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Chapter 49
It felt as if she had entered another dimension, a world where nothing existed but water. The raft, protected by its shield, was tossed and spun by the waves, but thankfully, the dual layers of protection absorbed much of the shock, keeping the turbulence inside the cabin within tolerable limits.
At that moment, Shu Fu finally remembered—the shock absorption feature of the drifting island cabin was excellent. She had once tested it by shaking the small raft inside the bottle, but when she took it out later, nothing inside the cabin had toppled over.
Now, it felt like she was riding a roller coaster with safety features. The drifting island cabin spun and jolted with the waves, crashing randomly as the currents tossed it about. She knew she had long since drifted away from the lake because massive buildings and trees occasionally surfaced in the waves.
Those buildings and trees crumbled like they were made of foam, shattering instantly wherever the water touched.
Thanks to the raft’s automatic avoidance function, the drifting island cabin managed to swerve just in time, narrowly avoiding the debris of solid structures and trees each time. Enclosed within its elliptical shield, the raft floated like an object in a protective cocoon. After an indeterminate amount of time, it finally surfaced.
Even above water, the air was thick with mist. The storm and torrential rain persisted. Looking out through the glass, all she could see was rain and water—everything else seemed to have vanished. The surrounding currents were still strong, but it felt like the raft had passed the peak of the tsunami and was now in a calmer phase.
Inside the drifting island cabin, things were relatively stable. The protective shield had absorbed most of the impact; the raft merely bobbed and swayed with the water, without flipping over. The furniture and other items inside hadn’t shifted much either.
Feeling slightly reassured, Shu Fu turned off the personal shield on her wristband and checked the time on the control screen.
50 minutes and 23 seconds remained on the personal shield timer. Had it really only been six minutes during what felt like an eternity?
She pulled out her phone—no signal. All messages and disaster notifications had stopped over ten minutes ago. It was as if the entire world had disappeared, leaving only the churning waters and her raft.
The sky was as dark as ink, rain still pouring down in sheets, creating splashes on the water’s surface. The raft drifted aimlessly under the relentless push of the current.
It was the first time she was inside the drifting island cabin without a clear sense of direction, completely at the mercy of the waves.
When she had returned alone to her rented house in Suicheng, she had felt a lonely, apocalyptic sensation, as if she were the only person left in the world. Now, that feeling was magnified tenfold.
Shu Fu sat motionless by the floor-to-ceiling window, staring at the expanse of sky and water outside, trying to spot any trace of Lou Yuncheng in the waters she drifted through, but it was futile.
After about ten minutes, the turbulent waters began to settle—but this wasn’t the end. On the contrary, it was just the beginning.
Over the next five or six hours, tsunamis continued to strike at intervals. The height of the waves varied; none were as terrifying as the first apocalyptic wave, but one did surpass 100 meters, and the rest were all over 50 meters high.
At first, Shu Fu was terrified, but as the raft and cabin remained unscathed through each roaring wave, she gradually calmed down. She started by taking out her phone to capture footage of the tsunamis, comparing the heights of the waves. Then, an idea struck her—she pulled out the map panel.
The network was down, and everything outside was water, making it impossible to determine her location. But she realized she could check the waterway map, as the raft’s location would be marked by a flashing red dot.
By comparing the waterway map with the Lou Yuncheng map she had downloaded earlier, she could roughly estimate the raft’s current position.
She had been in Lou Yuncheng long enough to have checked the current map on both the control screen and the map panel. But back then, since Lou Yuncheng was still land, its map hadn’t appeared. There had only been maps of Suicheng and the waterways from Suicheng to Lou Yuncheng.
The waterway map ended just outside Dam No. 1, as if the smooth water route had simply reached its conclusion.
But now, that endpoint was gone. To the left of the waterway, like a river flowing into a lake, a new irregularly shaped light green area had appeared. The shape roughly resembled a trapezoid, looking very similar to the Lou Yuncheng map she had previously downloaded.
This must be the waterway map of Lou Yuncheng—it had finally appeared. But the irony was that its appearance, like Suicheng’s waterway map, was only triggered after the city had been swallowed by floodwaters.
Even more terrifying, on this waterway map of Lou Yuncheng, only the west, northwest, and southwest showed a few scattered dark green dots and patches. The red dot representing her raft was slightly to the right of the map’s center. In the lower and left parts of the map, there was a vast area with no dark green shapes at all.
She knew those shapes represented either the remaining structures of Lou Yuncheng or the high-altitude mountainous areas in the southwest. Everything else—from Dam No. 1 westward, all the land and buildings—had completely disappeared.
The first wave of the tsunami had conservatively reached over 350 meters—about the height of a 100-story building. Under such towering waves, no matter how sturdy the structures were, they would shatter as easily as a car crashing into a gingerbread house.
At this moment, looking out from the drifting island house, she couldn’t see any signs of victims on the water’s surface. She knew in her heart what this apocalyptic super tsunami meant for Lou Yuncheng.
Moreover, the tsunami likely didn’t just strike Lou Yuncheng alone.
She still remembered the earthquake reports before the tsunami hit—it was very possible that the entire Muzhou and Xiren provinces had faced the same apocalyptic waves.
This thought weighed heavily on her.
Had those reborn individuals she speculated about really cooperated in the preventive measures?
If the construction of the flood-blocking dam and the mass relocation of people from the hilly cities were actions based on the authorities’ belief in doomsday videos and the insights from reborn individuals…
Then did the authorities foresee this terrifying, world-ending tsunami in advance?
She didn’t understand the full process of the world’s collapse or the specifics of the disasters because she had never experienced them firsthand.
But it was different for the reborn. They originally belonged to this world, had lived through all the disasters, and returned from the future—they knew every detail of how these catastrophes unfolded.
If the reborn were willing to cooperate and disclosed the entire sequence of disasters, the authorities would have taken measures and surely wouldn’t have overlooked such a massive catastrophe.
If the authorities had foreseen this tsunami, why hadn’t they forcibly evacuated all the cities in the hilly regions before it struck?
No matter how favorable the conditions offered for the mass relocations were, many people still refused to leave. If the floodwaters had risen and submerged the hilly cities at a normal pace, this policy wouldn’t have been a problem.
But now…
She couldn’t help but entertain some conspiracy theories.
Was it to ensure that social order didn’t collapse?
Could that really be the reason?
But wasn’t the mass evacuation of Suicheng also forcibly and orderly executed at first?
Where exactly did things go wrong?
By 7 p.m., after five or six hours of raging waters, the surface finally began to calm.
However, even without the towering waves, the waters outside remained turbulent. The heavy rain continued to pour, and the dark, oppressive clouds hung low. Lightning flickered and danced across the sky, occasionally splitting into web-like patterns.
It was a thunderstorm, and the entire water region was engulfed under its cover.
At that moment, it felt as if the planet had reverted to its primordial days—before dinosaurs existed—when relentless torrential rains fell daily, lasting for a million years and nearly causing mass extinction of animals and plants…
A million years of rain…
Shu Fu shivered at the thought. Despite the constant 25°C temperature inside the drifting island house, she felt a chill run down her spine.
Luckily, the slight vibration on her wrist snapped her out of her thoughts and stabilized her emotions.
[Within two hours, choose one of the following locations in Lou Yuncheng—Xiufeng (Longitude XX, Latitude XX), Mufeng Farm (Longitude XX, Latitude XX), or Sun Garden (Longitude XX, Latitude XX)—to arrive at and complete the raft check-in task. Reward: 15% progress towards Raft Level 3; 10 lucky draw spins. (Current Raft Level 3 progress: 100%)]
[Congratulations! Your raft has been upgraded to Level 3!]
[You can now view Level 3 raft functions inside the ‘Unsinkable Drifting Island House.’]
Seeing the 10 lucky draw spins made Shu Fu’s face light up with joy. She had already anticipated that after awarding a 15% progress boost, there wouldn’t be any further bonus progress—the next step was upgrading to Level 4, and it was too soon for that.
But the 10 lucky draws still delighted her.
Shu Fu eagerly pulled out the spinning wheel to start her draws, but then she rushed over to the function screen by the door to check out the new Level 3 raft features. She couldn’t resist glancing back at the interior of the wooden house to see if there were any changes. Multitasking like crazy, she felt like a greedy hamster stuffing its cheeks with food.
In the end, she opened the function screen first.
[Raft Level: 3
Drifting Island House Size: 40 square meters (starter house type; one-click dust removal)
Building Modes:
The first thing Shu Fu noticed was that the daily usage limit had increased to 20 hours!
And even though it was already past 7 p.m., the raft still had nearly 14 hours of usage left for the day. This was the first time she’d seen the available usage time exceed the remaining hours in the day.
The extended usage time exceeded her expectations once again. Now that the raft’s daily operational time had increased by another eight hours, it meant she only needed to spend four hours a day outside looking for buildings or land to pass the time.
Compared to the twelve hours required outside with the level-2 raft, these mere four hours—spent even just drifting on the inflatable boat in the water—were entirely acceptable to her. She could treat it like regular work hours.
She could even split it up: two hours in the morning, two in the afternoon, and spend the rest of the time inside the raft house, where she felt safe and secure.
Shu Fu suddenly felt like she was climbing the corporate ladder through hard work. At first, she had to toil outside for nineteen hours every day just to earn a measly five hours of rest.
Later, after leveling up once, it became a twelve-on, twelve-off schedule, but she still had to be out from dawn till dusk, exhausted.
But now, she finally felt like she had made it. Only four hours of work outside each day, and the remaining twenty hours were hers to relax.
Just this one upgrade felt worth all her months of hard work.
And on top of that, the level-3 raft came with additional features.
She began to check them one by one.
First, she tried clicking the “One-Click Dust Removal” option. A prompt popped up: “Are you sure you want to initiate one-click dust removal?” Shu Fu was curious—would it even clean up the snack wrappers she left on the coffee table?
She confirmed, and for a moment, the light in the room flickered and shifted. When she looked back, the snack wrappers were still there, but the floor, walls, and windows of the floating house felt freshly cleaned—spotless, without a trace of dust.
“As expected, just dust removal…” Shu Fu touched surfaces around the house. Though the function only tackled dust, it was incredibly practical. She had been responsible for all the cleaning in the floating house, but now it could be spotless in a second, gleaming like new.
The introduction of a Construction Mode also made sense. The safe house on the raft could already be customized, but now there was a “One-Click House Swap” option. She clicked it, and the screen displayed: “No unlocked blueprints detected. Unable to initiate house swap.”
Shu Fu understood. This One-Click House Swap likely allowed her to quickly change the appearance and interior layout of the floating house, offering convenience and a high-tech feel. But the catch was that she needed unlocked blueprints first.
She guessed that these blueprints might be obtainable from the prize wheel.
When she clicked Manual Remodeling, a 3D model popped up, showing the current interior layout of the floating house. The structure could be freely rotated and adjusted. She could expand or contract spaces and reposition doors, windows, walls, bathroom, and kitchen as long as the structure remained proportionate.
She tried moving the floor-to-ceiling window next to the dining table to another wall, placing it beside the bookshelf and cushion area, then hit Confirm.
Immediately, the light inside the cabin shifted again. When Shu Fu turned to look, the window by the dining table was gone, and the two floor-to-ceiling windows by the bookshelf had merged into one large glass wall, doubling in size.
That entire side of the wall had become floor-to-ceiling glass, offering a broader view. The dark ocean outside, the flickering lightning storms, and the rain pounding against the undulating sea surface became even clearer—as if she could reach out and touch them.
It was terrifying, yet awe-inspiring. Once again, she felt acutely aware of how small humans were living amidst the roaring forces of nature.
Human beings must always harbor respect and reverence for nature.
After testing the Manual Remodeling feature, Shu Fu returned the floor-to-ceiling window to its original spot. She didn’t change anything else because she was pretty satisfied with the cabin’s interior layout, especially after adding the split-level space earlier.
Besides, Manual Remodeling drained her mental energy. She decided to save her luck and wait to unlock some blueprints, then use the One-Click House Swap.
The Navigation Mode and other daily household features hadn’t changed much. The maximum drift speed had increased, and the capacities of the water tank and wastewater tank had both expanded tenfold. With the 100 liters of purified water available daily and the automatic storage of unused water, it meant that as long as the raft stayed on the water, the tank would automatically refill with purified water every day—no waste, and it simplified her routine.
These were all minor tweaks, but exactly the features she needed.
Finally, under Protective Functions, the Floating Bottle Shield was officially unlocked. Its features were the same as during the trial period, allowing for both Automatic and Manual modes. She tested both options to understand how they worked.
When set to Automatic, the shield would activate on its own during extreme weather conditions that the raft couldn’t withstand.
For example, if the weather seemed fine before she went to bed but turned into a tsunami or super thunderstorm in the middle of the night, by the time she woke up and manually activated the shield, the raft might have already sustained damage.
But with Automatic mode, as soon as extreme weather beyond the raft’s tolerance appeared, the Shield would activate automatically. Once the severe weather passed, the Shield would shut off by itself.
Without hesitation, Shu Fu set it to Automatic.
This feature wasn’t just smarter—it also helped her identify which disasters posed actual threats to the raft, ensuring the shield was only activated when truly necessary, without wasting a second.
She had already anticipated that the protective shield would have a daily usage limit. Although it was only four hours, this was different from the raft’s operational time because the shield’s time could be stored, automatically saving at midnight.
As for the twelve-hour countdown in the stored time section, it was probably from the trial card she had drawn earlier. The trial card with five hours remaining had already been used up, and now she was using another card. After doing the math, the remaining time matched up to about twelve hours.
Not long after she set the Protective Shield to Automatic mode, the countdown next to the stored time stopped. This indicated that the floating bottle protective shield had been automatically turned off, likely because the current disaster level was deemed not to pose a threat to the raft or the floating house.
The Bracelet Remote Control feature was even more surprising. After activating this function, an eighth icon appeared below the seventh icon on her bracelet, depicting a bottle containing a raft.
She tested it and discovered that it served as a shortcut: by long-pressing the icon, she could directly activate the raft’s floating bottle shield.
This feature, combined with the raft’s extended placement range, would save her a lot of trouble in the future if used wisely.
Having thoroughly explored all the new functions of the level-3 raft, Shu Fu went to the bathroom to wash her hands, using cherry blossom-scented soap. Then, she took the prize wheel to the wooden coffee table in the living room and sat down cross-legged.
She placed the wheel on the table, offered a sincere prayer, and began a ten-spin draw.