The sea creatures lingering near the surface scattered immediately. They moved so fast that there weren't even bubbles left behind in the water.
Before she even had the chance to get her bearings, Catlen felt a strong force to the chest which sent her careening through the water like a torpedo. Salty, fishy liquid poured in through her nose and mouth incessantly.
She choked on it, wanting to cough, only to end up choking on another mouthful of water. A screen of bubbles formed in front of her from the struggle, blocking her eyesight and preventing her from seeing what was in front.
Another high pitched screech filled the water, making Catlen's head feel like it was being compressed. She clamped her hands over her ears and kicked her legs to drift up to the surface of the water.
Catlen coughed out a mouthful of water and spent some time expectorating it before her breathing was able to return to regularity. Thankfully, she was able to swim up.
Her first thought was that the screeching noise came from a whale or something of the like. The sound traveled fast through the water and had the most impact in it.
The way her body reacted to that sound was similar to electrocution. Even though her body didn't hurt, her head did and her limbs recoiled of their own accord. Even recalling it was extremely unpleasant.
Catlen's expression darkened. She had only just woken up in the game and she was already struggling like this. Was she going to die in this virtual world as well?
She looked at her HP bar, which was so low that the number was close to ten. Her gaze was filled with suspicion.
The game had issued her a mission when she was so close to death. It should be that there wasn't a lot of danger, right?
There should be HP packs around somewhere, right?
The game wouldn't set her up... Right?
She was skeptical. Catlen opened up the game interface and opened up the new 'Missions' tab that had appeared underneath the 'Profile' tab. It seemed that more options would appear the further she progressed in the game.
If that was the case, then she should be able to leave the game after finishing it. This realization made Catlen heave a sigh of relief.
The mission to retrieve the Flaming Sea Flower was pretty straightforward. Catlen opened up the details on the flower to have more of a clue.
'Flaming Sea Flowers grow in colonies at the bottom of the Myriad Ocean. Low-level flowers remain as buds until they reach level 1 and start to bloom. Their natural habitat usually lies around the bases of underwater volcanoes, but areas with warm waters can also breed Flaming Sea Flowers, although the chances of this are low.'
As basic as the details about the flower were, it did give Catlen a general idea of where to find them.
The Myriad Ocean was called that because the water was different in different spots. Some spots were algae rich and looked red, other spots were coral rich and looked pink or white. If she wanted to find an underwater volcano, then she would have to find any spot that looked green.
Catlen looked at the game interface and thought for a moment. She had no XP points and her HP was also very low. Not to mention, the game store wasn't anywhere to be seen, and she wasn't sure if it would open at all in the future, so she couldn't make plans to buy things from there.
But she needed a map.
The Myriad Ocean was a very big dome, and she didn't even know where she was. However, there was bound to be some resource point somewhere, right?
Catlen dunked back under the water and began to swim. Even though the character profile said she was of the siren species, she wasn't sure what kind of siren she was. At least, she didn't have gills but she also didn't need to breathe underwater.
Her skin started throbbing during the first few seconds of immersion, then the feeling mellowed out until it disappeared, and even though she wasn't inhaling anymore, her HP bar was slowly going up.
It should be like how jellyfish survived in the water, by absorbing the oxygen through their skin.
Ding! 'Resource point located.'
A faintly shimmering red arrow appeared before her eyes, pointing toward a bed of seaweed ominously waving up from the depths of the ocean.
Originally, she was planning to find a tame sea creature and ask for directions, but this development was also good. Catlen didn't think much of it and followed the arrows toward the seaweed.
Unlike the real world, the seaweed in this dome was a somewhat translucent blue colour, like gelatin. Catlen couldn't help feeling a little disgusted as the strands brushed against her body while she swam through them.
The bed of seaweed was vast, but the red arrow's colour became more intense, which showed that she was going in the right direction.
Unexpectedly, after swimming for about half an hour, she saw something dark below the seaweed, and the arrow pointed toward it. Upon closer inspection, there was a depression in the ocean floor, but it wasn't very deep. Sitting quietly inside were the rotten remains of a shipwreck.
Be it due to water currents or marine life, most of the wood had been stripped away from the body of the ship, leaving only a semi-recognisable deck and cabin. Whatever consisted of the lower floors seemed to have directly been smashed when the ship sunk.
Catlen followed the arrow's direction and swam in through a broken window of the cabin. According to what she was seeing, she was in the captain's quarters.
Broken chairs and a table that had been overturned were thrown across the ground, along with remnants of navigating equipment. The arrow pointed her toward a corner of the room with a strong red incandescence. The shimmers that had been faint before were now swimming around actively like a school of fish.
Moving away the debris that had piled up there, Catlen failed to find anything under the trinkets and broken planks of rotten wood. The arrow still hadn't dissipated, though, spinning on the spot insistently.
She looked around for a while, locating an old warming brick near the flipped desk. It was heavy enough for her purposes, so she directly carried it over to smash through the planks of the flooring..
Sure enough, after a few hits, the wood gave way and revealed a shiny, circular plaque no bigger than her palm. There was a mythical beast engraved on it, incredibly detailed.
She had seen such an emblem before when she was playing the female lead's story arc. It was of the southern royal family of the mainland.
So this was a military ship?
There were no flags or obvious signs on this ship to prove it was a military ship, so she hadn't paid much attention. Also, it had been sitting at the bottom of the ocean for so long, slowly eroding away, that telling the quality of the ship's craftsmanship was also impossible now.
But such an emblem was undoubtedly a military token, and it was in this ship. However, Catlen couldn't understand why the emblem was hidden under the floorboards.
After thinking about it, she still couldn't figure it out, so she decided not to care. After all, the ship had been sitting there for so long, any relevance to her findings must have long become obsolete.
Not one to waste, Catlen pocketed the token and pulled out the chest that was sitting underneath the floorboards. When she tried to open it, she discovered a rolled up leather scroll inside, as well as a bag of small, solid blocks and a compass.
The tags on them appeared as soon as she set eyes on the contents.
'Map Fragment'
'Lvl. 1 Health Ink'
'Centralized Compass'
The compass was very beautiful, made out of clam shells. It opened and closed like a makeup compact, and there was a gold needle in the centre that glowed in the dark. It spun around a few times as soon as she opened it. The needle finally stopped once it pointed in a certain direction.
Catlen tapped on the floating tag to view the information..
'Centralised compasses always point to the capital of their respective domes when not configured. When configured, they will always point to wherever the wielder wants to go.'
Unfortunately, to configure the compass, she needed a complete map, while she only currently had a map fragment. It seemed she would have to get more.
As for the health ink, it was pretty self explanatory. Catlen opened the bag of the hardened ink, which was about the size of a marble in the real world, and ate one without hesitating too much. After all, her HP was pretty low.
As it turned out, level one potions were too strong for her. Her HP bar skyrocketed to full, but before she could be happy, what followed was a crippling stomachache.
The pain made her whole body feel cold, and she regretted it immensely. If she had known it would hurt, she would have read the product description first! Why did she have to be impulsive and make herself suffer?
She groaned in regret, but there was nothing she could do about it. Catlen endured the pain for a long time before it subsided, but when she moved again, she discovered that her finger didn't hurt like it did before.
It was still broken, but the swelling had subsided.
Catlen couldn't help but feel a sense of relief. She instantly forgot about the pain and felt lucky to have stumbled upon such a boon. Level one health ink!
It was exactly what it sounded like, ink from some marine creature, but with healing properties. Even though it was a little gross to eat it just like that after it was sitting in the ocean for so long, Catlen didn't have too much time or will to care so much about it.
Having gained a sense of direction, she wanted to act immediately, and brought her loot with her out of the shipwreck, closer to the surface where visibility was not so limited.
Unfortunately, she had forgotten that it was nighttime. Even without limited visibility, she couldn't do much if she couldn't read the map.
She was surrounded by water on all sides, and there was nowhere for her to stop and rest. She could have just floated in the water and taken a nap, but the idea of being exposed to any sneaky predators so openly made her uncomfortable.
She hadn't come to be fish food, she came because she had to.
Without much choice, Catlen returned to the shipwreck's cabin to lodge for the night.