Finding Fresh Water

After testing the moisture of the soil with his hand, Yu Hai took a dry, hard bamboo strip and used it as a shovel to dig into the earth.

He stopped after digging a pit only an arm's length deep. There was no water here; the soil was merely somewhat damp.

Looking at the large pit, he began to doubt whether he was searching for fresh water in the right direction.

After resting for a moment, he looked into the pit he had dug with the bamboo strip. Only a finger-joint-deep puddle had seeped out at the bottom, barely enough for a single sip. Better than nothing.

At least it proved that he was heading in the right direction. His efficiency was simply too low.

He brushed the mud from his palms, pushed his fingers into the pit, lightly dipped them into the murky black mud water, and touched it to his tongue. He tasted fresh water, then spat out the grit in his mouth.

After confirming that the bottom of the pit contained fresh water, he picked up the foam board beside him and covered the pit, then weighed it down with a stone to keep debris from being blown inside.

At most, this place could serve as a backup source of fresh water. How much could seep out of the soil was unknown, and the water quality was terrible. He did not dare drink it without boiling it first.

There was no usable fresh water here, so he needed to search elsewhere. Rising from the muddy ground, he continued along the coastline.

It was not as though he had not considered the Berries by the shore, but beneath or atop every fruit tree, a group of Pokémon stood guard.

Kingler, Beedrill, Spearow...

Whenever he saw those Pokémon, he went around them. He did not dare touch their territory at all. Even if he had three more legs, he still could not beat them, and he would not be enough for Kingler to pinch.

If he did not want his head to burst open or to die from poison, then honestly searching for fresh water was still his only way out.

Not too far from the shelter, only seven or eight minutes away, he found another damp spot.

This time, it was a reef. After several days of blazing sun, a rock far from the seawater was still damp. He could not care about appearances anymore. He sprawled over the rock, parted his cracked and bleeding lips, and stretched out his tongue to lick it. He tasted fresh water.

Joy surged through him. This is the place. He immediately raised his head and looked upward along the damp rock. There were even more wet rocks above, so he felt his way up until he found a rock that was dripping water.

The water did not drip quickly, only one or two drops per second, but it was better than nothing. It was more reliable than the muddy pit from before.

He removed the plastic bottle he carried on him and placed it beneath the rock to catch the water. As he waited for the drops to fall, he lay down beside the rock. He felt as though his whole body had cooled by several degrees. Perhaps the dampness here made it feel cooler.

Listening to the steady drip of water falling into the plastic bottle, he felt a long-lost sense of peace. He finally had fresh water to drink. Fish soup was no longer an impossible dream.

After waiting for who knew how long, he looked at the plastic bottle, now filled with nearly half a bottle of fresh water. He picked it up and raised the mouth of the bottle to his cracked lips, watching the fresh water inside slowly flow into his mouth and down his throat.

Once his throat had been moistened by the fresh water, he finally felt alive. Then a violent coughing fit hit him. He instinctively hunched over and coughed fiercely. "Cough, cough, cough! Cough, cough, cough..."

He had probably drunk too quickly and choked on the water. He had not even had the chance to taste the fresh water in his mouth before coughing it back out. What a waste.

After the coughing fit passed, Yu Hai looked at the fresh water he had just coughed onto the ground and sighed inwardly. But when he saw that there was still water in the bottle, joy immediately rose in his heart again. He could not hide his delight at all.

This water could not quite be called pure fresh water. It had a faint salty taste. He did not know whether it was because of the container or because the water itself was like that.

Still, it was acceptable. It was at least a little better than having nothing to drink.

This time, he did not rush to drink. Instead, he slowly took small sips of the fresh water in the bottle.

In truth, drinking untreated water from the wild was not the right thing to do. Wild water should be boiled before drinking, and the dew from before was no exception.

But he was severely dehydrated and simply could not wait. He could only quench his thirst first.

If he drank untreated water like this, he might be lucky and have nothing happen.

If he was unlucky, he could very well get diarrhea.

Worse still, he could be infected by parasites that would continuously drain his nutrients until they sucked him dry and killed him.

Hopefully, Pokémon World was truly as wonderful as it was in the anime, without robber-like creatures such as parasites. Otherwise, he would be in for a miserable time.

After placing the plastic bottle back beneath the dripping rock and securing it with a stone, he returned to the shelter. He planned to switch to a larger plastic bucket to collect fresh water.

Drinking untreated water earlier had been unavoidable. Once he had enough fresh water, he would boil it before drinking.

When he returned to the shelter, Poliwag had grown tired from all its scolding and was sprawled limply on the sand, panting heavily. It could not even be bothered when he returned.

Seeing him pick up a plastic bucket and hurry away, Poliwag still got up and followed him to the water collection point.

By then, the plastic bottle had collected nearly half a bottle of fresh water again. Yu Hai held it in his hand and asked Poliwag, "Poliwag, do you want some water?"

As he spoke, Yu Hai made a drinking gesture and held the bottle opening to Poliwag's mouth.

In response to Yu Hai's strange behavior, Poliwag merely stuck out its tongue and licked the fresh water at the bottle opening. It smacked its lips and cried at Yu Hai, "Yoyo, yoyo..."

"You want to drink?" Yu Hai tilted the bottle, guessing what Poliwag was trying to say.

When Poliwag saw fresh water flowing from the bottle, it hurriedly caught it with its mouth and drank the water Yu Hai fed it.

Seeing this, Yu Hai knew he had guessed right and let Poliwag finish the fresh water in the bottle.

After drinking it all, Poliwag still smacked its lips, looking as though it wanted more. It raised its big black eyes and looked toward the plastic bucket.

But Yu Hai immediately raised a hand to cover Poliwag's gleaming black eyes. This plastic bucket absolutely could not be ruined by Poliwag. It was a source of life, something that could save them.

Then he scooped Poliwag up and returned to the shelter. Along the way, he casually picked up several large plastic buckets and kept watch for any large pots that might have washed ashore.

Now that they had fresh water, he could cook seafood soup. At last, he could have a hot meal.

At the rock's dripping rate, a 500-milliliter plastic bottle could collect nearly half a bottle of fresh water in around ten minutes.

By a conservative estimate, he could collect one bucket of water in a morning, roughly four or five liters.

Including the nighttime, he could collect four buckets in twenty-four hours, or around twenty liters—roughly twenty kilograms of fresh water.