Chapter 1: Opening, a Shipwreck

It was summer vacation, and second-year student Li Chenfeng had joined a luxury European cruise organized by his university’s student association.

On the deck, Li Chenfeng lounged on a beach chair in a white T-shirt and swim trunks, enjoying the sea breeze, occasionally sipping the chilled coconut beside him while attractive girls passing by couldn’t help lowering their sunglasses for another look.

“Tsk tsk tsk, sunshine, a cruise, beautiful girls… this is the life.”

At night, just as Li Chenfeng got into bed and was about to fall asleep, the ship suddenly began to shake violently.

“Wh… what’s going on?”

Li Chenfeng staggered and fell to the floor as the cabin’s intercom began to blare.

“Dear passengers, a massive whirlpool has appeared in the waters ahead; all passengers, please put on your life jackets and assemble on deck immediately.”

Li Chenfeng was stunned for a moment but quickly snapped back to his senses. In his panic he grabbed the life jacket at the head of the bed, struggling to put it on as he made his way forward.

He had barely reached the deck when the ship lurched to the left, and before long the entire vessel capsized.

Li Chenfeng was thrown into the sea, his head spinning and he could not open his eyes.

Could it be that at such a young age, handsome as he was, he would die in the sea and become a fish’s meal? There was no time to think, and he slipped into unconsciousness.

After an unknown amount of time, on a nameless stretch of beach, Li Chenfeng’s fingers twitched slightly.

Li Chenfeng slowly opened his eyes; the blistering sun burned so fiercely that he felt his eyesight might fail. He forced himself to sit up, shielding his eyes from the glare with his hand.

“Where am I?”

After sitting on the beach for a while and coming to his senses, Li Chenfeng looked around and realized that the shipwreck must have washed him here.

After prolonged exposure to the sun, the skin that had been left exposed was bright red, his lips were cracked and peeling, and his throat burned painfully.

At that moment a system voice sounded in Li Chenfeng’s mind: “Your HP is low; please replenish water promptly.”

Li Chenfeng checked his HP, which had already turned red, and panicked… having barely escaped death, he could not afford to bake to death on this deserted island.

Li Chenfeng began searching the beach for anything usable.

“Hey, there’s a black backpack over there,” Li Chenfeng called with joy as he walked over and opened it to find only a packet of soaked tissues and a short T-shirt, which he tossed aside in disappointment before he continued searching, and not far away sticking out of the sand was a bottle of mineral water.

“This should be water, right?”

Sure enough, when he picked up the bottle he found it was more than half full, and after twisting off the cap he gulped it down even though the water had become scalding under the sun. When it slid down his throat Li Chenfeng felt as if he had been brought back to life.

After finishing half the bottle, Li Chenfeng licked his lips wanting more. “Save it; fresh water is more precious than gold right now.”

The system prompt sounded in his mind again: “Task complete! HP +20! Stamina +10! Talent +10!”

It turned out that Li Chenfeng had been bound to a Survival System during the disaster, which would alert him when his HP fell below 10 and, if he did not replenish his strength in time, could cost him his life. The Stamina stat would raise his physical endurance, energy, and resistance to drought and cold, and the Talent stat would later increase his success rates in special skills like fishing, smelting, and pottery.

“Let’s check the surroundings first.”

As Li Chenfeng walked along the beach he suddenly saw a woman lying ahead with the waves still lapping at her calves, and he hurried over to lift her into the shade of a tree.

“Ha, it’s school beauty Senior Lu Xinyao!”

“Senior, Senior, wake up!”

Li Chenfeng shook Lu Xinyao’s sun-scorched body and cried, “Wake up, Senior.”

Seeing Lu Xinyao lying motionless, Li Chenfeng broke into a sweat. “There’s no other way, Senior… don’t blame me.”

He then prepared to give Lu Xinyao mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and just as he closed his eyes and leaned in she opened her eyes and, seeing a handsome face coming closer, was terrified.

“Ah, pervert!” she cried and shoved Li Chenfeng away in a panic.

Li Chenfeng fell to the ground with a painful thud.

“Ow, Senior! It’s me! I was trying to give you mouth-to-mouth to save you.”

Seeing Li Chenfeng’s pained expression, Lu Xinyao immediately realized what had happened.

“Sorry, I’m really sorry.”

Li Chenfeng stood up and patted his backside, and when he looked at Lu Xinyao her eyes were like saucers because she was only wearing a pink bikini.

Following his gaze to herself, Lu Xinyao couldn’t help screaming, “Ah, pervert!”

“No no no, I didn’t mean to,” Li Chenfeng said, covering his eyes with both hands but slyly leaving a small gap.

Lu Xinyao blushed and wrapped her arms around her legs, trying to cover herself as much as possible.

Li Chenfeng felt secretly delighted at such a rare treat, knowing that Lu Xinyao had been the school’s top-ranked “school beauty” for three years running.

Although Li Chenfeng liked looking at pretty girls, he considered himself a gentleman, so he took off his T-shirt, cocked his head, handed it to Lu Xinyao and said, “Put this on.”

Lu Xinyao lowered her head, took the shirt, and put it on quickly, and because she was petite Li Chenfeng’s shirt fit her like a dress.

“I… I’m so thirsty.”

“Oh, wait, I still have half a bottle of water.”

Saying that, he picked up the mineral water bottle he’d left at the edge of the beach, unscrewed the cap, and handed it to Lu Xinyao. “Drink up.”

Lu Xinyao grabbed it and drank greedily, gulping so fast that water dribbled from the corner of her mouth, and Li Chenfeng swallowed, thinking it would be a pity to waste even a single drop of such precious water.

She finished the half bottle in one gulp, wiped the corner of her mouth, and said, “Thank you, Chenfeng.”

Li Chenfeng scratched his head and said, “Hey, it’s nothing; we’re comrades bound by shared hardship now.”

“Mm.”

Finding a familiar person on this deserted island brought them both some comfort, and Lu Xinyao said, “Chenfeng, look, there are quite a few things drifting on the beach; let’s go look and see if there’s a phone to call for help… maybe someone will come rescue us.”

Li Chenfeng nodded and said, “Right, we can go take a look.”

Under the scorching sun on the beach, Li Chenfeng tore off two banana leaves and said, “Hold these; the sun out there is too fierce.”

“Okay!”

And so the two of them resumed searching the beach, walking and pausing along the way and finding many items, but they were all useless ocean trash.

Lu Xinyao felt a little dejected and asked, “Are we really going to be trapped here?”

Before Li Chenfeng could comfort her, he saw someone floating in the sea.

“Look! There’s someone over there!”

Before Lu Xinyao could react, Li Chenfeng rushed into the sea.