Sea Survival: My Luck is Off the Charts

Faye Yardley watched the rubber balls bouncing endlessly all around her. She felt her waist—good, the tail had vanished on its own. She reached out and snatched a white ball that bounced right in front of her, just as it was about to touch her.

“You have selected white ball No. 10. Now, chase it down and catch it.”

As the system prompt sounded, the number 10 appeared on the ball. It then suddenly vanished from her hand and began bouncing away rapidly.

Faye Yardley quickly put on the Comfortable Jumping Shoes.

After putting them on, she took one step forward and immediately shot into the air. The bounce was surprisingly high, startling her for a moment, but she quickly adjusted.

Her eyes never left the white No. 10 ball among the sea of others.

She chased after it, one bounce at a time. ‘It’s going to take some time to get the hang of these jumping shoes,’ she thought.

Just as Faye Yardley was about to catch her ball, another ball, thrown by someone else, collided with it and sent it flying.

It landed in a pile of identical white balls.

Faye Yardley shot a glance at the person who had thrown the ball. Instead of going after her own, she leaped forward to her left and snatched their ball out of the air. With a hard squeeze, she popped it.

The person instantly went limp and collapsed. Then, as everyone who had noticed stared in horror, the person’s body transformed into a rubber ball.

This sent a cold shiver down not just the others’ spines, but Faye Yardley’s as well.

‘If every ball is a person…’

Faye Yardley didn’t let herself dwell on it. She bounced into the pile of white balls and, with lightning-fast reflexes, snatched her own No. 10 ball.

“Congratulations, player, on finding your ball. Now entering the next game.”

The scene changed again. Before her was a seemingly endless expanse of checkered blocks of all kinds, floating and bobbing up and down.

She found herself on a large platform.

“Welcome to the Platform Jumping Course! Follow the instructions and jump to the right platforms. Don’t make a mistake.”

She still had the jumping shoes on her feet, which sounded perfect for this challenge.

The platform gradually rose, and more people began to appear around her. Ahead, she could see plenty of others already jumping. Some failed to clear the gaps and plummeted down between the blocks.

‘What happens when they fall?’

Nothing good, surely, because below was a roiling sea of lava.

‘I wonder if someone with maxed-out Fire Resistance could climb out of that.’

The thought was fleeting. Her Fire Resistance was nowhere near maxed; falling in would almost certainly be the end for her.

‘I have to be extremely careful.’

The platform stopped rising. Once it came to a halt, she saw that the nearest block was as tall as a person.

“The game is starting! Everyone, follow your individual instructions to jump.”

Faye Yardley focused completely, not daring to let her mind wander.

“Jump to the light-yellow block within three seconds.”

Faye Yardley saw that the nearest light-yellow block was two meters away and about half a person’s height above her. She walked to the edge of the platform and took a powerful leap forward, landing steadily on it.

“The pink block in the upper-right.”

She looked up. ‘Holy cow.’ It was over three meters away and twice her height.

There was no time limit this time. She glanced at the others; it didn’t seem like anyone else had to clear such a great distance.

‘Are they targeting me?!’

She crouched down and then sprang up with all her might. Boosted by the jumping shoes, she soared even higher than the pink block. The moment her feet touched down, she heard the next prompt.

“The green block to the rear-left.”

‘I have to jump backward?’ This time, at least, it wasn’t higher, but lower. However, there were many other blocks in the way. ‘I obviously can’t touch any of them, so my trajectory is crucial.’

Plus, people were constantly jumping to and from every block and through the air. She couldn’t afford to collide with anyone. Faye Yardley eyed the block to her rear-left, mentally calculated her trajectory, and leaped.

The instant she left, two people landed on the pink block simultaneously and immediately started fighting.

Even while airborne, with no way to push off, Faye Yardley still managed to maintain her balance and avoid the other jumpers.

She landed flawlessly on the green block, and the next prompt arrived immediately.

“See that chestnut-brown block? Do your best to jump to it.”

Before Faye Yardley could even locate the chestnut-brown block, another person landed on her green one.

“Ooh, you’ve got a visitor on your block. Hurry and chase them off~”

With an extra person on it, the green block began to wobble, swaying left and right with increasing speed.

Amid the wobbling, Faye Yardley finally spotted the chestnut-brown block. It was right next to a cluster of other brown ones. ‘Traps, they’re truly everywhere.’

Faye Yardley ignored the person struggling to keep their balance. Once she had her target in sight, she leaped away. As soon as she was off it, the green block gradually stabilized.

After avoiding one trap after another, Faye Yardley reached a platform on the far side. The system promptly informed her that she had completed the platform jumping game before teleporting her to the next arena.

This time, however, she appeared underwater.

Before she could even react, she saw countless small fish swirling around her in a panic.

“Welcome to the Fish Catching Game! Little fishies, do your best to escape. Don’t let the humans catch you.”

‘What the— I’ve been turned into a fish?!’

It took a moment for Faye Yardley to realize what had happened. Since she already had the Underwater Breathing ability, the possibility hadn’t even crossed her mind.

‘Hands?’

‘Gone.’

‘Feet are gone too.’

Luckily, her inventory was still accessible. She mentally retrieved the Nobody Can See Me Card and used it on herself.

As a result, her fishy form vanished from the sight of the other fish. There were so many of them that the people above the water’s surface would never notice one fish more or less.

Faye Yardley was now merely invisible; just like her tail from before, she was still physically there.

The game was simple enough: small hands plunged down from above, reaching into the water and grabbing at the schools of fish.

Faye Yardley nimbly dodged, but bumped into several other fish in the process.

Some hands came up empty, but of course, others succeeded.

Faye Yardley could hear the cheerful, gloating laughter of a child from above the water. “Hahaha… I got one, I got one! I’m the only one who caught one, you’re all big dummies! Nyah nyah nyah~”

‘What an annoying little brat.’

After becoming a fish, Faye Yardley also discovered she could no longer speak.

She didn’t dare keep her mouth open, because it would just create a stream of bubbles.

‘How terrifying.’

This place seemed to be a large fish tank, but it was so packed with small fish that collisions were unavoidable.

The bottom of the tank was just as crowded with fish. Hiding among the tank’s decorative rockeries and aquatic plants was even worse. That was where most of the hands reached, as it was a guaranteed catch with no room to dodge.

Faye Yardley naturally swam along with the school. To her, the small hands looked like a Demon’s claws. A child’s hand might be small, but it’s all relative. Compared to her current fish-sized body, they were enormous. A single one could easily scoop up two or three of her.