Chapter 31:
◎ Online Friends Meetup ◎
After confirming the time with [MortalRealmLittleFairyGrass], Yu Chi entered the boat’s cockpit.
Look at me now, I can even drive a boat. Yu Chi filled the energy slot with crystals and slowly turned the boat’s direction. This small boat was incredibly easy to drive, requiring no technical skill whatsoever.
Thank the system for fully considering the players’ intelligence.
The compass clearly pointed in one direction. Yu Chi stared ahead, her mind unconsciously pondering the prophecy given by [MortalRealmLittleFairyGrass].
Yu Chi wasn’t worried about the merging of regions. The number of people in District 1 was gradually decreasing. After a natural disaster, it would probably shrink to around ten thousand people. The merging of regions was an inevitable trend.
But the player meetup after the natural disaster… was it mandatory?
Yu Chi anxiously opened the rankings. After reaching level 7 yesterday, her strength had already entered the top 10, currently ranking 8th.
No one could say she was weak with such strength, but her heart was still pounding, without a shred of security.
It seems I have to make a lot of preparations during this time. Yu Chi pursed her lips. What she should be considering most right now was the trip to Cold Moon Island.
Yu Chi opened her private chat with [GrumpyBro].
【DazedFish】: Want to go to an island? Trade for it with something.
[GrumpyBro] was her choice after careful consideration. She hoped to create a tripartite standoff, so this third person could not be too weak.
Secondly, she was more familiar with [GrumpyBro]. MortalRealmLittleFairyGrass had not bought bandages or adhesive bandages from her (she didn’t know if he had secretly bought them from the shop), but [GrumpyBro] had a great demand for them. If there was no absolute conflict of interest, he probably wouldn’t hurt her.
Finally, if [GrumpyBro] and [MortalRealmLittleFairyGrass] really hit it off, the number one and number two on the ranking admiring each other… uh, were they looking for a little brother?
Yu Chi smoothed her hair. This was indeed the worst-case scenario. If they really teamed up against her, at worst, she could just transform into a Cinnabar Finch and fly into the depths of the ice and snow mountain.
After leveling up again, her transformation time had reached an exaggerated 10 minutes, a huge leap compared to before.
In addition, she had become more and more proficient in using the abilities of the three forms, and could simply use the form’s abilities without transforming.
[GrumpyBro] hadn’t replied yet. After putting enough crystals into the energy slot, Yu Chi turned on the autopilot. She was in no mood to cook and just ate some fruit to fill her stomach.
Yu Chi put on her sunscreen clothing and sunglasses, took her All-Purpose Fishing Rod, and continued to fish.
At the same time, her hands were not idle. Water purifiers, fans, bandages, and adhesive bandages were constantly being produced. She needed more money to buy items to ensure the safety of this island trip.
During this time, she took out [Lucky Match-3].
Yesterday’s Lucky Match-3 had only given her a mediocre fruit—grapes. With the Ice Crystal Grapes before, ordinary grapes were indeed a bit ordinary to her.
However, Yu Chi was also quite looking forward to a football-sized grape. It would be very interesting to sell it in the player trade section then.
Yu Chi: Hee hee.
She didn’t know what today’s [Lucky Match-3] would produce. Yu Chi opened it cautiously. A Q-version of a little person named DazedFish with fruit on its head jumped twice, its expression serious, making people want to pinch her face.
Yu Chi stopped her beastly thoughts. This is you, you bastard!
The interface on the screen jumped, and suddenly, words different from the past appeared.
—【Spirit Plant Chapter】
Yu Chi: “!!!”
Finally, the second chapter. Yu Chi happily pounded her leg and couldn’t wait to enter the game.
Huh… the difficulty seems to have increased too.
If the previous levels were the most basic match-3, now it was an upgraded version. Of course, this was no match for Yu Chi, a level 10 veteran match-3 player.
She spent some time and cleared it in one go again!
【Item: Saltbone Tree
Grade: Rare
Description: Saltstone can be extracted from the leaves after burning, and salt crystals can be extracted from the branches after burning, strengthening the body.】
Yu Chi’s eyes widened. She held the three small trees in her hand, her eyes full of excitement.
Salt, it’s salt!
Humans can’t live without salt. The little bit Yu Chi had was bought at a high price from the player trade section.
But with these three Saltbone Trees…
[The Two-Sided Mirror], now nourished by the continuous supply of spirit plants, had expanded a little more, from the original 600 square meters to the current 800 square meters.
Yu Chi opened up a new area to plant the Saltbone Trees. Unlike other spirit plants, the Saltbone Tree was not an ice-attribute spirit plant. If it was not planted separately, its growth might be inhibited.
She carefully tore off a leaf from the Saltbone Tree. Although it was a tree, it was only the size of a palm, with less than 10 leaves on it.
Following the method in the description, Yu Chi began to burn the leaf with Vermilion Bird Fire. After about 2 minutes, this small leaf had actually turned into a saltstone of the same size.
Unlike ordinary saltstone, it was transparent and red, crystal clear, and very beautiful in appearance.
Yu Chi held the saltstone in her hand. Its use was also very simple. If it was for roasting meat, she would rub it on it. If it was for stir-frying, she would rub some powder off. It could be eaten without any other processing.
She put the rock into her backpack, cast 10 elven blessings on the Saltbone Tree, and then went to other areas to cast elven blessings.
The immortal peach tree she had planted before had already borne 5 beautiful peaches. Yu Chi blinked, picked all the immortal peaches, and planned to eat them while fishing later.
The [Two-Sided Mirror] space was full of spiritual energy, and she often cast elven blessings on it, so the plants grew very quickly. Of course, the Red Star Tree also played a part in this.
Yu Chi returned to the deck. After fishing all day yesterday and fighting a battle, her ability to adapt to the temperature had become much stronger, and she didn’t feel as uncomfortable as before.
There was another large sum of crystals in her account. Yu Chi didn’t plan to save them and directly opened the system mall to buy items.
The Stealthy Umbrella was half-damaged, but it seemed it could still be repaired. Yu Chi first stored it in the [Two-Sided Mirror] and planned to buy two more pieces of armor.
The system mall had been updated. Yu Chi refreshed it.
【Item: Smoke
Grade: Legendary
Description: Can change shape at will. You will like it.】
Yu Chi’s heart skipped a beat. She looked at the price of this item—7 million crystals.
Not expensive… but this is actually today’s special offer!
If you’re slow, you’ll miss it. Her heart pounded, but her hands moved as fast as afterimages.
You see, a special offer item would only appear once a day, and the time it appeared was not fixed. Unless you stayed in the system mall all day, you could only rely on luck.
The normal price of this item was 70 million. Yu Chi could never afford it, but 7 million… she happened to have 7 million!
The item was in hand, and the crystals in her account were almost all cleared.
Yu Chi held a ball of smoke in her hand and squeezed it. She found that it actually had a physical form. After the item was bound to her, there was a detailed description of how to use it.
The change of shape needed to be controlled by the mind. The more detailed the mental control, the more powerful the function of the changed shape would be.
For example—
Under Yu Chi’s gaze, the ball of smoke slowly grew larger and gradually solidified into a cloud about 2 meters in size, floating in the air.
Yu Chi jumped on it. With a thought, the cloud actually carried her and flew directly into the air!
Fortunately, she had experience flying as a Cinnabar Finch. She wasn’t flustered at the moment, but her Spirit was being consumed at a not-so-slow rate. Yu Chi calculated that it could probably fly for 30 minutes.
Enough.
Yu Chi grinned, feeling that her safety was more deeply guaranteed.
Next, she began to turn the ball of smoke into other things, but most of the items looked a bit illusory, and their effects were not very obvious.
Besides the simplest cloud, she changed it back and forth, and the best was a shield.
…Probably because these two things were relatively simple and didn’t require much brainpower.
But Yu Chi was already very satisfied with this. She had the Silver Moon Scimitar as a weapon, and Smoke as a flying and defensive item. This way, she didn’t need to be so nervous about the trip to Cold Moon Island.
Just then, a message came from [GrumpyBro].
Yu Chi clicked on it—
【GrumpyBro】: Really? How do we trade?
【GrumpyBro】: Do you have a way to get me there?
【DazedFish】: Unless you can get a teleportation item, I can’t do anything.
The man on the other side raised an eyebrow. He had never cared much about these teleportation items. Now that he was interested, it wouldn’t be difficult to get one. He immediately agreed.
【GrumpyBro】: Okay, what do you want?
【DazedFish】: I remember you have a lot of Island Exploration Cards. How about giving me two, plus a rare defensive item?
Island Exploration Cards were not considered rare and could be bought directly on the market. Yu Chi had also obtained two Island Exploration Cards after killing those three sharks before.
The system seemed to be encouraging this kind of behavior, so it was always generous in this aspect.
So the key here was a rare-grade defensive item. Although Yu Chi had Smoke, she didn’t want to expose it unless necessary.
【GrumpyBro】: No problem, I can give it to you now.
Yu Chi was just thinking that [GrumpyBro] had a lot of good things, but when she clicked on the item the other party had sent… meow, it was actually a suit of armor?
Yu Chi: “…”
It was really a suit of armor, the kind from Armor Hero.
Can these defensive items be any more ridiculous… speaking of which, as expected of [GrumpyBro]’s defensive item?
This person’s style is too obvious!
The other party even sent a smug message.
【How about it? I specially prepared this for myself.】
He’s so good to [DazedFish], [GrumpyBro] thought. This time, my bro has to acknowledge it!
【Item: Song of Armor
Grade: Rare
Description: Born from the childhood dreams of many, it can change size according to the master’s body shape.】
Yu Chi didn’t reply for the time being, but chose to use it directly.
The armor covered her entire body, from her fingertips to her hair. Her whole person was wrapped in steel. The lines of the machine were smooth, with high mobility and a heavy sense of protection. The appearance was very handsome… it was just that the color was a bit flashy.
Yu Chi stared at the pink armor without speaking.
I never thought you were this kind of [GrumpyBro]!
She moved her body. There was no problem with her movements, but… it was slightly heavy. It should be that her strength was still too weak, and she couldn’t support this suit of armor very well for a while.
However, her vision was not obstructed at all. In fact, she could see farther and more specifically than before.
Yu Chi put her hand on the belt on her stomach and turned it to the right. A sword of armor instantly appeared in her right hand. A flash of light reflected her current face.
She hadn’t expected it to come with a weapon. Yu Chi’s eyes instantly burst with surprise. This suit of armor was excellent, but it didn’t match her Silver Moon Scimitar very well. Using them together would have a comical effect.
But now that it came with its own weapon, everything was fine.
【DazedFish】: Okay, I’ll tell you the time. You can just use the teleportation item to come to my side.
【GrumpyBro】: Thanks, bro.
Yu Chi stared at this message without speaking… right now, no one on the forum was sure of her specific gender, but everyone had their guesses, and they leaned more towards her being a girl.
But it seemed that [GrumpyBro] still firmly believed that she was a boy and was trying hard to cultivate her into a good bro.
There was nothing to say. She wished him success.
Yu Chi put away the armor. Its usual appearance was a bracelet. After wearing it on her hand, there was nothing else besides being a bit chuunibyou.
She could now get a level five resource chest and a level four resource chest every day. The former was from being number one on the wealth ranking, and the latter was from being in the top 10 of the strength ranking.
Yu Chi looked at her backpack and found that she had already saved up 3 level five resource chests, and she only had the one level four resource chest she had gotten today.
The All-Purpose Fishing Rod hadn’t moved for half a day. Yu Chi had to happily start unboxing, and eat some immortal peaches along the way. If it weren’t for the scorching sun above, her little life would have been quite comfortable.
Yesterday, she had bought a deck chair and a useless sun umbrella from the system mall. At least they wouldn’t melt directly in this extreme heat.
Yu Chi lay on the chair and opened the worst level four resource chest first. She had once gotten the Legendary grade item [Two-Sided Mirror] from a level four resource chest.
At this moment, her heart was naturally full of anticipation.
The preparations had to be sufficient. Yu Chi faced the ocean and prayed seriously before she cautiously opened the level four resource chest.
【Item: Item Upgrade Stone
Grade: Rare
Description: Can randomly upgrade an excellent-grade item to a rare-grade item.】
Yu Chi’s hair instantly stood on end. She held the azure stone in her hand and began to rummage through her backpack. She thought, what excellent-grade items did she have?
Stealthy Umbrella, flashlight, All-Purpose Little Horn, Purification Water Sphere, metal knife, compass, automatic air conditioner, Shark Dagger…
Yu Chi took a count and found that she had quite a few excellent-grade items, but some of them were no longer useful.
She listed the metal knife and the Shark Dagger for sale in the player trade section—she had used both of these knives as weapons to kill monsters, and they could no longer be used as ordinary daggers to cut things.
Other excellent-grade items, such as the Purification Water Sphere, the automatic air conditioner, and other functional items, did not need to be evolved.
Now, only the Stealthy Umbrella, the flashlight, the All-Purpose Little Horn, and the compass were left. The Stealthy Umbrella was currently half-damaged. She couldn’t be sure if it would be complete or damaged after being upgraded to excellent. The flashlight could repel contaminated creatures, and the All-Purpose Little Horn was self-explanatory… Yu Chi finally set her sights on the compass.
As she had more and more Island Exploration Cards, and after the players’ boats were upgraded and could be driven directly, she would go to more islands, but the current compass could only point in one direction.
Thinking of this, Yu Chi made up her mind to use the item upgrade on the compass.
【Item: Compass Instrument
Grade: Rare
Description: Can simultaneously detect the specific location of 10 nearby islands, including direction, distance, and island type and level.】
Yu Chi looked at the description and slowly widened her eyes.
Only now did she know that islands also had levels!
Yu Chi opened the compass instrument and saw 10 small landmarks on it. After clicking on them, she could see a detailed description. The nearest landmark was currently Cold Moon Island.
【Island: Cold Moon Island
Level: Three (the highest level is five)
Description: An ancient dragon once fell on this island. A new dragon is awakening. It is an island that is about to evolve.
A land of ice and cold. Please land with caution.】
Yu Chi stared at the two words “giant dragon,” her expression suddenly becoming hesitant. She could not forget the pressure that the giant dragon had brought her at that time, but if she went to other islands…
She clicked on the descriptions of the other islands one by one. Most of the islands near her were level two and three, such as [Blazing Sun Island], [Phantom Beast Island], [Moonlight Island], etc. There was only one level four island. Yu Chi’s gaze lingered on it for a long time.
【Island: Sunset Island
Level: Four
Description: The legendary residence of the elves. Non-elves cannot enter. It is said to have incomparably precious treasures.】
Elves… She blinked. She wondered if her elf form could land on the island?
Yu Chi temporarily suppressed all her chaotic thoughts and decided to go to the more familiar Cold Moon Island this time. With the teleportation talisman, even if she faced a giant dragon, she should have the ability to escape.
Her heart slowly calmed down. The All-Purpose Fishing Rod moved. She fished up a complete set of clothes. Although it didn’t have any attributes, its grade was common.
It was much sturdier than ordinary clothes.
Not bad. Yu Chi’s eyes curved.
She took out the other 3 level five resource chests and unboxed them again.
—【Skill Book】
The simple three words appeared before Yu Chi’s eyes. She swallowed and held the thin skill book in her hand.
When one’s strength reached a certain stage, luck rarely came out to affect it. For example, the top 3 players on the rankings, no matter how bad their luck was, the treasure chests they got every day were level 5 resource chests. Over time, the number of good things they had was countless.
This was the 4th skill Yu Chi had obtained. The first three skills, except for Fine Forging, were all very useful… but Fine Forging was something she had comprehended herself, so it couldn’t be compared, ahem.
Yu Chi used the skill book. Before she could see the skill clearly, a line of words suddenly appeared before her eyes.
【Player has been detected to have elven bloodline. The skill has changed.】
Yu Chi was stunned, and the skill panel also appeared.
【Skill: Nature’s Guardian
Quality: Rare
Description: The friends of the elves will protect them.
Can summon a guardian composed of natural elements. Its strength is equivalent to the master’s. When the player reaches level 10, a second guardian can be summoned, and so on.】
She didn’t know what this skill was originally supposed to be, but now… Yu Chi was so excited that even her fingertips were numb. She almost couldn’t wait to summon the guardian.
The air fluctuated. Yu Chi only felt a blur before her eyes, and a treant appeared in front of her. It was about 3-4m tall. Its body was composed of thick tree trunks and branches, and green vines were wrapped around it, making it look mysterious and natural.
“Master,” the treant said in a muffled voice, kneeling on one knee before Yu Chi.
Yu Chi opened her mouth, “Can you get smaller?”
Her neck was getting sore from looking up.
The treant nodded upon hearing this, and its body immediately shrank from a giant to a normal human size. It couldn’t make any other expressions on its face and could only look at her with its loyal, dark eyes.
Yu Chi patted its shoulder and opened its panel description.
【Guardian: Treant
Level: 7
Description: Has extremely high HP and defense. Can absorb the energy of surrounding plants to repair itself in battle.】
Note: Please treat every guardian seriously.
Yu Chi’s eyes lit up when she saw “repair.” She had originally been thinking if she had to use bandages and adhesive bandages to restore the treant’s health. Now it seemed she didn’t have to worry about it.
Yu Chi tried to communicate with the treant: “Where will you usually be? Will you always follow me or will you disappear into the air?”
The treant tilted its head. The next second, its figure disappeared. Yu Chi felt a burning sensation on her arm and found that there was a small treant tattoo on it.
Yu Chi’s gaze was fixed: …a little cute.
She silently chanted “summon treant” in her mind, and soon the treant’s figure appeared again.
Yu Chi: “Do you need to eat?”
The treant’s muffled voice sounded: “Plants.”
It absorbed energy from plants to repair itself, so its food was naturally plants.
Yu Chi breathed a sigh of relief. She had planted a large number of plants in the [Two-Sided Mirror] space. Raising a treant should not be a problem.
Thinking of this, her eyes rolled. She handed the All-Purpose Fishing Rod to the treant. “You try to see if you can fish.”
The treant followed his instructions and sat on Yu Chi’s deck chair, its dark eyes staring at the sea surface without blinking.
Yu Chi did not feel any warning from the All-Purpose Fishing Rod. The treant was her natural guardian, so it seemed that it was not a problem for it to help her fish. This way, she could save more time.
She took out some giant plants from the Two-Sided Mirror and handed a pile to the treant. Then she started to munch on immortal peaches, and the treant also began to silently munch on the plants.
Time passed quickly while the two of them were eating.
On the morning of the third day of the extreme heat natural disaster, Yu Chi’s small boat arrived near Cold Moon Island.
She took out the Island Exploration Card. This exploration card had a duration of 24h. Yu Chi pinched her fingertips. For some reason, a strange sense of nervousness flashed through her heart.
Could it be that she was finally going to meet someone, and her social phobia was acting up?
Yu Chi licked her dry lips, took a deep breath, and chose to use it. Her whole person was directly teleported to Cold Moon Island.
It was still the familiar shallow beach. Yu Chi found a safe place to stay.
At the same time, she sent messages to [GrumpyBro] and [MortalRealmLittleFairyGrass]. She had already told them in advance that she would arrive in the morning.
After waiting anxiously for a few seconds, Yu Chi felt the surrounding air sway. The next second, two men appeared on her left and right almost at the same time.
The man on the left was wearing a black tight-fitting suit. He was tall and had fair skin, but his face was expressionless, and his emotions could not be seen.
The man on the right had a buzz cut and single eyelids. Just by looking at his eyes, he looked fierce. It was just that his clothes were tattered, as if he had just been in a big battle.
Yu Chi stood between the two of them in her pink armor. The three of them looked at each other, and the air suddenly became tense.
As the initiator of this adventure, Yu Chi felt that she had an obligation to lead everyone in communication. So she cleared her throat and said:
“Hello, MortalRealmLittleFairyGrass and GrumpyBro. I’m DazedFish.”
“…”
The tense atmosphere suddenly stagnated and turned into a large-scale online friend meetup.
The moment their screen names were called out, Yu Chi keenly observed that the expressions of both of them had changed slightly.
The air became even more silent.
Yu Chi: …
Yu Chi: To be honest, I’m also very embarrassed.
Help—
I can’t imagine what will happen next.
***
【Author’s Note】
Current protagonist’s rare items: Lucky Match-3, Water Repelling Pearl, Silver Moon Scimitar, Constant Temperature Sunscreen Clothing, Magic Sunglasses, Song of Armor, Magic Walkie-Talkie, one-time use Teleportation Talisman, and Compass Instrument.