Global Fog Survival

“[Player progress detected… The ‘Ship’ feature will soon be unlocked…]

[You can modify a ‘Tier 1 War Chariot’ into a ‘Tier 1 Ship.’]

[Note: When a war chariot is modified into a ‘Tier 1 Ship,’ you will receive a one-time portable transformation ability. Choose an appropriate body of water to place the ship.]”

“A ship feature?” Colin was surprised. He had been wondering if he would need to use a treasure map to find the whereabouts of the ‘Floating Stone.’ Otherwise, it would be difficult to set sail in a short period of time.

Without going to sea, development would pretty much stall. After all, his current area was basically an island. Apart from a saltpeter mine, there weren’t many resources, and the island itself wasn’t particularly large. If he floored the accelerator, he could reach the coastline in one or two hours at 100 kilometers per hour.

Instinctively, he wanted to open the chat channel to see what advice the ‘network experts’ had, but just as he raised his finger, he stopped. The chat channel was gone.

Colin sighed with mixed emotions, then accessed the “Ship” feature via the system prompt.

[“Tier 1 Ship”: Refined Steel*500, Glass*100, Special Rubber*100, Thorn of Suffering*200, Fog Points*1500.]

[Function: Dispels gray fog within a 10-meter radius around the ship; suitable for 100 people…]

[Special Equipment: Special Telescope (Once activated, reduces the gray fog’s effect on visibility by 70%.)]

[Note: You know that refined steel is an advanced material derived from iron ore.]

“A new steel grade and rubber grade… In other words, the most expensive parts of the Tier 1 ship are the steel and fog points,” Colin mused, analyzing the information. His brain was now processing things at an abnormal speed.

“The stats seem pretty similar. As for the load capacity… Oh, that’s irrelevant. A survivor can carry an almost unlimited amount of a single type of item…”

Colin’s thoughts drifted to the special telescope. “Now that’s something useful—70% visibility reduction in the mist. Round that up, and it’s practically ignoring the mist, right?”

No matter whether he planned to set sail or not, Colin decided that he definitely needed to acquire one of these. Even if he ended up just putting the ‘Tier 1 Ship’ on top of his territory’s buildings as a lookout point, it would still be invaluable.

But on second thought, how big was this ship?

[You realize it’s a small ship weighing about 500 tons.]

“Only 500 tons with all that steel?” Colin was puzzled. He didn’t have much of a concept for ships’ sizes, but he had heard of ships on TV that weighed thousands or tens of thousands of tons. A 500-ton warship sounded a bit off to him… Couldn’t a single wave flip it over?

[You realize it is approximately 30 meters long, 10 meters wide, and has a draft of about 2 meters.]

“Thirty meters long? Ten meters wide? That doesn’t sound too small…” Colin thought to himself, recalling that he had a good sense of distances like 10 or 15 meters due to the effective range of various contaminated blood types in the gray fog, a survival skill he had to master.

“What about a Tier 2 Ship?”

[You realize that a Tier 2 Ship weighs 3,000 tons, with dimensions of about 80 meters in length, 20 meters in width, and a draft of just over 7 meters…]

[Function: Dispels gray fog within a 30-meter radius around the ship; suitable for 300 people. Capable of being modified with cannons, stigmata, and other equipment types…]

[Additional Features: Special Telescope, Compass, Lighthouse (enables detection of common life forms within a 10-kilometer sea area; consumes 10 mist points per hour…)]

[Note: You can spend 300 fog points to activate ‘Maximum Load,’ tripling the ship’s performance in all aspects…]

“Ten fog points per hour—this thing’s a money pit. Everything costs resources…” Colin muttered, but the obvious benefits of the Tier 2 Ship were undeniable.

He then checked its construction materials and found they were roughly ten times that of a Tier 1 Ship.

“The cost increase is ridiculous. Building a Tier 2 Ship is about the same as upgrading a Tier 3 War Chariot, except it doesn’t need rare materials…”

Colin rubbed his temples. He wasn’t sure how many resources he had at the moment, as the ‘gifts’ weren’t currently in his possession, nor had he done a proper inventory.

[You realize that if you are willing to pay the price, you could construct a ‘Tier 2 Ship’ suitable for seafaring.]

“We can build it, but first, I need to transmit the information I’ve learned through the ‘Gift’ feature.”

Colin considered this and looked at the parchment, but his brows furrowed soon after.

“Wait, why don’t I have the ‘Gift’ feature on my parchment scroll?”

[You realize that the ‘Gift’ feature, derived from the ‘Trading Market,’ seems to have been transferred to the survivors’ minds…]

“It’s been transferred to the mind? Just like the ‘previous generation’ survivors?” Colin was taken aback, then puzzled. “So why don’t I have this feature? Am I not a survivor anymore? Or have I been expelled from the survivors?”

He didn’t feel like anything named “Gift” was in his mind. When he had been busy dealing with a few aberrations earlier, he had only realized that the feature existed but didn’t know it was located in his brain.

[Perhaps due to certain special circumstances, you didn’t receive this feature.]

“…Three minutes ago, you dared to call out ‘Night’ directly, but now you’re beating around the bush. I still have over a minute before I enter the decline phase…”

Colin thought for a moment but didn’t dwell on it. He continued reasoning. “Is it because I was in a confrontation with ‘Night’ at the time, so the system didn’t give me the ‘Gift’ feature?”

Regardless of whether that was the reason, it gave him a headache. This meant he had limited ways to communicate his insights to others.

“Sigh, last minute, if I embarrass myself, then so be it…” Colin sighed inwardly, already feeling a vague, indescribable “emptiness” in his soul. The gradual decline of his strength felt like an unstoppable loss of blood.

He still didn’t know what the direct effects of being in a “withered” state would be. The hints weren’t clear, only saying it would feel “uncomfortable.”

However, he had a hunch that it would be uncomfortable enough to make him roll around in pain, which would be quite undignified in front of his subordinates. But… never mind.

Colin shook his head. This series of thoughts had only taken him about ten seconds. He noticed that the system’s blood-red text in his mind hadn’t disappeared yet.

“Is there more?”

As soon as Colin had this thought, the writhing blood letters in his mind transformed once again. A new line of text appeared.