A huge thanks to all our donors on Kofi for supporting us. InkRaven87, Thankyouforyourbrushs, Katy, and GreenKiTea. We are always, always very grateful for your support. Enjoy the bonus chapters!

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

There were many applicants, but only ten spots available.

He peeked without daring to open his eyes—the top ten on the “Star Fishing” event’s tip chart hadn’t all commented yet. After thinking it over, he posted a message in the regional channel:

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: I’ll give it five minutes.  Players who want to join the sailing adventure, add me as a friend to sign up. Then I’ll start a poll.】

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: Since this is an event for the entire region, the final rewards are closely tied to all players. Let’s all vote together—what do you think?】

【Liver Emperor: OK.】

【Reaching for the Moon in the Heavens: No problem.】

【I Love Survival Game: Alright.】

……

Qiyu opened “Dare Not Open My Eyes”’s friends page and carefully typed two words:

【I Love Survival Game: Signing up.】

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: Got it!】

Qiyu looked at Dan Xingyu: “We’re currently discussing crew member quotas in our region. What about you guys—have you decided yet?”

Dan Xingyu: “We’re still discussing it—there are just too few spots.”

However, even though they were still discussing it, both of them knew deep down that they were highly likely to secure a spot.

Dan Xingyu said, “I wonder what the mysterious sea area is like. Will players from different regions be able to run into each other?” 

Qiyu thought about it seriously, then shook his head: “I don’t know.”

Qiyu opened “01 Survival Squad”:

【I Love Survival Game: Legendary class scroll. Does anyone here need this?】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me:!Legendary Class Scroll! An item of this quality—are you actually willing to part with it, Boss?】

【I Love Survival Game: I don’t need it.】

Since he didn’t need it, no matter how valuable it was, it would just take up space in his backpack.

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: It’s way too valuable—I can’t afford it, haha.】

An item of this caliber can’t be measured in gold coins—it’s best to trade it for something of equal value.

Others chimed in one after another:

【Civil Engineering Brother: It’s definitely valuable—money alone isn’t enough to buy it,  and I don’t have any goods of equal value to offer either.】

【Tranquility Yields Transcendence: I don’t need it right now.】

The main issue with this scroll is that all the players in the group have already unlocked their classes—and the classes they’ve unlocked are the ones that best suit their natural talents.

They don’t have a strong need to unlock a second class, and this class scroll—with its “Legendary” prefix—is simply too expensive.

Although the players in the group are all near the top of the leaderboards, Legendary-quality items can generally only be obtained from Golden Chests.

Moreover, the probability of a Golden Chest yielding a golden glow isn’t 100%… When you’re on a losing streak, there’s an extremely low chance that a Golden Chest will yield two purple glows.

Dare Not Open My Eyes didn’t come online to speak, and everyone understood—the captain was probably very busy right now.

【I Love Survival Game: You’re my friends, so I can give these to you. Or, you can pay me back later with items of roughly equal value.】

He meant what he said, but none of the people in the group were the type to take advantage of others. Plus, they all knew he was young, so they were even more reluctant to let him come out on the short end.

Since no one wanted it, Qiyu put the scroll away.

Then, he happily shared another piece of news with my friends:

【I Love Survival Game: I have a boyfriend now.】 A few people in the group: ???

The five-minute sign-up period ended, and while the number of participants was being tallied, Dare Not Open My Eyes popped into the group chat casually: “……”

【Dare Not Open My Eyes:？？？】

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: Wait, I was just away for a little while—what happened?】 

Everyone else: “……”

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: Actually, we don’t know either. The gaming pro didn’t set it up at all—what you and we saw was the very first line about this.】

Qiyu didn’t understand why they were reacting so strongly.

【I Love Survival Game: Nothing happened—I just wanted to share some good news with you guys.】

He was also planning to go see Aegnor later, after he finished up some work related to the nautical adventure. He wanted to tell him he had a boyfriend and show him his new look from today.

The person involved was so calm that it made them—this group of older, unsophisticated folks—look like they were overreacting.

【Tranquility Yields Transcendence: Well, congratulations! Bless you both.】

The others had originally thought that Teacher Tranquility Yields Transcendence, being an elderly person, might have a hard time accepting it, but they never expected him to be so open-minded. But then again, considering he’d gone through something as outlandish as being dragged into a survival game, what’s so strange about the top-ranked player in the region dating a guy?

The top player is only 19—it’s perfectly normal for a teenager to be in a relationship.

Plus, he has good taste—they’re around the same age, both top of the regional leaderboard, and he’s handsome too. Come to think of it, there’s really nothing wrong with this at all.

There really isn’t anything to make a fuss about, huh.

Wait a minute—it seems everyone’s just assuming the gaming legend’s boyfriend is the top player from Server 88. Civil Engineering Brother cautiously confirmed:

【Civil Engineering Brother: Is it that “God Has No Form”?】

【I Love Survival Game: Yep!】

【Civil Engineering Brother: Congratulations! It’s got to be the young ones—I’m way older than you, and I’m still a single guy.】 Need A Little Money To Save Me sent a direct message to Qiyu:

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: Single guy +1. 99 to both of you, big shots.】

Without Dare Not Open My Eyes, he quickly managed to offer a quick blessing before going back to what he was doing. Qiyu turned to look at his boyfriend beside him and dropped a bombshell:

“I told my friends in District 01 that we’re dating, and they just blessed us with their best wishes.”

Dan Xingyu was stunned speechless.

After a moment of stunned silence, his face lit up with delight: “Wait, you told all your friends?” “Then can I brag… um, I mean, can I tell other people too?” 

Qiyu looked puzzled: “Of course—is there any reason you shouldn’t?”

“Not at all!” Dan Xingyu chuckled. “I was just worried you might be the type who minds people knowing about your personal life.”

Qiyu corrected him: “It’s just that I’m too lazy to say anything.”

There’s no need to tell people he doesn’t know well.

He’d just been sharing his joy with his friends.

Dan Xingyu just kept grinning to himself; aside from nodding in agreement, he didn’t seem capable of any other reaction.

Region 01 Channel.

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: (Starting a poll).】

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: Everyone, I’ve started a poll. Each person can cast ten votes, and the poll will be open for half an hour. Please join in.】 Qiyu clicked through to the poll page.

Not surprisingly, his name appeared at the top of the list. It had only just begun, and he already had several hundred votes—far more than the runner-up.

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: I just voted based on the Combat Power Rankings and the Fan Rankings.】

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: But why didn’t Big Shot Jiangnan sign up? I even looked him up.】

Traveler in the Misty Rain of Jiangnan had always been near the top of the rankings and was usually quite active, so many people were surprised that he hadn’t signed up.

【Traveler in the Misty Rain of Jiangnan: My sister and I play the same class, so one of us going is enough. Plus, it’s more reassuring to have someone here at the shelter keeping watch.】

Survival Game specifically mentioned that during the Maritime Adventure event, territories may also come under attack. Many players who didn’t sign up were concerned about this very issue.

【Liver Emperor: It’s really nice to see the two of you supporting each other.】

Given the strength and reputation of this brother-sister duo in Server 01, Moon would certainly have no trouble securing a spot. That way, they’d get the crew member reward from the adventure, and Jiangnan would be there to guard the territory.

The half-hour voting period passed quickly.

Finally, here is the crew list for Region 01: I Love Survival Game, Reaching for the Moon in the Heavens, Liver Emperor, Tranquility Yields Transcendence, I Am Lily, The More I Involution The Bitterer My Life Becomes, I Need A Little Money To Save Me, Azure Sea Rises, Disinfectant Wipes, and The Ocean Is Full of Water.

Qiyu noticed that there were several names on this list that he had virtually no recollection of.

It wasn’t that he’d never seen them before—in fact, all of the above usernames ranked high on the region’s leaderboard. It was just that he had almost never seen any of them post anything in the region chat.

Aside from a few names he frequently saw in the regional channel, Qiyu thought of the names that he didn’t recall ever seeing speak in the regional channel, such as “Disinfectant Wipes,” “The Ocean Is Full of Water,” and “Azure Sea Rises”.

Of course, it’s possible that they simply hadn’t appeared while he was watching the regional channel. After all, he wasn’t the kind of player who lived on the regional channel like “Cockroach.”

After confirming the roster, “Dare Not Open My Eyes” let out a long sigh of relief.

Having finally completed a major task, he hurriedly wrote the names down on the roster. Soon, a blue ship ticket appeared in Qiyu’s backpack.

It was a deep blue rectangular card with a few lines of text printed on it:

【Year 6882 of the Glorious Era, March 2nd: The Star Forest sets sail for the first time.】

Qiyu’s eyes widened.

This is the first time the survival game has provided players with a specific calendar date.

He opened the regional chat channel, and sure enough, a player had already posted a ship ticket:

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: “Year 6882 of the Glorious Era”—does that mean this world’s history spans over six thousand years?】

【Liver Emperor: I’m afraid it’s more than that. On my last exploration trip, I looked for some books on history. Most of the Survival Game world is now ruled by humans, but that wasn’t the case a long time ago.】

【Liver Emperor: I suspect that this “Glorious Era” likely refers to the time when several human empires were established and became the rulers of the continent.】

【Blue Sea Rising: Gods exist in this world; I’ve even obtained related items. According to records, the rulers of the previous era were likely the elves.】

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: @Blue Sea Rising, holy cow! This is the first time I’ve seen you post!】

This player, Azure Sea Rises, has consistently ranked in the top ten on the combat power leaderboard ever since first appearing on the regional leaderboard, yet no one has ever seen him speak up—he’s even more mysterious than the game’s top players.

The mysterious figure appeared, said just one sentence, and then went silent again, without replying to Cockroach. 

Cockroach didn’t mind:

【Cockroach Taste Is So Weird: Come to think of it, is the ship in our region really called the Star Forest? That’s pretty convenient.】 Qiyu really liked that name because he loved the Star Forest.

A magical ship funded by tips from players across the entire region—naming it after the region itself was the perfect choice. Once the crew members were finalized, everyone began preparing for the voyage.

Dare Not Open My Eyes created a sailing group and added all ten people to it.

Once they became crew members, everyone automatically received a lot of information, allowing them to prepare specifically for the journey.

First and foremost, a teleportation scroll was essential—it ensured they’d have a last-resort means of survival should they encounter extreme danger.

However, it’s best not to use it, because once a crew member uses a teleportation scroll to return to their territory, they’re considered to have abandoned the current adventure and automatically lose their crew status. Not only will they forfeit their share of the rewards, but they’ll also be barred from joining a crew again for ten adventure cycles.

Even so, a teleportation scroll is still a must-have—losing eligibility for the event is certainly better than losing your life. Additionally, you’ll need some sailing-related items.

For example, the Traveler in the Misty Rain of Jiangnan didn’t sign up, but since he was in the top ten on the tip leaderboard from a previous event and received the “VIP Fishing Gift Pack,” he gave it all to Moon.

The captain and ten crew members can share 10 percent of the rewards from the sailing adventure event, but this reward isn’t divided equally—it’s allocated based on individual contributions.

This prevents crew members from slacking off and taking advantage of the system.

This rule was also the direct reason why many players who had been harboring ulterior motives backed down.

After all, when they first heard that crew members’ shares were so high, many were tempted: “I’ve tipped the captain too—why should only the top-ranked players get to participate? Why not just hold a fair lottery? What if I’m as lucky as ‘Dare Not Open My Eyes’ and win, letting me ride the coattails of the big shots for an easy win?”

But once the detailed rules were released, it became clear that rewards—whether for crew members or regional players—are distributed based on contribution points. Alright, so you have to put in the effort yourself; you can’t just be a freeloader, and you still have to take on the risks of going to sea.

No one had anything more to say.