While Everyone Panicked, I Upgraded My Raft

Chapter 101: Chapter 101: Day 1 of the Virus Disaster

[Sea Survival Calendar, January 11th, 6:23 AM. Current temperature: 19 degrees. Weather: Heavy fog. Air quality: Deteriorating.]

Upon waking up, Rowan Rhodes instinctively glanced at the calendar. Seeing the words indicating the deteriorating air quality, she knew the virus had already begun spreading throughout this space.

During the previous natural disaster, Rowan had concluded that this was an independently created virtual space. However, this realization led to another burning question. The space itself might be virtual, but what about the generated environments within it? During the extreme heat, the scorching temperatures they felt were incredibly real. During the extreme cold, the freezing conditions were equally palpable. And now, the viral plague was perfectly capable of inflicting genuine harm on the human body.

This led Rowan to a new conclusion: while the overarching space was virtual, the events occurring inside were terrifyingly real. Thousands of districts, hundreds of millions of players, each confined to a virtual space—what kind of astronomical power could pull off something of this magnitude?

In other words, why would an entity with such unimaginable power drag so many people into this game? What was its ultimate goal? Was it simply to watch them die over and over again in an endless cycle of natural disasters and brutal battles? No one knew what awaited them at the end. Because this unseen enemy was so overwhelmingly powerful, the only thing they could do was dance to its tune and try to survive until the finale. She wondered if she would actually have the chance to make it to the end in this lifetime.

Rowan let out a long, silent sigh, pulling her thoughts back to the present. After getting out of bed and washing up in the adjacent room, she stepped into the crude control room near the entrance.

Outside, everything was a hazy blur. The surroundings were shrouded in a thick white fog, obscuring all sense of direction. The radio tower and radar were still functioning properly, and the Steering Wheel was turning the raft toward the location pinpointed by the radio tower without any deviation.

The radar, meanwhile, dutifully highlighted various resources scattered in the water. However, it was evident that today’s resource spread was vastly different from yesterday’s; it had returned to normal. Comparatively, the dense fog created significant challenges for salvaging supplies. Now, successfully hooking anything relied entirely on blind luck.

After confirming everything was in order, Rowan headed up to the third floor. When she arrived, she was absolutely stunned.

All the fruits and vegetables had been neatly organized. Her previous vision of dividing the vegetable planting areas based on different harvest times had been perfectly executed. Not only that, but several Storage Boxes were stacked nearby. As the owner of the raft, she could sense that these Storage Boxes were filled to the brim with fresh produce.

Since the Seagull Family had been constantly helping salvage supplies from the sea, she had specifically prepared quite a few empty Storage Boxes for them to use. She hadn’t expected them to come in handy for storing fruits and vegetables as well.

Rowan’s gaze landed on the Big Turtle. ”Did you do this?”

”Mhm!” the Big Turtle nodded. ”I level up by harvesting crops!”

”Do you need me to prepare anything else for you?” Rowan asked gently. She was utterly thrilled.

With the Big Turtle acting as an expert at Farming, she was completely freed from manual labor. The fruits and vegetables could now serve as a sustainable, continuous source of income. In the Sea Survival Shop, the purchasing prices for fresh produce were relatively high—especially for the tastier varieties. While she was reluctant to sell her raw building resources, she had no qualms about selling these crops. Of course, apart from the Sea Survival Shop, trading with other players was also an excellent option.

Rowan was confident that very few players possessed a seed collection as comprehensive as hers. First, her Collection Skill provided a chance to increase harvest yields, and as her pet, the Big Turtle also benefited from this Skill’s bonus. Second, the Big Turtle inherently possessed the Farming Skill, granting it the ability to extract seeds directly from plants.

”Give all the seeds to me. Once I stockpile enough of one type, I’ll switch to planting another,” the Big Turtle quickly stated its request.

Hearing this, Rowan immediately handed over all the seeds she had traded for during the harvest day. Naturally, she also provided the water, soil, and other essential Farming tools. She was more than happy to delegate this responsibility.

”Ahem! Big Turtle, can you handle the harvests in the pasture as well?” Rowan cleared her throat lightly, tossing in a new task.

”I can do that!” the Big Turtle agreed in a soft, adorable tone.

”I’ll leave it in your hands, then. But you can always let me know if you need my help,” Rowan quickly replied.

”No need, I’ve got this.”

True to its word, the Big Turtle crawled over to the pasture, squeezed through the fence, and began collecting the eggs. The hens were busy eating grass, and as soon as it appeared, they scattered in all directions. Next, it shimmied over to the sheep, harvesting milk and wool. It proved through its actions that it was more than capable of handling the job.

Rowan was genuinely impressed by the display. ”I’ll leave this place to you, then.” She was now completely at ease. Pets in the Sea Survival Game were truly extraordinary! She figured she should try to tame more if the opportunity arose. Raising pets was far more cost-effective than supporting other players.

Next, Rowan scanned the area for the Seagull Family. She soon spotted them up in the Watchtower. Clearly, they sensed that something was wrong with the air outside today, so they had obediently stayed indoors. Right now, they were just getting some fresh air from the safety of the Watchtower, though Rowan highly doubted they could see anything through such dense fog.

Just as Rowan was thinking this, she suddenly heard a loud noise. THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.

She looked up and saw the bodies of various flying animals dropping onto her glass roof. Seagulls, petrels, pigeons...

Watching this scene, Rowan’s heart skipped a beat. She knew exactly what this meant—the virus was already taking effect. If it was happening here, it had to be happening to other players as well!

She opened the world chat for District 122. Sure enough, it was already in chaos.

”Ahhh! A bunch of flying creatures just dropped dead onto my raft!”

”I can even hear the SPLASH as they hit the water.”

”We normally never see these flying animals around. I thought they didn’t even exist, but I guess I was wrong.”

”Is the air toxic?”

”It has to be! It’s definitely an air quality issue.”

”Thank god I turned on my air purifier last night, or I’d be poisoned by now.”

”Dammit! I couldn’t get an air purifier! Even though I’m hiding indoors, I feel like I can barely breathe.”

”My status is showing ’mildly poisoned,’ and my Life Value is starting to drop. I’ll test it out later to see if the Healing Ointment works.”

”How the hell is the guy above me staying so calm?”

”It’s only the first day. It shouldn’t be as severe as we think. We just need to hope the top players can craft more air purifiers.”

”Right. I need to take advantage of this before it gets worse and salvage more resources.”

”We should prepare protective gear first, like masks or something.”

”@Faye Sinclair, do you have this kind of Equipment?”

”Faye Sinclair: Researching it now.”

”...”