Chapter 34: Arrival at Plague Island

The battle was essentially a foregone conclusion. Dachun moved incessantly, much like a water monster relentlessly attacking a duck floating on the surface; it was no different from grinding mobs in the wild.

The only trouble was the high stamina consumption. Fortunately, he still had dozens of mushrooms left, and his "Diving Mastery" meant that staying still beneath the pool didn't drain his stamina much.

After grinding through dozens of them, the moment finally arrived:

—System Prompt: Congratulations! You have overcome the immense fluid resistance of the magma. Your Advanced Swimming skill has promoted to Expert Level 1! You have gained the achievement reward: Stamina +2, Carrying Capacity +2, and obtained the talent skill: Expert Resistance Overcoming.

Expert Resistance Overcoming: Resistance encountered in fluids is reduced, and stamina consumption is decreased.

—System Prompt: Congratulations! You have successfully upgraded a skill to Expert level within two days. Exceptional performance! You have received the "Newbie Three-Day Great Discount Blessing" achievement reward: Intelligence +1!

...

Another Expert skill—sweet!

Having grasped the Expert level and the resistance-overcoming ability, Dachun felt as fluid as a fish in water. He suddenly recalled the sharkskin swimsuit the old man had lent him yesterday; it turned out that had been a trial run of the Expert level. Experience first, review later—the effect was truly like standing on high ground to see far!

Very good. The battles that followed went even more smoothly.

However, Dachun began to worry. Having killed so many, he had surely caused significant losses to the mining operation. Why hadn't the overseer come out to stop him?

No help for it; he would just have to continue.

Finally, after an hour, the magma pool grew calm.

Dachun was thoroughly exhausted. Checking the time, it was 5:00 PM. This hadn't been easy. If he had to do this every day, how would he survive? His development could not rely on such intensive micromanagement; he should just stack attributes and become a brainless warrior.

Just then, the teleportation array flashed, and the overseer, riding a two-headed fire dog, appeared.

Had the examiner come to collect the papers?

Dachun felt anxious. "Overseer, they attacked first..."

The overseer said in a deep voice, "In this place, many things are determined by strength, not right or wrong. But since you have eliminated 115 miners, you must create value that exceeds theirs. This place is rich in magma crystal ore; just dig up the ore and pile it by the teleportation array."

Does he think I'm an excavator, capable of replacing a hundred people?

Dachun remembered something. "Overseer, how do I resurrect my two servants who turned into soul fires?"

The overseer opened his palm, which suddenly held several even brighter soul fires. "Yours are too weak. It would be better to mine more and buy new ones from me!"

Damn it! So all the ones I killed ended up in your hands?

Dachun struggled with the thought. "If I don't resurrect and nurture them, I feel like it's a failure of my leadership."

The overseer replied coldly, "In this cruel world, there is usually only screening, not nurturing—but your sentiment is not entirely unacceptable. Start mining first; when there are enough materials, it will naturally be possible."

Dachun asked again, "And my trial results?"

The overseer gave a cold, mocking smile. "I am not in a very good mood."

With that, he teleported away.

Damn it! You're happy because I got trapped by the fourth giant lizard, aren't you?

Regardless, the area was cleared, which was fine. He could mine in peace.

—System Prompt: You can set up auto-grinding for your current scene. Would you like to set it?

...

That was a must! All his hard work was for the sake of obtaining this "free auto-grind"!

...

He switched to his main account. In the game, it was barely dawn, but the screen was still trembling and blurry, as if it had been smashed.

There was a system message:

—System Prompt: Congratulations! Your intelligence is exceptional. You fought tenaciously while in a state of extreme physical weakness and successfully combined the mechanical properties of the fishing rod to catch a large yellow croaker. Your muscle memory has successfully recalled "Beginner Fishing" Level 1. You have gained additional achievement rewards: Health +1, Spirit +1. Your "Module Combination" skill proficiency has increased.

...

Damn!!

Dachun was overwhelmed with joy. It actually added Spirit! Spirit, like Speed and Luck, was a high-end attribute that was very difficult to obtain. It couldn't be that he gained 1 point every level, right? He estimated he would only get another point upon reaching Intermediate level.

Judging by the prompt, to gain Spirit, one had to lead with Intelligence and train while sick. Wasn't this the "Dying Grind Method" that the open beta legends talked about? The plague was worth it!

He checked his attributes; everything was reduced by more than half! The 105% bonus from the Chamber of Commerce had been completely negated; it was even worse than the weakness after resurrection.

That was fine; the more miserable he was, the better he could train. It was just that this blurry vision made it impossible to play. Later, he would have to wake Eileen, have her be his eyes, or let her control his movements.

Before long, the sound of crows echoed from the sky. A landmass shrouded in black fog appeared vaguely on the horizon.

—System Prompt: Warning! You have entered the territory of the forbidden Plague Island. Your resurrection point has been updated to the abandoned church on the island. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Damn! When others approach the shore, they see seagulls, but I get crows! If I wanted to develop this place into a tourist spot, it would only be a ghost park!

He tried to report his safety to Sherry.

—System Prompt: Distance is too great. Unable to use the Attendant Badge to communicate.

He switched to the Chamber of Commerce channel.

—Black Flag Order Prompt: Distance is too great. Given your current bankruptcy status, you cannot communicate via the Chamber of Commerce channel.

Eh... Actually, players not being able to use the Chamber of Commerce channel didn't matter, as they could use offline mobile groups. The biggest use of the channel was to contact NPCs. If he was so down-and-out that he couldn't even reach the guild leader, that was truly tough.

Finally, he docked at the pier. Even with his blurry vision, he could see a scene of desolation and gloom, like a ghost town.

Several mirrored boatmen tied up the boat, stood in a row before Dachun, and seemed to wave goodbye before their forms dissolved in light and disappeared.

Dachun was stunned. They were just leaving? Did this mean Fafna had gifted him a small boat?

Well, given her status, gifting a small boat was a trivial matter. But as an NPC being so generous to a player, it was somewhat moving.

However, Dachun remained on the boat, afraid to move. His eyes were unclear, his speed was slow—what if a horde of zombie dogs or zombie thugs rushed out of the island?

"Eileen, are you there? My eyes are blurry!"

No reply.

He waited for a while and called out again, but still no response. Fine, she had said she was busy with the bat situation and not to disturb her unless his life was in danger.

So, the safe way was to stay off the island, let the boat drift away from the pier, anchor in the near-shore waters, and contact the whales for support. If there were living people on the island, they would surely see him, come to the pier to find him, witness the greatness of the Whale Lord, and immediately submit in worship.

Dachun fumbled to untie the ropes and fiddled with the oars—

—System Prompt: You have triggered "Boat Sailing" training.

Damn!

Something he couldn't trigger yesterday even after binding nine broken little boats was now happening immediately. Fortunately, the boat had a sail, and handling the sail also counted as "Boat Sailing." If he had nothing else to do, he could fish while steering the sail.

In any case, after drifting to the near-shore waters, he dropped anchor.

Then, he activated the "Whale Guardian" skill and clapped his hands into the water.

—System Prompt: Your call to the whales has reached the depths of the ocean. Please wait patiently. Estimated response time: 4 hours.

Damn, 4 hours! Well, that was the prestige of a big ultimate move.

But that wasn't the point. The point was that his Whale Guardian clap could transmit so far—it was infrasound! Couldn't he develop this into a martial art?

He would wait. For now, he might as well continue auto-grinding for fish.

When the sun rose and the sky was painted red with clouds, there was still no movement, save for the sound of waves, the wind, and the crows.

Dachun, feeling bored, switched back to his alt account, which was diligently grinding. There was progress; his fire resistance had increased to 0.3%.

He was hungry, so he made a pack of instant noodles to tide himself over—no, that wasn't right! He couldn't eat noodles three times a day. He should go out to eat now. The experts on the first floor—no, the players worldwide—must want to know what happened after his exile. If he were so busy that he didn't even go downstairs to eat, it would clearly signal that he had found a new, high-potential map, not that he was out of the game. Wouldn't the big shots then redouble their efforts to target him?

So, in this life, when one is down-and-out, one must act spirited, and when one is successful, one must act down-and-out!

He logged off. If anything happened to his main account, he would just meet them at the church. Besides, Eileen had said she would intervene if his life was in danger.

Dachun brewed up a sense of misery and went downstairs. Sure enough, the experts on the first floor were waiting expectantly: "Brother Chun is down! Brother Chun is amazing, you even managed to get yourself exiled!"

Dachun sighed helplessly, "It's precisely because I don't know how to play that all these weird things happen."

"Brother Chun is being modest! You're the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.! The Rat King and the Roach King must have been taken care of by you, right?"

Dachun firmly denied it. "No, believe it or not, it really has nothing to do with me!"

Everyone roared with laughter. "Not only do we not believe you, the whole world doesn't! That's why you're trending!"

Damn, how could it be like this?

"Brother Chun, have you reached the island? What does it look like?"

"Why are you asking? Brother Chun has found a hidden map. This is a big secret and a major development opportunity; how can you ask?"

"Exactly, exactly! Everyone keep quiet and don't ask. When Brother Chun gets ahead, he'll naturally take us brothers along!"

Damn, damn! These experts were all seasoned veterans!

Dachun was even more helpless. "Fine, fine, I'm going out to eat. You guys carry on."

"Take your time, Brother Chun!"

Since they wouldn't believe him no matter how he acted, he would prove it with actions. He would go out to eat, wander around for four hours, and then return, just in time for the whale's response.

If they saw him acting so slack, would they think he was on the verge of a major breakthrough?