Chapter 53: Chapter 36: Deserted Island, Sea Abyss
Chun’s heart skipped a beat: "Could the pumpkins growing on Plague Island be the herb to cure the plague?"
Aileen said: "It’s very possible, maybe if you eat them for a while, the plague would be lifted."
Even so, Chun had enjoyed the benefits of practicing skills while sick, which enhanced his Spirit, so how could he bear to cure the disease? There’s still a day and a half left of the three-day newbie blessing event, and in this remaining time, he shouldn’t be worrying about this island and should focus on practicing skills!
After avoiding the overgrown vegetable garden, they returned to the residential area and then to the dock.
Overall, it couldn’t be considered a city, just the scale of a small island town, but with all the necessary shops and institutions.
Aileen exclaimed: "This island is neither the nearest nor the largest, doesn’t seem to have any fishing grounds, and its land is not as fertile as the later developed Watermelon Island and Herb Island. I really question the judgment of the Black Flag Commerce Association."
Chun also felt it was hard to explain: "Maybe because it’s nothing, there weren’t any powerful monsters here at the time, making it easy to build..."
Aileen sighed: "Do you think it’s worth 10 billion?"
Chun didn’t have a concept of 10 billion but indeed felt something was off.
Suddenly, Chun remembered an internet joke—if a deserted mountain suddenly had a large mansion or villa, then it’s either a hidden treasure or tomb raiding! Because only in a treasure site do you build extensively to cover up treasure digging.
Chun had a burst of inspiration: "Aileen, I still think this island might have particularly precious minerals!"
Aileen was astonished: "We just discussed the reasons why it couldn’t be!"
Chun forced a reason: "Isn’t it possible that this island was built because a gold mine was discovered, and then something happened leading to the secret being about to leak, so this plague was to cover up the existence of the gold mine, to prevent it from being snatched by the Golden Empire, wiping out the whole island?"
Aileen laughed heartily: "You’re bad, I like it!"
Chun said in annoyance: "I’m just deducing this possibility."
Aileen laughed: "Then go to the mine and look for it according to your idea. Anyway, you’re not afraid of the gas."
There’s likely a hidden big boss, who dares to go there? But if this deduction is true, it’s impossible to directly mine the gold right under the eyes of so many people on the island, right?
Chun’s thoughts continued to spread: "I think the mine is just a decoy, the gold mine definitely isn’t on this island, maybe it’s underwater, maybe it’s on a faraway island’s seabed."
Aileen laughed: "Then let the whale go find it underwater!"
Alright, though the idea is unreliable, having a clear direction is better than having no clue at all. The key is, using the search for the undersea gold mine as an excuse to seize the last day and a half to practice skills!
...
Returning to the small boat, Chun unloaded most of the water and provisions from the boat to the dock to lighten the whale’s load, then covered them with a broken box—speaking of which, is this broken box contaminated by the plague?
Then he called to the whale: "Let’s search the surrounding underwater islands to see if there’s any treasure?"
The whale excitedly sprayed water and pulled the boat again.
Soon, what was meant to come finally came!
——System prompt: Congratulations! You overcame extreme weakness, muscle memory recalled Advanced Fishing Technique level 1, receiving an additional achievement reward: Life +1, Spirit +1! Module Combination’s skill proficiency increased.
——System prompt: Congratulations! Your wisdom is outstanding, and you persevered through the plague-induced weakness, successfully comprehending Basic Sailing Technique level 1, receiving an achievement reward: Carrying capacity +1, Physical Strength +1. Additional achievement reward: Spirit +1!
Advanced, comprehended, gained 2 points of Spirit, awesome! Well, does this count as legitimate advanced?
Moreover, the proficiency continues to rise after fishing becomes advanced! So everything on the island can be put on hold!
Just when feeling triumphant, the whale grunted—system prompt: The whale feels hungry and needs to find food first.
Oh, right!
Chun felt quite distressed: "Then stop pulling the boat for now, go find food quickly."
The whale groaned a few times—system prompt: The whale is unwilling to abandon guarding you.
Chun hastily said: "I can get on land!"
Aileen said seriously: "Actually, it’s okay to have the whale help search around for any fishing grounds. If there’s any danger, we can still protect it."
Only then did Chun realize: "True, I was just worried out of concern."
But how do we protect it?
The small boat was pulled towards the open sea, Plague Island once again became a floating silhouette on the horizon.
At this moment, the whale dropped the fishing rod and began circling around.
"Did it find a fishing ground?"
Chun excitedly activated the radar, though it couldn’t see far below the sea, but indeed no fish were visible.
Aileen said solemnly: "Where there are fishing grounds, there are usually gathered seabirds and appearances of large sea beasts or fish. The water here is so black, it must be especially deep."
Sure, water green is deep, water black is abyss, this is the Sea Abyss!
And in the deep sea, there are usually the old enemies of sperm whales, like giant squid or octopus! But with this whale’s elderly state and having external injuries, can it contend with giant octopus?
The whale wandered a while, seemingly confirming a target, and then dove into the deep sea.
Although Chun’s radar couldn’t detect far under the sea, such a large whale could still be tracked along the way.
Aileen kept determining the depth: "100 meters, 200 meters, 300 meters..."
Chun was shocked. He didn’t know about the game, but in reality, without equipment, humans could go no deeper than 100 meters, while the top diving equipment’s limit is 700 meters, and sperm whales going down 2000 meters is common! This game even created a Void, it really might make a 2000-meter Sea Abyss! There’s nothing he can do to help!
Then, it disappeared from the radar.
Chun panicked, waiting tens of minutes! The only thing he could do was clap to call it back, wasn’t it just looking for food? No need to fight the deep-sea sea monster to the death.
——System prompt: You activated Whale Guardian...
Soon, it reappeared on the radar, Chun breathed a sigh of relief.
Aileen said somberly: "Its ascending speed isn’t much faster than its descent speed."
Chun’s heart tightened, could it be injured?
Finally, with a gigantic splash, the sea surface instantly turned red, and the whale was covered in blood!
Chun was stunned: "How’s the injury?"
The whale spouted a tube of red blood—system prompt: The whale discovered a giant octopus in the sunken ship below.
Sunken ship octopus!?
An octopus is a soft body, it should just be a superficial scratch? But even with Chun’s blurred vision, he could see several big dents! Does this octopus have strength comparable to a giant python?
The only thing Chun could do was bring out 40 bottles of red potion: "Let’s treat it first, I’ll pour some in your mouth!"
For the whale, these 40 bottles were just a drop in the bucket, but as long as it could slightly stop the bleeding it would suffice.
At this moment, Aileen made a discovery: "Look at what’s embedded in its head?"
Among the sand, wood debris, and flesh left from the fight, Chun vaguely saw something flickering either black light or gold light!
Holy shit, gold mine!!
Chun hurriedly peeled it off and took a closer look, a mung bean-sized gold nugget!?
——System prompt: You discovered an unknown Divine Artifact-level material.
"Divine Artifact material!!!"
Aileen was shocked: "It’s not gold, it has a blackish sheen, it’s the legendary Magic Gold!"
Holy shit!!! Magic Gold, Mithril, the top-tier Divine Artifact materials in the game, obtaining one can conquer half the world!
Chun was in disbelief like dreaming of winning a lottery: "There’s really a mine! I was just guessing, but I actually guessed right!"
Thinking carefully, Fafnir had once said that finding an ownerless mine could do, perhaps this was a hint? Just that finding it so smoothly, without the whale, it really couldn’t be found, obviously feeling coincidentally off!