The 'Extreme Treasure Hunt' production team announced the next day's treasure-hunting schedule bright and early, and it was nothing short of sadistic.
From gathering food bare-handed in the morning, to a weighted beach trek at noon, to cliff climbing for clues in the afternoon.
Every single event was ruthlessly wringing the contestants' physical limits dry.
But the chat room's chorus of "holy crap" hadn't let up for a single minute since the broadcast began.
Morning, at the shallow bay.
Sunlight pierced the clear seawater, casting rippling patches of light on the white sand below.
Su Yu stood waist-deep in the water, gripping a wooden stick he'd hastily sharpened with a knife.
He didn't flail around like the other male contestants, splashing wildly like a blind fly.
He simply stood there.
Motionless.
His third-tier spiritual power granted him a perception ability like a holographic radar.
The schools of fish weaving through the coral crevices were as clearly mapped in his mind as coordinates drawn on paper.
To Su Yu in his current state, the fish's movements might as well have been in slow motion.
Whoosh.
Without any warning.
His right hand, gripping the stick, suddenly plunged downward at a speed almost impossible for the naked eye to track.
The water barely made a sound — just a dull, muffled splash as the stick's tip cut through the surface.
When he lifted the stick out of the water.
A fish still thrashing violently, easily two pounds, had already been skewered clean through the spinal nerve center behind its head.
The whole thing took less than three seconds.
Clean, precise, not a single wasted motion.
The danmaku went completely wild.
[Holy crap! This guy must have an aimbot hack turned on!]
[My grandpa fished by the sea his whole life, and even he just called that pro-level. That strike speed, that read on the underwater refraction — it's insane!]
[Could it be that Brother Su is rich because he's secretly a sailor who found the legendary Pirate King's treasure?!]
[Bro above, have you been watching too much One Pi—X?]
Su Yu waded out of the water and up onto the beach.
His pure white T-shirt was completely soaked through.
The fabric, once loose, now clung tightly to his body under the weight of the water.
The body Rita's devil training and the Genetic Lock serum had repeatedly reshaped was on full, unreserved display for the cameras.
Every muscle group was taut and perfectly proportioned; beneath the drenched fabric, the firm, flat lines of his abs showed through with startling clarity.
[That body... sorry, let me wipe my drool first.]
[No wonder he walked through the tropical rainforest like it was flat ground! That core strength looks terrifying!]
[Miss Ellie! If it's not too late to switch partners, please put me in his place!]
[I'm suddenly thinking Brother Su isn't so bad after all, heh heh~]
[Something's off, VERY off! How could shut-in Brother Su possibly have abs?! Shouldn't your abs look like one flat slab, same as mine?!]
In the lounge at miHoYo Studio.
Bronie's holographic projection, hovering above the coffee table, let out a loud whistle.
"Well, look at that. Our boss always covers up so tightly, but turns out he's got quite the view under there!"
Beside her.
Nuwa had practically pressed her whole face against the eighty-six-inch screen.
She propped her chin on both hands, eyes glowing with an almost fanatical light — the kind top-tier artists get when they stumble on perfect reference material.
"Perfect... this muscle definition is just too perfect!"
Nuwa didn't even bother finishing her spicy strips. She'd pulled a sketchbook out of nowhere, and her pencil was already leaving afterimages on the page.
"I was just worrying about how to draw the male lead's body structure for that 'certain indescribable' doujinshi for next month's convention!"
"This is basically a walking, breathing reference model delivered right to my door! Look at that shoulder-to-neck ratio! That tension in the wet fabric! Incredible!"
Beside her, Kiana burst into a violent coughing fit, suddenly remembering the tension-filled panels of a certain Su-Yu-centered doujinshi she'd seen back at Griseo.
Why is Nuwa also one of THOSE people?! Is there anyone normal left in this world?!
The footage soon cut to evening.
The rewards from the first day proved their worth now.
With the windproof matches and basic knives the production team provided, Su Yu had built a campfire in a sheltered spot on the beach.
The smell of roasting fish drifted through the sea breeze.
With an ordinary campfire-roasted fish, the outside usually ends up charred while the inside stays raw.
But Su Yu's grilling technique gave everyone another lesson.
His third-tier spiritual power let him sense the campfire's temperature down to a single degree.
He didn't even need to keep turning the stick — he could pinpoint exactly when the fish protein hit the Maillard reaction threshold at each temperature.
When he handed the cooked fish to Elysia, its skin was grilled golden and crisp, while the meat inside stayed tender and juicy.
"Wow!"
Elysia's eyes lit up after just one small bite.
"Su Yu! You're amazing! This is honestly better than what I've had at three-Michelin-star restaurants!"
She blew on the fish and praised it without holding back, not caring about the cameras at all, eating until her mouth shone with grease.
Unsurprisingly.
When the production team tallied the final scores that night based on each of the four teams' task completion, resource gathering, and hidden points for the day.
Su Yu and Elysia held first place by a landslide.
But on this unnamed island in the middle of the Pacific, the tropical marine climate's temper could flip faster than a three-year-old's mood.
Nine o'clock at night.
An urgent warning suddenly came over the production team's public comms channel.
A small tropical storm had veered off its predicted path and was barreling toward the island at incredible speed; all teams were ordered to find shelter immediately.
The sea wind changed its tune within ten minutes.
What had been a gentle breeze turned into a briny gale, whipping the campfire into a wild dance of sparks.
Out over the water, thick black clouds pressed toward the island like a massive wall of lead.
Su Yu glanced up at the pitch-black sky, then at their current position.
Because of the afternoon's climbing challenge, they'd taken a shortcut deep into a hilly area on the island's interior.
They were a long way from the safe house the production team had set up near the coast.
"We won't make it back to the beach in time."
Su Yu made the call without hesitation.
He grabbed Elysia's wrist with one hand and snatched up the waterproof pack containing their core supplies with the other.
"Come with me!"
The moment they dashed into the rocky jumble of the hills, the storm broke like the sky had been torn open, pouring down on them.
Fat raindrops hammered the leaves and rocks, a deafening wall of white noise. The wind swept sheets of rain, cutting visibility down to less than ten meters.
In this kind of extreme weather, the drones that had been trailing them had already lost signal and overloaded from the wind, forcing emergency landings and self-destructing.
In an instant, the world was nothing but the roar of the storm.
Su Yu relied on the terrain map already etched into his memory to lead Elysia sprinting across the slick rocks.
By the time they finally squeezed into a natural rock cave sheltered from the wind, both of them were soaked from head to toe.
Elysia leaned against the cave wall, gasping for breath.
Her long pink hair was plastered wet against her cheeks and neck.
Her clothes clung completely to her body; shivering with cold, she wrapped her arms around herself, an involuntary shudder running through her.
Su Yu didn't say anything.
As fast as he could, he laid out the moisture-proof mat — originally meant for pitching a tent — on the driest patch of ground he could find.
Then he pulled matches from a waterproof pocket and piled together the bits of dry brush they'd picked up along the way.
A few minutes later.
A small campfire flickered to life deep in the cave.
The orange firelight pushed back some of the cold and damp, casting the two of their shadows against the uneven rock walls.
Outside the cave, the wind still howled.
Su Yu sat cross-legged by the fire, holding his hands out to warm them.
He turned his head and glanced at Elysia, still sitting on the mat, still trembling faintly.
In a cave with no heating, wearing soaked clothes in the wind, the risk of hypothermia was extremely high.
Catching a fever here wouldn't be something to laugh off.
"Take your clothes off."
The air suddenly went dead silent.
Only the crackle of dry branches snapping in the fire remained.
Elysia's body, leaning against the rock, went rigid.
The woman who always moved with total ease on stage, the Miss Pink Elf who loved teasing Su Yu up close.
In this moment, in this closed-off, dim cave where only the two of them existed, suddenly had no idea what to do.
She widened her pink eyes and stared at the man sitting across the fire.
Her cheeks burned hotter than the flames themselves.
"You... you..."
Elysia stammered for a long moment.
She crossed her arms tightly over her chest, clutching her already-clinging clothes even tighter.
She held it in for a good while before finally forcing the words out through gritted teeth.
"Then... then at least turn around!"
Her face flushed, her voice tiny as a mosquito's whine.
"You... you're just staring at me like that, how am I supposed to... supposed to take it off..."
Su Yu froze for a second.
His mind had been entirely occupied with calculating how long the fire would last and when the rain might stop.
He hadn't at all considered how his last sentence, in a situation with just one man and one woman alone, might sound exactly like something a pervert would say.
Reflexively, he shifted his gaze toward Elysia.
Because she'd been drenched head to toe by the storm.
The light-colored sun jacket Elysia had worn that day had already turned into a nearly transparent film.
The outline of the fitted undergarment beneath it — even the faint edge of lace trim — showed through with perfect clarity in the firelight.
The back of Su Yu's skull felt like it had just gotten hit with a jolt of high voltage.
He turned his head away, staring fixedly at the rock wall in front of him.
"Cough cough cough cough cough!"
A cough that fooled no one echoed through the cave.
Su Yu reached one hand back, fumbling blindly through the backpack behind him.
Eventually he pulled out a spare blanket that was reasonably dry.
Not daring to turn around, he reached his hand back and held the blanket out.
"You... wring your clothes out first, dry them by the fire."
Su Yu stared at the grain in the rock in front of him, his voice stiff.
"Then... cover up with this blanket so you don't catch a chill."
His hand hung in midair, his fingers slightly stiff with nerves.
Behind him came the rustle of fabric shifting.
Even amid the noise of the rain, the faint sound of wet clothes being peeled off felt magnified in the small space.
Elysia took the blanket.
Hidden behind it, she peeled off the soaked jacket, then glanced down at the drenched undergarment clinging to her, and with a reddening face, unclasped it with a soft click, hanging it on a nearby branch she'd picked up to dry.
She wrapped herself in the blanket, only her flushed face peeking out.
She looked at the man across from her, still turned away, his spine ramrod straight.
Elysia bit her lip.
That stubborn, never-give-up streak of the Miss Pink Elf quietly resurfaced.
Everyone was equally soaked — why should she be the only one stuck feeling awkward about it?
"Hey."
Elysia's voice came from behind the blanket.
With a hint of testing the waters, and a little bit of weak counterattack.
She watched Su Yu's back.
"You're... soaked from head to toe too, aren't you."
She tucked her chin further into the blanket, the flush spreading up to her ears.
"And... in this cave."
"If I'm the only one taking off my clothes, isn't that... a little unfair?"
The man's back, turned toward her, visibly sagged.
"Cough cough cough — !!"
Su Yu broke into another coughing fit, even more violent than before.
He pressed a hand to his forehead with one hand, a bitter smile tugging at his lips.
Sure enough, the moment this woman recovered her footing, she was never one to let herself lose out.
"Fine, fine, fine."
Su Yu let out a helpless sigh, his hand moving to the hem of his own soaked, skin-tight T-shirt.
"I'll take it off."
"I'll take it off already, all right..."
Outside the cave, the storm hammered down as if trying to swallow the whole island whole, the sound of rain smashing against rock nearly blending into one continuous roar.
But inside this cramped little cave, one that could barely fit two or three people.
It was so quiet that even the tiny pop of a spark from the firewood seemed magnified a thousand times over.
Su Yu sat cross-legged across the fire.
By now, he too had stripped completely bare on top.
His soaked white T-shirt, wrung dry, hung alongside Elysia's sun jacket on a reasonably flat rock near the fire.
Steam rose off the wet clothes, condensing into fine droplets on the cave ceiling.
Su Yu's eyes didn't wander deliberately.
But just as he was about to flip the clothes over.
His gaze couldn't help but land on the small pieces of fabric hanging beside his own — belonging to Elysia.
It was a pink set of underclothes, trimmed with delicate lace.
Now being warmed by the campfire, giving off a scent that mixed seawater with something pleasant, like body wash.
Su Yu snapped his gaze back instantly.
He reached out and poked at the fire in front of him, picking up a stick to jab aimlessly at the ashes.
At the other end of the mat.
Elysia, wrapped tightly in her blanket, caught exactly where Su Yu's gaze had landed a moment ago, even through the flickering firelight.
Her cheeks, already flushed from the fire's warmth, instantly turned a shade dark enough to draw blood.
She reflexively tugged the blanket up toward her neck.
But that reaction lasted only a moment.
The Miss Pink Elf's never-back-down competitive streak, after that brief flash of shyness, quickly reclaimed the high ground.
She looked at the man across from her, his back ramrod straight, still pretending to busy himself poking the fire.
"Oh my."
Elysia deliberately drew out the words, her voice drifting out from behind the blanket.
That teasing tone she usually used to tease Su Yu was back.
She tilted her head slightly, watching the firelight dance across Su Yu's bare shoulder.
"I almost forgot."
"Way back when we first met, our all-capable Mr. Su Yu was, in some ways, a total blockhead who just didn't understand romance at all."
Su Yu's hand twitched.
He knew exactly what she meant.
Back during the time when, because of Kevin and Mei's little scheme, he and Elysia had just gotten to know each other.
Back then, Su Yu's only daily pleasure was holed up in his dorm playing games, or lying on the couch like a dead fish that had lost all its dreams.
And Elysia, entrusted with the task by her friends, dutifully played the role of "peer counselor," determined to drag this guy out of his dorm and let him properly experience a vibrant youth.
Getting to hang out with someone of Elysia's caliber — forget guys, even women would smile in their sleep just dreaming about it.
But of all people, Su Yu was an anomaly.
Every time Elysia forcibly dragged him outside, he wouldn't last thirty minutes under the sun before looking for a shady spot to squat in.
His eyes glued to the daily login countdown on his phone, muttering about when he could get back to grinding dungeons.
No matter how gorgeous an outfit Elysia put on, no matter how sweet her smile.
To this man, none of it ever seemed to compare to the flat 2D characters on his screen.
Elysia had always considered this an absolute humiliation.
The mighty Miss Pink Elf's charm — losing out to a mere virtual check-in button in front of this man!
This was also exactly why Elysia kept "causing trouble" for him afterward — because this idiot had completely ignored a beautiful girl's charms!
"Just think about it."
Elysia wrapped in her blanket, scooted forward half an inch.
"A dim, enclosed little cave, a raging storm outside, a man and a woman alone together."
Her gaze swept over Su Yu's firm chest and abs, then returned to his face.
"The woman's only wearing a thin blanket."
Elysia blinked her pink eyes.
"The two of us, just like this, huddled by the fire... isn't this such a romantic, heart-pounding scene?"
"But."
Elysia deliberately put on a wounded expression.
"It's a shame someone here seems completely unmoved by it."
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