Treasure hunting in endless ocean

Short of Seaweed

[ Unable to build super light processed gel raft planks due to lack of materials.] 

[ Need 10000 blue seaweed, 10000 green seaweed, 100000 brown seaweed, .. … 

… 

…

.. 1000 logs] 

The amount of seaweed that goes in there is more than huge. 

I need a seaweed harvester at this rate, Neil grumbled to himself. 

It’s far too much. 

He gave it up directly, and looked at all the research messages. 

The fishing rod has been assembled. It seems it’s an auto feature. As long as all elements of a particular item are present in his inventory, they become the final item automatically. 

However, the same thing does not happen if two things could be made with the parts. 

He has collected plenty of sand and clay during this time of collecting orbs. 

Many things seem to have been made with the clay he collected. 

For now, there’s a special soil prepared for planting grains, legumes, flowers, vegetables and fruits. 

The logs are all converted into thick planks and he extended the raft immediately. 

The sharks will be here soon. 

While there are many research items, he could see none of them proceed at the moment due to lack of iron. 

The treasure hunter system has one more hour to integrate completely. 

He made the raft extend horizontally, farming a line of connected rectangles. 

As long as he turns his round raft with the long arm, he could reach many lighted places. 

Instead of swimming, he could just walk over to an area, dive into water right where resources are.

Best of this option is that as long as he touches this long arm, he could use his heart gem, and store all the items, see the progress on the research station and work station. 

He could get any of the items in there, or just point and build with any items in there. 

[ 00.03 till the treasure hunter system integrates completely.]

[ 00.02 till the treasure hunter system integrates completely.]

[ 00.01 till the treasure hunter system integrates completely.]

[ Congratulations!!! You are now a qualified Treasure hunter. ] 

[ Rise up and move fast! ] 

[ Treasure loves the fast and bold. ] 

[ What are you doing? Time’s a wastin! ] 

[ Hop on! Down that sail !] 

[ For god’s sake, move fast! ] 

Neil looked at the silly messages which are popping up all over the console like a virus, decisively closed all of them. 

[ Treasure hunter! How could you treat your loyal servant so?!!!] 

[ I can make you world’s richest man if only you follow me? ] 

[ Do you want to follow me to riches? ] (yes)(no)

[ or you want to stay in slums for ever? ] (yes)(no) 

Neil ruthlessly chose no on the former, and yes on the later.

Sure, he wants to be the richest man in the world just like his neighbour, but he did not want to do so by following a suspicious telemarketing system. 

And where does this little system get off saying he is going to stay in slums forever? 

He is doing just fine on his own. 

He opened a damned SSS+ crate that no one ever did in a thousand years. 

Thousand years! Do you hear me? 

What is this body-less little twerp saying to him? 

“ Shut it Jack! I can pirate just fine on my own.” he cursed at the system. 

[ You have given a name to your system. ] 

[ You activated the highest level of the treasure hunter system, Jack!] 

[ F***! You flea bitten teeth rotting fishy smelling .. son of a b*tc* ! … ] 

The curses are endless from Jack. 

“Shut up.” Neil commanded. 

The sound of wind whistling by is so soothing. It’s almost like a silence that comes in a concert arena right after very loud music goes silent all of a sudden. 

Sweet silence!

Neil opened the console first. 

Sure enough, there’s a new tab there. 

It said treasure hunter. He opened the tab. 

It has a map there, of a circle and numerous glittering stars in there. 

The treasures are rated from iron to mythical. The hierarchy being iron < bronze < copper < silver < gold < platinum < diamond < legendary < relic < mythical. 

That’s one too many grades, but looking at the explanation made him understand legendary to mythical do not quite refer to objects but to boss level monsters or similarly dangerous escapades. 

After all, the demon king equals the ‘ring that rules them all’, according to Tolkien. 

Unless you kill the demon king, you won’t get the ring that rules them all. 

It works similarly. 

There’s a function to map as well.

Better yet, there’s a function that navigates the raft in a direction that’s inline with the current, and goes through all the treasures. 

Since there’s enough wood, Neil had built a paddle wheel. 

It increased his ability to move. 

First, he anchored the raft at the beginning of the circle. He is searching in a sweep, one eighth of the circle at a time. 

All the items he found are put directly into the inventory, or towed forward with him to be dumped at the edge of the next search section. 

This way, he is always moving in the direction of current, giving him enough leeway to move to the next location. 

Good thing is most of the items he picked up are directly consumed by the research. 

Meanwhile, the items manufactured, but not redeemed at the workstation are kept there forever, giving him an indirect way of storing infinite resources. 

He had a feeling it would not be like this forever, so he wanted to take advantage of it while he could. 

All the mud and clay in every pit is collected, and two more skill orbs were gathered, along with five more heart gems. 

He threw the orbs and the heart gems in their respective barrels, and moved to the next section. 

Neil did not sleep. 

He had plenty of time to sleep tomorrow, when sharks become active. 

Neil has finished scouring the outer two rings of the map. 

When he opens the map, all he sees are iron and bronze level resources. 

These are pearl oysters, seaweed, and clay, which gets regenerated once he collected them. They will always be there. 

The innermost ring of the map is a whirlpool. No one knows where it’s draining to, but Neil is sure if he accidentally gets sucked in, he will die. 

The second ring is full of logs, barrels, and very ambiguous looking crates. 

He anchored his raft in the ring, against the current. The raft is shaped like a round tip arrow. 

The entire outer layer, he made collection nets. 

He kept making rounds between collection nets to collect logs. 

In no time at all, he seems to have collected thousands of logs. 

Then, for the first time, he received a message. 

[ Do you wish to add super light processed gel planks to the wish list ? ] (yes)(no) 

[ Adding a building to wishlist consumes the resources needed automatically. ] 

[ The resources allocated can not be retrieved. ] 

Oh! That’s awesome. 

His inventory doesn’t have much space compared to the items he wished to build. 

This way, he can add a building to wishlist, and keep collecting all the resources needed for it. 

If nothing else, he has a resource rain here. 

Thus, he kept collecting logs, barrels and crates. 

In between, the banana leaf is changed above the water purifier. 

He drank enough water to fill his belly twice now. 

After all, he got an endless supply of only water, not food. So, he could fill his hungry stomach with nothing but water now. 

Soon, the number of logs needed for creating gel planks are collected. 

However, the working time for the upgrade is one entire day. 

Neil could imagine how much time it might take in reality just from this alone. 

At this point, he looked at his first surprise. 

A bronze drum. 

This is the first time he is seeing one. 

The sea is full of logs, so, for the first time, he used a hook tied to rope to bring that barrel near him. 

Thankfully, the barrel is already coming his way, and it’s easy to drag it on to his raft. 

[ collection station blueprint, cooking station blueprint, 20 mana stones ] 

Neil immediately submitted the blueprints to the research station. 

[ Building collection station ] 

[ Items needed : 20 thick planks, 20 processed ropes, 1 mana stone ] 

[ Build collection station ?  ] (yes)(no) 

Neil built it immediately. 

The collection station is a square block with mana stone sitting in the central position atop it. 

The ropes formed a ring around it, and connected each and every one of the collection nets around the raft. 

Neil checked the messages immediately. 

The items are being collected automatically into inventory. 

He breathed a sigh of relief. 

He dearly hoped with this, he would at least be able to eliminate the disparity that happened with all the other players with higher skill. 

It’s the morning of the next day. 

It’s the first time in his life he has been awake for more than twenty four hours. 

He drank another basin of water to quell the hunger in his stomach, and sat on the stool, observing the sea in front of him. 

Suddenly, a palm length fin cut through the water in front of him. 

The sharks are here, right on time !