Chapter 16: Raft Survival 3
Liu Jun and Xie Dongliang exchanged a glance, and with a slight shove, Xie Dongliang was pushed to walk toward Chu Yun.
“Uh, hello. We’d like to borrow your fishing rod, is that okay?”
“We’ll return it as soon as we’re done,” Xie Dongliang added, rubbing his head in embarrassment and deliberately emphasizing the last sentence.
After speaking, both men looked at Chu Yun with eager anticipation, terrified that the word “no” would pop out of her mouth.
“Sure,” Chu Yun agreed without a second thought. It was just lending a tool, so she wasn’t losing anything. Besides, leaving the fishing rod sitting there unused was a waste anyway.
The two hadn’t expected Chu Yun to be so easygoing. They immediately thanked her repeatedly, grabbed the fishing rod, and got to work.
Don’t let Xu Dongdong’s quick catches fool you; when it was finally their turn, they realized just how difficult fishing actually was. After tossing and turning for half an hour, they finally got a fish on the hook, only for it to slip away right at the crucial moment. Eventually, Xu Dongdong couldn’t bear to watch anymore and offered a bit of guidance.
While they were fishing, Chu Yun had already picked up the flint to light the wood in the brazier, placing the marinated hairtail over the flames to roast. The fire licked the hairtail’s skin, making it sizzle as fish oil dripped down. Seasoned with pepper, the roasting fish emitted an incredibly mouth-watering aroma.
The hairtail was freshly caught, making its meat incredibly tender and succulent. Even with the simplest roasting method, it was still a remarkably wondrous delicacy.
Xu Dongdong squatted nearby, staring with wide, eager eyes, while Xie Dongliang and Liu Jun endured the torment of the aroma as they persisted with their fishing.
Before her rebirth, back in the apocalypse, Chu Yun’s squad often lacked dry rations, frequently going out to gather supplies to replenish their physical strength. Among these supplies were various stray livestock. Spices were incredibly scarce back then, but she still treated the food with utmost care, cooking it properly.
After Chu Yun finished roasting the hairtail, Xie Dongliang and Liu Jun finally caught a sea fish weighing over a pound. Bursting with enthusiasm, they began to fumble around, mimicking Chu Yun’s earlier actions.
Chu Yun and Xu Dongdong each held a piece of roasted hairtail, eating as they made room at the brazier.
“Wow, this is so good! You’re seriously good at everything, Sister Chu Yun!” Xu Dongdong grabbed the hairtail and started devouring it ravenously, unashamedly displaying his gluttony and admiration. After eating dry bread for two days, he had been craving this to death.
“You watched for so long. Did you learn how to do it?”
Chu Yun had noticed Xu Dongdong observing and learning the entire time. Even though he had been a rich second-generation kid before, he wasn’t the kind who was ignorant and incompetent.
His mindset was excellent. Despite being reduced to doing missions in a game just to beg for a meal, he not only didn’t complain, but he was also humble and eager to learn. There were many things he didn’t know, but he would slowly observe and pick them up. Since he had the drive, Chu Yun didn’t mind guiding him. After all, once the apprentice learned the ropes, her life would become much easier.
“Yeah, yeah. Let me do it next time, and you can guide me.” Just like that, the two decided who would be the chef for the next meal.
Once Xie Dongliang and his partner finished their dinner, the four discussed the night watch arrangements.
Since Chu Yun had lent them the fishing rod, Xie Dongliang and Liu Jun’s attitude toward her had vastly improved. Participating in the game was inherently just to earn a meal; being able to stockpile supplies under Xu Dongdong’s guidance without having to fight and kill was far more beneficial to them.
Xu Dongdong and Xie Dongliang would take the first half of the night, while Chu Yun and Liu Jun would take the second.
Neither side had any objections to Chu Yun’s proposal. After assigning the duties and reminding them of the safety precautions, Chu Yun pulled out some clothes, set up a simple bed next to the brazier, and went to sleep early.
Unpredictable dangers constantly lurked on the open sea, so she needed to store up enough stamina for whatever came next.
Back in the community, she had bought a straw mat from the old man. Before, the boat had been too small to lay it out, and now that the boat was larger, the presence of outsiders made it inconvenient to pull it out from her storage ring, leaving her unable to take it out and enjoy it.
The first half of the night passed peacefully. Xu Dongdong and Xie Dongliang woke Chu Yun and Liu Jun from their sleep, safely handing over the watch before going to rest.
The moment she switched positions, Chu Yun rapidly adapted to her surroundings. She was brimming with energy, showing absolutely no lethargy from being roused from sleep in the middle of the night.
Very few people could manage this the way she did. Although nothing had happened during the first half of the night, Chu Yun didn’t dare relax. Unknown dangers were always the most terrifying, because you didn’t know how to face them or what preparations to make beforehand.
Gripping her spiked mace, Chu Yun stood by the railing of the wooden boat. She was responsible for patrolling this half of the vessel. Her footsteps were light as she paced back and forth, her eyes observing all directions and her ears attuned to every sound, constantly monitoring the sea for any disturbances.
Her meticulous attitude spurred the physically exhausted Liu Jun to brace himself. He yawned, rubbed his eyes, stretched deeply, and then mirrored Chu Yun, walking around to observe the sea.
Splash, splash.
Chu Yun’s ears suddenly twitched. She heard a strange sound coming from not far away. This wasn’t the sound of flowing seawater, but the sound of some creature swimming through the current.
Splash, splash.
The sound seemed to grow louder; something was approaching them.
“Quick, wake them up,” Chu Yun shouted sharply.
Xu Dongdong and Xie Dongliang were jolted awake from their sleep, seeing an anxious expression on Chu Yun’s face for the very first time.
“Grab your weapons. Everyone, guard one side of the wooden boat,” Chu Yun commanded sternly.
The other three asked no questions. They quietly obeyed Chu Yun’s arrangements, gripping their respective weapons and standing at their posts, ready to face the impending danger.
The sea was exceptionally quiet. No one spoke; each could only hear the sound of their own heartbeat. Aside from Chu Yun, the other three were visibly panicked, gripping their weapons tightly and staring tremulously at the sea.
Right now, the surface of the sea was empty, but the splashing sounds continued—they were hidden beneath the waves!
The sound grew louder, and they drew closer and closer.
Now, everyone saw it—a shiver of sharks had arrived!
They circled the wooden boat, their white bodies almost contrasting with the deep blue seawater. Their pointed fins sliced through the surface like sharp blades, and their tails stood vertically, slapping the water, ready to harvest their enemies at any moment.
Chu Yun did a quick headcount; there were six sharks in total.
Sharks were highly sensitive to the scent of blood. They had already been extremely careful, yet they had still encountered them.
Everyone held their breath and waited, no one daring to make a rash move.
Suddenly, the wooden boat jolted violently. A shark was actually ramming the bottom of the boat, attempting to capsize it.
Chu Yun strained to steady her body. From the corner of her eye, she glanced at her teammates; the three of them were being tossed left and right by the turbulence. Her brows furrowed deeply. Not only did her teammates lack experience in facing such a situation, but if the wooden boat was overturned and they fell into the sea, they would be at an even greater disadvantage. She had to strike preemptively and resolve this quickly.
“Grip your weapons tightly. Attack the shark the moment it breaches the surface. You must be fast; do not let it drag you under.”
Chu Yun issued the order calmly, steadying the wavering morale of the other three. Hearing Chu Yun’s sonorous, forceful voice, they seemed to draw strength from it. Their bodies stopped cowering, and their eyes locked onto the sharks, preparing to launch their attacks.
It’s just sharks. The worst that happens is we die, exit the game, and start over, they comforted themselves.
On Chu Yun’s side, two white sharks periodically leaped out of the water. They were fully grown, measuring roughly three meters in length with highly robust frames, visibly weighing at least 400 pounds each.
The sharks’ scissor-like maws opened slightly, exposing rows of ghastly white, triangular teeth. Their tails spun, kicking up splashes of water, while their oval, black eyes fixed dead onto Chu Yun.
Chu Yun was far too familiar with that gaze; it did not conceal its rabid craving for the taste of meat in the slightest.
Today was very unfortunate. The first misfortune: despite all her caution, they had still run into sharks. The second misfortune: these were man-eating great white sharks. It seemed a vicious battle was unavoidable today.
The first shark launched its attack. It leaped swiftly, opening its pointed maw to lunge at Chu Yun, intending to drag her into the sea—the ocean was its home turf, after all. The wooden boat’s railing wasn’t high, barely reaching her calf, making it very easy for a shark to drag someone overboard.
Chu Yun spread her legs, steadying her lower stance, and assumed a defensive posture. In close-quarters combat with a shark, firing a bow and arrow would be too restricted, and while a spiked mace offered a wide attack range, it lacked the fatal, single-strike precision of an arrow. Thus, she chose to grip an arrow directly in her hand.
Chu Yun’s reactions were lightning-fast. Nimbly twirling the arrow in her hand, she thrust it violently forward the exact moment the shark lunged at the wooden boat.
With a rip, it pierced through!
The colliding momentum of both forces drove Chu Yun’s arrow even deeper. She quickly took a step back, leaving the arrow embedded in the shark’s flesh, and immediately drew a fresh arrow from her quiver, gripping it tightly.
The arrow pierced the skin of the shark’s head, drawing bright red blood, and the familiar health bar appeared on the interface. The physical pain made the shark exceptionally volatile, and it shrieked as its attacks grew more frequent.
The second one also launched an attack, and Chu Yun dealt it a fatal strike with an arrow as well. After a few exchanges, the heads of both sharks were riddled like pincushions.
The sharks were too large, and their physical strength was incredibly formidable.
Facing two sharks alone was a bit taxing for Chu Yun. However, sharks lacked intelligence, so she could only use the slight advantage of the wooden boat to balance the power gap between her and the beasts.
In a brief moment to catch her breath, she checked on her teammates’ situations from the corner of her eye. Liu Jun and Xie Dongliang were each handling one. They were doing okay; they hadn’t managed to attack the sharks, but they hadn’t been injured either.
But Xu Dongdong had two on his side. He had likely learned Sanda in reality, so his posture looked decent, but it lacked killer instinct. While it might be viable for self-defense against ordinary people, he was currently facing two fully grown great white sharks. For a moment, he fell to a disadvantage, and his body began to tremble slightly.
Xu Dongdong wouldn’t last much longer; she had to end this fast.
When the shark lunged again, Chu Yun didn’t stay on the wooden boat. With a flying leap, she flipped onto the shark’s back. One hand gripped the dorsal fin on the shark’s back in a death grip, while her other hand gripped an arrow embedded in its body, slicing it forcefully downward along its belly.
Chu Yun gritted her teeth, her arms taut, the veins bulging as if they were about to burst.
Harder… push harder!
Five centimeters, ten centimeters… the wound sliced open by the arrow on the fish’s belly grew larger and larger.
The shark thrashed violently in the water, shaking forcefully from side to side in an attempt to throw off Chu Yun, who was clinging to its life. Yet Chu Yun held onto its fin with a death grip. However, precisely because of its erratic movements, the other shark couldn’t find an opening to attack Chu Yun.
Fifteen centimeters, twenty centimeters… the shark’s thrashing gradually weakened.
Almost there. Just hold on a little longer.
Chu Yun’s hands were a sticky mess, coated in shark blood, minced flesh, and seawater. But she had no time to care; the arrow continued slicing down the fish’s belly.
Thirty centimeters. Finally, the shark stopped struggling. It grew increasingly still until it stopped breathing entirely. Its health bar hit 0; the shark was dead.
Chu Yun straddled the shark’s back as it floated on the surface. While she was catching her breath, the other shark launched a rapid assault. It opened its massive maw, intending to bite her body clean in half with a single snap!
Crap! Chu Yun had been fighting desperately to handle one shark, giving the other an opening. By the time she noticed, the other shark, its head bristling with arrows, was already right in front of her face.
With just a second left, the shark’s massive maw would reach Chu Yun’s face. It was too close—so close she could reach out and touch the corner of its mouth.
Faced with the imminent threat, Chu Yun didn’t back down. In that critical split second, she gripped the arrow in her hand and drove it vertically straight into the shark’s mouth.
In just one second, Chu Yun completed the entire maneuver.
The shark had no time to react. It thought its jaws would clamp down on Chu Yun’s body, but instead, it was met with an arrow piercing straight through its oral cavity. The soft tissue inside a shark’s mouth was incredibly fragile, and because it had clamped down on a razor-sharp arrow produced by the system, a massive amount of blood poured from its mouth as it thrashed wildly in agony.
It launched no further attacks, but the shark’s health bar plummeted in a straight line: 40%, 35%, 30%…
This would likely be a slow, agonizing death. It had lost all ability to resist, and Chu Yun could already foresee its end.
Without hesitation, Chu Yun smoothly yanked several arrows out of the shark’s body. Her movements were practiced, looking like a video of planting rice paddies played in reverse. The arrows had a cooldown for recovery, and with less than thirty remaining in her quiver, she had to conserve them.
Then, she swam to the edge of the wooden boat, grabbed the railing, and hoisted herself back aboard with both hands.
On Xu Dongdong’s side, he had managed to score a few superficial cuts on the shark’s skin with his sharp knife, but the damage was nowhere near fatal.
However, his own condition was far more wretched. His clothes had been torn by the sharks, he had several scrapes on his arms, and his stamina was beginning to give out.
While he was locked in a skirmish with one shark, the other suddenly leaped out of the water, lunging straight at him.
I’m dead. I’m going to die!
Xu Dongdong’s heart began to race frantically.
