Starting With a Reef [Global Survival]

She simply cleaned the remaining half of the pheasant, chopped it into small pieces, skewered them with wooden sticks, and placed them on the grill to roast. She planned to give it to the leopard cat later as a reward for helping her.

The chicken skin sizzled as it turned golden brown, oil dripping onto the coals and releasing an irresistible aroma.
The leopard cat had only ever eaten raw pheasant meat—it had never smelled roasted meat before. It meowed repeatedly, clearly craving it.
Yun Luohe soothed it, “Wait a bit. You’ll get some after you finish your task.”

In the meantime, she pulled out a few cashew nuts with shells. First, she separated the fresh fruit pulp on the top from the nut at the bottom. She tasted the pulp—it was sweet and sour, juicy, and fairly refreshing.
The nuts she placed by the furnace to roast. Once dried, she cracked the shells open to reveal the familiar small cashew kernels inside.
When the leopard cat had finished tossing all the junk into the trash can, the ground was covered in resources gained from recycling and upgrading.

Hundreds of resources—it took her quite a while just to collect them all.
Yun Luohe opened the chat channel as she sorted through them, curious what others were talking about.
“I got the blueprint for a water purifier! If anyone wants one, bring your own materials. I’ll only charge two iron ores for processing.”
“Two iron ores? That’s cheap. I remember others were auctioning purifiers at crazy high prices.”
“Depends on the material cost.”
“The materials aren’t that rare. That guy before was seriously overpriced.”
“I remember someone from the Lucky Club was selling those. What a ripoff.”
“Good thing I didn’t buy one. Would’ve totally lost out.”
“Damn, can I return mine? Total scam.”
“No one forced you to buy it. All voluntary.”

It seemed the value of water purifiers and purified water was starting to decline.
Once purifiers became common, no one would be short on water.
If she hadn’t gone to the island today, Yun Luohe estimated she could’ve made twenty more purifiers to sell.
But the income from island exploration far exceeded what she could’ve earned selling purifiers.

No matter what players said in the chat, the resources she and Du Ruan-tian earned weren’t going to be refunded. They’d just have to switch to selling something else.
If fishing line weren’t so rare, Yun Luohe would consider selling fishing rods—but she barely had any line, and it rarely showed up in the Trade Center.
Selling plastic umbrellas was still more practical.

But producing umbrellas in bulk wasn’t easy either. She had too much on her plate every day.
She could only make a few when time allowed.
After all, at this stage, what mattered most to Yun Luohe was improving her reef—upgrading her living environment, food, clothing, and shelter.

Once she finished organizing the materials, she reviewed what the latest round of recycling had yielded:
Sea Stone ×42
Wood ×65
Fiber ×25

Plastic ×38
Linen ×8
Glass ×10

Cotton Cloth ×4
Tomato Seeds ×1
Cotton ×2

Leather ×3
Sand ×3
...and more.
Now Yun Luohe had to sort the materials into their proper boxes.

All upgrade materials were placed in a single box.
This way she could see at a glance how much more was needed for her next upgrade.
She heard more meowing behind her.

Turning to look, she saw the leopard cat lying happily at her feet, clutching a skewer of roasted chicken in its paws and gnawing away, its mouth glistening with oil.
This little guy really was enjoying itself.
Yun Luohe had eaten so much today, she wasn’t even slightly hungry.

It was the most she’d eaten since entering the game.
By the time she finished organizing everything, it was already 10:30 p.m.
She left the boxes of high-quality black calcareous soil and sand outside the house. The flowers and plants she’d transplant tomorrow morning—for now, they could rest in a cool indoor spot.

The pheasant eggs were the real concern. If she couldn’t incubate them, would she have no choice but to eat them?
Pheasant eggs had higher nutritional value than regular eggs—but it would still be a waste.
She decided to store them in her backpack to keep them fresh and wait until she could get an incubator.

The rain outside grew heavier. Yun Luohe began her daily lottery draw.
[Obtained: Alchemy Station Blueprint ×1]
[Obtained: Glass Recipe ×1]
[Alchemy Station: Used to craft various medicinal materials. Requires Alchemy Skill to operate. Different recipes require corresponding station levels.]
[Materials Needed (Basic): Black Metal Shard ×5, Iron Ore ×10, Glass ×5]

Good stuff, but not useful for now. No point building it yet—she shelved the idea.
[Glass Recipe: Sand ×1, Shell ×1]
Yun Luohe realized: to make glass, she needed silica and calcium oxide—both of which could be extracted from sand and shells.

It seemed shells would be quite useful later. She’d have to start collecting them rather than recycling them.
That was one less item she could freely toss away.
Given their newfound value, she planned to gather more.

Upgrades required 100 glass and 100 sand—but since making glass also consumed sand, her 150 units wouldn't be enough.
She’d need to gradually stockpile shells and make glass whenever she had time.
Yun Luohe picked up the strawberries she had stored in a bottle the day before. The pulp had separated from the seeds. She poured them out onto a piece of linen cloth.

They were dry now, but she wasn’t sure if they could be planted directly.
Oh right—she hadn’t yet checked the items she’d gotten from Mu Zitang earlier.
[Black Metal Shard: Special crafting material. Purpose unknown, might come in handy somewhere.]
[Half-Broken Key: A snapped key. Useless unless the other half is found. Without it, no one knows what it unlocks.]

The black metal shard was needed to build the Alchemy Station—but she only had one, so she’d have to keep an eye out.
As for the key—it looked like junk, but might also be a rare special item. Yun Luohe wasn’t sure what would happen if she recycled it. What if it turned into iron ore or some other material? That would be a waste of its potential value.
She decided to keep it for now.

The only thing she could use immediately was the parchment fragment.
She already had two others. This third piece completed the set.
Yun Luohe retrieved the previous two from the box and placed all three together.

A white light flashed as the parchment fragments fused into one.
[Obtained: Planting Guide, Volume Two]
What a lucky break!

She had been wondering if she might get a different kind of guide—but to get the next volume of the planting guide? That was perfect.
Yun Luohe studied it carefully.
The smile on her face deepened.
This volume focused on seed cultivation—how to plant crops, which growing mediums suited which plants, and ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ the effects of different weather and temperatures.

It was just one page, but densely packed with information. After reading it, Yun Luohe felt like she’d gained a wealth of new agricultural knowledge.
No matter what kind of crop she found in the future, she’d now know how to obtain its seeds, and how to plant it with optimal germination and survival rates.
For example, strawberry seeds weren’t something you could just toss into the soil.

They had to be pre-treated to induce sprouting.
Sprouting wasn’t difficult. She just had to stir the black seeds in water heated to about 50°C.
Once the water cooled to 25°C, she’d soak them for 2–3 hours.
After that, rinse the seeds with clean water, then cover them with moist gauze.
Yun Luohe didn’t have gauze, but breathable linen cloth would work just as well.

There were also two other methods: alternating high-low temperature treatment, and soaking in concentrated sulfuric acid—but those were too complicated and impractical under current conditions.
She’d stick with the simplest method.
As for soil, strawberries needed rich substrate. The fermented soil she had prepared with goat manure would do fine—especially if she mixed in a bit of decomposed leaf litter.

Though it was a simple task, it still took time.
By the time Yun Luohe finished treating the seeds, it was already deep into the night.
Tonight, not a single fish monster had appeared, much to Yun Luohe’s disappointment.

Fish monsters were such valuable resources.
But if they didn’t come, there wasn’t much she could do. It’s not like she could dive into the sea to go looking for them.
Clearly, she still needed to find opportunities to practice swimming.
Before sleeping, Yun Luohe pulled up her personal stats interface to check on her data.

Most things were unchanged, but the skill section was no longer the same.
[Professional Skills:]
Cooking Level: 1 (55/100)
Gathering Level: 1 (48/100)
[Special Skills:]
Basic Archery

Her Cooking and Gathering experience had increased quite a bit. It seemed that simply using those two skills more often would eventually level them up.
She needed to cook more, and gather more too.
—
She slept well through the night.

When Yun Luohe woke again, it was another sunny day.
Day 9 of Survival (Spring)
8:00 AM — 27°C
The system’s voice echoed out:

[Today is Lucky Day!]
[On Lucky Day, players’ Stamina Point limit increases. Up to 5 shells may be gathered.]
[Killing fish monsters will drop more resources, including fish meat, blueprints, Island Entry Tokens, upgrade materials...]
[After Lucky Day ends, players will be ranked across all zones. The system will assign comprehensive scores to reefs and player performance. Top 10 players will receive generous rewards.]
[All players, do your best to seize your fortune!]
The system had mentioned Lucky Day before, but there’d been no follow-up. Yun Luohe had nearly forgotten about it.
The chat channel was buzzing—everyone had heard the announcement.

Now that it was official, Yun Luohe needed to plan her day well.
Fish monsters wouldn’t show up during the day; they only came at night. So it was best for her to get everything else done by day and focus fully on fighting fish monsters after dark.
Given how many items they could drop, their value far surpassed that of shells.
And tomorrow would be the ranking and scoring…

She needed to do more things today that could boost her score.
Personal score was harder to improve, since she couldn’t drastically raise her stats in such a short time.
Even if she gained a little experience, without leveling up, it probably wouldn’t move the needle much on her total score.
On the other hand, reef score was the easiest to raise.

Her reef and small wooden house still looked quite plain.
If she added some furnishings, made the reef look nicer, that would definitely help.
Yun Luohe circled the reef twice and came up with a good idea.

Hadn’t she just brought back a huge batch of flowers and plants yesterday?
Why not plant them all today—circle the house with them, and create a dreamy countryside cottage vibe?
But first, she needed to eat before getting to work.
Breakfast had to be good. Yun Luohe decided to make a bowl of fish offal noodles.

Using fish roe, fish bladder, fish intestines, and a fish head, she rinsed everything clean with water, sliced up some ginger, sautéed it all in a pan until fragrant, then poured in purified water to simmer. She added a few fresh peppercorns—and soon, the entire reef was filled with mouthwatering aroma.
The leopard cat had been sleeping soundly beneath the workbench in the corner. When it smelled the scent, it woke up and climbed out.
Seeing Yun Luohe cooking, it got visibly excited.

It hadn’t had nearly enough of the grilled chicken from last night. Compared to raw meat, roasted chicken was in a league of its own.
It never wanted to eat raw meat again.
Chicken was good—but fish was its true love.

Yun Luohe cooking fresh fish first thing in the morning was pure torture.
The leopard cat let out an ingratiating meow.
Yun Luohe said, “You want to eat? Then you have to work first.”

“Meow meow!”
There was no resentment in its tone—if anything, it sounded delighted.
Work in exchange for food? That was fine by it.
It was just worried Yun Luohe wouldn’t share any.

It straightened up and sat formally, gazing at her with a meow.
“What should I have you do…”
Yun Luohe started thinking.
“Can you farm?”

The leopard cat went silent.
“Then how about fishing?”
The cat looked down at its own paws.

Yun Luohe raised an eyebrow. It seemed like the only thing it could really do was toss trash.
But there wasn’t any trash to throw right now.
She racked her brain—and finally came up with a task.
She stood up, grabbed a box of soil, and dumped it next to the vegetable patch. Black soil spilled out, and she could spot some earthworms in it.

“Pick out all the worms in the soil and put them in this bottle. You can do that, right?”
The leopard cat meowed proudly.
“Looks like that’s an easy job for you.”
Yun Luohe was satisfied.

Collecting worms was useful for fishing or for enriching the garden—but she mainly wanted to raise them.
Earthworms were incredibly useful, and the amount in her current soil was clearly not enough.
If she could raise chickens one day, she could even feed them worms.

The first volume of the Planting Guide had even mentioned how to improve soil and cultivate worms.
With the leopard cat assigned a task, Yun Luohe returned to cooking.
She brought out the grill as well—after finishing the noodles, she planned to grill the remaining fish meat.

Since cooking more meant more cooking EXP, she might as well do it. Plus, she could always sell the food. If she cooked enough today, her Cooking skill might really level up.
She wasn’t getting her hopes up too much, but it was worth trying—might even kill two birds with one stone.
And those cashew nuts needed roasting too. Once roasted, she’d seal them in jars for easier preservation.
As for the fresh cashew fruit, Yun Luohe still hadn’t decided what to do with it. Her backpack was full, and leaving it outside would lead to spoilage. She’d have to deal with it soon.

If nothing else, she could always sell it in the Trade Center.
Previously, her max Stamina Points had been 100. Now it was boosted to 150—enough to cast her fishing net several more times and do a lot of chores.
If she ran into fish monsters tonight, she could kill a few extra without worrying about running out of stamina.

When the fish offal noodles were done, the aroma grew even more intense—especially with the grilled eel going nearby.
The combined scents made even Yun Luohe start drooling—let alone the leopard cat.
[Fish Offal Noodles (Purple Quality): An irresistibly delicious bowl of noodles. Restores 25 Stamina Points, +10 Strength, +1 Luck.]
Purple quality!

A single pot yielded only one portion.
Compared to soup, the cost of fish offal noodles was higher.
But the purple rarity was a pleasant surprise—not only did it restore stamina and increase Strength, it also boosted Luck. That was incredible.
[Congratulations! You are the first player to cook a Purple Quality dish. Reward: Soy Sauce Barrel Blueprint ×1]