Chapter 201: Chapter 201: Securing the Top Spot
The next day at 6 AM, trash appeared on the sea right on schedule.
"Bella, let’s get to work!"
The Skeletal Warhorse took a light leap off the raft and galloped toward the distant spot where the trash had appeared.
Today, the moment the trash materialized, contaminated sea creatures began to appear as well.
At first, Eamon could still handle the weaker monsters, but eventually, he was overwhelmed.
Faye Yardley had Bella collect trash on its own, holding a fishing net in its mouth, while she dove into the sea to slay monsters.
Fortunately, the monsters Eamon couldn’t handle were few and far between, so she didn’t even use up the full two-hour effect of her Water-Repelling Pearl over the course of the day.
She maintained her number-one spot on the second day and held onto it by a razor-thin margin on the third.
However, Leonard from Freyan, who was in second place, was hot on her heels with his points, looking poised to catch up and overtake her.
Honestly, the other Veridians were more worried about whether Faye Yardley could hold on to her number-one spot than she was herself.
She personally didn’t care much, but that intangible sense of national honor kept her from letting her guard down.
Collecting trash was now basically handled by Bella, who galloped across the sea, while Faye Yardley focused on diving into the water to kill monsters with Eamon.
The longer this went on, the more monsters appeared.
It wasn’t that others would die instantly if they couldn’t kill the powerful contaminated sea creatures. As long as they defended their rafts and prevented the core from being destroyed, they could hold on.
Because of this, many people had to constantly spend their hard-earned points on wood just to keep their rafts intact.
The most unfortunate were those whose expenses outstripped their earnings, but the vast majority were just barely scraping by.
People like Faye Yardley, who could actually compete for the top of the leaderboard, were exceptionally skilled.
Anyone who even made it onto the leaderboard, even at the very bottom, was considered a powerhouse.
The competition at the bottom of the rankings was even more ferocious than at the top.
The names there changed every second.
Zachary Pierce had originally broken into the top 20, but when he saw how many people needed wood to repair their rafts, he exchanged a large number of his points for wood. His rank instantly plummeted out of the top thousand.
Logan Langdon, on the other hand, had jumped into the fight for the top ten even earlier than Ethan Yardley.
"Pierce, we can exchange points for the wood. You should focus on climbing the ranks. Don’t worry about the rest. What if the ranking rewards are really good and useful? You can’t just throw away your own chances for everyone else."
Zachary Pierce remained calm and composed. "Our goal from the beginning has been to help more people survive. They need wood now, so of course we’re going to exchange for it. It’s just a shame that our ability to help those in other regions is so limited."
Finn Ford said, "Pierce, you should listen to what everyone’s saying."
"Exactly! Use these last two days to fight your way back into the top 50. I’m sure that reward would be far more helpful to everyone. Besides, Yardley’s ranking looks a little precarious. If someone from Freyan or the Wa Kingdom snatches the top spot in the end, we’ll all be spitting blood. Pierce, you need to tell Yardley to call us for help!"
Zachary Pierce replied with a sigh, "Yardley said she can handle it. We should trust her. Besides, what could you even do if you went over there?"
Faye Yardley had been incredibly busy these last few days.
The trash appeared in wave after wave, respawning faster and faster, and the monsters grew more numerous.
She had placed fishing nets all around the raft, and if Willow Yardley had any spare time after disposing of the trash, she would pull in the nets herself.
She had mostly left the surface trash to Bella and Eamon, while she dove deep into the sea, actively seeking out the bigger monsters to fight.
It had to be said, with her improved physical Attributes, her ability to hold her breath had also gotten much better.
She now used the Water-Repelling Pearl simply as a way to replenish her oxygen.
This allowed her to stay underwater for extended periods.
The deeper she dove, the more contaminated sea creatures she encountered.
For Faye Yardley, the weaker monsters were basically just points delivered to her doorstep, while the larger ones could at least withstand a few of her attacks.
She wasn’t at all afraid of them swarming her.
She had now developed several different ways to use the Water-Repelling Pearl.
If she weren’t submerged in the sea herself, she would have loved to test the power of a sea mine.
Deep on the ocean floor, a dark vortex was continuously spitting out weaker monsters.
As Faye Yardley continued her descent, she could feel the mounting water pressure. Her encounters with the weaker monsters became more frequent; now, a new swarm would appear almost as soon as she finished off the last one.
As she went on a killing spree in the ocean depths, her points on the leaderboard kept skyrocketing.
[Holy crap, isn’t it almost 6 PM? How are her points still shooting up like a rocket?]
[Did Yardley just poke a Sea Monster’s nest or something?]
[Looks like her number-one spot is secure. Second and third place can’t possibly catch up now, right? First place will belong to one of us Veridians after all.]
[There’s still a whole day left. You can’t say for sure.]
[Why be such a pessimist? She’s got first place in the bag. She’s held the top spot for four days already, what’s one more?]
[What are you all arguing about? Look at the leaderboard! Yardley’s score just exploded!]
[Is that score even humanly possible? It’s already past a million! You only get 1 point for every 10 pieces of small trash, and a weak monster is only worth 20 points. To break a million and still be climbing... it’s just blindingly insane.]
[I’m looking at the Point Mall right now. Is there anything she *can’t* buy?]
Faye Yardley herself hadn’t expected to accidentally destroy a Teleportation Vortex in one fell swoop.
’And wasn’t that a little too easy?’
’She couldn’t get inside it, but her Arrows could.’
’Besides, the Arm Crossbow was incredibly useful since she didn’t have to draw it.’
Her luck was just that good. The Arrow from her Arm Crossbow flew in and struck the Transmission Core, cracking it. The vortex then slowly vanished.
’Wait, why did it disappear? How am I supposed to earn points now?!’
The moment the thought crossed her mind, she heard a system notification: she had just gained 300,000 points.
"One vortex is worth 300,000 points?!"
Faye Yardley immediately wanted to find more of them.
However, the time on her Water-Repelling Pearl was nearly up for the day, so she had to head back to the raft.
"Sister, congratulations! You’ve put a huge distance between yourself and second and third place."
Willow Yardley congratulated her the moment she climbed onto the raft. Faye Yardley glanced at the leaderboard, unable to suppress a smile. "Hehe, I just got lucky and hit the jackpot."
"That’s still because you have the skill to seize the opportunity, Sister. Otherwise, it wouldn’t matter if the chance was right in front of you."
Eamon, whose small boat had just pulled up alongside the raft, overheard them and nodded vigorously. "Yeah, she’s right. You’re amazing, Sister."
Faye Yardley laughed. "All right, all right, enough with the flattery. Let’s hurry and get this trash into the recycling bin. It looks like Bella is back with the nets."
By 8 PM, everything had quieted down. The day’s points totals had stabilized and were unlikely to see any more major shifts.
After a quick shower, Faye Yardley decided to relax for a bit. She put on a dress and went downstairs.
Her brother’s call came right on schedule.
"Brother, don’t tell me you’re just calling to congratulate me again?"
"You’re incredible, pulling so far ahead of everyone else like that. I was even thinking of sending Tiberius over to help you tomorrow. I already have an eight-hour Invitation Card ready for you."
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