Treasure hunting in endless ocean

Message from God's office

Most of his research items were researched by the time Neil finished gathering necessary brown seaweed. 

He gathered more than necessary, thinking glue is a multipurpose item on the raft. 

As he predicted, it is indeed a multipurpose basic item. 

As soon as he put the glue to research, a bunch of more research items popped up. 

Most of them are basic building items, but the one he most liked is waterproof wood plank. 

However, it had to wait for the seaweed glue to be researched and made. 

Meanwhile, he went to the work station. 

[ Convert 100 logs to 20 thick wood planks ? ] (yes)(no)

Neil put them in processing immediately. 

That will take an hour. 

He looked at the rest of the researchable items with the logs. 

[ Research wood wall with 20 logs ? ] (yes)(no)

[ Research wood half wall with 20 logs ? ] (yes)(no)

[ Research wood roof wall with 20 logs ? ] (yes)(no)

[ Research sturdy pillar with 20 logs ? ] (yes)(no)

[ Research roof plank with 10 logs ? ] (yes)(no) 

[ Research storage wall with 60 logs ? ] (yes)(no) 

[ Research planting soil with 10 sand, 10 sawdust, 10 clay ? ] (yes)(no) 

Neil chose to research them all, save for the planting soil. He hasn’t seen clay anywhere. 

Those were the new items. 

There were improvements to old items he could do. 

A bigger sand bed could be built, as does a bigger fireplace. 

Neil chose to research them all, including raft shapes, upgraded storage racks, and upgrading the raft as a whole. 

Then, he sat down and started opening the barrels. 

He did not want to waste neither thin rope, nor seaweed, so he wanted to open the barrels first to see if there were any fishing supplies.

 Even if this is a magical world, he is sure that on the ocean, there would be at least one man who threw away a fishing rod in a barrel along with supplies. 

The next barrel is all blueprints. 

[ 1 all season basic planter, 1 planter rack, 1 planting bed ] 

He added them all to the research station. 

All the blueprints turned into white paper once the blueprint was added to the research station. 

[ 1 wooden mallet, 1 wooden club, 1 wooden spear ] 

[ 1 wooden spatula, 1 wooden scooper, 1 wooden cutlery ] 

[ 1 wooden leveler, 1 wooden scale, 1 wooden pestle ] 

Neil sighed, and added them all to the research. 

He had the strange feeling that the contents of barrels are changing as he is opening them to adjust to some strange game arithmetic. 

He had no way to prove that. Worse yet, he had no way to counter it even if he knew. 

Even mosquito meat is meat, as the saying goes. 

Thus, he continued opening barrels. 

[ 1 rhinestone pack, 1 nail polish , 1 polish remover, 1 pink rain boots ] 

What the heck?! 

Then, he wondered if they belonged to a baby girl. However, even if they belonged to a baby girl, he couldn’t imagine such a set being thrown into the ocean… 

What is this? 

This.. did a little girl ride the wooden barrel and encounter the accident mid way.. ? 

Chills started creeping up his spine, as he imagined the jaws scene where a three year old is sent away towards a rescue boat on a barrel.. 

A great shark leaps over! The next minute, there’s nothing where the girl should have been.. 

Silence.

…

..

.

No! Absolutely not. The game is just spooking him out, and pranking him. Neil silently put the items away. Nail polishes and nail polish both could act as great kindling. 

If ever there was a bad weather day, they could be very helpful in starting a fire. 

That being said, he now had enough logs to expand his raft. 

Neil expanded the raft he is standing on to include both the rafts it’s connected to by a platform. 

He used a hundred thick planks to expand the raft. 

All he has to do is point to the blue gem with the image of thick plank, and then the plank is set into the place. 

Sure enough, the game elements are life saving. If he really had to get down and make this raft by hand, It would take forever. 

He would have continued building, if not for the message he saw next. 

The blue gem in his hands lit up. 

[ Welcome, Survivors !!! This is an endless ocean, a world full of magic, mystery and water. You are here because your soul has been retrieved early. However, don’t despair! 

Even if you lived, you couldn’t have lived past an hour! You have been given a golden chance to live in this world as compensation. 

Whether you wish to travel, build, or conquer, you can do it all here. 

Four hours have passed since you have entered this world. All of you have figured out how to move forward in this world. 

You are protected during the day. This protection will last for twenty more hours.

Do your best and prepare. 

How long you live after the first day depends solely on yourself. 

So.. Get set! 

Raise your sails!

And ….

…

..

.

GO!!!  ] 

The message lasted for a minute and vanished. 

Then, a new message popped up. 

[ Shark protection ends in Four more hours. ] 

[ For god's sake! Don’t get eaten by sharks. ] 

[ Be better than a goldfish! ] 

Neil looked at the message in fascination. 

He had been in this area for almost a day now. 

What four hours have passed? 

What does this mean? 

…

..

.

HE’S in a TIME LAGGED area? 

Time runs slower here. 

That means.. 

He only got a day to explore the underwater sea. 

It’s better than the rest of the people, for they got only four more hours. 

Fishing can be done later. 

He needs to collect enough sand. 

Plus, he noticed many areas with light. 

They might all hold either systems or skills like treasure hunters. 

While it’s going to take twenty more hours to integrate, he remembered plenty of areas. 

He opened all the other barrels at the speed of light, without even noticing what’s in them. 

Then, he moved to the next area where he remembered a lot of light came from. 

The seaweed here is different. 

It’s like straight rows of corn rather than like seaweed. 

They were extremely easy to pull up when grabbed at their roots, so that’s what Neil did. 

Of course, with work gloves atop scuba gloves. 

After all, his gear is one of it’s kind now, as are the work gloves. 

He doesn’t know if he needs it to clean the poisonous fish in the future. 

So he has to take care not to wear them out too early. 

Even so, he collected a great deal of seaweed before coming up for the air. 

He dumped the entire bushel on his raft, and then, harvested more seaweed once more. 

Instinct told him this thing is definitely useful and valuable.

Is it that the treasure hunter system integrates overtime,and he has a nose for valuable things now? 

Soon, he found a blue gem set in a silver frame. 

It looked like a game console gem. 

Why is it here? 

Wait! It’s not a time to ask how and why. It’s the time to run like a plough through the field and ask questions later. 

Thus, he collected it, and continued cutting the grass. 

Soon, he found two other orbs, which looked very much like the skill orbs he had chosen in the monument there. 

He picked up both orbs, transported them to the raft, then continued cutting the weed.

This is the area with maximum lights he has seen. 

Thus there must be a lot of treasures here.

If the orbs are anything to go by, there must be more. 

Sure enough, there was a crate. 

Only, it’s too heavy.

Neil did not want to open it underwater. He left a buoy at the location, then continued collecting weed. 

When he reached the raft, rather than entering the raft, he opened the skills first. 

After all, one of them might help bring that crate up.

[ Skill : Kraken Cutter ]

[ Rating : SSS+ ] 

[ allows the user to cut a kraken with an imaginary blade. The imaginary blade can only be used to cut Krakens. Can be applied as a buff to blades above ‘S’ grade. ] 

A needlessly powerful skill. 

If he actually reaches the location of the kraken on this raft, he will die far earlier to waves and sea than the real kraken. 

He opened the second skill. 

[ Skill: Sushi master ] 

[ Rating : SSS+ ] 

[ You can cut and prepare any sea creature with perfect ease. ] 

[ Prerequisite: You need to possess minimal knowledge about the sea creature. ] 

Sushi master ? Are you kidding me? 

If I do have minimal knowledge, why do I need your help? Neil cursed. 

Go choke on Tuna, you uppity nerd sushi master! 

Neil was going to continue his creative cursing, but it occurred to him that perhaps he can actually prepare the sea urchin now. 

It’s also a sushi thing, isn’t it? 

Though it probably has way too many germs, he could at least make something out of the sushi master’s skills. 

Thank you, sushi master! I will use your skill well. 

He offered a prayer to the master's soul, then peddled the raft over to the crate.