CH 38

Chapter 38 Ten Square Metres Island(15)

The incoming group is great white sharks.

This species of shark has an extremely sensitive nose. Whenever there’s even a hint of a bloody smell, even if it’s thousands of kilometers away, they can still smell it and follow the scent to find it.

Now there’s such a large pool of blood here, and the great white sharks are like dogs playing on the lawn, rushing towards the direction where the blood was without any hesitation!

However, instead of finding meat, they bumped into a giant sea creature.

Normally, great white sharks would never provoke such a large and ferocious creature.

But now, that sea creature has been soaking in the bloody waters for so long that its mouth is full of the smell of blood. The hungry great white sharks evidently see it as prey they can hunt!

An underwater battle is about to begin.

On the water’s surface, Qian Yue steadies herself on the swaying bamboo raft, feeling helpless. The waters are now filled with predators, and she can’t row away.

She can’t fight them, and she can’t escape. Qian Yue stopped to think for a moment and decided to just lie down, pretending that her bamboo raft is just a bunch of seaweed, passively observing their fight.

“Whatever happens, happens.”

These creatures are confused by the scent of seaweed, subconsciously treating the bamboo raft as a clump of moving water plants, so they are unlikely to launch an attack on it actively.

As long as Qian Yue doesn’t fall into the water, she should be relatively safe.

Unfortunately, Qian Yue cannot see the real-time underwater battle, making this whole situation a bit dull.

Underwater, the battle rages on. Occasionally, she can see them thrashing about on the water’s surface. Ripples spread out from the area near the sea creature, even shaking Qian Yue’s bamboo raft. She instinctively raises her hand to shield herself from the splashes but ends up getting soaked.

The smell of blood is overpowering, indicating how intense the battle must be under the water.

Even ants can kill an elephant. For that fierce sea creature, these great white sharks are like blood-sucking ants crawling all over it, trying to seize any opportunity to bite it!

“Roar!”

The pain coming from all over their bodies undoubtedly enraged the sea creature. Suddenly, a strange roar was heard underwater, followed by the creature thrashing desperately. Its long tail whipped around like a wild whip, creating splashes all around!

If any other players were passing by at this moment, they would probably have their legs trembling in fear. Only because Qian Yue’s mental resilience is strong can she remain so calm.

“Roar!”

Another strange cry and the sea creature launches another attack.

Numerous great white sharks are thrown into the air!

One of them even comes crashing down toward the location of Qian Yue’s bamboo raft. Her heart skips a beat, and she quickly does a carp jump, leaping off the raft.

“This great white shark probably weighs dozens of kilograms. If it crashes down, the bamboo raft will definitely sink!”

She hurriedly takes out a bamboo pole from her bag, intending to use it to push the great white shark away. However, right next to her, a splash of water suddenly rises. Qian Yue’s vision is temporarily blurred by the water, and she accidentally stabs the bamboo pole into the wound of the great white shark, piercing it through.

A flash of light and several pieces of item debris and synthesis stones drop onto Qian Yue’s bamboo raft.

At the same time, she hears the cheerful sound of the system notification.

【Item Merchant Qi Feng has appeared within one kilometer of player’s radius. He will stay for half an hour. Go find him for supplies~】

Qian Yue senses something and subconsciously turns her head. Not far away, the man she hasn’t seen in days is sitting cross-legged on the back of an orca, as picturesque as ever.

As if sensing her gaze, the man lifts his head slightly, and beneath the brim of his hat, his eyes are as calm as ever.

Qian Yue, “……”

My god.

it’s not illegal to assassinate endangered wildlife in the game, right?

Orca: whimper

*

As the orca approached, the group of great white sharks became visibly restless.

However, this time, they weren’t impulsively attacking but rather sensing the orca’s imposing aura.

The great white sharks engaged in the fight were unwilling to stop for a while, still battling the sea creature. On the other hand, the ones previously thrown off were no longer approaching but circling on the periphery after sensing the orca’s presence.

Despite being a heart-pounding scene, the orca seemed completely composed.

It was as if it didn’t smell the strong scent of blood in the sea; instead, it turned and swam toward Qian Yue’s bamboo raft.

As Qian Yue mentioned before, orcas, being marine creatures, are highly intelligent.

They know that humans cannot survive in the ocean, so they willingly bring people to the vicinity of boats or even directly to the shore.

According to what Qian Yue knew, the nearest coast was the one she passed by on her way here. But with Qian Yue’s raft now, the orca proactively approached.

The whale’s body gently collided with the bamboo raft, and the Item Merchant Qi Feng immediately stood up. Then…

Qian Yue didn’t hesitate to grab his clothes and squeezed up next to him.

Orca: ?

Qi Feng: ?

Qian Yue smoothly put away her bamboo raft and then casually placed her hand on Qi Feng’s shoulder, looking sincerely as she asked, “Excuse me, just sharing the whale, do you mind?”

Qian Yue: As long as I’m not embarrassed, it’s someone else’s embarrassment =v=

*

A few minutes later, the orca carried the two of them away from the battlefield and back to the vicinity of the land.

A green flag planted on the island indicated that it was an unclaimed island.

The orca stopped near the shallows, and both of them were preparing to disembark.

However, due to the fear of slipping, Qian Yue subconsciously steadied herself by placing a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of her. This inadvertently pushed the man, who was just about to stand up, back down.

Qi Feng: …

Ironically, Qian Yue hadn’t even realized what she had done. After landing back on the ground, she breathed a sigh of relief, feeling as if a heavy burden had been lifted from her heart.

She was about to thank the person when she looked up and saw Qi Feng staring at her intently.

Qian Yue subconsciously touched her own face and asked curiously, “Is there something on my face?”

…

Qi Feng continued to silently gaze at her.

After a while, the man pursed his lips, stood up without saying a word, and descended from the orca’s back.

Anyone who has ridden an animal knows that dismounting from the creature’s back is not an easy task, as animals move, and dismounting can be even trickier.

Yet, this man seemed to defy gravity, walking down with ease as if he were stepping off not some ordinary island but a magnificent palace.

Qian Yue lowered her head and looked at herself, plain and humble, exuding poverty from head to toe, and couldn’t help but click her tongue in admiration.

Truly, a one-man idol NPC troupe.

After the orca brought both of them ashore, it rolled in the water with a whimper.

One can imagine that the orca is relatively large. However, its rounded head and demeanor were incredibly adorable.

The Item Merchant gently patted its head with a tender expression.

“Go play.”

“Whimper.”

The orca responded with a call and then showed off its sharp teeth by opening its mouth. In the next moment, it turned around swiftly and swam back toward the previous chaotic battle scene.

Its imposing appearance had none of the cuteness from earlier!

At the same time, the Item Merchant’s expression became reserved again, as if the gentle moment from before was just an illusion.

He unintentionally turned around and happened to meet Qian Yue’s gaze.

Qian Yue blinked, coming back to her senses, and didn’t forget her purpose. “I want to buy something.”

In the next moment, the trading interface popped up in front of her.

The first thing Qian Yue did was compare the prices.

“Hmm, why did the prices decrease?” Qian Yue sneakily glanced at the Item Merchant, but he caught her in the act.

Seeing her expression, he knew what she was thinking, and he took several deep breaths to suppress his anger.

He explained with a darkened expression, “The previous instance was a crossover-era instance, and all the resources were from that era. Therefore, the prices for all players have increased by 30%.”

Qian Yue felt like the words “all players” were emphasized more than necessary.

Qian Yue suddenly realized, “So the prices in the shop can be influenced by the instance conditions?”

The Item Merchant nodded faintly.

On closer inspection, Qian Yue discovered that the price changes were not uniform.

For instance, this time, due to the presence of plant products, the prices of hard bread and vitamin C had returned to their original levels.

On the other hand, the prices of synthesized medicines like anti-inflammatory drugs and many tools requiring metal as raw material remained similar to the previous instance.

Some items had become even more expensive, such as tires and airships, essential survival items in this instance.

Qian Yue pondered, “So the prices are also related to the demands of the instance.”

In this way, the setting for price fluctuations indeed made sense.

Feeling a bit embarrassed, Qian Yue touched her nose sheepishly. “Sorry, I misunderstood you earlier.”

The Item Merchant didn’t respond, but his expression eased up a bit.

However, Qian Yue was always slightly short on money, so even after the price adjustments, she still couldn’t afford the items mentioned later.

In the end, Qian Yue carefully selected some materials for repairing her bamboo raft and two bottles of mental suppressants.

She still had plenty of consumable items in her backpack, including several bottles of mental suppressants, but they were quickly depleted during fights.

She didn’t want to attract a horde of dangerous creatures due to low mental points, so she bought a couple more bottles to keep as backup.

“I remember you can also sell items here, right?”

The Item Merchant nodded. “You just need to drag the items from your warehouse into the shopping interface.”

Since it was Qian Yue’s first time selling items to him, she was given an official introduction.

Item Merchant, “The purchase price follows the market selling price trend, but generally, it will be lower than the market price.”

Qian Yue nodded; she knew about this. However, no matter how low it might be, it wouldn’t be lower than that second-rate merchant, Yu Chengyi.

Compared to Yu Chengyi’s practices of low purchasing and high selling, the Item Merchant’s shop would be more profitable.

Item Merchant, “Each day, there will be different main items for purchase, and their prices will be higher than usual.”

“Today’s main item for purchase is…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Qian Yue had already followed his instructions and thrown all the miscellaneous items she had collected from the two players into the shopping interface.

“…”

The Item Merchant looked at the long list of items marked automatically by the system as 【junk】 and 【scraps】 and completed the remaining half of his sentence expressionlessly.

“…Blueprints.”

“Blueprints!”

If she had known, she wouldn’t have sold them to Yu Chengyi; she could have made a Item herself.

Far away, Yu Chengyi sneezed.

Someone nearby teased, “What’s wrong, bro? Are people complaining behind your back about your shady business dealings?”

Yu Chengyi rolled his eyes. “…Go away. If my business is shady, then what are you as my partner?”

As he spoke, he sneezed again.

Seeing his partner smirk, Yu Chengyi blushed.

He scolded back, “What are you looking at, Little Chi? Have you finished organizing your backpack? Don’t tell me you won’t have enough space for the goods later!”

After yelling at Qian Chi, Yu Chengyi couldn’t help but touch his nose and secretly check his character’s status.

Hmm, everything looked fine; there were no debuffs indicating sickness.

Because he was afraid of death, whenever he saw one of his stats drop to around one hundred, Yu Chengyi hurriedly boosted it to near full values.

Then, he sneezed again.

“Achoo!”

Damn, could it be that someone really found out about his shady business? But that shouldn’t be…

The thought suddenly crossed his mind, but Yu Chengyi quickly dismissed it, as his face darkened.

“Phew, phew. I haven’t stolen or robbed anyone. My business is legitimate. If you consider all the risk costs and other expenses, the profit is pitifully small!”

“I’m just an ordinary transporter of goods, okay! A worker fighting for the happiness of all players!”

As he kept talking, when it was time to do business, Yu Chengyi still nervously raised the purchase price a bit, earning suspicious glances from Qian Chi on the side.

*

On the other side, the Item Merchant, who had been waiting for players to come and buy things for a long time, finally realized that something was wrong. Normally, the system scans and calculates his appearance locations to avoid sending him to deserted areas.

Qi Feng immediately summoned the backstage program and indeed found that the population density in this area had dropped from yellow to gray at some point. This meant that there were probably only three or four players within a one-kilometer radius, including Qian Yue next to him.

However, the game did not give him any notification of this issue.

He walked a few steps on the island and straightforwardly asked, “What happened here?”

Qian Yue, who was repairing her raft nearby, didn’t even lift her head as she replied, “About ten minutes ago, there was an airdrop that attracted most of the people on this archipelago.

Unfortunately, they were ambushed by a giant sea creature and then a group of great white sharks appeared due to the smell of blood. They are probably still fighting now.”

Qian Yue paused for a moment and suddenly remembered that the fierce-looking whale seemed to have gone back.

She corrected herself, “That sea creature was outnumbered, but with the help of the Orca, the battle should be over by now.”

“I see. Thank you,” Qi Feng responded, but it was clear that his mind was elsewhere.

Qi Feng turned his gaze to the raft that Qian Yue was working on.

…Although it looked a bit ugly and unusual in every way, Qi Feng had to admit that it was indeed a boat.

In just a short while, Qian Yue had already replaced the bottom layer of the raft and was now trying to add another piece of bamboo in the middle.

Next to her was a piece of cloth, and Qi Feng guessed that she was planning to make a sail.

With a cabin and a sail, it could barely be considered a relatively complete boat. However, what caught his attention the most was the seagrass used to secure the boat.

Seeing those large patches of white flowers, Qi Feng’s eyes flickered with surprise.

Then, he shifted his gaze back to Qian Yue, who was still busy working, his expression deep, and his thoughts unclear.

Half a minute later, he received feedback from the system, notifying him that the next location had been arranged for him.

As a special NPC, Qi Feng only needed to go through the motions, and he could instantly teleport to the next location from here.

But he caught a glimpse of Qian Yue, who was still focused on her work and hesitated for a moment. He broke the norm and greeted, “I’m leaving now.”

After saying that, he tore through the void.

Just as Qian Yue had arranged the bamboo in place and was preparing to tie everything tightly, she heard his words and lifted her head with a puzzled look.

“?”

He hadn’t left yet?