Yang Yi barely slept during the second half of the night. When dawn broke, he rose, tossing the rotting bones under his bed. The captain's skeleton was surely dead by now.
After the night, Yang Yi looked like a different person—pale-faced, dark circles under his eyes, bloodshot pupils. As he exited the captain's quarters, he noticed a new statue on the bow deck: a cartoonish octopus-human hybrid with wings, crouching on a stone.
"What the hell is this?"
A system log popped up:
[Last night, 13,000 people successfully killed abnormal creatures; one even achieved a stunning double kill!]
[The system will grant a special talent based on your combat record.]
[Meanwhile, the Monster Gachapon is now open. You can insert monster corpse tissues into the gachapon for rewards; corpses will be forcibly recycled. Note: Do not throw garbage into the gachapon, nor live creatures—this will anger it!]
The World Chat exploded:
"Monsters exist in this world? What do they look like?"
"Let me go back! I'll give you anything!"
"Talent rewards? I missed out!"
"A skeleton monster tried to break my door last night. I didn't open it—should I have taken the risk?"
"You might be dead if you had."
"Monster Gachapon? Has anyone found it?"
"Found mine on the bow deck—it's a cute giant toad."
"Mine's in the cabin, a cartoon robot!"
"Ugh, mine's a clown, hideous as hell, right in the captain's quarters!"
"Are they all different?"
Yang Yi turned to his own gachapon: a cartoon octopus-human hybrid with a gaping mouth and writhing tentacles, like it was starving.
[Reward granted. You obtain the talent: ???]
[Unlock condition: ???, progress 0/3.]
"What the fuck? Needs unlocking? This is a scam."
He checked the chat—others were complaining about locked talents too. Unlock conditions varied: some required tens of thousands of steps, others millions of breaths. Yang Yi's 0/3 was unusually low.
Soon, players discovered their conditions:
"My unlock requires 100,000 steps. What a rip-off!"
"At least you have a goal. Mine's 3,000,000 breaths—just go with the flow…"
"I have 0/100 and no clue what to do."
"Maybe survive 100 days?"
"If the system doesn't want to give talents, just say so!"
Shrugging off his 0/3, Yang Yi headed to the cabin to convert monster remains into gachapon tokens. The captain's skeleton was unique, so he only took the drowned corpse's severed hand and fed it into the octopus gachapon.
The machine's eyes lit red; its tentacles cycled through colors like a disco light. Yang Yi cranked the chest wheel, hearing clinking sounds inside.
"Such a cheesy gimmick."
A glowing orb rolled out, transforming into an azure vial:
[Name: Drowned Wrath]
[Type: Consumable]
[Quality: Good]
[Description: Upon consumption, -20 Sanity. For 1 minute, you will be treated as a drowned corpse, immune to active attacks from abnormal creatures.]
Yang Yi's eyes lit up—a solid lifesaving item. In survival games, such items were invaluable.
The chat filled with loot screenshots:
"I got a token!"
[Name: Bone Token]
[Type: Item]
[Quality: Fine]
[Description: Summon a skeleton to fight for you for 10 minutes. Afterward, it will turn on you. Cooldown: 24 hours. Use only if you can defeat a skeleton.]
"So powerful! Sell it to me for 100 million!"
"100 million what? We use Conch Coins here, and there's no trading—just stealing."
"How about this dagger?"
[Name: Serrated Dagger]
[Type: Treasure]
[Quality: Fine]
[Description: A sharp dagger with a comfortable grip, causing lacerating damage. Its only flaw: short!]
"Alright, we get it—you're short."
"I wouldn't buy that even if I could. Too embarrassing."
Most rewards were ordinary; Fine items were rare. Relics offered better effects but carried sanity penalties and side effects. Yang Yi's Emotion Trigger Gun dealt moderate damage, outperforming most Fine weapons' minor damage—though its one-shot-per-minute limit and sanity cost balanced it.
Grudgingly, Yang Yi swallowed half a long-legged sardine. He was starving, and last night's fight had drained his hunger bar.
[Eating raw long-legged sardine. Sanity decreases by 2.]
The fish tasted bitter but wasn't rotten, providing energy and minimal hydration. Finishing it, he checked his status:
Yang Yi
Status: Injured [Yellow highlights on the humanoid diagram, deeper at wound sites.]
Sanity: 74/100
Stamina: 52/100
HP: 83/100
His stamina and sanity had recovered slightly overnight, but nightmares and insomnia hindered progress. Wounds remained unhealed—risk of infection loomed.
Next task: crafting noise traps. These low-intelligence monsters didn't require complex traps. He made rope-based alarms: wooden planks with holes, strung together. Wood was easily harvested—1 unit equaled 1 cubic decimeter.
After stringing the planks, he hung the traps in the corridor and on the captain's quarters door. They clattered loudly in the wind, effective as warnings. By noon, his wood and cloth supplies were nearly exhausted.
He wasn't ready to scavenge yet—fresh water was priority. He needed to fish more and watch for treasure chests. Suddenly, he felt breathless, stomach cramping. Checking his status:
Yang Yi
Status: Injured/Poison Infection (Mild)/Food Poisoning (Mild, Diarrhea) [Entire body highlighted yellow; wounds darker.]
"Shit!"
The drowned corpse's toxins had infected him. And at sea, he had no medicine…