Chapter 17: Raft Survival 4
The sharks drew closer and closer.
They were so close that Xu Dongdong could even see the scraps of flesh wedged between their teeth. His legs instantly began to shake violently and cold sweat poured down his face. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he envisioned the gruesome ways he might die. Would he be snapped clean in half at the waist? Or would he be torn into minced meat? Whichever it was, it was bound to hurt terribly.
Xu Dongdong was just about to give up and accept his death, but the expected bite never fell. Instead, several arrows shot past his ears, grazing them by a hair’s breadth and ripping through the wind with a sharp swoosh before embedding themselves into the mouth of the shark ahead. The force behind the arrows was immense, driving the attacking shark back a dozen centimeters.
Catching sight of the familiar arrows, Xu Dongdong breathed a massive sigh of relief. Chu Yun was here; he could rest easy.
Xu Dongdong didn’t look back, but he knew that Chu Yun was standing right behind him, acting as his life insurance. Chu Yun was like a mountain at his back, instantly giving him a surge of confidence. Fully revitalized, he resumed his desperate struggle with the shark in front of him.
Just like that, Chu Yun and Xu Dongdong fought in tandem, with Xu Dongdong handling close-quarters defense while Chu Yun managed the long-range offenses. It was their very first time cooperating, yet their synergy was strangely perfect.
Whenever a shark drew close to the wooden boat, Xu Dongdong would raise his sharp knife and thrust it forward. He tightly guarded his sector, preventing the sharks from ramming the boat and overturning them into the sea.
Chu Yun, on the other hand, unleashed her arrows during the brief windows when the sharks leaped out of the water, perfectly bypassing Xu Dongdong to strike the targets.
Her archery was flawless, hitting a vital spot every single time. The sharks’ sensitive areas—their eyes, mouths, and bellies—were shot so thoroughly they looked like sieves. She locked her focused gaze onto the battlefield, refusing to give the sharks a single opportunity to harm Xu Dongdong.
After cooperating for several rounds, the thrashing sounds of the two sharks gradually faded away.
With the four sharks on Chu Yun and Xu Dongdong’s sides dealt with, handling the remaining two sharks on Liu Jun and Xie Dongliang’s end became relatively easy. They split up to back each man up.
Finally, the skirmish concluded with a final arrow from Chu Yun.
The carcasses of the six sharks floated quietly on the surface of the sea. Combined, their mass was exceptionally massive, and the surrounding water was heavily dyed red by a vast expanse of fresh blood. It wouldn’t dissipate anytime soon, and a heavy, nauseating stench of blood permeated the air, making one feel a bit sick to the stomach.
They didn’t pause to rest. Chu Yun directed them to use seawater to scrub down the bloodstains on the wooden boat, while she rowed the paddles to guide the vessel away from the accident site.
An hour later, their wooden boat had traveled far from the area, with not a single trace of the sharks left in sight. By this time, dawn was faintly breaking. Chu Yun checked her mechanical watch; it was already 5:00 AM.
With the danger completely behind them, the tight tension that had gripped the four of them instantly unraveled, leaving their bodies incredibly exhausted. The group sprawled across the wooden boat without a care for appearances; fighting off sharks was truly far too draining. Fortunately, they had run into Chu Yun and managed to survive by a stroke of luck.
The fire in the brazier had died out, but Chu Yun didn’t relight it. She returned to her bed, found a comfortable posture, and lay down. Having only slept a few hours during the night watch rotation, combined with the massive energy spent on the sharks, she needed to properly catch up on her sleep.
The other three did the same. Everyone remained quietly silent, quickly treating their wounds before tacitly closing their eyes. The surroundings fell completely still, save for the sound of long, drawn-out breathing.
Chu Yun was awoken by a wave of hunger.
Lying on her crude, temporary bed, she rubbed her hollow stomach and blinked open her sleep-deprived eyes.
The sun was currently at its peak, its bright rays forcing her eyes to squint slightly. When she opened them fully again, clarity had returned to Chu Yun’s mind.
Checking her mechanical watch, it was exactly 10:00 AM.
She had slept for a full five hours after the shark fight. The sun was sweltering, but fortunately, she was sleeping within the shadow cast by the sail and didn’t feel uncomfortable.
Going by the game’s usual pattern, she guessed that the system’s stage obstacles generally occurred at set intervals, meaning they would be safe for a while after a shark attack. Consequently, she had slept exceptionally soundly during this nap.
Chu Yun noted that the other three were positioned in direct sunlight with zero shelter, yet they were still sleeping like babies with their hands draped over their eyelids. They were likely spent from last night’s exertion, so Chu Yun stood up slowly without disturbing them.
Chu Yun remembered that the system had issued rewards at the end of the fight, but she had been too exhausted last night to inspect them thoroughly. Having muted her system notifications, she hadn’t heard the chime, only casting a rough glance at the text.
Now, she began checking her rewards:
[Defeating the Shark Monsters. Total reward: 440 Gold Coins. (100×2=200 coins for 2 direct kills; 60×4=240 coins for shared kills.)]
The kill achievements were distributed based on contribution values, meaning the other three had received assist rewards.
Chu Yun had only been up and moving for a short while before the others, hearing the commotion, didn’t dare sleep in any longer. They quickly packed up and straightened themselves out. Given the ferocious combat prowess Chu Yun had displayed last night, how could they dare let the big shot wake up earlier than them?
Yesterday, Xu Dongdong had caught a lot of sea fish and left them in the foam box to stay alive. Their vitality was resilient, and they were still jumping and splashing vibrantly inside the container.
Having gone a long time without food, combined with the massive stamina drain from the battle, it was nearly noon. Xu Dongdong and Chu Yun planned to combine breakfast and lunch into a single meal.
Xu Dongdong looked at Chu Yun with an eager, attentive gaze.
Chu Yun swept her eyes over the foam box, ultimately picking out a large squid and two groupers. She planned to make two dishes today: roasted squid and steamed grouper.
The groupers weighed around a pound each, making them perfectly suited for steaming. Fortuitously, she had bought an iron pot in advance back at the community.
The squid was remarkably plump and juicy, its eight tentacles as long as a person’s forearm. The moment she pulled it out, it attempted to latch its suckers onto Chu Yun’s arm, but Chu Yun delivered a violent slam against the wooden planks, instantly knocking it unconscious.
The method for roasting squid was identical to roasting hairtail, so Chu Yun handed full authority over to Xu Dongdong; he had observed her entire process yesterday and could put it into practice today. Xu Dongdong happily accepted the task, handling the ingredients with clumsy yet eager hands.
Chu Yun went about prepping the groupers herself. Steaming was very simple; it only required cleaning the fish and applying a light rub of salt before putting it into the pot. Chu Yun poured a bit of drinking water into the pot and placed it on a pre-assembled stand, simply waiting for it to steam through.
Seeing Chu Yun retrieve a pot from behind the foam box, the other two men merely marveled at the big shot’s preparedness for a brief moment without harboring any suspicions. They rarely ventured over to Chu Yun’s side of the boat, and with the foam box and backpacks serving as cover, they naturally assumed the pot had been sitting there from the very beginning.
Xie Dongliang and Liu Jun continued to borrow the fishing rod. They had likely accumulated some experience, because by the time Chu Yun and Xu Dongdong finished cooking their delicacies, the two had actually managed to catch several medium-sized fish. Excitedly, they walked over to the now-vacant brazier to focus entirely on prepping their food.
Good food can make a person briefly forget their worries, so the two currently devouring their catch ate with faces full of satisfaction.
Xu Dongdong possessed a natural talent; his very first attempt actually looked decent. Chu Yun planned to continue training him in the future.
It was now the third day of the game, with only five days remaining. Failing to escape within the time limit meant an automatic failure, yet they still saw no sign of reaching land.
They needed to pick up the pace. Chu Yun distributed tasks to the group, requiring one person from each side to form a pair: one to patrol and the other to row. She would share her compass to guide their direction.
“Understood!”
They replied loudly without a single objection, completely submitting to Chu Yun’s command.
The wind was in their favor this morning, and with the paddles rowing continuously, their forward speed was exceptionally fast. Chu Yun stared at the retreating seawater, lost in thought.
“Help! Help me!” a voice called out from up ahead.
“Sister Chu Yun, there are people ahead.” Xu Dongdong, who had been fishing on the deck, ran over to interrupt her train of thought. Xie Dongliang followed close behind him, while Liu Jun was at the oars rowing the boat.
Judging by their outfits, they were also players. They were desperately clinging to a piece of driftwood, floating wretchedly on the sea. They were submerged in the water from the chest down, their lips severely chapped, and they bore expressions of utter despair—there was no telling how long they had been drifting.
Seeing Chu Yun’s wooden boat at this moment was like spotting a savior. They raised their heads, staring expectantly at the occupants of the boat, hoping the kind souls aboard would take pity on them and save their lives.
“Sister Chu Yun, should we rescue them and bring them aboard?” Although Xu Dongdong phrased it as a question, his anxious gaze had already betrayed his inner thoughts.
“Sister Yun, I don’t think we should. Look at the state they’re in; they definitely don’t have any supplies on them. Won’t they just end up sponging off us when the time comes?” Xie Dongliang stammered, but he ultimately voiced his thoughts aloud, strongly disagreeing with Xu Dongdong’s stance.
“But are we really supposed to just stand by and watch them die?!” Xu Dongdong immediately fired back.
“Half of this boat belongs to us, so I have the right to object. If you ask me, we don’t save them.” Seeing Xie Dongliang hesitate and fail to handle the matter decisively, Liu Jun couldn’t help but lose his temper.
The atmosphere instantly turned rigid.
Chu Yun pondered for a brief moment, then stated, “Bring them aboard first.”
Liu Jun wanted to say more, but Xie Dongliang gave him a sharp pull. Although they were dissatisfied, it was Chu Yun who had spoken after all; no matter how unhappy they were, they could only swallow their grievances down.
The enthusiastic Xu Dongdong and a highly reluctant Xie Dongliang pulled the drifting individuals from the sea onto the wooden boat.
The three individuals huddled close together once they boarded, frantically wringing out their drenched clothes while pouring out expressions of gratitude.
“Thank you, kind souls, for extending a helping hand. I’m Xie Jia, and these are Lin Yan and Yang Ming,” the girl standing on the far left introduced themselves.
The clothes of these three were tattered, and their faces were bruised and swollen. The girl in the middle likely had a very deep wound on her calf, wrapped clumsily with a white bandage that was currently still seeping blood.
According to their description, the three had crossed paths on the very first day, and their squad had originally consisted of five people. During last night’s struggle with the sharks, they had put up a desperate resistance, but their raft was ultimately capsized, and they lost two teammates in the process.
Only when dawn faintly broke and the sharks automatically departed at their set hour did these three manage to escape by a stroke of luck, though all had suffered severe injuries. The hemostatic bandages and anti-inflammatory medicine they had on hand were completely depleted, yet it still wasn’t enough. They had been drifting on the sea ever since, right until they encountered Chu Yun’s squad.
Chu Yun gathered a vital piece of information: the game’s monster attacks occurred in distinct waves, and once the set time passed, they would automatically depart. She could definitely utilize this loophole to complete tasks in the future.
Chu Yun told Xu Dongdong to pick out a fish from the foam box to roast for them. Xu Dongdong had successively pulled up many more large fish, so they didn’t lack food.
“I’m not giving this to you for free. After eating, you will need to take turns keeping watch and rowing, reporting any anomalies to me at all times.”
The newcomers hadn’t expected the person in charge of this boat to be a woman, but no one questioned it. In this brutal survival game, being able to lead a temporary squad was a display of capability in itself.
Everyone had gone through last night’s shark attack, and while their own group had suffered devastating losses, Chu Yun’s wooden boat was not only intact, but every member was completely unscathed. Consequently, they didn’t dare look down on anyone. It was just that the two girls looked toward Chu Yun with a few extra traces of envy and admiration.
“Yes, yes, alright. Whatever orders you have, just let us know.” The leading Xie Jia seemed to be the backbone of their group. She had the injured Lin Yan sit by the fire to rest and help roast the fish, sent Yang Ming to relieve Liu Jun at the oars, and went about starting her own patrol duty. Accepting another person’s bounty meant one should naturally provide labor; there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.
She could sense the blatant hostility radiating from Xie Dongliang and his partner, but she uttered not a single word, merely whispering a few brief sentences to her companions before setting off to busy herself.
Yang Ming, who had been relieved, was highly displeased. Xie Dongliang was also clutching his backpack tightly, his eyes fixed dead onto these newcomers.
Squeezing seven adults onto a small $3.8m x 4m wooden boat made it feel slightly cramped, but everyone behaved themselves, either sitting or standing within their own pockets of space without disturbing one another.
Whether it was harmony on the surface or merely an act, as long as they didn’t cause trouble and worked diligently, Chu Yun was perfectly happy to turn a blind eye.
