At this moment, Jiang Ye was more alert than ever before.
When she looked up, her eyes met those of the monk seal—its eyes were pitch-black, bright, and sharp, filled with a murderous light. Their gazes locked directly.
From what Jiang Ye knew, monk seals went extinct on Blue Star because they were far too gentle by nature. They never resisted, and so were overhunted by humans.
But the monk seal before her, despite its Buddha-like face that resembled the chubby head of a monk, was filled with a vicious aura, almost overflowing and spreading through the entire sea.
Jiang Ye gripped the short, slender handle of her boning knife tightly, her mind working furiously to find a foolproof plan.
If she wanted to get the ocean sunfish, she had to fight the monk seal first.
But with her current abilities, what chance did she really have?
Seals were famous for being excellent swimmers and divers. To make a comparison, a seal in the water was like a miniature underwater speedboat.
Jiang Ye was well aware that even with the boost from her Passive skill "Like a Fish in Water," she couldn’t match this underwater speedboat's agility or speed in the sea.
If she went head-to-head, there was only one outcome: she’d die, ending up like the poor sunfish—torn to pieces by the seal’s jaws.
Jiang Ye focused intently on the monk seal’s movements.
This chubby, brown little baldy of the ocean seemed dissatisfied with the taste of the ocean sunfish. It chewed the fish miserably with puffed cheeks, then stuck out a flipper in distaste and flipped the stunned fish upward.
The ocean sunfish spun as if it were a freshly cooked pancake, tossed up toward the surface.
Jiang Ye looked up. Above her, just past the water’s surface, seabirds circled overhead, making sharp, piercing cries that betrayed their hunger.
She saw a countdown bar appear above the ocean sunfish.
Ten minutes.
In ten minutes, the unbalanced, floating sunfish would be picked clean by the birds.
That meant Jiang Ye only had ten minutes left.
She looked back at the monk seal.
The monk seal stayed put, keeping a wary eye on this never-before-seen creature in front of it. Its little black eyes gleamed with a chilling, murderous intent.
Between the monk seal and Jiang Ye, it was as if the sea was threaded with countless filaments; if any one of them made a move, the threads would shudder, and the whole situation would turn on its head.
Jiang Ye decided to strike first.
Underwater, she braced herself and charged straight at the seal. She smeared her boning knife with sea snake venom. If she could just leave a cut on the seal, maybe she could turn this hopeless battle around.
Jiang Ye shot forward at full speed, slicing through the water as it split to let her pass.
Faced with her direct assault, the monk seal twisted its plump, round body with surprising agility, dodging smartly past her. It swung around behind and, in the shifting waves, lunged at Jiang Ye from her back.
The normally Buddha-faced seal, so gentle and kind, now bared its fangs in a blood-red maw, aiming to bite down on Jiang Ye.
She absolutely could not get bitten.
Dying at sea meant losing experience and gold coins. The coins would sink, never to be retrieved.
She could afford to lose experience, even her life, but never her gold coins.
At that moment, Jiang Ye felt a fire blaze up in her mind. She reached deep within herself for more power. Before her brain had even processed it, her body reacted, dodging the monk seal’s attack in the water.
She barely had time to catch her breath before the seal struck again.
Its thick, powerful tail whipped out like a boulder, smashing against Jiang Ye’s chest. That one blow took away a third of her HP and nearly broke her ribs. Luckily, she’d set the pain mode as low as possible; otherwise, she’d have passed out from the pain right then.
The force of the hit sent Jiang Ye sinking deeper into the sea. The small fish and shrimp around her scattered, unwilling to stay beside her and risk the seal’s wrath.
As she sank, Jiang Ye tried to find humor in her predicament: If only she’d practiced Iron Head Technique less and spent more time on “breaking boulders with her chest.”
That way, when the seal’s tail hit her again, she could counter with a reflect buff and bounce the attack right back.
Close combat and ordinary tactics clearly wouldn’t cut it this time.
Still sinking, Jiang Ye watched as the monk seal barreled toward her like a missile underwater, locked on and attacking without hesitation.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the entrance to a coral cave behind her. With a deft move, she slipped aside, using herself as bait.
Seeing that the seal only had eyes for her, not bothering with anything else, Jiang Ye grit her teeth and led it in a chase through the coral. Thanks to her slim body, she slipped through the coral, but the pursuing seal wasn’t nearly so lucky.
The round-headed, bloodthirsty monk seal got stuck.
It thrashed, furious, straining to get free, but it wouldn’t escape right away.
Jiang Ye could tell that the coral could trap the monk seal for now, but not forever.
She had to find a way to defeat it before that happened.
Should she just whittle it down with her knife, cut by cut?
Jiang Ye tried attacking the monk seal, but its HP barely budged. Headbutting it wasn’t a good plan either. If she charged in too hard and helped it break free, she’d have no one to blame but herself.
After thinking it over, she came up with only one idea.
Jiang Ye pulled up her Manual and clicked on the small snake icon on the screen.
After a burst of dazzling white light, several blue-gray flat-tailed sea snakes appeared at her side. Like the venom they produced, the snake babies could be summoned and stored for use.
The storage limit was nine, with a skill cooldown of thirty minutes.
Jiang Ye simply summoned all nine sea snakes at once.
For a moment the monk seal was stunned, but the next second the attacking, biting sea snakes had it flailing helplessly.
Calm as ever, Jiang Ye popped open a coconut in the water. Hugging the coconut, she drank coconut water without a care, regenerating HP as she watched the sea snakes battle the monk seal.
No shame in ganging up on the strong.
One sea snake alone might not have been a match for the monk seal, but the combined venom of nine sea snakes—
By the time Jiang Ye leisurely finished her coconut water, the monk seal was left with just a sliver of HP, looking utterly drained.
Jiang Ye gave it a gentle tap to finish off its last hit point, successfully taking it down.
At the same time, she also pocketed the clueless, dopey ocean sunfish in her inventory.
Finally, the Island Collector Manual that had been stuck for so long broke through, and her character shot up to Level 11.
[System: Congratulations, player, for completing Quest: Capture the Ocean Sunfish. Reward: 1,000 gold coins.]
[System: Island Prize Wheel unlocked. Come spin for your luck!]
Back on shore, the first thing Jiang Ye did was open the prize wheel. She saw all sorts of grand prizes displayed.
A reward of 10,000 gold coins.
A Deep-sea Behemoth Pet Egg.
It all looked incredibly tempting.
Jiang Ye reached out and spun the wheel. She waited quietly as the panel spun, and when it finally stopped, the pointer landed on a line of text.
[System: Congratulations, player, you have received one Island Double Card (x2) Fragment. Only two more fragments needed to exchange for a Double Card! Keep up the good work, and keep going, player!]
Unwilling to give up, Jiang Ye wanted to spin again, but the system notified her: to use the prize wheel again, she’d need to pay 1,000 gold coins.
Without a change of expression, Jiang Ye closed the wheel.
Damn! How is this any different from a gacha pull?