The fishing spot was gone. That translates to the disappearance of the quicksand zone!

  But that wasn’t all.

  “Now that I think about it… I didn’t see any of the human tracks made yesterday! And…”

  Yu Zhiye finally figured out what was wrong with those rock formations!

  “My eyes weren’t playing tricks on me... it’s a bit hard to tell, but the arrangement really did change!”

  Now, all the clues clicked in place, and he finally realized what happened!

  “Did the base move overnight? No—more like, did the land get rearranged or shifted somehow?”

  Honestly, that sounded impossible. But that would explain why he can’t find his fishing spot from yesterday!

  But if this were really the case, it meant trouble. Big trouble.

  Because instead of a pure sandbox survival game, now it’s closer to a rogue-like dungeon map! The risks of exploration just spiked!

  Even worse news?

  “I’ll have to scout for a fishing spot every new day. Ugh. What a hassle.”

  Alas, even if it was a hassle, Yu Zhiye had to put his Nara brain to work. Can’t laze around.

  “Guess I’ll start the day off with a stone-gathering session...”

  That back-bending task, coupled with casting his fishing line out over and over, definitely counted as great morning exercise…

  And today, Lady Luck must’ve be smiling because he heard a kerplunk after only an hour of carpet-searching!

  “Found it!”

  Yu Zhiye looked back, tracing back the three-way fork in the sand and estimated the position change.

  “Much further away from the base this time. Measuring from the quicksand’s previous location, it seems like the land shifted it diagonally outwards by about… a tennis court’s distance?”

  That didn’t seem far off, but it was hard to tell if it was really that simple.

  Will this shift be the same every time? Or will it be randomized every night?

  Besides, what about the other rules at play?

  What determines the movement pattern? Chunk size? Tectonic plates?

  Is it the land moving? The store moving? Or both?

  Who knows. At least, Yu Zhiye didn’t bother wasting too much time trying to solve his big mystery right now.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “No time to waste! The temperature is already heating up a little… get fishing before I sweat buckets!”

  The rod got stabbed into the sand and a fisherman started his sand-scooping adventures once more...

  Time flowed like sand in an hourglass…

  The sun soon left behind the distant mountains and jumped to a higher spot in the skies.

  Other explorers started showing up, heading out to explore in a team of six.

  Yu Zhiye got a few strange looks from them, but none of them came to bother him.

  Perhaps it was that they didn’t bother to care, or maybe it had to do with the little sand moat he dug out around himself…

  Of course, this was an open-world game and isolation was a fantasy.

  It wasn’t long before a certain uncle and Miss Highschooler crossed over the moat.

  “Big Brother, guud morning~ Whatcha doing~”

  Seeing the curious baby poke around his fishing pole, Yu Zhiye shooed her away. “I’m fishing. Don’t disturb the fish.”

  Miss Highschooler looked out at the plain land of sand: “???”

  Xiao Shuling is confused.jpg!

  Jack came up to his other side and chuckled. “Fishing, yeah? Catch anything?”

  Yu Zhiye kept a straight face and honestly answered. “Yep. Caught a few big ones.”

  “Yeah?”

  Jack didn’t have much of a reaction, but the curious baby jumped in front of him and almost can’t hold back her excitement.

  “Eh?! Really?! Really?! Big brother, show me! Show me!”

  Yu Zhiye stared at those bright, pure eyes. There was no urge to show off. Only speechless silence.

  “…”

  “...”

  “Bwahahaha!” Jack clapped Yu Zhiye on the shoulder to comfort him. “Steve, there’s no need to be ashamed! Even days without a catch can be happily remembered!”

  Miss Highschooler pouted. “Big brother, liar.”

  “Aight, little missy, you shouldn’t always believe what others says so easily! Bahaha.”

  “Humph.” Xiao Shuling wrinkled her nose and skipped back to the uncle’s side.

  Jack patted her on the head then turned to invite Yu Zhiye. “By the way, the little missy and I are gonna go explore. Want to tag along?”

  Yu Zhiye shrugged him off. “I’m good chilling right here.”

  “Yeah? But young man should exercise more instead of sitting around so much, ain’t that right?”

  Yu Zhiye pointed at the rod. “I’m not sitting around. I’m fishing.”

  “Bwahahaha! If you say so!”

  Jack didn’t look like he cared if it was a lie or not and didn’t push any further. “Aight, we’re off. Catch you later, Steve.”

  Just when the man was bout to walk forward, Yu Zhiye reached out to block him.

  “Huh?” Jack looked over with a grin. “Steve, you changed your mind?”

  “Nope.”

  “Then...”

  Yu Zhiye gestured in front of them. “It’s unsafe to go this way.”

  Jack blinked and reacted quickly, pulling Miss Highschooler by the scruff of her neck to take a few steps back.

  “No road ahead?”

  “Nope, you can go for a swim though.”

  “Eih! Really?”

  Both men stared at the silly girl who quickly behaved herself. “Ehehe...”

  “Aight, thanks for the warning, Steve. We’ll head around then.”

  “Good.” Yu Zhiye waved farewell. “I’ll be right here. Call for me anytime if you get stuck somewhere. But do take care and try not to end up having both of you trapped.”

  “Gotcha.” Jack gave him one last pat then turned to leave. “Let’s go, little missy!”

  “Fufufu! Adventure time! Bai bye, big brother~”

  Miss Highschooler did a quick little wave then skipped after her guardian.

  “Listen up, little missy. I’ll take point. You watch my back and call for help if anything happens.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain Jack Sparrow!”

  “Like I said, my name’s not Jack…”

  Their voices faded out of earshot, leaving Yu Zhiye all alone once more.

  Sigh~ “Who doesn’t want to go on an adventure?”

  But fun and adventure can be for later. Self-promotion came first.

  Once his portable logistics base gets fleshed out, the endless desert will just be waiting for him to conquer!

  “Fish! Go! Shoot for ten points today!”

  Fishing and fishing… the sun soon smiled down from above.

  Mid-day. It was getting real hot again.

  Yu Zhiye debated whether to go chill off a bit inside or stay stationed here just in case his teammate comes calling.

  But before he waited for a naive girl to show up, he instead got a call from another team’s lackey.

  “You—quick! Follow me! Somebody fell into quicksand again!”