Ch. 21 - The bigger the storm, the bigger the fish...

As the chat room buzzed with activity, reports of players being attacked kept popping up. The monsters they encountered were all different.“There are so many red lanterns in the water, and they’re all converging on me. Has anyone else seen this? What the heck are they?”

“Just fireflies, nothing to worry about!”

“Damn it! A dozen little fishmen have me trapped in the captain’s cabin! Come at me one-on-one if you dare!”

“Why is there someone standing on the sea…right in my path?”

“One of the monsters got caught in my trap. It’s called a Drowned Revenant, I think. I turned it into a pincushion… Wait, what…?”

Yang Yi offered a silent prayer for that player. They were probably blown up by the monster.

Every passing minute, someone got attacked and killed.

However, there were also many who managed to escape the stormy sea unscathed.

As for Yang Yi, perhaps because his ship, the Nightmare, set out late and was somewhat distant from the main fleet, he hadn’t encountered any monsters.

But there was something else that was troubling him.

He had run out of food! Water wasn’t an issue thanks to the vitality coconuts, but he desperately needed protein and energy!

“Suna, do you have any food on your ship?” Yang Yi sent a private message.

“Only 1L of water,” Suna’s voice responded in his ear.

She had just finished repairing her ship and was holding a crystal ball as she walked to the front deck.

The crystal ball was actually a dynamic nautical map, capable of displaying the sea conditions within a hundred nautical miles around them!

At that moment, it only showed two ships, the Astrologer and the Nightmare, with the small ship markers positioned very close to each other.

“Can the map on your ship be dismantled?” Yang Yi asked in surprise.

“This crystal ball is just a receiver. As long as it’s not too far away, it’s fine,” Suna explained.

The nautical map was actually quite simple. Apart from the ships, it only showed large obstacles on the sea, like giant floating objects, which appeared as small black dots. Islands, on the other hand, were represented as large shadows.

By avoiding these black dots, they could effectively prevent the ship from getting caught in the whirlpools created by giant floating debris.

At the same time, the existence of the nautical map ensured they wouldn’t lose their way.

Another day passed.

Even a tough guy like Yang Yi needed to sleep and rest.

They took turns steering the ship, sleeping in the captain’s cabin when they were tired.

It seemed the Nightmare’s curse only targeted the captain, as Suna hadn’t mentioned having any nightmares.

Throughout this time, Yang Yi kept an eye on the chat room, hoping to buy some food.

But it was a lost cause!

Due to the storm, most players were running out of food and had no intention of selling any.

The few who did have food were simply the lucky ones who had escaped the stormy sea. The prices were astronomical, and even then, it was impossible to snatch anything!

When Yang Yi sent private messages, it took the other party ten minutes to reply, and the response always remained the same: “Sold out!”

Some didn’t even bother to reply.

This was the ultimate form of scarcity marketing, where those who couldn’t buy food would starve!

“This can’t go on!” Yang Yi sat up in the captain’s cabin, his stomach growling incessantly.

Suna was steering the ship now, with the wind force at level 11. Standing on the deck required a slight crouch to maintain balance.

Yang Yi’s clothes had never dried, constantly damp with the salty, fishy smell of the sea.

“I need to get some food, or we’re done for once we lose our strength!” he thought to himself, eating a vitality coconut, draining the water, and even scraping the flesh clean.

With no food left, coconuts were the only option. But they alone weren’t filling; he needed something more substantial with higher energy!

After thinking it over, the only way Yang Yi could think of to get food was fishing.

And it just so happened he had a fishing rod.

“Suna, if this keeps up, we’re going to starve! I’m going to try fishing while you steer the ship for a bit longer!” Yang Yi sent a private message.

“Got it!” Suna replied crisply.

Yang Yi grabbed the fishing rod and went to the ship’s courtyard, finding a suitable spot to cast his line.

As the saying went, the bigger the storm, the pricier the fish.

But in this case, it probably meant the bigger the storm, the stranger the fish…or maybe the bigger the fish after all?

He quickly realised he had underestimated the difficulty of fishing in a storm.

The ship rocked wildly, waves crashing all around, making it impossible to see the float, let alone any sign of a catch.

An hour passed, and Yang Yi was close to achieving nothing, other than nearly falling overboard himself.

Two hours went by, still no catch, and he was starting to get frustrated.

He opened the chat room and sent a message.

“Has anyone tried fishing?”

He attached a photo of himself fishing in the storm.

“Are you crazy? You still have time to fish? Aren’t you avoiding the floating debris?”

Indeed, only Yang Yi had the time to fish; everyone else was busy avoiding the floating debris.

“Just wait until you catch a mermaid that eats you alive!”

In reality, if he did catch a siren, it was unclear who would eat whom!

After a series of banter, a helpful message finally came through, likely from an experienced fisherman.

“With the waves so big, the fish are deep down. Your float is useless! If you insist on fishing, remove the float, let the line out longer, and attach a weight to sink the bait deeper!”

Yang Yi thanked the fisherman in his mind and immediately adjusted the line, removing the float and attaching a small piece of stone to the hook.

In this world, fishing didn’t require bait...

After half an hour, there was finally some movement, and the reel on the rod spun wildly.

Yang Yi pulled hard, nearly being yanked into the sea himself, but managed to keep his footing by bracing against the ship’s edge.

He kept pulling, but the other end of the line went slack.

“What’s going on? Did the line break?”

Yang Yi leaned over to check.

Suddenly, a red glow appeared from the depths, growing closer, like a red lantern, about the size of a fist.

“What is this?”

He immediately became alert and pulled out his flintlock pistol.

The next second, a shark burst out of the water, lunging straight at Yang Yi.

It was a double-hammerhead shark, over a metre long, with a smooth, streamlined, entirely red body.

Its head was unusual, flat like a shovel, with two eyes dangling on either side, glowing with a sinister red light in the darkness.

What was even stranger were its two strong hind legs, knobby like a frog’s.

【Something’s not right with this fish; your sanity decreases by 5.】

The shark broke the surface, its massive jaws wide open, aiming to bite Yang Yi.

Luckily, Yang Yi was prepared. He immediately ducked and fired his flintlock.

“Boom!”

The shot was powerful, blasting the shark, which was as thick as an adult’s waist, into two pieces.

But it wasn’t dead yet. The upper half kept thrashing, trying to bite Yang Yi.

Yang Yi grabbed his Sea Serpent’s Tooth dagger and, with two swift stabs, finally subdued the shark.

【Name: Double-Hammerhead Demon Shark】

【Type: Food】

【Description: A double-hammerhead shark tainted by abyssal corruption, savage and bloodthirsty. Its meat is edible, and it can also be used for the vending machine (if eaten, it can no longer be used for vending; choose wisely). Note: This is a gregarious creature. If you’ve found one…it means a whole group is nearby.】

After reading the description, Yang Yi’s pupils contracted, and he quickly scanned the sea.

One by one, red lanterns appeared, growing in number, all converging on the Nightmare.

They didn’t mourn their fallen comrade even for a second, surfacing and exposing their fins as if they were ready to jump onto the Nightmare.

There must have been nearly a hundred of them.

“Suna, we’ve got trouble!”

Yang Yi immediately ran to the front deck.

Suna had also noticed something was wrong and abandoned the helm to join him. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ ɴøvᴇl_Firᴇ.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Another double-hammerhead demon shark jumped onto the deck.

These sharks had some mobility on land, hopping awkwardly on their hind legs like frogs, though only managing a metre or two with each jump.

But with so many of them, they were impossible to fight off!

As Yang Yi watched the sharks, an idea suddenly came to him.