Chapter 902: Survival on the Sea Surface

902. Survival on the Sea Surface

"Go back? And wait for food to fall from the sky?"

Lin Ye hadn't been pushed to that point yet. He had a better option.

"This is a fishing rod? When did you put this in here?"

Scarlatti watched as Lin Ye pulled out a long, high-end-looking box from a recess at the bottom of the lifeboat. Inside the box was a complete set of fishing gear.

"I considered this situation a long time ago. I swiped this from the cruise ship."

Lin Ye quickly assembled the fishing rod and threaded the bait onto the fishhook.

This was the advantage of mastering more skills. As long as they could catch food from the sea, they could delay the virus outbreak by interrupting their feeding.

"Are you sure you want to fish here? Why do I feel like the things down there might be even worse than the food falling from the sky?"

Scarlatti didn't like this black sea. Until the rod was pulled up, no one knew what kind of monstrosity would be caught.

"...Have you ever heard of a very useful technique called risk hedging?"

Lin Ye cast the fishing rod. He didn't know what was down there either.

"Uh, do I need to hedge too?"

Scarlatti had no desire to eat anything fished out of this sea.

"Yes. That way we can not only delay the virus outbreak but also obtain sufficient food. Don't worry, when it comes to risk hedging, I'm very experienced."

When they left the cruise ship, they had brought several bottles of mineral water. After all, this was the sea surface, and water resources were extremely important.

"...Fine, I hope this nightmare ends as soon as possible."

Scarlatti spun her pistol, leaning against the side of the boat and staring at the ruins in the sky.

"I don't believe anyone can outlast me."

Lin Ye yanked the fishing rod hard, and a ring-shaped multi-headed fish with over a dozen fish heads was hauled onto the boat.

The multi-headed fish flopped around in the ship's interior a few times before going completely still.

"There really are fish in there?"

Scarlatti poked the multi-headed fish's gray-black mouth with her pistol. She really didn't want to eat this thing.

Especially not raw.

"Very normal. A horror movie can't have only the final boss. There are definitely low-level mobs responsible for jump scares."

Lin Ye took out the dining knife, picked up the multi-headed fish, and expertly dismantled it into various parts.

After removing the bones and organs, the flesh slices were crystal clear, looking no different from normal food.

Of course, that was assuming you didn't look at those staring fish heads.

"The taste is decent. We can use the fish heads to make some fish soup."

Lin Ye tasted a slice of fish. He didn't like raw things, but he didn't hate them either.

It was basically at the level of eating it or not, either was fine.

"I am not eating those fish heads."

Scarlatti grabbed the cooking pot beside her. This was something they had brought from the cruise ship.

This was a cooking pot that didn't need a power source, probably using built-in energy.

"No problem. I can just catch some headless sea creatures."

Lin Ye cast the fishing rod. If they wanted to interrupt the virus outbreak, they needed to collect sufficient food.

Little Guardian ate some normal food, then began rowing in the previous direction. She didn't need to speed up, nor did she need to worry about disturbing Lin Ye's fishing.

Lin Ye kept jiggling the fishing rod, and basically every dozen seconds or so he would haul up a piece of seafood. Soon the lifeboat was piled full of all kinds of bizarrely structured sea creatures.

As long as the sea creatures here left the seawater, they would quickly lose their vitality, making them very convenient to process.

Scarlatti was in charge of processing the sea creatures on the boat. She would toss those strange parts into the sea.

She was very good at processing corpses, her technique not much worse than Lin Ye's.

The three of them coordinated quite seamlessly. Before long, Lin Ye also developed that extremely severe hunger sensation. He stuffed the processed fish meat into his mouth, then interrupted the transformation process at the critical moment.

"...It's not bad. If it stays at this level, I should be able to hold on for a while."

Lin Ye lay in the ship's interior, his fitted pajamas already soaked through with sweat.

"Food can be replenished. Drinking water... should last a few days."

Scarlatti could only use seawater to boil the seafood, otherwise the purified water brought from the cruise ship would quickly run out.

Anyway, those sea creatures came from the sea to begin with, so using seawater or not made little difference.

"I hope the other side can't keep sending people in forever, otherwise it'll be a real problem."

Lin Ye felt like they were playing a battle royale game where players kept joining. Now it was just a matter of who could survive the poison circle longer.

"You don't need to worry about that. I don't know how the other side sends people in, but it definitely can't be without cost."

Scarlatti took a sip of the fish soup boiled with seawater. The taste was surprisingly good.

"I hope so."

Lin Ye got up and continued fishing. He was going to outlast all those people.

After some time passed, Scarlatti was affected by the virus and began transforming again. She ate the prepared fish meat, then interrupted the transformation process according to Lin Ye's instructions.

Just like that, they floated on the sea surface, continuously interrupting the transformation process. After experiencing it several times, Lin Ye could already control the amount of food needed to interrupt the process.

"...How many times now?"

Scarlatti lay in the ship's interior, her face deathly pale.

Interrupting the transformation process had a certain effect on the body, and consecutive interruptions made it even worse.

"This is your tenth time, my ninth."

Lin Ye also lay in the ship's interior. They were surrounded by piles of processed food. There was no longer any need to fish.

"...I can't eat anymore. The next time might be the last time."

Each time they interrupted the transformation process, the next time required ingesting even more food. By now, the transformation process was already very difficult to interrupt.

"I'm about the same. Are those people still not all dead?"

Lin Ye had to admit, this time's enemy could really hold out.

"I don't know. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe entering this Dream World doesn't require much of a price."

Scarlatti looked up at the ruins overhead, where something seemed to have moved.

"I never thought I'd one day be outlasted to death by an enemy."

Lin Ye gnawed on the leg of a multi-clawed crab. This was a crab covered in long, thick legs. One multi-clawed crab was enough for him to gnaw on for a long time.

"...Something seems to be falling down from up there."

Little Guardian suddenly spoke up.

She hadn't been rowing, but observing the situation nearby.

"Looks like we're not the ones who can't hold out first."

Lin Ye sucked dry the crab meat from the leg. This was the thickest leg, and he had specifically saved it for last.

"Finally here."

Scarlatti clambered up, looking at the thing that had fallen into the sea.

It was a Fleshy Monster covered in broken stones, with hundreds of heads growing on its body's surface, like a Fleshy Mountain floating on the sea.

All those heads lifted up, looking toward Lin Ye standing on the lifeboat.