Messages about players being attacked kept popping up in the world chat channel.
The monsters they encountered were all different, too.
"There are loads of red lanterns in the water, and they're gathering around me. Has anyone seen these before? What the hell are they?"
"Just fireflies. Don't be scared!"
"Fuck! A dozen little fishmen have me cornered in the captain's cabin. Fight me one-on-one if you've got the guts!"
"Why is there someone standing on the sea... right in my course?"
"An Otherworldly Demon fell into my trap. Apparently it's called a Drowned Dead. I've already poked it full of holes... wait..."
Yang Yi observed a second of silence for him. He had probably been blown up by the Drowned Dead.
Almost every minute, someone was attacked and killed.
At the same time, however, quite a few people made it out of the Storm Sea with a scare but no harm done.
As for Yang Yi...
Perhaps because the Nightmare Star had departed late and was some distance from the main group, he hadn't encountered any monsters.
Instead, something else was worrying Yang Yi.
He was out of food!
Water wasn't a concern, thanks to the vitality coconuts, but he needed protein and energy!
"Su Na, do you have any food on your ship?" Yang Yi sent her a private message.
"Just 1 L of water." Su Na's voice sounded beside his ear.
She had just finished repairing the ship and came to the bow deck holding a crystal ball.
This crystal ball was a live nautical chart that updated conditions within a hundred nautical miles!
Only two ships appeared on it now, the Astrologer and the Nightmare, their little ship markers close together.
"You can detach the chart on your ship?" Yang Yi asked in surprise.
"This crystal ball is a receiver. As long as it isn't too far away, it works fine," Su Na explained.
The nautical chart was actually quite crude. Aside from ships, it only displayed large obstacles at sea. Giant floating objects, for instance, appeared as little black dots, while islands appeared as large patches of shadow.
Avoiding these black dots effectively kept the ship from being swept into the turbulent currents around giant floating objects.
The chart also kept them from losing their bearings.
Another day passed.
Even if Yang Yi had been made of iron, he still needed sleep and rest.
They began taking turns sailing, sleeping in the captain's cabin when they were tired.
The Nightmare's nightmares seemed to haunt only its captain. At any rate, Su Na hadn't mentioned having any nightmares.
Throughout this time, Yang Yi kept watching the chat channel to see whether he could buy food.
But he was doomed to disappointment!
Because of the storm, most players were running out of food and wouldn't sell any at all.
The few selling were the lucky ones who had escaped the Storm Sea. Never mind the high prices—he couldn't fucking get any!
When Yang Yi sent a private message, they took over ten minutes to reply, and all they said was, "Sold out!"
Some didn't even reply...
This was true hunger marketing. Anyone who couldn't buy any would simply starve to death!
"This can't go on!" Yang Yi sat up in the captain's cabin, his stomach growling nonstop.
Su Na was at the helm now, and the wind had reached force 11. Anyone standing on deck had to crouch slightly to keep their balance.
Their clothes had never dried, either. They were always wet and smelled of salt and fish!
I have to get some food. Once I run out of strength, it'll be all over! Yang Yi ate a vitality coconut, drank all its water, and even scraped the flesh clean.
Without food, he could only eat coconuts.
But they weren't filling. He still needed high-energy food to sustain him!
After turning it over in his mind, the only way Yang Yi could think of to obtain food was fishing.
And he happened to have a fishing rod.
"Su Na, we'll starve to death at this rate! I'll try fishing. Keep steering for a while longer!" Yang Yi sent her a private message.
"Okay!" Su Na replied without hesitation.
Carrying his fishing rod, Yang Yi went to the Atrium, chose a suitable spot, and prepared to cast.
As the saying went, the rougher the seas, the pricier the fish.
Here, it was probably the rougher the seas, the stranger the fish... or perhaps the bigger the fish.
But he had underestimated how difficult fishing in a storm would be.
The ship pitched amid surging waves. He could barely see the float, and there was no sign of a bite.
An hour passed. Aside from nearly unlocking the achievement for using himself as chum, Yang Yi hadn't caught a damn thing.
Two hours passed, and he still had nothing. He was starting to get irritable.
He opened the world chat channel and posted a message.
"Has anyone tried fishing?"
He attached a photo of himself fishing in the storm.
"Fishing, my ass! You've got time to fish? Don't you need to dodge floating debris?"
Right. Only Yang Yi had the time to fish. Everyone else had to watch out for floating debris.
"Just wait until you hook a mermaid and it eats you!"
Actually, if he really caught a siren, there was no telling who would eat whom!
After a bunch of replies joining in the fun, a useful message finally appeared, presumably from an experienced angler.
"The waves are high right now, so the fish are all down deep. Your float is useless!
If you're determined to fish, remove the float, let out more line, and attach a weight to sink the hook deeper!"
Realization dawned on Yang Yi. He immediately adjusted the line's length, removed the float, and attached a small piece of stone to the hook.
After all, fishing in this world didn't require bait...
Half an hour passed before he finally got a bite. The reel spun wildly.
Yang Yi pulled, and a tremendous force nearly dragged him into the sea. He only avoided falling in by bracing his foot against the gunwale.
He kept pulling hard, but whatever was on the other end stopped struggling.
"What happened? Did the line snap?"
Yang Yi leaned out to look.
A red glow appeared beneath the sea, drawing closer from afar like a red lantern, fully the size of a fist.
"What's that?"
Instantly alert, he drew his Flintlock.
The next second, a shark burst out of the water and lunged straight at Yang Yi, jaws snapping.
It was a hammerhead shark over a meter long, red all over, with a smooth, streamlined body.
Its head was peculiar, flat as a shovel, with an eyeball on either side emitting a faint scarlet glow in the darkness.
Stranger still, it had two powerful hind legs, knobbly like a toad's hind legs.
[Something is wrong with this fish. Your sanity decreased by 5.]
The shark burst from the water and opened its gaping maw, trying to bite Yang Yi.
Fortunately, Yang Yi was prepared. He immediately dropped flat to dodge it while pulling the trigger of his Flintlock.
Bang!
Flame flared.
The shot was tremendously powerful, blasting the shark, as thick as an adult's waist, in two.
But it wasn't dead yet. Its upper half kept thrashing, poised to bite Yang Yi.
Yang Yi grabbed the Sea Serpent's Fang, timed his move, and straddled it.
Squelch!
Only after two vicious stabs did the shark finally stop moving.
[Name: Demon Hammerhead Shark] [Type: Food] [Description: A hammerhead shark contaminated by the abyss. Savage and bloodthirsty. Its meat is edible, and it can also be used for a gacha draw. (Once eaten, it can no longer be used for a gacha draw. Choose one or the other.) Please note... this is a social species. When you find one... it means a whole school is following behind.]
After reading the description, Yang Yi's pupils contracted, and he immediately looked toward the sea.
Red lanterns lit up, more and more of them gathering around the Nightmare.
Without spending a moment mourning their dead companion, they surfaced one after another, exposing their fins, seemingly intent on jumping aboard the Nightmare.
There were probably close to a hundred.
"Su Na, we've got trouble!"
Yang Yi immediately ran toward the bow deck.
She had also noticed something was wrong and abandoned the helm to meet up with Yang Yi.
Another Demon Hammerhead Shark jumped onto the deck.
These sharks had some mobility on land, hopping on their hind legs like toads, though they were rather cumbersome and could only jump a meter or two at a time.
But there were so many of them that fighting them head-on was out of the question!
As Yang Yi watched the sharks, an idea suddenly came to him.
Before you continue