Chapter 26

Joseph dragged Pistachio, who still wanted to sleep in, out of the wooden house.

He began his journey to search for treasure chests near the karst cave. Once they left, Pistachio immediately changed its mind.

Pistachio did not care about his white fur at all and kept rolling on the ground.

Joseph continued to explore the opposite side of the volcano. He began to investigate the surrounding environment again.

First was the passage where Ike came from.

Joseph did not know if there were any survivors there.

With Pistachio constantly moving forward, Joseph felt that there was something wrong with the surrounding environment.

He seemed to be walking in circles in the same place as if he was walking in a complex maze.

He realized this because he had seen several signs he had left behind.

Joseph followed the marks and soon he was back where he had been.

Sensing the complex terrain of the area, Joseph took out a map and looked at it.

Following the hints from the map, Joseph looked at the wall in front of him.

In addition to the dry sand, Joseph also saw traces of digging.

Moreover, the digging seemed to be done recently, not even more than three days.

He touched the light traces.

Joseph was sure that there should be other survivors nearby.

“If it’s not Ike, then who is this person?”

He picked up the shovel and started digging along the traces.

Not long after, Joseph saw a dark and gloomy tunnel appear in front of him.

Sure enough, his guess was correct. Someone had once again blocked the tunnel.

Shaking his head, Joseph did not plan on thinking till the bottom of the matter.

He directly lit the torch and walked into the tunnel.

Through the light of the torch, the tunnel appeared very narrow. There were even places where one had to bend down to pass through.

[System prompt: there is an E-Grade Treasure Chest that has been discovered 50 meters ahead.]

[System prompt: there is an F-Grade Treasure Chest that has been discovered 30 meters ahead. ]

What was I waiting for? Dig!

…

Along the way, Joseph had collected a total of five treasure chests.

Among them, there were three F-Grade Treasure Chests, one E-Grade Construction Treasure Chest, and one E-Grade Food Treasure Chest.

Although he did not find any precious blueprints or equipment, it was not a wasted trip.

[Opening E-Grade Construction Treasure Chest: wood x 100 obtained.]

[Upening E-Grade Food Treasure Chest: roasted chicken x 1 obtained.]

[Opening F-Grade…]

After opening all the treasure chests, Joseph found that the sky had unknowingly darkened.

On the way back, Joseph sorted out the materials he had gotten today.

Today’s exploration had yielded wood x 200, cement x 10, iron ore x 10, and Fragrant Roasted Chicken x 1.

Carrying Pistachio in his arms, Joseph returned to the direction of the wooden house. With a torch in one hand, he observed his surroundings.

The reason why it was difficult to distinguish directions in this area was that the environment of the underground world was quite similar. The scorched yellow soil and neat earth walls made it easy for people to fall into a blind spot.

For other survivors, if they wanted to leave this area, there were only two ways.

The first way was to have a good sense of direction and make obvious marks along the way

The second way was to be like Joseph, who had a detailed map.

However, the first way was not an easy thing to do.

The second way was even more difficult. After all, equipment like a map was even harder to obtain than weapons and armor.

Should he believe in himself or rely on equipment?

Every survivor must have an answer in their heart.

If there was no other choice, it would be very difficult to survive in the underground world.

Thinking of this question, Joseph could not help but think about it.

He slowly walked forward, imagining what it would be like if he did not have a full set of equipment.

From the moment he joined the survival game until now, Joseph had relied on his equipment to survive many crises.

if he did not have his equipment, Joseph might have already become the eliminated person in this survival game.

Suddenly, Joseph seemed to understand something.

He even stopped walking and said to himself, “I have the help of the Prompting System, so why do I have to make the same choice as others?”

“I can borrow the power of equipment to make myself stronger, but I don’t need to completely rely on equipment. I can’t believe I have to think about such a simple principle for so long. Seriously!”

He laughed at himself as he arrived at the riverside.

He suddenly realized that the Emperor Joseph, which had been docked at the riverside, had long disappeared. Only broken wood was left floating on the river surface.

“What’s going on? Where’s my raft?”

Joseph checked the riverside for a long time, but he did not find anything wrong.

However, if he wanted to return to the wooden house, he had to build a brand new raft.

Thinking of this, he took out the blueprint that he hadn’t used the last time.

[Equipment Blueprint: High-Quality Wooden Raft Blueprint]

[Crafting requirement: wood x 50, rope x10]

There was no need to mention the advantages of a craft. In short, it was definitely more reliable than the retired Emperor Joseph.

However, to build equipment, he needed to return to the blacksmith’s table in the wooden house to build it.

Thus, he simply learned the Basic Swimming Skill Book that he had just obtained.

After taking off his plate armor and instructing Pistachio to look after it by the shore, Joseph took a deep breath and dived into the river.

The first thing he felt when he jumped into the river was that it was cold!

It was abnormally cold!

Gritting his teeth, Joseph quickly swam to the other side of the river. If it were not for the fact that he had gone through so much training, Joseph would not have been able to hold on.

It was not that he did not know his physical strength, but it was as if he was torturing himself.

After reaching the other side with great difficulty, Joseph ran all the way back to the wooden house.

[Do you want to build a High-Quality Wooden Raft?]

[Crafting requirement: wood x 50, rope x10]

“Craft!”

Joseph clicked ‘confirm’ while quickly throwing the required materials onto the blacksmith’s table.

With a familiar knocking sound, a five-by-five square feet raft appeared in front of him.

Looking at the neatly tied raft, Joseph finally understood how simple his ‘Emperor Joseph’ was.

He picked up the raft with satisfaction, but when Joseph walked to the door, he suddenly had a dilemma.

There was no way he could get out of such a huge raft!

Joseph thought about it for a moment before he picked up the shovel. Not long after, the sound of clanging could be heard from the wooden house.

…

“Pistachio, let’s go home!”

Joseph sailed the brand-new Emperor Joseph, and he returned to the other side to call out to Pistachio.

This was indeed the brand-new Emperor Joseph. Joseph felt that he really could not call it out the given name of this raft, so the raft simply inherited the title.

“Meow!”

Pistachio’s meow came from the river. Joseph turned his head and saw Pistachio poking his little head out of the river and greeting Joseph.

Then, he kept gesturing at a square-shaped object toward Joseph.

Joseph thought for a moment and asked, “Are you saying that you’ve found something in the river?”