Chapter 87
Rotten fish and shrimp are worthless. Xia Mo's face turned pale as he threw the rotten blue mackerel back into the water.
Professional matters should be done by professionals.
While she was getting more and more ruthless, Fenghuo was getting more and more successful.
"Wow, a deformed anglerfish! I'm so lucky!"
"Wow, the devil shark, it's so big!"
"Blackfin tuna! This is valuable, hahaha!"
…
His excited voice echoed over and over again in the narrow cliff waterway.
Tang Sheng looked at it with envy: "Fenghuo, please give me some of your luck, it's really good."
Ever since he entered the cliff, his luck has plummeted like a cliff. He has been there for several hours and has not caught any big fish, only small fish and shrimps, which made him speechless.
He didn't necessarily want to compete with Fenghuo, but when he thought of the two ships that had just chased them and tried to climb up by stepping on their heads, he felt very unhappy.
Not wanting to let that group of people succeed, he held back his anger and went fishing like crazy.
Who knew that as soon as he entered the cliff, he lost his condition. Tang Sheng sighed, and his back as he squatted on the ground was filled with two words - helplessness.
Fortunately, the other two people on the boat were very helpful.
Needless to say, Taotao performed as steadily as ever. Although the quality of the fish she caught was not as good as Fenghuo's, she could definitely be ranked second.
As for the swordsman, her luck was a little better than the previous two days. She didn't often catch deformed species, but she caught a lot of them, and she stuffed them into the warehouse according to the grids occupied by the fish. This greatly increased the interest rate of the warehouse, which was also a disguised way to increase the team's inventory.
Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye the sun began to set again.
Seeing that the boat didn't seem to be heading home, Tao Tao couldn't help but ask, "Mo Se, aren't we going back to Yayaluo Town tonight?"
Xia Mo was looking at a map. Hearing this, he hummed, "Well, I'm not going back."
"So which pier are we staying at today?" Taotao asked as she opened the map.
His eyes swept from left to right, over the area near the Geta Cliff. After finding that there was no dock to dock at, a look of worry rose on his face.
Hearing the concern in Taotao's tone, Xia Mo turned his gaze back to the front, his eyes as calm as her face: "It's at the Geta Cliff."
"Huh? Right on the cliff?!"
Before Taotao could be surprised, Fenghuo opened his mouth wide with shock on his face.
He freed one hand and pointed at the steep cliffs on both sides. His usually fluent mouth suddenly stammered, "B-but if we don't return to the dock at night, our ship... will be attacked by sea monsters!"
On the first day out to sea, he did not listen to Xia Mo's advice and returned to the dock late, which led to him being attacked by a giant octopus lurking underwater.
Ever since that thrilling experience, he now suffers from PTSD and starts panicking whenever he sees the sunset at sea.
Not only him, Tang Sheng also felt a little scared.
Alman is a typical agricultural planet with scarce water resources. The inhabitants who grew up on this planet have always had a natural awe... and fear of the vast ocean.
It’s okay during the day because there’s sunlight and I don’t feel scared.
But when the only natural light source disappeared, darkness enveloped the entire sea, and with the ups and downs of the sea water beneath him, Tang Sheng always felt that something was watching them underwater, which made him feel creepy.
Now that night was approaching, Tang Sheng's heart suddenly began to beat fast when he learned that the ship would not return to the safe town of Yayaluo.
The swordsman didn't say anything, but from the way she stared at him, Xia Mo understood that everyone on the ship was waiting for her to explain.
She turned the rudder towards the exit, and just before the boat was about to sail out, she spoke slowly.
"Those two ships won't let us go easily. They'll definitely be waiting near the cliffs during the day, waiting for us to show up."
"But they can't stay there forever. For their own safety, they must leave the cliff and head towards the dock before the mountain sets."
Taotao understood what she meant and nodded thoughtfully: "That's why we've been wandering around inside the cliff and haven't left yet."
Xia Mo: "Yes, when the sun sets, we can drive out of the cliff. But..."
As the bow of the boat sailed out of the cliff exit, she narrowed her eyes and observed the surrounding sea conditions. After confirming that the two ships chasing them had indeed left, she continued, "But we can't return to the dock."
"If we go to the nearby dock, we'll likely run into those two ships, and then another fierce battle will be inevitable. We're one against two, and the gap in combat power is huge, so the risk of losing is even greater. And if we lose, our third place position is 100% lost."
"Instead of going to the nearby dock, we're heading straight back to Yayalo. You should know how long the sea route back is. We might not be able to get back until 3 or 4 in the morning. By then, returning to the dock to rest won't make much sense. It will only make us more tired and affect our fishing the next day."
Long journeys on the sea without rest will cause the player's fatigue value to increase, just like running out of physical strength on land. Once it exceeds a critical point, the player will be plagued by many debuffs, which is not worth the effort.
Taotao nodded as she listened: "And maybe we'll encounter a sea monster on the way back."
Xia Mo: "That's right. So after comprehensive consideration, I decided to stay outside the cliff tonight. There are no falling rocks here. The only thing we need to watch out for at night is the sea monster."
Compared to fighting back at the dock or traveling a long distance back to the town, staying where you are is indeed the best option at the moment.
After hearing her explanation, Fenghuo suddenly realized: "So that's how it is!"
Why didn't he think of that? Instead, he just saw the cliff as a cliff, without a single thought.
It seems that the gap between him and the big boss has not narrowed at all, and even has a tendency to continue to widen.
Fenghuo admired him and sighed in his heart. He didn't know when he would be able to make a name for himself in his own field like the big boss.
While I was thinking secretly, the boat had already docked steadily outside the cliff.
There is no dock here, so the boat cannot be docked normally by dropping anchor. The only thing left is to rely on the helmsman's familiarity with the sea and the boat to control the boat in this area and prevent it from being carried away by the flowing sea water.
In the deep dark sea at night, the light on the bow is their only light.
Everyone looked at her straight back, resolute and steady, as if nothing could shake her. She was like a magic needle that stabilized the sea, firmly inserted into everyone's heart, making a few people who were originally a little uneasy feel completely at ease.
There were also fish to catch outside the cliff. Thinking that the warehouse was not full yet, everyone sat down and continued their fishing.
The types of fish at night are slightly different from those during the day. For example, conger eels, manta rays, and striped sawfish can only be caught at night. These fish that only appear at night are generally 5%-10% more expensive than daytime fish.
After just a short while of fishing, everyone seemed to have made a lot of money.
Unfortunately, they were unable to unload the goods today and the warehouse quickly became packed.
Seeing that they couldn't even squeeze in a small fish, everyone had to give up and prepare to take a break to recover from their fatigue so as not to affect the next day's fishing.
However, plans cannot keep up with changes.
The more the players want something, the more the system seems to refuse to let them get what they want.
Xia Mo, who had a sense of danger, suddenly realized that something was coming rapidly towards the bottom of their boat from the deep sea.
The swordsman immediately frowned and grasped his sword: "Something is coming up!"
Xia Mo hummed solemnly, started the engine and rushed forward.
The water surface vibrated, the ship rocked, and everyone on board gripped their weapons tightly, their nerves tense.
About 3 seconds later, just 1 meter away from the stern, a milky white multi-legged creature with a huge shell jumped out of the sea!
Tang Sheng immediately exclaimed: "Is this a prehistoric animal?!" It's so big!
Its body was about the same length as their power boat, and it looked like a shrimp and a centipede. Under its hard white shell, pairs of legs longer than their arms were wriggling wildly, looking so disgusting that a trypophobic patient would faint at the mere sight of them.
"...Well, um, none of us should have trypophobia or gigantic fear, right?" Fenghuo's lips trembled again when he felt scared.
No one paid any attention to him, but silence was the best answer.
"Ah, it's good that there's no one here, it's good that there's no one here..." Fenghuo made an Amitabha gesture on his chest, then raised his weapon, ready to attack.
But he was stopped by the swordsman: "Don't do it."
"Why?"
The swordsman's face was calm: "I have a feeling that we'd better not provoke it."
Otherwise, you will die without a complete body.
Based on their interactions over the past few days, Fenghuo and Tang Sheng already knew that she possessed an unusually high level of perception. If she said not to provoke her, it meant that she really should not be provoked.
Hearing the sound, Fenghuo quickly retracted his weapon, looking as if he had almost lost his life.
As the swordsman said, they were no match for this prehistoric sea monster. Xia Mo also had no intention of fighting it. He pushed the engine to full throttle and started to escape around the outside of the cliff.
However, the prehistoric sea monster seemed to have set its sights on them and refused to let go, chasing them madly at the stern of the ship.
Xia Mo tried to get rid of it several times, but failed.
In a moment of urgency, Fenghuo panicked and suggested: "Boss! Why don't we go into the cliff again!"
The inside of the cliff is narrow, and the big shelled centipede will definitely get stuck.
Xia Mo refused coldly: "No."
When she passed the entrance of the cliff several times, she had thought about going in, but they had seen how narrow and winding the waterway in the cliff was during the day.
We have to drive carefully even in the sunlight, let alone at night?
Xia Mo didn't think it was a good idea to do this just to get rid of the sea monster.
Hearing her refusal, Fenghuo couldn't help but wail: "What should I do then?"
“No big deal,” Xia Mo replied in his heart.
This time they had no tricks, and the only way to escape danger was to maintain the boat speed at gear 3 and run forward as hard as they could!
When the sun rises, these sea monsters that appear at night sink into the sea.
There are still three full hours until sunrise, which is only 3.75 minutes when converted to mainland time.
Although it is less than 4 minutes, at the speed of life and death, all senses become particularly sensitive, and every minute and second, every breath will be captured in detail by the person involved. In the same amount of time, the brain processes more things, giving the person the illusion that time is passing extremely slowly.
At this moment, everyone on the ship, including Xia Mo, was so nervous that they couldn't breathe.
The ship sped across the black sea, leaving a long trail of waves, and a prehistoric sea monster was chasing it from behind, making shrill screams.
Sweat, fatigue, dizziness, and blurred vision.
The negative state brought about by long-term rest at sea began to occupy everyone's mind, especially Xia Mo, who was concentrating on driving the boat. His fatigue value increased the fastest and was about to break the critical point.
She hurriedly drank a bottle of stamina potion.
But I received a system warning: [Physical strength potion is for mainland use, and its use is prohibited in the sea area.]
Damn, there are even distinctions between usage areas!
Xia Mo cursed the planner in his heart. After cursing, he still had to bite the bullet and run forward.
[Warning! Your fatigue level has reached its upper limit. Please rest immediately!]
The moment Xia Mo received the system message, he immediately took his hands off the rudder.
She staggered back a few steps, seemed to say something, and then fell sideways on the deck with a thud.
Taotao, who still had some strength left, heard her last instructions, strode forward and took over her duties.
But although she was taking over, she actually didn't need to do anything else, because Xia Mo had already steered the bow of the ship, and she just needed to keep the direction correct.
After sailing about 100 meters, a beam of morning light shone into the sea, and also into the vision of everyone on the boat.
The prehistoric sea monster was afraid of the sunlight. The moment it saw the sun rising, it screamed in dissatisfaction, dived into the water, and disappeared without a trace.
Oh my god, they survived!
Several people looked at the disappearing sea monster and then at the faint light in front of them. Having survived the disaster, they had never felt that the sunrise was so desirable!
A few minutes later, Xia Mo woke up, and his fatigue level, which had exceeded the critical point, dropped rapidly after resting.
She returned to the helm and brought the bow back a half circle.
In the quiet ocean area, no one knew that a ship had experienced a thrilling chase with a prehistoric sea monster last night. Like a victorious triumphant, the power boat sang all the way back to the familiar dock.
After selling the goods in the warehouse, they earned a total of 9,800 points, which secured their third place, and they even had a tendency to move up one more place.
On the team leaderboard, the two teams couldn't help but be shocked when they saw their points suddenly soar.
"Weren't they trapped in the Geta Cliffs last night? When did they get back to the dock?!"
"At night? We'll be guarding the entrances and exits during the day."
"It's also possible that they didn't go back on their own initiative, but were resurrected at the dock after death?"
Someone suggested that Xia Mo and the others had returned dead, but his teammates immediately shook their heads and denied it.
"Probably not. Returning to the dock would require expensive repairs, and all the fish on board would escape. Not only would they not make any money, they'd actually lose money. But look, they made a net profit of 9,800 points, which is more than we earned yesterday..."
When the speaker mentioned that there were more people than themselves, he looked at the sorcerer with a livid face and lowered his voice deliberately.
He didn't say anything more after that, but everyone understood what he meant.
The ship that the female star official was on not only did not encounter any accidents on the cliff yesterday, but also made a lot of money in it. Finally, while they were away, they concealed the truth and sold all the goods in the warehouse.
No one knew how they survived the cliff, or how they lived until sunrise without docking. The second-ranked team sighed and lamented, and finally, they all came to the same conclusion - don't mess with that ship, otherwise they would lose their own ranking.
"Yesterday you agreed to give us half of the sea fish. When will you give it to us?"
The captain of the second boat planned to terminate the cooperation.
The warlock sneered, "Didn't I tell you that the prerequisite for transferring the fish to you is that you help us climb to third place?"
Now, let alone the third place, even the fourth place is not certain to be stable. The male warlock was furious, and when he saw that the other party had the nerve to come and ask for the fish, he couldn't help but add a bit of sarcasm to his tone.
When the crew of the second ship saw that he had changed his mind, they immediately picked up their weapons and were ready to attack.
But they were stopped by their captain.
Several crew members were dissatisfied.
"Captain, it was because of them that we had to divert a lot of energy to patrol outside the cliff yesterday. If we hadn't agreed to their request, we wouldn't have caught so few fish yesterday!"
"That's right, Captain. They went back on their word. We can't swallow this!"
The captain frowned coldly: "Swallow it even if you can't!"
They believed the fourth boat's lies yesterday, which caused them to lose 4,000 points. If they do it again today, the loss will be more than just 4,000 points.
The activity will be settled today. Between not taking action and holding back and fishing for points, reason tells him that he must choose the latter.
After he yelled at them, the crew members all shut up.
The second boat set sail and started the final points chase of the day.
Seeing this, the people on the fourth boat also followed behind and started fishing to grab points.
This is everyone's last chance. At this moment, all the players in the sea map began to scramble for fish frantically, fearing that they would be caught up by latecomers if they slowed down.
I don't know how long it took, but the system's voice sounded above my head:
The first week of the Sea Adventure event has concluded. Congratulations to players "xx", "xxx"... for taking first place in this week's team, receiving +1000 gold coins and +1000 Sea Reputation.
The first week of the Sea Adventure event has ended. Congratulations to player "xx" for winning the single-player first place this week, receiving +800 gold coins and +800 Sea Reputation.
The system announced both team first and individual first place.
Fenghuo raised his chin, looked at the huge golden text above his head, and said with envy, "Hey, I wish my ID could appear on it someday."
Xia Mo glanced at his envious expression and smiled: "It will happen."
Fenghuo's mining level has reached the intermediate level. His improvement speed is not very fast, but it is definitely not slow. Moreover, he is resilient and has strong perseverance. He usually stays in the mine for a whole day without any rest.
With this perseverance, Xia Mo believes that sooner or later he will stand at the top of the mining industry.
Tang Sheng didn't envy others. He was quite surprised that they could get third place this time.
What made him even more excited was that he achieved this achievement together with Mo Se, the boss he admired the most!
Thinking of the sea materials accumulated this week, Tang Sheng thought about it and finally plucked up the courage to tell her that he was a game commentator and that he had used her in-game operations for technical analysis.
As he said these words, he kept licking his lips and was extremely nervous.
Because he knows that some players like to be promoted as role models, but some people don't want to.
He was worried that Mo Se was the latter. If that was the case, even if he loved her performance, he could no longer use her as material.
My heart is uneasy.
He licked his lips for who knows how many times when he heard the person in front of him answer: "Yes."
Tang Sheng:!!!
He raised his eyelids excitedly and looked straight at Xia Mo.
Xia Mo gave him a faint smile: "Why, don't you want me to agree?"
Tang Sheng shook his head frantically: "No, no, no! I want to, of course I want to! I, I'm just too happy... I didn't expect that you, big boss, would actually be willing to appear on camera!"
Few people recognized the work he loved, not to mention that the person who recognized him now was the person he admired the most. For some reason, Tang Sheng suddenly became jealous as he spoke.
"Oh, sorry... I think I got a little too excited..."
He turned his head and wiped his tears quickly.
Fenghuo saw this and, for once, turned around and patted his shoulder, saying with a serious expression, "Brother Tang, don't be shy. If you want to be a big boss's pendant, crying is a necessary skill. Look at me."
As he spoke, he patted his chest with great pride: "I cried like this back then! So, if you want to cry, just cry! Cry openly. Come, I'll give you my shoulder to lean on. I guarantee it'll be strong!"
Tang Sheng: ...Thank you. He suddenly didn’t want to cry anymore.
Seeing Fenghuo deliberately teasing Tang Sheng, Taotao covered her mouth and giggled.
Xia Mo looked at her: "How are you doing recently?"
Tao Tao was stunned for a moment, then lowered her head embarrassedly: "You saw through it."
Xia Mo smiled as a confirmation.
Tao Tao looked off into the distance and sighed softly, "Didn't you ask me before why my brother Ye Zi wasn't online?"
"My parents...are divorced."
"I was awarded to my father and continued to stay on Alman Star; Ye Zi was awarded to my mother, and my mother took him to the Capital Star. Isn't there a 'Protoss' on the Capital Star? That's why he hasn't been online these days."
"Mo Se, do you know?" Tao Tao suddenly became serious. "Protoss is more than just a game to me now. It's my hope, my aspiration. I always feel that as long as I work hard enough, strive to become an excellent hunter, and strive to reach the top of the professional rankings, one day I will be able to see my brother again in the game."
Xia Mo didn't know the situation at Taotao's home, so it was hard for her to guess why the two of them could never meet again. But at this moment, she suddenly understood why, when she watched Taotao's hunter skills, although she found them pleasing to the eye, each move revealed a sense of forbearance and indomitable spirit.
It turns out that as early as this time, everything had a traceable path.
As if to encourage Fenghuo, Xia Mo arched his eyebrows and looked at Taotao seriously: "Your feeling is right, you will definitely see Ye Zi."
Hearing her words, Tao Tao's eyebrows were surprised for a moment, and then her willow-shaped eyebrows raised a tiny arc: "Thank you Mo Se, I will lend you my auspicious words."
Several people dispersed on the spot. After taking a break from their memories, Xia Mo began to look through the gains from this sea activity.
Each of them who came in third received 600 gold coins + 600 sea reputation points + 10,000 experience points.
In addition, she also obtained some miscellaneous things that were only produced in the sea, such as clam shells, which are the raw materials that blacksmiths particularly like to use to forge equipment; red corals, which are the pharmacists' favorite medicinal materials; and underwater night pearls with complex properties, which can be used for forging, medicine, and cooking ingredients.
After simply sorting the things into categories, Xia Mo kept the materials he needed for forging and prepared to sell the rest.
After doing all this, the fatigue that had been deliberately suppressed suddenly rushed to my brain.
After a full three hours of guild battles, plus two days and two nights (actually one hour) of sea battles, even though she had a better physique than other players, she was exhausted.
Xia Mo quickly pulled out the little black horse and ran back to the royal city, checked into a hotel, and quickly logged off before he ran out of energy and was about to faint.
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