Chapter 115: The Last 150 Meters

Chapter 115: Chapter 115: The Last 150 Meters

The military-grade binoculars offered a clear long-distance view and could be used to estimate the approximate distance.

Shi Zhile looked toward the island, and her heart clenched. "We’re a thousand meters from the island! The sea was calm last night, with no wind or waves. It makes no sense that we would have been pushed this far away."

Chuyi took the binoculars from Shi Zhile and carefully observed the island. "There are no players on the island at the moment. There was no wind or waves during the night... could it be that it wasn’t our boat that drifted away, but the island?"

Jiang Jing exclaimed, "Holy shit! Man, do you have any idea what you’re saying? That island is huge. If it were a shipwreck, I’d believe it could drift away, but an island... that’s not very realistic."

Shi Zhile thought of her own Stone Island.

’An upgraded island can move. If Stone Island set the precedent, there’s no reason the island in this instance can’t as well.’

"Jiang Jing, the island might really be moving.

Did you notice our distance from the other rafts last night? Throughout the entire night, even without wind, a raft will still drift with the current.

But this morning, I saw it clearly—our distance from the nearby boats hasn’t changed at all."

Jiang Jing looked back at the players behind them. They were struggling to paddle with their hands. Farther in the distance, two players were resting, and the distance between their two rafts hadn’t changed at all from the moment they had stopped.

The sea rose and fell with small waves, but as they bobbed and drifted, the two rafts maintained the same distance.

Jiang Jing was completely convinced.

"The rafts only move when you paddle them by hand. If the wind and waves aren’t affecting the rafts and boats, then the only thing that could be moving is the island.

It doesn’t move during the day, so the island must be moving at night. We have to land on it before dark."

He quickened his pace with the oars.

The black-canopied boat quickly overtook the rafts ahead of them. The farther forward they went, the more players they encountered. The rafts were no longer just simple small platforms, but had gradually become ones equipped with awnings and tents.

Some rafts were stained with blood, and some players clutched at arms that were bleeding through their clothes. But among all the players they passed, the black-canopied boat was unique.

Jiang Jing steered around them, his expression cold as his eyes swept over the players who looked ready to make a move.

"Zhile, your boat is too conspicuous. What if we switch to a large raft?"

Shi Zhile and Chuyi rejected the idea almost simultaneously.

"No!"

Shi Zhile explained, "A raft has no sunshade; our Life Value would drop under the blazing sun. If we weren’t in a hurry, we could just sit in the cabin and row from the windows.

It would be slow, but at least we’d preserve our Life Value."

Chuyi’s reason was even simpler. "A boat has less drag in the water than a raft. A small raft can’t support the three of us, and a large raft would have too much drag. So, the boat is our only suitable option."

Jiang Jing and Chuyi took turns rowing, switching every hour. Once they passed the most crowded stretch of water, the number of players ahead decreased sharply.

By noon, under the blazing sun, the temperature over the water reached as high as 45 degrees.

Severely dehydrated, Jiang Jing and Chuyi were completely drained of the strength to row.

Shi Zhile returned to her Breeding Space, dug a little salt out of a corner, mixed it into some water, and left the space, carrying the water with her.

"You can’t rest yet. Drink some water and keep rowing. The hottest part of the day is between 2:00 and 3:00 PM. We’ll rest then."

The black-canopied boat was Shi Zhile’s. With Jiang Jing present, her safety was guaranteed, so she no longer collected water from Chuyi as payment.

But she had also made it clear that they needed to earn their passage on the boat with their labor.

Jiang Jing gulped down the lightly salted water, then sat in the middle of the cabin and resumed rowing.

Holding an umbrella, Shi Zhile stepped out of the cabin to retrieve the fishing net she had cast that morning.

With both men rowing from inside the cabin, there was absolutely no room left in the black-canopied boat to store supplies.

Shi Zhile directly stored everything she hauled up, including the fishing net itself, into her Breeding Space. After telling Jiang Jing, she entered the space as well.

[Breeding Space Notification: 1 Sea Turtle and 27 various sea fish detected. All have been moved to the fishpond. Space area +10 square meters. Current Breeding Space area is now 32 square meters.]

The Breeding Space was now larger than the Planting Space. For Shi Zhile, this increased area was a good thing.

Once the sea fish were moved to the fishpond, the net instantly went slack, making its remaining contents much easier to see.

’One pair of rotten underwear, one garbage bag, and one treasure chest.

’The underwear provides immunity to Sea Monster attacks, and the garbage bag is for holding trash. If I can salvage a treasure chest from the sea, does that mean I could also fish one up with a rod?’

She opened the treasure chest. Inside was a palm-sized token.

Unlike the Summon Order, which was black, this one was purple.

She took it out and saw the character on the back of the token.

’Speed... what does that mean? An acceleration command for the boat?’

However, the system panel didn’t display an item description.

’It seems item descriptions are disabled again in this instance.’

She scooped up two large fish and brought the rotten underwear and the plastic bag out of the space with her.

She left the underwear and plastic bag outside to dry and went into the cabin to grill the fish.

After a simple lunch, it was 2:00 in the afternoon. The sun was tilting west, but it was the hottest time of the day. There were no other rafts or players in sight, so the three of them decided to rest there for a while.

An hour later, the two men got up and resumed rowing.

It gets dark late in the summer. At 6:30 PM, the sun had just set.

The island was very close now, but as the distance shrank, the boat’s speed grew slower and slower.

It was as if an invisible force was stopping them from getting closer to the island.

Jiang Jing gritted his teeth and pushed on. He and Chuyi sat on opposite sides of the cabin, each manning an oar and rowing with all their might.

Sweat dripped from their foreheads, and their breathing grew increasingly heavy.

"The last 150 meters... We’re definitely rowing, but the boat just isn’t moving."

Standing at the bow, Shi Zhile could clearly feel the resistance intensifying.

She took an oar out of her Breeding Space, sat at the bow, and joined in the effort to row.

With the first stroke, her Spirit Value instantly dropped by 10 points. After the second, it plummeted to zero. A pain like stabbing needles spread through her mind, and for an instant, Shi Zhile felt as if her head had exploded.

She staggered back into the cabin and immediately collapsed.

"Two strokes, and my Spirit Value hit zero. How come you guys are fine?"

Jiang Jing grabbed a water bottle, drank half of it, and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Spirit Value at zero? But I haven’t lost any Spirit Value!"

Chuyi added, "I’m not losing any Spirit Value either. What did you do to piss off the system so much that it’s targeting you?"

Shi Zhile gave the two of them a few fish for dinner, then nearly passed out from the pain.

She desperately needed to rest and replenish her Spirit Value. She told the two men she was going into her space to rest, and then she simply vanished.

Inside the Breeding Space, Shi Zhile immediately fell into a deep sleep.

Outside, the sky grew dark, but the two men still hadn’t managed to get any closer to the island.

Jiang Jing put down his oar and leaned against the cabin, observing the island nearby.

’One hundred and fifty meters. The boat can’t get any closer. Is the system trying to force players to swim the rest of the way?’