While Everyone Panicked, I Upgraded My Raft

Chapter 143: Chapter 134: Forging the Legend of Rowan Rhodes Once Again

After approaching Rowan Rhodes’s raft, the Abyssal Sea Serpents employed the same tactic they had used on other rafts: wrapping their massive bodies entirely around it. Driven by their biological instincts, they prepared to constrict their target. This method of strangulation allowed them to maximize their Strength.

The grating sound of the Abyssal Sea Serpents’ scales scraping against the Metal Walls reached Rowan’s ears with terrifying clarity, each scrape testing her nerves.

Rowan, however, remained relatively calm. Since she could monitor the raft’s condition, she wasn’t in a panic and instead focused on finding a way to break the stalemate. The Seagull Family, on the other hand, was trembling. The oppressive aura of such high-Level creatures was overwhelming for them. Yet, despite their fear, they stood firmly by Rowan’s side.

”Master, we’re not afraid.”

”We’ll stay with you.”

”Yeah, exactly.”

The three little Seagulls offered their soft, comforting chirps.

Father Gull and Mother Gull wore grave expressions. They couldn’t understand how their master, who was only Level 8, had managed to provoke such colossal monsters. And it was the same yesterday.

”Master, these two are even stronger than yesterday’s Abyssal Octopus.”

”This goes against the rules.”

Hearing this, Rowan replied, ”It’s probably because my strength also defies the rules! So, new rules have appeared to keep me in check.”

Rowan didn’t actually believe that a game managing such a massive player base would specifically target her in its early stages. If it truly wanted her dead, a tiny player like her would never stand a chance against the system’s will; her raft would have been destroyed and she would have been killed long ago. The only logical explanation was that her stats were so far ahead of the curve that they had exceeded the original parameters, prompting the database to automatically adjust the difficulty.

”Then what should we do?” Father Gull asked, his voice laced with worry.

”We’ll hide!” Rowan declared, opting to play it safe after evaluating the Abyssal Sea Serpents’ strength. This had been her exact plan when she upgraded the raft into an impenetrable fortress of solid Metal Walls. Especially now that she had acquired the bulk of the assets from over a hundred players, she had more than enough resources to sustain a war of attrition for two consecutive days.

Firstly, she knew she stood no chance against two Abyssal Sea Serpents in a direct confrontation. Secondly, she wanted to run an experiment: if she couldn’t deal with the Abyssal Sea Serpents today, she wanted to see what would happen to the mutated marine life in her waters on the third day of the viral natural disaster.

Of course, avoiding a fight with the Abyssal Sea Serpents didn’t mean stalling the raft’s progress, nor did it mean ignoring the other mutated marine life nearby. With her plan set, Rowan simply tuned out the two massive beasts coiled around her raft and kept it moving toward her predetermined destination. At the same time, she installed Engines onto the raft.

Admittedly, upgrading the raft into a metal fortress, combined with the sheer weight of two Abyssal Sea Serpents, had severely hindered its Speed. It was only after she pushed the Engine output up to ten units that the raft’s Speed finally returned to its original pace.

Having handled all of this, Rowan finally turned her attention to the Sea Survival Shop.

She immediately listed the majority of the resources she had just looted from the other players onto the Sea Survival Shop. The sheer volume was staggering; neither her inventory nor her Storage Boxes could hold it all. Come to think of it, if she hadn’t unlocked the Sea Survival Shop, she would have had to endlessly build more storage just to fit everything. Now, as she opened her personal listing page, the sight almost made her dizzy. There were simply way, way too many resources.

Ever since she was reborn, Rowan had always believed she would eventually live a good life. But right now, this good life was almost too good! It was a happy kind of trouble. With a faint smile on her lips, Rowan began briskly setting prices for the various goods. Equipment like Workbenches, Medical Tables, and Cooking Platforms were priced slightly below market value.

With over a hundred players looted, she had hundreds of these Equipment pieces! After all, the lowest Level among those players was Level 6, meaning their Equipment was at least E-level or higher. For many Level 6 players, building these items from scratch would require a substantial amount of resources. Now that ready-made, upgraded versions were available, buying them outright would save both materials and effort.

No sooner had Rowan finished pricing the items than they were completely sold out. Clearly, many players had been eagerly waiting. The items Rowan listed in the Sea Survival Shop were very distinctive; they were priced high, restocked frequently, and their timings perfectly matched the deaths of the other players. Once the connection was made, people immediately geared up to snatch a bargain.

They knew Rowan wouldn’t have any use for other players’ Equipment, so she would inevitably dump it all in the Sea Survival Shop. She might look down on it, but they certainly didn’t. Speaking of which, a secondhand market had quietly begun to emerge among the players. While it mostly consisted of low-Level weapons, for many ordinary players, secondhand was far better than nothing.

Under these circumstances, the items Rowan was clearing from her inventory were absolute treasures to the masses. Furthermore, she wasn’t just offloading Equipment; she was also selling large quantities of surplus resources. For players currently locked in combat, these resources were literal lifesavers. With so many eyes fixed on her listings, the Sea Survival Shop briefly became a hub of bustling activity, as everyone focused their full attention on their interface panels to shop.

”This is great! I snagged so many cheap deals.”

”Rowan Rhodes is insanely rich! She’s selling so much stuff. Why isn’t she keeping it?”

”She wouldn’t be able to use it all even if she kept it. Better to sell it.”

”Big shot Rowan probably has higher pursuits.”

”She likely thinks using dead players’ stuff is bad luck.”

”Speaking of which, how does she even have the mood to sell things? According to earlier intel, isn’t there a mutated marine boss in her waters? Is she not fighting it?”

”From the looks of it, she isn’t. I heard there are two of them, like massive sea serpents. How could anyone beat that?”

”So even big shots have to play it safe and hide sometimes!”

”Haha, so when we play it safe, we’re just acting like the big shot—doing it for a better future!”

”With all those resources on hand, the big shot could just lie flat and coast through!”

”The big shot won’t just lie flat! She’s only going to get richer.”

”After this, anyone else trying to take the number one spot is going to have a hard time.”

”I actually think it’s great having big shot Rowan at number one. She clears her inventory and sells it to us! It increases our survival rate. Other top players might not have nearly as many resources to sell to us.”

”Exactly. Even in the middle of a massive battle, she was still selling Antidotes and Eira Grass like normal. How strong must her mental fortitude be?”

”Who knows when we’ll hear about something this badass again.”

”...”

Across the various regional chats, players couldn’t stop showering Rowan with praise. Of course, those who didn’t want to praise her kept their mouths shut, too afraid to dampen the crowd’s excitement. Knowing that Rowan was not someone to be trifled with, very few would willingly choose to provoke her.

This was exactly what they meant by ascending to godhood in a single battle.

The utter defeat of over a hundred players had, once again, cemented Rowan’s legend.