The 'Involution King' Second Female Lead Quits [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 62

Chapter 62: The Fourth World [8]

◎ Divine Kin? ◎

The situation below was much as expected; a second mother bear didn’t appear. Instead, two regular brown bears emerged one after the other.

The brown bears were clearly startled to see the two, then charged toward Li Jianwei.

Evidently, the mother bear’s headpiece was useless against regular brown bears.

Of course, it was also possible that the regular brown bears realized that Li Jianwei, wearing the mother’s headpiece, had harmed their mother, so they charged without hesitation.

Li Jianwei, daring and bold, told Shu Heng not to intervene, and with her machete, she began a turn-based battle with the brown bear.

Every time she dodged a bear’s lunge, Li Jianwei would swing her machete, making the bear yelp.

In less than half an hour, Li Jianwei, like a child presenting a treasure, traded the spoils of war to Shu Heng.

“Now we can both have a full set of equipment and backpacks,” Li Jianwei said, very pleased with her accomplishment.

Shu Heng looked like she was about to speak, then stopped, then started again, finally just stroking the large bear head on Li Jianwei’s head forcefully before accepting the traded items.

It had to be said, the bear head really took up a lot of space. It would be a shame to throw it away, but she couldn’t keep wearing it.

With the thought that she might be able to trade it to someone else in the future, the bear head still occupied two storage slots, resting in Shu Heng’s backpack.

After descending about two-thirds of the way down, a cave appeared in their line of sight.

However, the cave entrance was covered by thick vines. It took a long time for Li Jianwei and Shu Heng, working together with their machetes, to cut an opening large enough for one person to pass through.

“Cave mushrooms!” Li Jianwei couldn’t help but whoop in delight, then rushed forward to start picking them. With Shu Heng behind her, Li Jianwei felt completely at ease.

Shu Heng vigilantly watched their surroundings, afraid that some monster might leap out of the darkness.

“Eight in total, do you have any spare slots?” Li Jianwei turned her head to ask.

“Five left,” Shu Heng replied.

“Alright, you hold on to them for now. My intuition tells me there should be more good stuff inside the cave,” Li Jianwei quickly completed the trade, then began to feel her way along the wall.

Visibility inside the cave was very low, and the best way to avoid getting lost was to pick a direction and stick to the wall.

If the cave was a single, enclosed space, they would go in a circle and return to the starting point. If there were two exits, finding the new one would just be a matter of time.

After collecting five more cave mushrooms, Li Jianwei found a treasure chest. Upon opening it, in addition to basic supplies, two blueprints dropped.

Li Jianwei: “Blueprints for a headlamp and a zipline. You should learn them, they feel more tech-oriented.”

After forming their alliance, Li Jianwei and Shu Heng’s division of labor was quite clear. Li Jianwei would learn blueprints for weapons, attacks, and equipment, while Shu Heng would learn tech-side blueprints like batteries and radars.

As for furniture and other blueprints, whoever found them learned them, since they would both use the finished products anyway.

“There doesn’t seem to be anywhere on this island to use a zipline, so it’s probably for the next island,” Shu Heng said, learning the blueprint right away.

Li Jianwei: “Can we make a zipline with our current resources?”

Shu Heng nodded. “Yes, we just need hinges, bolts, and some basic materials. The headlamp can be made too, with just battery fragments and rope. The radar only needs power when it’s in use. I’ve stockpiled a lot of circuit boards and batteries, so I can make two when we get back.”

“Perfect. With headlamps, we won’t have to worry about visibility anymore.” Li Jianwei was very satisfied. Spotting some vines not far away, she picked up her machete and got to work.

Five minutes later, sunlight successfully shone through the new exit.

However, Li Jianwei and Shu Heng weren’t in a hurry to leave. They continued to explore along the edges.

The blueprints from the treasure chest were very useful. Since exploring to the right yielded a chest, perhaps exploring to the left would have a similar reward.

It turned out their guess was correct, but the chest on the left didn’t contain valuable blueprints, only a recipe and a rather stylish pilot’s hat.

After putting the recipe and hat into her backpack, Shu Heng only had two empty slots left, unable to carry many new things.

Li Jianwei, on the other hand, was fine. Only seven of her fifteen slots were filled, all with food, fruit, silver seaweed, and weapons.

Returning to the new exit the way they came, Li Jianwei, still wearing the mother bear headpiece, led the way.

“There’s a house over there, we should go check it out.” Li Jianwei took the lead, but she was stopped at the door by the tightly closed door.

“It looks like we’ll need a key to open it.” Shu Heng examined the lock, then looked inside through the window. “There’s a note and a blueprint on the table. Something very useful is hidden inside.”

Li Jianwei went around to the back of the house, looking at the cliff nearby. “There’s no path forward. This must be the final destination.”

“We haven’t explored the seabed yet. Maybe we’ll find the key there.” Shu Heng followed her over, taking Li Jianwei’s hand and pulling her back slightly.

Standing too close to the cliff was dangerous. If a monster ambushed them, they could easily be pushed off.

“Okay, let’s go back to the cave first and see if there’s another path down.” Li Jianwei squeezed Shu Heng’s hand in return, leading her back the way they came.

After leaving the cave, the two continued downward. On the way, they captured a swarm of bees. Li Jianwei took the honeycomb, and the honey was shared and enjoyed immediately.

“Eating it can slowly increase your stats. I wonder how good the bl00d-replenishing effect is,” Li Jianwei mused.

Both of them were at a healthy 100 health, so they couldn’t test the bl00d-replenishing effect.

When they reached the bottom, the vast, boundless sea once again appeared in their vision.

“This is the location directly opposite our raft,” Shu Heng said, using the sun to determine their position. “If we had the raft circle the island’s perimeter, we could land here.”

“Looks like this is a landing spot too. There’s even a ‘Beware of Bears’ sign.” Li Jianwei flexed her hand and knocked on the metallic warning sign.

“It’s about four in the afternoon now. Looks like there’s no storm today,” Shu Heng said. “Of course, it’s also possible that the storm came while we were in the cave, so we didn’t notice it.”

“Two hours should be enough time for us to get back, right?” Li Jianwei looked at Shu Heng.

Shu Heng understood. Li Jianwei didn’t want to walk all the way back, so she was planning to jump into the sea and swim. “Just about. Our stats are good, and we have enough arrows left to deal with over five pufferfish.”

“Too bad we didn’t bring flippers, otherwise we could be even faster,” Li Jianwei said, pulling out a watermelon and eating it, raising her hunger and hydration to over ninety.

Shu Heng was eating a pineapple. “I wonder if a shark will spawn near us.”

“I think so. We can just collect the shark meat then. Let’s skip the shark head, we don’t have many slots left. We can collect some seaweed on the way back instead,” Li Jianwei stretched her body, then sprinted and plunged into the water with a splash.

Watching the water nearly splash into her face, Shu Heng silently gave her a five out of ten.

A failing score for a dive.

Then Shu Heng copied Li Jianwei’s motion, sprinting into the water. When she surfaced, she saw Li Jianwei, still wearing the mother bear headpiece, holding her thumb up high.

“I’d give your dive a perfect score!”

Shu Heng couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. “Spotted a shark yet?”

“Nope. It’ll probably take some time to spawn. I’ll watch the front, you watch the back, so we don’t get ambushed,” Li Jianwei said.

Shu Heng didn’t say anything, just silently pulled out her weapon and started swimming backward, facing away from Li Jianwei.

After the shark contributed its meat, Li Jianwei and Shu Heng successfully returned to the raft before dark.

Shu Heng started organizing supplies and crafting headlamps and a zipline, while Li Jianwei took on chores like watering, cooking, and taking care of the animals.

After Shu Heng successfully made the headlamps and zipline, Li Jianwei brought her a warm bowl of vegetable soup.

The main ingredients of the soup were beets and potatoes. It wasn’t especially delicious, but it was warm and comforting after eating.

Shu Heng traded a headlamp to her, holding the soup. “The headlamp’s lighting is good. If there are two of us, the person in front can wear it. That way, we can avoid casting shadows.”

Li Jianwei nodded. Unnecessary shadows could affect their judgment. Mistaking a shadow for a monster wasn’t a big deal, but the other way around could be.

After eating their fill, Li Jianwei began crafting leather boots and a backpack, while Shu Heng made two more stacks of stone arrows. Their current stock of metal ingots wasn’t high enough, so metal spears and machetes were more cost-effective than metal arrows.

In the game, having good stats meant having plenty of energy. The two exchanged a look. After reaching a silent agreement, Li Jianwei wiggled into her blanket.

Whether it was from mischievousness or Shu Heng’s tacit approval, Li Jianwei didn’t forget to put the regular brown bear’s headpiece on her head while she was busy.

The effect was quite good. The next day, when Shu Heng woke up, she needed to drink an extra cup of water to bring her hydration back to full.

Bad news: The god seemed particularly agitated today. Thick clouds obscured ninety percent of the sunlight, and visibility outside was very low.

Good news: The wind and waves outside didn’t affect the area around their shelter. With the headlamps on, doing underwater work was no different than on a sunny day.

The first thing to deal with underwater was still the shark. This time, Li Jianwei wasn’t lazy. She dutifully put all the dropped spoils into the raft’s storage box, then put on her headlamp and began exploring the seabed.

The two followed the water pipe they discovered yesterday all the way down. The extremely dense metal ores on the seabed made their eyes light up.

There was no need to chat on the friend channel; a simple glance was enough for Li Jianwei and Shu Heng to finalize their plan.

Once they finished exploring the seabed, they would mine all the ore here, leaving not a single piece behind!

As expected, after diving to a certain depth, they encountered pufferfish. They easily killed them with arrows, getting pufferfish heads and sticky explosives.

While Li Jianwei was willing to wear almost anything on her head, she quietly abandoned the idea of wearing the pufferfish head to save space, remembering it could be used to make fish head soup.

There were definitely more than two pufferfish. Even if she and Shu Heng each wore one, there would still be a third pufferfish head taking up backpack space. Besides, now that both of them had backpacks, there was no need to be so stingy with their fifty storage slots.

The pipe led much deeper than they expected. It wasn’t completely sealed, and there were breaks every so often.

Li Jianwei discovered that staying at a broken section would restore her oxygen bar, and she felt this was a hint that they were on the right track.

Shu Heng thought so too, but as they went deeper, their movements slowed, and their oxygen consumption increased.

After five oxygen refills, Li Jianwei and Shu Heng finally reached the end of the pipe.

They then discovered the pipe wasn’t a pipe, but an oxygen line, connected to an underwater cage made of glass and iron.

Li Jianwei pushed away the sea creatures clinging to the glass, and a mermaid-like creature appeared in her vision.

The ‘mermaid’ was wrapped in countless iron chains and was submerged in a strange green liquid inside the cage, distinct from the seawater. The fact that it wore a breathing mask suggested it wasn’t a true sea creature. It breathed with lungs, not gills.

Li Jianwei and Shu Heng exchanged glances, then quickly began communicating through the chat system.

[Li Jianwei: Should we try to free it? I see a round handwheel over there. Turning it should open this cage-like thing.]

[Shu Heng: We’re not sure if the creature is an enemy or a friend, and we don’t know how strong it is if it’s hostile. Acting rashly is risky. Let’s first make sure there are no other monsters nearby and that we’re in good shape.]

Being cautious at this point wasn’t a bad idea. Li Jianwei didn’t object. Instead, she and Shu Heng swam around the cage twice, finding two pufferfish hiding in the seaweed, and successfully killing them.

After replenishing their oxygen, Li Jianwei swam to the door, gestured to Shu Heng, and then painstakingly began to turn the round handwheel.

One turn, two turns… five turns, six turns…

Li Jianwei turned for a long time. She even had to refill her oxygen once before she could turn the wheel all the way, successfully opening the heavy door.

The seawater quickly mixed with the green liquid inside the cage. As the liquid was diluted, the mermaid, which had been as still as a specimen, began to stir, slowly opening its eyes.

The mermaid’s eyes were a red that was slightly more vivid than the mutated dog’s, but not as brilliant and dazzling as the red Li Jianwei had seen on the second night.

The mermaid blinked. As the green liquid disappeared, its consciousness revived, but it was still entangled in chains.

[Ding—Congratulations to the survivalists for discovering a divine kin—the Mermaid of the Deep Sea. The divine kin is very grateful for the survivalists’ help in restoring her consciousness and has requested that the survivalists cut the chains that bind her.]

The system notification sounded simultaneously in Li Jianwei and Shu Heng’s minds.

[Li Jianwei: A divine kin. If we free her, will we get a lot of rewards?]

[Shu Heng: It seems so, but a divine kin doesn’t necessarily mean she is good. After all, when the god is agitated, it brings us storms at sea.]

[Li Jianwei: I’ll give you my stuff. I’ll go try to cut the chains with my machete. The system should be neutral-to-pro-survivalist, otherwise it wouldn’t remind us every time the weather changes.]

[Shu Heng: It’s too dangerous for you to go alone. We’ll go together. If the divine kin is going to attack us, it’s better to act together than to be defeated one by one.]

Shu Heng’s reasoning left Li Jianwei with no room for debate. So after their oxygen bars were full, the two of them, each with a machete, began to work diligently.

The mermaid was about three times the size of an average human. The chains not only bound her limbs and body, but some of them went straight through her, causing scarlet bl00d to seep out with even the slightest movement.

The machetes were powerful, but the chains were incredibly sturdy. It took attacking the same spot over and over to successfully cut one chain.

Thankfully, they weren’t low on storage space, so they each carried a spare machete.

After using up about three machetes, they finally cut the last chain.

[Congratulations to the survivalists for successfully rescuing the divine kin. The divine kin is extremely happy. You have been rewarded with: BlueprintEngine, BlueprintSteering Wheel, RecipeLuxurious Catfish, RecipeMushroom Omelet… Archives Key*1.]

After the system notification sounded, the mermaid moved her tail and swam toward the deeper parts of the sea, leaving behind only a large metal ring.

Li Jianwei swam over and picked it up, discovering the ring was made of a material very similar to the mutated vulture’s drop, and it also had an inscribed code, but with fewer digits, suggesting it was an earlier creation.

Shu Heng used the blueprints on the spot, while the recipes were, of course, taken back to be posted on the kitchen wall for future cooking reference.

The seabed was unexpectedly not very dangerous. The only aggressive creatures were the pufferfish, which made the whole trip feel a little too smooth for Li Jianwei and Shu Heng.

Of course, this feeling of “smoothness” could only be said by Li Jianwei and Shu Heng. For other survivalists, they might not even have the courage to dive so deep, let alone dodge the various tricky attacks of the pufferfish.

Most of them wouldn’t have the courage to open the handwheel, much less cut through so many chains, one by one.

Most importantly, they might not have found a trustworthy companion. Without a successful alliance, the exploration of the island and the deep sea would have been an extremely difficult and dangerous journey.

Compared to the metal ore, the archives hidden behind the cave were clearly more worth exploring.

Discovering that it wasn’t dark yet, Li Jianwei and Shu Heng, now familiar with the route, went back up from the shelter, crossed the suspension bridge, and entered the cave.

On the way, they found a honeycomb had respawned. Shu Heng’s backpack gained two jars of bees and five honeycombs, while the honey was, of course, consumed by the two as an afternoon snack.

The bees couldn’t be researched, but the honeycomb could. Researching it unlocked the blueprint for a beehive.

However, to produce honey, they needed to plant flowers around the beehive, and they currently lacked the dirt to build the necessary planters.

As for the old shoes they had fished out, they could be used to grow flowers, but their height was not suitable, and they couldn’t arrange them in a circle around the beehive.

With the archives key successfully used, the metal door was pushed open by Li Jianwei. In addition to the blueprints and notes on the table, there was also a treasure chest that looked to be of a very high grade.

“God bless me, let me open some good stuff,” Li Jianwei said, a symbolic prayer, then, before anyone could react, she opened the chest.

[Obtained: BlueprintWater Kettle, BlueprintLarge Item Crate, Metal Ingot20, Circuit Board5, Fragments50, Biofuel5, Clock*1]

“Wow, did God really bless me?” Li Jianwei couldn’t help but exclaim, then traded the items to Shu Heng. “I think this biofuel might be used to power the engine.”

Shu Heng nodded in agreement, then picked up the Blueprint*Metal Detector from the table, as well as a note with another string of numbers.

“If I’m not mistaken, these four numbers will lead us to the next place with human activity,” Shu Heng said.

Li Jianwei took a moment to look at the system alert. “This time we don’t need to rush. We can stockpile more supplies, like making more metal arrows.”

“Should we go mine the ore on the seabed first?” Shu Heng suggested. “The ore density there is very high. We might be able to dig up several stacks.”

“Sounds good to me. We brought our fragment hooks too.” Li Jianwei dusted off nonexistent dirt from her clothes. “Since we’re here, we should take more stuff back with us.”

And so, the dedicated miners, Li-shifu and Shu-shifu, worked until late at night, returning fully loaded.

The raw materials for the engine were mainly metal and circuit boards. With the furnace working diligently, it was quickly built.

However, the raft was quite large and needed three engines to be driven smoothly. The engines could be powered by the biofuel from the treasure chest, or by burning wooden planks.

Considering their limited stock of wooden planks, after they had scoured the seabed for ore, the two set sail that very night, moving in the direction of the wind.

[bh77: The alliance requires a sufficiently close relationship. I haven’t found a way to dissolve the alliance yet.]

[guliqinghe: A friendly reminder, after an alliance, both parties share all resources. If one dies, the other inherits everything.]

[Bailin: Sisters, keep your eyes open. Don’t get scammed! Especially not with male survivalists!]

[Dec: Does anyone know what the notes from the shipwreck island are for? The one I found just says ‘help.’]

[chaotuan: Just stockpile them. Maybe they’ll be useful someday.]

Li Jianwei glanced at the world channel before she went to bed. Since the daily post count resets at six in the morning, the world channel was especially lively in the late hours of the night.

Even if they had nothing to say, survivalists would post some random thoughts, adhering to the principle of “use it or lose it.”

“From what the world channel says, we have the fastest progress. Many people haven’t even found the location of the shack island yet,” Li Jianwei said.

“Moving fast has its pros and cons. While we can get a lot of supplies, we also face the most danger.” Shu Heng tugged at the blanket. “Should we warn the survivalists who haven’t reached the shack island yet?”

Li Jianwei stroked her chin. “A little warning is fine, especially since we’re using real names online.”

Shu Heng didn’t object. After a moment of thought, she posted a message on the world channel.

[Shu Heng: The shipwreck clue points to the shack island. There are mutated vultures and brown bears. It’s recommended to prepare sufficiently before leaving.]

Shu Heng wasn’t a great Samaritan, but she wasn’t opposed to doing good deeds as long as they didn’t harm her interests.

Li Jianwei followed suit, also posting a message on the world channel.

[Li Jianwei: There are a lot of pufferfish on the seabed. They’ll hide in the seaweed, so it’s recommended to bring a light source.]