Chapter 78: Visitors from the Sea

Chapter 78: Chapter 78: Visitors from the Sea

After lunch, Jiang Yuxing arrived with a heat lamp.

Since there was no outlet, he had replaced the plug on the lamp with two metal clips. To use it, you just had to clamp them onto a battery.

The sailboat pushed out into the deep sea. With no wind or snow, the weather was perfect for sailing.

After the boat stopped, the two of them resumed fishing.

Cast the line, reel it in. Up came a plastic bag.

Cast again, reel it in. Another torn sock.

Jiang Yuxing held back a laugh. Even when his bobber moved, he didn’t dare to reel in his line.

Half an hour later, a pile of trash had accumulated in front of Shi Zhile.

Meanwhile, Jiang Yuxing’s small bucket was full of little fish and shrimp. Neither of them had caught a treasure chest, which made Shi Zhile feel a bit better.

A moment later, a small black dot appeared on the surface of the sea. Gradually, the dot grew larger, and a very large ship came into their view.

Shi Zhile had just taken out her Wish Drifting Bottle, but she immediately stuffed it back into her backpack. She stood up, took out her binoculars, and her expression grew more and more serious as she watched.

"Jiang Yuxing, we’ve got company. And a lot of them."

Jiang Yuxing also took out his binoculars. He looked casual, but his gaze was sharp and discerning.

It was unclear what he saw, but he shot to his feet, his expression complicated and conflicted.

"Zhile, look closely at the people on the deck. Every one of them stands tall and straight. You can tell just from their bearing that they aren’t ordinary players."

"To be able to upgrade to a ship that large in such a short time means they’re rich in resources. They move in unison, so their team wasn’t just thrown together. They’re not a ragtag bunch."

He was hinting at something, all but saying they were a regular army.

Shi Zhile didn’t let her guard down for a second. She was looking for a flag. Even if they really were an army, she wouldn’t readily trust them without seeing a national flag.

This was a game where everyone faced a trial of life and death. She didn’t know if the country still existed in a time like this, or if the army did.

She also didn’t know if they had maintained their original principles from before the game.

Jiang Yuxing folded up his deck chair. "There are too many of them, and there are only two of us. Plus, we’re in the top three of the resource leaderboard. We should try our best to avoid them."

Shi Zhile hesitated slightly. ’What if they really are from the government?’

She had no worries about food and drink for now, but what about later? She wasn’t completely confident she could keep surviving on her own indefinitely.

"Let’s wait a bit longer. Wait until they’re closer. There’s something I need to confirm."

"Shi Zhile! I know what you’re thinking. Are you sure you want to bet your life on this? You’re a walking treasure trove! No one could see your resources and not be jealous!"

Shi Zhile looked at Jiang Yuxing, her gaze filled with open scrutiny and suspicion. "You seem very resistant to me meeting them."

"Did your foresight show you something, or are you afraid of them?"

His strange behavior this time was too obvious, so much so that Shi Zhile felt he was hiding something.

Jiang Yuxing was silent for a moment. "What if you die?"

"Die because of them?"

"Something like that."

"’Something like that?’ There are no ’what ifs,’ and that ’if’ will never happen."

"I’ve died once before. I know what it feels like to wish for death. So, no one will ever exist who can make me willingly go to my death. I’m no selfless hero. Right now, I just want to live for myself."

Jiang Yuxing placed his hands on her shoulders. "Then listen to me and avoid them."

Shi Zhile looked at the large ship, its outline now clearly visible, and said in a low voice, "It’s too late. They’ve already spotted us."

"A big ship isn’t necessarily fast. We’ll lead them away. We can’t let them discover the island."

Shi Zhile opened her map and planned a route to avoid the island.

Stone Island was to the north of their current position. Since the other ship was approaching from the south, their only options to avoid the island were to head northeast or northwest.

She hadn’t ventured in either of those directions before, so this was a good opportunity to circle around and scout the area.

She once again handed control of the sailboat to Jiang Yuxing while she kept watch from the deck.

"Lead them on a course that circles the island from the east. If they want to talk, they’ll approach us."

Huaxia culture favored diplomacy before hostility. As long as the other party wasn’t a disorganized mob, they wouldn’t attack right away.

Jiang Yuxing acknowledged and steered the sailboat to the northeast.

As it turned out, the upgraded large ship was faster than their two-masted sailboat. With one ship chasing the other, the distance between them shrank. She pulled her military coat tighter, a bow in one hand and her binoculars in the other.

When the distance between the two ships closed to about a thousand meters, someone on the deck of the large ship began waving a red flag.

"It’s the national flag! The Five-star Red Flag!"

Shi Zhile quickly ran back to the sailboat’s control room. The higher vantage point here would allow her to see more clearly.

"Jiang Yuxing, it’s the red flag. There’s a ninety percent chance they’re military personnel. We’ve already bypassed the island. I want to talk to them."

Jiang Yuxing: "You want to cooperate with them?"

"Yes. The merged regions will only increase. Other players are forming groups to target those on the leaderboard. We’re at too much of a disadvantage fighting alone. If we can cooperate, it’s a win-win situation."

"Stop the boat. If anything goes wrong, I can pull both you and the boat into the Planting Space."

She rummaged through a treasure chest in the cabin and finally found a piece of red cloth. She then unfolded the cloth and cut it into a rectangle.

Holding the red cloth, she went out of the cabin and raised it high.

Jiang Yuxing took a deep breath, feeling a mix of dejection and relief.

The relief was because she was still the same person he knew. The dejection was because, in her heart, he still couldn’t compare to her homeland.

’I was already risking my life for her anyway. We’re both all-in. What’s there to be afraid of?’

He followed her out of the cabin.

The large ship finally stopped about a hundred meters away from the sailboat.

This distance put everyone at ease while still being close enough for conversation.

Dozens of people stood on the large ship. Although their clothes weren’t uniform, their posture and aura were intimidating.

The one in the lead was a middle-aged man, also wearing a military coat. His gaze was resolute, his face grim and serious.

"Comrades, we are the Northern Search and Rescue Vanguard Team. Our unit is responsible for rescuing players who are alive but unable to support themselves."

"You two must be Comrade Shi Zhile, number one on the resource leaderboard, and Comrade Jiang Yuxing, number two, correct?"

Shi Zhile and Jiang Yuxing exchanged a glance. Shi Zhile asked, "I am Shi Zhile. How do you know who we are?"

The middle-aged man chuckled. "There are words above your heads. One says ’The Super-Rich Leader,’ and the other says ’Number Two.’"

"Besides, the map constantly marks the locations of players on the leaderboard. You don’t know me, but I know you. A few days ago, you traded with us for a corn grinder."

Shi Zhile: "You’re players from District Two."

"That’s right. You two young comrades probably don’t need our assistance, but I’d still like to share some basic information about our District Two."

"Currently, the expanded area of our largest island is about to exceed 74 acres. We have rescued and have a total of two thousand fifty-one players on the island."

"If you get the chance, young comrade, you can visit the island we’ve built."

Shi Zhile was silent for a long while before she found her voice.

"Ex... expanding the island? The island is surrounded by the sea. How do you expand it?"

Jiang Jingtian was always crying poor, which led her to believe District Two was destitute. She never expected that she was the one who was actually poor.

After all, she hadn’t even figured out the first thing about expanding an island.