Survival at Sea Chapter Ninety-Five: Pike

The shot rang out a heartbeat before anything else. Wu Hui had already taken the mark into his hand, ready to use it at once if need be.

Wang Xiaodie also lifted her knife.

The pike was struck by the bullet, yet it did not stop swimming, only surged onward.

Blood had already begun to seep into the water.

In this game, where Wu Hui was in the state of an ordinary person, many of his methods could not be used. He had only a gun and two beast marks as combat power. Wang Xiaodie’s knife, though of extraordinary quality, would be nothing more than a very sharp short blade in the hands of an ordinary person.

Clearly, Wang Xiaodie had not intended to take the plundering path this round. She did not have the ability, as Wu Hui did, to balance combat power and survival; she could only focus on one.

"Can... can we do it?" Wang Xiaodie swallowed.

Wu Hui glanced at her but said nothing.

"Damn it!" Wang Xiaodie instantly understood the implication in his silence. If it was no good, then he was obviously going to make her, his slave, stand in front of it. She exploded in frustration. "If you were going to sleep with me at least once, then fine, but don't make me go up there and fight monsters!"

"The fighting starts now," Wu Hui said, ignoring her nonsense. The squid struck, and the bullet flew from the barrel.

The pike let out a sound like a wolf’s howl. Blood and ink stained the azure sea with fresh colors, black and red interwoven with white foam, like an abstract painting. Wang Xiaodie seemed to have no ranged attack, which made sense; if she did, she would not have been driven to the brink of shipwreck by the pike earlier.

Tentacles coiled around the pike’s body, successfully slowing it down.

Wu Hui ordered the direwolf to pounce.

The wolf could swim. Under normal circumstances it would not be as agile as a marine creature, but at this moment it was not fighting alone, with many allies lending their aid.

The pike had already taken two bullets and was weak with injury. The direwolf clamped its jaws around it, while tentacles kept wrapping up from the water.

At last, it gradually lost all signs of life and was brought back by the direwolf. Once placed on the boat, it dissolved into a cluster of points of light.

Its strength was decent. Not on the level of the boss from the previous round, merely difficult because fighting it in the sea was troublesome. An elite monster, then? It also made sense that a boss would not appear on the second day after the opening.

After experiencing the Master’s game last round, he had begun to infer the patterns in the demon god’s thinking more than the rules themselves.

The ones who truly obeyed the rules and never changed, no matter what, were the board-game player and the gladiator. The Master and the Playwright seemed not to change either, but from the very beginning they would not tell you all the rules.

Wu Hui reached out and touched the cluster of light.

Claws, aquatic, tracking; choose two of three.

So it really was an elite monster.

After thinking for only a moment, he made his choice: tracking and claws. He already had aquatic.

As for giving it to Wang Xiaodie, that was not something he was considering for the moment.

When he had cooperated with Li Xiaojing, Wu Hui had seemed generous. Partly because he truly needed her, and partly because she did not seem to have many schemes in mind.

But Wang Xiaodie was not necessarily the kind of person who could be trusted.

He glanced up at the sun. There were not many clouds around. It should still not rain today. Yes, the past few days had been calm and still, which was reasonable enough, but after this, that might no longer be true.

"Something like that pike just now could probably sink a lot of people, couldn't it? I wonder how many players are actually in this game."

Wu Hui sat at the edge of the boat. He had just reeled in a fish when Wang Xiaodie pointed ahead and said she could see a new island.

This island was clearly much larger, and there were signs of large animals moving about on it.

"Maybe the danger level doesn't increase by the number of days, but by the distance traveled," Wu Hui guessed again. "I'll go ashore. You stay here and watch the boat."

"Okay." Wang Xiaodie sat down on the raft. Following Wu Hui’s instructions, she began setting up the drying rack, and in passing used her knife to handle the fish he had just caught.

The entrails and such could be hung in the fishing net. The net was in poor shape, but even so it could still bring in two or three fish and quite a lot of shrimp and crabs a day. It was efficient and saved time, unlike fishing, which required patient waiting.

After finishing the simple chores, Wang Xiaodie lay down on Wu Hui’s bed and looked at the sky as it gradually darkened, feeling a little sleepy.

Wu Hui, who had gone ashore, did not rush inward. Instead, he explored the perimeter.

After all, it was getting late, and the direwolf’s condition was not fully recovered after the earlier battle. In the wilderness at night, one truly could not see one’s hand before one’s face.

"At this speed, we can run into one island a day. Each island should have something on it. At the start, the islands are probably meant to fill in some of what you’re missing. The second island should be where you get some growth, or maybe a challenge."

Riding the direwolf, Wu Hui moved through the island. He had not let Wang Xiaodie come for two reasons. First, coming himself meant greater combat power and greater safety. Second, if that woman found something good, she was very likely to use it herself or secretly hide it.

Even with the slave contract commanding her, she might still find some loophole to slip through. Her ability to exploit loopholes was quite good, though of course Wu Hui had also not bothered to haggle over those details with her.

Eight points of intelligence was roughly on par with Ren Yin and Wu Hui when they had first entered the game. Among ordinary people, that was considered very smart, but still not enough.

Intelligence increased very slowly. By Wu Hui’s estimate, at this rate he would need to reach level six or seven before intelligence could climb to around fifteen points. As for physical ability, that same level might be reached by level five.

"Hm..."

Wu Hui found a hermit crab boss on the island, the same kind he had killed on the deserted island last time. He also found two banana trees.

Now there were two people on the boat, and the original supplies might not be enough. Of course, with a water purifier and fishing gear, food and water would not be a problem. But fuel and certain other materials still needed to be gathered again.

The original bed was too small for two people. Of course they could take turns keeping watch and sleeping, but it still made sense to expand it a bit.

Wu Hui was not as heartless as he appeared. His moral bottom line was not very high, but when cooperation was involved, he would still consider his companions.

Tomorrow he would have the direwolf watch the boat, then bring Wang Xiaodie ashore to investigate.

As he was thinking this, the direwolf suddenly stopped again before a patch of sand and began digging, uncovering one corner of a treasure chest.

It was a rather shabby wooden chest. Such a thing should still be fairly common, right? Wu Hui opened it and obtained two gold coins, along with a shell mark.

"This island is pretty big. We should head back first and come explore in daylight," Wu Hui said, taking the items he had found and returning to the raft.

Wang Xiaodie had already cooked the fish soup and was secretly drinking it. Wu Hui did not say anything, because he had originally intended to have Wang Xiaodie test for poison. Since she drank it herself, that saved him the trouble.

After checking it, it seemed to be poison-free. Then he drank it too.

"Speaking of which, how are we sleeping tonight?" Wang Xiaodie pointed at the only bed. She was still suspicious that Wu Hui’s decency during the day was just an act, and that once night fell, he might reveal his true colors.

Wu Hui was very calm. "I'll sleep first. You keep watch, and wake me in eight hours."

Damn it. Wang Xiaodie rolled her eyes. "You're amazing."

"Tomorrow we'll explore the island together," Wu Hui said. After finishing his meal, he lay down on the bed and no longer bothered with Wang Xiaodie. The moment he closed his eyes, he fell asleep.