Chapter 1 Survival at Sea, Peach Blossom Sanctuary

How long can a person survive at sea with just a raft and a fishing rod?

If it were before, Sophie would definitely answer, "Are you kidding? You wouldn't survive for even a day!"

But now, she was clutching a fishing rod, sitting on a wooden raft surrounded by boundless seawater.

How did she end up here?

Just a second ago, she was clearly working overtime.

Sophie, 24 years old, was a diligent participant in the rat race, from study to work, always believing in the principle of hard work pays off.

She had been working for two years and was recently in charge of a major project. For this project, she had worked overtime for three consecutive months, without a single day off, sleeping only three to four hours a day.

Once the project was completed, she would receive a substantial amount of money and finally get some rest.

Little did she know, after dozing off at her desk, she found herself here.

Was it because she had been too exhausted lately, causing her to have a nightmare?

"Sophie, cute players!"

Suddenly, a voice echoed. In front of her, a huge screen appeared, with rows of text slowly appearing in sync with the voice.

"Welcome to Survival at Sea, this is Zone 33. Please carefully read the game rules below:"

"Firstly, this is a real world, where death means real death, and life only happens once!"

"Secondly, the first batch of adventurers are aged 18-50, the elderly and children are still in their original world, where they will be well taken care of!"

"Thirdly, everyone lives at sea with the same initial supplies: one wooden raft and one fishing rod!"

"Fourthly, the sea contains various resources, and there will also be randomly appearing treasure chests that can be caught with the fishing rod."

"Fifthly, without special equipment, please do not enter the water casually, as the sea is very dangerous!"

"Sixthly, do not drink unfiltered seawater, as it can lead to dehydration!"

"Seventhly, during the novice protection period, you are relatively safe. Please collect supplies quickly, upgrade your raft, and prepare for the challenges after the novice period!"

"For further information, please refer to the beginner's guide. Players, feel free to explore this world and good luck to all!"

A minute later, the screen retracted and transformed into a flowing light, wrapping itself around Sophie's wrist. In a split second, a watch appeared on her wrist. The watch strap was blue, the surface silver, displaying the time and a gauge. Below was a golden button.

Sophie turned her wrist and carefully observed, finally pressing the golden button. The light flashed and the screen reappeared, showing the game rules as before.

The current screen was a bit larger than before, approximately 3 meters high and 5 meters wide. Sophie found that she could expand or shrink the screen with her fingertips, the smallest size being that of an iPad.

In the upper left corner of the screen, her name, time, and gauge were displayed: "Sophie, Day 1 at sea, 9 AM, sunny."

At the bottom right were several sections including the beginner's guide and area chat. Sophie reviewed the beginner's guide again and quietly remembered it, then clicked on the area chat.

"Help, I'm at sea, I can't see anyone around, and I'm on a raft!"

"Me too, surrounded by endless sea, it's terrifying, I'm afraid of water!"

"The screen is so big, can't you see it? This is Survival at Sea game!"

"Is this really a game? It's too lifelike, isn't it?"

"Don't treat it as a game, haven't you noticed? Death here means real death! No resurrection!"

"I don't believe it, there's no game this realistic, this technology doesn't exist, it must be a conspiracy! I can swim, I'm going to dive in and take a look... Help, help... gurgle gurgle..."

In less than a moment, someone exclaimed, "Has someone died? The number of people in the area chat has decreased by one!"

Sophie also looked.

Zone 33, Area Chat (/):

"Did someone really die?!"

A sinking feeling crept through Sophie.

Zone 33 seemed to have many game subdivisions. Apparently, each subdivision contained 100,000 people, and someone had indeed died just now!

Some panicked messages appeared on the screen:

"I don't want to die, I don't want to play this game, I want to go back, sob!"

"Weak, if you haven't played a survival game, haven't you seen survival shows? Now quickly collect supplies, crying won't help!"

"Help, I just fell into the water, there are sharks below, it bit my leg, it hurts!"

The screen was in chaos, and after observing for a while, Sophie decided to close the screen.

Someone was right; she needed to quickly gather supplies!

Despite being a dedicated participant in the rat race, Sophie hadn't lived without any form of entertainment during her university days and had seen some things online.

So, she quickly calmed down.

She stood up to take a look around. The raft was two meters wide and two meters long, extremely narrow. In such a small space, she wouldn't even dare to toss and turn while sleeping, lest she fell into the water and became shark food!

Survival was indeed challenging!

Suddenly, she heard a "drip":

"Drip, suitable host found, survival system binding initiated..."

"Drip, detected Survival at Sea game, merging with survival system..."

"Drip, merging successful, binding completed, host survival environment exceptionally harsh, activating sapling protection plan—will randomly select supplementary items, selecting... 10, 9, 8, 7..."

Sophie watched as a colorful roulette wheel appeared before her, spinning rapidly, leaving a trail of afterimages.

About ten seconds later, the wheel gradually came to a stop.

"Drip, congratulations host, obtained a divine-level item—Peach Blossom Sanctuary! Please choose a suitable location to place it."

Click Something fell from above, and Sophie instinctively caught it.

It was a white wooden token, about the size of her palm, intricately carved with a pink peach blossom. In the center were several pink Chinese characters—Peach Blossom Sanctuary.

She had to place it somewhere. But where? How?

Looking around tentatively, she placed the token in front. A shadow appeared on the raft...

"Is this the suitable location to place the Peach Blossom Sanctuary?"

"Yes!"

With a whoosh, the token disappeared from her hand, and a bright light flashed. Sophie saw a change in the color of the nearby raft, faintly shimmering with gold. After hesitating for a moment, she took a step over.

In a blink of an eye, she found herself in an unfamiliar place.

It was roughly a space of 10 square meters, surrounded by white mist. The ground was moist and soft, wafting with the scent of flowers, as pink peach blossom petals drifted in on the breeze, falling to the ground.

Amidst the white mist, a hint of peach blossom branches could be seen.

Sophie attempted to walk towards the budding branches but found an invisible barrier at the edge of the mist, preventing her from crossing.

Turning back, she noticed a token, now enlarged about ten times its original size, displaying the same four large Chinese characters: Peach Blossom Sanctuary. It emitted a faint golden glow.

Sophie approached and reached out to touch it. The faint golden light dissipated and settled onto her body.

She felt a surge of energy and clarity as the system's voice rang out.

"Congratulations host, you have received today's random stroke of luck—Double Happiness (gaining double supplies)!"