Chapter 65: Everyone Makes It Ashore

Chapter 65: Chapter 65: Everyone Makes It Ashore

Her Life Value had dropped by 60 points, and she only had twenty Physical Strength left. She gasped for air, pulling out coconut water and gulping it down.

’Its scales are impenetrable, its tail is as strong as an ox, and the fact that it knew to dodge the axe means it’s intelligent. It could still fight back even after its head was crushed, which means its weak point isn’t its head.’

With every breath, the pain in her chest felt like it was about to explode.

Thinking of the fish tail glimmering in the firelight, she had a new angle of attack.

’If I cut its tail in half, can the monster still live?’

’Even if it’s alive, can it still fight back?’

The coconut was restoring her Life Value too slowly. Time was of the essence, and she didn’t have time to open the coconut meat, nor could she wait for her Physical Strength to fully recover.

She took out the Healing Spring Eye and placed it directly inside her Planting Space.

[Healing Spring Eye: The water flowing from the spring eye has healing properties (treats both internal and external injuries). Each drop of spring water can restore 50 Life Value and 50 Physical Strength. Taking two drops at once may randomly increase an attribute by one point.

Special Note: The spring eye can produce one drop of water per day. Killing a Sea Monster or a ranked player may randomly yield 1-10 drops.]

A single drop of water hung from the faucet-like spring eye. Shi Zhile quickly opened her mouth and waited.

The spring water dripped into her mouth. Before she could even taste it, the pain in her body vanished. Not only that, but her Physical Strength also rose to 70.

Just as she was about to check if other players had been attacked, the alarm sounded again.

[Warning! Warning! A Level Five Sea Monster is destroying the shelter. The shelter is currently Level 3. Please repel it in time to avoid greater losses.]

Not daring to linger, she immediately exited the Planting Space.

The courtyard was too large, and with no lights, it was difficult to find the monster. She could only judge its location by sound.

The sound of crumbling rock and debris reached her. Following the noise, Shi Zhile made her way to the eastern courtyard wall.

A small opening had appeared there. The monster with the human head and fish tail was currently smacking the wall with its tail.

With every two or three strikes, a bit more of the courtyard wall would collapse. As the opening grew larger, the piercing sounds returned.

[Warning! Level One creature detected: sea lion!]

[Warning! Level Two unknown creature approaching!]

[Warning! Level Three unknown creature approaching!]

[Warning! Warning! Level Four unknown creature approaching!]

[Warning! Warning! Level Five unknown creature approaching!]

Five consecutive alarms blared, each one louder than the last, making Shi Zhile’s scalp tingle with dread.

Pitch-black eyes peered in through the gap in the courtyard wall. A stench ten times stronger than before assaulted her nostrils. Every sign told Shi Zhile that there were other monsters outside the wall!

She dashed forward and plunged the Arrow Fletching in her hand straight into its waist. The fish tail, writhing in pain, whipped towards her with its scales raised.

It used the same move again. Shi Zhile dodged the attack by pressing herself sideways against the monster’s back, then pulled out her axe and swung it viciously at its waist.

A piercing shriek rang out. Shi Zhile steadied herself and brought the axe down again.

Again and again, she swung the axe tirelessly, ignoring the foul-smelling slime that sprayed onto her face.

After what felt like an eternity, the fish tail went limp, completely drained of strength. The white flesh beneath its scales was fully exposed.

[Congratulations to player Contentment Brings Happiness for successfully killing the Level Five mermaid. You have obtained Mermaid Heart ×1 and Mermaid Tail ×1.]

[Congratulations to player Contentment Brings Happiness for achieving the first kill of an undersea monster. You have unlocked the ’Strongman’ achievement and obtained Strongman Gift Bag ×1.]

Shi Zhile, completely exhausted, collapsed onto the ground.

The upper body of the mermaid beneath her had vanished, replaced by a tail and a heart that glowed with a multicolored light.

There was no time to catch her breath. The monsters gathered outside were relentlessly attacking the stone wall.

The hole in the wall made by the mermaid was large enough for one person to pass through. However, the four monsters outside were all massive. To get in, they would have to make the opening bigger.

A Level Three Shelter could block Level One and Level Two monsters, but it definitely couldn’t stop a Level Four monster.

Shi Zhile put the materials into her backpack and quickly opened the Task Hall to repair the wall.

More than one section was damaged. Fearing the monsters would continue their assault, Shi Zhile spent one thousand stones to build another layer of wall inside the courtyard, right up against the original one.

The mermaid had entered by breaking the glass on the south wall. To prevent the other monsters from following its example, she grabbed a torch and ran straight for the south wall.

The glass of two windows had been shattered. Snow drifted in from outside. The eastern window, near the furnace, had no water marks, but the western window was covered not only in snow but also a thin layer of ice.

It wasn’t hard to see that the monster had entered from the west.

After reinstalling the glass, Shi Zhile walked over to the furnace on the east side.

’The furnace is burning with lava flames. There were traces of ice on the outer ledge of the east window, and the glass was broken... It seems the monster broke the east window first, but the furnace’s flames... or the high temperature, scared it. So it broke the west window to get in instead.’

’It’s not that the monster isn’t afraid of fire, it’s that the flames from the burning underwear weren’t hot enough.’

’But the burning underwear has a built-in immunity effect. Why did it fail?’

She found the tattered underwear she had packed in a box from the ship. Its description hadn’t changed, which meant the immunity effect was still there.

She stared at the snowy scene outside, replaying the events in her mind. Suddenly, a huge sea lion slammed itself against the glass.

She jumped back in fright, and at the same time, she latched onto the flash of inspiration that had just crossed her mind.

’Maybe it’s because of the Level. The underwear’s immunity effect only works on Level One Sea Lions, or low-level Sea Monsters?’

’I threw the torch, and the flame went out when it touched the fishtail. At that same moment, the monster got enraged. If I hadn’t thrown the torch, if the flame hadn’t gone out, maybe the immunity effect would have held.’

There were two possibilities. Right now, there was a sea lion smacking against the window outside, giving her the perfect opportunity to test her theory.

She placed the underwear on the torch again to light it, then carried the lit torch toward the glass.

Within a meter of the window, the sound of the glass being hit stopped. Just as the sea lion raised its flipper, it was flung back by an invisible force.

Shi Zhile pulled the torch back. The sea lion immediately pressed itself against the glass again, tapping on it over and over with increasing urgency.

’The immunity still works. Next time I can’t beat a monster, I can try the immunity effect first.’

The thought had barely crossed her mind when a message arrived from Jiang Yuxing.

[Killed a Level Five mermaid? You went out to sea?]

Shi Zhile was about to reply when Wang Peng started a group video call.

"Sister Zhile, you’re something else! Going out to sea to kill monsters in the middle of the night, are you hurt... Holy shit! You’re so badly injured! Why is your face covered in blood?"

Shi Zhile spoke, "It’s not my blood, it’s the mermaid’s. And I didn’t go out to sea. I was ambushed by Sea Monsters."

She turned her camera around, pointing it out the east side, just in time to show the sea lion pressed against the glass.

"A Level One Sea Lion, unknown Level Two, Three, and Four monsters, and a Level Five mermaid—they all came ashore."