Survival: Ocean (Playwright) Chapter 113: The Moving Island III

On the mobile island, Wang Xiaodie had gathered many supplies, while Wu Hui was studying the signs posted around the island. The glasses had truly been a great help to him. With their assistance, he managed to spot the word "library" on the map and the bus stop. After informing Wang Xiaodie, he set off on his way.

Meanwhile, Wang Xiaodie was carrying a bag filled with new clothes, various tissues, shower gel, pots, pans, and other household items to place on the wooden raft. She also grabbed some cosmetics on the side.

Although she couldn’t understand the writing, the shapes of these items were no different from those on Earth.

Wu Hui thought her actions were somewhat reckless, but surely she wouldn’t be poisoned by cosmetics, right? The technology level in this world seemed roughly equivalent to Earth’s, with only the script differing.

It made sense that the general framework was similar. After all, humans everywhere are fundamentally alike. But the resemblance extended even to the minute details—there wasn’t even a trace of the imprint-related technology on daily necessities.

That left only two possibilities. First, this world might have been created out of thin air, so some illogical inconsistencies were to be expected.

Second, the Imprint Beasts were not originally part of this world’s natural order. Perhaps they suddenly appeared one day—ancient creatures awakened from slumber, or entities arriving like gods from unknown realms, or even some sort of artificial creation.

Additionally, some force might be guiding the development of the local civilization.

The possibilities were numerous, and Wu Hui couldn’t be certain yet. He headed in the direction of the bus stop.

The vehicles here were unusable for the time being—all locked. When Wu Hui forcibly broke open a door, an internal security system immediately locked down. Moreover, the equipment inside was not quite the same as on Earth.

Wu Hui hadn’t yet obtained a driver’s license, but he knew how to drive. If the cars weren’t locked, he’d dare to drive one. After all, there was no traffic or many obstacles on the road.

So far, they hadn’t encountered any monsters. Though Wu Hui and Wang Xiaodie moved separately, each was accompanied by several Imprint Beasts, so they weren’t truly alone. There were no signs of human activity in the city; it seemed people had vanished years ago.

As for food, canned goods and drinking water were still edible. As for the shower gels and shampoos—whether expired or not didn’t matter; they were still far better than Wu Hui’s homemade soap.

The most crucial items were furniture and bedding—things like quilts and sheets.

“Aha,” Wang Xiaodie said as she arranged the new bed on the raft. “Finally, I don’t have to sleep on straw anymore. But is this color a bit too festive?”

She realized she’d made the bed look like a bridal chamber.

The city had plenty of usable materials; modifying the raft to be more suitable and comfortable was easy.

“Ah, the long-lost modern life,” Wang Xiaodie sighed, lying down on the bed. “This is nice.”

Suddenly, several large insects near Wang Xiaodie sounded an alarm, and a burning bullet landed beside her, flames erupting.

“Damn it!” Wang Xiaodie cursed, scrambling for cover. “Who’s attacking from the shadows? Are they out of their minds?”

Such an attack was likely from a player. But the supplies in this city were practically inexhaustible for players; fighting over them made no sense.

“Ah... you dodged it. But it’s fine—I still prefer to kill with a blade,” a man approached Wang Xiaodie, his eyes glowing red.

—

At the same time, Wu Hui finally found the library and slipped in through a window. Without electricity, the lights wouldn’t turn on, severely limiting his vision.

“Geography, history... not sure where to start. I’ll begin with the textbooks,” Wu Hui thought, heading to the textbook section.

The library was quite large, with an extensive collection.

To thoroughly understand a civilization, reading their textbooks was the simplest approach. Wu Hui started with the preschool textbooks. Thanks to his glasses’ translation, he learned quite a few new words, but he didn’t spend long—only about half an hour.

After all, kindergarten and elementary courses contained very little information.

Subjects like history or science were typically taught starting in middle school. Elementary might only have some basic popular science books.

Wu Hui then began reading the history of this world. Textbooks were designed to be simple and clear so even outsiders could understand.

“As I suspected, the Imprint Beasts only appeared eighty years ago,” Wu Hui said. “And here in the textbooks, there’s even mention of... a demon god?”

But only one demon god was referenced.

The Black Death.

So far, Wu Hui had encountered the Player, the Gladiator, the Overlord, and the Playwright, but never the Black Death. On forums, people said the likelihood of encountering the Black Death was the lowest.

Yet whenever it appeared, it brought massive slaughter.

Was this world destroyed by the demon god Black Death? No—the glasses translated it as Black Death, but Wu Hui suspected that wasn’t its original name; it was just a term chosen for our understanding.

Wu Hui tapped the arm of his glasses and continued reading.

The Imprint Beasts were a disaster for the people of this world. Although the ones Wu Hui and Wang Xiaodie had encountered were weak third-tier players without much sense, the variety of Imprint Beasts here was vast.

Besides common beasts, there were various mythological creatures, mechanical beasts, ghosts, demons, angels, and so forth.

The whale carrying the island and the giant tree on it were also Imprint Beasts—the former translated as Kun, the latter as Jianmu.

Apparently, the glasses replaced the names with similar mythological creatures from Chinese folklore since the script here was clearly alphabetic.

These were all powerful, friendly Imprint Beasts, but not all strong Imprint Beasts were so benevolent or manageable. The book recounted a tale of a thousand-bearded creature named Kailash destroying an island nation, causing great disaster.

Had this world been destroyed by the Imprint Beasts? No—they didn’t destroy the world, only humanity.

Wu Hui closed his eyes, pondering for a moment.

He resumed reading. While the information was valuable, it wasn’t urgently needed right now. The geography of the mobile island and its relation to the mainland was the priority.

This was covered extensively in the textbooks.

The gist was that on the mainland, powerful and dangerous Imprint Beasts such as the Insect Emperor, the Demon Tree, and the Devouring Mist roamed. Humans could only form contracts with Kun and other strong Imprint Beasts to escape to the mobile islands.

But apparently, they hadn’t truly escaped.

“Black Death...” Wu Hui muttered the name. “Troublesome thing.”

Casual casualties caused by other demon gods were relatively localized—dozens or hundreds at most at a time. But the Black Death killed in the thousands.

Over the years, many disasters might have been the Black Death’s doing, disguised as accidents.

Judging by the rate of incidents, Earth had been invaded by demon gods for over a decade—a short time compared to this world’s eighty years. But no one could guarantee Earth wouldn’t be destroyed like this place someday.

Wu Hui flipped to the geography section to confirm his current location.

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