Chapter 13: Upgrading the Raft

Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Upgrading the Raft

[Seawater Filter (Still vexed by the cloyingly salty seawater? The Seawater Filter removes the sour, salty, bitter, and spicy, leaving only a hint of sweetness just for you.)

Filters one drop of fresh water per minute. It’s drinkable right away. Slow, but it’s something. You deserve to have it.]

Shi Zhile’s head was full of question marks.

’Did I read that wrong?’

’One drop of fresh water per minute?’

For the sake of a closer look, she decided to take one out and place it on the raft.

The small gadget, 20 centimeters tall and 10 centimeters wide, had a small barrel on top and looked just like a water purifier. Placed on the raft, it looked like a little figurine.

’Isn’t this just a kid’s toy!’

’Can this thing really filter water?’

She twisted off the barrel on top, and the system prompted that it was for holding seawater.

She filled it with seawater, screwed it back on, and waited. After a minute, it actually dripped out a single drop of water.

Shi Zhile: "..."

’Alright, I guess I believe it can filter one drop per minute now.’

’Every little bit helps.’ She used an empty bottle to catch the water... DRIP.

She had two more Seawater Filters in her backpack. Not daring to waste a second, she took them all out, filled them with seawater, and set them to filter.

Something white was floating on the sea’s surface. It was too far away for her to see clearly, only that it was a cylindrical object of some sort.

She took out her wooden paddle and rowed over. Only when she got closer did she see it was a white plastic barrel.

The white barrel was huge, nearly as tall as a person, the kind often used at home to store water. Right now, there was only a little water and a few very small sea fish inside.

She tried to pull it onto the raft, but unfortunately, the raft was too small and the barrel was too big. It just wouldn’t fit.

After several failed attempts, she could only put it in her backpack.

With that, her backpack was completely full.

"My backpack space isn’t enough. I can’t just salvage a few things every time I go out to sea. I need to figure out how to expand my backpack."

A wave crashed over, and seawater flooded onto the raft, nearly knocking over the seafood bucket.

She quickly steadied it and regained her footing.

"The raft is too small, too. It needs to be expanded."

First, she checked the amount of wood in her backpack. Excluding the 100 pieces left in the room, she had 53 pieces remaining in her backpack.

There were raft construction options in the Task Hall. She looked through them one by one.

[Build 4-Square-Meter Raft: Wood x10, Iron Nails x5]

[Build 8-Square-Meter Raft: Wood x20, Iron Nails x10]

...

[Build 12-Square-Meter Raft: Wood x30, Iron Nails x30. Reward: Instant Noodles x1 Box (24 packs)]

Shi Zhile was surprised, glad she had scrolled all the way to the bottom.

The area of the raft was optional, but only the last option came with a reward.

She wasn’t short on wood or iron nails, so she directly chose to build the 12-square-meter raft.

The wood in her backpack decreased as the raft visibly grew larger and wider, finally becoming a large raft 3 meters wide and 4 meters long.

[Raft construction successful. Current Raft Level: Deluxe Level 1 Raft. Automatic sailing speed: 30 km/1 hour. (I can carry heavy objects. So what if the waves and winds are strong? They can’t flip me over.)]

[Raft Construction Reward: Instant Noodles x1 Box]

[Obtained item tripled bonus: Instant Noodles x3 Boxes.]

Three boxes of instant noodles appeared on the raft. The wooden crates they were in were small and exquisite, and she could tell at a glance that they could be dismantled.

"The dilapidated raft could also sail automatically. The only difference was the speed. Now, it’s faster."

With a thought, the raft accelerated forward.

’It seems that upgrading the raft also increases the distance from the island.’

The fishing line went taut. She pulled hard on the rod and reeled in another treasure chest.

[Treasure Chest x1]

[Obtained resources tripled bonus: Treasure Chest x3]

Three treasure chests appeared side-by-side on the raft. Shi Zhile spoke directly.

"Open treasure chests!"

[Wood x99, Backpack Expansion Card x1]

[Purified Water x10, Tomato Seeds x2]

[Stone x99, Furnace x1]

[Congratulations on unlocking a new resource: Backpack Expansion Card (Still worried about your backpack being too small? Look at me! See? Beg me and I’ll upgrade it for you!

Note: One expansion card can unlock two backpack slots, and these unlocked slots are not affected by the capacity limit.)]

[Tomato Seeds: Plantable seeds. After growing, they yield small tomatoes (Stamina +2 per tomato).]

[Furnace: Can burn firewood and coal. When paired with lava, it can be used to smelt iron.]

[Obtained resources tripled bonus: Wood x297, Backpack Expansion Card x3, Purified Water x30, Tomato Seeds x6, Stone x297, Furnace x3]

’It works like that?!’

Shi Zhile was so excited she almost dropped her fishing rod.

One treasure chest became three, and the resources from opening them were then tripled again. By that logic, she had received far more than just triple the resources.

The resources were piled up inside the chests. She didn’t dismantle the chests, planning to keep them as storage cabinets.

The raft stopped again, this time a bit farther from the island.

Shi Zhile blew a kiss to the system through the air. From now on, she would never curse the system again.

’It’s the best system ever! I absolutely love it!’

[Hmph!]

"..."

"Tong’er?"

Aside from the sound of the seawater, there was nothing else. It was as if the sound from just now had been her imagination.

The wound on her hand hadn’t healed, and it hurt to keep holding the fishing rod. She opened the Task Hall and created a fishing rod holder.

After completely freeing up her hands, she took out the workbench blueprint from her backpack.

[Workbench Construction: Workbench Blueprint x1, Wood x10, Iron Ingots x20. Build?]

Without hesitation: "Build."

[Current raft Level is too low. Construction failed!]

Shi Zhile opened her panel to check the raft’s upgrade requirements.

[Level Two Raft Upgrade: Wood x50, Iron Nails x30. Upgrade?]

Her resources were sufficient, so Shi Zhile tapped "Upgrade." With a WHIR, the wood and iron nails from the treasure chests flew into the air.

In just a few seconds, a wooden, 2x2-meter pavilion appeared on the raft, and the wooden strips under her feet transformed into smooth planks.

It was already starting to look like a small boat.

[Raft upgrade successful. Speed: 60 km/1 hour. The Level Two Raft gains immunity to damage from Level One Monsters. Reward: Treasure Chest x1]

[Obtained resources tripled bonus: Treasure Chest x3]

[Workbench construction successful. Reward: Gauze x3]

[Obtained resources tripled bonus: Gauze x9]

[Backpack is full. Consume Backpack Expansion Card x3 to expand the backpack?]

"Yes."

The backpack instantly gained six new slots.

Shi Zhile walked into the pavilion, took some branches from her backpack, put them in the furnace, and lit them with a torch.

’I haven’t eaten lunch. I don’t have any bowls or chopsticks, and I didn’t bring a hammer or chisel, so I can’t make a stone bowl. I guess I’ll have to make do with some crabs and sea snails grilled on a stone slate.’

While the food was cooking, she began to organize the resources in her backpack.

Water x16, Bread x3, some stone and wood, Iron Nails x120, Iron Ingots x82, the white barrel, Iron Chests x3, and Treasure Chests x3.

She took out one bottle of water and all the bread, then put all the wood, stone, iron nails, and iron ingots into the treasure chests on the raft.

She had a lot of resources and was also worried about monster attacks, so Shi Zhile chose to return to shore first to secure them.

Once she reached the shore, Shi Zhile had the intention of storing the raft in her backpack. The moment the thought arose, the raft and all the resources on it vanished instantly.