Life is unpredictable; sometimes, death descends in an instant, just like that rainy night.
This was true for Chuck, and naturally, it was just as true for any other living creature.
After all, once you enter the game and compete in the survival of the fittest, you cannot expect to always be the one doing the preying.
Pfft!
The forty-kilogram steel halberd, carrying the terrifying power of Chuck's full-body Blood Qi and potion buffs, descended from above like a divine punishment, accurately splitting the center of the giant crocodile's head, which was covered in thick bony plates!
In the next instant, the hard, heavy bony plates on the crocodile's head let out a tooth-aching "crack-clatter" sound of shattering!
"Haaah!!"
Chuck didn't have time to think. Seeing the attack connect, he exerted even more force, his arm muscles bulging further. The blade of the halberd sliced through the center of the crocodile's eyes without resistance, the edge cutting all the way down!
In the next moment, the crocodile's entire head collapsed and deformed like ceramic struck by a sledgehammer. The originally protruding eye sockets were forced apart, and both vertical pupils burst almost simultaneously, spraying out a turbid, disgusting fluid. Mixed with scalding blood, it erupted from the horrific gash like a high-pressure water gun, splashing all over Chuck's body and face.
A thick, metallic stench of blood instantly filled his nostrils.
"ROAR—!!!"
The giant crocodile let out a low, shrill, mournful howl, the sound vibrating the lake's surface into ripples.
Its limbs clawed frantically at the sand, its talons digging deep into the mud. Its tail, thick as an adult man's thigh, thrashed instinctively, kicking up a storm of gravel as it tried to flee back into the lake. But it had completely lost its sense of direction, merely slapping the ground aimlessly.
The convulsions grew more violent, then increasingly weak.
"My God..."
At the edge of the summit, Valentina slowly lowered the sniper crossbow in her hands.
The reality, which completely exceeded her expectations, left her mouth hanging wide open.
From the day she was born until now, she had never been so shocked.
Chuck stood there, his hands death-gripping the handle of the halberd, using his entire body weight to suppress the crocodile's death throes.
The crocodile's massive maw was wide open, revealing rows of sharp teeth. The bloody mouth that could once swallow a human whole could now only gape futilely. Stinking blood continued to gurgle out, and it could no longer bite anything.
Finally, all movement ceased.
A one-hit kill!
Chuck, drenched in red blood, remained in his original posture, panting heavily. As his bulging arm muscles gradually returned to normal, his eyes flickered with a similar light of disbelief.
He had actually one-shotted it?
To be honest, Chuck had prepared himself for a grueling battle; he had even brought his diving gear. He never expected the anticipated struggle to end in such a manner.
The sound of footsteps came from behind. Chuck turned his head to meet Valentina's gaze, and the latter actually shivered subconsciously, instinctively taking half a step back.
In those green eyes, there was actually a trace of fear.
"Hey... are... are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
Chuck smiled, raising a hand to wipe the blood from his face. He offered her a plain smile, and only then did Valentina's expression return to normal.
She turned to look at the giant crocodile, which was now thoroughly dead, and for a moment, she was speechless.
"This was probably a fluke..."
Chuck stepped forward and yanked the halberd out with a forceful pull, bringing another spray of blood with it. He set it aside and whispered with a sigh.
That strike just now, whether in terms of feel, angle, or the power he exerted, was impeccably perfect. It was the result of countless days and nights of mental replays following his death by this crocodile's tail ambush, which allowed Chuck to swap offense and defense in a single heartbeat.
On top of that, Chuck had triggered his Blood Qi Mastery just in time, unleashing a full-power strike even stronger than the one that defeated the brown bear. Add to that the terrifying force of his specially weighted forty-kilogram halberd, and the fact that Chuck happened to be mid-jump, striking the vital spot on its head from top to bottom...
This chain of factors, combined with an essential bit of luck, ultimately resulted in this unimaginable one-hit kill.
Even if he were to try again, Chuck didn't have the confidence to recreate such a feat.
He stood there feeling quite overwhelmed for a while before his brain finally recovered from the mix of emotions, which eventually transformed into intense joy.
"Fucking awesome!"
Chuck let out a long breath and shouted toward the clear blue sky with sheer satisfaction.
He hadn't relied on tricks or even traps. He had simply prepared diving gear as a backup, and then directly confronted a five-meter giant crocodile with his physical body and won. Ultimately, it was because his continuous efforts had given him the strength to achieve this miracle.
Valentina also gradually accepted the result. Although she had only fired one ineffective bolt during the entire process, she didn't care much. In combat, situations where one was fully prepared but had no chance to strike were common.
The two briefly immersed themselves in the joy before proceeding with the equally important harvesting phase according to plan.
Chuck didn't untie the rope at his waist just yet. With Valentina's help, he donned his full rubber diving suit and fins, and put on his mask and air cylinder.
Then, he plunged headfirst into the summit lake.
Valentina stood on the shore, hands gripping the hemp rope, slowly feeding it out as Chuck descended. On her phone lying on the ground, a four-minute countdown had been triggered. Once the time was up, an alarm would ring.
At that time, no matter how Chuck's battle was going, she would use all her strength to pull him out of the water. Since Chuck's weight hadn't changed much since the beginning, this wasn't a difficult task for Valentina.
Whether facing the crocodile or the final BOSS of the deep sea, the only problem Chuck couldn't solve was the lack of oxygen. His powerful physical attributes meant higher oxygen consumption. In the end, his breath-holding capacity hadn't fundamentally changed, so someone had to act as his safety net.
This was the vital responsibility Chuck had assigned to Valentina for these last two battles—no longer long-range harassment from the rear, but providing a crucial fallback and guarantee.
Upon entering the water, the icy lake water instantly enveloped his body.
Chuck didn't rush to sink. He hovered beneath the surface for a few seconds to let his body adapt to the cold while adjusting his breathing. Then, he began to rhythmically kick his fins, diving downward slowly but steadily as he had practiced.
The deeper he dove, the dimmer the light became and the lower the visibility grew. The stone walls inside the volcano began to block out the light. The surrounding water pressure started to increase, and his own breathing became clearly audible.
Two minutes later, when Chuck had dove approximately fifty meters, the contour of the lake bottom finally became clear.
As a volcanic summit lake, there was no lava or heat flow as Chuck had imagined. In fact, the water temperature was even lower than at the surface. Touching the bottom, he felt a layer of thick, soft sediment.
The air in his cylinder began to thin. Realizing he couldn't waste time, Chuck began searching the surroundings.
Another minute passed. Through his goggles, Chuck's gaze finally caught a familiar and bright interweaving of red and blue light.
Intense joy surfaced in his heart. Chuck didn't hesitate, nor did he want to dive a second time. Ignoring the fact that the last bit of oxygen in his cylinder was about to run out, he took one last breath and kicked his legs with all his might while holding his breath. It took him fifty seconds to finally reach the cluster of Flowers of the Other Shore growing on the lake floor.
Five blue, two red.
It was exactly as he suspected; they actually grew underwater.
But considering the effects of the flowers, this small detail wasn't that strange after all.
Quickly plucking the seven flowers, Chuck slowly exhaled and remained perfectly still. A few seconds later, a powerful force pulled him, and he began to ascend rapidly.
A minute later, Chuck broke the surface again.
He ripped off his diving mask, gasping for air, and reached out to grasp Valentina's hand to climb back onto the shore.
"How was it? Did you find what you were looking for?"
"Yeah."
Chuck quickly stripped off the diving suit, shook the water droplets from his hair, and gave Valentina a thumbs-up.
"Now we're going to be drinking your bathwater for the next few days."
Seeing Chuck's response, Valentina seemed happy because of how unexpectedly smooth today had gone, and she actually proactively joked with him.
"You can put it that way?"
Hearing this, Chuck raised an eyebrow and shot back with a smile: "So what? You've already swallowed my cum; are you really going to complain about bathwater?"
"Shameless bastard..."
Valentina shot him a disgruntled look, but as she turned around, her snowy cheeks flushed with a faint red, and a trace of a smile appeared in her eyes, carrying a hint of feminine allure.
After being thoroughly conquered heart and soul, Chuck looked increasingly attractive in her eyes. Many times, just looking at him made the area between her legs turn damp.
"Alright, back to business. I'll fill you up when we get back tonight."
Chuck quickly got out of the diving suit, changed back into his blood-stained clothes, patted Valentina's tight fleshy buttocks, and drew his short knife to approach the crocodile's carcass.
The crocodile's corpse wasn't as massive as the brown bear's, but due to its tough scales and complex anatomy, it still took them some effort.
Ultimately, the two worked together from noon until two in the afternoon before they finished processing the beast. They obtained a crocodile heart, a complete hide, three hundred kilograms of crocodile meat, and various fangs and claws.
And of course, hidden within the flesh was an oval-shaped crystal emitting an eerie green light.
Chuck immediately used the heart and the Flowers of the Other Shore to refine a potion, though he didn't consume it immediately. Of the three hundred kilograms of meat, he stored one hundred in his space. The remaining two hundred kilograms, as before, were used to refine Essence Potions on the spot using the Energy Essence he had stored over the past two weeks. This brought his stock of Essence Potions to exactly seven.
Chuck would never have enough of this life-saving medicine.
Aside from the materials for potions, the crocodile skin was the most precious byproduct. Both its toughness and waterproof quality were superior to all other leathers Chuck had collected. He planned to use it to make several pairs of short boots, as the shoes he'd been wearing since landing were long since tattered.
With all valuable parts collected, Chuck had Valentina pack the tools while he headed to the cave on the other side of the lakeshore.
As expected, the carcass of the giant bird he had killed before was still there. However, only a blackened, withered trunk and a ground full of feathers remained.
Chuck held his nose, enduring the stench as he used his short knife to decompose the remains. Fortunately, the bird's body wasn't massive. It didn't take much effort to find what was hidden inside...
A blue crystal, similar to the other three.
With that, the conquest of the crocodile was officially over.
From this moment on, every area of the island had become Chuck's territory.
To end the 100-day countdown and completely eliminate the harsh weather of the deserted island, only one final hurdle remained.
Although Valentina's remark was a joke, the summit lake was indeed the freshwater source for the entire island. Chuck couldn't accept two rotting corpses sitting near it.
So, after processing everything, the withered bird carcass and the remains of the giant crocodile were tossed off the northern side of the peak by Chuck and Valentina, disappearing into a crevice in the cliff halfway down the mountain.
At three in the afternoon, the two gripped the hemp rope and climbed down from the summit one after another, returning to the hot spring platform and then entering the volcanic cave together.
On the stone platform deep inside, the red and orange crystals were still glowing faintly. When Chuck approached with the two new crystals, the third and fourth indentations on the platform lit up as expected!
Under Valentina's trembling gaze, Chuck took the green and blue crystals and embedded them into their respective slots.
The light dimmed accordingly.
The stone platform returned to shadow. Of the original five indentations, only the last one remained vacant.
Chuck's gaze swept over the four crystals.
Orange, Red, Green, Blue.
At this stage, Chuck was basically able to summarize the color pattern of the crystals.
The red crystal from the brown bear corresponded to 7 red Flowers of the Other Shore. The blue crystal from the giant bird corresponded to 7 blue Flowers of the Other Shore.
The orange tiger and the green crocodile were mixtures of five-to-two and two-to-five ratios...
Color.
Wasn't this just like using red and blue flowers as pigments to mix colors for the crystals?
According to this rule, the next color...
Would likely be yellow.
Yellow Flowers of the Other Shore!
Thinking of this, a trace of hesitation appeared on Chuck's face.
He remembered clearly the woman's voice he heard in a daze after his previous death, and the deduction he made afterward—all pointed toward one answer.
—As the only male, the greatest meaning and value of his presence on this island likely lay in reproduction.
And the yellow Flowers of the Other Shore happened to correspond exactly to breeding ability!