Li Ke moved incredibly fast this time. While Lux was still recovering, he had already yanked up his pants, snatched up a makeshift lifebuoy he had woven out of plastic water bottles and wood, and initiated the travel sequence.
But the very next second, he realized he was soaring through midair.
"Huh?"
The moment he materialized, Li Ke felt himself plummeting toward the ground. He had anticipated this kind of coordinates error, so he immediately whipped out a crude, self-made grappling hook, preparing to snag a crevice in the rocks.
Except there were no rocks.
All Li Ke could see was a vast expanse of open sky—and Kiri, who was currently unconscious and free-falling right alongside him.
He looked down at the sea below, which was dotted with tiny specks of ships, and then back up at the endless sky. He nodded blankly.
"Dammit. I was too worried about fleeing and completely forgot about this plot point."
This is the part where Kiri falls off the cliff and drops straight into Arad!
The realization hit him like a truck, prompting Li Ke to shift gears into a different plan of action.
He rapidly dragged open his system UI, fully prepared to abandon Kiri to her fate, respect her life choices, and escape to another world to lay low and focus on his own survival.
However...
[ Energy insufficient. Traveling to Nakiri Erina's side requires 100,000 Energy Points. ]
[ Energy insufficient. Traveling to Senju Tsunade's side requires 5,000,000 Energy Points. ]
[ Energy insufficient. Traveling to Lux Crownguard's side requires 8,000 Energy Points. ]
These three system alerts almost made Li Ke cough up blood on the spot.
"Are you freaking kidding me?! One wants a hundred thousand, one wants five million, and the other wants eight thousand?! Why the hell was it only a measly 200 points when I first traveled here using the Endless Traveler?!"
Unfortunately, Li Ke had no time left to mess with the settings. The massive ocean surface was rushing up to meet them, and he could already make out the tiny silhouettes of people moving on the ships below. All he could do was try his absolute best to adjust his body into a proper diving posture, and then—
A sharp, panicked scream tore through the air.
"Aaaaaagh!!!!"
Splash!
To Li Ke's utter astonishment, the gruesome fate he had envisioned—of both himself and Kiri being instantly obliterated upon hitting the water—didn't happen. Given their body positions and the staggering height of the free fall, survival should have been an absolute statistical impossibility. Yet, a bizarre, unseen power native to this world seemed to wrap around them, dampening the lethal kinetic impact the moment they punctured the surface of the ocean.
As a result, Li Ke didn't even lose consciousness. After choking down a few frantic mouthfuls of salty seawater, his brain registered that he was physically intact. Acting purely on survival instinct, he reached out, grabbed Kiri, and immediately began kicking toward the surface.
However, the suffocating drag of the water combined with the sudden, agonizing burn spreading through his muscles forced him to confront a horrifying reality—his physical strength and endurance had completely reset to a standard baseline.
Every bit of the raw strength and fortified constitution he had painstakingly accumulated via his system's skill points had completely vanished.
So the stat boosts from that system are completely useless the second I leave that world?!
Li Ke's mind raced as he desperately called up his dimensional storage interface.
Fortunately, while his passive physical stat buffs were gone, his item inventory—stuffed to the brim with survival consumables—was still perfectly operational. He immediately materialized several empty plastic water bottles, hastily wrapped and secured them using his wet clothes to form a makeshift flotation device, and grabbed the sinking Kiri. Summoning every ounce of his remaining energy, he fought his way toward the light.
Even so, he was far from an expert swimmer. Dragging a fully dead-weight, unconscious Kiri made their ascent agonizingly slow, and his stamina was rapidly draining away in the unforgiving, icy seawater.
Thankfully, before his muscles could completely lock up, help arrived. The crew members from the fishing vessels he had spotted earlier had already dove into the water to rescue them.
———————————————————
Thanks to the timely intervention of those good Samaritans, Li Ke finally managed to haul Kiri onto the deck of the boat. He checked her vitals first; seeing that she was still breathing steadily, a massive weight lifted from his chest.
Turning around, he faced a pair of fishermen—a father and his son.
"Thank you both so much. I promise I will find a way to repay this debt."
He expressed his gratitude straight from the bottom of his heart. Just moments ago, it was the son who had braved the waves, grabbed his hand, and hauled them aboard, nearly capsizing their modest fishing boat in the process.
Although he had already been fighting his way up with Kiri, Li Ke knew that with his current reset, baseline human body, he might not have successfully made it to the surface alive without their help.
His gratitude was entirely genuine.
Yet, in the face of his heartfelt thanks, the father and son simply exchanged completely bewildered glances. The son scratched his head in confusion before opening his mouth to speak to Li Ke.
"@!￥@#%..."
Are you kidding me?!
Li Ke buried his face in his hands in sheer psychological agony. He hadn't run into this issue back in the world of 7 Days to Die because the underlying system logic ensured everyone could seamlessly understand each other regardless of background. As a result, he had completely, utterly forgotten that cross-world travel meant dealing with a massive language barrier.
This was just fantastic. While he had no idea if Kiri could converse with these people, he was one hundred percent certain that he had absolutely zero way of communicating with the citizens of Arad.
Looking at the father and son who were still staring at him in bewilderment, Li Ke decided his priority should be offering them some form of compensation so they would agree to ferry them back to land.
He knew 7 Days to Die items wouldn't hold any traditional currency value in this world, but pulling out a massive stack of raw iron and steel ingots right now would just look absurd. He scanned the two fishermen and their modest boat. Spotting a brass fixture on the handle of an old tool, he let out a quiet sigh of relief and pulled out a handful of brass casino tokens from his inventory.
He did possess a modest stash of genuine gold and silver nuggets harvested from mining and looting, but flashing raw precious metals in front of strangers on open waters was an incredibly stupid idea.
Using these brass tokens as a token of goodwill was his safest bet to show that he intended to properly repay them later.
When the fishermen saw the casino tokens Li Ke was offering, they initially looked excited. However, after picking them up and weighing them in their palms, they couldn't help but curl their lips in slight disappointment upon realizing the items were merely common brass.
Even so, they smiled and waved their hands dismissively at Li Ke. After trading a few more sentences that flew entirely over his head, the father and son steered the fishing boat toward the shoreline.
Li Ke quickly pressed his hands together and bowed deeply to show his gratitude. This universal gesture was something they understood perfectly, and they chuckled, shaking their heads to indicate it wasn't a problem.
"Safe... at least for now," Li Ke muttered, letting out a long, heavy sigh as he finally allowed his tense muscles to relax.
The boat soon bumped against the shoreline docks. Slinging the still-unconscious Kiri over his back, Li Ke followed the two fishermen as they led him into a nearby medical facility. The father and son left a small handful of local coins on the counter to cover the initial intake fee, gave him a friendly nod, and went on their way.
Li Ke watched as a female healer approached and began administering a quick triage check on Kiri's condition. The healer tried speaking to him, but upon realizing the severe language barrier, she swiftly turned on her heel and slipped out of the room to find help.
Before long, the door opened again, and a startlingly familiar figure stepped inside.
She wore an elegant, deep violet evening gown that contrasted beautifully against her lavender-toned skin, possessed a strikingly mature silhouette, and boasted a cascading mane of brilliant, platinum-white hair.
Sharan?!
While Li Ke was still processing his utter shock, a sophisticated, mature female voice echoed directly inside his mind, making him jump.
"Your companion is out of danger. There is no need to worry yourself over her. More importantly... where exactly do you hail from? Why do you speak a dialect completely unknown to our world? And why, pray tell, do you look like a refugee fleeing for dear life?"
A refugee?
Li Ke cast a miserable look down at his shredded, seawater-drenched clothing and nodded helplessly.
"Yeah... I guess you could call it fleeing for my life."