Eight Thousand Had Died
Before the panicked Finnick could even open his mouth to beg for a three-year salary advance, Cora casually reached into her heavy coat. She bypassed her pockets, accessed her bulging Spatial Pouch, and upended it directly over the brass and crystal checkout counter.
A heavy pile of gold cascaded out, the sharp clinking of metal echoing through the quiet resource station. The sheer volume of coins formed a shining mountain right in front of the cashier.
"200 total. Count it," Cora said flatly.
The horned boy’s arrogant smirk vanished. His jaw dropped, and he stared at the mountain of gold in disbelief. Finnick froze beside him, his eyes round as saucers, his hands still trembling over the empty shopping bags.
The supervisor’s eyes widened. She recovered her professional composure, scooped the heavy gold coins into a brass scale beside the register, and weighed them. The needle hit the exact mark. She swiftly confirmed the massive amount, shooting Cora a look of profound respect.
"200 gold coins. Correct," the supervisor said, pushing several large, neatly packed boxes across the counter.
Cora ignored the dumbfounded stares of the other patrons. She grabbed the packaged snacks and the folded stack of new clothes, shoving them into Finnick’s arms. He hugged them to his chest like a lifeline, deeply shocked by the sudden turn of events.
Without missing a beat, Cora stowed the massive remainder of her haul—the self-cleaning toilet, the medical book, the bombs, and the protective suit—directly into her spatial storage. The heavy boxes vanished into thin air, leaving the counter bare.
"See you next time, Finnick," she called out cheerfully.
Before anyone could ask questions or recover from the shock, Cora spun on her heel and dashed out of the resource station like a gust of wind.
The supervisor leaned on the counter, chuckling into the silence. "Your grandma is pretty healthy."
Finnick blinked, clutching his new clothes tightly. "Yeah... I guess," he muttered, still dazed.
The horned boy clicked his tongue, his face flushing dark red, and slinked away without another word.
Cora sprinted across the wooden docks. She checked her system clock. One minute left until 7 PM. She hopped onto her bobbing island just in time, grabbing a beat-up cardboard box near the entrance on her way in. She rapidly fired up her underwater thruster, the engine humming to life, and steered her small piece of land directly back out into the open ocean.
As soon as the station faded into the mist and she hit open water, a loud system notification chimed in her head.
[Congratulations, player! You have completed the achievement: First Player to Enter a Sea Resource Station. Announce globally? You will receive a generous reward.]
Recognizing the value of fame and the potential leverage it might bring, she didn't hesitate. She hit 'Yes.'
[System Announcement: Player Cora has completed the achievement: First Player to Enter a Sea Resource Station. Everyone, keep up the good work!]
The chat channel instantly exploded into chaos. The serene quiet of the ocean was replaced by a rapid-fire scroll of frantic text floating in her vision.
[What is going on? I feel like I'm not playing the same game as this big shot.]
[What's a resource station? Can someone explain?]
[Is it just me, or has this Cora gotten multiple achievements already? Every announcement has her name. She's a real badass.]
While some players desperately begged for game guides and coordinates, others morbidly pointed out the grim, horrifying reality of the player count in the top corner of the screen.
[It's tough, but look at how many people have disappeared just today.]
The chat channel fell into a sudden, chilling silence.
Yesterday, the total counter sat at over 99,000 people. Now, it glaringly displayed 91,145. Nearly 8,000 players had disappeared that very day. The underlying message was clear: they were dead. A wave of terror washed over the remaining survivors.
Then, the veterans chimed in.
Briar: [Instead of relying on others, why not swim 6 miles in the sea every day? With that kind of physique, what's there to fear? I swim 6 miles every day, towing my island. Got a problem with that?]
Hazel: [I thought I was working hard swinging my heavy hammer 10,000 times a day to level up. I'll follow your lead.]
Gavin: [Following both of you!]
Seeing hardcore, muscular players like Briar casually swimming six miles a day and the tiny Hazel swinging a heavy hammer 10,000 times, Cora felt a sudden, sharp pang of shame regarding her own weak stats. She had been proud of her two hours of manual paddling. Now, it felt like child’s play. If the lucky and the strong worked this hard, how could ordinary mortals afford to slack off?
She silently vowed to drastically increase her daily manual paddling, pushing her physical limits starting tomorrow.
Deciding to offer a small, cryptic piece of advice to the panicking masses, she typed into the public channel:
Cora: [The resource station is triggered when you reach 300 miles. I won't go into how to reach that.]
Lester Flynn immediately responded: [What? 300 miles? I'm dying from 6 miles a day, and it's only day four. How is 300 miles even possible? Cora, any tips on how to move faster?]
Ignoring the subsequent flood of frantic, begging questions, she coldly closed the chat interface. Her own experiences couldn't be copied anyway. Sharing more would only put a target on her back. Human beings were the scariest variable out here on the water.
Focusing purely on her rewards, Cora pulled up her inventory. She had received Foundation Stones x8, Island Shield x1, and a Basic Attribute Boost Card x1.
She used the Basic Attribute Boost Card first, intent on permanently enhancing her physical stats. A warm rush of energy flooded her veins, fortifying her muscles and sharpening her senses. She pulled up her profile to check the new numbers.
[Player: Cora]
[Age: 23]
[Strength: 18+9]
[Constitution: 19+9]
[Agility: 20+9]
[Stamina: 81]
[Evaluation: Ready to take on a fragile newbie.]
With these new stats and an increased training regimen, swimming six miles a day didn't seem like an impossible dream anymore.
Next, she grabbed the eight Foundation Stones she acquired. She triggered them, and the magical stones fused with the edges of her tiny landmass. She furiously expanded her island, watching the dirt and rock stretch out over the water until she had a spacious 185 square feet to work with. It wasn't massive, but compared to her starting raft, it felt like a sprawling estate.
She didn't stop there. She grabbed the remaining wooden crates lying around her base and dismantled them all, extracting 30 units of wood, 2 units of iron, and 30 rusty nails.
Utilizing the excess materials, she went straight to work on structural upgrades. She used 25 units of wood and 10 nails to quickly build a functional bathroom right next to her wooden cabin, perfectly sizing it to house her new self-cleaning toilet. Then, using another 25 units of wood, she widened her bedroom, pushing the walls outward to give herself breathing room.
The expansion left her with an extra 40 square feet of open space in the middle of her island. She meticulously rearranged her outdoor equipment, dragging her paddle setup to the far back edge. This created a wide, open space in the center, dedicated solely for lethal combat practice with her crossbow and traps.
Sweat dripped down her forehead as she critically inspected her new Island Shield module. The device promised an impenetrable barrier that would stop NPCs, monsters, and hostile players from landing without her permission. For an island under 500 square feet, it required one energy core to run for thirty days. External attacks would drain it faster.
She held her single remaining energy core in her palm. The ocean was generally safe at night right now. Ultimately, she decided to activate the shield right at daybreak to conserve the precious power source.
Checking her underwater thruster, a knot formed in her stomach. The energy gauge was running dangerously low. She had enough juice for fewer than 200 miles. Since the resource station didn't sell energy cores, she realized she must forcefully retrieve Finnick's stolen bow tie from the monsters as soon as possible. That quest was her only lead on securing more power to keep moving.
By 8 PM, the sky was pitch black, illuminated only by the faint glow of the stars and the soft light from her cabin window. Her stomach let out a loud, hollow rumble. She still lacked a hot dinner.
Cora walked over to the small patch of soil where her cucumber vine grew. According to the system, the vegetables weren't due for another two days. The plant was nothing but thin, creeping green stems.
She retrieved the glowing plant growth serum she had purchased from the station. The vivid green liquid pulsed inside its glass vial. Carefully, she uncorked it and dripped a single drop directly onto the base of the vine.
In a terrifying flash of accelerated time, the plant erupted. The green vine shot up instantly, growing over a foot and a half in a matter of seconds. She gasped, dripping another tiny bead of the serum onto the soil. The stems thickened into sturdy, spiky vines. Bright yellow blossoms burst open along the length of the plant, petals unfurling and withering in the blink of an eye.
The base of the wilted flowers rapidly swelled, transforming into massive, juicy fruits. A dozen cucumbers grew long and thick right before her eyes, swelling to more than twice the size of anything she had ever seen in a normal market.
After using only a tiny fraction of the potent serum—barely 0.2 fluid ounces—the current fruits stopped expanding. She happily knelt in the dirt and harvested 16 massive, mature cucumbers, snapping them off the thick vines one by one. They were heavy, their bumpy green skin firm and vibrant.
As soon as she cleared the mature crop, fresh new buds eagerly formed along the vine. She checked the soil interface. A glowing timer indicated another full harvest would be ready in exactly eight hours.
Agricultural awe washed over her. She stared at the pile of fresh produce in her arms, the sweet, earthy smell of the vegetables filling the night air. With this serum, her endless food supply was officially secured. She planned to let a few from the next batch deliberately go to seed, ready to exponentially plant more once these were eaten.