Chapter 213: Survival in Natural Disasters (42)

As for mutated seafood, the natural thing to do is to kill them and collect their meat.

Compared to seafood before the Mutation, the meat of these mutated fish, shrimp, and crab is more substantial.

For instance, a single mutated shrimp provides nearly ten jin of shrimp meat.

Take the mutated crab for another example; besides about ten jin of crab meat, one also obtains a jar of crab roe and a pair of Crab Claw Blades.

It is the same for fish; besides the delicious fish meat, sometimes fish roe, fish gelatin, or caviar will drop.

Returning to the inner cabin, Xie Yang gives the golden snub-nosed monkey that is begging for a reward a bunch of its favorite lychees, telling it to remember to poop in the designated spot after eating so it can be used for composting later.

Then she goes straight to the Cockpit and shares a portion of this morning's harvest with Fu Zhangzheng, who is staring at the monitors every second of the day.

Fu Zhangzheng declines: "You keep it. Just cook a bowl for me to taste when you have time."

Xie Yang has tasted his cooking; aside from barbecue, other things like stews or stir-fries are truly hard to describe, so she does not argue with him.

She takes two meat floss rice balls and five-grain soy milk she made in excess previously from the Storage Space, and they eat breakfast, one portion each.

They discuss landing while eating.

"Sister Xie, Brother Fu, are we preparing to go ashore?"

Ming Hao knocks open the Cockpit door and brings them a pot of freshly brewed coffee.

During the third season of natural disasters, they used fresh water to trade for quite a lot of coffee beans with players on the World Channel, and they brew a pot every few days.

Xie Yang takes a sip of coffee and nods: "There is such a plan, but the land might also be full of mutated animals and plants everywhere. Are you afraid?"

"Not afraid! Following you both, I am not afraid of anything!"

"Right! Without your help, I, Lao Zhuang, would have kicked the bucket long ago. Living one more day now is a gain; there is nothing to be afraid of!" Zhuang Fuda also pokes his head in to state his position.

"There is just one problem," Zhuang Fuda scratches his head, "Has our Shelter always been the Cruise Ship? Then once we go ashore, where will we live?"

This is exactly what Xie Yang was just discussing with Fu Zhangzheng.

Entering the fourth season of natural disasters, the Survival Game System has not issued any Tasks related to the Shelter, as if landing or not is merely a choice for the players, rather than mandatory.

"Big Bosses, whatever you want to do, we will definitely follow your arrangements!"

"That's right!" Ming Hao pats his chest, "I follow the Big Bosses to the death! If I really can't keep up with the Big Bosses' pace, that's my own problem; you don't need to feel troubled!"

"Alright then." Xie Yang and Fu Zhangzheng look at each other and decide to land as a group, "You all get a good rest tonight. Brother Fu and I will take turns standing guard. Tomorrow morning, the Cruise Ship will dock, and we will all go ashore together."

"Great! We have long missed the feeling of having our feet on solid ground!"

Xie Yang and Fu Zhangzheng smile at each other; aren't they the same?

The next morning, when the first rays of sunlight appear in the east, fine golden light sprinkles over the sea surface, as if paving a golden avenue for the wind-riding, wave-breaking Cruise Ship.

Ahead is the dawn with clouds blooming like brocade; behind is the eternal night that is gradually disappearing.

"Aren't you cold?"

Fu Zhangzheng walks out of the Cockpit at some point and drapes a windbreaker over Xie Yang, who is leaning against the deck railing admiring the sunrise over the sea.

Xie Yang thanks him.

She pulls the collar of the windbreaker tight and, facing the cool sea breeze, sighs: "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"It is beautiful." Fu Zhangzheng nods, "Nature is never stingy with its gifts; it is just that sometimes, we humans do not cherish them ourselves."

Xie Yang agrees with his point of view: "Presumably after this time, people will cherish the planet beneath their feet more."

The planet can exist without humans, but humans cannot exist without the planet.

"Sister Xie! Brother Fu! Good morning! Thank you for your hard work last night! Why don't you take this chance to catch up on some sleep? We are already up and will be vigilant at all times."

Ming Hao pokes his head out from his balcony and greets the two on the deck.

"That's right, Big Bosses!" Chen Shuoyun next door also pokes his head out, "We are up; you go get some sleep."

"No need, we took turns sleeping for a few hours." Xie Yang waves at them, "Since you're up, come down for breakfast. We'll dock in about an hour."

As she speaks, Xie Yang remembers the trawl net she lowered last night before the Cruise Ship increased speed, and says excitedly: "Brother Fu, you go back to the Cockpit; I'm going to haul in the fishing net."

Ever since entering the Mutation Season, she has not gone into the water again.

Other fellow players tried sea fishing, but instead of catching fish or shrimp, they were almost dragged into the sea.

So after becoming familiar with firearms, everyone actually hopes the ocean overlords will come to bite the deck, as that way they can harvest a wave of catch.

This is also Xie Yang's first time trying to use a trawl net.

Anyway, they are about to dock, and barring any accidents, they will live on land for the last four months until the game ends, so the large trawl net adapted for the cruise ship will have no use; it is better to try it out on the last night.

The worst that can happen is it gets bitten by fish or shrimp; there are still two Hand Casting Nets in the Fishing Gear Set, and they can still catch fish in rivers and lakes once ashore.

"Sister, we'll come help you!"

Ming Hao and Chen Shuoyun are the fastest to come downstairs.

When they run onto the deck, Xie Yang has not yet hauled the trawl net up.

"Just in case, we brought guns."

Xie Yang laughs in spite of herself: "Don't hold too much hope; maybe what we haul up will just be a broken net and nothing else."

"Impossible!" Ming Hao says firmly, "Sister, your Luck Value is so high, it's impossible to have an empty net!"

Xie Yang is amused: "I'll take your word for it."

The trawl net was set quite deep.

For one, the Cruise Ship was sailing at high speed all night, so setting it shallow wouldn't catch much.

Secondly, Xie Yang wanted to catch some shellfish from the deep sea, rather than shrimp or crab with steel-like claws and sharp pincers, to avoid the trawl net being cut before it even started working.

"It's coming, it's coming!"

A moment later, the trawl net finally breaks the surface and is hauled onto the deck.

"What is that? It feels like the net is completely stuffed!"

"Quick, move aside!"

"Bang!"

A pitch-black mass was dragged onto the deck by the trawl net.

The three of them stared closely: Whoa!

It was actually a giant octopus!

As it landed on the deck with the trawl net, it made a thunderous sound.

Even the behemoth Cruise Ship shook from the weight.

"The net is indeed broken!"

Ming Hao took his gun to bolster his courage, cautiously wanting to get closer to take a look.

The trawl net had become a tattered mess shredded by sharp objects, but its few remaining meshes had entangled the giant octopus's tentacles, forcibly dragging this big guy up from the seabed onto the deck.

Sacrificing a cruise-level large trawl net to catch a giant octopus—it was hard to say if this deal was worth it.

But it was at least a bit better than coming up empty-handed.

"Watch out!"

Xie Yang used a fish spear to hook Ming Hao's collar, pulling him away from the octopus.

At that very instant, the octopus's belly swelled, and it immediately spat out a mouthful of ink.

"Pfft—hiss—"

The deck sprayed by the ink actually rose with a puff of white smoke; the steel deck was forcibly corroded by a layer, its corrosiveness comparable to concentrated Sulfur.

Ming Hao gripped the deck railing in lingering fear, cold sweat streaming down: "Holy crap! Is this thing spitting ink? It's clearly lethal sulfuric acid! Good thing you pulled me back, Sis, otherwise I would have been skinned alive!"