novelhk Chapter 12 Different Starting Lines
Chapter 12 Different Starting Lines
Twenty minutes later,
Yu Wang piloted the Little Yellow Duck back to the vicinity of the waters where the treasure chest was found.
Looking down through the clear seawater, the wolf eel was still near the staghorn coral, seemingly its nest.
The bronze treasure chest is within reach, its allure immense. It may contain the primary energy core, a crucial material for crafting the "Turbo Duck" and "Water Rocket Cannon," as well as blueprints that will play a vital role later on.
Furthermore, this treasure chest has a silver rim around its edge, indicating that the items inside are rarer than those in a regular bronze treasure chest.
But it is protected by the top benthic predators of the coral reef.
Although he had a fish skin swimsuit for protection and crab claws and harpoons at his disposal, his three-dimensional attributes on the attribute panel, even after being boosted by the "Conspicuous Pack I" title, only barely reached the excellent level of an ordinary person, and there was still a huge gap between him and the extraordinary.
Taking on such a ferocious underwater beast, as thick as a water bucket, is extremely risky.
Its strength is enough to easily break a person's arm, and its bite force can crush bones. Fish skin swimsuits can protect against cuts, but how much cushioning they provide against this level of blunt force trauma and tearing is unknown. Once it gets entangled and grips you underwater, the consequences are unimaginable.
If someone loses an arm or a leg, medicine can't fix it.
To regenerate severed limbs, a supernatural element is required, and that precious item will only gradually appear at least a month later.
Stopping his wild thoughts and confirming he was in the right place, Yu Wang beckoned, "Duck A, come here."
"Underwater, about ten meters to your left, there's a staghorn coral thicket. There's a large fish guarding a box in a crevice. Draw its attention, but be careful not to get bitten. I'm going down to get the box, understand?"
"...Huh?" Me?
Let's put aside how much Duck A understood for now.
Yu Wang suddenly remembered a crucial question: how could a wolf eel possibly have an aggressive urge when even monsters couldn't muster the appetite for a plastic duck?
How could he possibly be lured away by duck A?
"Tsk, I forgot about that." Yu Wang slapped his forehead.
Sending Duck A to pull monsters is likely to have limited effect, and may even backfire.
He quickly adjusted his plans.
Instead, I started looking through the backend to see if I could gather the materials to build the "Water Arrow Cannon," which has lower requirements.
With its cannon, the Little Yellow Duck can deal with the Wolf Eel in just one or two shots!
Survivors gradually arrived in the backstage area.
Yu Wangle was delighted after scanning these people's IDs.
There's also a celebrity.
Survival is victory: "How about I trade one basic energy core, 200 units of turtle meat, and one complete turtle shell for one fever reducer and two antibiotics?"
Upon seeing the materials exchanged, Yu Wang thought to himself, "Wow, did we just rip off a sea turtle?"
What powerful weapon was used to kill him?
Although curious, Yu Wang didn't investigate the other party's secrets, as is customary in business; good things come from all sources.
He pondered: the primary energy core is one of the key materials he is currently lacking most, and turtle meat is also a high-quality food source, a full 200 units, which can summon duck B and duck C in the blink of an eye.
As for the tortoise shell, there's no use in keeping it.
You're in for a ton of luck: "A basic energy core can be exchanged for one pill, 10ml of alcohol, or two pills. Tortoise shells are useless to me. Do you have any basic materials like wood or plastic? We can exchange them."
After sending the message, Yu Wang waited for a reply while checking the sales status of the medicine during his time lurking online.
As expected, Duck A lived up to expectations.
It has successfully sold 6 anti-inflammatory pills and 30ml of medical alcohol through an automated trading channel.
The exchange yielded a substantial amount of supplies: 40 units of rubber, 20 units of metal parts, 10 pearl coins, and 20 precision gears.
"Well done." Yu Wang nodded in satisfaction.
This deal was made even though most players couldn't afford the high-level resources he listed and could only look on longingly at the "medicine".
More private messages were made attempting to negotiate or bargain using ordinary resources such as large quantities of timber, stone, and fresh water.
Because it couldn't use Duck A's fast trading channel, it was skipped and is now awaiting Yu Wang's personal review and processing.
Yu Wang checked the construction requirements for the water rocket cannon again: "Now the water rocket cannon is only missing the primary energy core material."
"Strange, basic energy cores shouldn't be hard to obtain, right? These things are on the same level as batteries and gasoline; quite a few people should have opened the metal crates by now. How come I haven't managed to trade any?"
It's still a matter of differences in perception.
The other survivors had no strategy in mind, as if they were playing a game of searching, attacking, and retreating without any rarity indicators.
In the early stages of the game, I treasured everything I saw, even a ball of dung.
Only in the later stages of the game, when players become more proficient and have collected so many items that they are almost overflowing, will they selectively skip certain resources.
Upon seeing the name "Primary Energy Core," survivors instinctively feel it's a valuable item and would rather keep it for themselves than trade it easily.
At that time, in another, less tranquil, deep sea area.
Survival is victory. He sat cross-legged in the center of the inflatable green turtle boat, sunlight shining on his slightly messy hair and his resolute face stained with a little blood.
He is not in good condition.
On his left calf, a deep laceration that exposed bone was being tightly bound with a strip of cloth torn from his clothes, most of which was stained red with the seeping blood.
The rest of his body was covered with bruises and scratches of all sizes. Although the most serious wound on his left calf was immediately rinsed with fresh water and pressure was applied to stop the bleeding, the blood loss and pain still made him pale. Cold sweat kept seeping from his forehead, sliding down his cheeks and gathering into drops on his chin.
His hands trembled as he pulled a cigarette case from his waist.
When he pulled out the last whole cigarette, he hesitated for a moment, then put it back, chose the half-eaten cigarette butt next to him, lit it again, and put it in his mouth.
Taking a deep breath, the pungent aroma of the cigarette butt mixed with the salty sea breeze filled my lungs, bringing a brief numbness and temporarily suppressing the excruciating pain from the injury and the discomfort caused by blood loss.
"Hiss~ That feels so good!"
He slowly exhaled a puff of grayish-white smoke, his gaze fixed on the sea beside him.
The area was stained red with blood, and the leader of the sea turtle troop floated on the surface of the sea.
The dark green backplate was covered with axe marks, and the head was riddled with bullet holes.
Looking at the corpse, the man who believed that survival was victory felt no sadness whatsoever; instead, a surge of anger rushed to his head, making his wounds throb with pain. He couldn't help but curse aloud:
"Damn! Those netizens who love to stir up trouble were right!"
He recalled a joke someone made in the chat last night: "Be careful, maybe that sea turtle is sending you a box because it's interested in you and wants to mate with you!" At the time, he took it as a joke and scoffed at it.
"Damn it!" he gritted his teeth, feeling a wave of nausea. "Do you think I'm someone who lacks those little resources?!"
Being "love-struck" by a giant sea turtle on the vast ocean is certainly disgusting, but what terrified him even more was that the ship exploded!
Without a ship, on this sea, it's no different from a death sentence!
Fortunately... surviving is victory. A hint of relief flashed in his eyes.
Fortunately, he traded a perfectly maintained pistol and 20 bullets from the guy called "Mad Shark".
I thought it was better to be prepared, but I didn't expect to need it so soon.
"I wonder what 'Mad Shark's' identity is in the real world, that he's able to bring in real firearms..."
"As expected, everyone starts differently. Even in another world, I'm already at a disadvantage from the start. Maybe the other person is already driving a giant ship by now, and I'll have to work hard to catch up!"