The moment Sylvia blinked seductively and put her hand on his firm shoulder, there was a thud and water began to rise to the floor of the lifeboat.

“Huh? What is this?”
“Ah!”

Could it mean that Sylvia wouldn’t be able to play tricks because she would die? When they saw the light, unidentified fish flocked around the boat. The sea was strictly within the barrier, so it should belong to the dungeon. But the problem was that she was careless and played tricks before entering the island.

Seeing the black fish swarming near the boat, Sylvia barely swallowed a scream. Fish that may have existed in the Precambrian period and looked like they had been rescued from the deep sea were all over the place.
No, could those odd-looking lumps even be considered fish? They were just monsters that lived in water… The monster fish suddenly jumped and hit the boat.
Fortunately or not, the fish that came into the boat did not bite them, meaning that they were not piranhas. However, there was no time to feel relieved about the fact that they were not cannibalistic fish.

It looked like the boat would sink in no time at all because of the ruthless fish thrusting their body against it. While she was worried that the boat was going to sink and she would get a dead ending, Sylvia thought of the skill 〈Hands Faster than Eyes〉. With that, she could just row the boat and go.
Luca seemed distracted by the hole in the floor of the boat.

“Wow, this is a big problem. We need to close the hole first!”

Luca hastily took off the clothes he was wearing and blocked the hole. When he took off his top, his perfect upper body, which was something you could only get if you exercised to the maximum, was revealed. Originally, Sylvia would have admired the fantastic muscular feast that shone brightly, but now was not the time. She hurriedly approached him and lifted the paddles that were beside him. Then, she sat down and put on the seat belt.

“Sylvia, what are you doing? We can’t get out of this situation by rowing the boat!”
“We’re going. Put on your seat belt and hold on tight to the handles!”
“What?”

Luca looked bewildered, but as she said, he put on the seat belt.

‘Use skill 〈Hands Faster than Eyes〉!’

Sylvia shouted inwardly, and as she had seen many times, the flow of air slowed and the fish began to look like dust floating in the air. First of all, she paddled like crazy to get away from the monster fish.
As she did, a noise came from both paddles that sounded like a motor running. In an instant, the lifeboat became a state-of-the-art motorboat and fired forward like a rocket, leaving a trail of white foam.
Not only did the fish attached to the side of the boat not withstand the speed, but the fish in the boat without seat belts, unlike Sylvia and Luca, bounced out like popcorn on a frying pan.

Thud! Thud! It was so fast that the boat, which couldn’t handle Sylvia’s crazy rowing, soared over the sea for a moment, like a car passing through a speed bump at high speed, and then came down, repeatedly.

She didn’t really count the number of times, but the effectiveness of the skill was maximized under the life-threatening situation. Since she was rowing like crazy with the utmost speed, she might have turned her arms around at least 5000 times per minute. She took the risk of contracting carpal tunnel syndrome and rowed like a machine.

Luca was so surprised that he couldn’t speak, barely grasping the small handle on the side of the lifeboat as he endured the recoil.

‘Is this the right direction? No, I can’t be wrong. The barrier is probably wrapped around the island like a dome, so if we go like this, we’ll find it!’

As Sylvia expected, she headed forward frantically, and soon, the outline of the island shrouded in fog appeared before their eyes. Luca, who had been keeping a steady grip on the handle to calm his surprise, hurriedly exclaimed.

“Sylvia! It’s the island, I can see it!”
“That’s right.”

‘I just need to paddle a little more now!’

But there was something she had overlooked. She didn’t care at all about the hole that the monster fish had made on the floor of the boat.
The floor of the old lifeboat, which had been impacted several times by the waves because it was running at such a high speed, could no longer endure and almost fell apart. Holes began to appear here and there even in other parts.
The island was just a little further away, but the water coming in from the holes made the ship begin to sink faster than before. As if that wasn’t enough misfortune, a message appeared.

———————————————

[The time for using the skill 〈Hands Faster than Eyes〉 is over.]

———————————————

‘Ah, but we’re almost there!’

What was even worse was the fact that after using the skill to the maximum, her body became a thousand times heavier. She felt like her wrists would fall off as well.

Just in case, she opened the status window and found that her fatigue had risen by 100 points. Before boarding the lifeboat, her fatigue was zero after getting enough sleep on the shrimp boat and eating delicious food, so this fatigue seemed to be purely a side effect of using the skill for a long time.

‘I didn’t know this could happen because I always stopped halfway through when using skills. If you use a lot of energy at once, it’s only natural for fatigue to kick in in an instant.’

It was very common sense. It would be even more bizarre if she had used her body like crazy for a short time but nothing happened and her fatigue didn’t accumulate.

It was probably a side effect that occurred on a similar principle as the 〈Status Abnormality: Feeble〉 she got when using the skill 〈Seriously Talking Nonsense〉 indiscriminately, and not just because of karma. She must have gotten the status abnormality because her brain and mouth were working fast as she tried to deceive several people at once.

Sylvia, who nodded, was speechless as she looked at the status window, and the corners of her lips twitched. After first looking at the fatigue below, she scrolled back up and found one thing that had changed senselessly.

‘Damn it. If it’s a game, just do one humane thing! Just one!’

When she looked closely at the status window, not only did her fatigue increase, but her HP had also reduced by 100. Her HP went down from 230 to 130 because she used her skill to the maximum. Well, in a way, if you use your body a lot and turn your wrists violently while fatigued, your health will deteriorate… bullsh*t. This damn…!

It was a matter of either lowering her HP or raising her fatigue. Why did it have to be both?
It was a game in name only, so why did they have to complicate it by implementing conditions like this? Anyone would get angry and break their monitor in the middle of playing. Someone possessed like her couldn’t help but play until the end.

‘Yeah, I… I have to make sure I don’t go to hell.’

She recalled once again how she had to clear the game to get to heaven and sighed with a pale face.

Then, why didn’t the skill description initially say that your HP and fatigue could go down like this, without any basis? Ah, it’s a stall game. What did she expect from a game that is sold on a straw mat?

Sylvia, who had become visibly emaciated after using the skill, briefly forgot the urgent situation as she felt bitter about the stall game. She opened her eyes as she heard Luca’s voice. He unbuckled his seatbelt and was ready to jump into the water right away.

“Sylvia, the boat will sink at this rate! Still, the island is right in front of us, so it looks like we just need to swim a little.”
“Ah, swimming… Huh?”

As Sylvia opened her mouth, a strident voice came out. Both her HP and fatigue were struck in a short period of time, and not only her body but also her vocal cords were severely damaged.

———————————————

[Inflicted with 〈Status Abnormality: Feeble, Straw Body〉 due to using a skill to the limit. The condition lasts for half a day.]

———————————————

Straw body? When she looked at the details of the new condition, it was explained that it was ‘a body like a straw that breaks easily with one hit’.

‘Damn it…!’

“Cough, cough… Ugh.”

She became angry inwardly and coughed in a cracked voice. Luca, who was warming up and preparing to enter the water, looked at Sylvia in surprise as he heard her hushed voice and pitiful cough. He touched her rounded forehead with a worried face.

“You were rowing so hard that you didn’t look like a human… Your forehead is very hot.”
“Uh uh…”

As Sylvia lowered her head and drooped her body, Luca unbuckled her seatbelt with a sad expression and made her lean against his chest.

‘She was also sick at the jade floors event last time. Even though she seems strong, her body is delicate and weak.’

Looking at her in his arms, Luca sensed that her condition was unusual. It was a big problem. The boat was about to sink and they had to swim to the island, but Sylvia was drooping as if she were about to pass out.

“Sylvia, you’ve worked hard. Somehow… Let’s go to the island together somehow.”

Sylvia’s body was hot as a ball of fire. It was not good to immerse a feverish person in seawater, but he had no other choice right now.
Originally, Luca was the type to leave behind people who couldn’t swim on their own, whether they lived or not. In dealing with his subordinates, as well as those he didn’t know, that rule didn’t change. The closer he was to someone, the more he would train that person, like an eagle who would drop its young from a cliff to teach it how to fly. He thought that if that person fell and couldn’t come up, they would be forced to drop out.

But Sylvia was different. Wasn’t she the woman who had obtained a boat for him, even though there was no benefit at all? There had been many women he approached based on their gorgeous appearance. However, none of them would have sacrificed themselves for him without calculating the gains and losses.

On top of that, they had just gotten out of the crisis because she paddled her wrists away without even blaming him, who was just foolishly pulling water out of the boat.

Luca thought that he would be able to get through any difficult task with Sylvia. For example, when the jade floors business is in danger of bankruptcy… or when the imperial family is arrested for tax evasion.
For the first time in his life, the selfish Luca, who had always put himself first, vowed to sacrifice his body for the woman in front of him.
Sylvia was always wise and able to help him, and on top of that, she was lovely. At this moment, Luca wanted to protect her with everything he had.

At that moment, Sylvia leaned her head against Luca’s chest and trembled deeply. It wasn’t because she had perverted his intentions, but because she was really sick. Her head was spinning and her vision was blurry.

‘I think it’s worse than what happened at the jade floors event. Is it because there are two overlapping status abnormalities… At this rate, I’ll fail to clear the dungeon…’

Her head was dizzy, so it was difficult to continue her thoughts. She felt extremely cold and dug deeper into Luca’s arms.
Meanwhile, a game message announcing something appeared with a fanfare sound notification and disappeared before her eyes, but unfortunately, she couldn’t check it.

–