Chapter 203: Chapter 203: Hit the Jackpot, and Such a Fool
To fight a shark in the sea was to put oneself at a clear disadvantage, but Faye Yardley had no way to escape. Forced to battle the great black shark in the ocean with Light Wound, she found that even its thick, tough hide couldn’t withstand the blade’s sharpness.
As a result, the water where they fought grew increasingly turbid.
Wounds accumulated on the great black shark, but the air in Faye Yardley’s lungs was dwindling. Both combatants were suffering, yet neither was willing to back down.
Faye couldn’t give up, either. A single blow from its powerful tail would undoubtedly cause internal injuries.
She was agile, but despite its massive size, the great black shark was every bit as nimble as she was.
Their battle was absolutely brutal.
The scent of blood attracted other fish, but they were just as quickly scared away, turning tail to flee.
Just as her lungs felt like they were about to explode, Faye Yardley activated the Water-Repelling Pearl. It instantly enveloped her in a sphere of air, and she took two deep, desperate breaths. The moment she retracted the pearl, the great black shark swallowed her whole.
A foul stench assaulted Faye’s nostrils, nearly making her retch.
She slid all the way down and landed right in its stomach. The place was full of various objects, and it was obvious that the environment was highly corrosive.
Her feet landed on the yet-to-be-dissolved bones of other fish. Gripping Light Wound, she leaped up, and the tip of the blade pierced through the thick stomach lining.
The pain sent the great black shark into a frenzy, and it began to thrash about wildly. Inside its stomach, Faye Yardley used Light Wound as an anchor, trying her best to avoid the corrosive fluids. At the same time, she put more force into her blade, slicing open the thick membrane.
The shark thrashed even more violently. After Faye cut through the stomach lining and jumped into the cavity beyond, she found it wasn’t completely dark. A faint, silvery-white light illuminated the space.
The source of the light was an object the size of a quail’s egg. She leaped toward it, and with a swift stroke of Light Wound, she cut the glowing object free and caught it.
[You have obtained inner core ×1. Consuming it will grant a random ability.]
’An inner core?’
’Does that mean this shark was some kind of monster beast?’
’And its inner core is flawlessly white and even glows?’
’I can just eat it?!’
Without a second thought, Faye Yardley swallowed it in one gulp.
[Constitution +2, agility +2, Strength +1. You have acquired a second Talent—Underwater Breathing.]
’Holy crap, I hit the jackpot!’
’This is an incredible surprise.’
She could already feel her breathing become much easier.
Even though she was still inside the shark, Faye Yardley no longer felt the slightest bit suffocated.
Her combat power had soared!
Finishing the great black shark from the inside was far faster than wrestling with it in the open sea.
Now that she had her second Talent, being in the ocean felt no different from being on land.
She dragged the great black shark’s corpse to the surface. To toss it into the large recycling bin, she first had to dismember it just to make it fit.
She received a good number of points for it, too.
The amount of trash on the ocean surface was really piling up. Bella and Eamon couldn’t clear it all in time, and it was drifting closer and closer to the raft.
Faye Yardley quickly joined them in salvaging the trash.
Now she felt what she was lacking was an ability like Bella’s to practically fly across the water’s surface.
Basic Qinggong didn’t allow her to stand on the surface of the sea for extended periods.
’Maybe after today’s event, I’ll start training tomorrow. I need to figure out how to move continuously on the water’s surface, like a skipping stone, using the sea as a foothold to support myself.’
For now, she had no choice but to take out another small wooden boat and resume salvaging the nearby trash.
Because she had dealt with the two developing transport whirlpools, no Sea Monsters were appearing in her area for the time being—only an endless stream of trash.
They were cleaning until nearly eight o’clock at night before they finally finished salvaging all the trash.
The point totals were also finalized.
Unsurprisingly, Faye Yardley’s name was at the top of the leaderboard.
In second place was still Leonard from Freyan. Logan Langdon had surprisingly shot up to third place, her brother Ethan Yardley was fourth, and in fifth was Ike from Kenrovia.
Three of the top five were Veridians, and all of them were from District 101. This sent the people of District 101 into a frenzy.
With so many top players, their district was completely dominating the field.
By the time Faye Yardley had cleaned herself up, it was already past eight o’clock.
"Sister, don’t forget to spend all your points. The event points won’t carry over to next time."
Faye Yardley nodded. She was starving. She had been busy since the morning and had only hastily downed a Physical Potion in between; she hadn’t eaten any real food.
"Have you all showered? Let’s eat together once you’re done. In the meantime, I’ll see what’s good to redeem."
Willow Yardley nodded. "We’ve all showered, and we’ve rinsed off the deck, too."
"Thanks for all your hard work."
The items in the event point store were different from those in the Dungeon’s Point Shop.
Her points had already surpassed one million; she was closing in on 1.5 million.
She could afford to start browsing from the most expensive items.
[Nationwide Forced Merger Card: Can forcibly merge all of a single nation’s districts into one national district]. Cost: one million points.
Faye Yardley stared at it, stunned, for a long moment. She had never seen it in the Point Shop; she never expected to find it here.
’Should I redeem it?’
Her finger hovered over the option for a long moment. Then, gritting her teeth, she selected it and clicked ’Use’.
[Server-wide Announcement: Veridian player Faye Yardley has redeemed a Nationwide Forced Merger Card. All Veridian districts will now be merged. Congratulations to Veridia for becoming the first nation to complete a nationwide merger. All Veridian citizens will be rewarded with wood ×100, iron block ×100, and stones ×100. Faye Yardley is rewarded with 3,000 reputation.] ×3
The golden fireworks essentially stunned everyone for at least ten seconds. Only after they faded did the public chat explode with messages, scrolling so fast it was nearly impossible to read what anyone was saying.
[Veridia Region Announcement: All Veridian districts have been merged. The Grand Exchange is now open. The daily limit for public chat messages has been increased to 10 per person. Local district chat channels will be retained, and their daily message limit has been increased to 20 per person. We wish you all a pleasant game.] ×3
Zachary Pierce’s call came through immediately.
"Yardley, thank you."
Faye Yardley shook her head. "Don’t thank me. It was mainly because there wasn’t anything else I particularly needed."
"I still have to thank you. You... if there’s anything you need and you’re short on points, just tell us. I’ll redeem it for you."
"Alright. If I see something I really need, I won’t hesitate to ask. The event shop closes at midnight, so I’ll let you know before 9:30 if there’s anything."
Zachary Pierce nodded. "Okay. I have a decent amount of points myself—over 600,000. Don’t feel like you have to hold back."
If event points could be transferred and pooled like Dungeon points, they could have redeemed the card themselves days ago.
But there were no ifs. And now, Faye Yardley had taken the initiative before they even had to ask, which felt completely different.
Logan Langdon stared at the announcement, a little stunned. He actually had over a million points as well, but...
’So there really are people that stupid in the world.’
’So what if we’re all merged together?’
’Shouldn’t you look out for yourself first?’
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