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Since the little golden dragon refused to budge while clutching the egg, Qiyu ultimately decided to indulge him. In the end, he sat under the tree of life for the rest of the night, cultivating.

When he opened his eyes in the morning, he discovered that the little golden dragon—which had originally been sitting a bit farther away—had, at some point, curled up around the unicorn egg and snuggled right up next to him, sleeping soundly against his leg.

Of course, it hadn’t forgotten to wrap the egg securely with its tail.

Qiyu wasn’t surprised—the energy contained within the Tree of Life holds a tremendous attraction for any living creature. At eight o’clock in the morning, the sky brightened right on schedule.

The territory applications arrived almost simultaneously.

Dan Xingyu came over, full of energy, carrying breakfast. When he saw Qiyu sitting under the tree, he was surprised: “Didn’t you get any rest last night?” 

Qiyu answered honestly: “The little dragon wouldn’t budge. Since sleeping and cultivating aren’t that different for me anyway, I might as well have cultivated.”

However…

“Dan Xingyu, you haven’t slept as well?”

He looked wide awake—not at all like someone who’d just gotten up. And he’d already made breakfast this early.

Dan Xingyu: “I couldn’t sleep either.”

He wasn’t just unable to sleep.

He’d been bugging every single one of his friends in the small group for Server 88, one by one:

【God Has No Form: Are you asleep yet?】 If no one replied, he’d just move on to the next message:

【God Has No Form:? At this hour, at your age, how could you possibly be asleep?】 

Everyone when they woke up in the morning: ???

【Er Shen, is something wrong?】

【God Has No Form: Yes, great news—but I’m not telling you.】

“……”

Qiyu quickly washed up and took a shower.

He glanced at his Survival Panel and noticed that the temperature hadn’t changed much compared to the end of last month. It seemed like it wouldn’t get any colder.

The two ate breakfast together. Just as he’d predicted, Dan Xingyu actually pulled a comb out of his backpack and offered to comb his hair. Qiyu thought for a moment: “Just tie it back for me. Tie it tight—I don’t want it to get in the way.”

He used to find long hair inconvenient, largely because of his experiences during the apocalypse. When it was hard enough just to feed himself, he simply didn’t have the energy to tend to his hair.

Once he learned the significance of hair to elves, Qiyu actually had no intention of cutting it off. Teacher Aegnor had said he still had many elven relatives—surely they wouldn’t want to see a bald little elf, would they?

“What do you mean, ‘tie it up’?” Dan Xingyu snorted with a laugh. “Don’t underestimate my skills.”

His long fingers deftly worked their way through his hair; after just two or three minutes, Qiyu hadn’t felt a thing.

“All done.”

He’d simply braided a few strands of hair from the side of his ear, combing them all back and securing them at the nape of his neck. The little local elf’s entire face was now clearly visible.

Dan Xingyu stepped forward, took a closer look, and nodded with satisfaction: “My Lord, you look just like a little prince.”

He thought of all the jewelry he’d dug up from the Golden Desert—it would surely look lovely on the little elf. But then he quickly dismissed the idea: Who knows who’d worn those things before?

No, he’d better just craft some himself when he had the time.

Qiyu glanced at his reflection in the mirror and felt a bit pleased: “I look a bit like Teacher Aegnor.”

Dan Xingyu assumed all elves looked pretty much the same; he’d simply modeled his appearance after the elven ranger he’d seen earlier in the resource zone.

“Oh, right.”

Qiyu pulled out the legendary class scroll and asked him, “Do you need this, Dan Xingyu?”

Dan Xingyu glanced at the item details and shook his head: “It’s a great item, but I don’t think I’ll need it.”

His current class is swordsman, and barring any surprises, once he signs a blood pact with the little dragon, he should be able to successfully unlock the “dragon knight” class. You can’t bite off more than you can chew.

“All right, then,” Qiyu said. “My current class is enough for now.”

He opened the Survival panel, intending to ask some of his other friends. The Survival game announcement finally arrived:

【The server-wide permanent event “Maritime Adventure” is now officially live!】

【The first round of the “Maritime Adventure” event will last seven days. Players can enter the mysterious sea area aboard ships rewarded from the “Star Fishing” event.】

【All players who participated in the “Star Fishing” event are eligible to join. Captains and crew members must discuss and decide on specific boarding quotas among themselves.】 

【Please note! The mysterious sea area is unpredictable; the Maritime Adventure carries high risks but offers high rewards! Please board with caution.】

【For more details, please check the announcement on the Survival Panel.】

The two exchanged glances, then each opened the regional chat. Sure enough, the regional chat was already buzzing with activity:

【Liver Emperor: A survival game certified as high-risk, high-reward—it looks like this new event is going to be a real cash cow.】

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: Did you only see the high rewards, boss? This humble cockroach only noticed the “high risk” part.】

As they spoke, every player’s Survival Panel received an announcement email containing detailed instructions for the Maritime Adventure event.

Just as previously mentioned in the Survival Game, the ships initially entering the waters in each region are the reward ships obtained during the last “Star Fishing” event.

All players who participated in the “Star Fishing” event are eligible to apply to be crew members, but the actual number of people boarding the ship cannot exceed the vessel’s capacity limit.

For example, the medium-sized magical fishing vessel in Region 01 can accommodate ten crew members in addition to the permanent captain. The Maritime Adventure event is a region-wide event.

Of the rewards earned in each round of the “Maritime Adventure,” 10% is distributed among the captains and crew members who participated in that round based on their contributions, while the remaining 90% is shared among players across all regions.

During the Maritime Adventure event, the Survival Game will not launch new events; however, the Survival Game does not guarantee the safety of players’ territories.

In other words, when players participate in nautical adventures, there is a chance they will encounter attacks from indigenous peoples or mutated creatures at their refuge—they can either ignore them or use a teleportation scroll to return.

The mysterious sea area is rich in resources, but equally fraught with danger.

Reading through these details one by one, many excited players quickly came back down to earth.

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: I was actually pretty excited at first, but after reading this, it looks like I’ll have to team up with the top players on the leaderboard to take on this challenge.】

【Be A Good Person: Agree. Survival game is all about high risk—are there sea monsters in the ocean too? Plus, 90 percent of the rewards have to be split with players in the region. Now it’s really become a situation where crew members take the risks and get the meat, while everyone else just gets a taste of the broth.】

The announcements received by Server 01 and Server 88 were identical.

After reading it, Dan Xingyu said, “I think I’ll participate. Lord, what about you?”

Qiyu replied without hesitation, “I’ll be there.”

Having been in the Survival Game for so long, he’d come to understand its style. Out of all the events so far, when has the Survival Game ever failed to offer rewards?

Since they’re being so explicit about “high returns” this time, the rewards from the Maritime Adventure event are sure to be substantial.

In the regional channel, some people are still complaining that they have to give up 90% of the profits—the eleven crew members are basically working for free. But that ship was built with small donations from tens of thousands of players across the entire region.

Eleven people split 10 percent, while nearly 70,000 others split the remaining 90 percent. Are the former really losing out?

Of course, all of this is based on the assumption that everyone’s adventure goes smoothly, they acquire plenty of supplies, and they successfully return to port.

But high returns come with high risks—that’s only natural. The two sat together, each discussing matters in their respective regions.

Dan Xingyu occasionally glanced up and, for some reason, got the feeling that the two of them were living together, each working on their own computer in the same room.

He smiled foolishly at this sweet thought.

Server 01 Regional Channel:

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: Everyone, I have a booklet here where you can fill in ten names. The names listed here will be the crew members for this dangerous voyage. Once I add them as crew members, that player will receive a ticket.】

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: The sailing adventure event officially starts at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. Now let’s discuss which ten players will set sail with me.】

Although he was the captain, he was ultimately the one to fill out the list of ten. But Dare Not Open My Eyes didn’t for a moment believe that he truly had sole authority over this event.

He was well aware that he’d secured the captain’s position purely by a stroke of luck—he’d simply been randomly selected by the system when he participated in the event.

In terms of contributions, the top ten players on the tip chart in the “Star Fishing” event have all put in more effort than he has. The regional channel has never been this lively.

Although there have been various events in the past, people mostly just played on their own. This nautical adventure, however, is an unprecedented region-wide event!

Well, saying “region-wide” might not be entirely accurate—after all, there are still over a thousand players who weren’t invited… they didn’t sign up for the event. Those who didn’t sign up aren’t eligible to participate, don’t have crew member status, and didn’t even receive the event announcement email.

The rewards earned from this nautical adventure event have nothing to do with them either.

However, most players remain optimistic, believing this is only temporary and that more events will surely follow—after all, the Survival Game has stated that this is a permanent event.

It’s impossible to keep players from participating indefinitely.

Moreover, if it’s a permanent event, the items, rewards, and other aspects will all require long-term maintenance and updates.

After all, a single medium-sized magical fishing boat can hardly meet the needs of players across the entire region.

Not to mention, not every region even has a medium-sized fishing boat—just look at this: even within the same competition, there are two regions that haven’t even upgraded their shell boats yet.

After a lively and lengthy discussion, players settled on two widely accepted proposals: selecting from the top ranks of the Combat Power Leaderboard and the “Star Fishing” Event Fan Leaderboard as crew members.

If you look closely, you’ll see that most of the usernames on these two lists actually overlap.

【I Love Survival Game:.】

The spectacular special effects successfully quieted the regional channel for a moment.

【I Love Survival Game: I’m in.】

Dare Not Open My Eyes let out a long sigh of relief.

To avoid any appearance of impropriety, he hadn’t even asked about this in the small group chat.

Although, based on what he knew about the gaming pro, it was highly likely he’d participate—but what if that small chance actually happened?

Right now, while many players in the region recognize each other’s usernames, the fact remains that none of them have met in person, and they don’t have much of a relationship.

Forming a team on short notice for an event really requires someone who can command the room and win everyone’s respect. The game’s top player is the stabilizing force of Server 01.

With him around, even if the crew members had any ulterior motives, they wouldn’t be able to stir up much trouble. Sure enough, after Qiyu spoke up, not a single voice of opposition was heard in the server-wide chat:

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: The gaming veteran’s joining? For some reason, I just feel like this run is in the bag.】

【Be A Good Person: I’m all for it!】

【Irritable Brother: I’m in!】

Qiyu’s post also seemed to serve as a signal, prompting many top-ranked players who had been sitting on the sidelines to step forward:

【Reaching for the Moon in the Heavens: Signing up.】

【 Liver Emperor: Signing up.】

【I Am Lily: Signing up.】