While Everyone Panicked, I Upgraded My Raft

Chapter 16: Chapter 16: At the Bottom of the Sea, a Creature Is Being Awakened

Harold Thompson and Simon Quinn were being pushed into a corner by Celia Lynch on the World Channel. Looking at the other players voicing their support for her, the two of them felt a bit speechless. Who would have thought that the female player wasn’t Celia Lynch? Suddenly, they were made to look like total clowns. However, there was no way the two would admit their mistake. After all, they had genuinely been beaten up!

”Harold Thompson: Alright, alright! I get it, I wrongly accused you! Who told you to act like such a big shot before? We just assumed you’d landed on the island earlier than us.”

”Simon Quinn: It’s your fault for being so high-profile! It’s completely normal for us to misunderstand you, right?”

Seeing their responses, Celia Lynch was infuriated. They were truly shameless! But she couldn’t be bothered to start a flame war with them on the World Channel. After all, her goal had already been achieved.

She had to clarify that she hadn’t taken the island’s resources. She felt that getting the island’s resources ahead of time was a matter of skill, and those who were less skilled should simply admit defeat. Harold Thompson and Simon Quinn deserved to get beaten up. If she had actually been the one to take the resources, she would be proud of it. But since she hadn’t, she had to step forward and shake off this false accusation to avoid becoming a target for even more people.

Celia Lynch clenched her fists. The next time she got the chance to run into those two, she was going to give them a good beating and teach them a harsh lesson. As for now, she needed to hurry up and collect usable resources on this island!

She felt it was getting hotter and hotter. Checking the temperature, she saw it had already reached thirty-two degrees Celsius. It was rising much too fast, especially considering it was only morning. If it kept getting hotter...

Closing the World Channel, Celia Lynch turned to the players beside her and said, ”Thank you for testifying for me.” At the same time, she handed out some non-essential resources to each of them as a token of gratitude.

”No need, really.”

”It was nothing.”

”...”

After a few polite refusals, the other players accepted the gifts. Then, the group hurried off to collect resources. More and more players were landing on the island, and the competition was growing fiercer. They had to collect whatever they could find!

Seeing that Celia Lynch had stopped speaking on the World Channel, Harold Thompson and Simon Quinn didn’t say anything more either, allowing the other players’ messages to bury their earlier remarks. They wished for nothing more than for this embarrassing incident to quietly fade away. With them falling silent, the players’ discussions on the World Channel continued. Everyone was far too preoccupied to care about the drama anymore.

”It’s gone up by another degree. It’s only 7:00 AM, and it’s already thirty-three degrees. Don’t you guys feel something is off?”

”I just woke up from the heat. I almost died.”

”WAAAH, my Thirst Value keeps dropping, but my Freshwater Collector won’t have any water for another two hours. I don’t know if I can hold on.”

”The expert, Celia Lynch, already reminded us yesterday to prepare more water, so I made another Freshwater Collector.”

”Damn it, aside from surviving, could there be natural disasters in this Sea Survival Game too?”

”This Sea Survival Game is really going too far. It’s so vicious! It’s simply not letting us live!”

”I admire your courage to curse at the game.”

”Well, it wants me dead anyway, so whether I curse at it or not makes no difference. I might as well vent my frustrations first.”

”...”

Rowan Rhodes also saw these discussions, and the corners of her lips unconsciously curled up. They were speaking the truth, weren’t they? Seeing that some players had already realized the arrival of the natural disaster, Rowan raised her eyebrows. Someone had pointed out the natural disaster. As long as they worked hard in this direction, their chances of surviving were still very high. As for those who saw the warnings but still didn’t try, she could only say she respected their fate. After all, in her previous life, even when things had been so difficult, she had always done her utmost to prepare.

Closing the World Channel and downing her milk in one gulp, Rowan Rhodes took out her Hook Claw, ready to hook in some resources. Thirty-three degrees wasn’t even the hottest it would get! Even though she had plenty of supplies right now, she absolutely could not slack off.

Zelda Parrish was also watching the World Channel. It was only after she confirmed that Celia Lynch had stepped forward to clarify things herself that she paused her own plans to intervene. She hadn’t expected Harold Thompson and his companion to mistake her for Celia Lynch and then publicly condemn the woman on the World Channel. The moment she woke up and saw it, she wished she could turn back time and beat those two to a pulp. Those two were simply shit-stirrers! After her anger subsided, Zelda began sorting through yesterday’s haul, deciding to see if she could use these gains for manufacturing some Equipment suitable for the high-temperature natural disaster.

Yes, she had also felt it; the rising temperature was far too abnormal. Moreover, the resources she had collected on Pyralia yesterday, such as Coconut water, inherently had a cooling Effect. This indirectly foreshadowed that the natural disaster for this stage would be extreme heat. The concept of ”stages” was also something Zelda had deduced from the system announcement last night. She figured that there would definitely be more than just one type of natural disaster in the future; they would have to endure ”trials” time and time again. Realizing this, the only thing Zelda could do was prepare as much as possible to ensure her own survival. Her family members—some in other sectors, some in reality—were all waiting for her!

When it came to her playstyle in the Sea Survival Game, Zelda Parrish chose to focus on manufacturing Equipment. She had originally studied martial arts, coming from a family with a long lineage in the field. She loved all kinds of weaponry and even ran a social media account where she showcased herself making weapons. Now, inside the game, she was simply leveraging her strengths, manufacturing Equipment alongside weapons.

The Skill she obtained at the end of the novice period, F-level Manufacturing, had a certain probability of granting an Effect when manufacturing Equipment. With the Palm Leaves she had picked this time, she happened to know how to make a hat. Without using a Workbench, she could craft it by hand using just two resources: Palm Leaves and rope. If she could truly turn these two resources into a sun-shading piece of Equipment and imbue it with an Effect, she figured she wouldn’t have to worry about this natural disaster.

With that, Zelda Parrish’s hands deftly began to weave. Before long, a hat took shape in her hands. Upon finishing the weave, Zelda saw this palm hat transform into a piece of Equipment.

[F-level Sun Hat: Provides sun protection, rain protection, and reduces the negative Effect of heatstroke. Duration: 24 hours.]

The moment she saw its attributes, Zelda’s eyes lit up. She did it! The next moment, she placed the sun hat directly onto her head. Feeling the surrounding temperature drop slightly, she resumed weaving. Palm Leaves were clearly a new resource that would appear in the waters after upgrading to a Level 3 Raft. Armed with this Skill for manufacturing Equipment, she could trade for whatever resources she needed from other players at any time, which would be much faster than fishing them out of the sea herself. Unless wooden crates appeared, she had no intention of using her Hook Claw for other resources anymore. Just like that, Zelda Parrish worked hard to prepare for the incoming high-temperature natural disaster, hoping to make a massive profit when the time was right.

As time ticked by, minute by minute, players soon noticed that the temperature was increasing at a Speed of one degree per hour. At the same time, under the glaring sun, the players’ Fullness Value and Thirst Value were dropping at an increasingly rapid Speed. Some players had already begun showing symptoms of heatstroke. While the players wailed on the World Channel, deep at the bottom of the sea, certain creatures were being awakened by the high temperatures.