Chapter 4: Owl Tent

Lily looked up at the sky, then glanced down at the turtle beneath her. "Shelly, are you full?"

At her words, a smooth green turtle head surfaced from the water, turned to look at her, and slowly nodded.

Seeing this, Lily said, "Since you’re full, just follow my lead. Right now, we only want Treasure Chests."

The novice safe period was limited. To maximize the utility of these short seven days, there was only one way: finding Treasure Chests. As long as she found and opened more Treasure Chests, she could accumulate resources at top speed and trade them for the Crystal Cores held by others. Gathering ten or more Crystal Cores entirely on her own might be difficult, but with seven billion people helping her search, she refused to believe she would fail.

Having made up her mind, Lily spent the next stretch of time constantly listening and directing Shelly forward.

Some Treasure Chests floated directly on the sea surface and could be picked up right away. However, most of these floating ones were Wooden Treasure Boxes, which generally yielded materials like wood, stone, and plastic, with only a small chance of containing food. The higher-grade chests were all submerged at the bottom of the sea, requiring a fishing rod or a fishing net to dredge them up.

Lily cast the fishing net out again. After waiting for a moment, she began to haul it in.

Soon, she dragged the fishing net out of the sea. Among the captured fish, the most striking item in the mesh was a Silver Treasure Chest.

"A Silver Treasure Chest!" Lily’s eyes lit up the moment she saw it.

Up until now, aside from the Golden Treasure Box that awakened her Talent, everything she had salvaged from the water had been Bronze Treasure Chests. Finally, something different had appeared. Just looking at its exterior, she could tell it was much more Advanced than a Bronze Treasure Chest, featuring far more intricate engravings.

After hauling the chest up, Lily didn’t open it immediately. She was still in a rush to reach the next location. She stored the chest into the System space on her wrist and listed the fish in the trading zone to exchange for fresh water and items opened from Treasure Chests.

With the fishing net, the last thing she lacked was various types of sea fish. But she had no fire and wasn’t used to eating raw meat. Even if she did have a fire, she could never finish so many fish on her own. She might as well sell them all in the trading zone. This would gather supplies and simultaneously save room in her System space.

Through her experiments, she found the System space only had ten grid slots. Identical items could be stacked, but she still didn’t know the maximum stacking limit. If she stored all these fish into the System space, it would probably fill up in an instant.

As time slowly trickled by, Lily collected more and more Treasure Chests. At the same time, her stamina rapidly depleted until she couldn’t even lift her arms.

"I can’t do this anymore. I need to rest a bit." Lily plopped down heavily onto Shelly’s back, panting hard.

She took a chocolate bar out of her System space, tore open the packaging, stuffed it into her mouth in two or three bites, and swallowed it after a few haphazard chews. The moment the food hit her stomach, the gnawing hunger in her belly finally eased.

She quickly ate two more chocolate bars, though at a much slower pace this time. Next, she took out her only bottle of water, twisted off the cap, and chugged half of it in one breath.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to drink more, but she knew this was her only fresh water resource. If she drank it all at once, she would truly be out of water. Over in the trading zone, the price of fresh water had already been driven sky-high. Almost everyone was begging for water, yet very few were willing to trade away their own supplies.

"If I could just find a stable source of fresh water." A swift gleam of raw ambition flashed through Lily’s eyes at the thought.

Taking advantage of this rest period to recover her stamina, Lily decided to open all the Treasure Chests she had found so far. Without a watch, she wasn’t sure how much time had passed since she began collecting them, but judging by the height of the sun, it wouldn’t be long until nightfall.

During this time, she had picked up five Wooden Treasure Boxes, six Bronze Treasure Chests, and one Silver Treasure Chest.

She opened the Wooden Treasure Boxes one by one, obtaining a total of one iron block, three pieces of wood, a 2.5-liter bottle of mineral water, two blueberry jam buns, and a jar of canned fruit. Lily didn’t even glance at the iron block and wood. Her eyes were glued to the water, bread, and canned food, completely unable to suppress the smile curling her lips.

She had been worrying about a water source just moments ago, and now her problem was solved. She wouldn’t have to worry about dying of thirst anytime soon.

With this in mind, she opened the trading zone, listed one hundred milliliters of water, and opted to trade it for a Crystal Core. This was just her testing the waters to see if anyone would choose to exchange for a mere hundred milliliters. After putting up the listing, she closed the panel and continued opening the rest of the boxes.

She popped open the six Bronze Treasure Chests all at once, and their contents appeared before her: Fish Spear * 1, Windproof lighter * 1, one box of Mixed Fruit Cans, one box of Instant Noodles, one pack of 2.5-liter mineral water (six bottles in total), and finally, a black tent.

Among all these items, only the last one came with a System Introduction. This meant the black tent was a special item, while the rest were all ordinary goods. Lily didn’t feel disappointed at all. With these things, she at least wouldn’t have to worry about food and water for a while—especially with those six massive bottles of mineral water.

After putting the items away, she turned her gaze to the black tent.

[Owl Tent: Possesses a sleep-inducing effect. Anyone resting inside will receive optimal sleep quality and fatigue relief. During sleep, the tent automatically activates silent mode; in the eyes of marine life, you simply do not exist.]

Lily nearly jumped for joy after reading the tent’s effects. Now she wouldn’t have to fear being ambushed in her sleep. What a great item. Truly an incredible item. And it could even eliminate fatigue!

She moved her stiff arms. As someone who would usually end up out of breath just climbing stairs, her physical exertion today roughly equaled her entire workout volume for the past month. Unsurprisingly, her arms would have been aching and sore for the next few days, drastically lowering her efficiency in salvaging Treasure Chests. Now, with this tent, that concern completely vanished.

Right now, she couldn’t wait to lie down inside and test its effects.

Lily stroked the Owl Tent over and over again, completely unable to hide the sheer delight on her face. Only when she had admired it to her heart’s content did she finally store it away into the System space on her wrist.