Chapter 7: This Seems Kind of Awesome!

Chapter 7: Chapter 7: This Seems Kind of Awesome!

Realizing this, Rowan Rhodes didn’t panic. No matter how high the difficulty was now, her situation was already much better than in her previous life. She was very content with everything she had right now.

Immediately, Rowan took out her long spear and began to deal with the sharks. The two sharks were already attacking the raft from the front and back, clearly aiming to overwhelm her so she couldn’t defend both ends. In particular, Rowan noticed that the shark gnawing on the raft in front of her was looking at her with a gaze that seemed almost... provocative.

Rowan was rendered speechless. It wasn’t just double the sharks; they were evolved sharks! Did this mean that if one’s raft upgrade was far ahead of the others, the strength of the ocean monsters encountered would also increase?

Rowan suddenly recalled that in her previous life, she had indeed seen many top-ranked experts suddenly disappear from the leaderboards. She had always assumed they were looted and killed by other players. Looking at it now, there had to be an additional reason—they had been targeted by the Sea Survival Game.

The Sea Survival Game really was full of malice toward its players! The previous concealment of "resource upgrades" and the current besiegement of "priority players" both proved this point. After realizing this, what could she do? She could only continue to grind. She had to make herself stronger and overcome the Sea Survival Game’s targeting one by one. At the very least, its targeting had to operate within certain rules.

Rowan’s attention returned to the sharks in front of her. She focused on dealing with the one in front first, playing it safe and steadily whittling down its health bar to zero. After the first shark died, the other shark charged over, its body covered in wounds.

The spikes she had just installed on the raft had served their defensive purpose. When the shark instinctively attacked the raft, the spikes blocked the assault. She had always believed that if one had the ability, every piece of Equipment prepared would eventually prove its worth.

Using the same method, Rowan finished off the second shark. An easy double kill.

After experiencing this overwhelming battle and looking at the doubled resources in her backpack, Rowan’s mindset leveled out significantly. Looking on the bright side, an extra marine creature meant that as long as she was strong enough, she would gain an extra set of resources compared to others.

As this thought flashed through her mind, Rowan raised an eyebrow. Could this be considered finding joy in hardship?

[Warning: Player’s Thirst Value is too low. Once it reaches zero, Life Value will decrease.]

The familiar floating text appeared, interrupting Rowan’s thoughts. She calmly checked her status.

[Thirst Value: 1/100]

[Fullness Value: 9/100]

It was lunchtime, so it wasn’t surprising that her stats were bottoming out. Turning her gaze to her backpack, Rowan took out a bottle of mineral water and quickly drank it. After finishing the bottle of mineral water, her cracked lips were finally soothed, and her status rose to 21. Only then did she shift her attention to the instant noodles.

Earlier, while sorting her resources, she had been salivating just looking at the colorful packets of instant noodles. The different colors represented different flavors. Braised beef, pickled cabbage, tomato and egg, fresh shrimp and fishcake... Counting her previous life, it had been a very long time since she last ate instant noodles. Who could refuse a steaming bowl of instant noodles?

Since instant noodles required boiling water, she first had to make an iron pot. The crafting principle of the iron pot was the same as that of the wooden box. She tossed the scrap iron into the Workbench.

[scrap iron can generate: Blueprint - Iron Pot, Blueprint - iron shovel, Blueprint - Shelf, Blueprint - Iron Bucket...]

Rowan chose to craft the "Iron Pot".

[F-level Iron Pot: Boils water and cooks food. Requires: scrap iron x3, Wooden Board x5, clay x3.]

Rowan returned to the living area with the iron pot. She placed it on the cooking platform, started a fire, and took out another bottle of mineral water to pour inside. Then, she tossed the empty bottle, along with the previous mineral water bottle, over to the Freshwater Collector.

The Freshwater Collector could gather fresh water on its own. After five hours, it would generate a new bottle of mineral water, but it required an empty mineral water bottle to do so. If she didn’t have any mineral water bottles, she would need to fish up plastic and produce them at the Workbench. Since plastic was a crucial material for the next stage, perhaps she could start collecting it early. Rowan made a mental note of this.

Soon, the water boiled. Rowan turned off the fire and took out the instant noodles she had gotten from the bronze box. She opened the package, added the seasoning, and poured in the boiling water.

When she finally took the first bite of the noodles, Rowan felt genuinely moved. Good food truly could soothe the soul. Most importantly, instant noodles could satisfy both her Thirst Value and Fullness Value requirements at the same time. They were absolutely a perfect resource for the early game.

After finishing her meal, both of these stats were fully replenished. After cleaning up briefly, Rowan looked out at the supplies floating in the sea. There were still more than four hours until the final shark attack. Her stats were maxed out, so it was time to get to work!

Due to the raft’s upgrade, the surrounding resources in the ocean had refreshed.

broken cloth: Can be used to make simple clothing and bandage.

Seaweed: Can be used to make rope.

Palm Leaves: Can be used to make wooden furniture.

These three resources were within Rowan’s expectations. Now that she had acquired them earlier than before, she would make sure they proved their true worth.

Standing at the very front of the raft, Rowan rejected nothing. Wooden Board, broken cloth, Seaweed, Palm Leaves, and other materials were continuously dragged onto the raft. Before she knew it, she had already hooked 20 units of resources and two empty wooden boxes.

After stopping, Rowan glanced at her status and was surprised to see it still maintained at eighty percent. Thinking back, it had been the same when she upgraded to a Level 2 Raft last time—the number of times she could salvage resources had increased. It seemed her personal stats had indeed improved.

According to the game’s settings, the increase in a player’s Level was directly tied to the raft’s upgrade. For every Level the raft gained, the player’s Level would also advance by Level 1. Although during the novice period, the system defaulted to treating players as if they weren’t Official Players yet and wouldn’t grant them attribute bonuses, as a reincarnator who had brought back the Heart of Life and the C-level Collection Skill, she could already be considered an Official Player. Her stats hadn’t increased on the surface, but her attributes had experienced a substantial boost. This was a pleasant surprise.

After confirming that her status was fine, Rowan resumed fishing, madly hoarding resources. She didn’t stop until her stats dropped to 60. After all, she still had to deal with the final wave of sharks!

As she placed the newly salvaged resources into their corresponding Storage Box, Rowan felt an indescribable sense of satisfaction. Only an abundance of resources could give her a sense of security.

Speaking of resources, she seemed to have another resource production point. Rowan walked over to where the fishing net was placed.

[Obtained: Small Fish x2, broken cloth x1, Seaweed x1, Palm Leaves x2.]

Whether the fishing net caught anything depended entirely on whether the floating resources in the sea happened to pass by; it was all up to chance. It could be said that the more resources there were on the sea’s surface, the more the fishing net would catch. Obviously, after the raft upgraded, the harvest in the fishing nets had increased. Moreover, it required no effort, acting as a steady, long-term stream of income.

Previously, due to limited resources, she had only made one fishing net. But now that resources were plentiful, she could make a few more to keep scooping things up. This perfectly fulfilled the wish she had when placing the fishing net this morning: to get a few more pieces of Equipment capable of "producing" resources.

[F-level fishing net x12: Requires Wooden Board x24, rope x26]

After the crafting was complete, Rowan densely installed the fishing nets around the raft. Thanks to the spikes in place, they wouldn’t be easily destroyed by sharks or other marine creatures. This way, any resources passing within the range of the raft would be easily intercepted. Every few hours, she would gain an extra forty to fifty resources.

This felt pretty damn good! Compared to those players in the "lucky" sea zones, it seemed she could catch up just by relying on her Equipment advantage!