Chapter 118 - 112: Are They Playing the Same Game as Rowan Rhodes?

Chapter 118: Chapter 112: Are They Playing the Same Game as Rowan Rhodes?

Perhaps the agony was simply too much to bear. After thrashing about for a moment, the Abyssal Octopus forcefully yanked its tentacles out of the room. It had originally intended to drag Rowan Rhodes along with it, but since she remained firmly wedged inside and couldn’t be pulled through, it had no choice but to drop her.

Plummeting from mid-air, Rowan landed with a heavy thud and let out a long sigh of relief. She glanced at her Life Value—it had only dropped by twenty percent. She immediately applied some Healing Ointment, restoring her Life Value to full.

She stood back up to check on the Abyssal Octopus outside. The creature was currently in extraordinary agony. A burning bottle had violently blasted a gaping hole into its body right near its mouthparts. Ink sprayed wildly from the wound, and its tentacles flailed frantically in the air, a clear testament to its excruciating pain. Most obvious of all, however, was its health bar, which had plummeted from a state of minor injury to a mere half.

Rowan felt a surge of delight. It was time to kick the beast while it was down.

Staring at the shattered window, she climbed out and continued hurling burning bottles at the Abyssal Octopus. She aimed them perfectly, landing them right inside the creature’s gaping wound. The moment a bottle struck, Rowan followed up instantly with her Fire Feather Bow and Arrow. The resulting collisions turned the battle into a relentless bombardment.

The Abyssal Octopus’s wound grew larger and larger, and its struggles became increasingly violent. Detecting Rowan’s onslaught, it controlled its remaining tentacles to strike back at her. Unfortunately for the beast, only half of its original eight tentacles were still mobile, and their striking force was considerably weaker than before.

Realizing the drop in its power, Rowan discarded any thought of hiding back inside the Watchtower. Instead, she pulled out her upgraded Iron Axe and began hacking away at the incoming appendages. Though she inevitably took a few hits from the flailing limbs, nearly every swing of her axe found its mark. Even though the severed tentacles would attempt to regenerate after she lopped off their tips, Rowan noticed that their growth Speed was quite slow—certainly not fast enough to outpace her chopping.

Realizing this, she hacked away at the tentacles with even greater glee.

Throughout this process, the Abyssal Octopus realized just how troublesome Rowan was and launched a furious counterattack, repeatedly leaving fresh gashes across her body. However, Rowan had an abundant supply of bandages, Healing Ointment, and Antidote at her disposal!

The bandages stitched up her physical wounds, the Healing Ointment restored her Life Value, and the Antidote neutralized the venom seeping into her system. With this three-pronged approach, the damage inflicted by the Abyssal Octopus was rendered virtually negligible. As a result, the deep-sea monster found itself steadily losing ground in the stalemate.

Recognizing that Rowan was a difficult opponent, it finally showed signs of retreating. Returning to the ocean would be far more conducive to its recovery. But the moment it showed the slightest intent to flee, Rowan noticed.

Her eyes instantly lit up.

The fact that the Abyssal Octopus wanted to retreat meant it realized it was no match for her. And since it couldn’t win, there was no way she was going to let it go. It was time to go big or go home.

A mutated sea creature like the Abyssal Octopus could easily be considered a mini-boss at this stage. Even though its premature appearance felt like the Sea Survival Game was deliberately targeting her, she had to admit that if she could take it down, the resources she would obtain would be phenomenal. She hadn’t forgotten that her best rewards always came from killing higher-level enemies. And just by looking at it, she could tell this Abyssal Octopus was a remarkably high Level.

At that moment, Rowan’s fighting spirit surged. Instead of chopping at the stray tentacles, she focused her attacks entirely on the joints where the tentacles connected to the creature’s main body.

During the earlier tentacle skirmish, the Abyssal Octopus had clearly been trying to heal its mangled form. But trying to fight and regenerate simultaneously was far too slow, resulting in minimal recovery. Worse yet for the beast, fueling that regeneration cost it its own Life Value. Its health bar was continuously dropping.

Perhaps this was precisely why the Abyssal Octopus had decided to flee. However, with Rowan relentlessly hounding it, escape was impossible. If it tried to retreat and stopped attacking her, Rowan would ruthlessly target its open wounds. But if it stayed to fight, it couldn’t easily escape and would continue bleeding out.

Trapped in this dilemma, the Abyssal Octopus had no choice but to fight a fighting retreat. Fortunately, its slimy body allowed it to withdraw at a relatively fast Speed. In no time at all, it reached the edge of the raft. Tilting backward, its massive body began to slide down into the ocean.

Seeing the Abyssal Octopus attempting to escape with merely a sliver of health, Rowan immediately dashed to the control room, calling out to the Seagull Family as she ran.

The moment she shouted, the Seagull Family knew exactly what was happening. After all, they had coordinated with Rowan in battle many times before. Seabird One, naturally, stayed right by her side, awaiting her orders.

Bursting into the control room, Rowan’s eyes instantly locked onto the red dot representing the Abyssal Octopus. She took manual control of the Fish Spear Gun’s targeting system, tracking the creature’s swimming trajectory and firing relentlessly in pursuit. No one would ever willingly let their hard-earned prey slip through their fingers.

Under Rowan’s concentrated barrage, the Abyssal Octopus’s health bar finally bottomed out. At last, after another massive volley from the Fish Spear Gun struck the creature simultaneously, the colossal deep-sea monster lost its life.

[Server Announcement: Congratulations to player Rowan Rhodes for killing the Boss-level Abyssal Octopus. For achieving the first higher-level kill, awarded Bronze Treasure Chest x2.]

[Acquired: Ink Sac x10, Octopus Tentacles x80, Octopus Meat x50, titanium ingot x10, Silver Treasure Box x1, Skill: Regeneration x1.]

Seeing the rewards, Rowan froze in shock. While the initial loot was well within her expectations, she truly hadn’t anticipated the Silver Treasure Box and the Skill: Regeneration. Although she had heard rumors that many players obtained special abilities after killing sea creatures upon entering the Coastal Waters Region, she had never acquired one herself and hadn’t known the specific details.

Now, she was absolutely certain—the rumors were true!

Captivated by the regeneration skill, Rowan completely ignored the Silver Treasure Box. She directly inspected the specific details of Skill: Regeneration.

[Skill: Regeneration (F-level): A growth-type skill. At the cost of Life Value, it can automatically repair physical damage. The lower the Level, the greater the Life Value consumption required.]

After reading the description, Rowan was thrilled. Even though the healing came at a cost, she felt it was a price she could easily afford. In fact, if the skill had zero drawbacks, she would have been far more suspicious of it! Truly, fortune and misfortune walked hand in hand.

Although she had expended a massive amount of resources and sustained numerous injuries during her battle with the Abyssal Octopus, the price was more than worth it compared to what she had gained. After all, obtaining this extra skill ahead of the curve meant a significant boost to her overall strength.

At that moment, anticipation swelled within Rowan. There were still many natural disasters to come. In terms of difficulty, the higher her raft level, the easier it would be to attract a Boss-level Sea Creature. As long as she could kill them, her abilities would rapidly develop.

Only now did she realize something: the Sea Survival Game she had experienced in her previous life was merely the tip of the iceberg. She hadn’t even scratched the surface of what the true Sea Survival Game entailed.

Strangely, this vast unknown left her feeling somewhat exhilarated. She was going to work hard and strive to become stronger! She would push forward to witness the "scenery" she had never lived to see in her past life.

While Rowan was practically overflowing with fighting spirit, she had no idea that the other players were entirely dumbfounded after seeing the server announcement about her killing the Abyssal Octopus.

An Abyssal Octopus? What on earth was that?

Were they even playing the same game as Rowan Rhodes?