Fusion! The Nightmare Star!

[Captain Seraphina of the Astrologer Ship uses the rare item—Ship Fusion Card, requesting to fuse with your ship. All the resources in both ship cabins will be combined.]

[Agree / Refuse]

[Agree!]

[Please vote for the new captain. If there is a tie, the fusion will fail, and the fusion card will be returned. Note: The captain has absolute authority, and a new election will only take place after the current captain dies.]

Lucas Hall immediately voted for himself, and of course, Seraphina voted for him as well. This had been agreed upon before the fusion.

The captain must be Lucas Hall!

If Seraphina were the captain, Lucas wouldn't feel safe. Given her nature, it was highly likely she would steer the ship straight into some deep trench to feed it to the sea monsters, just to check if their appetite was big enough...

After the fusion was complete, the ship interface of both their logs was unified, but the primary authority rested with Lucas Hall. He could grant some privileges to Seraphina, such as the rights to distribute resources, expand the ship, steer it, and restrict access to certain rooms.

They also had the opportunity to rename the ship.

The default name was a combination of the two special ships, the Nightmare Astrologer Ship. The name was too long, so Lucas Hall simply deleted two words and renamed it the Nightmare Star.

If there were no surprises, the Nightmare Star should be the first fusion ship among players.

Typically, a fusion requires a certain amount of resources to modify the ship's body, but now, that part of the resource cost was considered part of the reconstruction process.

To reconstruct the Nightmare Star, it required:

700 units of wood

300 units of cloth

100 units of stone

20 units of crystal

10 units of steel

Seeing the steel and stone requirements, Lucas Hall was pleased. This ship should be sturdier.

However, the shortage of wood was still significant, and there was also a slight lack of stone and cloth.

Lucas had hoped Seraphina could provide some resources after the fusion, but to his surprise... her ship's cargo hold was almost empty!

1 unit of wood

2 units of cloth

She was poorer than a beggar. Had she even tried to survive seriously?

At the moment, their ship's cargo hold had:

59 units of wood, but the shortage was 641.

44 units of stone, but the shortage was 56.

274 units of cloth, but the shortage was 26.

Stone was plentiful on the island. There were always plenty of rocks by the shore or nearby beaches.

Cloth would be a matter of fishing for luck, but fortunately, the shortage wasn't severe.

But wood... Lucas wasn't sure if the island's trees would be enough to cut down...

"Seraphina, how much wood have you gathered?" Lucas asked.

Before he woke up, Seraphina had used her flare gun to chop down a lot of trees. The noise must have been huge, but he hadn't noticed at all.

"No, I've gathered a total of 292 units of wood. If we dig up the tree roots, we might get a bit more," she replied.

"Together with the supplies in the cabin, we have 351 units of wood. We're still lacking quite a bit..." Lucas frowned.

They couldn't trade right now, so they had to rely on gathering.

Lucas looked around. Even the nearby trees that were submerged in the water had already been chopped down by Seraphina. The only remaining trees were far out on the horizon, their treetops still visible above the water. They were hundreds of meters away.

To gather wood, he would have to swim out, use the gun to chop them down, and then haul them back.

At least the storm had stopped, and the sea was calm. The water level probably wouldn't rise any further.

"Give me back my gun!" Lucas asked, reclaiming his prized flare gun.

"Go collect some stones on the island and beach. We need 56 more units. Don't bother with the tree roots. Instead, make a fishing rod and try your luck fishing!" Lucas ordered.

"I got it!" Seraphina responded promptly.

Lucas had a shark-skin swimming suit that reduced stamina loss while swimming, so he was the best fit for this task.

But before anything, they needed to fill their stomachs.

Fishing underwater was the most convenient and quickest option. Lucas even had a gun that allowed him to catch fish underwater, so it was effortless.

In just fifteen minutes, he caught two plump grouper fish. However, because they were shot, they were a bit mangled, but they still made do.

Afterward, Lucas began swimming farther out.

Seraphina started gathering stones and fishing.

Because of the buffer zone, there were no monsters in the water, so the entire process was smooth. After swimming a hundred meters, Lucas began to find trees.

Boom!

Sparks and gunshots exploded underwater, scaring away the nearby fish.

With another shot, a thick log, over 30 centimeters in diameter, floated to the surface. This was the largest tree nearby.

Lucas could only carry two logs at a time, and he tried to choose thicker ones since they would provide more wood.

Half an hour later, Lucas returned with two of the thicker logs, which the system identified as 18 units of wood.

Swimming, diving, and hauling the logs back to shore was like a triathlon at a sports meet. One round consumed over 30 stamina.

Each time he returned, Lucas could only manage two trips, after which he had to lie down on the island to recover.

Without energy-restoring coconut juice, his stamina recovery was slow. By the end of the day, he had only managed five trips, collecting a total of 93 units of wood.

Seraphina had managed to collect enough stone, even more than needed, with 74 units of stone gathered.

Gathering stones on the island was the easiest and most relaxing job as long as you could find an island.

As for fishing, Seraphina was incredibly lucky. Perhaps it was because of her beginner protection, but today she caught two bottles of "Farmer's Three Punch," 2L each.

As for the fish, they were both eaten by Lucas and Seraphina.

Additionally, she had gathered 5 units of wood and 8 units of cloth.

At this rate, they would be able to reconstruct the ship in four or five days.

At night, for safety, neither of them risked fishing or chopping wood. They took shelter in the middle of the island, waiting for daylight.

They also arranged for watch shifts: Seraphina took the first half of the night, and Lucas took the second half.

Although there was no bed, Lucas slept soundly.

It was much more comfortable than sleeping on the Nightmare Ship, and he didn't have any nightmares!

In the chat channel, everyone was guessing who the remaining three players in the stormy sea were and why they hadn't emerged yet.

"I think those three are probably in the belly of the giant worm, not fully digested yet!"

"It's fine if they don't come out. That way, the game won't move to the next stage, and we can take the opportunity to upgrade our ships and gather resources!"

"Maybe they discovered a hidden dungeon at sea and are doing some secret mission?"

Everyone was guessing in various ways.

But they couldn't possibly know that Lucas and Seraphina's ship had sunk, and they were busy gathering resources to build a new ship.

As for the other player... Lucas didn't know what they were up to either. They might be fixing their ship as well.

Some of the people who had added Lucas as a friend were checking in to see if he was safe and had come out yet. (Lucas had added them as friends when they sent gifts during the stormy sea.)

Lucas replied to them with a single sentence before bed:

"The ship blew up, I'm building a new one!"

"Damn, big boss is really something. The ship blew up, and he's still fine!"

"Awesome, do you need any leg attachments?"