A long trail of footprints walked along the sand. Their owner finished brushing off the sand from a stone and stored it away.

  In a blink, a green durability bar reached its max and reset back to red. The cobblestone item counter went up by one, hitting eight.

  “Finally. Took forever, but this should be enough…”

  Straightening up, Yu Zhiye dusted the thin salty bits off his arms.

  Feeling the noon sun still glaring down at his back, he couldn’t help but complain.

  “Man, it’s like an oven out here… really unfriendly for walking all over to play rock-hunting...”

  But ya do what ya gotta do.

  Of course, he wasn’t just going around picking up rocks.

  A thought later, a fishing rod appeared in his hand.

  Gazing out at the untouched sand ahead, Yu Zhiye cast his line out...

  Hook, bobber, and all landed in the sand, but…

  “Still no sound? This means it’s land ahead?”

  Yu Zhiye reeled in his line and put his rod away.

  At a glance, he noticed the green durability bar on his fishing rod.

  “Even the fishing rod has a durability… not cool.”

  But this was in line with how the game worked.

  Casting out the line for anything that is not water will cost durability!

  A basic single durability point cost for fishing up anything,

  Reeling in while the bobber is “stuck” to a solid block, like the sand here, will cost 2 durability.

  Hooking up a dropped item using the rod costs 3 durability.

  Finally, reeling in mobs or players will cost 5 durability. The earlier savior quest should’ve costed 10.

  Considering his rod had 384 durability, the cost didn’t sound like a lot, but…

  “This is still bad news because right now, there is no way to repair my rod or get a new one. Once I lose this… I can kiss fishing goodbye.”

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  Not that he could fish in the first place… or can he?

  Yu Zhiye turned back and looked at the messy footprints nearby. Those belonged to the two teams that hung out here earlier.

  His rock collection quest took him all over and now he finally circled back around.

  Yu Zhiye looked to the left. There was only sand like everywhere else, but he knew…

  Quicksand. A danger zone, but also… an opportunity.

  Finding a good, safe spot, Yu Zhiye took out his fishing rod and faced the quicksand zone.

  “Man, it’s absurd just thinking about it, but my only hope lies here! Just give it a try!”

  The line got cast out. Hook, bobber, and all landed—Kerplunk!

  Yu Zhiye’s eyes lit up at that sound. As expected, only here will that water sound effect play!

  “But... will there really be fish here? Ugh… there better be. Otherwise…”

  His cheat will really just be nothing more than a rundown hideout for a long time to come.

  “Heavens above, authors beyond, please bless me with plot armor and lots of fishies...”

  While a newbie fisherman was praying to whatever straws he could grasp in this sea of sand, a pair of observers watched him from afar under the shades of the store.

  “Oi, Minho, what do you think that yellow-monkey is doing?”

  “Beats me. Trying to fish maybe?”

  “Un? Fishing? In that hot desert? He gone crazy?”

  “Who knows. I just know staying out there—that’s just suicide.”

  After saying that, he turned to walk away.

  “Un? Minho, where you going?”

  “To cool down.”

  “Huh? But boss told us watch him!”

  “Che. If you wanna watch, you stay out here. I’m going in.”

  Only an idiot will stay out here in the hot sun.

  Seeing his partner slipping back into the store, Baewoo only hesitated for a second before chasing after him. “Wait for me!”

  A door opens, a door closes.

  Outside, the noon sun continued to bake the desert until all its explorers dwindled out group by group, one by one…

  “Hah...”

  After taking a sip of water, Yu Zhiye screwed the cap back on and stored the cool bottle.

  His focus then went back to the rod he stabbed into the sand, traced the line, and landed back on the bobber sitting there just like himself.

  “Man, it’s been half an hour, and still nothing…”

  Is it really not possible? Maybe try again at night?

  But night might not be much better, and safety will probably also be an issue…

  Yu Zhiye gazed out at the sea of sand beyond. “Do I really have to give up and take the explorer route?”

  Honestly, he got nothing against adventure, but…

  He got no compass, no map, no beacon…

  What if he gets lost out there? Wouldn’t that mean certain doom? Especially considering his measly amount of survival supplies…

  Yu Zhiye glanced at the yellowed durability bar on the bottle of water in his inventory bar.

  “Not even two hours out here under the sun already wasted half a bottle of water, and I was pretty conservative on my sips, too. Not cool.”

  He looked back at the bobber in the quicksand.

  “...Ugh. What idiot came up with the idea that this was possible? Seriously, how can there be fish in quick—huh? Wait! Did it just...”

  Yu Zhiye intently watched the bobber. But it was still.

  “Uh… must have been… the wind? Heh.”

  Just when he lost interest, the still bobber abruptly sunk a little into the sand, as if something was nibbling it from below!

  “Hot damn! It wasn’t my hallucination!”

  Yu Zhiye quickly grabbed his rod and jumped to his feet in excitement!

  “Waited so long! Now, there’s finally something! What to do? What to do? Should I do some jigging? No—what if I scare it away?”

  Yu Zhiye gripped his rod hard, hesitating because he didn’t know what’s the best choice between reality versus game logic.

  The next moment, the bobber went still again.

  Yu Zhiye’s face fell and he sighed in defeat. “It’s gone? Damn. I should’ve—!!!” Ploom!

  The bobber went under!