Ding Longyun pushed the raft as he spoke, moving swiftly through the water. Su Li thought to himself that he had also noticed the situation Ding Longyun mentioned, but he couldn’t figure out the reason. Seeing Ding Longyun continuously pushing the raft in the water, he felt a bit apologetic and said, “Brother Ding, come on up. I can paddle us over.” As he spoke, he picked up the wooden paddle and began to row. Ding Longyun shook his head with a smile, hesitated for a moment, and then said, “Actually... I get a bit seasick, you know.” Su Li hadn’t expected that someone with such strong swimming skills would suffer from seasickness, and he was taken aback. Seeing Su Li’s stunned expression, Ding Longyun laughed heartily and said, “Honestly, I don’t understand why either. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve gotten seasick on boats. That’s why I worked hard to learn to swim from a young age. I thought once I learned, I’d stop getting seasick, but instead, it’s gotten worse as I’ve grown older. Still, even though I couldn’t cure the seasickness, at least I learned to swim, and now it’s come in handy.” Su Li nodded in empathy. Now that the city had been suddenly submerged by an unprecedented flood, having good swimming skills meant an extra chance of survival. He had plunged headfirst into the water earlier, choked, and nearly met his end—all because his swimming wasn’t proficient enough. If he had been better at it, he wouldn’t have ended up so狼狈. Knowing that Ding Longyun had a problem with seasickness, Su Li didn’t insist on him boarding the raft. Even as they drew closer to the building ahead, he remained vigilant, wary of any unexpected trouble. Ding Longyun pushed the raft until it reached a balcony, steadying it firmly against the edge. Su Li picked up the bricks tied with rope and tossed them inside first. “I’ll hold the raft steady for you all. You go up first,” Ding Longyun said warmly, swimming over along the raft’s edge. Su Li nodded with a grunt of acknowledgment, climbed over the balcony railing, and found that the floor inside was already submerged under three to four centimeters of water. The water level had been slowly rising over the past few days, and the thirtieth floor was now completely uninhabitable. Standing on solid ground, Su Li let out a soft sigh. Being inside a building was far safer than floating on water—at least it gave him a sense of security. He first secured the rope in place, then waved to Xu Xuehui as a signal. Xu Xuehui carefully stepped forward and extended her arms toward him. Su Li grabbed her arms and, with his help, she climbed over the balcony. After that, Su Li returned to the raft and began moving the various supplies on board. He planned to stay here temporarily, at least for a short while, so all these supplies needed to be brought up. Xu Xuehui stood by the balcony, catching the items he handed over, though she couldn’t handle anything too heavy. Ding Longyun emerged from the water, grabbed the balcony edge, and climbed up as well. “Little girl, take a break. Let me handle it,” Ding Longyun said with a smile, taking the storage box filled with boiled water that Su Li carefully passed over. He asked curiously, “What’s in here?” “All boiled water—clean and safe to drink. If conditions allow, you can heat it up,” Su Li explained. “Boiled water? You’ve got some nerve, bringing so much water! Haha, it’s really unnecessary,” Ding Longyun laughed. Su Li’s eyes lit up. “Is the tap water still running here?” Ding Longyun easily set down the storage box, which held a full 170 liters of water, and clicked his tongue. “What are you thinking? The water, electricity, and gas have been cut off for a while. But look around—there’s water everywhere. Water’s the last thing we’re short of. Why bother bringing it?” Su Li looked at Ding Longyun in surprise. “You mean this water? You drink this water?” He gestured at the endless expanse of water outside, thinking of how many corpses might be submerged in it, what filth it might contain, and what bacteria or parasites could be lurking. He truly didn’t dare drink it. Ding Longyun grunted in acknowledgment. Seeing Su Li’s shocked expression, he smiled and said, “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s fine. You just need to strengthen your stomach. Judging by your reaction, you haven’t done that, have you?” Su Li’s mind stirred. During his two previous enhancements, he had indeed been prompted to strengthen his stomach, but he had chosen to strengthen his lungs the first time and his muscles the second, skipping the stomach option. When Su Li shook his head, Ding Longyun explained, “You need to strengthen your stomach at least once. That way, it can handle drinking cold water and eating raw meat, ensuring you won’t get sick from it. Even though we’re not short on food right now, none of us knows how long this will last. Clean food is a finite resource—we’ll use it up bit by bit. Eventually, we might be forced to eat the meat of these monsters, and an ordinary stomach probably couldn’t digest it.” Su Li understood and nodded with a grunt. Then, curious, he asked, “Earlier, when you attacked that water rat beast, there wasn’t a single visible wound on its surface. How did it suddenly die?” “Water rat beast? You call those giant water rats ‘water rat beasts’? Haha, that name fits. Is that what you’re asking about?” Ding Longyun raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist as he spoke. Su Li saw a faint, almost intangible layer shimmering over the surface of his fist, appearing for just a moment before vanishing before he could get a clear look. “This is called ‘Soul Devourer.’ I got it from killing a super-huge rat. That big rat looked a lot like the ones just now, but it was two to three times bigger—probably their leader. That thing was vicious as hell.” “Originally, there were four of us living here, including me. Two of them were killed by it. I got lucky and landed the final blow, which gave me this ability called ‘Soul Devourer.’ When I use it to attack, it doesn’t damage the skin’s surface, but it directly destroys the brain inside. According to the info I got, it’s pretty mystical—it says it can devour souls, hence the name ‘Soul Devourer.’ But from what I understand, it’s like that old concept of ‘striking through the mountain’—the outside stays intact, but everything inside is wrecked.” As Ding Longyun spoke, his face showed a mix of pride and wistfulness. Pride came from the eerie power of the “Soul Devourer” ability, while wistfulness came from the memory of his former companions killed by the giant rat. Listening to Ding Longyun’s explanation, Su Li understood. Ding Longyun didn’t have the “Peek Rune,” so he couldn’t inspect the monsters’ data. That’s why he didn’t know the creature he’d just killed was called a water rat beast, simply referring to it as a giant water rat. The rat he described as two to three times bigger than the water rat beast was likely the water rat king, evolved from the water rat beast. The water rat king was an elite-type spirit source beast. Based on past experience, killing an elite-type spirit source beast had a certain chance of granting a special skill. For example, Su Li’s “Peek Rune” and “Glutton’s Fang” were both special skills obtained from killing elite-type spirit source beasts.