7 Day Two

Liu Xue laid on the now cool sands of the shore.

Before he knew it, it was now dusk. Darkness, crickets, and hooting warned him of so. Now that high tide forced him closer to the jungle, he did not dare to step anywhere near what he deemed nature's abyss. Almost all of his first day was consumed by mindless swinging. Taking a bite of the C-graded apples to relieve the fatigue could only do so much.

The automatic fishing rod did not grab any more material boxes, much to Liu Xue's dismay. All of the apples were eaten, not to mention the water bottles. With the sudden surplus of wood each time a tree fell, he retained some for trading, but there was no one completing trades. [Trading] and [Public Channel] were filled with pleading on food and clean water.

"Tomorrow will be better," Liu Xue consoled, blinking at the moonlight slowly emerging from the clouds.

He did not have energy to feel anger, fear, or appreciate the sight. He stumbled in the direction of a large boulder and collapsed onto it.

"Tiger, I wanted to let you know that I'm stringy and skinny, not fit for a midnight snack."

Mumbling more inaudible words of encouragement, he tried to make himself comfortable on the boulder, but at the same time, able to react in the face of danger. But before he knew it, a gentle breeze blew by, making his world go black. A slight shiver ran up his arms and down his back, and then, he was out cold.

***

Liu Xue awoke to the buzzing of mosquitoes, the sloshing of tides, and surprisingly, his limbs intact.

Everywhere in his body was numb, his arms, shoulders, back especially. Even his eyes felt cloudy and unusable.

Sleeping upright against the boulder was unbearably uncomfortable and made him sore all over. There were little red bumps on his arms that itched; he guessed they were from the mosquitoes or other stray bugs who snuck a bite while he was asleep. Some grains of sand also managed to find their way inside his pants. He could only lament his current state.

He stood, stretched, and groaned, all before noticing the morning chill. Overnight, gray clouds obviously passed by, gloomily covering the bright blue sky from yesterday. He could not tell the time, but he could guess from the cold and still-darkness that it was the morning hours before sunrise.

"Those C-grade apples work even better than those energy drinks or coffee," Liu Xue said, smacking his lips. The apple's fragrance and sweetness were becoming an addictive craving.

The saliva that eventually drooped down his chin angered his stomach which growled in protest, seemingly also demanding more apples. He could only down the last milliliters of water in hopes of satisfying it, at least a little bit.

It did not.

"My food and water supply are now completely depleted. If I don't make substantial progress today in building the water purifier and the wooden house, I might be a goner."

Liu Xue did a couple of stretches and he pulled his arm too far back. A stinging pain emerged near his shoulder blades. He winced. He sat down on the cool sand and rubbed his shoulder awkwardly.

In the meantime, he pulled upon the system and island interface, hoping for some good news about the trades he had put up last night. Much to his disappointment, his trades were buried under the others. There was only one prompt notifying him of a successful trade; he received a metal sheet directly sent to [Storage].

Trying to take his mind off the pain and discomfort, Liu Xue decided to take a look at [Public Channel]. Presumably because it was the beginning of the second day, all the messages were begging for food and water. He frowned. The half-hearted joking tone and optimism from yesterday sunk deep into the bottom depths of the sea.

"Maybe they were eaten by sharks or directly capsized," Liu Xue muttered, seeing that eighty-or-so people 'died'.

Because it was the second day stranded that further proved everything was not a bad dream or perhaps of his fright with the tiger, Liu Xue did not feel anything seeing the [4,927/5,000] at the top of [Public Channel].

Per offering condolences or helping others, he did not think about it. He did not know how many days he himself had left.

"Who knows, if I let his guard down, the tiger would jump me. Then I may be part of the missing numbers."

Thinking of this, a sense of urgency grew in his heart.

"I really need to get food, water, and other essential supplies soon. Otherwise, I will fall into a vicious cycle just like the others. As hunger and thirst deepens, I would naturally have less strength and energy to get things done, for example, netting and opening material boxes. And if one cannot open material boxes, they would only get hungrier."

"Fortunately, I have the automatic fishing rod, so I don't have to worry about fishing or swimming for the loot crates that much," Liu Xue murmured to himself.

The consoling thought seemed to heal some of the pain in his shoulder.

Wide awake now, he did not waste any more time. He closed the system interface and headed to where the automatic fishing rod was stationed. The morning waves were rough and the skies were grim, so he had a hard time spotting a floating material box. When he and the automatic fishing rod finally did, he hurried over.

TWACK!

The fishing rod's operations were as smooth as ever: swing, hook, reel, and system prompt. Liu Xue's fingers went to [Storage]. Much to his amazement, aside from the material box netted just now, there were two more.

"Three material boxes! It seems like you worked hard last night," Liu Xue said, patting the fishing rod. "The system gave no prompts either. Was it because I was asleep?"

He directly ignored his own stupid question. Pondering about the system's gimmicks was a waste of time and brain power. He tapped the holographic interface a few times. When the three black material boxes appeared near his feet, he clasped his hands together.

"Give me some good things, please, loot crates!"