Chapter 5
◎ Novice Protection Period ◎
Yu Chi organized her materials. After two marine debris tides, she had already gathered enough materials to upgrade the raft into a small boat.
【Confirm upgrade?】
【Yes】
A white light flashed, and the raft beneath Yu Chi’s feet instantly transformed into a small boat.
[Level 1 Wooden Boat
Bound to: DazedFish
Upgrade Requirements: Wood x80, Stone x30, Nails x30]
The boat was about 4 meters long and 1.2 meters wide, only slightly larger than the raft, but it looked much safer and more reliable.
Supplies that didn’t fit in her backpack could be thrown on it without the worry of them falling off at any moment.
The system continued to display prompts.
【Congratulations, player, on completing the novice quest among the top 100 in the entire district and becoming an official player.】
【Received Level 3 Resource Chest x1, Turntable Spin x1. We hope the player continues to strive and survive!】
The Level 3 Resource Chest was a standard reward for completing the novice quest, so the Turntable Spin must be the reward for being in the top 100. She wondered how generous the reward was for the first person to complete the novice quest.
Yu Chi shed tears of envy.
However, a Turntable Spin?
A lottery-style activity that relied on luck? Yu Chi was all for it. She rubbed her hands together and clicked on the Turntable Spin.
A turntable, about the size of the screen, immediately appeared before her. It had ten slots, ranging from first-tier to tenth-tier prizes. After clicking the [Button] in the middle, the pointer on the turntable would start spinning. Clicking it again would cause the pointer to slowly come to a stop.
Yu Chi closed her eyes and said with a sincere tone, “Praise be to the God of the Sea.”
Then she solemnly clicked the button in the middle.
The pointer began to spin wildly, so fast that not even a shadow of it could be seen, blurring into a single solid shape.
She quickly reached out and tapped to stop it. Ten seconds later, the pointer came to a rest on the [Eighth-Tier] prize.
Yu Chi: “Oho!”
【Item: Lucky Match-3
Grade: Rare
Description: Clear stages by playing a match-3 game. Successfully clearing a stage will grant a reward. Stages can be replayed, but the rewards for previously cleared stages are fixed.】
Yu Chi’s eyes widened as she stared at the small, square screen in her hand. It was about the size of her palm. In the top-left corner of the interface was a small avatar, with the name [DazedFish] next to it.
Yu Chi leaned closer to the screen and saw that the avatar was a Q-version of herself, with a nest of items on her head, staring ahead expressionlessly—plenty of cuteness, but lacking in majesty.
She didn’t mind Lucky Match-3 infringing on her image rights. After all, it was a rare item. It was only natural for it to be meticulous, she could totally understand (with restraint).
Additionally, there was a line of text at the very top of the screen: [Stages Cleared: 0]
In the center of the screen were the six words [Stage 1: Fruit Edition]. Yu Chi tapped it, and it immediately turned into a match-3 screen. The items to be eliminated were various fruits, and the required score to pass the first stage was in the top-right corner.
It has appeared!
The cursed match-3 game that can butt its way into any situation!
Yu Chi decided to immediately play through the first stage.
20 seconds later, small fireworks popped up on the screen, accompanied by a line of text.
【Congratulations on clearing the stage. You have received a Three-Star Fruit Box!】
Yu Chi: “So easy!”
Hmph, just a measly match-3 game.
It wasn’t much different from the Earth version of match-3. The points earned could be exchanged for one-star, two-star, and three-star rewards. The only limitation was that she could only clear one stage per day, which meant it couldn’t be used to pass the time.
The fruit box looked similar to a resource chest but was much smaller. Yu Chi opened the fruit box. Inside was an apple. After she took it out, another apple appeared. The fruit box only disappeared from her hand after Yu Chi had taken out three apples.
Got it. So a one-star reward was one fruit of the same kind, and by that logic, a three-star reward was three fruits. And this was just the Fruit Edition. Perhaps there would be a Weapon Edition, an Item Edition, and so on in the future.
Fruit was definitely a scarce resource on the sea. She had gotten an apple earlier but had been reluctant to eat it. Now, with [Lucky Match-3], she might even be able to sell her surplus fruit in the future.
Getting rich was just around the corner!
After putting the [Lucky Match-3], which she could no longer play, into her backpack, Yu Chi had a sudden idea to try fishing for fish with the [All-Purpose Fishing Rod].
Since it could fish up special items, perhaps it could also fish up special species of fish?
No sooner said than done!
Yu Chi took out a loaf of bread, tore off a small piece, rolled it into a ball, and put it on the hook. The sea was calm now, but there was still a risk of the “bait” being washed away by the current. She could only hope the bread would hold up.
Young people usually don’t have much experience with fishing, but Yu Chi’s father had smoothly become a member of the fishing enthusiast community after turning 40.
For a time, in order to mend their stiff relationship, Yu Chi had specifically researched fishing… In the end, she found that fishing was much simpler than mending relationships (bushi(1)).
Yu Chi looked at the water’s surface with great patience. After being deprived of electronic devices and coming here, she was adapting better than she had imagined.
About 40 minutes later, there was finally a tug on the line.
【Species: Blue Pearlfish
Quality: Rare (Evolution interrupted)
Description: A special species of fish containing blue pearls. Its flesh is extremely delicious. You’re in for a treat.】
Thank you, thank you, I’m so very fortunate. Yu Chi immediately knelt down and kowtowed ten times with tears of gratitude… Just kidding. Yu Chi immediately took the Blue Pearlfish off the hook, grateful for the sea’s gift.
Yu Chi: “Love you. I’m going to eat you all up today.”
Blue Pearlfish: “…”
Communication between humans and fish was impossible, so Yu Chi had to regretfully end the fish’s life.
Killing a fish for the first time, Yu Chi’s hand trembled slightly, but she quickly regained her composure. After all, the sea was empty, and there was no one to watch her act.
With one swing of the small wooden axe, red blood flowed out. Yu Chi breathed a sigh of relief. Although it was a species not found on Earth, at least its blood was red.
Along with the blood, a sky-blue pearl rolled out. It was located in the head of the Blue Pearlfish and rolled onto the raft with the blood.
Yu Chi picked up the sky-blue pearl.
【Item: Sky-Blue Pearl
Quality: Rare (On the verge of breakthrough)
Description: Perhaps you’d like to have a special skill?】
Again?
Yu Chi was dumbfounded. Am I the sea god’s favorite daughter? Everyone else relies on strength to survive, while I rely on luck. Just thinking about it makes me feel guilty… not.
Feeling guilty was impossible. Yu Chi calmly chose to use it in her mind, and the sky-blue pearl immediately turned into a stream of light and entered her body.
【Congratulations on acquiring a special skill!】
【Skill: Morph
Quality: Rare (Evolution interrupted, can be upgraded to Legendary)
Description: Can morph into three forms: Mermaid, Elf, and Cinnabar Finch. Limited by the master’s level, each form lasts for 1 second.】
Note: Skills normally cannot be upgraded in quality.
Good news: It was a combat-type skill, so self-preservation should be fine now.
Bad news: The duration was only 1 second.
Yu Chi pondered. At her current level 1, each morph only lasted for 1 second. Could it be that when she reached level 2, it would last for 2 seconds?
That’s not right. Yu Chi slapped her thigh. What can I even do in that amount of time? That dead shark over there is still eyeing me menacingly!
The Blue Pearlfish was cruelly killed by Yu Chi with the small wooden axe. The word [Disassemble] immediately appeared on its corpse.
As expected of a game-like world!
Yu Chi’s eyes lit up. She clicked [Disassemble]. Beheading it was simple enough for her, but cleaning a fish properly was not something she was good at.
【Fish Meat x2】
One piece of fish meat was one jin(2). The Blue Pearlfish was disassembled by the system into two jin of fish meat. Yu Chi knew that the fish’s original weight was around three jin, so it seemed the system’s disassembly was quite generous.
A loaf of bread weighed 250g. It could be made into 50-100 small baits, but only 20-30 large baits.
Yu Chi wasn’t sure about the fish in the sea just now and was also worried about the bait being washed away by the current, so she had made a spherical bait with a diameter of 3-4cm, which counted as a large bait.
This time, she made a small bait and put it on the hook, wanting to see if she could catch a small fish.
An hour passed, and the fishing rod didn’t move an inch. Yu Chi waited for another half an hour or so, then pulled up the hook, only to find that the bait on it was long gone.
She didn’t know if it had been snatched by a fish or washed away by the current.
It seemed she could only use large bait in the future, Yu Chi thought to herself, her hands not stopping as she rolled two more large baits.
Fishing was a very tedious activity that required full concentration—if she were just using the All-Purpose Fishing Rod to fish for other things in the water, she could still scroll through the chat page for a while.
After using up both large baits, Yu Chi decided to take a break. The two fish she caught this time looked very ordinary, aside from their names.
One was called Big Dumb Fish, and the other was called Long-Headed Fish.
Their quality was both common, with nothing special about them.
Yu Chi disassembled both fish and obtained [Big Dumb Fish Meat x4], [Long-Headed Fish Meat x2, Long-Headed Fish Head x1].
Neither the Blue Pearlfish nor the Big Dumb Fish yielded a fish head, only the Long-Headed Fish did. Could it be that the heads of the other two types of fish had no edible value?
The backpack only had ten slots in total and was already full. Yu Chi thought for a moment and put a piece of fish meat on the trade interface to test the waters.
She couldn’t eat so much fish meat by herself. It would just take up space in her backpack. It was better to sell it for materials.
***
【Author’s Note】
Sailing Log 3:Mermaid-Fish, Elf-Fish, and Cinnabar Finch-Fish, DazedFish says she loves you all [Laughing]
***
Translator’s Notes
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bushi (不是): This is internet slang, literally meaning “no” or “not.” It’s often used parenthetically to playfully negate or add a sarcastic twist to the preceding statement, similar to saying “not really” or “just kidding.”
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jin (斤): A traditional Chinese unit of mass. In modern mainland China, 1 jin is standardized as 500 grams (0.5 kg), which is roughly 1.1 lbs.