Chapter 52: Chapter 36: Deserted Island, Sea Abyss
The island isn’t that big, the whale quickly pulls the small boat around it, no living person detected on the radar.
Chun remembered Fafnir mentioning an investigation of the population before departure, clearly with deeper meaning.
Anyway, with the radar and the whale in position, his courage surged and he was ready to go ashore.
Chun cautiously landed on the island, holding a Red Blood Bottle in his hand as if it were a grenade.
After the battle in the sewer, 40 Red Blood Bottles remained, but carrying them made the already weak Chun struggle to move, so he took 10 and left the rest on the boat.
The dilapidated dock street, hospitals’ signs everywhere, residential buildings covered with vegetation, and a bank recognizable even through blurred vision—a bank!
Holy Shit, there’s actually a bank! If a player becomes a Lord and can have their own bank... that would be freaking awesome!
Aileen said, "There’s a bar nearby, and it looks like there are drinks on the counter!"
Chun, who had been researching drinks during the public beta, immediately sneaked in to find a box of 40 unopened bottles in a mess of empty bottles and broken jars—hmm?
Aileen laughed in surprise, "Tapioca Burn?"
This drink is so cheap that nobody drinks it because it often causes poisoning! But perhaps that’s why a box remains?
Chun laughed, "Well, it’s a hundred-year-old Tapioca Burn, probably special?"
Aileen shrugged, "Maybe."
Carrying a whole box was impossible, so he took five bottles with him and hid the box again as best as he could.
Outside the bar, there was a blacksmith’s workshop, complete with tools, molds, furnaces, coal, and spare mining pickaxes in the corner.
Chun instinctively drew out a mining pickaxe for protection.
Then he noticed something flashing gold on the shelf: "What’s that?"
Aileen got excited, "Looks like gold?"
Chun immediately went to check, and it seemed like a trophy covered in dust and cobwebs.
He wiped it clean, and indeed it shone brilliantly—Holy Shit! Excitedly, Chun rubbed off a thin layer of the gold coating, revealing the Black Iron beneath.
Aileen laughed, "So it’s gold-plated!"
Chun was a bit speechless, "There seems to be writing on it? Could you check for me?"
"Congratulations to Smith on advancing to Master-level Forging Award."
Chun actually felt a sense of respect, "So there was a Master here once!"
But the name Smith was too common, like a Chinese blacksmith literally being named Iron Smith.
Aileen mused, "They say that Masters from the Great Expansion Era were true Masters! Unlike now, standards have fallen, and titles are overused."
Chun was surprised, "People say that?"
Aileen shrugged, "That’s what the folks chat about offstage, because the Golden Empire wants to monopolize technical talent and prevent the Five Great Cities from growing too big, so they inflated Masters, including the Master-level dance teachers who taught us."
Holy Shit, hidden information!
Chun suddenly remembered the mining technique Master he picked up magic stones from, it did seem a bit overblown. He had actually discovered that leveling skills normally only increased load capacity and physical strength, muscle memory would fill in life, and illness and fatigue would fill in spirit. Better to say it’s the consortium widening the gap with ordinary players rather than the Golden Empire monopolizing technology.
Chun mused, "Yeah, even Fafnir said later commerce orders were weakened."
Leaving the blacksmith’s shop, the sound of crows intensified, and Chun felt a bit tense!
Aileen said, "It’s a church!"
A church? That should be a respawn point, not dangerous, right?
Chun cautiously approached and saw, not only the dilapidated building but also the surrounding dense graveyard, with crows bouncing from tombstone to tombstone, completely unafraid of his approach. These Plague Crows sure were audacious.
Chun’s scalp tingled, "At night, will these graves churn out zombies? Or maybe the King of Crows or something?"
Aileen laughed, "Then why not stay the night in the church and see? Maybe there’ll be a Necromancer Dance?"
Though it sounded like a joke, it might indeed be the island’s deeper meaning! Being a Necromancer Lord was better than nothing.
"Let’s wait until night for that."
A small hill loomed past the church, toppled rusted mine carts scattered about.
Aileen said, "It’s a mine! Do you want to use the radar to scan it?"
"Let’s scan."
"Stand at the entrance for sound wave return."
As Chun arrived at the cave mouth, a red light alarmed—system prompt: Warning! You have encountered toxic gas, your ’Whale Power’ has immunized you from the toxic effect.
Holy Shit, the entrance alone is poisonous, what must be inside!
With the radar activated, a vast and complex network underground map appeared before Chun’s eyes.
Both toxic and extensive, that’s the deeper meaning of the island!
Chun perked up, "Do you think there’s any valuable ore in this mine?"
Aileen sneered, "How valuable can it be? If there were gold or anything, it wouldn’t be abandoned just because of a plague, even convicts would be sent with gas masks to mine it—"
Then Aileen paused, "Wait, if there were gold, the Golden Empire’s Invincible Fleet would be all over it, no chance for Black Iron City to mine."
"True enough."
Chun still habitually swung the mining pickaxe at the entrance.
—System Prompt: Do you wish to activate automatic mining mode?
Oh? You can AFK mine here too! Maybe when I log off one day I could regain my major mining technique muscle memory here.
Past the mine was a fenced, overgrown area, and Chun couldn’t see clearly, "Is it a farmland?"
Aileen sighed, "Seems like wild pumpkins, but only the size of a fist, this island sure is barren."