Chapter 36: Pie in the Sky

During this trip out to sea, Lin Lei felt that he had run into bad luck; no sooner had he finished dealing with the Loki Behemoth than new trouble arrived.

Starting from just a while ago, the myriad stars in the sky had disappeared, and since it was currently the dark half-moon on Blue Rain Star, the sea surface was pitch black.

Slowly, the sea breeze picked up, and what made Lin Lei curse was that it was actually a headwind, which made rowing much more difficult for him.

Looking at the situation, it seemed like it was going to rain; he hoped the weather wouldn’t turn into a storm at sea.

But true to the saying “speak of the devil,” the wind blew harder and harder, and the waves grew higher and higher, causing the wooden boat to pitch and roll unpredictably.

No, he had to make some preparations; Lin Lei had a premonition that the storm was really coming, and he didn’t know if his small wooden boat could withstand the tossing.

Lin Lei simply stopped rowing, walked quickly to Fuweili’s side, picked up a bundle of ropes made of beast tendons, and tied himself firmly to her. As for other things, including the wooden boat, even if they were all destroyed, Lin Lei wouldn’t frown, but Fuweili absolutely could not come to harm!

Right, the Epic Beast hide must be tied down too; that was the key to leaving Blue Rain Star.

“Lei, we’ll be safe, right?” Fuweili couldn’t see anything and could only tightly grab the side of the boat; feeling that Lin Lei was by her side, she immediately sought comfort.

After tying the rope securely and tugging hard on the knot to ensure it was firm, Lin Lei gave Fuweili a comforting hug.

“Don’t worry, my baby, I am by your side.” Lin Lei gently stroked Fuweili’s back, his tone revealing a deep strength, which slowly put Fuweili at ease.

At this moment, Lin Lei didn’t care anymore whether it was strange or not; anyway, it was so dark that even if Lin Lei turned into a Monster, as long as his voice and brain wave information didn’t change, Fuweili wouldn’t notice the difference.

He prepared to modify himself to have an underwater breathing system, just in case.

“System, perform respiratory system modification, be quick.”

“Request received from Host; initiating simplest and most optimal modification. Duration: 10 minutes.”

This modification was different from the last one; Lin Lei felt something grow out from behind his ears, and touching it, it was a fold of skin, feeling somewhat like fish gills.

Soon, the System’s message came through: “Gill-like respiratory organ generated; can provide 50% of oxygen requirements in water with normal oxygen content.”

50%, that was enough; basically, he wouldn’t drown. As for Fuweili, he wasn’t worried at all; the life-support functions of her Combat Suit were quite advanced, and as long as she wore the helmet, she could survive underwater for several hours without suffocating.

By this time, the waves were already very high, with a height difference of over ten meters between the crests and troughs. The wooden boat pitched and rolled madly amidst these peaks formed by seawater, looking very helpless.

Lin Lei held Fuweili tightly, while his feet were planted firmly on the wooden boat, as if he had taken root.

Fortunately, the boat wasn’t big, but it was sturdy; although it had been tossed about so much that everything on board had fallen off, the wooden boat still showed no signs of breaking apart.

It seems I was right not to build a raft back then; otherwise, I would definitely have to go swimming in the sea now.

Another big wave came crashing down on his head, hitting Lin Lei’s face painfully. Fortunately, he was on the boat, drifting with the waves, so the force of the wave hitting him wasn’t much; otherwise, he would have had to dive into deep water to hide again.

The rain had started long ago, and coupled with the frenzied seawater, the entire boat cabin was filled with water; luckily, the wooden boat was less dense than water, or else it would have sunk.

This storm was not as big as the one Lin Lei encountered last time, which should be considered a blessing in misfortune; if waves nearly a hundred meters high appeared like last time, just falling from the top would have had bad consequences.

The storm lasted for a full two hours, and miraculously, Lin Lei’s wooden boat was actually not overturned; this was truly immense luck, a blessing from God.

Finally, the wind and waves calmed down, and Lin Lei discovered that they had been blown by the sea breeze to the edge of an island.

Since they were here, they might as well stay; fighting against the wind and waves for over two hours with full concentration had made Lin Lei a bit exhausted, so he might as well go ashore and rest.

Everything on the boat was gone, leaving only two people and one Epic Beast hide. Even the several wooden oars Lin Lei had specially prepared were all lost.

Helplessly, Lin Lei had to get into the sea and swim, pushing the wooden boat toward the island; fortunately, the distance was less than a thousand meters, and after some effort, the wooden boat reached the shore.

However, this led Lin Lei to discover a strange phenomenon: the seawater here was actually very warm, at least nearly five degrees higher than the atmospheric temperature, and the closer to the island, the higher the temperature.

Could this be a volcanic island with an active volcano on it? Lin Lei speculated.

When the two went ashore, they realized that not even a single blade of grass grew where they passed; this was a completely desolate place, and Lin Lei’s hope of finding wood on the island to make oars was shattered as soon as it sprouted.

Depressed, Lin Lei sat down on the ground in frustration: “Wei, our wooden boat oars are all gone; now if we want to get to where the spaceship is, we’ll have to swim there.”

“Ah, this… can we swim there? The distance should be very far, right?” Fuweili was also at her wits’ end, but her frowning look actually improved Lin Lei’s mood; hehe, he was just saying it, and she took it seriously.

Lin Lei lay completely flat on the beach, hands pillowed behind his head, looking at the stars reappearing in the sky, and said lazily: “Never mind, let’s sleep first; I’m exhausted. Wei, you lie down too, the beach here is nice and warm!”

Lin Lei didn’t remove the gills behind his ears; anyway, they weren’t noticeable, and he would need them for swimming when they went back to the spaceship.

If the wooden boat couldn’t be used, at worst he would really swim over; he had swum before. This was Lin Lei’s last thought as he drifted off to sleep; he was truly tired, mentally. He had just spent over two hours fully focused on fighting the wind and waves.

Fuweili, however, was attracted by Lin Lei’s last sentence; she was wearing her Combat Suit and wasn’t sensitive to changes in environmental temperature, so she hadn’t noticed anything unusual. Now hearing Lin Lei say this, she keenly detected something, a glimmer of opportunity.

She deactivated the Combat Suit covering her hand and tested the temperature of the beach with the back of her hand; sure enough, the temperature was unusual, not cold, but instead warm.

Looking at Lin Lei again, he had actually buried himself in the sand in his sleep, which made Fuweili want to laugh and feel heartache at the same time; sigh, Lei was truly worn out, rowing for half a day, fighting a sea beast, and then battling the storm. Even if it were a warrior from the Galaxy Watcher Civilization, without technology, they probably couldn’t have done better than him.

Fuweili began searching for the reason nearby; it was very dark, and she dared not go far, only daring to search within a distance where she could see Lin Lei.

The geological features of this island really didn’t look like a volcanic island; even if it were an active volcano, the temperature should change gradually, rising as one got closer to the crater.

But now, at least Fuweili had walked a few hundred meters toward the center of the island and found no sign of temperature rising; instead, it dropped in some places.

Although this speculation wasn’t very scientific, it was enough to make Fuweili question what exactly was causing the temperature to rise here.

Fuweili picked up a smooth white stone from the ground and unconsciously rubbed it in her hand, frowning and thinking seriously.

Ah! She suddenly exclaimed in a low voice and threw the white stone in her hand onto the ground; why had this stone suddenly become so hot!

Fuweili covered her hand with the Combat Suit, picked up the stone, and examined it carefully; at this moment, the stone was actually glowing faintly red, and needless to say, the temperature must be very high. Moreover, after being touched by the Combat Suit, the red light emitted by the stone became even more dazzling.

The Combat Suit could actually draw energy from this stone; Fuweili sensed it. What kind of stone was this?

A thought floated into Fuweili’s mind; could this be a natural Energy Stone?

Energy Stone was a general term, referring to substances with an energy content exceeding a certain level; the energy here basically referred to chemical energy, released by the transition of electrons in the outer shells of atoms, belonging to relatively active energy.

Otherwise, according to the classic theory of mass-energy conversion, any matter with mass could be converted into energy, and then the classification of Energy Stones would be meaningless.

Judging by the situation, this kind of stone on the island should be a High-Energy Stone.

This was really good news! Fuweili subconsciously wanted to wake Lin Lei, but when she turned her head to look at the beach, her hands and feet instantly went cold, and she sat down on the ground in fright.

Where was the person on the beach?! He was clearly just there, how could he disappear into thin air? What should she do?

Just as Fuweili was frightened and at a loss, Lin Lei’s voice came from beside her: “Wei, why did you run so far away?”

Fuweili immediately jumped up, without saying a word, lips pursed tight, and her pink fists went straight for Lin Lei.

Of course, with such little force, Lin Lei just took it as a massage and accepted it calmly.

It turned out Lin Lei now had a habit of liking to hold Fuweili’s soft body while sleeping; he had been so tired just now that he fell asleep, but when he turned over and reached out to hug, he hugged empty air, which woke him with a start, and he found Fuweili missing.

He was startled and immediately jumped up; fortunately, in the next second, he saw Fuweili thinking not far away, so he walked over.

It turned out this little matter had scared this timid woman so badly; even Lin Lei felt deeply guilty, so getting beaten was only right.

After a long while, Fuweili stopped her hands, panting slightly in Lin Lei’s arms; her anger had dissipated, and taking off her helmet, a smile floated up again: “Lei, guess what I found?”

“What?” Lin Lei was also interested; although Fuweili was sometimes unreliable, she was knowledgeable and occasionally could discover good things.

“Look, it’s this, High-Energy Stone; this island is full of this kind of stone.” Fuweili raised the white stone in her hand, offering it to Lin Lei like a treasure.

Lin Lei took the stone, looked at it left and right, and didn’t find anything different; it was no different from an ordinary stone, just a bit warmer.

“You rub it with your hand and you’ll know,” Fuweili reminded him.

At this moment, the System actually chimed in, sending out the information about this stone.

“Leto Raw Stone (Blue Rain Star Specialty)

Energy Content: 3000 Megajoules per kilogram.

Sensitive to various external field substances; when the external applied field exceeds the critical strength, the Leto Raw Stone can release energy quickly and stably.”

Lin Lei finished reading the introduction, turned his head, and asked: “Wei, is 3000 Megajoules per kilogram a lot?” (Assuming here that Galaxy units of measurement are universal)

Fuweili opened her beautiful eyes wide and asked in surprise: “What thing is 3000 Megajoules per kilogram? You mean this stone? Relative to chemical fuel, this energy content is already very, very high. Ordinary firewood is only about ten-plus Megajoules per kilogram.”

“Haha, that’s exactly what I’m talking about; it seems this island is full of treasures.” He didn’t explain why he knew this, just chuckled: “Wei, do you think this can be used on the spaceship?”

Fuweili said: “That’s exactly what I wanted to say; the Epic Beast hide is just an energy conversion device, it doesn’t provide energy. I was worried before that when starting the spaceship, the heat inside the ship would be sucked dry, but now it’s fine.”

But transportation was a big problem; with just this one wooden boat, how much could it carry? If overloaded, it would definitely sink to the bottom of the sea. Another problem was that the boat’s oars were lost too, and Lin Lei really didn’t want to swim in the sea to push the boat.

“It’s okay, I have a plan; let’s transport a part over first, and then come back for the rest when the spaceship is started. As for the wooden boat’s propulsion, watch me.” Fuweili smiled brightly, and her confidence returned.

Alright, Lin Lei watched the woman radiating confidence with a smile, waiting to see what would happen.