ten wooden chests, and I instantly feel so rich in resources."

"I know, right! Opening chests feels amazing. It really replenished my supplies."

"Thanks to the big shots. You guys really warmed our pockets."

"The big shots probably got quite the haul this time too!"

"Rowan Rhodes secured first place again. Awesome!"

"She’s a true top-tier player! But Zelda Parrish from our district isn’t bad either!"

"Haha, Zelda Parrish is the big shot who was collecting trash earlier, right?"

"Yeah! If Zelda Parrish hadn’t shown up in the chat before, I wouldn’t have even known that the server’s second-place player was in our District 122!"

"Weren’t you all saying Rowan Rhodes is in our District 122? Why did the story change?"

"Rowan Rhodes never confirmed it, but Zelda Parrish did! She’s a living, breathing top player."

"..."

"So having a high number of survivors actually brings benefits!"

"Thanks again to the big shots. Otherwise, our district’s survival rate probably wouldn’t be this high, and we wouldn’t have gotten these resources."

"Speaking of which, it’s kind of terrifying that our district has the highest survival rate. Just counting people between 18 and 55, Veridia alone has nearly 800 million. If there are about 8,000 districts, and at least 2,098 people died in each... then over 16 million people died just during the novice period and the Extreme Heat Disaster! Not to mention the global death toll."

"Fuck, now that you’ve done the math, that’s absolutely horrifying!"

"This really is a game that eats people alive!"

"Speaking of the globe, I haven’t seen any foreigners in our district yet."

"Could it be that this Sea Survival Game is divided by country in addition to districts? Will there be faction battles later on?"

"That’s entirely possible."

"This sea game is truly ruthless!"

"..."

As Rowan scrolled through the World Channel, she worked hard to gather information. She wasn’t surprised to see Zelda Parrish jump to the number two spot on the server this time. After all, Zelda was a top-tier player, proving that her own abilities were formidable. With the hints Rowan had subtly dropped, it was perfectly normal for the other woman to catch up so quickly.

What really caught her attention was that when someone mentioned Zelda was the one collecting trash, Zelda didn’t come forward to refute it; instead, she quietly took the credit.

When Rowan finished exploring the island ahead of schedule, she had already assumed that the players in District 122 would figure out she belonged to their district. She was no longer afraid of being exposed. Yet she found that no player had noticed this detail at the time, or if they had, they didn’t broadcast it. Not long after, Zelda’s ranking suddenly skyrocketed, and her number of explored islands updated to two.

Rowan knew then that Zelda had once again followed closely in her footsteps to get onto an island. Zelda was the second person to set foot on an island; based on the leaderboard information and the traces left on Thesora, her identity could easily be deduced. So when the "blame" for the trash-collecting was dumped on her head just now, why didn’t she jump out to deny it?

Was she... showing goodwill?

After analyzing the situation, Rowan came to this conclusion. After being reborn, was a top player from her past life trying to build a good relationship with her?

Rowan couldn’t help but smile at her own deduction. Building a connection was perfectly fine. Her shop had an option to "invite residents," and when Rowan checked it earlier, she found that it meant inviting other players to consign their goods in her store. Zelda was an ideal candidate for this. The weapons and Equipment she crafted had proven to be exceptionally effective, both in Rowan’s past life and during this Extreme Heat Disaster. Securing such a cooperative partner would be a blessing.

In fact, it wasn’t just Zelda. Players like Skye Schuyler, Owen Caldwell, and Faye Sinclair, who had shined during the Extreme Heat Disaster, were all on her planned invitation list. She held absolute control over her shop. Hiring these people would only expand her store’s inventory, so why not do it?

Having finished analyzing this piece of information, Rowan shifted her focus to another detail. She suddenly remembered that in her previous life, after entering the Coastal Waters Region and the server-wide World Channel was unlocked, people had indeed mentioned that there were only about eight thousand districts. At the time, they were also discussing how the "World Channel" was very likely restricted to just Veridia, because the numbers matched up perfectly. Back then, she had only been focused on staying alive and had no energy to think that deeply.

Looking back now, it was true!

If that was the case, the faction battles the chat mentioned were highly probable. She hadn’t encountered any so-called faction battles while in the Coastal Waters, so did that mean they would likely take place in the ocean zone right after it? If that were true, it would fill the blank in her knowledge regarding what happened in the Sea Survival Game after the Coastal Waters. Furthermore, she could adjust her raft’s development plan based on this point.

Rowan’s eyes lit up. This really was a crucial clue!