Chapter 166: Chapter 166: Zachary Pierce’s Invitation to the Island
After finishing a cup of coffee, Faye Yardley couldn’t sit still.
’Enough rest. Time to start training.’
With her Basic Martial Arts Skills, she had to dig out the various Martial Arts lying deep in her memory and practice them until they became muscle memory.
She had already integrated many of them into her daily training, transforming the rigid basic Skills into her own effective offensive and defensive maneuvers.
But there were also many obscure Martial Arts that she had never encountered before, ones she might have only fantasized about while reading novels or watching films.
Now that she had the time, she could naturally search the depths of her mind for any similar Basic Martial Arts.
She’d pull them all out and train.
At first, her attempts at things like Mantis Fist were clumsy imitations, but with her Attributes improving over the past month and the boost from actual combat, her learning ability was also on the rise.
Training could be addictive. After more than two hours, Faye Yardley stopped to rest for a bit. While she was sipping a cup of warm tea, she got a call from Zachary Pierce.
"Yardley, our team is planning to use an Ordinary Island Entry Order to land on an island. If you’re interested, I’ll send you an invitation before we go ashore at our destination."
"Thank you, Mr. Pierce. I’d like to come along and see."
"Alright, get ready. I’ll send the invitation when we arrive. Oh, and by the way, this Invitation Card only lasts for a maximum of four hours."
"Understood. Thanks for thinking of me when something good comes up, Mr. Pierce."
After hanging up, Faye Yardley gave Willow Yardley an instruction, "Willow, please make as many rice balls as you can. I’m going to the island with Mr. Pierce’s group in a bit."
After speaking, she went upstairs to take a quick shower and changed into a temperature-regulating tracksuit and a Self-cleaning Robe.
She went to the workbench in the small second-floor hall and crafted twenty Basic Iron Axes and ten torches.
Don’t ask why she suddenly thought to make these. It was just a notion that popped into Faye Yardley’s head, and she had always trusted her intuition.
After a moment of thought, she cleared out and organized her backpack a little, then withdrew some firearms and ammunition from her storage. She put her Arm Crossbow and Longbow in as well.
Then she left messages for her brother and Bonnie Callahan, asking them to prepare a batch of Crossbow Arrows and regular Arrows for her within ten minutes if possible.
After all, Faye Yardley didn’t know how long it would be before Zachary Pierce and his group reached their destination.
’Of course, the sooner the better.’
She had just sent the messages when they both sent her Red Envelopes.
A single Red Envelope could only hold 99 Arrows, and each of them had sent five.
Faye Yardley felt the two of them were quite in sync.
She could take her brother’s things for free, but she had to pay Bonnie Callahan. So she replied, "Miss Bonnie, what would you like in exchange for these Arrows?"
The other party replied, "Just take them and use them. Don’t talk about payment. If we’re talking about debts, I owe you far more."
Faye Yardley tilted her head, thinking, but couldn’t figure out what Bonnie Callahan owed her.
’Forget it,’ she thought. ’I’ll just send her some fresh rice and wheat flour in return.’
Touching the Ruby Hairpin in her hair, Faye Yardley put the Iron Axes and torches she’d made on the workbench directly into her backpack.
When she went downstairs, Willow Yardley had already wrapped no fewer than twenty rice balls.
"Faye, wait. I’ll wrap the rice balls in lettuce leaves. It’ll be easier for you to hold and eat them."
"Wouldn’t that just make them lettuce wraps?"
[Dear Player, you have received a visit invitation from Player Zachary Pierce. Do you wish to accept and visit his raft?]
Faye Yardley swept all the rice balls, plate and all, into her backpack. "No time, I have to go."
The next moment, she appeared on Zachary Pierce’s raft. His raft was still Level 7. Besides being large and crowded, there wasn’t much to it. The perimeter of his raft was lined with various structures, making fences unnecessary, but it had absolutely no aesthetic appeal to speak of.
"You’re here. We’re about to dock. Come over here, you can see what’s going on outside."
Zachary Pierce gave Faye Yardley a brief explanation when he saw her.
Beyond his raft, many others followed. At a glance, Faye Yardley couldn’t even count them all.
She already felt that the thirteen rafts accompanying her brother were a lot; Zachary Pierce’s team was bound to be even larger.
"Mr. Pierce, are you using an Ordinary Island Entry Order?"
"Yes. The rule that a team only needs one Island Entry Order is pretty good. Otherwise, the cost of Invitation Cards alone would be unaffordable."
Before them was a lush vista of tall trees, with a lower layer of short shrubs, various weeds and vines, and the ground covered in all sorts of small grasses and ferns.
One look was enough to tell it was a dense, primeval jungle.
If nothing else, as long as they were willing to chop down trees, they wouldn’t be short on wood.
"Mr. Pierce, looks like we’ll be able to stock up on some mid- to High Level Wood."
Zachary Pierce gave a wry smile. It wasn’t that chopping trees was a bad thing, but they only had eight hours on the island. Wouldn’t it be too much of a waste to spend it all on logging?
"We’ve reached the shore. Let’s head up. Hopefully, we’ll find something more useful."
After all, the only known use for High Level Wood so far was for some high-level furniture that increased happiness. Any other, more practical uses were still unclear.
It had to be said, the places the system sent them after using an Island Entry Order were always bright and sunny.
As everyone went ashore one by one, Faye Yardley turned to look around and couldn’t help but ask, "Mr. Pierce, how many people are in your team in total?"
"Sixty people. The maximum for a team."
The others looked at her with a friendly curiosity.
Caleb Colby and Finn Ford, however, squeezed their way directly over to them.
"Pierce, let the two of us go exploring with Yardley," Caleb Colby said, not wanting to be left behind to chop wood.
Faye Yardley, on the other hand, asked Zachary Pierce, "Are you leaving people behind to chop the trees on the outskirts? I have some Basic Iron Axes you can use."
Faye Yardley took out ten Iron Axes and gave them to Zachary Pierce. He went to assign tasks, dividing the sixty people into squads of five or ten.
Maintaining a certain distance from one another, the squads dispersed and entered the forest to explore.
Thanks to the system’s map-recording function, they weren’t afraid of getting lost.
Furthermore, teammates could see each other as little green dots. If they encountered danger and entered combat, a red dot would appear, so they didn’t have to worry about completely losing contact with one another.
It had to be said, being in a team offered many conveniences.
Faye Yardley entered the jungle with Zachary Pierce and four of his teammates.
The jungle here was more like one from southern Veridia. Not only was there a huge variety of vegetation, but the terrain was also extremely uneven, with constant rises and falls.
At first, they could still see the figures of other people, but the deeper they went, the only ones visible were the few members of their own squad.
"Mr. Pierce, come take a look. Is this ginseng?"
"There’s ginseng here?" Caleb Colby hurried over, a look of disbelief on his face.
Bo couldn’t help but remark, "You know, aside from a few small animals, we haven’t really encountered anything on the way here. Even insects are rare."
Faye Yardley gave the group gathering around a rather speechless look. "So, is it ginseng or not? If it is, let’s dig it up and see if we can plant it back on the raft."
"Wow, look at that huge patch of kudzu root over there! Pierce, should we dig it up?"
Faye Yardley: "..."
