Treasure hunting in endless ocean

Build a raft

The little button opened something similar to the Item box. 

Neil could clearly see his paddle board, paddles, food , water and miscellaneous gear all are in the box. 

Inventory is the key word to open it. 

Everything other than his clothes is in that inventory, including his waterproof watch. 

He checked himself once more to see if there’s anything on his body other than clothes and shoes.

There is!

A blue gem inlaid oval shape pendant hung from his neck. 

He had no idea how he had not noticed it. The gem is not of small size. It’s half his thumb length, is in oval shape, has the exact same color as the sea. 

Neil tapped his finger on the gem. 

The display turned off. 

Then he tapped on the gem once more. 

The display sprung up. 

With that, he knew. It wasn’t the voice commands at all, but this gem that activates the board. 

The sassy ness of the board is just the innate nature of the system. 

As he watched, he saw another driftwood passing by. 

He knew from the experience with all the games, he must catch that driftwood. 

That is the nature of games like this. 

He quickly paddled over to the log with his legs , straddling his own like a horse. 

He laid down on his log, touched the other log. 

[ Collect Log ? ] (yes) (No)

Obviously, Yes. 

[ +1 experience ]

The next moment, he opened the inventory to check. 

As expected, it existed there. 

He touched the driftwood log to see if he could retrieve it. 

[ Inventory unlocks at level ten. ]

[ you can not retrieve items in to open air before reaching level ten. ] 

Fine. Be that way. 

All the same, he paddled over to the logs and collected them. 

Then he saw, there’s a kelp net floating over the sea. 

He is not sure if it’s also a collectible. 

Thus, he paddled over to it and touched it. 

Seems it’s a collectible. He collected it. 

Soon, he collected two more logs, bringing his log count to seven, and the sea weed collection to two. 

As soon as he did, a message popped up again. 

[ You can now build a raft. ] 

[ Items needed: 5 logs, 2 seaweed ]

[ Build a raft? ] (yes) (No) 

Finally! He is getting tired of dangling his legs in water. He built the raft. 

                                  .''.       

       .''.      .        *''*    :_\/_:     . 

      :_\/_:   _\(/_  .:.*_\/_*   : /\ :  .'.:.'.

  .''.: /\ :   ./)\   ':'* /\ * :  '..'.  -=:o:=-

 :_\/_:'.:::.    ' *''*    * '.\'/.' _\(/_'.':'.'

 : /\ : :::::     *_\/_*     -= o =-  /)\    '  *

  '..'  ':::'     * /\ *     .'/.\'.   '

      *            *..*         :

The plastic fireworks exploded majestically as soon as he built the raft. 

Pararabambpabam..!!!

The festive sounds of piano reaching crescendo and fireworks exploding is in the air. 

[ You have now reached level 1. ] 

[ You are officially considered denizen of endless realm now. ]

[ Your life and death will follow the rules of the realm from now onwards. ] 

[ The gaming interface is unlocked completely. ] 

[ Welcome to the endless ocean. May you wander forever. ] 

Neil stared at the extremely exuberant fireworks.. 

Then he read the messages. As expected, the system is sassy!

Then, he opened the game interface. 

There are multiple unlocked items. 

The first being ‘buildings’ list. 

He opened it immediately to check the buildings. 

The first is ‘raft’, obviously. It’s already built. 

The second is ‘paddle station’. Simply put, he can attach paddles to raft sides to paddle the raft to a certain place. 

The third is ‘rudder’. 

However, his raft is too small for a rudder, also, the sea is too shallow to need one. 

So, he does not intend to build one. 

The next one is ‘weathervane’. 

For a moment, Neil stared at it, not understanding why in the world any one would need a weathervane on their raft. 

Isn’t it more common sense to actually have the sail before weathervane? 

Then he saw the ‘skill specific’ tag on the weathervane. 

It is only then he remembered! 

He did not see which skill he had received. 

Immediately, he exited the buildings to see the other options. 

There it is, the skills page. 

He opened it. 

There’s only one skill in it. 

[ Auto Row: Automatically consumes your stamina and moves the floating body towards any direction. Best used when associated with relevant buildings. 

Acceptable buildings : Weathervane, Steering wheel , starboard mascot, Rudder, Propellers. 

The skill could also be used mentally once you reach level twenty and satisfy relevant requirements. ] 

He chose to build the weathervane with the remaining two logs. 

[ Build a weathervane. ] 

[ items needed : 2 logs ] 

[ continue building ? ] (yes)(no) 

The choice is obvious. 

It is only after installing a weathervane he looked at the raft. 

The raft is just enough for him to sit and stretch his legs, but not even comfortably. 

If he wants to stretch his legs all the way, he needs to sit at the front of the raft, and stretch his legs. 

However, if he does that, the raft becomes unbalanced, and he will sink into water. 

Thus, he must stay in the middle of the raft, to keep it balanced. 

Then, his legs will be hanging off the edge of the raft. 

Even so, he appreciated the raft for the little comfort it gave him. He at least does not need to be submerged halfway. 

It is completely undeserving of the kind of fireworks he has seen, whichever direction he looked at it. 

There is some driftwood floating by. 

So, he immediately used the weathervane to chase after them. 

He started collecting the driftwood; soon, he collected six more logs.

[ Level up.] 

[ You have now reached level 2.] 

Neil stopped for a moment. 

How many things had he collected till now? 

There were thirteen logs, and two seaweeds. 

That is, fifteen. 

How does this work? 

Going by common sense, it will be five points to reach level 1, ten points to reach level two. 

Then… aren’t those fireworks for reaching level one? 

Upon careful thought…!

Those fireworks seem to be not for his reaching level one at all. 

They seem to be for becoming a denizen of this world, and binding his life and death to this world. 

Does that mean when he dies before binding them, he will not really die? 

Damn! 

Damn! 

He lost such a good opportunity to farm skills. 

Ahh..

There’s no point crying over spilled milk. 

The biggest concern now is to reach level ten. 

If he goes by this calculation, to level three needs twenty, then, forty to level four, eighty to level five. … That way, he would have to collect thousands of logs before inventory opens. 

He could probably endure hunger, but he definitely needs freshwater. 

He could by no means remain here alive if he could not find freshwater, or find a way to procure some. 

His decision of watermage had been the extremely correct one looking at this environment. 

Any direction he looked, there’s only the sea. 

Though it’s shallow, that’s the worst news, that means no freshwater around for miles together. 

He looked at the blue sky with very little clouds. 

It doesn’t look like it will rain. 

The temperature is definitely not high enough to induce lightning storms. 

So, no rain is going to happen any time soon. 

He sped up. 

Sure, it takes a lot of logs to level ten, but he doesn’t even collect wood, he will perish without even trying. 

Neil won’t be able to bear it; if he gave up without even trying. 

He redirected the weathervane at the nearest log, when it struck him. 

The logs.. ! 

They are all moving in the same direction. 

It’s spread out like a semi circle, but all the logs are nearing each other. 

In such a place, he is going towards less densely spread direction than more spread direction. 

He reversed his raft. 

He started moving in the same direction as the logs. 

The moving speed is doubled. 

Also he had a vague feeling he is less tired. 

It’s as if he is going in the same direction as the current. 

His guess is correct. 

The logs increased as he moved. They went from four to ten, then, at a point, Neil could feel the current is becoming stronger. 

He redirected the raft from there, collecting logs as he went. 

Soon, ten more logs were collected. 

[ Level up ]

[ You are now level 3] 

[ Research station unlocked. ] 

He did not pay any attention to it, kept collecting logs. 

[ Level up ] 

[ You are now level 4 ] 

Neil continued. 

Even if he doesn’t do anything, the logs came to him. All he did is collect. 

The current is going to a single point. However, Neil did not want to go there. 

Looking at the way current is flowing, the garbage is very likely to reach crushing level. Once he goes to such an area densely packed with logs, he will not be able to get out. 

[ Level up ] 

[ you are now level 5 ] 

He continued at it without paying any attention. He would have continued to do so, if he hadn’t seen next message. 

[ intuitive commands unlocked.] 

He immediately stopped, opened the interface. He could now just think collect as he touched the log, and the logs are collected. 

With that, his collection speed doubled.