Time flew by as soon as he started browsing the forum. By the time Nan Liujing finally put down his tablet, it was already past 4:00 PM.

His stamina was still at 39/100—neither increased nor decreased.

“Looks like stamina doesn’t recover over time. Does that mean I can only restore it by eating? No, maybe sleeping works too? I’ll try that tonight.”

Right now, Nan Liujing didn’t dare go to sleep. It was his first day in the game, and many settings were still shrouded in mystery. Who knew when the tide might go out again? He certainly didn’t want to miss anything.

With nothing else to do and not wanting to waste his limited supplies, he could only keep scrolling through his tablet. Nan Liujing’s eyes were getting dizzy from reading, so he decided to tap into the trading section next to it.

After a while, quite a few items had been listed in the trading section. Since no currency had been discovered in the game yet, players were all bartering. 

【Wooden Plank x1, will trade for any food—no shellfish, and don’t ask if it’s less than 200g.】

【1 intact plastic bucket—essential for beachcombing, absolutely leak-proof—in exchange for a wooden plank.】

【Orange juice x1 (nearly spoiled), 440ml inside. I took a sip. Trade for any blueprint—I’m not picky.】

【Simple fishing rod x1, a must-have for anglers. No guarantee you won’t come up empty-handed; recommended to use with bait. Trade for 2 wooden planks.】

【Canvas scraps x3. Trade for stones. Does anyone have stones? Please help.】

【Wooden Single Bed x1, an absolute gem. Custom crafting available for a fee; you must provide your own materials (Wooden Planks x10, Nails x12, Canvas Scraps x8). Additionally, a crafting fee of any materials x10 is required. No haggling—serious buyers only.】

He saw the link for the single bed in the Nan Liujing Attractions section, and my eyes lit up when he read the item description.

【Wooden Single Bed】

【Category: Furniture】

【A simple little bed that restores 20 Stamina per hour when used. Sleeping for a full 8 hours grants the “Full of Energy” effect.】

【Full of Energy: Increases Stamina cap by 50 points, lasts 12 hours.】

“What a great item!” Nan Liujing exclaimed with desire.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough materials, so he could only mark this listing as a favorite for now. He hoped that by the time he gathered the materials, the seller would still be offering it and hadn’t raised the price.

He continued scrolling through the trading area. After all, it was only Day 1 of survival, and players didn’t have much of value yet—mostly materials like wooden planks and canvas scraps, large quantities of seafood, and some items and blueprint-crafted goods obtained from treasure chests.

After giving it some thought, Nan Liujing bought a basic fishing rod from the trading area for 2 wooden planks.

The fishing rod is a resource-gathering tool, and unlike items like axes and pickaxes—which heroes have no use for—it’s perfect for players currently on the island.

Given that, he naturally had to buy it.

He wasn’t even afraid of the air force. Nan Liujing believed that hard work pays off and that man can conquer nature.

In plain terms, the worst-case scenario was just spending time on it—he was idle anyway, and fishing to kill time was better than mindlessly scrolling through his tablet. If he happened to catch a fish, it would be pure profit.

Besides, Nan Liujing also wanted to test whether fishing consumed stamina—and if so, how much.

Before he knew it, it was 6:00 PM. Nan Liujing finished off the remaining half of his whole-wheat bread, restoring 10 points of stamina. His stamina now stood at 49/100, still below 50 and in a state of fatigue, but he wouldn’t easily slip into severe fatigue anymore.

Digging for oysters while fatigued had been worthwhile; Nan Liujing had now grown accustomed to the muscle soreness and the feeling of having no energy for anything. He’d also realized that this fatigue was mostly psychological. As long as he could endure it, this state didn’t really hinder his movements—he could still run and jump.

But severe fatigue was a different story. It was a combination of physical and mental exhaustion. Although he’d only experienced it briefly, he’d genuinely thought he was going to die. Even walking was a struggle; all he wanted to do was lie down.

By now, the sky had grown somewhat dim, and visibility had dropped slightly. Although he could still see, prying open oysters was no longer safe—it was easy to get injured if he couldn’t see clearly. Nan Liujing grabbed his fishing rod, intending to head to the reef area to fish.

He found a rock with a relatively flat top, used a scrap of canvas to cushion his buttocks, and sat upright on it. After shifting a few times to find a comfortable position, he nodded in satisfaction and cast his line.

Bait? No bait. There wasn’t even enough food for people—where was he supposed to find bait? Let whoever wants to get hooked, get hooked.

With one hand holding the fishing rod and the other free, Nan Liujing sat there for five minutes… then pulled out his tablet again. Sigh, browsing forums is so addictive; as soon as he has a spare moment, he just wants to scroll.

He’d originally bought the fishing rod to help him quit browsing forums, but he’d discovered he could do both at the same time.

Nan Liujing reassured himself that browsing forums wasn’t exactly a waste of time. He could gather intel, learn from other players’ valuable experiences, and stay updated on new listings in the trading section to make sure he didn’t miss out on anything good.

In short, he could do both without missing a beat! A win-win!

He was so engrossed in scrolling for half an hour when suddenly, Nan Liujing felt a slight tug on his left hand, which was holding the fishing rod.

“Hm?” Nan Liujing immediately looked up, his eyes sharpening!

“Is this a bite?” He acted without hesitation, placing his tablet in the center, drawing his breath deep into his lower abdomen, steadying his stance, and gripping the fishing rod with both hands as he began to wrestle with whatever was in the sea.

The pull on the line went from light to heavy, eventually becoming so strong it nearly pulled Nan Liujing off the rock. He wrapped his legs around the rock pillar behind him, sitting firmly in place as he patiently worked the rod.

Although he wasn’t an experienced angler, he had enough common sense to know that fish in water often exert strength far beyond their size. Going head-to-head with a fish underwater was a thankless task and highly likely to damage the rod.

The correct approach was to wear the fish down. When the fish strained, he would gently slacken the line; when the fish let its guard down slightly, he would tighten it again—a technique commonly known as “playing the fish.”

After twenty minutes of this stalemate, the creature beneath the surface finally ran out of strength. Nan Liujing gave a sharp jerk on the rod, and a massive fish—as long as an adult’s forearm—burst through the water. A look of delight flashed across Nan Liujing’s face as he reached out and grabbed the fish by the body.

【Grouper】

【Category: Food】

【A fierce, carnivorous fish that lives near reefs—this is truly a “delicacy” of the ocean!】

“Whoa, a catch!”

Nan Liujing carefully avoided the spines on the dorsal fin as he removed the hook. The fish thrashed violently in his hands, its mouth opening and closing in vain. Nan Liujing immediately checked his stamina consumption—it had dropped by 2 points. Not bad.

Once the initial excitement of catching the fish had subsided, Nan Liujing belatedly began to worry: “What am I going to do with you?”

He had no fire, so he couldn’t cook the fish. He did have quite a few dry planks now, but striking flint to make fire was still difficult to pull off; by the time he got a fire going, the fish might already be dead.

“Never mind, I’ll just keep it alive for now.”

Currently, Nan Liujing has two containers: a large plastic basin holding two small fish, three baby octopuses, and a cat’s eye snail, and a small stainless steel basin with a crab. Neither was suitable for a grouper.

The small stainless steel basin is too small to hold it, and the plastic basin is out of the question—grouper are carnivorous, and all the small sea creatures in there are on its menu.

After a moment’s thought, Nan Liujing simply bought a plastic bucket hanging in the trading area using a wooden plank, then, as usual, filled it halfway with seawater and placed the fish inside.

The grouper lay half-dead and curled up in the bucket. Nan Liujing hoped he could find a fire source before it died of natural causes.

Judging by the situation in the trading area, players generally weren’t short on food these days; it was fire sources that were in short supply. As a result, many players couldn’t consume the seafood they gathered themselves and had to list it in the trading area to exchange for other resources or ready-to-eat food.

The most popular items were the whole-wheat bread obtained from treasure chests, followed by raw oysters and sweet shrimp that could be eaten raw, as well as certain types of fish suitable for sashimi.

Oysters are the least valuable because they’re easy to obtain—no need to go into the sea—and there’s a large supply in the trading area, so prices have naturally been driven down. Pre-prepared sashimi, on the other hand, is more valuable than whole live fish. Players generally still think with a modern mindset; the desire for convenience outweighs the desire for more raw fish.

In short, after surveying the trading area, Nan Liujing concluded that there was little profit to be made from selling food right now. 

After stowing the grouper, Nan Liujing returned to his usual spot to fish, continuing until 8:00 PM without catching another single fish. Just then, a flood of posts suddenly appeared on the forum.

【The tide is going out! Everyone, hurry up!】

“What? The tide’s out?” Nan Liujing packed up his fishing rod and ran off.

As he ran, he mused to himself: “The tide goes out twice a day—at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.—with a 12-hour interval in between. So after this low tide, there probably won’t be another one after midnight, which means I can sleep soundly through the night.”

He had originally prepared to stay up all night to fully test the game’s mechanics and was still racking his brain over how to experiment with the hypothesis that sleeping restores stamina. Now, that’s settled—no need to be torn between the two.

Fortunately, his island wasn’t very big—the land had a diameter of only 50 meters—so Nan Liujing reached the beach before he even started sprinting. When he got there, sure enough, the tide had gone out.

By now, the sky had grown completely dark. Free from the light pollution of human civilization, the sky was dotted with stars. Nature was a gifted painter; with a casual stroke, it had painted an incredibly magnificent Milky Way. Under the starlight, the sea surface shimmered with a deep, inky blue—not so dark that one couldn’t see their hand in front of their face.

Nan Liujing spotted several dark shapes on the beach, including the familiar rectangular and plump cylindrical forms. Treasure chests!

Nan Liujing sprinted onto the beach. Wearing rubber rain boots, he didn’t care at all about the soggy sand that squelched with every step—in fact, he hadn’t even noticed it earlier that day when he was wearing sneakers. There was nothing he could do about it; the sight of supplies had him going all out, completely absorbed in the moment.

Nan Liujing had a clear objective: he headed straight for the treasure chests first, stuffing every one within sight into his backpack, then moving on to other nearby supplies. Once he’d cleared out all the supplies, he’d move on to the next spot.

The sandy beach encircled half the island, and Nan Liujing meticulously combed every corner from start to finish, not overlooking a single suspicious shadow.

Every time he bent down to pick something up, his stamina dropped by 1 point. As he continued gathering supplies, Nan Liujing noticed his stamina was nearing 30 again, so he quickly swallowed two raw oysters to replenish it.

Only after confirming that no supplies had been left behind on the beach did he reluctantly make his way back to land. At that point, his stamina was hovering precariously at 30/100.

As for foraging at low tide, Nan Liujing wisely decided against it. It was late at night, and without a light source, foraging in the dark would be far too difficult—it would be a waste of effort.

Returning to the spot he’d designated as his resting place, Nan Liujing casually stamped his feet to shake the sand off his rain boots and plopped down in front of the pile of planks.

Although he had grown accustomed to the exhaustion, he was still tired. The next task was to open the treasure chest, so Nan Liujing decided to treat himself a little and do it while sitting down.

Fortunately, opening chests didn’t require any physical exertion.

Too lazy to go wash his hands, he glanced at his backpack, raised his hand, and flung three wooden crates onto the ground in front of him, followed by an oak barrel.

Compared to earlier in the day, there were two fewer treasure chests, but the abundance of other materials more than made up for it.

Inside the backpack lay 10 wet wooden planks, 8 soaked canvas scraps, 3 palm leaves, 1 broken plastic stool, and 1 torn fishing net.

Among them, the palm leaves were also a basic material, belonging to the same category as the wooden planks and canvas scraps—even their item descriptions were nearly identical. As usual, Nan Liujing took out these soaked materials and laid them on the ground to dry. Since it was nighttime and the sun was gone, the drying time for these materials had doubled.

But that didn’t matter; he wasn’t in a hurry to use them. In any case, they’d be dry by tomorrow morning.

The broken plastic stool, as luck would have it, was missing more than half its seat, rendering it completely useless—undoubtedly scrap. If it had merely been missing a leg or two, Nan Liujing could have made do.

The same went for the torn fishing net. Who knew what had happened to it before it washed up in the ocean? There were several large holes in the mesh, making it unusable. Nan Liujing hadn’t yet mastered the skill of mending fishing nets—a crucial ability for island life—so for now, it would have to sit idle.

All in all, the haul wasn’t too shabby.

Nan Liujing rubbed his nose and looked back at the four treasure chests in front of him, a look of anticipation returning to his face. Happy loot-opening time—here we go again!