Others try to survive on an island, I try to survive on a raft?

Chapter 155 Mu Qing's Determination

Sun Daqing was very fortunate that he was dug out by humans, rather than by sea monsters.

Su Jin grabbed the chubby boy by the collar and easily pulled him up.

"Hey Daqing, could you please stop using your birth year underwear for marking your name next time? Why don't you ask Qiaoqiao to make you a special flag?"

Sun Daqing scratched his head and said, "This is conspicuous. Look, the captain recognized it right away."

"That's true." Su Jin waved his hand without saying anything, but simply arranged for Zhou Ping and the others who had just boarded the ship to help collect the spoils of war.

Just as Su Jin had predicted, the crystal crabs came ashore, but this time they weren't coming ashore to hunt; instead, they came ashore to molt.

Each crystal crab molts once it reaches adulthood, and this molting does not occur in the water.

At that time, these sea monsters were like sunbathing on the shore, so Su Jin did not choose to bombard them with cannons, but instead chose to hunt them with harpoons and crossbows.

That's right, this is now hunting, not simply eliminating a threat.

They, humanity, a great intelligent race, have already begun to establish themselves in this world.

The advantage of hunting with harpoons and crossbows is that it allows the meat of marine animals to retain its original flavor as much as possible.

The sea monsters that had been bombarded before had their charred parts removed upon recovery, resulting in a loss of nearly 30% of their meat production.

Harpoon crossbow bolts can achieve nearly 100% production, although their lethality is slightly lower, but they are just enough to deal with these creatures that are molting.

In just over an hour, they harvested more than 70 units of crystal coral crabs.

There might not be much processing involved afterward, since the edible portion of a crab is limited, unlike fish.

Sun Daqing, who was dug out, was not surprised to see the crystal coral crab corpses all over the beach; he now considered it perfectly normal.

His reaction upon seeing the carcasses of these sea monsters was—drooling.

Because Su Jin didn't restrict how much he could eat, he could take as much as he wanted.

Anyway, all investments in this chubby kid are equivalent; he only needs to do as much work as he needs to consume energy, so there won't be any losses.

"Stop looking, get on the boat quickly."

Su Jin patted Sun Daqing on the shoulder, then looked at the mud on his body and added, "Remember to take a shower before you go find something to eat."

After seeing Sun Daqing off, he returned to the ship and watched Zhou Ping and the others drag the corpse of the crystal coral crab and load the firewood that Sun Daqing had chopped that day onto the ship, but he did not go down to do anything.

After all, he's the captain now, and he doesn't need to do these small things himself.

At this moment, Shen Ruying came over and said, "Brother Su, Daqing said he chopped a total of 110 units of firewood today. Now, with these sea monster carcasses, two sheep, and a chicken, there's not enough room on the deck or in the forward hold."

She hesitated for a moment, then said, "It seems like it's been a long time since we've been to the islands. When should we go?"

Su Jin waved his hand and said, "No rush. We'll go after this batch of iron ore is smelted. We don't need iron right now."

As he spoke, he stomped his foot on the deck: "Our goal now is to collect the previous debts. Didn't they say Mu Qing and her group found Gangmu?"

"I reckon they've already cut the losses back, but well—"

He glanced at the scene on the beach and narrowed his eyes: "Whether they can deliver the goods to us alive is another matter."

On a cliff on the southern island, a group of people are warming themselves around a fire.

Mu Qing stood by the fire, her once neatly tied ponytail now disheveled, with a few wet strands sticking to her forehead.

She stared intently at the blazing charcoal fire, her chest heaving violently, as if she were being driven mad by anger.

"Zhao Dezhu, who gave you permission to touch this illegal coal?"

Mu Qing was furious at Zhao Dezhu's actions.

They only exchanged half a basket of coal, which was meant to save them from the cold wave, but these people squandered a third of it all just to dry their clothes.

Zhao Dezhu was squatting casually by the fire, not even raising his head, busy turning over the potatoes around the fire.

"Alright, Sister Mu, don't be so stingy. We all just escaped death, and we're all soaked to the bone. If we don't light some charcoal to warm ourselves up, what if we catch a cold or get a fever? Who's going to work then?"

He wiped the rain off his face, chuckled, and his expression seemed to say, "What can you do to me?"

He pointed to the crowd around him and said, "Besides, since we've boiled water to drink, what's wrong with warming ourselves by the fire? Look how happy everyone is now; aren't you all here enjoying the fire too?"

"Incomprehensible!" Mu Qing snorted coldly, flicked her soaked sleeves, and sat down in the corner.

Looking at the mist-shrouded ocean, her heart had turned to ice.

This team is finished, completely finished.

Staying here means either being eaten by sea monsters or being dragged to death by these short-sighted idiots.

She had to leave, and she had to take Chen Yao with her.

Especially after seeing that Zhao Dezhu's group had significantly stronger physical abilities than women because they had eaten sea monster meat, the underlying sense of human crisis made her feel extremely uneasy.

The reason these men are still obedient is because they haven't gone completely mad with hunger. Once the rules collapse, these support staff will be sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

Chen Yao moved closer to Mu Qing and whispered to comfort her, "Sister Mu, don't pay attention to them. These people have no foresight at all."

Zhao Dezhu heard this, but he didn't care at all. Instead, he dug two or three scalding hot potatoes out of the fire.

"Whoosh—whoosh—"

He blew on it as he took big bites.

In just a short while, he single-handedly consumed the daily rations for four people.

According to the rationing system set by Mu Qing, everyone was only half-starved.

But since half the people died today, the remaining people seem to have found some kind of morbid balance, which is—

With more people dying, there will be more food left over.

"Captain Zhao, if we eat like this—Curry's potatoes probably won't last until the cold wave hits, right?" a thin teammate muttered quietly.

Zhao Dezhu swallowed the potato in his mouth, glanced at him sideways, and said, "What's there to be afraid of! So many people died, the food saved is enough for us to squander for a while, so eat as much as you like!"

Although what he said was the absolute truth, in this gloomy rainy night, it sounded like he was drinking the blood of his comrade.

The team member was silent for a moment, then reached out to grab the potatoes from the fire.

Since everyone is spending lavishly, those who are frugal are complete idiots.

Seeing Mu Qing and the other woman's reaction, Zhao Dezhu chuckled and said, "Don't worry, we still have that piece of steel and wood. When the merchant ship arrives, we can exchange it for all sorts of good things."

"We can use this as leverage to negotiate. Cigarettes, alcohol, meat, and clothes—I refuse to believe that such a large piece of wood can't be exchanged for a pile of coal."

"You won't have that chance," Mu Qing replied coldly.

Zhao Dezhu was about to retort when he noticed that Mu Qing's gaze was fixed on the distant sea.

A faint red light suddenly appeared in the depths of the ocean, which had been shrouded in mist.