The Black Fog Closes In

On the Deserted Island, a man and a woman were alone together.

The man handled swimming and gathering wood.

The woman handled fishing and gathering cloth, fresh water, and food.

It was a little tiring, but compared to their earlier nerve-racking voyage, this was utter bliss!

If they could, finding an island to settle down on and doing a little farming would not have been a bad choice.

But Yang Yi knew that was impossible!

He looked back in the direction he had sailed from.

There, on the sea at the edge of his vision, was a dense streak of black-the Black Fog.

Today, that streak had grown darker.

That meant the Black Fog was closer. They had better leave these waters as soon as possible!

Three days had passed since Yang Yi woke up. All told, he and Su Na had spent nearly four days on this island.

And today should count as their fifth day!

They still needed 72 units of wood, but they had enough cloth and stone. Yang Yi had also asked Su Na to gather some extra stone to take aboard, just in case.

Stone was easy to gather here, but hard to come by at sea. They could only get it through fishing, which was extremely inefficient.

After all, like steel, stones did not float on the sea, unless they happened to come across a resource chest.

Barring any mishaps, the two of them would have enough materials to rebuild the Nightmare Star before the day was over.

After breakfast, Yang Yi set out early to begin the day's logging.

After these days of practice, he would not claim to be a swimming champion, but he certainly deserved to be called an expert swimmer.

With the Sharkskin Swimsuit's bonus, Yang Yi would even dare to take on a swimming champion!

His first three trips went smoothly, netting him 57 units of wood.

Just one or two more trips, and they would have enough!

But on his fourth trip, something suddenly changed. The sea churned with turmoil.

Yang Yi was just about to blast through his second tree with his gun.

Suddenly, a vast, dense school of fish surged past his side.

The fish came in all sizes. Many were species Yang Yi had never even seen before, let alone knew the names of.

But they all had one thing in common: they swam desperately forward, as though some evil spirit were pursuing them, as though fleeing for their lives.

Even the vicious, carnivorous sharks had lost all interest in hunting. They swept past Yang Yi like the wind. The currents they stirred up hit like a shock wave, leaving him reeling and tumbling underwater.

Only with great difficulty did he manage to surface.

Yang Yi was unhurt. He had only choked on a few mouthfuls of seawater.

The fish had merely brushed past him, seemingly avoiding him on purpose, unwilling to stop for even a second.

Yang Yi had never seen anything like this in his life.

Thanks to this, the logs he had prepared had long since been swept who knew where.

Even Yang Yi himself was being pushed forward by the currents the fish created.

"Yang Yi, are you all right? Something seems wrong in the sea!" Su Na sent him a private message.

She was fishing onshore and had noticed the anomaly too.

Yang Yi had simply noticed it sooner and already experienced it firsthand.

"I'm fine. Just choked on a few mouthfuls of water!

The fish in the sea have all gone mad. They're all swimming forward for dear life. The Black Fog is probably coming!

I'm swimming back to shore. Give me a hand!" Yang Yi replied.

He did not have much energy left and was not confident he could swim back, so he wanted Su Na to help him.

Fortunately, he had thought ahead. Su Na's helping hand made all the difference.

Once ashore, Yang Yi had only 23 energy left. They were still 15 units short on wood-just that little bit.

He struggled to his feet and looked back.

A mass of giant worms had swum over as well.

Strangely, however, the moment these giant worms entered the buffer zone's safe area, they simply vanished.

It was as though they had passed through a membrane between different dimensions and entered another world.

"Good thing the worms can't get through!" Yang Yi breathed a sigh of relief.

If those things got in, he reckoned he really would have to give up!

"Su Na, we're still 15 units short on wood, and there's no way we can go back into the water to get it!

Fishing isn't reliable either. Let's try digging up some tree roots!" Yang Yi instructed.

The missing 15 units of wood might not have seemed like much, but even with both of them fishing for a whole day, they might not get that much.

And the Black Fog might not give them another day.

After recovering some energy, Yang Yi joined in digging up tree roots.

But getting wood from tree roots was truly, terribly inefficient!

By evening, they had only dug up 7 units of wood, still some way off the 15 they needed.

Yang Yi was frantic.

The shadow of the Black Fog was already visible behind them.

Three enormous worms also swam over, each seemingly handpicked, seven or eight meters in diameter. They advanced side by side, slammed into the buffer zone, then vanished outright.

Three enormous harpoons fell where the three giant worms had disappeared.

Wails and howls followed close behind.

"Big One! Number Two! Dog Egg! Why'd all three of you disappear?!"

Behind the three giant worms was an enormous steel battleship.

The voice belonged to its captain, Yu Dawei.

Yang Yi recognized the ship at a glance.

Although several parts of its hull were smoking and charred black, its steel hull and immense, two-hundred-meter length left no doubt: this was the Iron Will.

Somehow, he had obtained 1,000 units of steel, upgraded his ship to level two, and fought his way out of the mass of giant worms!

The ship was covered in signs of fierce battle and bloodstains. An enormous, razor-sharp mandible blade was even embedded in the deck, left by some unfortunate giant worm that had been blown apart.

After the upgrade, the ship boasted an even more astonishing number of cannons.

Besides the super-sized cannon at the very front, with a bore nearly five meters across, at least forty gun barrels protruded from its sides, though many were bent and broken.

Captain Yu Dawei stood alone on the bridge, a cigarette between his lips, cursing and occasionally glancing at the Black Fog not far behind him.

Not long ago, he had been an overweight middle-aged man.

But now...

After a thrilling, high-intensity voyage, he had slimmed down to an enviable degree. With dark circles under both eyes, he looked like a completely different person.

As for the Iron Will's speed...

It could not be called slow. It could only be called extremely slow.

To Yang Yi, who was used to sailing at dozens of knots, this ship was pitifully slow.

Su Na stood beside him, watching the behemoth with him.

Farther back was the Black Fog, moving at fifteen knots, though it was still a considerable distance from the Iron Will.

Without the giant worms towing it, the Iron Will could not outrun the Black Fog. Its captain was now hopping about like a cat on a hot tin roof.

At last, he spotted a man and a woman standing on the island ahead. His eyes lit up, and he immediately waved and shouted.

"Hey, you two! This is an emergency! Can you give me a hand?"

But they were too far away for his voice to reach them.

With no other choice, Yu Dawei could only steer toward the island first.

After the upgrade, his Iron Will's movement speed had increased by 100%!

[Iron Will, level 2, durability 5829/10000, capacity 20000 units, speed 10 knots]

[Ship skills: Full Firepower: increased cannon firing rate to 200% for 15 minutes.

Triple-Shot Whale Harpoon: could pierce and latch onto an object. Cooldown: 1 hour.

Sea Monster Bane: an astonishingly powerful super cannon that could send sea monsters to their graves. Cooldown per shot: 4 hours.]

[Description: it was bigger, stronger, and sturdier! Speed increased to 200%!]

Yu Dawei was surprised at first when he saw Yang Yi and Su Na, but quickly realized.

These two should be the other two survivors in the Storm Sea.

As long as they were willing to lend him a hand, he could probably be saved.

In this buffer zone... he could not find anything huge enough to help tow his ship.

Seeing that shouting was not working, Yu Dawei had a flash of inspiration and tried switching to the logbook's regional chat.