Free Web NovelChapter 49: Chapter 49: Isle 1004, Going Ashore
Holding an Island Entry Order in her hand, she finally tossed the emerald green one into her storage and then clicked to use the ordinary white one.
[You have activated an Ordinary Island Entry Order. You will arrive at the island in 2 hours. Wishing you a pleasant landing!]
Faye Yardley heard the prompt and let out a dry chuckle.
It was 4:30 AM. In two hours, it would only be 6:30. For some reason, she felt a mix of excitement and nerves.
She called Gavin Donovan.
"Am I disturbing your rest?"
"Not at all, Boss. I got up half an hour ago to do my morning exercises." fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
"Can you guide me through an hour of exercise now?"
"No problem. In fact, why don’t you start getting up at four with me every morning for exercises? Working out in both the morning and evening will be more effective."
Faye Yardley inwardly wept for the hour and a half of sleep she would be losing, but she immediately replied, "Okay, thank you."
"Alright, now, follow me for the first movement. Settle into a firm horse stance, interlace your fingers, and raise your hands over your head..."
After an hour of intense training, Faye Yardley felt much calmer. Her fear of the unknown awaiting her on the island had diminished significantly.
After a shower, she tied her hair up in a bun, changed into a sweatsuit, and pulled a down jacket on over it. Stepping outside, she could clearly feel the raft speeding toward the sun.
By now, chunks of ice had even begun to appear, floating on the surface of the sea.
The increase in her personal Attributes had also boosted her resistance to the cold, yet she was still afraid of it. Perhaps, deep down, she still saw herself as an ordinary person.
This kind of change in perception couldn’t happen overnight. Perhaps only by experiencing more would she be able to truly transform.
[You are about to dock at Isle 1004. Please prepare for landing.]
A thick, white fog suddenly appeared before her, completely obscuring her surroundings.
6:30
The fog before her dispersed, revealing that the raft had stopped at a dilapidated dock. Chunks of ice still floated on the sea; it seemed the overall environment hadn’t changed.
After confirming the raft wouldn’t be carried away by the tide, Faye Yardley felt a sense of relief and leaped from the raft onto the dock.
[You have landed on the island. The Ordinary Island Entry Order allows for an 8-hour stay. The countdown begins now. Friendly Reminder: Those who fail to return to their raft and leave before their time is up will be automatically and randomly ejected from the island. The sea is very dangerous. Without a raft, you will become lost.]
’So an ordinary one only grants eight hours on the island. I’ll have to move faster.’
She was relieved to see that there wasn’t another soul in sight.
Aside from the sound of the wind and the waves, everything was quiet. Not far from the dock was a small, deserted village, its dozen or so wooden houses in a state of disrepair.
Farther on were long-abandoned farmlands and a dense forest.
There were no soft, sandy beaches here, either, but there were some tidal flats.
It was high tide now, so she couldn’t tell if there were any mudskippers below.
Faye Yardley tightened her grip on her dagger. The countdown urged her to quicken her pace as she explored Isle 1004.
Her walk to the deserted fishing village was uneventful. Even though it was clearly abandoned, with many of the houses collapsed and ruined, she was surprised to see dried fish hanging in some of the homes.
Faye Yardley poked the thoroughly dried fish with her dagger. A system prompt appeared: [Take these dried fish with you. Your pet kitten might like them.]
???
Faye Yardley was baffled. ’Since when do I have a cat?’
But if the system was suggesting it, the dried fish had to be safe. She promptly stored them in her backpack.
She found two Wooden Houses that were still in decent shape. Pushing open the doors, Faye Yardley, operating under the principle of never passing up an opportunity, stashed away all the wooden tables, benches, and cabinets that were still intact.
As for the bowls and dishes... well, she was a selective germaphobe.
As she was about to leave the small village to check out the farmland and forest in the distance, she spotted an oil-paper packet in the corner of a collapsed wooden house.
She climbed over a collapsed wooden wall and used her dagger to retrieve the packet. Prying it open, she was surprised to find a pile of copper coins inside.
[Copper coins found. Deposit to personal account?]
"Yes."
Her personal account balance then changed to 1 gold, 0 silver, 245 copper.
’Tsk, not a bad haul at all. Heh heh.’
After checking that there were no more such lucky finds nearby, she ran towards the farmland.
The farmland was overgrown with weeds, but among them were quite a few vegetables. Faye Yardley’s sharp eyes even spotted watermelons and muskmelons.
’What was there to even think about?’ She leaped down from the dirt path, swapping the dagger in her hand for a shovel.
As she shoveled dirt, harvested vegetables, and tossed away weeds, she had a thought. ’It must be the ancient farming genes of Veridia in my blood. Why else would I feel so drawn to this field? It’s weirdly satisfying.’
But her thoughts didn’t slow her down; her hands never stopped moving.
She couldn’t even contact her friends here, let alone check the public chat.
So she just focused on her work: shoveling dirt, digging up vegetables, and tossing weeds.
Swinging the shovel with both hands, she worked with incredible speed. In less than two hours, she had finished clearing the entire area. Ignoring the piles of weeds she’d left at the edges, the fields themselves were now remarkably neat and tidy.
Looking at it, she felt a strange urge to take out some seeds and plant the whole field.
’Don’t tell me I’m some kind of chosen one of farming?!’
Putting away the shovel, Faye Yardley sat on the edge of the field, pulled out a muskmelon, and began to eat it. CRUNCH, CRUNCH.
’My haul from this island is still a bit meager. I have to go into the forest. Nearly three hours have passed, and I have five left. That should be enough, right?’
After finishing the muskmelon, she got to her feet, drawing her dagger as she did, and ran toward the forest.
A completely silent forest is an eerie thing. The sun was up, but its light was filtered through the canopy, creating dappled patches on the ground. In some places, the foliage was so dense that no light could get through at all.
The ground was covered in a thick layer of dead branches and rotting leaves.
With every step, her feet sank into the litter, accompanied by the crunch of dry leaves.
The feeling of being inside the forest was completely different from just looking at it from the outside.
Even though the temperature on the island wasn’t particularly low, Faye Yardley still felt a chill run down her spine.
’Could a forest really be devoid of a single animal or insect?’ But here, there were none.
A sense of unseen dread began to envelop her.
She could see all sorts of mushrooms growing here. ’Since I haven’t found anything else,’ Faye Yardley thought, ’it would be a waste not to pick them.’
There were also wood ear mushrooms, star jelly, and fiddlehead ferns in abundance.
Following her work in the fields, Faye Yardley began to forage, venturing deeper and deeper into the woods without realizing it.
Then, the view before her suddenly opened up.
"Wow, what a beautiful lake."
Before her was a serene, deep blue lake, about the size of three soccer fields.
It reflected the blue sky, white clouds, and green trees.
[You have discovered the Lake of Talents.]
"Lake of Talents?" Faye Yardley looked at the beautiful lake before her, a little confused. "Does entering it unlock a Talent?"
