The three adults and one child paddled their kayak toward the reef.

Flora Bloom handed everyone a small bucket, then climbed out of the kayak first and stepped onto the reef.

The sprawling reef was a mosaic of deep and light colors, a combination of dark gray rock and massive coral formations. The surfaces were coarse, with some edges sharp enough to cut. Flora Bloom was about to hand out cut-resistant gloves, but she saw that Irvin Holden, Cynthia Grant, and Caleb had already split up to search the dark crevices under the rocks. Caleb was tagging along with Cynthia Grant, pointing at various pockmarked holes and urging her to reach inside. And amazingly, she actually pulled out a swimming crab.

Except the swimming crab came out pinching Cynthia Grant’s finger, making her shriek in pain. Caleb and a nearby Irvin Holden doubled over with laughter.

"Flora, water! I’m hurt!" Cynthia Grant yelled to Flora Bloom, holding up her hand to show her.

Flora Bloom sighed and tossed a bottle of spiritual water to her. ’So this is what my life-saving spiritual water is used for now?’

But she quickly put that thought aside. Her attention had been captured by a pair of golden-shelled creatures retreating into a crevice in a large rock.

One had already burrowed more than halfway into the sand below, while the other remained motionless, blocking the entrance to the crevice.

Intrigued, Flora Bloom went over and picked up the golden conch at the mouth of the crevice. It had a bulbous, golden shell, adorned not only with dark gold spots but also with raised yellow stripes.

She held the shell up to the sunlight. It glinted with a subtle, deep luster. It was beautiful.

Once in her grasp, the brown creature inside, tentacles and all, rapidly withdrew into its shell, squirting a jet of water into Flora Bloom’s face in the process. She wiped her face clean, and the conch in her hand vanished. Then, she dug the other one out of the crevice.

Moreover, this second conch was carrying a string of golden eggs beneath its body. Its fleshy, brown form was wrapped so tightly around them that it couldn’t retract back into its shell.

Flora Bloom looked at the conch. "Don’t be afraid," she murmured. "I’m not going to eat you right now. Go on, make a home for yourself in my space."

After stowing away the pair of golden conches and their eggs, Flora Bloom began to scan her surroundings carefully once more. There were many dark holes under the rocks. She crouched down, peering into them, and found another nest of sea snails in the middle of a coral formation. This new batch wasn’t as pretty as the two gleaming golden ones; the five conches were a deep brown, their shells covered in irregular black spots like a leopard’s coat.

They weren’t much to look at, but as long as they were edible, Flora Bloom tossed them into her space without a second thought.

She made her way in the opposite direction from Cynthia Grant and the others, exploring as she went. Here, she found a crab; there, a few small sea snails. At the edge of the coral, she even discovered a fish stranded on the reef. She thought it was dead at first, but when she picked it up, she saw its gills were still twitching—a movement so slight it was almost imperceptible.

She quickly tossed it into her Spatial Spirit River, adding another species of fish to its waters.

Flora Bloom realized the marine life was much more abundant at the edge of the reef, closer to the open sea. In just a short time, she’d gathered some tiny starfish, a few oysters clinging tightly to the rocks, and a clam-like creature larger than her palm.

She tossed all her finds into the Spatial Spirit River. Using her unique command over the space, she was stunned to discover a fingernail-sized pearl inside the giant shell.

’Could this be a pearl oyster? A saltwater one?’

The discovery put Flora Bloom in a fantastic mood. She quickly searched the area for more, but after a full sweep, she only found a sea spider and a pair of abalones. There were no more pearl oysters in sight.

Most women are powerless against pearls and beautiful jewelry. Flora Bloom memorized the location of this part of the reef. The tide was coming in. She walked over to Irvin Holden and the others to check on their haul. Irvin Holden’s bucket contained only a few small crabs and shells. Cynthia Grant’s bucket, aside from the crab that had pinched her, held a clutch of oblong eggs and a long, wide piece of kelp. According to Cynthia, they were Sea Serpent eggs; the serpents often laid them among the reefs.

Finally, Flora Bloom spotted an identical pearl oyster in Caleb’s little plastic bucket. The sight made her itch with anticipation.

"The tide’s rising, and we’ve gathered just about everything from this section of the reef. You guys head back first."

Hearing this, Irvin Holden and the others looked at her in confusion. "Huh? We should head back first? What about you, leader? There’s nothing left to gather here."

Flora Bloom looked at their three worried faces and gave them a mysterious smile. "Don’t worry. I’m going to do a little exploring underwater. I’ll show you something amazing in a little while."

After watching the three of them paddle the kayak back to the ship, Flora Bloom leaped into the sea.

The late autumn sea was already quite cold, but as a person with superpowers, the temperature felt no different from a warm bath to Flora Bloom. Furthermore, as a Water Ability User, the sensation of being completely enveloped in water was exceptionally comforting and exhilarating.

Her goal was to explore what lay beneath the reef. She suspected the section they had just searched was only the tip of a much larger underwater reef system, exposed by the previous night’s low tide.

Flora Bloom took a deep breath and dove, swimming down into the depths.

The post-apocalyptic seawater was surprisingly clear. Her vision was filled with shimmering, azure light, and tiny marine creatures swam past, completely unafraid of her presence.

She was right. After swimming down for only a short while, she saw a vast coral reef less than three or four meters below her. Its sheer size was breathtaking.

School after school of different fish darted joyfully around the coral. At that moment, Flora Bloom felt her oxygen running low. With a single thought, a huge, deep-blue bubble of water formed around her. As long as the bubble remained intact, she could breathe freely within it. Propelling herself with a jet of water, she swiftly approached the sprawling coral reef below.

Like a tourist in a submersible bubble, she glided over the seafloor, admiring the beautiful coral reef. Huge sea anemones unfurled their lovely tentacles, luring in nearby fish, shrimp, and crabs, only to drag them inside for digestion.

Flora Bloom watched one with great interest, reaching a hand out of her bubble to touch it. But the anemone instantly retracted deep into the coral, vanishing from sight.

Her approach didn’t frighten the cheerfully swimming schools of fish. On the contrary, because of her nature as a Water Ability User, these fish—not yet mutated by the virus—seemed drawn to her. They even used their mouths to curiously nudge the blue bubble that protected her.

’So many fish! If only I could gather them all into my space!’ she thought, reaching out to touch them. But the school of fish dodged her hand in an instant, as if they had teleported, leaving her a little disappointed.