Chapter 72: Photo

With no other options, Lily Rhodes returned to her sailboat and opened the regional chat channel to see how others were handling the situation.

Since most people were busy trying to complete their tasks, the message refresh rate in both the regional and world chat channels had noticeably slowed down.

Even if they lacked the ability to redeem items from the System’s recycling shop, they still had The Supreme Shop. In there, a complete Shell could be exchanged for a single cooling potion.

However, the channels weren’t entirely dead. Many were showing off their battle records, especially the leaders of large Guilds, using their strength to recruit more members.

"The Golden Guild is buying Volcanic Venom-Snail Shells at a high price!"

"The Green Mountain Guild is buying Volcanic Venom-Snail Shells at a high price!"

Despite the numerous Guilds trying to buy Shells, very few people were willing to sell to them. The reason for this, naturally, was Lily.

After all, no one knew how long this hellish, sweltering weather would last. At a time like this, the cooling potion was a life-saving miracle drug. Between the other Guilds and The Supreme Shop, the choice of who to sell to was obvious.

Lily skipped over the useless chatter, searching for information that could actually help her. After observing for a while, she discovered there were currently two methods for hunting the Volcanic Venom-Snail.

The first was team combat. They would separate a small cluster of snails from the main horde, coordinate with each other, and slaughter them all. The advantage of this was high efficiency. It allowed them to quickly funnel all the kill Points onto a single person to push them up the leaderboards. Currently, aside from Lily, the top ten on the leaderboard were all leaders of large Guilds. They relied on this exact tactic to firmly weld their names to the top ten.

The second method was largely the same, but geared toward solo combat—separating a single snail instead of a cluster. It was a slower process but still highly effective, albeit a bit dangerous.

After reading up on these two methods, Lily returned to the water. Following the advice of that Survivor, she tried to lure a single Volcanic Venom-Snail away from the main group. She quickly realized, however, that she had no idea how to actually pull it off. Furthermore, she seemed to possess absolutely zero combat Talent.

Handling one or two was fine, but the moment the numbers increased, she panicked and lost her coordination.

"Forget it. I shouldn’t make things so hard for myself," she muttered.

Thanks to Shelly, Lily gave up without an ounce of guilt.

"I’ll just go collect Treasure Chests on the surface."

Returning to the surface, she sailed around searching for Treasure Chests, opening them, and putting together complete sets to list on The Supreme Shop. They usually sold out in seconds.

During this time, quite a few people sent her private messages, offering high prices for her deep-sea diving gear. She declined them all. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to sell, but rather she didn’t have enough stock to spare, and the entitled tone of the buyers rubbed her the wrong way.

Over the next few days, Lily barely went underwater at all. She spent her time entirely on the surface, hoarding Wooden Treasure Boxes and raking in massive profits.

Meanwhile, beneath the waves, the relentless crushing power of the "Shelly Bulldozer" ensured that Lily’s name remained firmly planted at the number one spot on the leaderboard. Her Point total was several times higher than the person in second place. After all, humans needed rest, but Shelly did not.

By the second day, Lily had already figured out the spawn conditions for the Treasure Chests. They spawned twice daily: once at night and once during the day.

She wasn’t the only one who noticed this pattern. Some Survivors, knowing they lacked combat strength and combat-oriented Talents, shifted their focus elsewhere. These regularly spawning Treasure Chests were a fantastic alternative. As long as they seized the opportunity, three days was more than enough time for them to make an absolute fortune.

On the third day, Lily finally gathered ten thousand Volcanic Venom-Snail Shells.

After submitting them all, she opened the recycling shop, found the Gold Spirit Pearl, and clicked purchase.

[System: Detected that Survivor has obtained a Gold Spirit Pearl. Initiate fusion?]

"Yes!"

[System: Detected that Survivor possesses multiple vehicles. Please select a vehicle for fusion.]

[Atlas Titan Turtle (Level 10 Vehicle)]

[Sailboat (Level 3 Vehicle)]

Lily’s initial plan was obviously to fuse the Gold Spirit Pearl with Shelly. After all, the turtle was her primary vehicle. But when presented with the choice, she hesitated.

Shelly’s defenses were already more than enough, especially with the Absolute Defense skill. The sailboat, on the other hand, hadn’t received a single enhancement outside of its standard upgrades.

After weighing the pros and cons, Lily ultimately chose to fuse the Gold Spirit Pearl with the sailboat.

Once the fusion was complete, the sailboat didn’t look much different. Its exterior remained exactly the same, but...

Lily tapped her fingers lightly against the hull. The sound had completely changed.

By this time, Lily had absolutely locked down first place on the leaderboard, but hostile voices began popping up in the chat channel targeting her.

It started when someone posted a photo. It was a picture of Lily salvaging Wooden Treasure Boxes on her sailboat. However, in the photo, she was fully geared up, not even exposing her eyes.

"Lily, come out and let’s talk. Otherwise, you wouldn’t want your identity exposed, would you?"

Lily blinked as she read the message. This was a threat, but it was just a single photo. Why on earth did he think she would feel threatened by it?

As for her identity being exposed, as the number one ranked person on the vehicle leaderboard, she really wasn’t afraid. Moreover, she was completely bundled up in the photo—not a single strand of hair was visible.

"Is this little sailboat really Lily? Impossible. Didn’t her vehicle reach Level 10 ages ago?"

"I don’t think it’s Lily either. She lists so many mutated vegetables and fruits every single day. That proves her vehicle must be massive, with enough space for large-scale farming. That tiny boat in the picture couldn’t even fit a small planter box."

Seeing that Lily hadn’t responded after a long while, the person who posted the photo suddenly softened his tone.

"Lily, hiding won’t do you any good. To tell you the truth, our Guild locked onto your coordinates a long time ago. You’re already surrounded. But our boss said that as long as you obediently join our Brotherhood Guild, we’ll even make you a vice-leader. Otherwise, don’t blame us for getting nasty."

Lily smirked. "Then come and get me. Let’s see exactly how ’nasty’ you can get."

This was the perfect opportunity to test just how tough her sailboat had become after fusing with the Gold Spirit Pearl.