Starting With a Reef [Global Survival]

Late at night.

Yun Luohe had just finished a serving of meat sauce noodles. The taste was incredible.
She sat on a bench, holding up a plastic umbrella with one hand, a fishing rod in her right hand, and gripping the fishing net rope with the other, her eyes fixed on the surface of the sea.
She’d been fishing for ages, but there wasn’t even a single bite—no movement at all.

Yun Luohe figured it was probably because she wasn’t using any bait. With the hook completely bare, it was no wonder she couldn’t catch anything.
The problem was, where was she supposed to get bait?
If the soil were more fertile, she might have tried digging around to see if she could find worms.

But the dry, cracked dirt was barely good enough for growing vegetables, let alone finding bugs or worms in it.
"Maybe I could try using some steamed bun."
She didn’t have much fishing experience. She’d hardly fished before, so she didn’t really know what worked well as bait—especially since fishing in the sea was different from fishing in rivers.

She remembered seeing someone mention catching fish in the chat the other day. There were probably some expert fishers among the players. Maybe she could ask around on the forum.
Without hesitation, Yun Luohe opened the forum.
It had only been a day, and there weren’t many posts yet.

Since the forum required real-name posts, most people just said what they wanted in the chat channels instead.
The forum was mainly used to share tips and ask for help.
The game had only been live for a few days, so there weren’t many guides—just mostly help requests.

The top post was:
#If you’re good at swimming, can you just jump into the sea?#
It had over three hundred replies. Yun Luohe couldn’t resist clicking in.
The early replies were all saying not to go into the sea. If there were sea monsters, you’d be done for.

Around the 30th reply, a player said it was possible. If you were good at swimming, you could try snorkeling. There were a lot of fish visible underwater, but it was best not to dive too deep.
After that, more people responded saying they tried going into the sea and saw tons of fish schools. But they couldn’t catch any—the fish swam too fast.
Someone even got disoriented underwater and lost track of their reef. They kept swimming until they ran out of stamina and fainted. When they woke up, they were back on their reef, but their body felt terrible—probably caught a cold.
In the latest replies, someone said they jumped straight into the sea and caught fish with a net—but they also encountered a sea monster. Got bitten, barely escaped back to their reef, and their wounds were still bleeding.

The rest of the thread was filled with speculation about what the sea monster looked like.
Seemed like it was best not to go into the sea lightly. Even if you made it back, soaking in seawater too long was definitely bad.
And when it came to sea monsters, people with good luck might not run into them, but someone like her with terrible luck might bump into one right away—or worse, a really big one.

The only person who actually saw a sea monster hadn’t appeared again. Who knew if the injury had been too serious.
After scrolling a while and finding nothing useful about fishing, Yun Luohe decided to post her own request.
#Paid Help Wanted: Any fishing experts willing to teach me? Or sell me some bait?#

The moment she posted, several replies came in.
Yun Luohe thought a fishing pro had shown up already—but the first few messages were just asking how she got her fishing rod. Was it from a shell drop or crafted at the Toolbench?
Yun Luohe ignored them and closed the interface. Since she couldn’t catch anything anyway, she might as well leave the net out and go make more tools to sell.

The high-priced plastic umbrellas she listed in the Trading Center had already sold.
Five Iron Ore and twenty Ocean Stones per umbrella.
Sales weren’t fast—probably because the price was a little high—but the fact that two had sold in just half an hour meant some high-level players still needed them.

Given that, ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ she could definitely make ten more and try selling them.
This time she’d try using different materials, maybe glass and fiber. She already had plenty of Ocean Stones.
Yun Luohe planned to stay up late tonight.

If she could sell a few more umbrellas and trade some Purified Water for upgrade materials, she could upgrade her reef.
The upgrade required:
Ocean Stones ×100, Wood ×300, Fiber ×100, Iron Ore ×50, Glass ×10.
She already had a fair amount of those in her backpack:
Ocean Stones ×119, Fiber ×32, Iron Ore ×40, Wood ×31, Glass ×3.

She also had some junk left to recycle—
Rotten cabbage leaves, torn burlap sack, palm leaves, a broken beer bottle…
Yun Luohe tossed all the recyclable junk that could be turned into fiber or glass into the Trash Can.
After a few rounds of recycling, she gained another 20 fiber and 1 glass.

Now the thing she was missing most was wood.
So she decided to trade Purified Water for wood directly.
According to the current market rates in the Trading Center,
a 500ml bottle of Purified Water could get her at least 10 pieces of wood.

She still needed over 200 pieces of wood, and she didn’t have enough Purified Water.
So maybe she could use plastic umbrellas to trade for wood too.
Iron Ore was a high-tier material. Most players barely had any. But wood was a different story.

Most players could get about 20 wood per day. So wood was one of the most common materials.
If she traded directly for wood, each umbrella could easily fetch 100 wood.
But even though wood was cheap, it was still an upgrade material. Players wouldn’t mind handing over 10 or 20 pieces, but 100 was a lot. They needed to save some for their own upgrades.

So she couldn’t trade all umbrellas for just wood either.
After some thought, she settled on a more balanced exchange rate:
One plastic umbrella = Iron Ore ×1, Wood ×30, Fiber ×20
Or: 2 Glass

Once the price was set, all she had to do was keep making umbrellas.
Yun Luohe worked nonstop until 3 a.m. and finally finished crafting ten umbrellas.
Yawning, her eyes dry and sore, she quickly listed the umbrellas in the Trading Center, then went outside to check the fishing net.

Instead of shells, the net had pulled in a broken wooden barrel.
Yun Luohe rubbed her eyes, about to toss it straight into the Trash Can—when she noticed something inside the barrel.
She brought the barrel over to the stove, and only then saw a tentacle slowly creeping out from inside.

It was an octopus.
A big one. Once its tentacles stretched out, they were half a meter long.
Yun Luohe reached in and grabbed the whole octopus. Its tentacles immediately latched onto her arm.

It took quite a bit of effort to peel it off, and then she smashed it to death with a hoe.
Fresh octopus could be grilled or boiled. Yun Luohe realized she was starting to get a little hungry.
But it was too late tonight. She tossed the octopus into a bucket and brought it back to her thatch hut.

Lying down, she habitually opened the interface to see if there were any new messages she hadn’t read.
Sure enough, her post had new replies.
Yun Luohe clicked in. There were over a dozen new messages.

One reply was from a player named Qin Sisi.
Qin Sisi: “If you’ve got a fishing rod, it’s much easier. You just need to find the right bait. For sea fishing, there’s live bait and dead bait. If you want more details, add me and we can chat privately.”
Compared to the other off-topic replies, Yun Luohe found this person much more trustworthy.
Plus, judging from the name, she was probably a woman.

She tapped on the user’s avatar to view the profile:
Name: Qin Sisi (Zone 2)
Gender: Female
Age: Confidential
Signature: Live well with hope
Other Info: None
“It’s so late already—she’s probably asleep.”

Yun Luohe muttered as she sent a friend request.
To her surprise, it was accepted almost instantly.
Yun Luohe took the initiative and said:
"Hi, I’m the one who posted on the forum earlier."

Qin Sisi replied:
"Mm, I remember."
Yun Luohe asked:
"I wanted to know what kinds of things can be used as fishing bait. Or, if you have any, could I maybe buy from you directly?"
Qin Sisi:
"I do have some, but not a lot. It’d be best if you could find your own bait. I’m not planning to sell any.
For live bait, shrimp and small fish work. For dead bait, there are more options—shrimp meat, crab meat, poultry innards, even fish guts will do."

Yun Luohe thought for a moment.
"What about octopus? Would that work?"
Qin Sisi:
"Octopus works too. Just remove the membrane, cut it into strips, dry them, and hang them on the hook."
Yun Luohe:
"Got it. Thank you. I did say I’d pay—what kind of materials would you like in return?"

Qin Sisi:
"If you’ve got extra octopus meat, just give me a bit of that."
Yun Luohe:
"Fresh is okay?"
Qin Sisi:
"That’s fine."

Although Yun Luohe had already lain down, she got back up, cut off a long strip of octopus tentacle, and sent it to Qin Sisi.
 
****

Morning of Day 5 in the Sea Survival Game.
The rain had stopped not long ago, and the sun had already climbed into the sky.
The post-rain sunshine was warm and bright.
Most players on the reefs were already up and working.

Yun Luohe hadn’t slept very well. She’d gone to bed too late, and woke up early too—her stamina hadn’t fully recovered.
She pulled out a bowl of Lanzhou noodles from her backpack.
The moment she opened it, the aroma nearly knocked her out.
A few thin slices of beef floated on top of the noodles, along with some cilantro.

She inhaled a huge mouthful like a tornado, barely taking time to appreciate the taste before slurping up the rest of the noodles in one go.
Soup and all, it was gone in three minutes.
Yun Luohe patted her stomach.
So satisfying.

After having meat noodles, who would still want to eat plain steamed buns every day?
She had to become self-sufficient fast.
If she couldn’t find food, she’d just make it herself!
Once she developed her reef, she could have anything.
—

With her belly full, Yun Luohe opened the wooden chest and threw the remaining junk from yesterday into the Trash Can.
Plastic bottles, old CDs, empty cans…
A pile of messy trash, most of it got recycled into plastic and Ocean Stones.
After a few days of accumulation, her Trash Can only needed 89 more XP to upgrade.
That would take just eighty-something pieces of junk—not hard at all.

She decided to focus on upgrading the reef first. The Trash Can upgrade could come afterward.
Upgrading the reef early would bring rich rewards. A delayed Trash Can upgrade wouldn’t hurt much.
Of the ten plastic umbrellas she had listed last night, only three were left.

The seven that sold had brought her a good haul:
Iron Ore ×6, Glass ×2, Fiber ×120, Wood ×180.
If the remaining three umbrellas sold, she’d basically have all the materials she needed.
At most, she’d be short a few pieces of glass—
But that could be fixed by recycling some beer bottles or broken glass jars.
Yun Luohe was brimming with energy.

Du Ruan-tian had also messaged her early this morning.
"I’m already gathering the materials. Should be done before 5 p.m."
Yun Luohe:
"Alright."
Du Ruan-tian:
"Also, mind telling me what other blueprints you have?"

Yun Luohe:
"No rush. Let’s talk later."
Du Ruan-tian:
"Got it. Someone in the group asked about Water Purifiers again today. Are you still selling?"
"I can sell one, but it has to be traded for glass—3 Glass and 10 Fiber."

Yun Luohe wanted to make sure she’d have enough glass later, just in case, so she decided to prepare ahead.
Last night, she had only made one Water Purifier right before bed, since she was too busy making plastic umbrellas.
Originally, she’d planned to keep it for herself—
Her stockpile of Purified Water was still way too low.

Even with two purifiers working, she could only get 10L per day, and it was easy to sell out fast.
Trading water for supplies was still the most efficient way.
But selling one wouldn’t affect much—
As long as she kept producing, she’d have another one ready in half an hour.
Since she wasn’t short on materials, she could go ahead and make several Water Purifiers.
Even if she didn’t sell them, she could build up her water reserves.

She had a lot to do today—
Gather supplies, throw away junk, craft tools, post listings, make bait, start fishing…
The materials for making purifiers were already placed on the Toolbench. Every thirty minutes, Yun Luohe would switch out new materials, collect the finished purifier, and start filtering seawater with it.
She used wood to build a simple rack and tied the fishing net to it with rope. That way, she wouldn’t have to worry about the net being swept away by the waves.
If it caught something, she could just pull it up.

Taking advantage of some free time, she went to water her crops.
The first little cabbage she had planted had already grown quite a bit.
It looked vibrant and green. Other seeds were also starting to sprout, pushing tiny shoots up through the soil.

The soybeans she’d soaked in coconut shells were fully hydrated and had swollen a lot. Yun Luohe wiped off the excess water and planned to plant them.
But when she scooped them up, there were over twenty beans.
That meant she’d need to dig 20+ small holes, which required a sizable planting area.

But the remaining plantable soil on the reef was tiny. There was no way she could plant that many soybeans.
After thinking it over, Yun Luohe decided to wait until after the reef upgrade.
If everything went as planned, she could upgrade today. Once she did, the planting area would definitely expand.

Then, she could even experiment with how to harvest strawberry seeds.
She figured those little black dots on the strawberries were probably the seeds.
Just then, Yun Luohe glanced at the fishing net—
There was movement.
She’d caught something.

She quickly went over and pulled the net up.
It was a shell.
She opened it to reveal a gleaming white pearl.

[Obtained: Glass ×1, Sesame Crisp ×1, Deep Sea Flint ×1, Sand ×1, Gravel ×1, Rotten Towel ×1, Torn Burlap Sack ×1, Parchment Fragment ×1]
Not bad at all!
She immediately pulled out the parchment fragment—
Then grabbed the two she’d found previously and placed them together.

A flash of white light fused the three fragments.
[Obtained: Planting Guide, Volume I]