6 Between Clutching and Departure

[Silva's Mission (Completed)]

As Silva settled onto the raft, Cen Jiu saw the system notification pop up, signaling that the mission was finally secure.

However, in the next second, a giant wave far beyond her ability to withstand crashed down. Cen Jiu’s vision went black, and she could only watch as her health bar on the interface plummeted. Her character lost consciousness and became unresponsive.

If her health dropped any further, she would have to reload her save and start over! Wait... aside from the game interface, her vision was plunged into complete darkness. Was this a scripted death for the tutorial level?

Just as Cen Jiu suspected, before her health hit rock bottom, the screen cut to a third-person perspective, and a cutscene began to play.

In the gloomy storm, a sea monster writhed and coiled. The hull of the *Flying* snapped in two and sank beneath the surface. A creature of a hundred eyes emerged over the wreckage, a rift over a hundred meters long tearing open to swallow the ship’s spoils.

[Achievement: Escape from the Sea]
[Achievement: Wrath of the Sea Monster]
[Game Saved Automatically]

This time, her vision went completely black, and the game entered the actual loading screen.

...

At dawn, the sandy coastline shimmered with golden light. The rare rainfall from the previous day had brought a bounty of resources to this stretch of beach. Seabirds lazily picked through the offerings, eating whichever beached fish looked fresh.

After eating their fill, it wouldn't be bad to pick up some shiny stones to bring back. The bird spotted a strange-shaped stone that caught the light, which looked quite nice. It tried to pick up the prized stone, but the object didn't budge.

"Coo! Squawk!" The stone suddenly moved, scaring the seabird into shrieking and flying off. As it cried out, the surrounding birds caught the signal and took flight in an instant, leaving behind a vacuum zone that the local population dared not approach.

Cen Jiu climbed to her feet. The sand on her body was mostly dry, and a quick brush of her hands cleared it away. She stretched her limbs and tapped her toes against the sand, the metal buckles on her boots refracting the sunlight.

The durability of her original equipment had dipped slightly, but it was still well within the range of being wearable. She checked her backpack; the items inside were intact, and there was one extra item she recognized.

[Broken Thorn Stake: A thorn stake broken in half. You once used it to pierce the body of a sea monster. (Cannot be discarded)]

Cen Jiu checked her quest log. It didn't mention this as a mission reward, so how it ended up bound to her was still a question. Did it automatically find her after she fell into the sea? But given that it didn't take up inventory space and hadn't shown any signs of harming the player, Cen Jiu didn't bother dwelling on it. She would find out eventually.

"Thanks, little bird," Cen Jiu said, bidding farewell to the seabird that had woken her. She had just watched the third-person cutscene, which transitioned from a close-up of the bird to a shot of her lying dead on the beach. She had always had a fondness for such creatures, which often symbolized a "new beginning."

This meant her tutorial level was over... right?

[A Place of Peace: Adventurers need rest, too. Find or build a safe place to stay.]

The mission guidance became more vague. Cen Jiu walked into the forest bordering the beach, where the shade made the temperature noticeably more comfortable. She tested the mechanics again, lying down to try and put her character to sleep.

[This is not a safe location. Confirm sleep?]

This time, the system didn't forcibly prevent her from sleeping, instead offering a friendly reminder.

"Confirm sleep." Her stamina bar was at the bottom, and her movement speed was near-crawling; sleep was the most common early-game mechanism for recovering health and stamina. Once the character entered sleep mode, Cen Jiu's screen went black, the system auto-saved, and the time in the bottom right corner began to tick by at an accelerated rate.

Suddenly, a massive prompt flashed in the center of the screen:

[Sleep Interrupted! You are under attack!]

"?" Cen Jiu checked the time. Only half an hour had passed in-game, and her stamina bar had barely recovered.

As her consciousness returned, a sharp pain shot from her character's finger. Cen Jiu jolted upright and looked—a crab was pinching her finger. It was a huge crab, nearly half a meter across. Given the game's level of freedom, it surely could be cooked and eaten, right?

Cen Jiu remembered the realistic taste of the lemon she'd encountered; perhaps this crab would taste just like reality? But she had to deal with her dwindling health bar first. She crouched down, placing both her hand and the crab into a nearby puddle that had yet to evaporate, and issued a verbal threat: "If you don't let go, I'll bash you!"

The crab sensed the water and released its claw.

Cen Jiu breathed a sigh of relief. Good thing that worked; otherwise, going toe-to-claw with this foul creature and losing a finger wouldn't be fun at all. The limb durability system was no joke—missing a finger would be a massive operational handicap.

Ignoring the injury, Cen Jiu took out a string she had collected earlier. She grabbed the back of the crab in the puddle, bound it tightly with practiced motions, and tossed it into her backpack to identify it.

[Bound Treasure Crab: Weapon, cooking ingredient. The meat is thick and delicious.]

"Excellent. Not poisonous. I'll eat you today." Cen Jiu felt much better, her morning grumpiness vanishing.

After dealing with the crab, she didn't choose to rest again. Instead, she consumed a vitality potion from her starting items, instantly refilling her precarious health and stamina bars. Having cleared the tutorial, she didn't know if the difficulty would spike, but after the "crab incident," she didn't dare rest. Even if nothing disturbed her, waking up at night would only make exploration more difficult.

Seven-Colored Strings hadn't told her the game's difficulty, but *Scale of Life* was likely just as hardcore as their previous titles. Did it have survival game elements?

Cen Jiu recalled the tropes of survival games and began to explore her surroundings. With her stamina fully restored, her collection and exploration efficiency were high. She soon found two fresh coconuts under a palm tree by the sea.

Leaving one for later, she used her dagger to open the other, drinking as she explored to replenish her hunger and thirst. The coconut water tasted authentic—sweet and thirst-quenching. The rewarding feedback mechanism undoubtedly made the player more addicted; Cen Jiu felt she could play for another whole day.

After circling the beach where she had woken up, Cen Jiu consulted the system map and decided to head south along the coastline. The terrain there was flatter, there were more signs of human activity, and the chances of finding a settlement were higher.

Two hours of in-game time later, with her stamina bar down by about a third, she braved the increasingly harsh sun and finally spotted a trail that was clearly worn by human feet. While the pristine, unpolluted coastline was beautiful, a walking simulator was essentially boring to Cen Jiu, and she was getting tired of the coconut water.

Finally, there was a glimmer of hope for finding a pre-built safe zone, or else she would have had to start gathering materials to build a camp. Cen Jiu took a deep gulp of coconut water to fuel herself for the road ahead.

Suddenly, the sound of trampling vegetation echoed.

"—!"

It was a human sound, not a large beast. Cen Jiu swallowed the coconut water and turned to look. On the path, a dark-skinned girl who appeared to be between youth and childhood looked at her in surprise, gripping a stone spear and retreating while keeping her guard up.

The style of the fabric she wore was simple, but the colors and accessories were vivid and multicolored, a stark contrast to the style of the gear Cen Jiu wore.

"I mean no harm." Cen Jiu raised both hands, one still holding the half-finished coconut. "I'm just asking for directions. How do I get to the nearest village or town?"

The girl muttered a short phrase. The system provided no subtitles, but it didn't sound like Ael Common, and Cen Jiu had a feeling it wasn't a pleasantry.

The girl's gaze was like that of a predator, staring unblinkingly at Cen Jiu's movements. Cen Jiu maintained her pose, hands raised, and blinked innocently, trying her best to convey goodwill.

Perhaps she succeeded, because the girl eventually softened and answered her question.

"Outsider." The girl's Ael Common was stiff, with a distinct foreign accent. She retreated cautiously to the edge of the path. "Your village... just keep following this road."

With that, the girl agilely darted into the woods, vanishing into the lush vegetation in the blink of an eye.

"Thanks for your help!" Cen Jiu called out, though she didn't know if the girl heard her.

Cen Jiu opened her map. In the fog-covered area, a marker for an unnamed settlement had appeared. It wasn't far—she estimated it would take an hour of in-game time to reach.

With a goal in mind, her pace quickened. Along the way, she plucked some non-poisonous berries. Some wild berries were so sour they made her face collapse, while others were sweet and tangy. She encountered no more special events, though there were rustlings in the grass caused by small animals—unfortunately, they were too fast, and Cen Jiu didn't even catch a glimpse of them.

An hour of eating and walking passed, and Cen Jiu finally spotted man-made structures on a distant slope.

[You have discovered a new location: White Rock Town]

The mission progress for finding a safe spot didn't budge. Fine, it seemed it wasn't as simple as just spotting it on the map. Cen Jiu continued toward the settlement.

The closer she got, the more winding the path became. She had to bypass several massive white boulders, and the original dirt path gradually transitioned into one paved with gravel. She could faintly hear the rushing of a river.

Soon, she heard human voices.

"That old bastard Ortega has such a sour face, daring to treat you like that, Boss. If the ship were still here, we'd intercept his merchant vessel..."

"Exactly! Shove a gun barrel in his mouth and see if he dares to pull that face again!"

"I can build a second *Flying* just as I did the first. We'll go to the Council; if they won't help, they'll be forced to!"

Cen Jiu heard every word through the subtitles, her heart unmoved by this classic scenario playing out. A notification for an auto-save popped up, and Cen Jiu understood the system's hint perfectly.

Old acquaintances. I didn't expect to see you here!

Cen Jiu bent her body, lowered her center of gravity, and adjusted her breathing to enter stealth mode.

[You have learned a new skill: Stealth]

As the one-eyed man and his crew were busy hurling curses, a black shadow flashed by. Their leader of many years was slammed into the boulder behind him, blood gushing from his throat.

—This was the arrangement of fate!

"Gah... gah..." The severed windpipe could produce no sound. His one remaining eye bulged from its socket, as if seeing something more terrifying than a sea monster.

The woman who should have been dead had appeared.

"Long time no see. I've come to collect the price you owe."

In the shadow cast by the boulder, she seemed like an evil spirit crawled up from hell, announcing that the time for reckoning had arrived.