While Everyone Panicked, I Upgraded My Raft

Chapter 139: Chapter 130: Defeating Them One by One

For Rowan Rhodes, things were actually going quite smoothly. With ample resources, even if her raft was damaged, it could be repaired in no time. Compared to yesterday’s Abyssal Octopus, the attacks from Oscar Oswald and his group of players were like a light drizzle against Rowan’s raft. After withstanding their assault, Rowan focused on how to divide and conquer them. After all, taking a beating passively was not her style.

However, before doing so, her attention was drawn to the battle between the Abyssal Sea Serpents and the players on the periphery. For those players, facing the Abyssal Sea Serpents was a complete suicide mission. Consequently, in just a short amount of time, a single Abyssal Sea Serpent would swiftly dispatch a player and their raft.

Logically speaking, they were doing Rowan a favor by eliminating her enemies. Yet, Rowan noticed that after these two Abyssal Sea Serpents destroyed the rafts and devoured the players, their strength skyrocketed. This explained why, despite Rowan being the main target in this sea region, these two mini-boss Abyssal Sea Serpents chose to pick off the weaker players first. In their eyes, the other players were also food—food that could help them level up.

Originally, Rowan thought that the marine creatures’ attacks on rafts and players were simply a built-in mechanic of the Sea Survival Game. But now, it seemed more likely that the players themselves served as a channel for the marine creatures to evolve. One could even say that the higher a player’s Level, the more enticing they were as prey.

If the two Abyssal Sea Serpents were truly allowed to devour all these players and then focus their combined strength on her, the difficulty of defeating them would increase significantly. Having figured this out, Rowan decided to take the initiative. She had to race against the Abyssal Sea Serpents for time.

However, after the weakest players were eliminated, the survivors didn’t just sit around waiting to die. They had already formed groups to fight back against the two beasts. While they still couldn’t match the Abyssal Sea Serpents, they weren’t going down easily either. To a certain extent, they were also wearing down the serpents’ strength.

Having assessed the entire situation, Rowan shifted her gaze back to the rafts attacking her. Her strategy was simple... divide and conquer.

The next moment, she grabbed her raft’s Steering Wheel, gave it a hard spin, and steered directly and ruthlessly toward Oscar’s raft. She would take them out one by one, from the highest Level down to the lowest.

CRASH! With a massive impact, the two rafts collided, instantly knocking a third off the Durability of Oscar’s raft. The violent jolt sent Oscar tumbling to the deck. Prompted by a sudden system alert, he immediately spent resources to repair his raft. But the second impact was already upon him.

Panicking, Oscar frantically messaged the other players in their private group chat.

”Oscar Oswald: Hurry up and help me! Rowan is targeting me!”

”We are attacking! But our hits are barely scratching her raft. We can’t break through her defenses yet.”

”Plus, her underwater Fish Spear Gun keeps ambushing us! If we attack her, we can’t block the spears, and if we don’t block them, our own rafts take the hits.”

”I don’t know what’s going on with her raft, but its Durability feels insanely high.”

”It’s not just the high Durability! She has a ton of resources on hand.”

”Taking her down is going to be a long war of attrition.”

”@Oscar Oswald, hang in there. Try to hold out a little longer.”

”...”

Reading these blatant excuses, Oscar felt his blood boil. He knew exactly what these players were thinking. Seeing that he was targeted, they wanted to use him to wear down Rowan’s strength so they could swoop in and reap the benefits later. Out of everyone attacking Rowan, why did she have to single him out?

Left with no choice, Oscar could only bite the bullet, brace himself against Rowan’s assault, and mobilize his available resources. He just hoped that while he kept Rowan occupied, the other players could actually whittle down her strength.

Despite his calculations, a sinking feeling settled in his gut. He thought, ”I might not make it out of this one. Should I... abandon most of my resources and retreat?”

To have survived this long, Oscar certainly knew how to seek advantages and avoid disasters. He had dared to plot against Rowan earlier because he believed that with a whole group of players, taking her down would be a walk in the park. But who could have anticipated that the sea region Rowan occupied would be teeming with so many mutated marine creatures? Especially those two colossal beasts—just looking at them was enough to give anyone nightmares.

No one expected Rowan to attract such terrifying mutated marine creatures. He was ranked second on the global leaderboard, yet his own sea region had nothing like them. This alone was a testament to just how formidable Rowan’s strength truly was in the Sea Survival Game.

However, he had already spent so many resources. If he gave up the majority of his remaining stash now, he would suffer a massive loss. He thought, ”Maybe I should stick it out a little longer.”

Driven by this thought, Oscar chose not to retreat, instead continuing to clash head-on with Rowan.

Meanwhile, after draining a significant portion of Oscar’s resources and noticing that his repair Speed had slowed down, Rowan handed the Steering Wheel over to Seabird One and Seabird Two.

”Just keep chasing and hitting this target,” she ordered.

”Don’t worry, Master,” Seabird One replied.

”Mhm, I’ll listen to you and Big Brother,” Seabird Two chimed in.

Seabird One frequently played with the Steering Wheel and had excellent control over it. Following Rowan’s instructions, he relentlessly pursued and rammed into Oscar’s raft. He even knew how to read the radar.

Taking advantage of this distraction, Rowan fully geared herself up in Equipment from head to toe before stepping out onto the deck of her raft. Her target remained Oscar. Conveniently, she could use the heavy fog as cover, preventing the other players from seeing her movements.

She was preparing to throw a batch of burning bottles! A burning bottle without gunpowder needed to be ignited with fire. But a burning bottle mixed with gunpowder would detonate upon impact. She was saving these specifically to deal with the other players’ rafts. This was the perfect opportunity!

Standing on her raft, Rowan first hurled shark oil and Fish Oil at Oscar’s raft. Once she confirmed that his raft was coated in the slick oils, she grabbed her burning bottles and tossed them at his raft one after another.

Almost the moment they made contact, the burning bottles exploded. Fueled by the Fish Oil, the resulting flames rapidly spread across Oscar’s raft.

Oscar had been busy repairing his raft amidst the continuous rammings from Rowan’s vessel. At the same time, he was trying to divert the danger, hoping to maneuver someone else into taking the hits for him. However, Rowan’s raft seemed to be equipped with a tracker. Even in the dense fog, it continued to hunt him down relentlessly.

Just as he was about to retreat, he suddenly heard a barrage of explosions. The sounds were so close that his ears began to ring. He thought, ”Is my raft being blown up?”

Realizing this, sheer panic gripped Oscar. He thought, ”Where are these attacks coming from? I need to repair it, fast!”

But an even greater terror awaited him: he suddenly found himself entirely surrounded by roaring flames. As he frantically tried to escape, he realized he was trapped. Just then, a notification window popped up on his control panel.

[Raft damage exceeds 80%. Cannot be repaired immediately. Repair in progress...]

[Detected that the player-versus-player combat is in its decisive phase. Retreat is not permitted!]

Looking at the text, Oscar’s face instantly drained of color. He knew exactly what this meant. It meant that, according to the judgment of the Sea Survival Game, he was going to lose this battle!!!