Chapter 269: Goal Achieved

Chapter 269: Chapter 269: Goal Achieved

Heavy breaths echoed within the mobile cabin.

Seraphina Sinclair lay on her back on the cold floor, her chest heaving violently. Sweat slid down her temples, soaking the stray hairs by her ears. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

An Advanced Medical Kit had just repaired a wound on her left arm so deep the bone had been visible. Now, her skin was smooth as new. Only a lingering phantom pain, as if from the depths of her marrow, served as a reminder of the harrowing moment before.

She had, after all, ventured deeper into the Wind-carved Fissure.

Just as she’d predicted, the intensity, density, and speed of the Wind Blades within were on a completely different level from those at the periphery.

They were no longer gentle fish, but a frenzied swarm of hornets—a metal storm that tore everything to shreds.

Every dodge drained her mental and physical energy. The required levels of speed, reflexes, and prediction had been raised to an almost inhuman degree.

Several times, she had relied on pure instinct to dodge a fatal strike in the nick of time.

The price was the jacket on her back, now in tatters, its self-repair function unable to keep up with the damage. And, of course, her almost instantly depleted stamina and Spirit.

But the results were undeniable.

She opened her Attributes panel, her gaze falling on the Speed stat.

[Speed: 29]

She’d done it.

On the afternoon of her third day in the Wind-carved Fissure, after teetering on the edge of life and death countless times, she had finally, painstakingly, ground out that last attribute point.

There was no ecstatic joy, as one might expect. Instead, Seraphina Sinclair felt a sense of calm bordering on collapse, and a faint, lingering fear.

The feeling of being pierced by a Wind Blade was truly terrifying. Even with the ability to fully heal using an Advanced Medical Kit, she never wanted to experience it again.

Now, only her Constitution stat was left. The very attribute she once thought would be her highest had now "gloriously" become her lowest, successfully holding her back.

Seraphina Sinclair stared at the glaring [Constitution: 27] on her Attributes panel and let out a long, ragged breath tinged with the scent of blood.

The waiter had been right. After forcing herself to eat fish for two days, she hadn’t gained a single attribute point.

A pang of regret hit her. She raised a hand to cover her eyes, realizing she had gone about this the wrong way.

’I should have traded that fish meat away.’

It wasn’t very useful to her, but for survivors who’d never had it before, it was a miraculous food that could practically rebuild their bodies from the inside out.

But since entering this world, Seraphina Sinclair had made her fair share of mistakes. She sighed and pushed herself into a sitting position. Her gaze was dull with exhaustion as it swept around the mobile cabin, but she finally managed to pull herself together.

’It’s afternoon. I need to hurry and move.’

’I’ve been stationary for two days. I really need to get going.’

Seraphina Sinclair infused the door card with sunshine. She leaned against the window, rubbing her still-sore calves, and opened the regional channel, which she hadn’t checked in a long time. She wanted to see what had happened while she’d been in seclusion for the past two days.

The moment she opened it, a torrent of messages flooded the screen.

Compared to a few days ago, the atmosphere in the channel seemed even heavier, and... more desperate.

"The monsters are too strong. I don’t dare move at all now."

"Sigh, we’ve all been surviving in this world for a while. Everyone’s probably made a few friends, right? I had some. But these past few days... sigh. They tell me they’re going to move, and then... nothing. Either their profile picture goes dark right away, or they stop replying and it goes dark a long time later."

"They’re dead either way. Let’s just be blunt here: moving is a death sentence. You have to go all-out to beat an E-level monster, to say nothing of a D-level one."

"Only the top players would dare to move, right?"

"Bullshit! The bigger they are, the more they have to lose! I bet even the top players haven’t moved in ages! What if they get unlucky and run into a path boss? That thing would have to be C-level, right?"

"What makes the guy above so sure? Are you a top player? You think you’ve got them figured out? If even the pros are too scared to move, what are we supposed to do? Just wait for the dead things to catch up and wipe us all out?!"

"Yeah, if you’re scared to move today, what makes you think you’ll do it tomorrow? The monsters aren’t getting any easier, but that encroaching doom is getting closer every day. Don’t move, you die. Move, you might die. But I’d rather take my chances moving the cabin than just pathetically wait for death to catch up!"

"Easy for you to say! If I move, I’ll die right now! I’ve already moved a lot, so I’ve still got some distance from the doom wall. I have a few days left to live! Plus, with the dungeon rewards on Saturday, what if something turns things around?"

"The dungeon? Stop dreaming! Did you see how many people died in it last week? The rewards are great, but you have to be alive to claim them!"

"You have to take the risk! Haha! I moved once yesterday. Almost got killed by a D-level monster, but I got a D-level Supply Box out of it with some good stuff inside. It’s definitely better than sitting around waiting to die!"

"Heh, you just got lucky. My friend moved the day before yesterday and ran straight into two D-level monsters. He sent me one message for help, and then he was gone. All of you pushing people to move are just sending them to their graves!"

"Stop arguing! Everyone’s situation is different, so just make your own decision. What I want to know is, what are the top players actually doing? Blacktiger, Artemis, Seaview... have they all really stopped moving?"

Seraphina Sinclair had indeed stopped moving, but her reasons were different from theirs.

As Seraphina Sinclair scrolled through their discussion, one thought kept coming to mind: ’Why are these people so concerned with what others, who have nothing to do with them, are doing?’

’Whether someone moves or not is their personal choice. And what the top players are doing is, to put it bluntly, none of their damn business.’

’It’s one thing to discuss it, but to do so with such tireless enthusiasm...’

’Seraphina Sinclair couldn’t understand it.’

She closed the regional channel and, as was her habit, opened Chrona’s group chat to take a look.

The information here was far more valuable than the regional channel’s.

First, there was news about Thundering Gorge.

A small portion of her group had chosen that path, and some had even gone to the regional channel to adamantly insult those who had chosen the Misty Forest.

Now that the survivors on both routes had several days of firsthand experience, the pros and cons of each path had become clear.

In Chrona’s group chat, the discussion about Thundering Gorge was filled with lingering fear and relief.

"Thank god I listened to the advice back then and didn’t stubbornly charge into Thundering Gorge. A friend of mine went there. Last time we spoke was yesterday. He said a Thunder Strike almost turned him and his cabin to charcoal. Even a D-level protection item couldn’t take more than a few hits."

"The monsters there are a pain, too. A lot of them have lightning attacks that cause paralysis. One hit and it’s basically over for you."

"What about the rewards? Isn’t it supposed to be high risk, high reward?"

"Rewards? What good are rewards when you’re about to lose your life?"