Chapter 14: The Leaderboard Opens

Chapter 14: Chapter 14: The Leaderboard Opens

She checked her backpack and finally found the raft and its supplies in the expansion slot.

To her surprise, the supplies were still on the raft; they hadn’t been moved into other inventory slots when she stored it.

If it always worked like this, the raft would be her personal mini-warehouse.

When her backpack was full, she could put all sorts of miscellaneous things on the raft and then store the whole thing in her backpack.

Since it was still early, she moved her current supplies back into the shelter and then headed out to sea again.

The sea was calm and the sun was high in the sky. Zhile started heading back right at three o’clock.

Within an hour, she had fished up three treasure chests along with various plastic bags and bottles.

After her multiplier bonus kicked in, that became nine treasure chests and a pile of junk.

Back in the shelter, the 3x4 meter raft sat in the middle of the courtyard.

A wooden pavilion connected to the house, forming a covered veranda.

The raft was piled high with goods, but the person who was supposed to be sorting them wasn’t on it.

Shi Zhile circled the shelter twice, her mind racing with thoughts of expanding it, but she ultimately decided to fortify it first.

The courtyard’s southern wall hadn’t been built yet. She opened the crafting menu and looked through the options.

[Stone Wall with Gate and Double Windows. Materials required: Stone x50, Wood x70, Iron Nails x40. Build?]

"Yes!"

[Wooden Plank Bed. Materials required: Wood x80, Iron Nails x30. Build?]

"Yes. Place in the cave."

[Stone Bowl. Materials required: Stone x1, Hammer x1, Chisel x1. Build?]

"Yes."

After crafting three items in a row, the shelter was finally starting to look like a proper home.

Stepping into the courtyard, Shi Zhile knocked on the wooden gate and windows. Hearing the solid sound and seeing the high walls surrounding her yard gave her a sense of security.

It was still light out, so she left the gate and windows open to get a better view of the seaside.

She sat on the threshold, crafting a stool with a piece of wood and a hammer.

More and more people were selling seafood in the chat area. Amidst the messages, Shi Zhile saw a post from "Jiang Yuxing".

[Jiang Yuxing: The protection period isn’t a 100% guarantee of safety for players. It only reduces monster spawns by 50% from the baseline and increases sea fishing drops by 50%.]

[Also, during the novice protection period, the rate of natural disasters increases by 5% and the disease rate increases by 10%. Everyone, pay close attention to the weather and the waves to avoid getting shipwrecked.]

Shi Zhile stopped what she was doing and immediately opened her private messages.

After a moment of thought, she first sent him two large, flat stones:

[Expert, do monsters have specific spawn times during the protection period?]

He was online and replied with a single word: [Yes!]

Followed by: [Ten perfectly square stones for the exact time frames. Guaranteed accurate!]

Remembering that he was both generous and reliable, Shi Zhile carefully selected and sent ten stones.

Elsewhere, out at sea, a young man was fishing from the side of his wooden boat. He was taken aback for a moment when he saw that Shi Zhile had actually sent the stones.

He raised an eyebrow and sent the message he had just typed out.

[Jiang Yuxing: Monster spawn times during the protection period: 6 PM to 6 AM.]

[After the protection period ends, monsters will spawn 0-3 times a day at random times. Compared to the night, daytime monsters are more aggressive and higher Level.]

Shi Zhile: [Thanks.]

She was the one to end the conversation. The stool in her hands was finished. She sat on it to test its stability. Aside from snagging her clothes, it had no other flaws.

There was no system notification, which meant her Passive Skills hadn’t activated.

She sighed and got on the raft to open the treasure chests.

The nine treasure chests were lined up side-by-side. At the very end were three locked iron chests that she had tried, and failed, to open with a key.

She silently wished for medicine and thought, ’Open all of them.’

[Ibuprofen x1, Anti-inflammatory medicine x1]

[Watermelon x2, Cotton Seeds x10]

[Shelter Expansion Card x1]

[Spring Water x10]

[Sandwiches x3, Soil x1]

[Baking Pan x1, Strawberries x10]

[Beer x2, Sandwiches x2]

[Underwear Set x5, Thermal Shirt x1]

[Iron Ingots x7]

Shi Zhile rubbed her hands together and waited for the multiplier to kick in. Soon, a triple bonus appeared.

The supplies in each treasure chest had tripled.

She started sorting everything. The water, bread, and sandwiches went into her backpack, while daily necessities and other items were moved into the cave.

She didn’t break down or waste the empty treasure chests. Instead, she filled them with a soil mixture and used them as planters for tomatoes and cotton.

Night fell. In the courtyard, just below the window, Shi Zhile used a pair of ruined underwear to light a bonfire. A stove sat beside it, cooking a pot of seafood instant noodles.

Steam rose from the pot, and the unique, mouth-watering aroma of instant noodles filled the air, whetting her appetite.

It had been a very, very long time since she’d eaten instant noodles.

With no lights, monsters could easily come ashore, so all the players could do was hole up in their shelters. The public chat became the main place for everyone to pass the time.

It was now the second day, and a clear divide had formed among the players.

The bold players were rolling in wealth, while the timid ones were still begging for scraps everywhere.

[FishyFish: Does anyone have food? I’m begging you, please give me something to eat! There’s so little to eat on the shore. I can trade mud snails for fish, or I’m willing to strip on video...]

[Big Tycoon: We’re all Huaxia people, we should be helping each other out. Can you all stop being so selfish and share some of your supplies? @Fountainhead, I remember you have water. Send me a few bottles now.]

[Player: I’ll trade crabs for medicine. I drank a couple mouthfuls of seawater this morning and now I have diarrhea so bad I’m dehydrated.]

[Player: (Image) Caught four salmon. No soy sauce, but I guess I’ve achieved salmon freedom.]

The moment someone flexed their supplies, the players who had nothing grew even louder.

The Game HQ system seemed to have heard the commotion and made an appearance.

[Novice Period Tip: In response to player requests, HQ is officially launching a Resource Leaderboard. For the top ten players with the most total resources, the system will permanently enable personal and deserted island location tracking.]

’Enable personal and deserted island location tracking?’

’The system wants players to fight and kill each other for resources. If fighting and killing is their goal, then that must mean all the players’ deserted islands are in the same sea.’

Shi Zhile opened the leaderboard.

First Place: "Jiang Yuxing"

Second Place: "Chuyi"

Third Place: "Southern Wind Knows My Heart"

...

Scanning down from the top, Shi Zhile found her alias, "Contentment Brings Happiness," in eighth place.

She tried to disable her location tracking, but failed.

[Golden Island: @Jiang Yuxing @Chuyi @Southern Wind Knows My Heart, you have the most resources, and now your locations are exposed. If you don’t want us to team up and come rob you, you’d better hand over your supplies.]

[Big Plane: @Contentment Brings Happiness, Stone Island is yours, right? If I want to, I can find you in an hour at most. Accept my friend request right now and send me ten bottles of water and some food. Or else...]

There were too many messages. Shi Zhile had been tagged hundreds of times, and the number of private messages and friend requests in her inbox was skyrocketing.

She ignored them all and opened the sea map, her gaze locking onto Rainforest Island at the very edge.

The distance between their two islands was just over 100 kilometers. Apart from that one, no other islands were within range.

’Right now, that island is the biggest threat. Since people can land on others’ islands, then while I’m defending my own, I won’t be holding back either.’