Chapter 1 The Nautical World Arrived

Shirley Foster opened her eyes, her brows furrowed. The first thing that came into view was a cracked concrete wall. Her throat was burning. She instinctively tried to swallow, but her mouth was completely dry.

She stared blankly for a moment, unable to make sense of what was happening. She clearly remembered two people had teamed up against her, knocked her unconscious, and thrown her off the ship.

The freezing winter seawater had turned her body numb. Then the sea monsters had torn her apart until she died. But now, she was back home.

Shirley thought, 'Is this a hallucination before death?'

"Shirley, time for breakfast. Are you planning to stay in bed all day?" A familiar voice came from outside the door, growing louder as the person approached.

Shirley froze for a second and thought, 'Wait, why do I hear my mom's voice? What's going on? My mom shouldn't have come to the Nautical World yet.'

She quickly sat up. Before she could figure things out, the door opened from the outside.

"Get up. Breakfast is ready. After eating, you gotta find an internship." Claire Foster glanced at Shirley, who was already sitting up. After telling her to come downstairs, Claire turned and left.

The moment Shirley heard those words, everything finally clicked.

She realized she had traveled back to the days before she became a voyager.

The Bluestar she was on now had experienced a catastrophic disaster five years ago. Before that, Bluestar had abundant water resources and was a planet perfectly suited for human survival.

But after the disaster, the planet became a dry wasteland where water was scarce and food was hard to find.

That was why Shirley's throat felt like it was burning. In this era, water was more precious than gold. Before she traveled back, she had already gone half a day without drinking a single drop.

With drought and food shortages spreading across the planet, millions of people died every year.

Today was July 28th, 6032. It was 8:00 AM. In exactly four hours, at noon on July 28th, the Nautical World would suddenly appear.

At that moment, every adult who had reached the age of 18 would have a chance to be chosen as a voyager and enter the Nautical World.

The Nautical World was completely different from Bluestar. It was a world dominated by endless oceans. Land and islands covered less than 5% of the entire planet.

And Shirley was one of those voyagers.

In her previous life, Shirley entered the Nautical World right after finishing a job interview. She still had her resume in her hand when she was chosen and taken inside. This time, she was going to make sure she was fully prepared before entering.

Every voyager was allowed to bring one item with them the first time they entered the Nautical World. That item could be food, water, or a weapon.

But to Shirley, there was only one thing that truly mattered: a lighter. She didn't want to end up as she did in her previous life, struggling to start a fire by rubbing sticks together until her hands were covered in blisters.

Thus, a lighter would be the most useful item for her during the early days in the Nautical World.

There wasn't a windproof lighter at home. After getting herself ready, Shirley quickly went downstairs. After breakfast, she needed to go out and get one.

Breakfast was still the same thick soup as usual. There was no other choice. Even if Shirley didn't feel like eating it, she had to finish it. Otherwise, her mom would definitely give her a lecture.

"Your bottle of water for today is over there." Claire nodded toward the bottle of mineral water on the table.

Water was extremely expensive now. Everyone in their family only got one bottle a day.

"Mom, can you skip work today? I need to talk to you about something." Shirley had no intention of hiding the arrival of the Nautical World from her parents.

Her father worked as a laborer and had already left home before five in the morning. Her mother worked at a shoe factory. Since her pay was based on how many pairs she made, her working hours were relatively flexible.

Thinking about how hard her parents worked every day just to earn enough money for a few bottles of water, Shirley couldn't help but sigh.

"Yeah, go ahead." Claire put down her spoon and looked at Shirley curiously.

Shirley told Claire everything that would happen at noon. After hearing it, Claire looked at Shirley with a doubtful expression, unsure whether to believe her.

Claire asked, "The Nautical World? It will arrive at noon, and 100 people from our country will be chosen as voyagers to enter it? And you... you're one of them?"

Shirley nodded. "Yes, every country will have 100 people chosen."

"Oh my, t-this is impossible." Claire still couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Mom, this is all the money I have right now." Shirley took out the only 300 dollars she had and handed it to Claire.

The Nautical World would livestream the entire journey of every voyager chosen to enter it. However, the livestream was one-way only. The people in Bluestar could watch the voyagers.

In her previous life, Shirley didn't know about the livestream in the beginning. She only found out on the 13th day of survival, after she returned to Bluestar, and her parents told her about it.

At that time, she was a voyager with a B-level talent. Although the Special Division placed great importance on voyagers, their main focus was always on the powerful ones who could survive longer and bring back more resources.

As for Shirley, she hadn't done well in the Nautical World. She often struggled with hunger, and when she could barely survive herself, there was no way she could bring back any valuable resources.

At 11:58 AM, Shirley and Claire were sitting at the dining table in the living room. Claire nervously waited for 12 PM to arrive.

Unlike Claire, Shirley sat calmly there. She had originally weighed only 105 pounds, but with several layers of thick clothing wrapped around her, she looked like she weighed over 200 pounds.

It was summer, yet she was already sweating heavily from wearing so many clothes. However, she acted as if nothing was wrong, quietly waiting for the arrival of the Nautical World.

Since she could only bring one item with her, Shirley decided to wear all the clothes she wanted to take. Technically, those shouldn't count as items she brought. She wasn't sure if it would work, but it was worth trying.

At 12 PM, a voice rang out. "Hello, the Nautical World has arrived."

The moment Claire heard the notification, her eyes widened. She immediately turned to look at Shirley. But Shirley was already gone.

The system's notification continued, "Congratulations, lucky voyager. Welcome to the Nautical World. The Nautical World is more than 100 times larger than Bluestar. It is rich in water resources and supplies, but danger exists everywhere.

"Countless fierce sea monsters lurk within this world. Pick up your weapon and fight for survival. A kind reminder: Never let the night fall into complete darkness, or something terrifying will happen."

Shirley opened her eyes after hearing the system notification. The first thing she saw was an endless ocean stretching as far as she could see. Feeling the layers of clothing restricting her movements, she immediately started taking them off.

Once she had removed all the extra clothes, she stuffed them into her waterproof outdoor jacket and stored the jacket inside her backpack.

It was noon in the Nautical World. The sunlight was harsh, so Shirley put on a set of outdoor quick-dry clothing. Since it covered her arms and legs, she didn't have to worry about getting sunburned.

Just as she finished getting ready, another system notification sounded. "Please draw your talent."

In her previous life, the special talent Shirley obtained was Safe Moment. After activating it, her raft would form a protective barrier that made it immune to all damage for ten minutes.

Although it was only a B-level talent, it had helped her escape danger countless times back then.

*****

While Shirley was drawing her talent, the people on Bluestar who weren't chosen as voyagers were all shocked and confused when they heard the Nautical World's arrival.

The notification rang out. "The Nautical World has arrived. Livestream countdown: 5 minutes."

The countdown began. Everyone who noticed it was completely confused. They had no idea what kind of livestream it was or where they could watch it.

"What the hell is this?"

"What happened?"

"A nautical livestream? What is that?"

Soon, many people discovered that a new app called Nautical Livestream had appeared on their phones. After realizing what was happening, everyone immediately opened the app to check the livestreams.

The Nautical Livestream app displayed 100 different channels, and viewers began switching between them. They left comments in those channels.

[Holy crap, is that the sea? I can't remember how long it's been since I last saw the sea.]

[Oh my goodness... It's real seawater. I'm so jealous of the people who got chosen. I want to go too.]

[You actually think being chosen is a good thing? Look at them. No one brought any supplies with them. And those tiny rafts would probably fall apart after some big waves.]

The moment the Nautical World arrived, it immediately caught the government's attention.

They quickly organized a group of professionals and established a Special Division dedicated to studying the Nautical World and its potential impact on the real world.

The viewers kept discussing.

[Wow, what a pretty girl. I'm staying in this livestream.]

[Man, it's not the time for pretty girls. No one knows what dangers exist in this world. She might look fine now, but she could end up as a corpse in the next moment.]