While Everyone Panicked, I Upgraded My Raft

Chapter 142: Chapter 133: It’s Too Late to Regret

The attacking players grew increasingly terrified as the battle dragged on. Rowan Rhodes’s situation was completely beyond anything they had imagined. Eventually, they hatched a unified plan in their private group chat: they would all ram their rafts directly into hers. With so many rafts, they had to be able to deal at least *some* damage! All they needed to do was tear open a single breach in her defenses.

Following a countdown of three, two, one, the dozen or so surrounding rafts locked onto their target. Through the heavy fog, they ruthlessly smashed into Rowan’s raft.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

A relentless series of collisions echoed across the water. Under the barrage of impacts, Rowan’s raft did indeed begin to rock. Fortunately, it had its own automated defense and attack modes. The spikes bordering her raft and the suspended Fish Spear Guns all inflicted varying degrees of damage on the attacking players’ rafts.

Spread out, this retaliation wouldn’t have amounted to much against any single opponent. Yet, the players were still absolutely stunned by the outcome. More than a dozen rafts had simultaneously struck Rowan’s, but hers had merely shuddered. Meanwhile, their own rafts suffered different Damage Values depending on their proximity to the impact points.

This was simply absurd!

”It seems like our combined assault hasn’t even scratched her.”

”Her repair Speed is too fast.”

”Does she just have too many resources on hand?”

”She just upgraded her raft directly, turning the Wood Walls into Metal Walls! She’s even harder to deal with now.”

”The fog is so thick, how do you know that?”

”My Skill is X-Ray Vision. Even with the heavy fog, I can still see through it.”

”Then why didn’t you say something earlier?”

”We weren’t close enough before. How was I supposed to see anything?”

”Then take a look now—are there any weak points?”

”None! Rowan built this raft like a fortress. It’s an impenetrable wall of metal. There are a few glass windows, but targeting those is useless!”

”This Rowan is too tough to handle. Let’s just run!”

”Running means death, too.”

”I just saw the few players who tried to escape get taken out by other players lurking nearby.”

The players’ panicked discussion only deepened the dread in their hearts.

They had already suspected as much, but they hadn’t expected everyone who fled to be killed without exception. Perhaps they had been ambushed by more than one player, which would explain the universally grim outcome. Panic aside, the attackers continued their desperate assault. Yet even with their relentless efforts, the shadow of death crept ever closer.

”It’s my turn! My raft is on fire—what do I do?!”

”Was there anything unusual when you were targeted? Why can’t the fire on your raft be put out?”

”Also, how powerful is the Burning Bullet Rowan is using?”

”How long can a single raft hold out against it?”

The other players showed zero sympathy for the burning man; their eyes held nothing but cold calculations regarding Rowan’s strength. They desperately needed to know how much reaction time they would have when their turn inevitably came.

The player begging for help instantly lost his mind.

He was truly a fool for seeking salvation from this crowd. They were nothing but a bunch of selfish, self-serving bastards. Then again, if they weren’t entirely driven by selfishness and greed, none of them would be here in the first place. Dying here was exactly what they deserved.

Watching the flames rapidly spread and feeling the blistering heat radiating across his entire raft, the player drew his Dagger and decisively ended his own life. A swift death was far better than being burned alive. The very moment he died, his burning raft crumbled into fragments and vanished without a trace.

After absorbing all of his accumulated wealth, Rowan immediately shifted her focus to the next player—or rather, the next batch of players. She realized she could eliminate her attackers in waves, especially since her raft was far from being easily breached.

First came the Fish Oil, followed closely by a burning bottle. All she had to do was have Seabird One and Seabird Two spin the Steering Wheel in circles to maneuver around the fleet. Otherwise, constantly relying on the raft’s automated repairs would consume too much time.

[Global Announcement: Player Sean Dillon failed to attack Player Rowan Rhodes and has died.]

[Global Announcement: Player Julian Shields failed to attack Player Rowan Rhodes and has died.]

[Global Announcement: Player Logan Rhodes failed to attack Player Rowan Rhodes and has died.]

[Global Announcement: Player Ethan Sutton failed to attack Player Rowan Rhodes and has died.]

[...]

Players in the outer regional zones had no way of seeing the battle firsthand, but they could all see these death notifications echoing across the entire server. Watching player after player die in such rapid succession, they quickly connected the dots. Rowan wasn’t just holding an advantage in the fight; she was single-handedly annihilating groups of ten at a time.

”Ahhh, Rowan is so incredibly badass!”

”Did several players just die in one breath?”

”I checked out those players earlier. A lot of them already had Level 7 Rafts.”

”So does a Level 8 Raft completely crush a Level 7 Raft?”

”No, the raft level plays a part, but it mostly comes down to Equipment.”

”Level 7 unlocks the Burning Bullet, but it seems like hardly any players have managed to craft gunpowder yet. However, I bet Rowan definitely figured it out.”

”Gunpowder? Oh, right! Rowan couldn’t possibly wipe out so many players at once using standard cold weapons. The probability of her using gunpowder is extremely high.”

”If she has gunpowder while no one else does, that’s an absolute slaughter.”

”That makes perfect sense.”

”So Rowan isn’t just defending passively right now; she’s actively attacking.”

”Definitely. It would be impossible for her to eliminate so many players at once without taking the offensive.”

”Now that they’ve witnessed how terrifying Rowan is, why haven’t those players retreated?”

”Haha, because they’ve been targeted! Anyone who retreats is instantly hunted down and killed by the top-ranked players.”

”So they’re dead if they push forward, and dead if they retreat?”

”Does Rowan really have that much influence over the top players?”

”It has nothing to do with Rowan and everything to do with profit. They have a legitimate excuse to strike. By targeting players who just failed to ambush someone else, they don’t look like aggressive instigators, so they won’t draw negative attention. Plus, they might even get on Rowan’s good side! They only hope she notices their ’help,’ but even if she doesn’t, they still get to walk away with the loot.”

”That’s so calculating.”

”Anyone who dares to pull a stunt like that doesn’t just have brains; they have the raw power to back it up.”

Thanks to the combined analysis of the regional players, the entire cause and effect of the battle had been dissected with crystal clarity. Beyond their immense reverence for Rowan’s strength, the server buzzed with the sheer thrill of the spectacle. After all, the current survival environment was incredibly oppressive. Having something novel to spectate was a welcome distraction to pass the time. In fact, more than a few opportunistic players even used this chaotic window to launch their own strikes.

Meanwhile, caught between the pincer attack of Rowan and the two Abyssal Sea Serpents, the attacking players died at a staggering pace.

Eventually, a fraction of the remaining attackers simply couldn’t take the pressure anymore and scattered in a desperate attempt to flee. They left a few fragmented, terrified messages in their regional chats and the main Sea Survival Shop group.

”Rowan is too terrifying!”

”I regret this! I regret it so much!”

”It’s too late! It’s too late!”

”Let me go! Please, just let me go!”

These simple yet frantic pleas sparked a myriad of discussions across their respective regional zones. Even when curious players tried to pry for more details, they could only watch helplessly as the fleeing players’ icons permanently went dark. Yet, the sheer panic radiating through these scattered messages was more than enough to impress Rowan’s horrific lethality upon the wider player base.

”Did Rowan win?”

”The global announcements have stopped, so she must have wiped them all out.”

”It’s only been a few hours! That’s insane.”

”After a battle like this, absolutely no one is going to dare challenge her again!”

”What we should really be worrying about is whether she’s developed a taste for plundering. After looting so many resources, she might get addicted and start targeting the rest of us.”

”If those idiots actually managed to awaken Boss Rowan’s dark ambitions, I’m going to hate them forever.”

”Hating them is useless. They’re all dead.”

”Are they really all dead?”

”Yeah. Their names are completely gone from the leaderboards.”

While the vast majority of the player base sighed in awe and apprehension, Rowan was busy harvesting the massive wealth left behind by over a hundred attackers. Her inventory was absolutely overflowing.

At this precise moment, however, she was in no mood to sort through her spoils.

Now that the annoying interference of the other players had been dealt with, the two Abyssal Sea Serpents had fully locked their sights onto her raft. Having gorged themselves on a sizable portion of the attackers, the beasts had savored the sweet benefits of human flesh and grown increasingly ravenous.

For Rowan, the players had merely been a warm-up. The Abyssal Sea Serpents would be her true, grueling battle.