Chapter 96: You Are Lying

After nearly ten minutes of a tug-of-war, she reeled a massive fish shadow out of the sea.

Lily’s eyes widened instantly at the enormous shadow. Reacting in a split second, she popped open the square lid beside her.

The moment the lid opened, a powerful suction drew the shadow right in.

"PHEW..."

Lily slumped onto the deck, still recovering from the shock. The fish had been almost as large as her entire boat. If she hadn’t opened that square collection chute in time, her vessel would have been destroyed.

After a long while, she picked herself up from the deck and approached the chute to check the fish’s details. It had all happened so fast. She had only seen a giant black shadow and nothing else.

[Spike-Snouted Toothfish: A carnivorous fish that can reach up to ten meters in length. It is a fierce oceanic predator.]

As if sensing Lily’s lingering curiosity, the Introduction included a 3D image of the toothfish, displaying it from every angle in a full 360-degree view.

"Good thing I reacted fast enough. Otherwise..." Lily shuddered. Looking at the creature, swallowing her whole would have been child’s play for it.

However, dangerous as it was, the Points it yielded were massive. A single fish was worth a staggering one thousand Points, shooting her name significantly higher up the leaderboard.

"Wow..." she thought. Risk and reward were perfectly proportional. Judging by this outcome, catching that fish had been incredibly lucrative.

"Should I go for another round?" Suddenly, she was interested in taking first place again.

But before she could cast her line again, she noticed someone—no, a boat—approaching her. Onboard was a skinny man around five foot eleven. He had a pale complexion, bluish lips, and heavy dark circles under his eyes. He didn’t look old, but those eyes...

Lily watched him, her guard instinctively going up. The man was dangerous...

As Lily warily assessed him, Silas Jennings was observing her in return. Noting the caution in her eyes, his expression remained largely unchanged, but his heart tightened. Lily was exactly as rumored—extremely guarded. Especially seeing how she had bundled herself up tightly from head to toe, leaving only her eyes exposed. With such an outfit, even if someone recognized her, her true appearance wouldn’t be immediately compromised. In the future, her identity wouldn’t be exposed until much later, and even then, it would be a voluntary reveal on her part. Otherwise, who knew how long she would have stayed hidden?

Don’t misunderstand—Silas was not a Reincarnator. He only knew what happened in the previous timeline because of his awakened SS-rank Talent: Temporal Dialogue. However, he could only communicate with his past or future self. This Talent could only be used once a month.

The first time, he chose to speak with his future self. He gleaned far more information than anyone else and leveraged that knowledge gap to survive, eventually securing a solid tenth place on the vehicle leaderboard.

The second time, he again consulted his future self. Learning that his present actions actively altered his future self left him ecstatic. Meanwhile, his future self provided a crucial clue regarding the rewards for this event.

While the material rewards were valuable, the most important prize was the title granted to the first-place winner. This title significantly boosted the chances of catching a Golden Fish and a Special Fish. In the future, these would serve as true foundations of power and hard currency. Since it was highly unlikely he could claim first place on his own, he needed outside help.

The candidate his future self had recommended was the owner of The Supreme Shop and the undisputed number one among current Survivors—Lily Rhodes.

According to his future self, Lily was a cautious and overly low-profile person. Although she ranked quite high in this event, she failed to secure first place, which remained a lingering regret for her. As it turned out, the future Silas had accidentally discovered that she had been sailing in the exact same waters as him at the time. Compared to other powerhouses, Lily was relatively mild-tempered—provided no one provoked her. This was especially true for her in the early stages, which was why his future self had told him to seek her out for an alliance. Knowing her personality, she wouldn’t refuse as long as the offered benefits were substantial enough.

"Stop right there!"

Even though combat was strictly prohibited during the event, Lily still pivoted her sailboat’s cannons, aiming them squarely at Silas.

Seeing this, Silas’s calves trembled in fear, his forcefully maintained composure nearly shattering. However, he kept his future self’s warning in mind. Mild-tempered as she might be, she was inherently proud. If he appeared too weak during their first meeting, she would most likely reject him and might even grow highly suspicious.

"Don’t misunderstand. I’m here to propose a partnership," Silas said.

"Calm down. Calm down. It’s the event period. Survivors can’t attack each other," he thought.

"A partnership?" Lily stared at him, the vigilance in her eyes unyielding.

"Yes, a partnership. My name is Silas Jennings. I graduated from Veridia University. Come to think of it, we’re alumni."

Hearing this only heightened her suspicion. Her social circle back in school had been tiny, and she had never heard of anyone named Silas Jennings. Besides, her name wasn’t exactly unique. Even if Silas really knew her, how could he be so sure he hadn’t mistaken her for someone else?

Seeing her unwavering guard, Silas hurriedly blurted out his objective in one breath. "I really mean no harm! I came to you with genuine intentions of cooperating. I just saw you reel in a massive catch, so I figure you must have some special bait to attract them. I’ve been watching you for a while, and you don’t seem particularly interested in taking first place."

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Lily asked.

"You don’t care about first place, but I do. How about this: you help me secure first place, and I’ll let you keep all the material rewards. All I want is the ranking. I want to establish a Guild, but I don’t have the reputation for it yet, so I want to use this event to build hype," Silas spoke with a face full of sincerity.

"You’re lying," Lily said flatly. Her tone was perfectly calm, as if she were merely commenting on the nice weather, yet her gaze never wavered from his face.