Chapter 55: Escaping the Heat in the Sea

The temperature spike was even more terrifying than Lily Rhodes had anticipated.

She easily secured the top spot on the vehicle leaderboard for the second time, earning two special buildings, two Advanced Self-Selected Weapon Boxes, and ten thousand Crystal Cores. The two buildings were a Soul-Nourishing Pavilion and a combat training room. She had previously collected fragments for both of these special structures. To receive them fully intact now saved her a considerable amount of trouble.

As for the two Advanced Self-Selected Weapon Boxes, she left them unopened. Her current arsenal was more than sufficient; she could always open them later when the need arose.

Lily stepped outside. The moment she opened the door, a blistering wave of heat slammed into her face.

In the distance, evenly spaced across Shelly’s massive shell, red beads emitted a steady glow. This phenomenon had begun as soon as the ambient temperature surpassed forty degrees Celsius. The Fire Spirit Pearl she had previously integrated into the giant turtle’s body surfaced automatically to regulate Shelly’s internal temperature, absorbing the excess heat directly into itself.

Thanks to the Fire Spirit Pearl, the temperature inside Lily’s domain was five to ten degrees cooler than the outside. Even so, the heat remained incredibly oppressive.

Wearing a sun hat, Lily first inspected the plantation zone. Fortunately, the current temperatures had yet to affect the crops. Next, she checked the pasture. The normally lively livestock and poultry—pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese—were entirely lethargic, huddling weakly in whatever shade they could find.

After finishing her rounds, Lily returned to her room and collapsed onto the sofa, her skin flushed red from the relentless sun. Seeing the temperature continue its rapid climb, she retreated directly into her recently acquired special building: the underground bunker.

The moment she stepped inside, a refreshing breeze washed over her. She breathed a sigh of relief, feeling as though she had finally returned to the land of the living.

Lily narrowed her eyes in comfort, sinking into the plush sofa. After resting with her eyes closed for a while, she slowly opened them and accessed the backend of The Supreme Shop. Recently, the rising heat had caused cooling water sales to skyrocket. She had subsequently added mung bean soup to her inventory, which sold just as well—snapped up the second it hit the shelves.

However, she wasn’t here to check her sales figures. She wanted to see if any of the blueprints she had traded for recently could be of use. What she needed most right now was definitely something to lower the temperature—not just for herself, but for all the plants and animals in her domain.

As a living creature, Shelly possessed intelligence and combat prowess far exceeding other vehicles. Yet, being alive also meant the giant turtle could feel the biting cold and the scorching heat. Over the past few days, she had clearly sensed Shelly’s movements becoming sluggish. The turtle barely responded to her words. She took all of this in, yet remained utterly helpless to change it.

Lily flipped through the newly acquired blueprints one by one. Yet, after reviewing every single one, she didn’t find a single useful schematic. It made perfect sense, really. If anyone actually possessed a blueprint for large-scale cooling, they would keep it for themselves. Why would they ever trade it away?

Lily sighed and casually opened the regional chat channel. After enduring the daily grind of survival for this long, many participants had already been eliminated. Those who remained had fully adapted to the current rules of existence.

"Everyone, let me share a great way to beat the heat," one user wrote. "Find a small island with a forest. Staying in the woods is way cooler than being out in the open. I’ve already started building a house!"

To prove their point, the user shared a photo. It depicted a lush, verdant forest where the framework of a wooden house was already taking shape. For people who had been drifting at sea for nearly twenty days, a solid house held a fatal attraction—not to mention how incredibly cool the environment looked.

"An island? You make it sound so easy!" someone retorted. "You think you can just stumble upon an island whenever you want? I’ve been in this world for almost twenty days and haven’t seen a single one."

"Bro, drop the coordinates for that island! Let’s build it up together."

"Yeah, exactly! Drop the pin, let’s team up. What’s the fun in building a house alone? We should all pitch in!"

"The Artificer’s Guild is purchasing island coordinates. Any provider will receive a reward of five thousand Crystal Cores."

"Even the top Guild is tempted. Looks like this method actually works."

Reading the chat, Lily felt highly tempted by the idea of escaping the heat on an island. Furthermore, she could store Shelly inside her spatial inventory to protect the turtle from the sweltering temperatures, killing two birds with one stone. She even had the Exploration Medal, one of whose functions was locating islands.

Yet, she hesitated.

This was a maritime survival game. *Maritime* survival. Although she didn’t know what kind of entity had dragged them into this world, would a being of that caliber really allow them to exploit such a glaring loophole? The chances of that were incredibly slim.

"Forget it. It’s not like I can’t hold out," she muttered to herself.

Just as that thought crossed Lily’s mind, Shelly’s voice suddenly echoed in her ears.

"It’s so hot. I’m going into the sea to cool off."

Before Lily could even react, the ground beneath her shuddered violently. She sprinted outside, only to see Shelly’s massive body slowly submerging. Simultaneously, countless gallons of seawater surged in from all directions, only to be blocked completely by the protective shield and Absolute Defense.

Seeing this, Lily finally let out a long sigh of relief. "You scared me to death."

They were now entirely surrounded by seawater. Visibility plummeted in the murky depths, with only faint glimmers of light filtering down from the surface above. This wasn’t a major issue, however. She had acquired Light Wing Tree saplings long ago, which could easily provide illumination.

The oppressive heat rapidly faded, replaced by a refreshing chill.

"Shelly, if you could do this all along, why didn’t you say so earlier?" Lily asked.

"You were scared. I didn’t want you to be scared, so I kept quiet," Shelly replied. "I just couldn’t take it anymore. It’s really, really hot up there."

Hearing Shelly’s slightly aggrieved tone, Lily couldn’t help but recall her first day in this world. Back then, she genuinely had been terrified of something exactly like this happening.

"I’m sorry for making you worry," Lily said softly, her voice laced with guilt.

Free from the torment of the scorching heat, Shelly quickly returned to normal. "Ms. Rhodes, I will take you to look for Treasure Chests now."

At those words, Lily’s eyes lit up. Of course! They were completely submerged in the ocean—it was the perfect time to hunt for Treasure Chests.

"Hold on a second. Let me pinpoint the Treasure Chests’ coordinates first, and see if I can find any shipwrecks while I’m at it."

The sheer volume of materials she had dismantled from the last shipwreck had nearly overwhelmed her inventory. On this iteration of the vehicle leaderboard, because the vast majority of participants were bottlenecked by upgrade materials, special vehicles had surprisingly gained the upper hand.