He hoped his sushi master skill would come very much into play. 

However, sushi masters usually cut the dead or caught fish, not fish on their own in the sea. 

This particular one from whom Neil inherited his skills seemed to be the kind who perfected his skills on the pier, at a safe distance of hundred meters away from shore. 

He is now hungry enough to even try poking the shark in the water!

Neil has always had a cautious mentality. So much so, he was ridiculed as the old man among his friends. 

Only he knew the reason behind his obsession with safety. 

It’s simple. 

There’s no one to look after him if he gets into an accident. 

It’s as simple as that. 

His parents died in a car accident. His Uncle is perfunctory ast best, and negligent at worst. Neil did not want to blame his uncle for that.

They just did not have a common point. His father is a chemistry professor at Rochesters, while his mother is a biology professor. 

Both their insurance pay outs were hefty, but Neil chose to pay off the mortgage with the money, owning the house. 

He, and his uncle have come to an understanding. 

Neil stays on his own in the house. 

His uncle does a weekly visit. 

Officially, he is under his uncle’s care. 

Sure, his uncle will get him to hospital, will do a school visit, etc… but not if Neil kept getting into trouble by not following rules. 

Although, that very thought showed the disparity between their thoughts. 

Neil’s uncle thought it’s strange that a high school transfer kid does not get into any trouble at all. 

Oh.. 

That fin is nearby now. 

Neil followed the shark as it came for the raft. 

It’s biting at the end. 

Neil took a deep breath and readied his spear. 

He poked his spear in as fast as lightning. 

It slipped right off the shark’s skin. 

Neil almost fell into the water due to overbalancing. 

He braced himself at the last minute, and plopped down on the raft. 

‘Damn’ 

He swore, looking at the shark swimming away. 

He desperately wanted to call out ‘Come back, breakfast! ‘ but the shark has truly gone away. 

Neil, in desperation, brought out his fishing line, hooked one of the small fishes and threw the line. 

He was really not good at this throwing line thing. 

On the third try, the sinker fell where the shark was. 

He braised the fishing rod on the raft, to make sure something like his ‘breakfast’ dragging him to the sea to make a lunch out of him doesn’t happen. 

The tug of the shark is so strong, the raft was dragged as a whole that way. It only stayed put because Neil put an anchor on the raft. 

The tug of war lasted for half an hour, with many touch and go moments. 

After all, while Neil had the excessive strength of a rower on the sea, he is still recovering from a night of exploration, and lack of sleep. 

Had the shark been two inches bigger, he would have truly fought a battle of life and death. 

Thankfully, it isn’t. 

After half an hour of tug of war that made him feel like his arms were about to fall off, he reeled the shark almost to the edge of the raft. 

The final struggle almost pulled Neil into the water, but he held on by the skin of his teeth. 

He finally had come to the vaunted otherworld. He doesn’t want to die. 

He will live as long as the immortal emperor in the novels he likes. 

Roam all over the world, gather all kinds of treasures, find a mermaid girlfriend, beast man sidekick, influence the world all over… 

This is but the beginning. 

As he looked at the shark corpse, he could see exactly where his knife needed to go. 

First, he needs to remove the fins. 

Then, he needs to cut through the central spine of the fish, two inches deep to the center. 

After that, he should cut exactly under the fin, till he reaches the cut he made in the center of the fish. 

From here on out, he only needs to fillet the fish. 

The knife moved with great precision in his hands, filleting the fish away to exact proportions. 

Rather than throwing away the entrails and other mess, Neil just added them to the fertilizer tank, to be covered with the soil mix. 

This compost will be later used in the planters. 

For now, he has plenty of loose clay, but none of the actual pottery making type clay. 

If only it were a true video game world, this clay would be available in perfect clump shaped form at the bottom of the sea. 

Unfortunately, it’s not. 

It’s helpful enough to be like a game world, yet, at the same time, not perfectly computable like a game world. 

His HP could never drop to zero, because by the time he gets to ten, his entire body is so tired, he would not even be able to twitch his little finger. 

It’s almost like a measurement of real world data rather than their strength following the stats.. 

Wait..!

Did he stumble on one of the maxims of this world here? 

If he puts all happenings into perspective like this, everything makes perfect sense. 

What a person is in essence has not changed, while the heart gem just allows one to access and view measured data about their own self. 

Skills indeed change stats, but they act on the whole of the body, as an external factor. 

Neil rejoiced on finding this simple piece of wisdom. 

This way, he can plan more thoroughly. 

This means, he would only ever be able to find proper vegetation and clay on an island. 

Since trees existed, they must too. 

[ Research completed. ]

[ Waterproof fabric can now be manufactured at work stations.] 

[ 10 bunches of pressed reed seaweed, 1 ladle of brown glue is needed per metre of fabric ] 

Neil was happy seeing this one. 

With this, he could have sails. 

At least in the game, the moving speed increases greatly upon making the sails. 

Only, all of the reed seaweed he has collected seemed to have vanished somehow. 

[ Research completed. ] 

[ Oil can now be extracted at work stations. ] 

[ 100 bushels of reed seaweed is needed to extract 1 litre of oil ] 

[ Though reed oil is edible, it’s a strong diuretic. Do not eat if you needn’t.] 

Oh.

There goes his fish and chips. 

Fine. 

He will find some other oil. 

Since oil is impossible, Neil just used his knife to make skewers, and grilled the shark meat on the fire. 

A cooking station could be manufactured, however, Neil knew himself. Despite being an orphan, and cooking for himself, he is not good at cooking. 

Sure, he can make a sandwich, he can fry the prepared french fries and roast a chicken, but that’s where it ends. 

Even roasting the chicken is a bit sketchy, given he uses the prepared seasoning. 

So, all he could do now is roast on fire, steam in the water. No need to go the lengths of building a cooking station wasting a whole lot of space on his raft. 

Instead, he could just pray to those invisible higher administration personnel to direct his raft towards someone who can cook. 

He checked his inventory after he finished the meal. 

The collection stations are full, and the mana stone in the middle is almost losing it’s shine. 

Neil touched the stone in the middle of the auto collect station. 

[ Use your mana to replenish the mana stone? ] (yes)(no)

Neil chose yes. 

He did not even know how much mana he had. 

[ The replenished mana allows the auto collect feature to run for 1 more hour.] 

[ find the alternative before mana runs out or else…! ] 

[ You will be 10000th person to get crushed by the trash ] 

[ Please pay attention to the exclamation mark!  It’s never used lightly.] 

While a tab did exist in the console dedicated to the profile, it can not be opened. 

At this time, something entirely unexpected happened. 

A redlight started flashing at the light house. 

While in sea, a light house may be a beacon for other ships, here, it just marks the beginning and ending of a circle. 

An extremely loud screeching sound started along with the red flashing lights. 

Both of them screamed danger with all of their being, yet, Neil went onwards to check the situation. 

What could he say? 

Even if the cat died, it at least satisfied it’s curiosity. 

He knew this is a flag… it’s the behavior of the guy who will die in the first episode.

However, it’s also a chance. 

The canon fodder who survived in the first episode only ever becomes the OP villain or brave protagonist. 

What is life in a fantasy world if he did not walk all over places marked ‘ Danger! No trespassing!’ 

So, he must satisfy his curiosity and trespass that forbidden zone. 

Only, as soon as his raft touched the red flashing circle at the edge of lights, it got sucked into an unknown place.