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In the zone chat, sure enough, everyone’s attention was completely consumed by the server merger announcement—even the Safe Days and the new event took a back seat.

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: So, does that mean if the region’s population drops below 50,000, Star Forest will just disappear? We’ll get dumped in some unfamiliar place and have to start building houses from scratch.】

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: If we’re suddenly thrown back to square one,  I’d rather die.】

【Liver Emperor: Don’t worry—as far as we can tell, the number of players in our server channel is still well within the safe range.】

Server 01 still has over 71,000 players.

【Irritable Brother: Just talking about this makes me angry. “My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens”—that’s just damn ridiculous!】

When this username was mentioned, even though it had only been a few days since the player left, the other players felt as if an entire lifetime had passed.

【Be A Good Person: Come to think of it,  every time I see a game announcement,  it hits me—it’s actually only been two months since we joined this survival game.】

【The More I Involution The Bitterer My Life Becomes: Yeah, two months—it feels like I’ve been here for two years. Back when I was on Earth, two months would’ve just meant getting two months’ salary.】

These comments struck a chord with quite a few people, and many players began sharing their thoughts in the region chat. Qiyu didn’t feel that way himself, but he found it quite interesting and watched as people spoke.

Most of the comments boiled down to the same thing: life on Earth had been too peaceful, with daily routines that were almost completely monotonous, making time seem to fly by.

In the survival game, however, every day was busy and fulfilling, filled with all sorts of different quests, events, and experiences. Just two months here seemed more complex and exciting than the past twenty years combined.

Qiyu thought to himself that life on Earth must have been just too easy—that there were actually people who complained that life was too peaceful and stable. In the blink of an eye, the night had passed.

The next morning at 8:00 a.m.

Qiyu got up and glanced at the Survival Panel. Sure enough, with the arrival of the Safe Day, the ice in the Star Forest had melted. At the same time, a new announcement sounded on the Survival Panel:

【Registration for the holiday event has closed. Total registrations in the current region channel: 70,000.】

【Current region event base popularity: 70,000.】

【The server-wide holiday event “Star Fishing” is about to begin.】

【This is a multi-region collaborative event. Participation poses no risk to players’ lives but carries a risk of financial loss. Registration can be canceled within one minute.】

Risk of financial loss?

As soon as those words were spoken, quite a few players hesitated. A countdown appeared on the survival panel.

The sixty-second countdown flew by in the blink of an eye.

【Total registrations in the current region channel: 70,000; current region event base popularity: 70,000.】

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: Wow, hasn’t a single person canceled their registration?】

【Be A Good Person: This is a show of trust in the game’s top players.】

【Liver Emperor: They say there’s no risk to life in the game—let’s do this!】 Most people felt the same way.

【“Star Fishing” Event Rules: The system will randomly select one player from all players in this region to serve as the “Regional Star” for this event. The Regional Star will represent the region in the ocean fishing event.】

【The Regional Star will select one fishing-assistance skill based on their talents and class. Aside from this fishing skill, the Regional Star may not use any other abilities or items.】

【Other players automatically become fans of the Regional Star’s livestream. They can unlock new fishing skills for their region’s participating star by making donations.】

The survival game operates with extreme efficiency; as soon as the rules were explained, a raffle page immediately appeared on all players’ survival panels. Ten seconds later.

【Congratulations to player “Dare Not Open My Eyes” for becoming the Regional Star of Region 01 and representing Region 01 in the “Star Fishing” event.】

【We are now matching you with an opponent.】

In the blink of an eye, the survival panel screen changed. The page now displayed a deep blue ocean. Ten small shell-shaped boats floated quietly on the water, each carrying a single person.

Clicking on each boat zooms in on the image, allowing you to clearly see the player’s information on board. 

Dare Not Open My Eyes: “……”

After all players in Region 01 clicked on “Dare Not Open My Eyes”’s boat, they were automatically taken to a lively and flashy page and automatically followed him.

Current number of viewers in the live stream: 69,999.

When Qiyu got a clear look at this friend’s face, he was actually a bit surprised. It was actually him?

He had such a good memory that he recognized him at a glance—he’d seen him before.

It was that person from his first visit to the resource zone—the one covered head to toe in gear and props, dressed in a truly bizarre way. The chat below the livestream was already buzzing with excitement:

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: Isn’t this a standard live-streaming platform page? You’ve really learned a lot from survival games.】

【Liver Emperor: I just gave it a quick scan. Aside from the initial popularity vote each person gets for following, if you want to tip a “star,” you have to “pay to play”—and this “spending” involves using items from your own inventory.】

Qiyu saw it too.

In this event, the protagonist Dare Not Open My Eyes—his role is that of a “star.”

The other players are his fans, and they must work hard to help him win the fishing competition.

Only the champion will receive a reward. After the rewards are distributed, the “Star” will receive the largest share of prizes, while “Fans” will receive rewards of varying tiers based on their contribution score rankings.

In other words, the big spenders in this competition are bound to be Dare Not Open My Eyes.

As for the other players, they’ll only be eligible for the “Fan Participation Award”—not only will they have to part with their best items from their backpacks, but if they don’t take first place, they’re even more likely to lose everything.

It doesn’t seem like a very fair competition.

“Dare Not Open My Eyes” had obviously read the rules as well.

He’s a young man with a slightly round face, and right now he’s staring at the screen with a touch of nervousness: “Everyone, just join in for fun. I’ve never gone fishing before, let alone catch anything—I suggest you don’t get your hopes up too high.”

【Randomly assigning fishing skills based on the player’s innate talents.】

【Congratulations to Server 01 regional star “Dare Not Open My Eyes” on acquiring the fishing skill: Premium Bait.】

【Premium Bait: The bait you craft is of exceptional quality. Each cast attracts 120% more fish and has a low chance of attracting high-quality fish.】

At the same time, an icon representing their skills appeared above the heads of contestants in all ten regions of the livestream. Qiyu glanced over and noticed “Superhuman Strength,” which allowed them to retrieve their fishing nets faster.

There’s also “High-Quality Fishing Net,” which increases the net’s durability and makes it less likely to tear.

As Qiyu read through and compared the options, he began to get a general idea of things.

Since Dare Not Open My Eyes was an alchemist, his class talent was projected onto the bait. As he looked through everything, he felt that this friend’s skills were quite useful.

That is, until he saw the last player.

A female player with a darker complexion was staring at the water’s surface, her eyes shining remarkably brightly… though it could also be that her darker skin simply made her eyes appear exceptionally bright.

What caught Qiyu’s attention wasn’t her eyes, but the two fishing nets prominently displayed on her seashell boat. Her skill was “Double Fishing Nets.”

Qiyu tapped on her profile and raised his eyebrows in surprise.

She was actually from Server 88, and her survival ID was “Life Without a Phone Is Tough.” The next moment, as expected, a few friend messages popped up:

【God Has No Form: Holy crap! How did our two servers end up matched together again?】

【God Has No Form: Damn it, we can’t team up this time—we’ll just have to settle this head-to-head!】

【God Has No Form: As long as it isn’t you participating, Gaming Bro, I won’t back down.】

【I Love Survival Game: You don’t need to hold back—this is a competition representing our region.】

When he first saw the event, he’d actually considered asking Dan Xingyu to join him—or even heading to the Golden Desert himself to watch the livestream with him.

But when he saw that the two regions had been matched together, he abandoned that idea.

He figured Dan Xingyu was probably thinking the same thing, but when he saw the message Dan Xingyu had posted, he found it kind of amusing.

【I Love Survival Game: So what if I were the one participating in the game in Server 01? What would you do?】 

Without a moment’s hesitation, Dan Xingyu replied:【God Has No Form: Then you’d definitely be number one.】

【God Has No Form: I wouldn’t even have to step in—your adopted sons from Server 88 would rally behind you to make you number one.】 The second part was half a joke, but the first part was definitely true.

Given the local elf’s natural talent and constitution, he was afraid that as soon as the opponent joined, they’d unlock some bug-like talent like “Affinity with All Things,” and at which point he wouldn’t even need to fish—the fish would jump right onto the boat on their own.

While the two were chatting, players from both regions had also noticed this development.

Although the two regions couldn’t communicate directly, it was common knowledge that the top players from both regions got along well, and through them, players had indirectly completed several transactions.

Players on both sides had a very favorable impression of each other.

Right now, they were both sighing over how they’d ended up matched against each other.

Of course, sighs aside, at a time like this, everyone naturally rooted for their own region. As the survival panel counted down, the match officially began.

The competition lasted eight hours. In the end, points were calculated based on the total number and quality of the fish caught, and the player with the highest score won. Since the competition was relatively long, everyone played it safe at the beginning.

Qiyu chose the only “Popularity Vote” he had on his account and cast it to Dare Not Open My Eyes. There were quite a few players who did the same.

Qiyu saw a beam of light appear to the right of “Dare Not Open My Eyes” on the screen; the beam was marked with several numbers, seemingly with 10,000 as a threshold.

Once the popularity score reached 10,000, it was clear that “Dare Not Open My Eyes” was hauling in the fishing net much faster.

It seemed that popularity points also helped the “celebrity contestants” catch fish. So… the more players who signed up for the event in a region—or, to put it simply, the more people participating in the event in that region—the greater the advantage.

On the far left of the screen was a “Celebrity Contestant” leaderboard, where “Dare Not Open My Eyes” was currently ranked third. Unsurprisingly, the player in first place was the one with two fishing nets.

Third place—it didn’t sit well with him.

Qiyu opened his inventory and felt a bit torn for a moment—he wasn’t sure what kind of gift would actually help with fishing. Still, it wasn’t exactly a difficult task.

Eight hours—he’d figure it out by trial and error.

A celebrity livestream in Region 01 began to be flooded with tips: “I Love Survival Game” tipped Wood X1.

At the same time, all viewers in the livestream saw a notification:

【Received a high-quality wood tip; the durability of the star player from Region 01’s fishing net has increased by 0.001%.】

That’s actually pretty useful.

“I Love Survival Game” donated 1 unit of fertilizer.

【Note: Fertilizer has a chance of polluting the waters, resulting in a decrease in fish populations.】

Fertilizer won’t work.

“I Love Survival Game” donated 1 leather.

【Received a leather tip; fishing net durability increased by 0.001%.】

……

Qiyu tried them out one by one.

The players in the area were initially confused, but as they watched, they realized the big shot was testing the effects of tipping with different supplies and items.

Some people followed suit and tipped small items like wood.

Until the next post:

“I Love Survival Game” donated 1 elementary magic scroll.

【Receive a tip in the form of a Water Magic Scroll, causing the fishing net to mutate and upgrade into a magical fishing net. When a school of fish approaches, the magical fishing net will automatically form a vortex around the net, sucking in the school of fish.】