Chapter 78: The Progress Bar Is Finally Full

Suddenly, many people posted videos of themselves diving to the ocean floor to collect Bronze Treasure Chests. Meanwhile, the Survivors who had already dismantled their deep-sea diving gear could only watch helplessly.

Lily Rhodes frowned as she watched a video of someone swimming up to a reef, picking up a Bronze Treasure Chest, and flashing a victory sign at the camera. She wasn’t worried about people competing with her for loot. In fact, ever since she unlocked The Supreme Shop, Bronze Treasure Chests had become useless to her; she only cared about Advanced Treasure Chests now.

Instead, she frowned because these people were getting completely carried away. Some were even playing around in the water, entirely forgetting they were in the deep sea—an environment they knew absolutely nothing about. Exposing themselves to such an unknown frontier was incredibly dangerous.

Just as that thought crossed her mind, someone uploaded a new video with a caption.

"Do not joke around with your own life."

In the footage, a Survivor in deep-sea diving gear swam leisurely through the water. Though his face was obscured, his relaxed posture made it clear he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

Then, disaster struck.

Just as the diver neared the seabed to retrieve a Bronze Treasure Chest, a dark shadow lunged out from beneath the sand and swallowed the Survivor whole in a single bite. The attack was so fast that the video barely captured what the creature was.

Lily repeatedly paused the video until she finally managed to screenshot a blurry silhouette. She opened the Extreme Heat Biome Atlas and flipped through the pages.

"Found it. Firedrake Sandshark. An apex predator that hides in the seabed sediment. The lure on its head automatically transforms into whatever its prey desires most, drawing them into its strike zone before swallowing them at blinding speeds."

Any prey swallowed by a Firedrake Sandshark had zero chance of survival. The creature’s internal temperature was so extreme that victims were boiled alive the instant they were sucked into its maw.

Lily sighed at the grim reality. She stood up and headed to the third-floor attic, approaching the control console to access The Commons Workshop.

Upon reaching Level 10, The Commons Workshop unlocked a new capability. Aside from adding more craftable items to its native menu, it could now learn external blueprints to manufacture new items. However, these crafted items had to be practical life tools, not weapons.

Lily dug through her warehouse, retrieved blueprints for a paper-making machine and a printing press, and fed them into The Commons Workshop via the console.

"I really didn’t expect these two blueprints to actually come in handy," Lily said in disbelief.

She then used the machines to copy the Extreme Heat Biome Atlas. Once finished, she entered the regional chat channel.

"You all might need this," she typed, uploading the Extreme Heat Biome Atlas to the channel.

The chat immediately erupted.

"Is this a reward from Ms. Rhodes?"

"Ms. Rhodes is so righteous! I can’t believe she’s actually sharing this."

The copies of the Extreme Heat Biome Atlas sold out rapidly. An unspoken consensus kept everyone from bragging about it in the world channel. After all, their own region was crowded enough; if Survivors from other zones found out, the competition for the atlases would become completely impossible.

A few opportunistic Survivors recognized the value of the atlas and bought several copies at once, planning to flip them for a profit later. Lily never bothered to police this kind of behavior, just as she had ignored people hoarding her fruits and vegetables to scalp them at higher prices. She only cared that putting the information out there would hopefully save a few lives.

Just then, Shelly’s excited voice rang in her ears.

"Found them! I found them!"

Hearing the commotion, Lily rushed outside to the area where Sprout was growing. Looking out, she saw a vast expanse of crimson—a massive colony of giant red sea anemones.

Shelly couldn’t wait and immediately started chowing down. But a second later, the massive turtle’s body jolted. The anemone Shelly had just bitten into suddenly clamped tightly around the turtle’s head. Fortunately, an anemone was still just an anemone. Enduring the pain, Shelly forcefully gulped the massive creature down.

Lily checked the vehicle upgrade panel. The progress bar had instantly jumped by one percent. At that rate, Shelly only needed to eat forty-nine more to trigger a direct upgrade.

"Hold on a second, Shelly," Lily called out, stopping the turtle’s next bite.

The Scarlet Anemone’s counterattack had clearly hurt Shelly, so she wanted to check the Extreme Heat Biome Atlas to see if these creatures had a weakness. Finding the Scarlet Anemone in the atlas, Lily quickly skimmed the entry.

Aside from their massive size, Scarlet Anemones used venomous tentacles to ensnare prey—very similar to the sea anemones back on Azurea. However, because these creatures only spawned when water temperatures spiked, they were extremely sensitive to temperature changes. Cold water, in particular, was their kryptonite; even a splash of it would cause them to lose all vitality.

Armed with this knowledge, Lily crafted a water gun and filled it with cooling water. She then strapped herself securely to Shelly’s head to avoid getting thrown off while the turtle fed. Raising the water gun, she took aim. A thin stream of water shot out, landing with perfect precision on the nearest Scarlet Anemone.

The instant the cooling water touched it, the Scarlet Anemone—which had been blooming beautifully like a flower just moments before—retracted all its tentacles, shrinking itself into a tight red ball.

Shelly’s eyes lit up at the sight, and the turtle took a massive bite. Compared to the previous struggle, this mouthful went down flawlessly. Shelly munched on the Scarlet Anemone like it was a casual snack, biting off half of it in one go and chewing slowly, savoring the delicious flavor.

With Lily’s continued cover fire, Shelly eagerly devoured the field of Scarlet Anemones. The progress bar on the vehicle panel climbed steadily.

"Almost there. Almost there," Lily murmured.

As Shelly finally swallowed the last Scarlet Anemone, the upgrade progress maxed out.

[System Prompt: Detected that your vehicle, the Atlas Titan Turtle, has reached its maximum Level. Do you wish to upgrade?]

"Yes."

[System Prompt: Detected that the Atlas Titan Turtle has reached Level 10. The enhancement upgrade will now commence. Survivor, please select a location to perform the enhancement upgrade.]

"So this is how it works after Level 10," Lily said, looking with great interest at the list of viable upgrade locations. A small ocean wouldn’t work, a stream wouldn’t work...