No matter how wide the world was, Yu Zhiye was like a nobody fisherman stuck in a little rural village.

  There’s no point worrying about the big picture outside. At most, he could scroll through the chat as a fishing pastime.

  Alas, even when Yu Zhiye scrolled up, there wasn’t that much content.

  The chat was clearly still in its infancy, and he might be part of the earliest batch.

  Yu Zhiye kinda wanted to make his presence known and even leave his mark on this chat monument, but just when he typed up the best self-promotion he could come up with…

  [Error. Insufficient funds. Sending a message costs x1 emerald.]

  “…” Yu Zhiye stared at that paywall popup and nearly rage-quit! “Screw that! What a rip-off!”

  Now he knows why there is so little chat history! Those chatting must be big shots rich enough to pay this fee!

  Since there was nothing much to see here, Yu Zhiye simply closed the chat and switched to the achievement tab..

  Out of sight, out of mind.

  “Bleh! I like lurking more than actively chatting anyways!”

  Yu Zhiye then checked on the new achievement he acquired.

  [DesertCraft Novice] Reach level 10. (5th) CON+0.6

  “Hmm… looks like achievements are localized. That’s fair enough. But to think there’s four players ahead of me…”

  Then again, his leveling was already pretty fast, considering all he does is fishing.

  But knowing how slow he was compared to the rest of the world, Yu Zhiye felt the thirst for progress for the first time ever.

  He looked out at the distant tower ruins backed by the rocky mountains. “Should I find a day to go pick up the chests and grind some mobs as well?”

  Yu Zhiye wasn’t sure if he should risk it, but whatever his choice, he knew he should make it soon because those rocky mountains are drawing closer fast.

  Who knows what will happen when the mountain hits that desert temple.

  Will the ruins move away? Disappear? Or get destroyed?

  But Yu Zhiye didn’t waste time on guessing the future for long.

  Once his last catch was in the bag, he didn’t dare stay out too late and headed inside.

  Inside the store, he bumped into sandy, travel-worn Jack in the back hall.

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  “Yo Steve, catch anything good today?”

  “Not bad. I fished out a pair of old boots. If you need new shoes, I can sponsor a pair.”

  “Yeah? Ain’t that great to know. Bwahaha!”

  After the small talk, they got down to business.

  “So? How was your adventure today? No trouble, I suppose?”

  “Yeah. We had a smooth journey. But we spent the whole day ferrying the bones outside. Even though the stairs were long, we’re pretty close to done. Tomorrow, there will be a good harvest.”

  “I see…” Yu Zhiye looked forward to that but wasn’t overly excited.

  Not far from them, the clean Miss Highschooler poked her head out from the lady’s room. “Hum? Is it dinner time?”

  “Little missy’s done? Aight, dinner it is! Steve?”

  “I’ll be right there in a bit. I gotta go…” Yu Zhiye pointed to the bathroom.

  Jack rolled his eyes, but was used to the young man’s habit by now. “Aight, catch you in a bit.”

  “Eih! Big brother, hurry up Don’t sit on the toilet for too long! Ehehe”

  Yu Zhiye watched them go then went for his usual base run. Drop off the fish, collect the logs, restart the wood generator, grab his dinner...

  Just when he was about to head out, he didn’t forget to go establish his new habit of checking the crystal ball.

  To his surprise, he actually saw somebody searching his toilet stall!

  “That’s… Lackey B? What’s he doing snooping around here?”

  Yu Zhiye didn’t know, but once he saw the guy leave, he hastily left his observatory and returned back to the stall.

  After checking below to make sure there was nobody around, he hurried out and chased the distant footsteps.

  When he turned the corner, he saw Lackey B entering an aisle. He followed and quietly sneaked into the neighboring aisle.

  The man might just be passing through and Yu Zhiye didn’t have high hopes of catching anybody in the act, but today, he just happened to get lucky.

  “...boss, I checked everywhere in there, but I couldn’t find anything. Could that yellow-faced monkey have buried it outside?”

  “Not necessarily. Did you check inside the toilets?”

  “Un.”

  “The ceiling?”

  “Uhh… is it even possible to get up there?”

  “If there’s a will, there’s a way. Next time, don’t make such a mistake again.”

  “I won’t, boss.”

  Then another voice inserted themselves.

  “Ohoho, Mr. Kwan, so you were here!”

  “Mr. Kim. Mr. Han. Are you two looking for me for something?”

  “We came to discuss the game plan for tomorrow.”

  “What do you two have in mind?”

  “Ohoho, I personally think the trip up and down the stairs is too long. If we get trapped, getting out will be difficult, oh.”

  “What does Mr. Kim suggest?”

  “Should we head to the western ruins?”

  “The situation there might not be much better. At least, I saw no entrance when I scouted it from the roof.”

  “Mr. Han is right. Besides, we’ve made an agreement. That army veteran isn’t a pushover. That fisherman also isn’t simple. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have handed them two ruins.”

  “Ohoho, then what good suggestion does Mr. Kwan have?”

  “How about we try clearing out the mobs by parts tomorrow? We’ll clear the tower stairwell first, then move in.”

  “What if the skelees wake up?”

  “Then we fight. It’s not like we can’t.”

  “Tch. I definitely don’t get paid enough for this.”

  Yu Zhiye didn’t eavesdrop any longer and quietly walked away.

  All roads lead to Rome. Everybody was making progress. Any flaws will eventually be discovered and exploited.

  It’s just a matter of a day sooner or later.

  Leaving the aisle, Yu Zhiye passed by the two male alphas stepping on each other’s foot in front of the beauty again.

  “...we almost made it today but a quicksand got in our way.”

  “Madaraka, why don’t you say that loser in your team fell in? If it wasn’t for us wasting too much time fishing him out, we wouldn’t have to come back empty-handed!”

  “Che! Even if we didn’t, we wouldn’t have time to do anything but scouting. That ruin moved much farther out then the one we visited yesterday!”

  The pair of gruff, buff men argued back and forth with the lady in red stuck in between like a canary in a cage, trying to maintain her most pleasing smile.

  Nobody cared about her feelings nor about the poor loser acting like a mob character in the background.

  Progress… it was a great thing, but what will happen to those who get left behind?