While Everyone Panicked, I Upgraded My Raft

Chapter 136: Chapter 127: Rowan Rhodes Is on Someone’s Mind

”Rowan Rhodes’ numbers on the leaderboard moved again.”

”Hasn’t she always been first? How else could they move? Don’t tell me she got pushed down? Now that would be news.”

”No! She’s still first, but the numbers trailing her name are different now.”

”Holy crap, that’s insane. Her score is several times higher than the second place. She’s in a league of her own.”

”What did Rowan do this time?”

”Probably modified her raft.”

”I really want to know what Rowan’s raft actually looks like. For the system to give it such a high score is a bit ridiculous.”

”She still has a Level 8 Raft. It has nothing to do with upgrades; it can only be the Equipment on the raft.”

”So, does Rowan currently have a massive amount of production Equipment on her raft?”

”Not just Equipment, but resources too.”

”You guys should check out the Antidotes that just went up in the Sea Survival Shop. Initially, there were over a thousand. After they sold out, dozens more appeared in just two minutes. Two minutes might be the Speed at which Rowan’s Medical Tables produce Antidotes, meaning she’s producing and selling them simultaneously.”

”If one machine makes one every two minutes, and dozens are appearing, that requires dozens of Medical Tables. Rowan has built a freaking factory!”

”Eira Grass produces a batch every two hours. Based on her production scale, she can yield over two thousand Eira Grass and Eira Grass Seeds every two hours. Five thousand Eira Grass Seeds and over two thousand Eira Grass just popped up in the Sea Survival Shop. She probably grew them at dawn, deducted the portion needed to craft Antidotes, and listed the rest in the Sea Survival Shop to sell to other players.”

”Does this prove that for every two hours from now on, there will be over two thousand Eira Grass Seeds and over two thousand Antidotes for sale???”

”She can definitely keep up the supply of Eira Grass, but Coconut meat might be a different story.”

”Someone’s buying up Coconut meat in bulk! Rowan’s definitely the one behind it.”

”Her smooth production is a blessing for us!”

”She’s incredibly badass!”

”As expected of Rowan Rhodes!”

”She isn’t just leading the pack; she’s soaring in the sky.”

”Absurd, absolutely absurd! I can hardly believe it.”

”But when it comes to Rowan, somehow I do.”

”An Antidote factory!!! That’s mind-blowing!”

”I’ve never admired someone so much. I completely bow down to Rowan.”

”Prostrating myself in absolute worship.”

”...”

Across the various zones, players pieced together the clues of what Rowan had been up to simply by analyzing the leaderboard and the Sea Survival Shop. If it had been any other player, their tracks wouldn’t have been so easily caught. However, Rowan was completely in a league of her own. Aside from the Sea Survival Shop itself, only she was capable of supplying thousands of goods at once. Because of this, it was incredibly easy to pinpoint her actions.

But every single player felt nothing but absolute submission to her dominance. In fact, they all desperately hoped she would become as strong as possible. After all, they genuinely felt that Rowan was benefiting the entire server.

The previous thousands of Eira Grass Seeds had already multiplied the overall quantity of seeds across the server countless times over. And it was only daytime; Rowan had just distributed another four thousand Eira Grass Seeds. For the remainder of the day, there would be thirty thousand more hitting the market. Once those seeds landed in the hands of other players, their growth would be exponential. This made the highly sought-after Antidotes much more accessible.

This was a blatant, undeniable act of saving lives! Even some of the worst scumbags in the game couldn’t deny that they had benefited from Rowan’s presence.

Of course, acknowledging that they benefited from her didn’t mean they were grateful. Truth be told, upon realizing the sheer magnitude of the wealth in her hands, some of them began to covet it. As the old saying goes: when the profit is large enough, someone will always take the risk.

Oscar Oswald was the first to entertain such ideas. He had built his fortune entirely through Positioning Cards. This had allowed him to climb directly from eighteenth place on the global leaderboard to second. And precisely because he had reached second place, Oscar set his sights on the number one spot. People only ever remembered the champion; no one cared about second place. This was especially true when his grip on second place wasn’t even secure.

Initially, Oscar hadn’t dared to challenge Rowan’s authority. Everyone knew she possessed overwhelming strength and abundant resources. Recognized by the Sea Survival Game system as an insurmountable first place, no one dared to provoke her. Oscar was no exception. He could only bury his ambition deep in his heart, silently peering at her glory from behind his screen.

That was until just a moment ago, when Rowan had severely flexed her dominance in front of the entire server. At the same time, she exposed the mountainous wealth in her possession.

Then, other players who also climbed the ranks through plundering approached him. He hadn’t stayed anonymous in the Sea Survival Shop’s main chat group because he firmly believed that no one would dare mess with him.

The players who contacted him shared a secret. A secret regarding how to operate as a team. Namely, if multiple players activated a Positioning Card targeting the same player at the exact same time, the system would default to a team operation.

This secret had been discovered through experimentation by two players. By pure coincidence, they had locked onto the same target simultaneously and received a notification from the Sea Survival Game: ”Initiate team combat?” They had declined, but the prompt confirmed the existence of team combat. Whenever they initiated a strike later on, they never encountered that scenario again.

That was until they both received invitations to the Sea Survival Shop, became permanent players, and randomly bumped into each other in the main chat group. After reuniting, they began searching for allies. Their search went incredibly smoothly. Since they had constantly monitored the leaderboard shifts and global announcements for Positioning Cards, they were somewhat familiar with the names of players who actively initiated strikes and successfully plundered. Oscar was the most conspicuous among these players.

Just like that, a group of plunder-reliant players successfully joined forces.

[Oscar Oswald: So it’s decided. Our target is Rowan.]

[Sean Dillon: Of course. If we’re going to gamble, we might as well bet big.]

[Julian Shields: Haha, with our numbers, we can definitely handle Rowan.]

[Logan Rhodes: Plundering just Rowan alone would be worth hundreds or thousands of ordinary players. Even if we can’t kill her, a successful raid will yield a massive amount of resources, especially Antidotes.]

[Ethan Sutton: Or, with enough people, we can have a little ”chat” with her.]

[Oscar Oswald: It’s settled then. What’s the timeline?]

[Sean Dillon: How about when the mutated marine creatures attack? Leaving then would let us perfectly dodge the creatures in our own waters, and Rowan’s strength will be somewhat depleted by the invasion on her end.]

[Logan Rhodes: But we can’t be sure when the mutated marine creatures will arrive in Rowan’s waters. It seems like they appear earlier for some players.]

[Oscar Oswald: The higher the raft level, the more mutated marine creatures there are. By the time the invasion hits my waters, Rowan’s will have definitely started. We’ll wait until then!]

[...]

Just like that, behind the scenes, the curtain rose on a grand raid aimed squarely at Rowan and the vast resources in her hands.