7: Chapter 7 Beauties
He just stood there quietly, staring blankly at the sea storm, his mind filled with a chaotic tangle of thoughts.
After an unknown amount of time, the clouds dispersed, and the afterglow of the setting sun spilled across the sea.
The surface of the sea was dyed a magnificent golden-red.
But this touch of golden-red could not last for long.
As the sun completely sank below the horizon,
A deep blue night fell.
The sound of the waves became low and rhythmic.
At this time, the sea became pitch black, like a giant mouth waiting to devour anyone it could find.
In the distance, unknown sea creatures let out deep, long roars, one after another, making one's heart tremble. Occasionally, a huge plume of water would explode from the surface without warning, the sound dull and terrifying, as if some massive behemoth was turning over beneath the water.
Although the houseboat was protected by the Power of Causality, it still swayed gently with the waves. Every rise and fall made Yang Hang's heart itch with curiosity. He wasn't afraid; rather, he was quite curious about what those behemoths lurking just beneath the surface looked like.
Giant whales? Giant sharks? Or some other unknown, terrifying sea creatures?
This was the Magic Sea, after all. Since he faced no survival crisis, he felt only a desire to explore.
Of course, this was likely a luxury only he and those others who had opened high-Rank treasure chests could afford.
It was worth mentioning that, on a whim, he had just manipulated the Karmic lines to examine the situation of the high-Rank treasure chests opened by the humans who had been Transmigrated onto this Magic Sea for survival.
Unexpectedly, yet also as expected, he was indeed the only person with a Diamond Rank treasure chest.
The next highest were only Gold Rank treasure chests, held by a mere few dozen people.
There were about a thousand people with Silver Treasure Chests, while the vast majority had Bronze and Rotten Wood Rank treasure chests.
Unsurprisingly, while this night was destined to be peaceful for him and his family, most people from Earth would face one of the most difficult nights of their lives, regardless of whether they were from Huaxia or abroad.
Of course, overall, Huaxia would certainly be much better off with the mutual assistance provided by his Fate Platform.
Other national-level factions had no communication platform; the entire world was essentially in an absolute Dark Forest state.
He wasn't a bad person, but he wasn't someone capable of selfless sacrifice either. Naturally, he prioritized securing his own interests, and if he had energy to spare, he would help the survivors and even all the people of Yanhuang Civilization to the best of his ability. He felt that his conscience was clear enough...
"I don't want to sleep yet, time to browse the Fate Platform!"
The night was long. With a slight thought, his consciousness instantly sank into his brow, entering the Cause and Effect Fate Platform he had constructed.
He began scrolling through posts to pass the time.
On a virtual screen in Yang Hang's mind, countless posts refreshed rapidly like a waterfall, with a section named [Public Forum] occupying the central position.
He glanced over it, and several popular posts sorted by heat instantly caught his attention.
“Help! I'm thirsty and hungry now, but the sound of the waves outside is too terrifying. I'm completely afraid to leave the houseboat. What should I do?”
[Important] You can obtain information by focusing your gaze on an item for a few seconds, similar to an “Identification Technique.” Essential for sea survival!
“Must-do before sleeping: Check for leaks in the hull, secure items, set up warning bells (tutorial attached)”
“Summary of the 6 original rules of the Trial. Recommended to memorize!”
“Sea Creature Illustrated Guide (continuously updated): Which fish can be touched, and which fish can kill you”
“About how I drifted for a whole day, only gathered a few strands of seaweed, and was chased by sea birds pooping on me”
“Transmigrated right after finishing the Gaokao, who understands this! What happened to the promised freedom of university?”
“It's pitch black outside, the waves sound like monsters roaring! Tough guy looking for someone to chat with!”
Seeing that Gaokao post, Yang Hang couldn't help but grin, his tense nerves relaxing slightly. But his gaze was quickly and firmly captured by the post ranked number one in popularity.
“Help! I'm thirsty and hungry now...”
This title looked like just an ordinary plea for help, but the heat tag behind it—so red it was turning purple—and the constantly soaring number of replies both hinted at something unusual.
With curiosity, he clicked in.
The main text of the post slowly unfolded. The poster's ID was “President Shen Qing.”
“My name is President Shen Qing. Many years ago, I went on a sea trip with my parents. We were suddenly hit by a storm, I fell overboard, and was trapped on a tiny life raft, drifting alone for a day and a night before the rescue team found me.”
“From then on, I developed a deep fear of the ocean, to the point where I couldn't even walk along the beach. I thought I would never have anything to do with the ocean again in this life. Who would have thought that on the first day I reported to my new job after graduating with my PhD, I would be Transmigrated to this damned houseboat at sea.”
“I cannot overcome my fear right now. I don't dare to go into the water, I don't even dare to row the oars to move the houseboat. Today, I only opened a rusty harpoon and half a bottle of remaining fresh water from my resource chest. I don't dare to use the harpoon to fish because I'm afraid it will fall into the sea, and I'm even more afraid that I will fall into the sea.”
“Right now, I am thirsty and hungry.”
“But I am very clear that for every extra day each of us can survive here, we add 1 point to our civilization. Once eliminated, all progress disappears. Science tells me that a healthy person can last about seven days without food as long as there is water.”
“Maybe I can get food from tomorrow's resource chest before I completely give out. Maybe, in these few days, I can slowly overcome my fear... In short, I will never give up easily, and I will never hold everyone back.”
The writing of the post suddenly shifted here.
“I have always thought that Rule 1, which says ‘factions are stripped of their flags, and survival is determined by the victor,’ is extremely terrifying. Setting aside whether the victor would even choose to give us a chance to survive, even if they did, once our civilization is enslaved, once Mandarin is no longer our mother tongue, and once the five thousand years of glorious history of Yanhuang Civilization becomes a mere footnote in the dust of a foreign race, what difference is there from the destruction of our nation and race?”
“Everyone, this is war! This peril-filled devil's ocean beneath our feet is our battlefield!”
“Though I, President Shen Qing, am but a mere woman, I still remember the century of shame on our maritime borders. In my heart, there is only the conviction that Huaxia must win. On this first day of the Trial, I hope to encourage you all!”
At the end of the post, a photo was attached.
The woman in the photo was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, with an intellectual and calm face, wearing a pair of thin-rimmed glasses. Her background was the wooden window of the houseboat, and outside the window was the vast, boundless deep blue sea. That calmness formed an incredibly strong contrast with the fear and determination revealed in her words.
Hiss...
Yang Hang subconsciously took a sharp breath.
Why was this beauty's photo so pretty, so atmospheric? Didn't his Fate Platform lack any beauty filters?
But immediately following that, a surge of emotion even stronger than seeing a beauty exploded in his chest. The sincerity and determination contained in those words, that sense of national sentiment that placed life and death aside, was like a red-hot iron, searing itself into his heart.
He quickly scrolled down; the comment section had already been submerged by four dense words.