When Da Fei woke up, it was already 6 PM, and three days had passed in the game; the boat had been drifting aimlessly at sea for three days without knowing where it had ended up. Da Fei's character, having been idling for three days, was already extremely weak from hunger and thirst, with Stamina reduced to zero.
Anyway, it's good that nothing bad happened. Da Fei hurried downstairs to eat a plate of fried rice, then came back to continue playing the game, and continued to stare blankly at the sea.
The ocean was calm, and the sky was clear. Generally, when you're near an island or land, there are more seabirds, but the absence of even a single feather now clearly indicated that they were in the center of the ocean. Although the in-game sea wasn't exaggeratedly vast, considering the current snail-paced drifting, it was absolutely terrifying. How long would this aimless drifting last?
Da Fei now had 7 Skill Points. Should he max out the Sailing Skill? That would increase the speed by 100% and make the drifting a bit more bearable... No, no! Given the current situation, it's highly likely that after reaching land, he'll need to fight monsters and take on quests slowly to earn repair costs, so he must save the Skill Points for battle.
Ah, what a dilemma. Finishing this trial task won't make life any easier. Forget it, being so weak isn't helping; I need to eat something. Although the newbie's seven days' worth of food had run out, Da Fei had still managed to gather some seafood on the island, which could help him scrape by.
Da Fei opened his inventory, only to be stunned.
— Rotten Ingredients: Ingredients that have expired. Eating them might cause poisoning and disease symptoms.
Dammit! There's even an expiration date! This is too frustrating! What to do? Can't just drink water, can I?
Pff! Not a problem for Da Fei.
Da Fei, dragging his weak body, slowly groped his way to the Gun Cabin on the lower deck and dug out more than a dozen fishing rods. Hmph, those were what he found in the dark in the Gun Cabin. A sailor definitely can't be without a fishing rod. And this slow drift is perfect for fishing. As for bait, of course, it's these rotten ingredients.
The tails of the sailor's fishing rods were equipped with special hooks, so Da Fei then lined up the rods along the ship's side, flipping through the unhelpful navigation logs with immense frustration while waiting for a bite.
The system didn't disappoint Da Fei; throughout one day, he managed to catch quite a variety of small fish. There was no choice but to eat them raw. People say sailors see fleas as sesame seeds. Anyway, even though eating raw fish caused a negative state of reduced Basic Damage from weakness, at least the problem of food and drink was solved, and his Stamina was restored after drinking some water.
Then, Da Fei became frustrated again. All he could do was continue fishing. He really didn't like fishing, but catching a drifting bottle that could fulfill three wishes, or even a Mermaid, was another matter.
This time, Da Fei's bait was more upscale—those small fish. Then, the system didn't leave Da Fei in loneliness for long—the fishing rod trembled; he had a catch!
— System Prompt: You have caught a large flagfish, gaining Experience +135!
Whoa! A fish that gives Experience! It's a big one! Back when Da Fei was alone on the island, he couldn't even defeat a fish of this size in the sea.
Da Fei finally found some fun. If he could use scraps to catch small fish, and small fish to catch medium fish, then medium fish should surely be able to catch big fish, right? Might as well carry this frustration to the end.
Da Fei exerted a lot of effort and almost broke the fishing rod before managing to pull up this human-sized fish. He then tried combining the lines of more than a dozen rods into one bundle and cruelly stuffed the hooks into the fish's body.
Since he was fishing for a big one, the fishing line had to be reliable, and there needed to be more hooks. However, if a big fish really did take the bait, these fishing rods and lines might not hold up, right?
After some thought, Da Fei found a large bundle of spare thick ropes used for sail control, tied the fish into a huge zongzi (rice dumpling), and secured the other end to the mast. This should work. Then he tossed the fish back into the sea.
Just wondering, would the system actually recognize this harebrained scheme as fishing? If it doesn't recognize this as fishing, then wouldn't this be considered monster fighting?
Fighting monsters, you say? Da Fei loved that most, and his Crossbow Cannon was itching for action!
So, Da Fei returned to the Gun Cabin and spent ten minutes reassembling the Crossbow Cannon, which only had 8 HP left. But no worries, the situation was completely different now; to destroy this 8 HP Crossbow Cannon, the Gun Cabin itself would have to be blown up first. Da Fei believed that a mere fish absolutely didn't have the capability to create such havoc.
Time passed slowly, with the sun rising and setting from east to west. Two hours in reality and a day in the game just frustratingly passed like this. It seemed that encountering a predator in the sea that could eat such a big bait wasn't so easy. Maybe, indeed, the system doesn't recognize this method of twisting several fishing rods together and reinforcing them with rope as fishing, so no fish were biting?
Whatever, just drift slowly.
Those ordinary sailors' routine diaries are indeed unbearable for Da Fei to look at, they're just plain inventory checks, nothing much really happening in their scripts. The Captain's diary is even more dull and preachy, rambling on about how a great navigator should be resolute, focused, and always vigilant—what is this, a Political Commissar? Far less interesting than the Artillery Commander. It seems like that's all the information provided in diaries.
Night passed, and a new day began, Da Fei blankly watched the magnificent dawn and the sunrise at sea. Maybe just one or two days out at sea, one would find this scenery beautiful and grand, but given more time, it's probably mind-numbingly boring. Like the sailors in the Artillery Commander's diary who spent their days playing cards. The sailor job really isn't for just anyone, it would be somewhat better if there were a woman on board. Damn, does having a woman even count as being at sea? That's more like a billionaire's yacht equipped with a bikini-clad girl, right? Truly enviable.
If I ever make it big, I'm definitely hiring the most beautiful Female Hero at the tavern, and then bring them onto the ship, getting them the sexiest bikinis to wear, letting sailors crank one out till they bleed every night! Hahahaha!
No idea how long I was daydreaming when suddenly, the fishing rod hung on the railing trembled and squeaked fiercely, and the cable tied to the fish also stretched taut.
Da Fei's heart skipped a beat, a big fish hooked? He quickly peeked out, and the sea roiled with waves! Damn, it was really a big fish! Forget about pulling this kind of fish up, a fish that can swallow something half the size of a human can definitely give lots of experience!
Da Fei immediately ran to the Gun Cabin, the Crossbow Cannon was already loaded—Aim! Fire!
Bang! Two sounds! Two Crossbow Arrows fired, sparking huge splashes—"Missed!" "Missed!"
Damn! Even got the painful misses! Well, the Artillery Commander had also complained about this in his diary, so nothing more to say, continue loading! Must aim clearly this time and wait for it to jump above the surface!
— Bang! "-33!" "-21!"
— System Prompt: You've obtained partial information on the Giant Golden Spearfish.
Da Fei felt a surge of adrenaline, Giant Golden Spearfish? A BOSS? No time to ponder, keep firing. But this variance in damage is too wide, it's indeed disadvantageous using crossbow cannons against underwater creatures. Luckily, its throat was stuck swallowing dozens of fish hooks, the more it struggled, the more it automatically bled with "-2" "-3" "-2" "-3"—That's good!
The battle went on for over half an hour, amidst splashing blood and thundering crossbow cannons, an over ten-meter-long huge Golden Spearfish finally belly up floated on the surface.
— System Prompt: You have killed the Giant Golden Spearfish, gained experience +20000, obtained the specialty product "Golden Spearfish Eggs"
— System Prompt: You have single-handedly killed 10 Leader-level BOSS, completed the achievement , received a reward of life +15, gained Basic Damage +1. Next achievement , requires the hero to kill 100 higher-level BOSS alone without any troops.
— System Prompt: You further perfected the information on the Giant Golden Spearfish.
Da Fei laughed out loud! Finally achieved it! Sailing isn't really that boring, what information and all, seeing a sea BOSS once in this life is already great. Let's see what these eggs are.
— Golden Spearfish Eggs: Seafood. Can be bred in fish farms within territories close to the sea. Golden Spearfish are very delicious large sea fish, hard to catch, very popular in the market.
So it's a territory specialty! This is some good stuff! It's not easy being a Lord; training troops, building cities all require money, and there aren't many ways to earn money; having one more specialty means one more cash tree. Just hang it online and sell it, at least a few hundred thousand, I'm rich, hahaha! Sailing is really great!
No, no, no, encountering a big BOSS in the vast sea is not easy? Even if encountering a BOSS, killing it is even harder, not everyone is as brilliant and brave as me. Why should I sell it to someone else? I'll just occupy an island in the sea, build a city and a fish farm, isn't that just a giant money printer? But building my own city isn't easy either, the initial investment is quite significant. Anyway, keep it on hand first, wait and see the market situation.
Just then,
— System Prompt: Reconnaissance Skill warning! A large number of enemies are approaching you, please be on alert.
Da Fei suddenly got startled! A large number of enemies! Immediately pulled out the binoculars and looked, indeed saw a large group of dark blue fish's backs breaking the waves far away—A school of sharks!
Damn! Golden Spearfish followed by sharks? Old Man and the Sea!