36
After accepting the hidden mission, a 72-hour countdown begins.
Tao Sai finally poured herself a bowl of soup, which she drank cleanly. She stood up, supported her waist, and burped. Then she called to Zhou Ning, who was about to go to the deck, "Tuan Tuan, come with me."
The two men climbed the stairs, passed the cockpit and came to the captain's room. Tao Sai carefully closed the door of the room.
There was a sofa near the door of the captain's room, and a large bed further inside. Tao Sai led Zhou Ning to the innermost side of the bed. From this position, no one outside could hear any talking inside.
Zhou Ning realized the seriousness of the situation and quickly asked, "What's wrong, Taotao?"
"Tuantuan, I have to leave for a few days for something." Tao Sai said.
"How many days? Where are you going?" Zhou Ning asked in surprise.
"I'm going back to the Yangtze River."
"Why are you going back?" Zhou Ning firmly objected. "No, it's too dangerous! You can't go back!"
As the insect swarm spreads across the world, the end of the world has begun. Unpredictable dangers may appear everywhere, especially along the Yangtze River, which is the hardest hit area by the insect swarm.
"Tuantuan, don't worry. Listen to me," Tao Sai patiently comforted Zhou Ning as he sat down. "There's something I haven't told you yet, and I think now's the right time. Actually, when I was reborn, I also connected to the game system."
"What?" Zhou Ning's face was filled with disbelief.
Tao Sai's expression remained serious. "I have nothing to hide from you. You believed me when I first told you about my rebirth. It shouldn't be hard for you to believe it now, right?"
Zhou Ning's brain seemed to have shut down, and he nodded after a while.
"Okay, then listen to me carefully next." Tao Sai moved closer to Zhou Ning and lowered her voice deliberately to prevent others from hearing her. She briefly introduced some of the main functions of the shelter ship system, and then explained to her some things that happened in the past few days, as well as her speculation about "Insect Tide Online", a game with the whole world as a map and all human beings as NPCs.
In fact, Zhou Ning often read novels in bed at night when she was a student. She had certainly come into contact with and understood the two incredible fantasy elements of rebirth and system, but when they actually happened to herself and the people around her, she still felt shocked and incredible.
But she still listened to everything Tao Sai said and remembered all the details carefully.
"After I leave, you will be fully responsible for this ship." Tao Sai entrusted her with an important task.
The reason for explaining this to Zhou Ning in such detail was because she had been assigned the position of first mate. Tao Sai had figured that if something happened to her, the system functions would most likely be transferred to Zhou Ning, so she needed to be mentally prepared.
Zhou Ning nodded hesitantly, still in the process of digesting a large amount of information.
"You must keep confidential what I tell you." Tao Sai emphasized.
"Okay, Taotao, I swear I won't tell anyone." Zhou Ning raised three fingers and swore seriously.
Tao Sai had no doubt that Zhou Ning would betray him, but he was worried that she might let the cat out of the bag unconsciously, so he emphasized it specifically to form a conditioned reflex in her mind.
Tao Sai said, "When I'm not around, you must be vigilant and be on guard against others."
In fact, there are quite a lot of people on the boat now, including many men, including Zhou Weixing, Liang Yuanzhou, An Nan's brother An Song, as well as Lan's father and Lin's father. If they encounter a few people looking for trouble, they can still deal with it.
Moreover, after Zhou Ning was appointed as the first mate, the buff [captain] of the refuge ship, the first mate, was second in line. In other words, Tao Sai would still be authoritative even without Zhou Ning, and the command could be unified without internal strife.
Having said that, Tao Sai opened the [Character] module on the main panel and clicked on the skill list. Because this journey was too dangerous, she needed to equip herself with two A-level skills, leaving the others to Zhou Ning and the others.
"I have two combat skills, one is [Charge] and the other is [Leverage]. Which one do you want to equip?" Tao Sai asked.
Tao Sai had already introduced the specific functions of the two skills to her. Zhou Ning made a choice after thinking for a moment.
"Taotao, I need [someone's strength]." Zhou Ning said.
She considered that her own strength attribute was not high, and it would be more effective to use [Borrowing Strength] instead of doubling it through [Storing Strength], and steal 80% of his strength at the critical moment of fighting with others.
As for the [Charge], it was equipped on Zhou Weixing. Her father, though fifty, played soccer with his friends for hours almost every weekend and was constantly active, so his stamina rivaled that of many younger men. Furthermore, skills needed to be assigned to a character, and Zhou Weixing was the only male character currently aboard the Deep Sea Fish. The others weren't loyal enough to meet the minimum recruitment requirements.
Tao Sai took two steps toward the bed, bent down and opened the cabinet on the side of the bed. Inside the cabinet, wrapped in a white towel, was a pitch-black T7 pistol.
Tao Sai actually had two T7 guns: one she'd snatched from Jiang Yiming, and the other she'd gotten from the [Newbie Gift Pack]. She kept one for herself, and this one she planned to give to Zhou Ning.
Zhou Ning couldn't help but gasp when she saw this thing, but at Tao Sai's signal, she still took the heavy iron lump in her hand.
"Because it's a game prop, the recoil of this gun is actually very small," Tao Sai said casually. "I've already loaded the magazine with bullets. There are five rounds in total."
"That's how you load the gun," Zhou Ning said, reaching out to grip the slide and making a backwards push motion. "Didn't I play CS:GO with you before? It's just like playing a game. Aim and pull the trigger. Don't be afraid."
"Yeah!" Zhou Ning took a deep breath, gripped the gun tightly and nodded vigorously.
In fact, she was still scared, but in order to reassure Taotao, she had to act stronger.
Tao Sai said, "Let's put the guns in the captain's cabin. We won't use them unless absolutely necessary."
Donghai City is far away from the center of the disaster, and the fishing boat dock will not be in chaos for a while. As long as you don't show your weakness or wealth, there will be no danger.
Speaking of leaking money, Tao Sai thought a little more, "Oh, by the way, don't let Aunt Li and Grandma Zhou cook for the time being. Everyone around here is stockpiling food, and we're still enjoying the good life. It's too extravagant and it also attracts attention."
"I think so too." Zhou Ning completely agreed.
Her mother and grandmother were cooking in the kitchen, and the aroma of the food was spreading everywhere. When some people couldn't eat, they would inevitably get conjunctivitis.
In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, everyone will have to just eat bread and compressed biscuits during this period.
With that much to go on, Tao Sai began to prepare for her departure. She changed into a pair of tapered overalls, donned tactical boots, tightened each lace, strapped a saber to her leg, and finally tied her hair into a neat ponytail.
Zhou Ning looked at her silently, then suddenly said, "Taotao, do you really have to do this hidden mission? I've been thinking about it, if we hide and run away, wouldn't it be okay?"
Tao Sai shook his head and answered her, "The threat exists, and I must eliminate it."
Between solving the problem once and for all and living in constant fear, she chose the former.
Zhou Ning looked worried: "You must be careful."
"Don't worry, I won't do anything risky. I will know my limits." Tao Sai said calmly, standing up and preparing to go out.
Zhou Ning hurriedly chased after her, then ran out of the cockpit before her. "Taotao, wait for me. I'll ask my mom to prepare some food for you on the way."
"Okay." Tao Sai responded and slowly followed.
She went down to the deck and checked her experience bar once more. She'd accumulated 63,542 experience points with the combined efforts of the entire ship in Nanzhou City, and had originally intended to save them all for upgrading the shelter ship. Now, she wasn't going to save them all; she'd use them all and even leveled herself up.
[Character [Taosai] successfully upgraded (Lv5→Lv6)! ]
She casually clicked on her own panel attributes.
【Tao Sai [female]
Star rating: ★☆
Level: 6
Experience: 32768/131072
property
Intelligence: 6/100
Strength: 20/100
Physical strength: 6/100
Agility: 7/100
Resistance: 8/100
Skills: [Clone · Level 1], [Gravity Adaptation · Level 1]
It's level 6 now, and most of the attributes have been improved. As expected, the strength value has increased by 4 points, almost reaching level 30.
Tao Sai couldn't help but hold her forehead with her hand. When would she be able to get rid of the label of a super-strong woman?
The previous 16 points of strength allowed her to challenge the middle-aged men who frequented the gym, and now it has been improved to a higher level. If supplemented by the blessing of [Charge], she really feels that she can kill a grown bull that has just been enraged by a bullfighter with one punch.
However, Tao Sai would never do that. She just increased the strength of her punches, but the strength of her muscles and bones could not keep up. When she punched out, the reaction force acted on her body and she broke her bones first.
Tao Sai took two steps forward, intending to lift the storage box full of soil to test the feeling of 20 points of strength, but she had just taken two steps when she suddenly realized something was wrong.
I have the illusion that this body doesn't belong to me.
In the past, every time I upgraded, I felt a little discomfort. That was because my brain hadn't adapted to the sudden changes in my body, and it usually disappeared after a few days.
But now this feeling of discomfort is particularly strong. Tao Sai guessed that it was because the gap between his current body and his original body was getting bigger and bigger.
She moved her arms and legs. Her arms were still her arms, but the movements felt strangely unfamiliar.
She tried to take two more steps, trying to control the movement of her legs and arms, and then realized, with a start, that she was limping. The coordination between her hands and feet was extremely poor, as if they were newly installed mechanical prostheses.
After continuously exercising his hands and feet on the deck, Tao Sai was gradually able to walk in a straight line, and his turning was also much improved. After a few more hours of practice, he should be able to walk normally.
This is another difference between "Insect Tide Online" and "Insect Tide". In the game, you can upgrade your character to any level without any impact, but "Insect Tide Online" seems to have added a more logical patch.
Tao Sai stopped to catch her breath. Fortunately, she still had enough time to adapt to this body.
From this she became more careful and decided not to upgrade during a battle, otherwise if her body couldn't adapt, she would be doomed.
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