Survival at Sea: I Became Number One by Growing Mushrooms

She cursed the God of Darkness in her heart, using this as motivation to persevere.

Whenever Xu Jiawei was too tired to run anymore, she would curse the Dark God in her heart to cheer herself up. Whenever she thought about how the Dark God had made her like this, a surge of strength would rise in her heart, and she would want to take revenge, so she would run even faster.

If the Dark God targets me so much, wouldn't giving up be letting him succeed?

With the help of the god-level shoes' skills and Xu Jiawei's desperate running, the system's navigation distance was getting closer and closer, but time was also passing by rapidly. Too much time had been wasted before, and even if she ran as hard as she could now, it would be difficult to reach the destination before the protection ended.

The best-case scenario is to escape before the contamination occurs. Right now, she can only hold on and cannot give up until the final results are in.

The unchanging scenery along the way made Xu Jiawei feel tired and anxious. After running for dozens of hours without any change, her heart sank.

Besides the terrifying environment, the oppressive black fog also made her feel very gloomy.

Is she able to escape?

Moreover, what if she hadn't escaped by the end of the protection period? She hadn't forgotten how terrifying the river was. She had only been underground for less than three hours, and she had already been contaminated, lost her mind, and wanted to give up completely. Xu Jiawei wasn't sure if she could withstand the rest.

Moreover, even if there were an exit, would the God of Darkness allow her to leave so easily?

Perhaps something even harsher awaits her at the exit, and in the end, all her efforts will be in vain, but no matter what, she has to give it a try.

As she got closer to her destination, the system voice sounded again, but this time the news wasn't good.

[Ding, we are currently 20 kilometers from our destination, which will take 2 hours at our current speed.]

[Ding! The 36-hour period of protection from dark energy has ended. Players are advised to take precautions.]

With 20 kilometers to go, the protection time ended, and Xu Jiawei, after nearly three days of non-stop travel, had reached her physical limit and was exhausted, unable to move quickly at all. She was only able to keep up thanks to these amazing shoes.

Her vision blurred intermittently, and she could collapse at any moment. She only managed to hold on until now thanks to the last breath she held in her heart.

Then the system's mechanical voice rang out again, seemingly to cheer Xu Jiawei on.

[Ding! Player, please quicken your pace! Victory is just around the corner, only one step away!]

[Ding! The player has moved forward another two kilometers, and is 12 kilometers away from the destination. Keep going!]

Xu Jiawei was extremely annoyed by the constant ringing of the system, and coupled with the influence of the surrounding river on her mind, she couldn't help but become somewhat furious.

She could only barely control her temper by focusing all her attention on running and completely eliminating all other distractions.

The further she went, the slower her speed became due to the interference of the dark aura. In fact, her speed was even slower than the system's prediction. At this rate, even if she managed to escape, the pollution would be severe. Moreover, given the current time, even if she did manage to get out, it would be nighttime outside.

She will still be polluted by the fog outside, and it remains a dead end.

Her mind, polluted by the black mist, became muddled again. Xu Jiawei couldn't even hear the system's voice clearly, and her legs could only move forward mechanically.

Until a bright light appeared ahead, it seemed to be Xu Jiawei's hallucination. However, Xu Jiawei's mind was completely unable to function at the moment. She just stared blankly at the light outside and mechanically ran towards the light.

With a loud "bang," the scene before her eyes spun rapidly, and she felt a sense of weightlessness as she was thrown out. It wasn't until a sharp pain shot through her back that Xu Jiawei seemed to regain some consciousness, and she immediately looked at the thing that had attacked her.

Suddenly, those menacing vines surrounded her, completely blocking her only escape route, and attacked her once again.

She is completely powerless to fight back now. That attack just now shattered the last breath she was holding on to, and she can't even get up now.

Xu Jiawei shook her muddled mind. The pain had helped her regain some of her rationality, and her brain was functioning normally again. She racked her brains for a solution. Right, her ring could still be opened; there were several bottles of Light Purification Potions inside.

Because the ring automatically recognizes its owner, Xu Jiawei always wore it. Even if she died, the ring would automatically fly back to the place where she was resurrected.

Previously, her mind and judgment had been affected by the black river, so she hadn't thought about this matter. After being purified, she only thought about escaping and completely forgot about it.

Xu Jiawei only remembered this after being hit back by that vine. Although the system wouldn't let her use the items in the ring, she was about to die, so why should she care about those points?

This river is so eerie that it slowed down her thinking considerably. When she fell to the ground and checked the wounds on her hands, she saw the ring on her finger and remembered it.

Xu Jiawei immediately opened the mushroom ring. This time, the system didn't say anything. It was unclear whether it had tacitly agreed or was planning to settle accounts later after Xu Jiawei survived.

In short, she found hope for life again. Xu Jiawei stiffly opened the bottle of Bright Purification Potion, but the aura emanating from it made her feel extremely uncomfortable.

She resisted the urge to throw the potion away; the light emanating from it disgusted her, who was consumed by darkness.

Her last shred of will to survive made her close her eyes and drink the medicine.

The medicine flowed into her mouth, immediately causing a burning pain. As the medicine flowed down her throat into her esophagus and stomach, the burning sensation continued downwards, causing Xu Jiawei to collapse to the ground in pain, clutching her abdomen tightly.

Then, a burning pain spread throughout her body, as if trying to burn her to ashes. Xu Jiawei's body was constantly being destroyed, but her body's regenerative ability allowed her body to continuously rebuild itself until the effects of the drug were completely digested, and Xu Jiawei's mind became much clearer.

Although a bottle of Bright Purification Potion couldn't completely remove the pollution from her body, it did temporarily restore her mobility.

She immediately took out a bottle of stamina potion and a bottle of energy potion from her ring and drank them. Her previously exhausted body came back to life. Fortunately, the vines were only blocking her way and did not attack when they saw that she was not moving.

Now she has to find a way to get out of here despite being blocked by these vines.

But she noticed something strange: why didn't the vines completely block the exit? Instead, they left a path open. Even now, when she tried to escape, they didn't completely block the way.

Why is that? Perhaps this passage is very important to them, or even that they cannot function without it.

Xu Jiawei pondered for a moment, then immediately thought of a possibility: could this be a ventilation shaft? Even mutated creatures must follow basic survival rules.