Yang Yi barely slept in the latter half of the night.
When daylight broke, he decided to get up, tossing the rotten bones he'd been using as a makeshift pillow under the bed. After all this time, the captain’s skeleton should be truly dead.
Yang Yi seemed like a different person. His face was pale, with deep, dark circles under his bloodshot eyes.
As soon as he stepped out of the captain's cabin, he noticed something new on the deck — a statue?
It was a cartoonish octopus monster with wings on its back, crouching on a stone.
"What is this...?" he wondered aloud, and then a notification popped up in his log.
【Last night, 13,000 people successfully defeated monsters, with one person even achieving an impressive double kill!】
【Based on your achievements, the system will reward you with a special talent.】
【Additionally, the Monster Vending Machine is now available. You can insert monster corpses or body parts into the machine to receive rewards. The bodies will be automatically collected. Be careful, don’t throw in garbage or live creatures, or you’ll anger the machine!】
The world chat immediately exploded with excitement.
“There are monsters in this world? What do they look like? Has anyone seen one?”
“Free me, I’ll give you anything you want!”
“There’s a talent reward? I missed out! A skeleton monster knocked on my door last night, but I didn’t open it. If I had known, I would’ve taken the risk.”
“If you had opened it, you might’ve been dead.”
“Monster Vending Machine? Did anyone find this thing?”
“I found mine on the deck. It’s a giant cat face, pretty cute, actually.”
“Mine’s in the cabin, looks like a cartoon robot!”
“Mine’s a clown...freaked me out. It’s in the captain’s room!”
“Are they all different for everyone?”
Yang Yi turned to look at his own Vending Machine — a cartoonish octopus monster with a wide-open mouth and tentacles around its lips, seemingly begging to be fed...
【Reward issued: You have obtained the talent: ???】
【Unlock conditions: ???, Attempts: 0/3.】
What is this? It needed to be unlocked?
Yang Yi checked the world chat again. Others were also asking about the talents that required unlocking. Each person's unlocking condition was different, with some requiring thousands and others a few dozen.
He only needed 3 attempts, which was one of the lowest.
Soon, someone figured out the unlocking conditions, which were usually simple tasks.
“My unlock condition is walking, I need to walk 100,000 steps. So frustrating!”
“That’s nothing! Mine is to breathe 3 million times — totally random…”
“At least you have a goal. Mine is 0/100 with no clue what to do.”
“Maybe you just need to survive 100 days…”
“This system… If you don’t want to give us talents, just don’t give them!”
Yang Yi glanced at his 0/3, shook his head, and decided to leave it to fate.
He walked into the cabin, intending to trade the monster corpses for vending prizes.
The captain’s skeleton couldn’t be used since it was unique, so he only took the severed hand of the Drowned Revenant and tossed it into the Octopus Vending Machine. 1
As soon as he did, the machine's eyes lit up with a red glow, and the tentacles around its mouth started to change colours.
Yang Yi turned the dial on its chest, hearing the sound of vending balls clashing inside.
The atmosphere was intense...
“Such dark humor!” Yang Yi commented.
Soon, a glowing orb rolled out. When Yang Yi picked it up, it transformed into a bottle of eerie blue liquid.
【Name: Resentment of the Drowned】
【Description: Upon consumption, Sanity -20. For one minute, you will be perceived as a Drowned Revenant and will not be attacked by lower-level monsters.】
Yang Yi’s eyes lit up. This could be a useful tool for survival. In similar games, such items would be quite valuable.
The world chat was also buzzing, with people showing off their vending rewards.
【Name: Pale Bone Token】
【Description: Summons a skeleton to fight for you for 15 minutes. After that, it will lose control and turn on the summoner. Upon death, its body will disappear. Cooldown: 24 hours. Make sure you can defeat the skeleton before using it.】
“That’s strong! Sell it to me, I’ll pay a billion!”
“A billion is useless here, we need Shell Coins, and there’s no trading system unless we meet up in person.”
“How about my dagger?”
【Name: Serrated Dagger】
【Description: A short, sharp dagger with a comfortable grip, capable of causing minor damage regardless of its length. Its only downside is that it’s short!】
“Alright, we get it, your knife is short.”
“I wouldn’t buy that weapon, too embarrassing!”
Many people showed off their vending prizes, most being good quality and not excellent. Overall, relics were more effective than treasures, but they often came with sanity loss risks and potential side effects.
Yang Yi’s rusty flintlock could deal moderate harm, whereas most excellent weapons could only cause minor damage. His weapon was far superior, despite its limitations — a single shot per minute, potential misfires, and sanity reduction.
It seemed like a balancing mechanism.
Yang Yi shifted his focus and gulped down half a long-legged sardine. He was starving, and after last night’s ordeal, his concerns had significantly diminished.
To survive, these things didn’t matter.
【Eating the long-legged sardine has reduced your sanity by 2 points.】
The fish had started to go bad but hadn’t yet rotted. It provided some energy and a small amount of water. After finishing the sardine, Yang Yi felt somewhat satiated and checked his status.
After resting overnight, his energy and sanity had gone up, but due to nightmares and insomnia, the recovery was minimal. The wounds hadn’t healed well, and he wasn’t sure if they were infected either...
Status: Injured (The human figure diagram shows the wounded areas in yellow)
He headed to the cabin.
Today’s top priority was to make noise traps.
These monsters weren’t very intelligent, so the traps didn’t need to be too hidden. He just needed to use basic crafting skills to create some long ropes, drill big holes in thin wooden pieces, and string them together.
The wooden pieces were easy to obtain and could be shaped into any cubic form, with one unit roughly equal to a cubic decimetre of wood.
After stringing the wooden pieces together and tying knots to separate them, he hung them in the passageway in front of the captain’s cabin and on the door.
Yang Yi tested it; the sound difference between wind movement and a person bumping into it was quite noticeable, providing some level of early warning.
By the time he finished, the morning had passed, and the wood and fabric he had previously salvaged were all used up.
Yang Yi wasn’t in a hurry to gather more resources. The immediate concern was freshwater. He needed to fish more and keep an eye out for floating supplies, hoping to find a treasure chest.
As he was thinking this, Yang Yi suddenly felt something was wrong. His body felt hot, his face was burning, and his stomach ached.
He immediately became alert and checked his status again.
Status: Injured/Infected with Corpse Poison (Mild)/Food Poisoning) (Mild, Diarrhea) (The entire body has turned yellow, with the wounded areas in a darker shade)
The worst-case scenario had happened — he was infected with corpse poison from the Drowned Revenant!
Out here on the open sea, he had no medicine…