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Chapter 93
Experiment: Activate the raft’s protective shield, submerge the raft to a depth of 100 meters, and then attempt to use the automated water fishing rod.
Surprisingly, it worked. The metal basket was successfully deployed, effortlessly passing through the protective shield and heading toward the submerged city buildings.
Shu Fu lay on a cushion beside the triangular glass wall. From this vantage point, she could clearly observe the automated water fishing rod. Under the light, she read a book for about twenty minutes before noticing some movement outside in the water.
At first, she thought the fishing rod had caught something. Looking up, she saw a school of fish passing by. Judging by their appearance, they seemed to be sea fish—fairly normal-looking. They didn’t linger around the raft for long and quickly swam away.
Ten minutes later, the reel on the fishing rod began to turn. Moments later, the metal basket at the end of the thin cable passed through the protective shield once again, returning to the raft and automatically depositing itself into the metal container. The “One-Click Sterilization” button lit up.
Shu Fu immediately got up, opened the glass door, and carefully approached the automated water fishing rod before pressing the sterilization button.
After a few seconds, the metal container opened, and the metal basket slid out. Inside, there was a small safe.
Good news: The automated water fishing rod functions even while the raft is submerged. This means that in the future, she can use the side-view water map to zoom in on underwater buildings, roughly determine their original purpose, and selectively deploy the fishing rod.
Bad news: She caught a safe that she couldn’t open…
The safe was waterproof, fireproof, and tamper-proof. Whatever was inside was definitely dry, but unfortunately, she couldn’t access it. After some thought, she stored it in her inventory and cast the fishing rod again while pulling up the map panel.
On the map panel, the same stealth operation diagram as on the function screen appeared.
She had only discovered this today. Ever since the raft was upgraded to Level 4, many previously inconvenient functions had become much easier to use. Originally, the map panel only displayed the water terrain, allowed her to set a destination, and showed navigation routes—it couldn’t manually adjust the raft’s direction in real-time.
But now, three new functions had appeared: Anchor, Drift, and Stealth. Whenever she wanted to move the raft in any way, she could simply summon the map panel and control it remotely.
She also noticed that the maximum control range of the raft was now within 100 meters. She speculated that even if she were standing on shore or aboard another raft, she could still use the map panel to steer the raft within a 100-meter radius.
To her, this felt a lot like a remote-controlled boat.
As Shu Fu controlled the raft’s stealth movement on the map panel, she continuously checked the side-view water map. Eventually, she stopped in an area densely populated with dark green icons.
This used to be the commercial district of Yuncheng. The tallest building in Yuncheng was here. The spot where she had stopped was right next to that skyscraper. In the past, it would have been as if she were hovering hundreds of meters above the ground, gazing at the upper floors of the building across from her.
Through the raft’s protective shield, she looked at the dark, silent buildings submerged in water. It was a strange feeling—oppressive and melancholic, yet awe-inspiring.
Aside from office buildings, this area also housed large shopping malls, food courts, and supermarkets. She wanted to see what she could retrieve from here.
However, 30 minutes later, she was left stunned by what she had pulled up—two baskets filled with various tools: an electric screwdriver, a cutting machine, a powerful electric drill, safety goggles, an electric saw, a planer…
What… was this supposed to mean? Was there a tool shop down there?
Or did the world somehow know she couldn’t open the safe and decided to send her some tools?
Shu Fu sighed and brought the raft back to the surface.
After returning to the water’s surface, she examined the tools again. Thanks to the “One-Click Sterilization,” every single tool was completely clean—no water stains, no rust. Since she already had an electric power module installed, these tools could function wirelessly, even without being plugged in.
She thought for a moment. Should I give it a try?
She took out the safe again and placed it on the deck, then considered her options between the cutting machine and the electric drill.
The cutting machine was too powerful. If she misjudged the pressure, she might hurt herself. The electric drill seemed like a safer option. Shu Fu put on safety goggles, retrieved a pair of thick work gloves from her inventory, and turned on the drill to test it. It was too loud, so she turned it off and found a pair of earplugs to wear.
She turned the drill back on and aimed at two mounting holes on the back of the safe. Sparks flew as she drilled through. The drill was far more efficient than she expected, quickly creating multiple holes that combined into a large opening. She flipped the safe upright and used a screwdriver to manipulate the internal electromagnetic lock.
With a click, the safe door swung open.
Everything inside was perfectly intact—not a single drop of water had seeped in. Inside, she found a box of gold bars and a folder.
The gold bars were large and heavy, roughly two catties (about 1,000 grams). In peacetime, a single bar like this would have been worth over 600,000 yuan. The box contained four of them. The folder held several real estate certificates—for high-end apartments in prime locations and even a commercial storefront.
Back in the day, this folder would have been worth far more than the gold bars. Any one of these properties was something people worked their entire lives to afford. But now, all of Yuncheng lay beneath the water. No matter how valuable the buildings once were, they had become nothing more than submerged ruins.
Shu Fu sighed. She stored the gold bars in her inventory, then put the real estate documents back in the folder and, along with the safe, pushed it all back into the water.
Triangular House and the Expanding Water Territory
Although the triangular house lacked an eave and terrace to sit and watch the rain, the novelty of its design itself was highly appealing to Shu Fu. Moreover, the upper-level bedroom was positioned at the front of the house, relying entirely on the large triangular glass wall. This provided a much better view than her previous split-level design, making her love it even more.
For the past three days, torrential rain had lashed the Yuncheng water region, accompanied by lightning, thunder, and massive waves. The bad weather had been relentless.
Fortunately, the raft’s protective shield would automatically activate in extreme disasters, so she didn’t have to constantly monitor the weather. However, after a few days, she realized that the shield was rarely triggered by bad weather.
There had been thunderstorms, hurricanes, and even hailstones the size of eggs. Since both walls of the triangular house were made entirely of glass, she had expected the shield to activate during the hailstorm—but it didn’t.
She recalled that after her floating island house reached level 4, the raft’s structural durability had been upgraded to an advanced level. The walls and floors of the house had undergone a qualitative transformation. In other words, it wasn’t that the weather wasn’t severe enough—it was that the floating island house itself had become stronger.
No wonder the “Jungle Fresh Triangular House” required a level 4 raft to use. Once the raft reached level 4, the durability of the entire raft, including the floating island house, was elevated. Even disasters that previously required activating the shield could now be endured directly.
This, in turn, helped her save on shield usage time.
Although she had accumulated a substantial amount of shield usage time, it could still be quickly consumed in practice—especially since she didn’t intend to remain in the Yuncheng water region indefinitely.
During her months in the northern plateau, she had noticed that her water map had expanded significantly. Since the water level had been continuously rising, she compared it with an electronic map and found that not just Lou Yuncheng but the entire Muzhou Province had been swallowed by floods. The same was true for Xiren Province, which lay between Lou Yuncheng and Yuncheng—completely submerged.
These areas had originally been within her range of movement, so as the water level rose, her raft’s navigable territory expanded as well.
The northern limit was still around Yuncheng, while the eastern boundary extended to the edge of the province where Suicheng was located. Since she hadn’t undertaken missions in the south, her activity range there remained within the original Suílóu Waterway.
The western boundary had expanded the most. With all of Muzhou Province submerged, the water map’s border now lay very close to the neighboring Xiangzhou Province. When she zoomed in, she found that it was only a thin line away from Guan Cheng County in the southeastern corner of Xiangzhou.
Calculating in all four directions—north, east, south, and west—her freely navigable area now covered nearly one-fifth of Huáguó’s landmass. And this didn’t even include the Qinghe River basin in the northern plateau.
She planned to drift through this entire water territory before her level 5 raft mission arrived. With all the time-extension cards she had accumulated, she could stay adrift continuously for six and a half months—more than enough time to go anywhere she wanted.
She no longer needed to rack her brain searching for land to dock on—or maybe it was precisely because there was barely any land left that she had kept drawing time-extension cards in her last two lotteries.
As expected, every lottery prize from the wristband had its purpose.
September 14 – Departure and News from Chen Fa
The day before she was set to leave Yuncheng, she received news from Chen Fa. After twenty-five days of hardship, twists, and turns, she and Lu Zheng had finally led their entire group safely to Pengcheng in Xiangzhou Province.
Xiangzhou was a vast province, nearly twice the size of Muzhou. Pengcheng was located in its western region, close to Xizhou Province. Their next plan was to join the migration and continue moving toward Xizhou.
As long as they reached a city above 3,000 meters in altitude, they would be completely safe.
Xiangzhou’s situation was different from the northern plateau. The province had no major rivers, so there was no risk of devastating floods caused by river overflows. As a result, it remained relatively safe for now. However, recent hailstorms had destroyed large portions of plantations and livestock farms, leading to the loss of a significant amount of supplies and further exacerbating already skyrocketing prices.
Pengcheng was no exception. With a minimum elevation of over 1,500 meters and surrounding mountain ranges mostly above 2,000 meters, it was one of the higher-altitude areas within Xiangzhou, making it a prime destination for refugees and westward migrants. The influx of people had overwhelmed the city, plunging it into chaos.
Currently, nearly one-third of Huáguó’s land was underwater. Unlike in the past, when cities like Louyun had set up barricades and divided areas for organized refugee management, the sheer number of displaced people now made such measures impossible.
Meanwhile, the military was stretched thin—responding to disasters, rescuing people, supporting the southwestern border, and preventing massive waves of foreign refugees from violently or illegally crossing into the country.
They simply didn’t have the manpower to implement meticulous city-wide management. Besides, forcibly dividing zones and imposing strict travel restrictions would only intensify public fear and chaos. If panic escalated into looting and riots, Xizhou could easily fall into the same turmoil that had plagued the northern plateau.
As a result, Pengcheng currently had no travel restrictions. However, anyone wishing to continue westward to Xizhou had to submit a migration application and wait for their turn.
During this waiting period, any individual caught looting, rioting, assaulting others, or committing arson or murder would have their offenses recorded. Their westward migration priority would then be determined based on the severity of their crimes.
One offense wouldn’t permanently disqualify someone from migrating—after all, the current chaos made it nearly impossible to avoid trouble altogether. However, repeated offenses or severe crimes would delay their departure. In the worst case, if everyone else had already moved on and only the troublemakers remained, the city would eventually clear enough space to imprison them, forcing them to stay in Pengcheng indefinitely.
So, Pengcheng was chaotic, but not as completely disorderly as the Northern Plateau. Newcomers might need some time to adapt, mainly struggling with finding a place to stay and waiting in line for supplies.
Additionally, drinkable clean water, electricity, and water-related supplies were in short supply within the city. Drinking water, in particular, was scarce—those lucky enough to buy some would only get a limited daily ration. Most people had to rely on water purification tablets to make water safe for drinking.
However, these difficulties weren’t much of a problem for Chen Fa and her group. Their team was now made up entirely of elite individuals who had survived life-and-death situations together. They trusted each other, had a strong sense of unity, and possessed considerable combat strength.
As for supplies, thanks to their backpack inventory system, they had accumulated a good reserve. Their resources were well hidden, so they wouldn’t draw attention and could live discreetly while waiting things out.
Water was even less of a concern. With the frequent rain outside, they could simply filter it for use. The water filtration device had no usage limit and operated quickly, providing as much drinking and utility water as they needed.
Chen Fa: “…There’s internet here. Although it’s slow and frequently disconnects, at least we can use our phones again.”
Zhang Tian’s life in Shacheng wasn’t peaceful either. Perhaps because things had been too comfortable there and she hadn’t endured much hardship from the disaster, her father had taken in a younger mistress. Her mother wanted a divorce, but all their properties and vehicles were in Suicheng, and her cash had become almost worthless due to inflation. Her father, on the other hand, had stashed away a large amount of gold—now one of the most valuable commodities aside from essential supplies.
Shao Shan was also in Xiangzhou Province, but she was in Zicheng, which was quite far from them. Zicheng had originally been designated as a westward migration point, but a recent thunderstorm and hailstorm triggered a landslide, causing a tunnel collapse that blocked the critical route. Now, she and her family planned to head to Weixian County, the closest alternative migration point. However, once there, they would have to queue all over again.
Chen Fa had tested them both—Zhang Tian clearly hadn’t awakened any supernatural abilities. As for Wu Shaoshan, the moment he probed, she became suspicious, asking if he had been reborn or if he was still the real Chen Fa. She even bombarded him with a series of private questions from their university days to verify his identity.
As for their own group, their main limitations were that they couldn’t freely retrieve or store supplies and couldn’t openly live in the comfort of their raft home. Everything else was fine. They only ventured out when necessary to blend in and procure supplies. With two powerful members in their group—one with braided hair and another a massive brute—most people feared them more than they feared being robbed, so no one dared to target them for now.
Xiaofu, the days when the rain stops and the sun comes out seem to be getting fewer and fewer. No matter how heavy the rain or how bad the weather was before, there were always two or three days in a week when it would lighten up or even stop for a while—sometimes, the sun would even come out. But ever since we had that barbecue south of Youcheng nearly a month ago, it hasn’t stopped raining for a single day…
I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence because we’ve been constantly on the move, but I have a strong feeling that your earlier premonition might come true…
This update was long—Chen Fa had essentially written her a letter, sending it in multiple messages.
Shu Fu read carefully, cherishing every word and every update about her friends. These messages were precious to her now.
When she saw the mention of Zicheng, she thought of Liu Shuang. Zicheng was Liu Shuang’s hometown. At the beginning of the year, she had even considered bringing her along.
Thinking of Liu Shuang inevitably led to thoughts of Cheng Yu. From Chen Fa’s message, she could roughly guess the kind of mission Cheng Yu had been assigned near the border. Unfortunately, ever since she had entered the drifting phase, she had been in a constant state of internet disconnection. She had no idea if he had ever seen the messages she had sent.
Or perhaps… the messages she sent would never be seen by him again.
Shu Fu woke up early and first accessed the system screen to revert her Floating Island Home to its original design.
The triangular house was beautiful, and she hadn’t grown tired of it yet, but its tall, striking design made it too conspicuous.
The original small wooden house was better—square, unassuming, and practical. Even with the glass balcony, the whole structure was less than half the height of the triangular house. From the air, it would look like nothing more than an abandoned, unmanned raft.
Moreover, the starting design had front and rear eaves, a terrace, and a glass balcony, providing more outdoor space. It was low-profile and practical, making it the best choice for her upcoming journey.
The raft’s protective shield activated, and after a brief shimmer of light, the Floating Island Home reverted to its original form. Shu Fu stepped outside, placing the camping table, chairs, and shoe rack back in position before turning off the shield. She then set Suicheng as her destination on the map panel.
A black navigation route appeared, along with travel data: [865/10:47:45].
This distance was nearly half of what it had taken her to travel from the Cave Restaurant through Lou Yuncheng to Yuncheng. The journey time had also been significantly reduced.
There were two reasons for this:
Shu Fu wasn’t in a hurry. Feeling that a speed of 80 was too fast, she adjusted the drift speed to 40.
The data refreshed: [865/21:36:09].
That was still fine. She could take a day to return to Suicheng and see how things were.