The Ultimate Evolution
chapter-100

Chapter 100: A letter to home (Upper)

Let us backtrack to 10 minutes ago.

Location: The Bell and Mug

Although this pirate ship was known as an elite, its internal defence was incomparably hollow. But, it had an outstandingly prestigious Ammand assuming command, it was extremely secure. The ‘stay back’ force of pirates were numerously aged and sickly working as one mind, their expressions had not one hint of panic or worry. The ship was not illuminated, nobody making excessive noise, in perfect order and even had alcohol and bandages prepared for a wave of wounds.

Noteworthily, the long legs Robben who was raised by Sheyan singlehandedly was surprisingly part of the stay back force.

On the surface, the command for Robben to stayback was an accidental decision by Ammand. His aim was to ensure a middle-ranking member to remain and manage his personal orders. But everyone knew vividly, Ammand was worried about the crew head Sheyan, that is why he decided to separate him and Robben. This was in case the both of them were far away from his watchful vision, decided to be tempted by the sudden appearance of an immense amount of wealth.

However, Robben this old fox did not show any abnormality towards Ammand’s arrangement. To this brat, who had suffered arduous training for years in the Caribbean sea, a short phrase could describe him; “Whoever has milk, is his mother”. Who could give benefit to him, will be the one who gains his loyalty.

The faraway blazing inferno illuminated the night sky along with sorrowful wails and mournful cries. Robben fished out a delicate golden pocket watch in his pocket. (Note: Pocket watches only appeared in the 17th century, you guys can treat this as a soul equipment) Observing it, he nodded his head. Afterward, he enviably gazed at the shore of Tortuga port, and strolled into lower floor cabin. In front of Sheyan’s cabin, two puffed and round pirates stood guard. They were leaning against the pillar as they dug at their nose, scratched their toes and counted houseflies, obviously overcome with boredom. Robben glanced at them and coughed, lifting his face and loudly exclaiming:

“What the heck are you guys doing! The grand captain Ammand has ordered you to obediently guard Mr Chris, but you two fools are actually slacking off?”

These two pirates immediately straightened up as though being poked by a dagger. Looking at Robben’s irritable poker face, they could only fished out a few shillings offering the old Robben to be magnanimous. Initially, Robben naturally objected forcefully, that was until most of the cash the pirates had fell into his hand. He then snorted, waved his hands at them to get lost and then pushed open and entered the cabin. The two pirates then cursed and sweared in their bellies, swearing profanities against the females of Robben’s family in their minds.

As the door creaked open, the fat Chris suddenly jumped up in astonishment. His face was pale as though he was a criminal that got caught red handed. He faked a smile at Robben, and nervously questioned:

“Mr Robben, don’t tell me that they have triumphantly returned?”

Robben sensed that this fat Chris had a strange expression, but he figured he was only worried out of concern. Thus he humbly bowed saying:

“Respected Mr Chris, crew head had entrusted to me something before he left. That was if he haven’t return within half an hour, then I should pass this letter to you. Please note the time, I have fulfilled my promise and present this letter punctually to you.”

Chris obviously hadn’t expect this, he asked in astonishment:

“Letter?”

Robben nodded his head and replied solemnly:

“Don’t worry, when receiving this letter I swore an oath using my ancestor’s grave that I would not peep and accurately hand it over to you. Therefore, the contents of this letter are only known by crew head, there is no other person.”

In this world there were all sorts of supernatural events and witchcraft existing, oaths were not as unchecked and unbounding as the present world. It was a relatively grave action. And the reason why Robben had even done such a grave thing as to swear upon his ancestor’s grave was mainly because Sheyan had already offered him 10 pound sterlings as remuneration.

Chris received this letter with great suspicions. He immediately teared open the letter to read it. With his first look, beads of cold perspiration formed profusely on his forehead. Because the first line of this letter, astoundingly wrote, “Beloved demolition expert, Mr Chris” this 5 words!

Beloved demolition expert, Mr Chris:

Please forgive me for addressing you like this only at this period. Actually when we first met, I already had a clear inference of your status and personal strength.

Firstly, you are a person lacking in threatening force in both close or far range combat, but yet you are able to play a crucial part in your party’s explosion of Tortuga castle. This means that you hold a critical tactical position in their plans! From the perspective of the initial difficulty in our realm, not many in a party without battle capabilities can claim to be ‘important’. Comparing the special characteristics within the nightmare realm to say. A person with matchless investigation/direction capabilities due to high perceptive sensing, a person with extensive range of connections due to his high charm, people with strong enhancing/ buffing abilities due to their high intelligence or high spirit, there is only left with the core position of a demolition expert.

Within these categories, your perceptive sensing is definitely not high, if it was you would’ve chosen a better escape route and not fallen into the dire straits from your pursuers. Your charm is even lower, so much that you have sunk to a level of using my reputation to borrow money from the pirates. Thus, you are left with the last two categories.

However, the reaction from your remaining party members betrayed you. If you were such an essential member that could bring great benefits or enhance your party’s strength, they would certainly utilize every method to find you. They would never be so oblivious to your condition like right now.

After eliminating all possibilities, the only one that is left, even if it so unfathomable, it is definitely the correct answer. However based on the aforementioned intelligence, I still have no confidence in placing this noble title of a demolition expert on you. Yet, I noticed a small thing. That was during the battle of the Paragon fleet, your contribution level was actually not low and you managed to receive an award of two ancient gold pound.

Following this lead I further investigated, I discovered that your contribution was achieved by cooperation with the cannon gunmen at the hold of the ship! That cannon gunman was extremely honest with his crew head. Once the respected Mr Chris stored up the gunpowder by the side, the cannons mysteriously flew further and possessed a greater power! From this, respected Mr Chris, my deduction had been complemented by this last piece of evidence.

Once I placed this title of a demolition expert on your head, it naturally can explain why you were so determined not to return to your party. The reason you could compromise and stay on this ship was because of your special fighting style. Once you return to your party you will most likely be reduced to a marginal role of servitude. You might as well stay on this easily accessible pirate ship, and borrow my name as protection and do my things here.

For example, borrowing lot of cash from the pirates and placing it on me. And perhaps…… using the adequate time on this boat to make huge amounts of spirit type explosives, and bury them around this ship.

Oh! My beloved cousin Chris, please do not be emotional lest you knock your head against this low ceiling ship hold. Since I dare to make such a conclusion, I naturally have adequate proof.

What differs me from you is that my perceptive sensing has reached an entire 14 points. Under my meticulous attention, I can still barely confirm objects that threatens my life to a certain extent. After my careful investigations, I finally discovered a small explosive pasted beneath the stool. I can not acknowledge that this sort of spirit manufactured explosives are extremely covert, and can be said to be a piece of art. What is unimaginable is that a chewing gum sized object possesses such astonishing powers that can torment others. Of course, following my observation, the duration you need to manufacture one is relatively long. It should be roughly one in every 24 hours.

Chapter 101: A letter to home (Lower)

Just like how I can figure your schemes, similarly you should be guessing mine, and even following traces of clue from the storyline, you should be pretty close in guessing. Tonight a scenario that you take pleasure in is presented. Xiaer and Blind Matt’s task force, me and Scarface Harry leading a group of elite reinforcements. The entire Bell and Mug has essentially withered to nothing, the only threat that is left is the strongest and fiercest Ammand! Once he leaves his cabin by a hundred, no, fifty metres, you will be able to clean up his entire room like a licking dog and casually leave this damned world without fear.

Everything boils down to when will Ammand leave this ship? The only possibility is when we successfully plundered and return loaded or we got defeated and return empty handed. As a pirate captain, he cannot charge in personally with the frontline but only keep guard and observe from the headquarters. However, once we return triumphantly from our blood-soaked victory, if he still stubbornly remained on the ship and adopt an indulgent attitude, then that is both illogical and uncompassionate. Obviously, Ammand’s beguile ways of reaching to people’s heart is understood, if not he wouldn’t be able to sit on a position as one of the future seven pirate lord. Therefore, is the only chance that you’ve been painstakingly waiting for.

Looking till here, Chris’s fat face had turned white and ashen, and back to white! His cold sweat dripped repeatedly from his forehead, completely drenching his hair. He had no time to wipe, his heart had already sunk into a coldest icehouse. He had never anticipated that his own schemes were seen thoroughly by this devil! He gasped for a few deep breaths, and anxiously read on.

Presently, I have no choice but to regrettably inform you, the opportunity you have been waiting for is forever gone.

I have always deliberately leaked out in front of you the impression that my current position had not been easily obtained. Therefore, you’ve mistakenly thought: that I did put in great effort to become the crew head, and thus, was of utmost importance. Hence, you thought I wanted to continue climbing up this social ladder. I trust that this point of view has already been deeply-rooted within your heart.

But, actually I want to tell you, only by giving up, then you will gain. If I cannot bear to part with my position as a crew head and my painstakingly gained reputation on the Bell and Mug, then how would I be able to ingeniously place you as my most important chess piece in this set up?

I was already bent on betraying Ammand.

And just in this one campaign.

Therefore, Ammand will never receive our triumphant and returning report. The fully expectant Ammand’s only report will be the news of my betrayal, inflicting great losses no matter how my plan goes. The ultimate outcome of success or failure, life or death, I will still betray him, utterly and shamelessly betray him.

Therefore, regarding ‘Blood related cousin’ ‘life saviour’ this status what do you think. Respected Mr Chris, use your rich imagination, you should be able to recognize the cruel methods that the furious Ammand would do to you to vent his frustrations.

Based on the oath he swore upon his ancestors grave and the 10 pound remuneration, long leg Robben has an 88.4% chance of faithfully carrying out my order: After two hours of setting off, he will punctually deliver this letter into your hands. At this time I may have died or maybe perfectly alive any place in this world. But to you, it is not important, what is important is that I have already committed treacherous acts towards Ammand. Anyway, the great Son of the Black Sea may have already received unfortunate news. Hence, for your safety, Mr Chris, please pay careful attention to the footsteps outside the door, that could be the sound of people sent my Ammand to capture you.

On account of the two gold pounds, I will leave you with one final warning:

Immediately detonate the explosives, after causing a huge confusion, jump into the sea and escape!

The greater the explosion, the more decimated the Bell and Mug will be. Then your pursuers will definitely be weakened, and the chances of surviving will increase. Of course, if you think this is all reverse psychology and refuse to detonate your explosives, and immediately flee, then i can promise these elite pirates will definitely fish you out within a minute. Ammand would not even need to step in.

Believe me, even though jumping into this icy cold seawater is not any great experience, it is definitely much better than experiencing the cruel torture of those savages. Only a living person can dare to hope, don’t you agree?

Yours truly

Your faithful friend/cousin/savior/creditor

Seaman Yan from the east

After he finished reading the letter for about 10 seconds, footsteps echoed in from outside the cabin.

These footsteps were not urgent nor loud. Chris’s pupils shrank in, it carried not only shock but an immense fear!

Sheyan’s letter not only smashed his self-confidence, he turned this man into a startled bird at a twang of the bow (Chinese idiom – frightens easily due to past experiences). His frail mentality collapsed into dismay, shock and was provoking negative effects within his body. It was already reaching a nervous breakdown!

From the outside, the footsteps were merely made by a pirate who happened to pass by the ship’s hold to retrieve clothings.

The following events were simple.

Chris immediately created a small scale explosion, causing the side of of the cabin that was facing the ocean to explode. He then leapt into the icy seawater. Since he had already been scheming for a long time, and thinking of escaping, he naturally already prepared breathing and swimming agility equipments.

20 seconds later, the frantic pirates that were on guard rushed to the captain’s quarters to report. Roughly hundred metres away, the swimming Chris gritted his teeth. He thoroughly detonated the rest of the spirit explosives that he had attached around the Bell and Mug! Even though he was reluctant to follow Sheyan’s instructions, yet, he had no choice, he had to do it! Because Chris could sense the ruthlessness of Ammand, even though he himself had never revealed his true abilities.

That was the entire scene that Sheyan and Scarface Harry witnessed personally.

……

…….

The raging inferno scorched intensely against the sea. This blaze surged with great ferocity, that even the ashes violently spiralled into the atmosphere. It was especially moving and exceptionally tragic. Such a huge scene undoubtedly caused the remaining 3 pirates to drop their jaws. Even the originator of this evil plan, Sheyan, felt somewhat melancholy.

That engulfing huge flames caused Sheyan’s ambitious gaze to intensify, but utterly decimated the hopes of another. Scarface Harry gazed upon the distant sea, his face swiftly declined of defeat. In a brief moment, he had already lost all motivation to move forward.

As long as there is something to protect in a person’s heart, then in their most critical moment they will be able to exhibit their fullest potential. The already heavily wounded Scarface Harry was only relying persistently on the faith in his heart, that was why he was able to bring out an indomitable explosive strength. But now, as he looked at the burning wreck, the pressure and acute pain exploded forth within his body! Because the thing that he was striving to protect was torched up, utterly destroyed! (In this era, a captain and several emotionally attached pirate would have unimaginably deep feelings towards their ships, some even treated their ships like their wife and children. In Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Captain Jack mentioned, “a captain should sink together with his ship.”)

Sheyan’s final arrangement, was targeted at the heart not the body. It totally removed all of Scarface Harry’s killing spirit. The old mate that had carried him over countless storms and thousands of miles was a burning wreck, the condition of the one he vowed loyalty to was unknown. His life has been split apart! Furthermore, at present he had suffered massive injuries which would have been already fatal to an average person. Scarface Harry clenched his fists and stood at the bow of the ship, the Caribbean wind brushing against his cheeks as he gently shut his eyes.

This was the source of Sheyan’s confidence! Once Ammand released him ashore, then the destruction of the Bell and Mug was a given. He would be the final winner once he came ashore. The worst possibility would be incurring the wrath of the entire Bell and Mug, and be pursued by them! But never forget, before his mission he was already warned. The Caribbean pirates were a bunch of people who admired the strong, no matter if you treated them with kindness or evil, as long as you impacted them deeply, it can raise your reputation amongst them!

Undoubtedly, plotting to destroy the Bell and Mug will definitely raise his reputation amongst the pirates to an all time high!

Therefore, even though it was the worst outcome, Sheyan will still reap a tremendous profit! But, the chances of that happening was not great!

Sheyan sat away from Scarface Harry with a 5 metre gap. Currently, his body condition rejuvenated back to the optimum state, but after using that unpurified black blood orchid element, it had another huge side effect. 10 minutes after using, every attribute will plunge by 33%. Sheyan usually calculated his opponents based on the worst possible outcome. If Scarface Harry maintained that sort of murderous insanity, he won’t have the confidence to seal the battle by 10 minutes. Therefore, even after the last resort of the Bell and Mug exploding, and he ultimately could not finish off Scarface Harry, then Sheyan would really have to consider fleeing for his life.

The sea breeze gently blew, Scarface Harry’s eyes started dimming. His heart struggled with great effort to continue beating, but it finally succumbed and the beating ceased.

……

…..

Ocean calendar, year 233 5th month

Evening, 11 PM 17 minute, 3 seconds

Death of Scarface Harry

Bell and Mug Chief Officer

Lifespan 47 years

……

…….

Although Scarface Harry had stopped breathing, his body remained towering at the Ship’s bow with his raging eyes wide opened. It seemed like he would revive anytime and resume his rampage. Upon death he remained fierce and untamed, a strange captivating magic. From his body, a glittering silver conch fell and rolled over to Sheyan’s feet. Sheyan picked it up, he could feel an unexplainable strength contained inside! Apart from that, that silver sword that belonged to Ammand also fell to the floor, but it looked dark and bleak.

Chapter 102: Harvest and decision

After a while, the nearby surviving few cowering pirates crept near. Only after confirming Scarface Harry’s death did they resume their lawless behavior. Two pirates brandished their blades and cursed out loud, as the other wanted to mince Scarface harry’s corpse to vent his anger. Sheyan sighed as he gestured at them to stop, being completely unscrupulous in a battle was a given, if not, the consequences would definitely be his own death. However, after a satisfactory outcome, further insulting a dead person is somewhat going overboard.

After inquiring of the pirates, following the Vikings custom, he shifted Scarface Harry’s corpse to a small lifeboat by the side, and used a sail cloth to cover him. His funerary object was a rough wine cup that was made with cow hide. Then, the ropes were released as the little boat drifted away with the tide. There was one pirate that held some respect towards Scarface Harry, as he blew into his bagpipe that he hung across his neck. The winds were biting cold, the melodious flute sound accompanied this strong viking deep into the Caribbean sea. A sorrowful feeling unconsciously formed within everyone’s heart.

After the naval burial, Sheyan repaired the ship a little with the few pirates, at least he had to attempt to fix back and stable the main mast. If not just by relying on the few of them peddling this 15 metre long sailboat, even after working their ass off would they only sail a few dozen metres. One wave would then completely wasted their efforts. The remaining pirates all suffered personal injuries, furthermore their relationship was not counted as friendly, but Sheyan wasn’t afraid of them staging another rebellion.

After they repaired the ship somewhat adequately, Sheyan returned to the ship’s hold. In one glance he naturally eyed the bursting with Tortuga castle riches treasure chests. This was the treasures accumulated in Tortuga port for 70 years. But regrettably, after interacting with the treasures, the nightmare realm notified him that he could not sell these for utility points. He was also unable to find any specific message.

According to Sheyan’s deduction, this was probably because he had completely not contributed anything during the plundering of these treasures. Therefore, his contribution level was pathetic and the nightmare realm substantially revoked his privileges from it. Even though he stole these items from Scarface Harry, he only held ownership of it and had not privileges to sell or verify it. Of course this was only one possibility, but Sheyan did not think further because there were more important things at hand.

“Since that’s the case, then to maximize my benefits…..” Sheyan muttered to himself, he probably had a rough plan in his heart. Filled with expectations, he lifted up that ‘Ammand’s silver sword’, but he once again got dejected. That was because the notification that came from it was, “This weapon is binded to a soul, unable to examine!”

Obviously this silver sword should be an inheritance antique passed down in Ammand’s family, it was a medium that could be used to control the Bell and Mug. This was probably a dead weapon that had its own spiritual nature, at least a black category type. Therefore, if its owner Ammand did not die, then others would not be able to activate it.

From Sheyan’s understanding, this did not come as a surprise. Although the Bell and Mug just experienced an intense wide scale explosion, but when Chris was detonating the explosives, he completely had the aim of causing confusion to secure his escape route. There, the explosives strength should have been scattered and in intervals. Furthermore in Ammand’s captain quarters, he only placed one explosive and the rest was used for infrastructure destruction. Through Scarface Harry’s initial performance to evaluate Ammand’s real power, he probably had a great chance of surviving.

Sheyan shook his head, tossing out all unessential thoughts out of his mind. Undoubtedly, Ammand will view Sheyan as a thorn in his flesh, but Sheyan was already going to return to his present world soon.Therefore, this did not matter much. As for the future…..Sheyan felt that there was really a possibility of returning to the Caribbean world, but he felt his development was astoundingly fast. The next time he meets Ammand, Sheyan did not dare to boast of achieving victory, but at least he had some confidence of preserving his life.

Sheyan flung that enviable silver sword to the side, sighing in regret and shaking his head, taste of not being able to use such a wonderful weapon was bitter. This was just like a beautiful and sexy woman pole dancing in front of you but would never allow you to touch her. He then proceeded to pick up that flickering with silver glow conch. After tightly gripping it, he then observed a pitch-black brilliance flashing repeatedly, and a pocket sized handiwork object appeared in front. Looking closely, this object seemed to be sculpted from a black crystal, it had the appearance of an anchor. A faint blood stench pierced forward head-on, causing Sheyan to sneeze twice. The nightmare imprint transmitted a notification:

You have acquired a black type accessory: Obsidian fossil anchor

Obsidian fossil anchor

Equipment rarity: Black

Equipment: Strength/Agility/Physique + 1

Equipment: Charm – 2

Equipment passive ability: Bravery in oppression. Every time you receive damage, you will gain 2 points of physique temporarily for 300 seconds. This effect can stack for 5 times.

Equipment requirements: Physique attribute must be 18 points or more.

Equipment position: Accessory

Material: Obsidian

Weight: 104 g.

Description: This is an accessory made by a viking using obsidian, it has been passed down for centuries. It is said that it possess mysterious ability that can protect its owner. But because it has accumulated too much baleful energy during long periods of skirmishes, therefore, the wearer of this will also be slayed by another. Following Scarface Harry’s death, the soul binding of this accessory has vanished. However, in the future if it meets another compatible owner, it can be restored to its strongest state.

Evaluation: You can call it Gao-wen of the Sea, I will tell wether this is the nickname that Scarface Harry called this object.

Equipment battle score: 20

Looking at this accessory, Sheyan understood the reason why Scarface Harry was able to resist for so long. Just this equipment alone already gave him an additional 110 HP, an entire 11 points of physique, adding this onto his personal 30 points physique! Therefore, his total physique reach to a high of 41 points! If it included the bonuses from his silverish and other equipment and the title of chief officer, his basic attribute for physique may even have touched the upper limit in his world: 50 points. No wonder his relentless set-up could be forcefully foiled by Scarface Harry’s might.

(ED: +1 physique then +2 per damage received that can be stacked 5x)

Thinking till here, Sheyan realized he had really underestimated Scarface Harry. If he followed the reports that he acquired for deduction, this chieff officer should be a storyline character that is categorized amongst the likes of Ammand. Of course his storyline character would only take lower position in comparison of strength. Citing an example, if Davy Jones, Blackbeard, Jack Sparrow are like the Zhang Zhao, Dian Wei and Xu Zhu in the romance of the three kingdoms, then Scarface Harry would be akin to Guan Ping, Zhou Cang and Wan Shuang. They were all front-line military generals in the three kingdom.

“Then, if the head injury sustained by Scarface Harry was my doing, then this accessory loot should have been a silver storyline category.” Sheyan looked at the description of this obsidian fossil anchor, he couldn’t help but have that depressing thought in mind.

During the battle with the Paragon fleet, Scarface Harry’s head was pierced by a random flying wooden shard. Afterwards, severe dizziness and after effects had always plagued him. Sheyan cunningly conspired a series of pitfalls around this point, they were like loops of rope slowly constricting around Scarface Harry’s throat. Finally, it successfully robbed him of his life. Ultimately, that heavy injury to Harry’s head was not caused by Sheyan, it didn’t even have a shred of link to him. Therefore, the nightmare realm sliced off a class of Scarface Harry’s drop loot, restricting any cheap tricks from occurring.

Although the equipment requirement was 18 points in physique and Sheyan only had 17 points, but currently he was still on a boat. After his title: Pirate ringleader provided a bonus of strength + 2 and physique + 2, he barely met the equipping requirements, and thus he successfully equipped it. Once an equipment is put on within the nightmare realm its effects will be activated. However, once you unequip it and carry out restoration/enhancement/embedding effects onto it, then you have to gather 20 points of physique to be able to once again equip it.

After carrying out a series of experimentation, Sheyan realized that if he was able to anticipate a battle in the future, he can utilize the method of harming oneself to activate the passive ability of this obsidian fossil anchor. Thus, he can enjoy the frightening bonus of 10 points in physique right at the start! But if the battle abruptly broke out, then that possibility is dissolved.

A series of cheers resounded from outside the hold. The remaining 4 pirates were able to successfully tie back the main mast, and once again hang the sails onto it. Even though this makeshift mass swayed and crackled against the howling wind, seemingly about to break apart anytime, it was able to generate enough force and reluctantly move the boat. The pirates glanced at the sinking wreck of the Bell and Mug, they were temporarily at a loss and naturally decided to follow Sheyan blindly.

Chapter 103: Offering

Firstly, Sheyan called them in, bluntly kicking open one of the treasure chests, he pointed at the chest saying:

“It’s all yours, take until you cannot hold anymore.”

The 4 pirates obviously pounced forward in ecstasy following that order, fully filling up their pockets with great effort. Looking at their heavy sinking pockets, they had a blissful but exhausted look. Sheyan waited for their excitement to die down before softly speaking.

“Although the Bell and Mug is a wreck, I still feel that Ammand did not die. Once we wait for him to nurse himself, then the first person he will kill is me! I’m afraid he will pursue me to the ends of the world. Therefore, my only way of survival is by finding a large power to shelter me.”

“Counting the various super powers, the Black Pearl has probably suffered heavy casualties in its conflict with the Fokke family. I reckon old Jack points to disaster, and many have testified of Blackbeard’s evil and selfish ways. And the Queen’s glory….. May not be reliable. Therefore, the only last option left is the captain of the Flying Dutchman, Davy Jones. Although that guy is ruthless and savage, his reputation is a man of his words. Offering the remaining treasures to him may even earn me an important position.”

Sheyan swept his surroundings, and sincerely continued:

“Since you guys placed your trust in me, then I will naturally not let you down. There are two paths for you guys now. Number one is that you follow me and surrender to Davy Jones in the Flying Dutchman that is anchored outside of the port. The second is that you find a safe place to hide, once all these chaos has concluded, you will take your treasures and leave. No matter which path you choose, you have already secured great bonuses.”

The 4 pirates started discussing. Three of them did not want to continue as pirates, the last one was willing to continue risking his life out at sea. Sheyan agreed to them leaving, but first they had to assist in sailing the boat to an area near the Flying Dutchman. Those 3 pirates had no objections, after half an hour, the indistinct silhouette of the legendary pirate ship, The Flying Dutchman, appeared in front of their eyes. Sheyan worked hand in hand with the other willing pirates, they shifted the treasures to a small lifeboat at the side. Following that, they boarded the lifeboat and rowed towards the Flying Dutchman, prior to that they released a flashing signal.

Within this commotion, the Flying Dutchman also watchfully observed the surrounding serenity. Sheyan was presently rowing a lifeboat that was a little bigger than an ordinary sampan, the objects stored on it were plainly visible. They obviously presented no threat, and further gave out a friendly flashing signal thus they successfully ascended the legendary pirate ship, the Flying Dutchman.

Presently, the Flying Dutchman had not yet incurred the curse that was prevalent in the movies. The pirates atop this ship were still ordinary men, with a vigorous and untamed air around them. The vice officer Old Bill had even previously been sorrily ripped off by Sheyan. Sheyan’s charm was originally very low, after a series of events this relationship with Old Bill had plunged to ice level. If he unluckily encountered him the moment he ascended,he was afraid most of his efforts would have been wasted.

However, Sheyan had huge confidence of meeting the main owner of this ship, Davy Jones. This was not just a blind guess, but a deduction after careful deliberations! Taking the situation now into regards , such huge chaos has struck Tortuga port, the Fokke Family initiating assaults against the Black Pearl, and the remaining pirates had started pillaging the port. What was strange is that the Flying Dutchman and Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge, these two legendary pirate ship chose to spectate by the side.

Going by logic, these two ships should be the gang leaders amongst the hooligans. Encountering such a situation, they should set an example and be the first to act, if not their supreme position may be challenged by others in the future. Although Sheyan did not understand the underlying reasons behind their strange actions, there was one thing he could confirm. No matter its Blackbeard or Davy Jones, these two should be carefully observing the sequence of events unfolding regarding the port.

Information distribution was not developed in this era. A sudden visitor even if he came empty handed, would bring primary reports of what was happening,was what Davy Jones wanted. Furthermore these pirates had a venomous look in their eyes, looking at the few huge chests they could already guess what valuable items were in store. Therefore, Davy Jones had a 90% chance of personally coming out, thus meeting his objective.

Sheyan currently had already made a small name for himself within the pirates. During the pirate meeting on Herb Island, he had already familiarized himself with several pirates, and quite a couple already had a rough impression of Seaman Yan from the east. Following the heavy treasure chests being carried up, the nearby pirates all started to gasp in shock. At this moment, Sheyan felt that there was something not right. This feeling was not the nervousness of a sudden sneak attack, it wasn’t the feeling of exhaustion or boredom, but it was the feeling of being scanned and seeing through his secrets thoroughly!

Sheyan remained emotionless, he had already quietly examined his surroundings. He suddenly discovered a pair of eyes in the crowd, this eyes did not carry much difference with the normal pirates, but a mysterious magic seemed to be lodged within his eyes. It was like causing people to be trap in a hallucination. The owner of this eyes turned around and left after making eye contact with Sheyan. He was originally tangled up amongst the crowd, wearing a common red bandana across his head and wore a yellowish white fencing shirt. The sleeves of his shirt were pretty relaxed, tightening up only at the wrist. This was a pretty common attire amongst the pirates, hence when this person turned around, he was like a droplet of water within an ocean, he completely vanished.

Sheyan initially wanted to immediately give chase, but at this moment the captain’s door creaked open. Looking at it, it was probably kicked open from the inside. The wooden door was extremely sturdy, its thickness was about one wrist. Wild random marks covered the century old oaken wood. Although the door was filled with scars, it remained sturdy and unbreakable.

The swinging wooden door heavily crashed against a nearby wall with a loud “thump!” If one wasn’t paying attention, he would have been shocked by the sound. However, the surrounding pirates seemed to not be bother by this scenario. Following that, a tall and bulky scottish person strolled out, his age was roughly 40 years old. His face was flushed red, his hair and beard floating in the air. A crab tattoo resided on his thick right arm. His left hand was supporting a transparent pocket-sized glass fish tank, inside the fish tank was a tiny ash grey octopus. It was excitedly waving its arms inside the water.

Sheyan observed this huge man, a deep and immeasurable feeling just like the ocean formed in his heart! This feeling was something Sheyan never felt before, the closest description to it would be facing the berserk devastating capabilities of space-time gap in the Terminator world. The terrifying presence of the legendary pirate ship captain Davy Jones was really on a whole new level!

“So it’s you who requests an audience with this great Davy Jones?” This huge man flared his nostrils, and bellowed with a thick voice. His voice carried a distinct scottish accent, that is why it was slightly unclear. However, the formidable confidence could be heard distinctly.

Sheyan placed his right fist to his chest, humbly bowing:

“Seaman Yan from the east pays his respect.”

Davy Jones heedlessly teased his pet octopus and continued:

“I’ve heard of your name, and your feat of defeating the spanish. But….. this is not good enough a reason for you to land yourself on the deck of the Flying Dutchman.”

“Just like what you can see.” Sheyan once again bowing neither servile nor overbearingly:

“I’ve come to offer these treasures. I can swear to you, two hours ago these chest were still resting within the treasure of Tortuga castle. Inside contains the entire 70 years of riches accumulated by the Fokke family!”

This one phrase triggered an excited uproar from the pirates. However, Sheyan noticed that when he raised his voice saying “contains the entire 70 years of riches accumulated by the Fokke family,” Davy Jones actually lazily yawned! This unusual bad habit, beneath it was a hidden and profound meaning! Several ideas flashed by his mind like electricity, ultimately his last conclusion almost made him involuntarily cry out!

Davy Jones is ultimately a ruthless pirate, this confirms that he definitely wasn’t a noble person of great morals. Since the Tortuga castle treasures he offered had received a cold reception, there were two possibilities. One was he was already richly loaded, or the second greater possibility was that this pile of treasure in reality was not worth much!

Fokke’s family accumulated wealth of 70 years sounded extremely alluring, however, it is extremely hard to be frugal after being accustomed to luxury. Once a prodigal son appears within the Fokke family, the spending rate would become extremely rapid. Comparing the present Tortuga port being strong in appearance but weak in reality, the current Fokke family is just a shell of its former self.

Furthermore after moving these chest out of the secret lair of Tortuga castle, no pirates would have gotten a chance to carefully examine it, until the 3 pirates previously taking the first pick! Furthermore some treasures require a specialized professional to determine its authenticity. Factoring out the possibility of counterfeit goods, using this deduction, then this brimming with treasures chest in actual fact was not worth much!

Chapter 104: Establishing oneself

After Sheyan confirmed his thought process, another conclusion instantly formed in his mind. That was between Davy Jones and the Fokke family, there was probably some sort of complicated relationship! The truth that Fokke family being strong in appearance but weak in reality was a matter of life and death for the family heritage. This sort of secret, unless it was between a father and son like relationship, it would never have been leaked out easily. And this could also explain the behavior of the Flying Dutchman choosing to take a neutral stance! It was highly likely that Davy Jones and the Fokke family had some sort of friendship and agreement. Also, because he knew the profits within the castle were not much, hence, he was unwilling to trample into this muddied waters!

Furthermore, the other legendary pirate ship captain, Blackbeard, was a cruel and suspicious person. He probably misunderstood Davy Jones’s dilemma, and seeing that the Flying Dutchman was biding its time, he naturally did not dare to move. Because pirates were unlike regular military, once they joined in the ranks of plundering it was hard to get the pirates to return. When the time comes if a someone suddenly launch a surprise attack, then they most certainly will suffer a defeat!

These thoughts seem to sound very long, but they flashed past Sheyan’s mind in an instant. Currently, it was the wrong time to be astonished. When Sheyan felt that Davy Jones was already exhibiting an impatient look, he immediately fished out Ammand’s silver sword, raising his both hands to offer it and respectfully announced.

“Apart from that, I’m offering to you the sword of the Son of the Black Sea, Ammand, as a proof of my allegiance.”

Following Sheyan’s inference, not only does Ammand’s silver sword contain formidable powers, it can even control ships. It was at least a silver class storyline weapon! Its high value was already hard to measure from a normal perspective, different equipment class would garner different valuations. Going from that point of view, within equal class equipments, a weapon would definitely be worth more….. This logic can be seen clearly from just the quantity of weapons and other equipments out there.

If not for this weapon having a criteria of needing to eliminate Ammand, Sheyan would have never offered this to Davy Jones. His charm wasn’t high, even if he used this method of direct gifting, the result would still be unclear. However, this weapon that was bound to another soul is already considered piece of scrap iron. Furthermore, Ammand’s whereabouts were currently unknown, the difficulty of dealing with him has multiplied by twofolds, and he even possessed a bone-deep hatred towards Sheyan now!

Hence, to Sheyan, firstly, he had zero confidence of being able to slay him in a short time frame, and secondly, he wasn’t clear when he would re-enter this world after leaving. That is why he took out this silver storyline weapon that he couldn’t use, and exchanged it for something else that was beneficial to him.

Once this silver sword flashed out, Davy Jones was finally moved. He tossed the glass fishbowl into the hands of a nearby pirate and swiftly approached forward. He then grabbed onto the hilt of Ammand’s silver sword. In his hands, this soul binding weapon reacted in an instance, radiating out a blinding silver glow. Davy Jones could not respond to the sudden agitation as the weapon became unsteady in his hands. He stumbled a few steps back, as the sword clattered to the floor.

His surrounding loyal pirates were instantly shocked, they anxiously drew out their blades and loudly snarled at Sheyan. It was obvious they thought Sheyan had pulled an underhand trick to harm their boss. Only Davy Jones had a pleasant look on his face, he laughed out loudly as he gestured his hands to half his underlings. Looking at Sheyan with satisfaction, he nodded his head.

“Brat, well done. From now on, you are part of the Flying Dutchman. Heard you are quite a capable one, and are even knowledgeable about navigation. Just nice Corlisus had been heavily wounded by the spanish pigs, I reckon he can no longer be a pirate. You can be the temporary third officer on this ship then, but remember if you show the tiniest bit of incompetency, I will personally kick you overboard.”

To these pirates, betrayal and massacres were commonly seen, therefore, they held no objections when Davy Jones acknowledged this traitorous Sheyan. The third officer is a position that assists the chief officer in all sorts of management, his remaining time was also required of to assist the navigator. This was already a walk in the park for Sheyan.

Once he witnessed Davy Jones reaction, he heaved a sigh of relief. This was obviously a gamble. Ammand’s invaluably precious silver storyline weapon was just a piece of scrap metal to Sheyan, but more important was that if Davy Jones had the same conclusion! If so then it wasn’t hard to guess what this explosive temperament pirate head would do. Furthermore, there was still the vice officer Old Bill that was extremely displeased with Sheyan.

But now, Sheyan could put down his burdens. Since Davy Jones was extremely satisfied with Sheyan’s welcoming gift, concurrently, he also received notifications from the nightmare imprint.

Side mission: Get close to a legend (Complete)

Mission summary: Ascend to any of the Black Pearl / Flying Dutchman / Queen Anne’s Revenge / HMS Victory, and become their crew member.

Mission evaluation: You have obtained the permission of the Flying Dutchman’s captain, Davy Jones and successfully became the legendary Flying Dutchman’s third officer. Do you wish to receive the relevant mission reward? Yes / No

Sheyan selected “Yes”.

You have received 1000 utility points.

Your reputation amongst the pirates has been raised by 3000 points (Indirectly causing the destruction of the Bell and Mug – 500 points, directly involved in the death of Scarface harry – 500 points, acquiring Tortuga castle treasures – 500 points, becoming the temporary third officer of the Flying Dutchman – 1500 points)

Your current reputation: Respected (1113 / 6000)

(TN: He probably broke through the first level of amicable reputation)

You have received 2 achievement points.

Your current achievement value is 6 points.

(TN: Includes all his previous achievement + meritorious points)

Pointer: Your deadline to leaving this world is in 21 hours, 14 minutes and 40 seconds. You can choose to stay in this world to continue looking for clues, or you can stop your actions and return to the nightmare realm. Important pointer: You cannot return to the nightmare realm during combat state.

Pointer: Your achievement value has exceeded 5 points, your status has been raised. You are now a recruit”

“Your nightmare imprint has received the following promotions”

“You can procure your respective army rank items at anytime in the nightmare realm.”

“Your personal interspatial space has increased by 10%.”

Warning: Once your achievement value drops below 5 points, your formerly achieved benefits will vanish, and your status promotion will be revoked.

After Sheyan read through the notifications, it was obvious that this side missions was not of an easy difficulty but it rewarded a mere 1000 utility points. Therefore, it rewarded external rewards, for example the 2 points in achievement. Regarding this thing called achievements, Sheyan still had not fully understood it. Looking at it, it probably have some sort of establishment with military rank, it was like a status symbol. But so far, Sheyan only received two achievement points after completing this mission, it seems like something precious and rare.

After Davy Jones obtained Ammand’s sword, his mood became extremely good. He really did not take any notice towards those few treasure chests, bluntly allowing his men to distribute. That was when Sheyan understood, actually these filled to the brim treasure chest he robbed from the Fokke residence, on hindsight it looked like it contained many layers of treasures, but was actually filled with piastre(a kind of french coin, that relatively low value due to its mixture of lead) at the bottom. Adding it together was roughly only a few thousand pounds. To ordinary pirates this was a huge pile of money, but to the legendary pirate Davy Jones, this was nothing deserving of his attention.

Once Sheyan’s reputation had been raised to respected status, it was very obvious that he could sense a huge transformation in the attitudes of these pirates. For example certain fierce and sinister looking brutes would immediately avoid him when they saw him. Even though the vice officer Old Bill did not take a liking to him, he could only arrange a pretty pleasant single inhabitant cabin for him.

He even had two pirates who were nicknamed Crow and Sata who were pretty compatible with him. Therefore, even though Sheyan’s charm wasn’t high, they took the initiative and had the courage to curry his favour. The entire pirate ship had at least a few hundred pirates, but Sheyan’s coercing third officer authority was only able to entice two men. From this it could be seen that compatibility was really a thing of minute possibility.

This sort of great news that delivered itself, why would Sheyan miss it? Although, this pirate ship was currently functioning normally, Sheyan knew that in the future, its captain Davy Jones would mutate into a sea devil. Even this ship would possess its own personality and life. It would be renowned in the caribbean sea world as the most demonic, and strongest battleship, where no one was above it! Therefore, the strength of its crew members would not be weak at all. At the Bell and Mug, he was able to learn two basic levels of ability from Blind Matt. Currently, he only had a short period of day left in this world, if an opportunity coincides, attempting to raise his basic ability again would not be impossible.

Being able to establish oneself as a member of this legendary pirate ship, one must have adequate strength. Although Crow and Sata were ordinary crew members on this ship, once Sheyan activated his ‘insight’ ability, he realized that Crow’s basic prayer had reached even lvl 4, his other specific effects were ‘?’. His Special ability: Once you communicate with Crow, you can order Crow to operate. He is exceptionally suitable as a scout, and can even carry out long range disturbance. The only thing he could see from Sata was ‘advanced ability: Rushing thrust’. This ability had a description, it could concentrate the entire body’s energy into the sharp end of his weapon, its damage and penetrating abilities were devastating.

Chapter 105: Paying a visit

Without a doubt, if Sheyan requested to train with Crow and Sata, they would never reject him. Yet, Sheyan discovered one thing, that was no matter how much time he wasted on training, he would not make any improvements. This is because his baseline basic skill level was too low, which akin to a 5-6 year old boy not being able to do a single thing, even if he was placed in the same bed with a voluptuous and naked beautiful woman.

“I’m afraid I’ve gone too far ahead of the storyline.” Sheyan couldn’t help but sigh. He had never expected to overreach himself. Under normal circumstances, being able to become the crew head of the Bell and Mug should be the upper boundary of this world, therefore he was still able to learn certain skills from those lower skilled pirates. But what was this horrendous place? The Flying Dutchman of the three legendary pirate ships! Of course there was no way Sheyan could learn anything, he believed that if he hadn’t had experiences in the field of management and maritime navigation, Davy Jones wouldn’t have been able to offer him the temporal third officer position.

After sending away the two pirates, Sheyan collapsed into his cabin bed and fell into deep sleep. He had an extremely exhausting night, furthermore he was feeling a little bitter that after putting such great efforts, it seemed like the gains did not make up for the losses. Besides, Sheyan’s execution was extremely meticulous, before sleeping he placed a sabre behind the cabin door. Current the Flying Dutchman was stationary on sea, the winds were not strong and thus the ship was extremely stable. Once the cabin door hinted at any movement, the sabre would crash to the ground.

Sheyan slept, but not totally free from anxiety. The root cause was because Davy Jones had some sort of connection with the Fokke family, never forget Lady Lord Fokke died in Sheyan’s hands! Although Sheyan personally thought that his deeds were hidden, Davy Jones’s power was as deep as the ocean. His later status was a link between the living and the dead, a ferry man that transcended drowned seamen, who knew he may even possess mysterious abilities now. Faced against such a beast-like person, Sheyan had no confidence in preserving his secret. Once this thing leaks out, who knew what the consequences would be? But now, Sheeyan was obviously going to be extremely cautious.

Within the fuzzy and cloudy space, Sheyan suddenly heard a ‘dang’, as though something had fell, and was even clattering on the ground. He instantly jolted up from bed, as he forced open his eyes and saw that the wooden bolt at this door had been brushed aside, the sabre fallen to the ground. A small gap formed at the door, and gradually swung bigger. A figure in grey clothing hurriedly running out.

Sheyan’s eyes flickered, he immediately leapt out of bed summoning his strength and pursued. Obviously, if Davy Jones wanted to harm him, he did not have to act sneaky at all. Which goes to say, this person’s actions were acted out without the permission of Davy Jones! He could not think of anyone in mind, but suddenly recalled when he first ascended the ship, a pair of eyes that seemed to be able to penetrate into the interior of a person!

At the moment, this figure had already been locked on relentlessly by Sheyan, there was a gap of about 5-6 metres between them. In this overpopulated pirate ship, once they passed by any pirate, the pirate would naturally aid their new third Officer and not that brat ahead of him. Thus, Sheyan’s lips curled into a cold sneer, he observed this panic-ridden brat like how a predator eyes his prey.

But at this very moment, a loud sound blasted into Sheyan’s ears! Simultaneously the ‘Flying Dutchman’ inclined its hill and roughly shifted horizontally by 2-3 metres! He lost his footing, this scenario was not foreign, this was the signal for the side of the ship to open fire!

……

……

In this sudden twist, Sheyan had not anticipated such a sudden happening. Furthermore his agility wasn’t outstanding, thus he lost his footing and almost fell. Riding on this, the person he was chasing nimbly leapt, using the nearby wooden partition as a footing, he ingeniously jumped into a byway by the side. Once Sheyan regained his stability, the figure had long vanished.

At this moment, Sheyan could see a shadow of sails forming in the distance. Gradually from the sea fog, a broad and majestic battleship sailed through, it could even claim as an equal to the Flying Dutchman. Impressively, it was the other legendary pirate ship, ‘Queen Anne’s Revenge’. Sheyan could not care much about the sneaky person anymore, he understood why when chasing this person he did not meet a single person after so long. Actually the pirates were already stationed and waiting at their personal positions! Only….. Sheyan could not understand why the Queen Anne’s Revenge would suddenly start a conflict with the Flying Dutchman.

A series of loud booming by the cannons once again sounded, Blackbeard had probably commenced the assault. But Sheyan felt something was up. Because even though the smell of smoke was very thick, but it was missing a critical sign and that was gigantic splashings resulting from the cannonballs. In this era, the cannonballs were all solid, therefore even if they failed to connect with the ship, they would still trigger towering splashes. But when these two ships unleashed their cannons, the ocean remained peaceful. This decided one thing. They were releasing empty cannon fire! Thus thinking critically, not even Sheyan, even a small child would understand that this were probably gun salutes as a form of paying respects.

At this point, both parties started to wave their flags to transmit information, after a short while, the opposite Queen Anne’s Revenge then approached. Roughly 2 nautical miles away, they released a small boat as it borrowed the winds to sail nearer. Sheyan could not make up who was in that boat, however, the pirates standing on deck remained extremely solemn. Although their attire was tattered and messy, they seemed to have strictness of the British navy. Even the lofty Davy Jones came out to the deck. His hands folded against his chest with an unperturbed appearance. This sort of disciplined welcoming was obvious of the person’s status who was able to trigger Davy Jones to personally welcome him, it was naturally the captain of the Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard.

Sheyan felt that the following events would obviously have no concerns whatsoever to his lowly position as the third officer, thus he once again returned to his cabin. But his mind was swirling with thoughts of that hidden aggressor. Fortunately, he was currently the third officer, even if he was new and had not much prestige here, helping out with the navigator as his job was still extremely highly looked upon by the pirates.

The navigator’s role was to find every possible route within the vast ocean, some navigators could even draw out the sea maps and their routes. After they washed their hands of this pirate job, they can sell these maps for a high price. (Casual statement, if one was able to preserve even a small part of the world map, once in the medieval ages, that object could even be described as a priceless treasure. At one point, the map of navigating to the Cape of Good Hope had even resulted in the death of thousands) Even during skirmishes which resulted in deaths, the navigator would be required to give his blessings if not their souls would not be able to return home. Therefore, items related to a navigator would garner the appreciation and respect of the pirates along with its mysteriousness.

Sheyan borrowed such a status and authority, he naturally could freely roam about unobstructed within the ship. Although the Flying Dutchman was massive, once he called the two pirate ringleaders Mohan and Sata, after coordinating with them, he would be able to easily snuff out that sneaky bastard. In a foreign place, the biggest taboo was having a hidden enemy. Sheyan would obviously not make such a common mistake, because he had already offended many people in this world. Thus he needed to swiftly probe out this hidden enemy, and use his status to eliminate him!

Just when Sheyan was about to leave to find him, the vice officer Old Bill brought others and pushed him into the room. He glanced at Sheyan with an extremely negative look. In Sheyan’s real world, it would be described as ‘eyelids being semi compressed’.

“Boss is calling you to immediately go up.”

Sheyan was slightly stunned, but looking at the two crude pirates with their thick and round muscles, he knew that he had no choice, he must go. He could only stand up and follow suit, however he mentally prepared himself to flee immediately once assaulted. He followed the three brutes turning several corners on the massive Flying Dutchman, not long later he arrived at Davy Jones’s captain quarters. Old Bill stood by the door as he, signalling with his face to Sheyan to enter.

Davy Jones’ captain quarters was rather spacious, its surrounding wooden walls were made with thick pine wood. There was a faint aroma of tobacco mixed with rum floating in the air. Inside there was a bed, a storage chest, a map and chart, a ‘maritime unicorn’ oil painting, and on a shelf there was a row of voyage journals. On top of the rugged beech wooden table, there was a cigarette silk pouch, something Sheyan had previously seen in the present world. It was made with processed seal leather, and even had a leather string sealing it. It was said that this sort of cigarette pouch could successfully keep the cigarettes within from the cold and dampness and moreover increased its fragrance.

Chapter 106: The sword’s companion

Blackbeard sat beneath the oil painting, his waist and back perfectly upright. If not for his aquiline nose contributing to his vicious appearance, he would really have the air of a British Royal Navy general. Davy Jones sloppily leaned against a chair by the side, his domineering aura spewing out of him, he glanced towards the door when someone walked in. Sheyan was extremely quick-witted, he immediately bent his body to bow saying.

“Boss.”

Davy Jones nodded his head, squinting his eyes he said.

“The sword you offered to me, was it really taken from Ammand’s hands?”

Sheyan shrugged his shoulders and innocently proclaimed.

“Boss, the amount of people who recognize this weapon in the Caribbean sea are more than the sharks in the water!”

Davy Jones laughed out loudly, he turned to face the steel cold expressionless Blackbeard.

“I feel what my third officer said is absolutely right.”

When Davy Jones laughed, Sheyan finally felt the pressure on him easing, he raised his eyes to look and his heart skipped a beat. Because that renowned Blackbeard was holding a shaft that looked very familiar, it looked like it was exactly the weapon ‘Ammand’s silver sword’ that he gifted Davy Jones! The sword had been pulled out from its scabbard, but with Sheyan’s exceptionally keen observation skill, after a second look he felt something was wrong. Because this sword’s hand guard (protective layer at the holding area) curved to an exaggerated arc, and it was curved to the right side whereas Ammand’s sword should be curved to the left.

At this time, Blackbeard retrieved another sword, this sword was the real Ammand’s silver sword. The two sword resting side by side on the table, apart from the contrasting opposite curvature of its handguard, both swords exterior and even the faint silver glow were exactly similar. Simply put it was like staring into a mirror. Blackbeard glanced at Sheyan with a cold look, he then directed his attention again to the two swords.

Presently, Sheyan had already roughly inferred the entire process of development. Davy Jones previously should have known that Blackbeard was secretly searching for this class of weapon, his thirst to find it was great. Therefore, when he received this gifted weapon, he immediately contacted Blackbeard. However, when Blackbeard received this sword, he still couldn’t find out the mystery within, this he felt it was a counterfeit and requested Sheyan to confront him.

Of course there was a suspicious point: Why didn’t Blackbeard himself forcibly take it from Ammand? First possibility was that he could not steal it, because Ammand is an extremely astute and powerful character. But from Sheyan’s deduction, the bigger possibility was that he had no knowledge of it!

In this era, people with some sort of status would normally use this sort of traditional sword. For example in the movies, the main lead Jack Sparrow also was an expert with a sword. This sort of sword was like a self-defense tool within the British Royal Navy. Even though there wasn’t any sword obsessed person that would kill for swords, but a personal weapon was of utmost importance. Even if Blackbeard was a captain of the three legendary pirate ship, he wouldn’t lower himself to request to look at other people’s weapons.

Blackbeard continued examining the swords, he attempted to raise the two swords at the same time, and even placed Ammand’s silver sword near his own eye to look at it. It was like he wanted to dissect it with his eye power. Finally, he shook his head grimly, sighing he was about to stand up and leave. Suddenly Sheyan spoke up.

“Please pardon my intrusion, captain, I’ve already discovered a strange phenomenon, do you mind sharing your difficulty with me?”

Blackbeard stared at Sheyan, his eyes carrying his mockery and contempt distinctly. Without saying a word he walked out. Just when his hands were about to contact the external air, Sheyan added on.

“If you can tell me, then perhaps there is a glimmer of hope to your question. If you leave, then this hope would be lost.”

Maybe the excruciating long searching had sapped away at Blackbeard’s patience. Maybe Sheyan’s confidence had persuaded him as his body remained rigid for a brief moment before turning around quickly. His hoarse voice was like scratching steel.

“If you dare to leak out my secret! Then I will surely turn you into an undying, and you will forever be the lowliest slave of my ship!”

‘Bang!’ Davy Jones slammed his wooden cup heavily onto the table, the rum splashed out over half the table. This scottish brute had an icy cold expression as he said.

“Mr Teach (Blackbeard’s name is Edward Teach), this is not the Queen Anne’s Revenge, my third officer’s fate will be decided by me!”

Blackbeard showed no fear, as he stared back callously. The sudden air of conflict between two huge personalities suddenly cause Sheyan to feel light in his legs, he felt a crushing painful pressure pressing against his body as he stumbled back a few steps. At this moment, Blackbeard suddenly continued.

“My sword, was obtained 10 years ago. What happened then…..you do not need to know. But it is said that the wielder of this sword, will be invincible in a close combat ship battle. However, it isn’t complete, legends has it, that finding its other half would then allow it to demonstrate its greatest potential.”

Hearing till here, Sheyan already understood. Seeing the light, he replied:

“That is why Ammand’s sword in every aspect, accurately complements this sword as the other half. But instead, it did not display any unique reaction.”

Blackbeard remained silent, but his expression could confirm that Sheyan’s speculation was unmistaken. Sheyan then gently grinned:

“Precisely the case, I’m the only one sitting closest to the door.”

Blackbeard raised furrowed his brows, obviously irritated at this pesky pirate digging his nose into his things. But, Davy Jones gazed at Sheyan with full interest. Because, to the pirates, Sheyan’s current sitting position had his back faced towards the door. This was extremely ominous, probably because a pirate at dawn, was not sure of living to the evening (chinese idiom – Precarious lifestyle). Sitting at that position meant that a stranger could anytime strike you from the back once he entered the door, once a person realizes he would be already dead. Sheyan continued:

“Because I’m sitting in this place, therefore I can see what you two cannot.”

Blackbeard’s heart beat faster, there was an unclear throbbing within his heart. What he lacked was something to break through! Instead he continued listening to Sheyan.

“Just now, the scabbard of the sword i gifted to boss was placed on your seat. When you picked up your weapon, I actually saw a radiance coming out from that scabbard!”

The two silver swords had an exactly similar appearance, but Ammand’s scabbard looked extremely ancient. It was terribly worn out, and was even wrapped with a layer of black rags. It was obvious why Blackbeard instantly placed it to one side on the stool. Saying till here, Sheyan slowed down his pace.

“I reckon, a sword’s other half, may not necessarily be another similar looking half just like the rare occurrence of two males successfully establishing a family! The genuine mystery behind this legend, may actually be…. Its scabbard!”

Sheyan had not even finish speaking, yet Blackbeard’s eyes were already blazing with a soul combusting radiance! By extending out his palm, his own silver sword automatically flew into his hand. Concurrently, he tried to hook the scabbard on the ground with his leg, but hooked onto nothing! Raising his head, he discovered that Davy Jones had already used some sort of unorthodox method to retrieve that scabbard into his hand. This scottish brute’s eyes were flowing with a malicious excitement, his huge nose was flushed red. Davy Jones leaked out a sly smile, but used a mild tone to speak.

“Beloved Edward, I suddenly have some regrets regarding our former business. Therefore I willing to pay up a penalty to exchange for the rights of ownership of this!”

With his words, the surrounding floorboard suddenly cracked and split open! It was as powerful as a door slamming open. Even the surrounding dust on the shelf started to float down from the vibrations. Following that, the lid of the wooden chest on the floor automatically opened up. Like the jingling of bells, the interior lustrous golden coins automatically flew up into oblivion and vanished. It was like a small scale tornado passed by here and sucked up all the treasures. Davy Jones laughed out loud, he then patted Sheyan’s shoulders and said.

“Beautifully done!”

Blacbeard had a stony expression, but from the whitening of his hands because of his tightening grip onto the sword hilt, his mood was obviously quite furious. Only someone who was familiar with Blackbeard’s sinister nature would understand, this was the expression when his anger had reached the limit. Instead! The person sitting in front of him was Davy Jones! This was someone who was able to stand on equal footing in terms of influence and individual strength! Moreover, he was still on the Flying Dutchman.

“State your price.” Blackbeard once again sat down on his chair. His eyes had gradually intensified, giving off a chilling sensation of a cobra about to devour his prey, filled with a coercive and vicious aura. Instead, Davy Jones leisurely sat down, pondering for a moment he reached out his right hand. He then bent his big thumb, middle finger, small finger and swayed his remaining two fingers in the air arrogantly.

The muscles twitched violently on Blackbeard’s face, he stared at Davy Jones and suddenly fished out two items from the strap at his waist. The first item looked completely weird, it was actually a palm-sized sack weaved with an old fashioned cloth and red thread. Its opening was strangely shaped like the bottom part of a woman. Sheyan wasn’t clear about this item yet, only when he returned to the present world would he realize. That was a utterly famous voodoo object known in the Caribbean sea world, it was called Dakan Momo.

Chapter 107: Enormous danger

Voodoo cult originated within the interior of a religion, it generally possessed an intention to worship its origins. They view the woman’s lower part as the gateway of humanity (In actual fact, it is), therefore, they created this female reproductive organ kind of artifact. This object within the voodoo cult had a reputation akin to the ‘Jin Gu Bang (Golden cudgel wielded by Sun Wu Kong in Journey to the west). Its status was unimaginable. Rumour has it that after constructing a voodoo doll and placing this voodoo doll into that object for a period of time, after retrieving it, the success rate of that voodoo doll will climb to 100%. Further explaining, if one didn’t use this object, even a superior voodoo sorcerer’s crafted voodoo doll had only a 40% chance of success.

Blackbeard’s second item was a mini pottery-like bottle. Inside contained the most important raw material needed to create an undying or decaying undead, it was called Sanji Dada, which was unusually processed into powder with blowfish venom and toad poison. To fill up this mini bottle, Blackbeard had to collect for 10 years. It was extremely precious.

Evaluating these two items, Davy Jones looked rather pleased. Following that, someone brought news of an additional 10 brand new cannons along with 5 full chests of gold coins. It was unclear what methods Blackbeard used to communicate with his underlings. Finally Davy Jones, with a trickle of unwillingness, glanced again at this worned out scabbard, he then laughed and tossed it over.

Blackbeard caught it with one hand! An excitement inevitably covered his face, because when the sword and the scabbard approached each other, the two objects would glow brightly. This sort of brightness gave one the feeling that the two belonged together, it mixed like a river and the sea, and even gave off a moisten sensation! Until now, even a fool would be able to link the deep connection between the two objects. Even the cold and sinister looking Blackbeard, such a cunning and astute person, could not control himself from leaking out a repulsive grin.

Blackbeard stood firmly as he raised the silver sword and the black scabbard that he paid a high price for. He then suddenly thrusted the sword into the scabbard! Suddenly! !….

(ED: “He thrusted the sword in the scabbard”. Sorry couldn’t help it)

Nothing happened.

Blackbeard’s twin eyes swelled up like a toad! This sort of expression forming on this vicious and sinister legendary captain, could only be described as comical. What was strange is that when he loosen his grip, his own silver sword was actually catapulted out of the scabbard! It landed on the floor with a clank.

The nearby Davy Jones burst out in wild unrestrained laughter, he laughed so hard till he clutched his stomach and his tears started flowing. Following the roaring laughter, the door was kicked open and five pirates rushed in with the wind! These 5 pirates were all cripples, some had a iron hook at where their right hand was supposed to be while others had a false leg on their left. But Sheyan could feel a fiendish aura blowing in like a hurricane, it was as though it filled up the entire captain’s room!

Obviously Davy Jones had understood this scenario, he was afraid Blackbeard would start a rampage due to his furious humiliation. Hence he immediately, called several ‘Golden warriors’ and ‘flowered truncheons’ to suppress the situation. Sheyan witnessed their frightening strength, he had a scary feeling that one could even rival Scarface Harry!

Sheyan secretly gasped in his heart. The three legendary ships were indeed deserving of their reputation. Personally, with his combat capabilities he could be the crew head on the Bell and Mug. But once he joined this legendary pirate crew, his individual skills could perhaps not even match up with a lowly crew member. If not because he garnered a certain reputation for his navigational techniques as well as managerial skills, then he would really not be able to achieve his status and position now.

Blackbeard started trembling from head to toe. This was not merely because his decade long hope was dashed, but also because he wasted blood and effort. What angered him further was that he was presently on another person’s territory, he had been exploited fully by Davy Jones, he could not even vent out! Blackbeard’s venomous glare ultimately rested on Sheyan, Sheyan’s chest suddenly tightened. Davy Jones wasn’t afraid of Blackbeard, but this didn’t mean that he himself would not be afraid! Blackbead was always a proficient black magician in the Caribbean sea, his entire crew was even driven by undeads. Faced with such a dead glare by that old fox, Sheyan felt a strong pessimism for his future.

Apart from this, Sheyan originally wanted to bring out another critical but relevant matter to exchange for a good price, but he could not care much now. What if Blackbead suddenly revolted and placed a dead voodoo curse on him, wouldn’t that be disastrous? At the juncture of this hostility, Sheyan inhaled deeply and stood in front of Blackbeard. He sincerely pleaded.

“I know the root of this problem.”

In view of Sheyan’s former outstanding performance, it was much easier for him to speak up now. Blackbeard’s dark expression became lighter, he even felt a little joyous in his heart. It was like a drowning person managing to grab onto a grass, but he persisted with an icy-cold expression.

“Speak.”

Sheyan inhaled and continued.

“Previously I faintly overheard Ammand raising a point about his sword that it was passed down from his ancestors. Looking at it now, the actual power of Ammand’s sword is actually not very strong, it only relied on sucking it a little spirit energy from the scabbard to reach its potential. Ammand probably used this pretext to cover the mythical nature of the scabbard. Under normal circumstances, who would know that this brilliant resplendent sword is actually an empty shell. Its real strength resides in this tattered and worn out scabbard!”

Blackbeard’s eyes flickered, as though he had caught onto something. Sheyan continued speaking.

“However, if with this layer of concealment, Ammand seemed to remain paranoid. Therefore, I could feel that Ammand had established a strange relationship with this weapon! This relationship…. I am unable to understand. Based on how the east would say, a person’s soul is split into 7 parts. Highly likely, Ammand or even his ancestor may have a part of his soul sealed up within this weapon. Therefore, apart from him, nobody else can activate the weapon. What I am saying, your greatness are you able to accept? Perhaps this is the real reason why the sword and the scabbard are unable to reunite.”

Blackbeard nodded his head, his eyes suddenly emitted a relaxed glow.

“I understand.”

Sheyan suddenly formed malicious intent in his heart, he spoke with an emotionless look.

“Actually to eliminate the special soul binding effect on this weapon is fairly simple, you only need to slay the owner of this soul imprint.”

Between the lines, he was actually pointing towards Ammand. This was actually called using words like daggers to commit murder! And wasn’t corrupted with a single drop of blood. A treacherous look formed in Blackbeard’s eyes, his lips curled into a fake smile.

“There is no need for such troubles.”

He reached out his hand for the sabre hilt at his waist, without making any further moves, his whole body started vibrating. That vibration was relatively peculiar, it was like he was having cold tremors from head to toe. On the contrary, Davy Jones’s expression turned heavy. Not long later a pirate came in with a report, saying that the opposite ship sent over a man, and he wanted to come in here.

Blackbeard glanced at Davy Jones, he then waved his hand to gesture him in. The pirate that walked in was half naked, his eyes blank and his expression dull. Only when he saw Blackbeard did he regained some vitality. Blackbeard allowed this pirate to walk to him, he then thrusted his hand in! Piercing deep into his chest.

Only at this moment did life come back to this pirate, not agony but gratitude. Blackbeard did not even cast one look at him, he twisted his hands and horrifyingly dug out the heart of that pirate, and it was still dripping with blood. A thick and strong blood stench filled the air. Blackbeard held the heart within his hands, he then wiped this disgusting mutilated mess against that scabbard like it was a piece of cloth!

The scabbard shone with a faint blood red glow, and the dripping fresh blood of the heart was mixed with a faint greyish colour. Concurrently, a barely audible mournful and desperate shriek could be heard in the atmosphere. Blackbeard’s lips curled into a cold smile, his actions were merciless. Once he wiped the scabbard completely with the heart, it had already turned grey and wrinkled, just like a real torn rag.

Blackbeard flicked his hand and flung away the heart. He then once again tried to thrust the sword into the scabbard!

This time, he succeeded!

At that instance where he thrusted the silver sword into the scabbard, every single ray of light within the room felt like it sank in! Swallowed thoroughly by that sword. It was like they had been separated for a long time, and because of this sudden chance encounter it created a greedy and thirsty black hole, diligently and not slacking as it sucked in everything.

Fortunately, this scenario did not persist for long. Because with one wave from the sunken faced Davy Jones, the cabin wall facing the sun suddenly automatically opened up. Underneath the scattering dust, the scorching heat rays of the Caribbean sea penetrated in, coincidentally shining onto that sword. It seemed like there was a compatible property inside the sun rays as in a flash, it refracted and warped itself, rapidly congregating into the middle of the sword. In a few seconds, the concentration of rays finally saturated and once again resumed its original state.

Chapter 108: Octopus Paul, Roulette gambling

After the magical sword consumed enough rays, Blackbeard stood up and headed out. Because Davy Jones had not permitted him, the five vicious, chilling elite pirates by the side immediately stepped forward. With an ugly look, they obstructed Blackbeard. Who knew Blackbeard actually clutched onto that sword at that moment.

That was the silver sword that had finally found its scabbard after decades!!

The sword was unsheathed! “Shing!”, it was pulled out halfway, the bright edge of the sword illuminated out strongly, a scorching blaze brilliantly dazzled into the crowd’s pupils! When everyone regained their sight, all they could see was a thick rope used to tie the sails, surging towards them like a coiling serpent. It then binded over the the five elite pirates with unimaginable speed, coiling around their bodies for a few rounds and then tightened! It swiftly tangled up these fiendish pirates together!

Following that, Blackbeard’s hoarse laughter bellowed in from outside. That laughter sounded like a kitchen knife scraping against a pot, it was extremely unbearable. He then marched away with gigantic steps, and after 5-6 steps he disappeared. Davy Jones sat down on the stool emotionlessly and pondered. After a few minutes, that hawser loosened by itself, as it plop to the ground beside those elite pirates. They had a hard to believe look on their faces, and when they saw that Davy Jones took no notice of them, they retreated out of the room.

Davy Jones sweeped across the few items on the tables with his eyes, he then exclaimed in satisfaction along with his roaring laughter.

“Blackbeard this fool! Invincible in close combat? Yes, looks like that magical sword is really able to control the ropes on the ship, but so what? With these things, I can install 20 more cannons on my old mate (Referring to the Flying Dutchman), his lousy ship might as well feed the sharks from 10 miles away!”

Sheyan solemnly remained silent, because now wasn’t a suitable time to speak. Davy Jones tapped his bent fingers against the table, he then muttered out:

“Today your contribution isn’t small, I have always been impartial and rewarding. Generous Jones is not a nickname I was randomly given.”

Saying, Davy Jones once again tapped against the table. The wall behind him suddenly toppled down, revealing a display amidst the penetrating sun rays. Although Sheyan was already mentally prepared, but his rejoicing heart still thumped intensely!

What emerged was all of Davy Jones’s precious collections!

Although Sheyan was completely unable to verify their attributes, a layer of fuzzy haze covered over these collectables. He could only see the rough shapes, however, from the glow of those objects, every one of its kind was not an average trash. There should be at least quite a number of silver class equipments! Even the remainder items had deep black rays coiling around it. At the deepest corner, a few objects even flickered with glamourous bits of gold!

Sheyan took in a deep breath, he then heard Davy Jones proudly proclaiming:

“Welcome to the generous, Paul’s spinning roulette!”

Consecutively, Davy Jones propped up his pocket-size fish bowl, the octopus inside looked extremely excited, its hands wildly waving about obviously communicating to its owner’s intention. Davy Jones placed the fish bowl down, pointing towards his treasure-trove with full interest.

“The game’s regulations are simple, Paul will retrieve your deserving reward out. Before that, you have 3 minutes to influence its mood, but you cannot cause any form of harm to it. And I will obviously not use any methods to hint at what it should or should not take.”

Such a renowned character like Davy Jones would certainly live up to its promise, therefore, Sheyan could eliminate the concerns of external influences. This was what he was awarded, with was hinged upon Davy Jones’s pet octopus, Paul! His mind flashed with ideas on how to curry the favour of this octopus…… if he didn’t remember wrongly, before Davy Jones incurred the curse and turned into a sea monster, this octopus called Paul could metamorphosed into a gigantic sea beast. It would sweep everything in its path, there were absolutely no ships that could defend against it.

Sheyan suddenly recalled something, looks like this Paul’s spinning roulette was a particular addiction of Davy Jones, he regularly rewarded his subordinates with this. Regarding Davy Jones’s personality and character, he naturally would not lie and cheat. Furthermore, the pirates on the ship completely understood Paul’s preferences!

This he could conclude: If making this octopus delighted they could reap great rewards, Davy Jone’s treasure-trove should have long been emptied. Also, there were still people who were able to think reversely and conclude: Since happiness is not an option, they would certainly try to enrage this poor Paul. Looking at the abundant nature of this treasure-trove, inevitably this path would also go nowhere.

A person’s five senses are classified into ‘joy, rage, worry, curiosity, fear.’ To this octopus, joy should most likely be food, rage should be when it interacted with a same species of when it is attacked. Regarding worry, there are few who would have been able to instigate that. Fear would require the usage of force or threat which underneath Davy Jones’s watchful eyes, was an impossibility.

Therefore, Sheyan wanted to try the only other uncommon approach: That was to trigger octopus Paul’s ‘curiosity’ or ‘pondering’ emotion! There was no need to doubt if Paul was able to replicate such an emotion, even an ordinary octopus has an extremely high intellect. It is said that it was the level of a 5-6 year old kid. They could even pull open the cork of a bottle to eat the little fishes inside, and could accurately forecast the results of the World Cup. What more that this was Davy Jones’s beloved pet Paul? Its thought process should not differ greatly compared to humans.

However, this creature had already followed Davy Jones for a long time, it could be said to be vastly experienced, It would certainly not take notice of any ordinary objects. Furthermore, an octopus would not be curious of every other thing, just like how an average person would take no interest towards an object that had an awful stench.

If that was the case, an object appeared in Sheyan’s mind! If it was that thing, he had great confidence in inciting the curious nature of the octopus Paul. However, if there was a mistake in his speculation, then the resulting consequences would be immense. At his time, it looked like the 3 minutes timeframe was about to expire, and the octopus Paul had started to lazily try to climb out of the fish bowl. Sheyan gritted his teeth, he then took off his equipped weapon ‘cobalt steel exoskeleton armour’ down, and held it tightly in his hand. This was a manufactured weapon that only existed in the machinery civilization a millennium later. No matter how broad Davy Jones’s experience was, it was completely impossible to let Paul witness this before!

This equipment originally had a camouflaging ability, after Sheyan cancelled it, its metallic brilliance dazzled brightly underneath the sun rays! Its strange appearance of copying the human skeleton structure had also gathered the attention of Davy Jones. The octopus Paul upon viewing it started to hoist its arms and climbed out. Astonishingly, it transformed into a huge monster, it had the dimension of the table and its tentacles were as thick as the bowl diameter!

Paul used his tentacle to roll around the object, it looked extreme curious, incessantly thinking of snatching away this object in Sheyan’s hand. Sheyan grinned as he firmly held on, he pointed at Davy Jones’s treasure-trove.

“Exchange.”

Paul tugged a few more times, after that he really understood Sheyan’s words and swiftly climbed into Davy Jones’s treasure trove. The moment it entered, Sheyan carefully noticed that a light blue layer glowed against its body when it passed, it was like it bypassed a wall. Obviously this treasure trove was suddenly not without harmful fortification. After Paul climbed in, it started toying about with its tentacles, searching endlessly. Presently, not only Sheyan was anxiously perspiring, even Davy Jones had a certain unconcealed nervousness in his expression. Obviously, the situation had developed beyond this astute person’s control!

Looking at octopus Paul wriggling about in the treasure trove, it actually coiled its tentacles around an object that was glittering gold. Sheyan felt like his heart was raised to his throat! He already made a decision, anyway he wasn’t in a combat state, once brother Paul exchanged that object with him, he would immediately return to the nightmare realm! Regrettably, Paul put down that object, finally sweeping with its tentacle, it coiled around another strip shape glowing black object and started to crawl out. He was crawling with great resolution, it probably wouldn’t change its mind.

Observing octopus Paul crawling out to him with that strip shape object, Sheyan felt a sense of unwillingness in his heart. Actually, exchanging his own blue class object for another black equipment, he should already be contented and it was less likely to offend Davy Jones. Thus he sighed in his heart and loosen his grip, allowing octopus Paul to snatch away this cobalt steel exoskeleton armour. This octopus was trustworthy, it also loosen the grip of its tentacle on that black figure. Thriving with excitement, it started to toy around with the glimmering cobalt steel exoskeleton armour.

After Sheyan’s fingers came in touch with that strip like black equipment, its enshrouding glow faded away. Emerging in Sheyan’s eyes, stunningly this weapon was exceedingly familiar!

A personally owned equipment of the 16th century, a single round musket!

Chapter 109: Black Ambition!

In the current era this sort of musket weapon was extremely primitive, after discharging a round, the reloading process was an excruciating long and inefficient one.

More crucially, this model of musket, was actually rather similar to that lethal weapon used by Little Lord Fokke when killing! It had a crow black gun barrel, and excessively unique design. Momentarily, Sheyan even suspected that this musket was stolen from the hands of Little Lord Fokke.

Sheyan exerted great force in gripping the handle, it was made with pine wood. Its pine resin combined with human sweat produced a glossy starch which allowed a comfortable but firm grip. The attributes of this weapon one by one surfaced from the nightmare imprint.

Ambition (Trigger style flintlock gun)

(TN: Flintlock guns are old fashioned guns that trigger from the spark of a flint)

Origin: Navarre

Equipment rarity: Black

Damage power 50 – 140

Material: Pine wood, iron

Additional equipment installations: Wooden butt(of the gun), strap

Optimal range (Able to display its maximum damage of 140): 10 metres.

Effective range (Able to deal some damage to enemies): 30 metres.

Weight: 4.2 kg

Gun length: 350 millimetres

Magazine capacity (1 round)

Reloading interval (1 minute)

Equipment requirements: Strength 10 points, physique 15 points

Unlimited ammunition

Perceptive sensing + 2

Agility + 2

Active ability: Rum and songs. Once the bullet encounters rum….. The curtains will unfold an enemy’s tragedy.

After activating the ability, the next attack from this weapon is an inevitable hit and will cause dizziness to the enemy, duration last for 3 seconds. If the enemy’s life points fall below 30%, then it will cause 200% (twofolds) explosive damage. Activating rum and songs consumes nothing, it’s cool down time is 600 seconds. Rum and Songs resulting dizziness takes precedence, furthermore, the dizziness duration is unable to be broken within 2 seconds.

Musket category passive effect: Ready. During non-combat state, explosive damage rate will increase overtime for the next attack of the musket. Every minute raises 1% of explosive rate, maximum is 50%. An explosive damage with the influence of ‘Ready’, would cause the 200% (Twofold) bonus to raise to 250%.

Pointer: After firing, the additional explosive rate disappears, the counter will reset to zero.

Pointer: After activating ‘Rum and Songs’, an attack would not trigger ‘Ready’ effects.

Handgun category additional effects: Fire precision + 10%, shooting distance + 10%

Equipment battle score: 19

Mini engravings on the gun: This gun has always thirsted for its brother.

Sheyan scrutinized this weapon, his breathing heavy, previously at the market he had already read a few reports. Regarding high class firearms type weapons, unlimited ammunition was a relatively rare characteristic, furthermore doesn’t this weapon also possesses an incomparably strong active ability? Although he had given up his demonic boxing glove from the Terminator world, he gained an incredible weapon with tremendous explosive powers. He was already lacking in creation of explosive strength, thus this weapon came at a great time!

Davy Jones was filled was amazement and a little heartache when he saw Sheyan winning that weapon, he probably lost his mood for chatting and gestured Sheyan to leave the room. Sheyan already benefitted greatly and had no intentions to continue staying here, he darted out of the room like an arrow. When he composed himself and carefully evaluated, he realized something. This black weapon ‘Ambition’ in fact really had the same design as the one Little Lord Fokke was using, was this a coincidence, or…. A fact?

Personally spectating the two immense heads, Blackbeard and Davy Jones clashing with each other, Sheyan’s emotions were turbulent. Furthermore, he just obtained a deadly lethal black type weapon, thus his emotions relaxed a little. Needless to say, Sheyan was also a young man, it was only that his thoughts were darker and he could keep himself more composed than others, but that didn’t mean he was free from mistakes forever.

For example, Sheyan committed a grave mistake right at this moment.

When he walked out of the captain’s room, he failed to notice most of the pirates had congregated at the side of the ship. This side was the one facing the other legendary pirate ship ‘Queen Anne’s Revenge’. In his mind, he was still reflecting on the ins and outs of his new weapon, and scheming on future arrangements, hence he was oblivious to the series of events. He panted heavily as he strolled down the stairs to and walked towards the second floor pathway.

Suddenly, Sheyan felt a chill in his heart! Although he was missing the all around attribute addition of 1 from the cobalt steel exoskeleton, his agility and perceptive sensing had been risen to 10 points and 14 points respectively, this was relatively valiant. Sheyan instantly turned around and to his surprise, he saw a person dressed as a pirate, and in his hands was a weapon not of this era!

An ‘UZI’ Submachine gun!

When this type of weapon appeared in the Terminator world, it sacrificed precision in exchange for rapid firing rate. But the gap between that pirate and Sheyan was only 6-7 metres, its precision was definitely out of the question! Undoubtedly, similar to Sheyan he was a contestant!

Firing tongues lashed out from the Uzi submachine gun, averaging 1500 rounds/minute as the bullets sprayed out like a torrential storm! This was a long and narrow pathway, at the moment when the gun directed towards him, Sheyan’s best option was to bang into the cabin door on his right. In this way, he not only could take cover from a huge portion of incoming bullets, he could also evade any follow up attacks from the enemy. Just when Sheyan was preparing to crash to the right using evading techniques that he learnt, he suddenly thought of something…..

That was, “what if I was the one arranging this assault, what would I do?”

If that’s the case, Sheyan gave up on his notion to take cover, utilizing his hands to cover his face, he straightforwardly planked forward like an ordinary wooden stake. Dozens of glowing bullets streaked past his body. A few caused his body to bloom blood flowers, and in a flash it drenched his clothes in blood. Right at that instance, Sheyan suddenly stretched out his arms and pressed onto the floor ahead, simultaneously bending his right leg, he exerted strength! Sprinting forward like a short distance athlete!

Sheyan’s current agility had already reached 10 points, even though it may not be very fast, it was enough to grant him the advantage in ability. The distance between his aggressor wasn’t far, a 6-7 metre gap was translated to 1-2 seconds. More importantly, the uzi submachine gun’s rate of fire could reach 1500 rounds/minute, but that was merely theory! This figure’s greatest limitation was from its loading capacity. In actual fact, even a modified uzi submachine gun would have a maximum capacity of 50 rounds, any more would sacrifice its other respective functions.

No doubt this contestant that assaulted Sheyan wasn’t any weakling, but he didn’t expect Sheyan to face his bullets head on and instead counterattacked! He hesitated a little, and immediately leapt backwards! At the same time raising up the uzi submachine gun in his right hand, one could clearly see the magazine of the gun automatically sliding out, and his left hand was already holding onto another fully loaded magazine. He simply pressed it in! The entire process did not even take 1 second. The contestant’s explosive strength was great, his backwards leap covered a big distance. Thus, even with Sheyan charging forward, he was unable to seize the small window where he needed to reload!

That contestant glanced towards the frantically charging Sheyan, his expression displayed a ridicule look. He held tightly onto the uzi submachine gun as it glowed with a light yellowish layer, obviously activated some kind of ability! Afterward, this firearm’s bullets sprayed out in frenzied torrents. “Chi chi chi chi” Most of it headed directly for Sheyan’s body!

Amidst the splashing blood, Sheyan did not respond in a way that the contestant expected him to from his attack. He remained like an injured wild beast as it rushed forward, silently and heavily knocking against his abdomen! The contestant’s face turned green, as he clutched his stomach and bent his waist, vomiting out from his mouth. Sheyan raised both his hands arms high and smashed down with his elbows, heavily pounding down on the back of his head.

This attack was incredibly savage, the contestant’s eyes turned blank and he weakly collapsed. Regarding this sort of firearms type contestant, their agility and perceptive sensing are high, but their physique and strength pales in comparison. Right now, Sheyan’s strength had already reach a high of 14 points, even though he had lost the threat of the cobalt steel exoskeleton, his raw power was adequate! Those few ferocious strikes weren’t enough to take this life, but was essential in causing him to temporarily lose his battle capabilities.

The nightmare imprint then transmitted a notification of a list of battle log.

“Based on your perceptive sensing, you have received the following battle report.”

“You have been hit by the enemy’s 9mm parabellum pistol bullet, resulting in 32 points of damage. Subtracting your base defence from your physique, total damage reduced to 24 points. Activating Innate ability: Endurance, attack failed! Resultant total damage is 1 point! Your accessory, Obsidian fossil anchor’s passive ability: ‘Bravery in oppression’ activated, your physique temporarily increases by 2 points, duration of 300 seconds, effect can be stacked up to five times.”

“You have been hit by the enemy’s 9mm parabellum pistol bullet, resulting in 31 points of damage. Minusing your base defence from your physique, total damage reduced to 24 points. Activating Innate ability: Endurance, attack failed! Resultant total damage is 1 point! Your accessory, Obsidian fossil anchor’s passive ability: ‘Bravery in oppression’ activated, your physique temporarily increases by 2 points, duration of 300 seconds, effect can be stacked up to five times.”

Chapter 110: Killing in anger

Sheyan’s physique had reached to 17 points, adding on his hidden title of ‘Pirate Ringleader’ since he was on the Flying Dutchman, his strength had climbed to 14 points, and his physique to 19 points! After the passive ability of the Obsidian fossil anchor activated, Sheyan’s physique had soared to a frightening 29 points. With such a number, it could even exceed several strong storyline characters in this world! Therefore, even when this contestant released his second round of bullets along with his special ability, Sheyan endured all of it and his life points merely reduced to 70 HP!

Just when Sheyan was about to deliver a fatal blow to this contestant, the cabin door suddenly split into two, as two blades intersected out. The tough cabin door was like a paper, shredding into fragments as the splinters sprayed onto the nearby walls created a crackling sound. One could tell residing strength in the two blades were immense.

Sheyan sneered coldly. If he had really darted into that cabin to take cover from the uzi submachine gun, then what awaited him was a pair of incomparably vicious beheading. This sort of snare was extremely simple and direct, it was arranged based on the reflex reaction of most people! It could be said that they were extremely confident in their deductions of people’s nature and thinking. If Sheyan wasn’t a cool-headed person that could recollect his thoughts in emergencies, that he would really have stepped into their trap.

Giving up finishing this unlucky brat in front of him, Sheyan turned tail and ran. Before he took of, he stomped down heavily on his right hand that was his gun hand. He pressured down wriggling his foot to the sorrowful cries of this person. Even though the two person with their blades furiously charged forward with all their might, their agility was obviously not comparable to Sheyan, and could only watch as gap between them widened.

Obviously, if they couldn’t intercept Sheyan in a short time, then undoubtedly Sheyan would strike back with a strong vengeance. Because Sheyan’s other status was the third officer of the Flying Dutchman! His reputation had soared to a respective status amongst the pirates! Once a storyline character pirate recognizes this status, they will definitely feel the need to assist their ship’s third officer. They had a duty obligation to him, and Sheyan was also a pretty prestigious comrade!

The ones devising this set up had anticipated that accidents out of their calculations may happen. Therefore, they had already added a contingency rope around their plan.

This contingency rope was a person.

An abnormally huge man, was in fact waiting for Sheyan round the corner!

The pirates largest attire was wasted on that person, his limbs monstrously leaking out a chunk, it was like a grown man wearing his childhood clothes. He had a buzz cut, his hairs piercing out like needles. Kneading his fists, cracking his knuckles loudly in succession. Staring at Sheyan, his mouth formed a hideous smile.

“Brat, in view of your fine performance, Mr Bowen has decided to first pound you into a mud paste, and squash out your organs.”

Sheyan didn’t reply, but his eyes glowed with a fiery blaze. At this moment, mindless trash talking was useless, he had not forgotten the two other strong enemies pursuing from behind! Thus, a battle occurred in a flash! Just like in Adult films that had no foreplay, it gave one an abrupt, clear and boundless excitement!

This brute Bowen leaked out a ruthless sneer, he raised his right fist and smashed down. This fist probably contained his individual special ability, his fist was radiating with a faint glow. Sheyan’s raised his brows, he did not dodge but instead looked up! Looking deep into his pupils with his blazing eyes, he raised his fist to intercept!

This brute was massively strong, his muscles bulging firm. His one fist pounding down felt like a gigantic iron hammer slamming down mightily. Even if its target was a red-hot steel, it would also burst into splattering sparks!

Under such a direct pounding, undoubtedly ‘muscles, strength, testicle male hormones, blood’ became the relevant description of this exchange of blows.

When Sheyan directly received the blow, a buzzing sound formed in his mind as his stomach churned violently. Beneath the ferocious quake, he staggered backwards and finally knocked against the side wall with his back with a ‘thump!’. Even the surrounding walls violently shook from that impact!

Bowen arrogantly stood still and roared mightily, his tremendous voice resonated through everyone like death personified! Even though he displayed outstanding strength, his resisting hand actually repelled a numbing sensation from this damned yellow monkey. He was as hard as a short steel needle! Fortunately his personal strength was outstanding, this was enough as a person (Sheyan) could not possibly train his entire body to be as tough as his right fist.

One must understand, Sheyan’s current strength was a strong 14 points, although it probably wasn’t as mighty as Bowen’s, the gap between the two wasn’t great! Thus even though Sheyan looked extremely pathetic from that impact, after adding ‘Endurance’, his resultant injury wasn’t much. When Sheyan knocked against the wall, an enduring creak came out from the wooden board behind him. At the corner of his eyes, he caught a glimpse of the two other contestants waving their blades as they rushed over with like a devil and its monster! They even raised their blades!

In an instance, Sheyan groaned and withdrew his elbows crashing them against his back! The wall which was already unable to bear the heavy burden split into pieces. The twin blades sliced against Sheyan’s chest creating an intersecting wound, blood gushed out as his flesh hung from the wound. Luckily Sheyan had already retreated backwards, as the twin blades brushed over his face by 10 centimetres as it created a gust of wind against Sheyan’s hair!

Due to their overflowing strength, they could not restrain the motion of the blade as it chopped into the surrounding wall with two clear and crisp chop. Although they were both pretty skilled, when they started out with full force, their offensive tempo was suddenly broken off. Sheyan seized this opportunity to do a back roll and stood up, he then dived into the side cabin, closing and bolting the door behind him. The twin blades once again chopped into wood like a shadow following the body, producing two muffled sounds as it penetrated deeply.

Sheyan released a sigh, obviously this group of people aboard did not dare to cause a ruckus in case they attracted the unwanted attention of the pirates. Therefore, this bolted door earned him a few seconds of time. Sheyan was roughly familiar with the structure of this ship, he speedily dashed and made a left turn. He immediately open a door and entered into another passage in the ship’s hold.

The Flying Dutchman’s passageway was extremely complex, it was like a maze. This was a common problem of the ships in this era, because during a naval battle, cannons were a means of probing. This didn’t mean that cannons could not submerge a ship, but because apart from commodity goods, a ship would always store a huge amount of wealth. Therefore, close ship-to-ship hand combat was extremely common. Under such a situation, constructing the ship to look like a maze is a terribly ingenious tactic. As their confused and disorientated opponents navigated around the ship, the home ground familiarity and advantage allowed the pirates to decimate their enemies. Gradually this practice became a norm in ship construction.

Sheyan strided with massive steps, skimming through a corridor. He suddenly halted, because ahead of him the gigantic Bowen also appeared out of the opposite corner! Their familiarity towards this environment, was surprisingly ahead of Sheyan’s! Sheyan currently knew that if he delayed even for a slight moment, he would once again be outflanked. Thus, without hesitation he charged forward!

The two figures blurred and suddenly smacked against each other in a flash. Expectedly, Bowen needed a longer time to attack. Sheyan had already experienced numerous life and death situations and always turned them around. He quickly noticed that even though he had undergone several stringent trainings, in comparison to this guy’s experience, he was still rather lacking. Grasping an indistinct flaw in Sheyan, Bowen’s eyes flickered with killing intent. He held onto that flaw as he took a step closer to his opponent’s bosom, and unleashed a terrifying assault!

Elbows, knees and his hands horizontally struck out like an Alaskan Brown bear hunting for food.

Following that, he raised his 80 over kg opponent up and slammed him against a nearby pillar.

Such explosives strikes, it actually linked up naturally and unforced. Such perfect execution of blows in compatibility to his strength, Bowen had obviously reached a relatively powerful standard in close combat. Sheyan was indeed like a small child in front of him.

A dull boom emerged from the incomparably solid pillar, the dust on the nearby shelves scattered about. Yet, Sheyan’s insanely high physique had raised his defence by leaps and bounds. Although these merciless unwavering assaults resulted in a greal deal of pain to him, it was not about to end his life. Sheyan collapsed to the floor, blood flowed out from his countless wounds. The crimson was blinding, and it seemed like Sheyan had passed out. Instead Bowen viciously trampled on him consecutively, the thumping sounds against the flesh were extremely terrifying!

Chapter 111: Fearsome Ambition!

Suddenly, Sheyan swung his arm and latched onto Bowen’s stomping feet. Exerting great strength, he caused him to lose his balance, as he stumbled backwards. After Bowen steadied himself, he could only watch as his silent opponent struggled to get up. His opponent was still swaying, but only his blazing eyes were stable, beneath the dripping and flowing blood from his forehead.

Fiery blood!

The two continued to battle.

This time, Sheyan altered his fighting style.

Regarding his opponent’s attack, he started without dodging but adopted the most desperate approach. Hurting himself to inflict damage!

Sheyan’s thinking had started to become clearer. Up till now, he was finally able to see through this contestant. Once a contestant has an attribute that was frequently used, that meant that his other attributes would be relatively weaker. And this group was obviously a party. A party’s benefits was that it could vastly limit the risk and distribute it, lowering the mission difficulty. However, its flaw was that the additional rewards were frequently monopolized by the stronger attributes within the party.

Therefore, your strength is so great, but your physique definitely isn’t!

Therefore, this fool’s equipment would never be better than mine!

Sheyan’s nose had been pulverized by Bowen’s fists, blood splattered everywhere and stars formed in his eyes. But, the attacking Bowen was also unable to evade Sheyan’s strike in time, he was directly kicked at his balls! Sheyan’s present total life points had already soared to a frightening 290 points, this coupled with the protection of his innate ability ‘Endurance’! Factoring his HP regeneration speed, he could recover 14.5 HP every minute. Furthermore, it has already been close to five minutes since the start of the battle, which goes to say that he had already additionally recovered 70 HP. Hence, even when Sheyan was forced into such a sorry state, his life points still remained close to 180 points!

Under such circumstances, Sheyan obviously adopted the method of harming oneself to inflict damage! Bowen’s strength was incredible, obviously, his initial strength was high and after entering a party, his entire equipments after distributions should roughly be strength enhancing equipments. That meant that his physique was definitely not high. If that’s the case, the low in defence Bowen would not be able to fight for extended periods.

Bowen’s breathing started to become disoriented, his chest slightly undulating. The area that was kicked by Sheyan ached dully. In a short 10 seconds, he had already knocked down this taciturn male 4 times, but yet this male swiftly got back up as though nothing happened time and time again. It was as though pain was a common occurrence, pain uplifted his fighting spirit! Observing this opponent, that was like an injured wild beast, a strange ominous feeling welled up in his chest. This feeling caused his chest to repeatedly pound, causing him to feel irritable for no reasons. Looking at the blood on his opponent’s face, he roared out and charged once again, raising his fist.

Between the two, they had already given up defending, the only thing left was to attack attack attack attack! Blood sprayed out everywhere, the floor and walls were smeared with it. The thunderous clashing of blows caused the empty cabin to shudder, causing palpitation in people’s hearts.

“Thump!” Their fist collided in mid air, a sudden crack could be heard clearly from Sheyan’s right shoulder bone, his distorted arm then descended flabbily, obviously the lightest injury would be a dislocation. Naturally comparing strength and experience, Bowen still held the upperhand.

This brute laughed sinisterly, hopping forward as he raised his knee and ferociously aimed towards his opponent’s lower body. This move was vicious, once it connected it would cause his opponent to lose his battle capability, cut of his line of descendants and may even lose this life instantly. But also because of this move, Bowen’s had left his entire body open! His entire upper body had gaps everywhere. Bowen had already calculated, it was impossible for the enemy to block his knee, unless his hands were as long as 2-3 metres!

But at this crucial point, Sheyan’s eyes exhibited a mocking expression. He leaned to the side, evading the damage to his lower body. But Bowen’s knee subsequently struck against this pelvis, knocking Sheyan 3-4 metres away. At this very instance, Sheyan unexpectedly rotated himself before crashing to the ground, another weapon had appeared in his functioning hand.

A deep black gun…….

An outdated but brimming with murderous aura, flintlock musket…..

Between the space of landing, Sheyan finally pulled out this demonic lethal weapon!

Ambition!

In that instance, the atmosphere froze with a deathly aura!

The surging waves of the distant sea felt like it correlated with this frightening weapon!

“Pointer: Target’s life points has already dropped beneath 30%.”

“Pointer: Do you wish to activate weapon ability: Rum and songs?”

“Weapon ability: Rum and Songs activated!”

“Bang!”

Before falling to the ground, Seyan already triggered, an ash grey smoke spiralled up! That outdated gunpowder odour pierced the nose and rapidly filled the entire room. The gap between the two was not even 5 metres, even though Sheyan made no contributions to the firing bullet apart from triggering it, but gun techniques were completely unnecessary in such a distance. Once he aimed to a rough direction, even trying to miss was hard. Furthermore, Rum and Songs had an inevitable hitting attribute?

Besides, Sheyan wasn’t a professional gunman. No matter if it was pulling out and aiming this sort of basic efficiency, he was a complete amateur. If he was swapped with a talented and hardworking gunmen, their speed of readying the gun would be roughly 0.4 seconds. Thus, Sheyan understood his personal weakness and immediately activated the ‘Rum and Songs’ to bring about this inevitable hitting effect. His aim was to finish this off in one strike!

Bowen had also numerous encounters of being shot, his battle experiences were plentiful. Thus, when he saw Sheyan pulling out this mysteriously shaped musket out, he knew something was wrong. He seemed to be prepared, as the surface of his body suddenly flickered and a layer of transparent water wrapped around him. Simultaneously, he did his utmost to dart to the side attempting to dodge the shot.

However, what shot out of ‘Ambition’ was a lead bullet combusting in flames. It carried a rumbling killing intent as it pressed forward determined, shooting straight ahead!

This era’s lead bullet design wasn’t complicated, but its manufacturing requirements were relatively high. Primarily, one must construct a 6 floors high building and a pool at the bottom. One must pour smelted lead from the peak of the building with a special, fastened and waterlock scoop, under its personal tension from the free-falling conditions it will then form into a somewhat droplet looking bullet. Once it cools down in the pool, it can then be used. The designated scoop must have a sufficient altitude in order to give adequate cooling time for the liquid lead to solidify in midair. Because once an unsolidified lead droplet balls into the pool, it would not be able to preserve its shape.

Even the destruction force of an ordinary lead bullet would not be inferior to the average bullets nowadays, and may even surpass it! Because lead is more flexible, once it penetrates into a person’s body, it will release all its kinetic energy. Thus, they body would suffer severe rupture from the insides, causing severe internal damage. Its damage would be a hundred times that of an ordinary pellet, furthermore it would cause tremendous pressure on the human’s circulatory system….its potential was simply unimaginable. A victim would suffer unbearable agony, and if the bullet was not retrieved out of the body, it would result in lead poisoning! Even with the present times medical advances, it was still very very tricky.

When the bullet soared to within 10 centimetres of Bowen’s body, the surrounding air instantly formed a distinct rippling movement, producing a series of alarming glass shattering sounds! But the speed of this lead bullet remained undaunted! Whistling loudly as it pierced into the right side of Bowen’s neck. Blood gushed out from his neck, his eyes popped out like a dead fish as his body became rigid where he stood.

An enormous crescent shaped wound appeared on Bowen’s beck, as though an invisible beast appeared from nowhere and bit of half of his neck. Bowen’s expression was brimming with disbelief as he clutched his neck tightly with his hands, convulsing violently and finally collapsing to the ground. Blood shot out without restraint as he violently convulsed without an indication that this was going to stop.

One simple gunshot, yet its destructiveness could split a mountain, dashing all hopes of survival in the formidable Bowen!

This brute struggled in despair, he summoned his final bit of strength to raise his hands up and pointed his shaking and bloodied finger towards Sheyan. His eyes contained regret, dismay and unwillingness!

Consecutively, the nightmare imprint transmitted his battle log:

“Based on your perceptive sensing, you acquired the following battle report.”

“Contestant no. 22317 dealt 31 (56-25) points of damage with his knee, repelling you backwards.”

“You activated your weapon’s personal ability: Rum and Songs.”

“Your attack will inevitably strike the opponent!”

“Contestant no. 22317 utilized an innate ability: Mist shield, ability will form a protective shield over the contestant that can absorb 200 points of far range damage/100 points of other damage. Duration of 5 seconds, Mist shield unable to defend against damage over time abilities.”

“Your gunshot dealt 140 points of damage, enemy’s life points beneath 30% causing sudden explosiveness of damage, you dealt 280 points of damage.”

“Mist shield absorbed 200 points of damage, after deducting personal defence, your resultant damage is 80 points. Concurrently, enemy will suffer from dizziness for 3 seconds.”

“Contestant no. 22317 is dead.”

“Current scenario is a peaceful setting, you are unable to acquire any benefits from the death of contestant no. 22317.”

Chapter 112: Gradual clarity

Sheyan’s chest violently undulated as he took huge breaths, he bent down to support his knee with both hands. Even though he knew ‘Ambition’s’ destructive force was great, after using it for the first time he realized he completely underestimated it! He suddenly stood up because deeper into the pathway, two contestants holding onto their blades were looking over with disbelief. They naturally witnessed that insane event. Sheyan laughed coldly, he once again drew out ‘Ambition’, and aimed it!

The two other contestants obviously did not know the cooldown period of ‘Ambition’ was a minute. They only witnessed that this weapon carried such destructive force that it terrifyingly blasted off half of Bowen’s neck! Panic soared in their hearts as they watched the black barrel aiming towards them, they immediately cried out in horror and fled. Sheyan had no intentions of giving chase, he leaned against the pillar and decided after setting his dislocated right shoulder.

After slaying Bowen, Sheyan carefully reflected on several things. From a string of spider’s tracks and horse tracks (Clues), he clearly understood that his enemy’s party obviously had a highly skilled character who planned before moving. And that fella definitely planned his escape route before this assault. Hence, if Sheyan were to use this chance to find assistants, he would waste a great deal of time and ultimately, it would’ve been in vain. Thus, Sheyan hesitated and immediately pursued the fleeing contestants! Under this situation, the possibility of them having another ambush is extremely low.

Although he delayed for a while, their agility was not comparable to Sheyan. Sheyan was able to force himself to follow their escaping pace. While pursuing, a huge suspicion formed in Sheyan’s mind: aren’t these people scared of having their ploy exposed?

Currently at sea, even if the Flying Dutchman was enormous, no matter how well these contestants hid, they would not be able to run forever. After acting they would only have two endings: Kill or be killed!

If the latter happened, Sheyan could call his helpers and he had the confidence of snuffing them out within 2 hours. He believed based on his third officer authority, finding them out wasn’t difficult.

And even if they killed Sheyan, the news of the Flying Dutchman’s third officer being murdered would startle Davy Jones. Obviously he would not mourn for Sheyan, but will believe that a fatal defect had surfaced in his ship. Similarly he would instigate wide scale bloodshed to cleanse his ship!

Hence, the only explanation is, these bunch of people only needed to drag this on for 2 hours and thus could accomplish their mission and return to the nightmare realm! If not, another unreasonable speculation would be, they could eliminate every threat within the 2 hours…. More noteworthily, these threats included the entire crew of the Flying Dutchman and even Davy Jones all the way to the lowest tier of pirates!

Sheyan’s thoughts gradually gained clarity.

“These bunch had never expected a contestant like me to suddenly appear on this ship. Therefore, one of the contestant, maybe because of his curiosity, or someone’s instigation, he wanted to probe information of me….. That was the reason why someone sneaked around when I was sleeping. Unfortunately, his plan got discovered. Therefore, their head would conclude that the promoted me would carry out investigation on this ship, this action would definitely hinder their plans. Thus, in order to prevent my actions, he dispatched people to silence me.”

In order to prevent the pirates from discovering his secret pursuing, Sheyan tailed them from a distance, he did not dare to go closer. After passing a channel that was close to the side of the ship, he suddenly understood why the pirates on board had suddenly collectively disappeared. Because from 2 nautical miles away on the legendary pirate ship the ‘Queen Anne’s Revenge’, a horrific scene was unfolding.

That sail ropes on that ship seemed like it was alive as it frantically coiled. It looked like the entire pirate ship had transformed into a gigantic tentacle monster.The pirate leader Blackbeard was currently standing on the main mast and laughing to his heart’s content while he admired the view. He was waving about that magical silver sword! His subordinates knelt down at the deck in fear and trepidation, as though worshipping their king!

This sight completely captivated the pirates on the Flying Dutchman, they abandoned their jobs and scattered onto the deck to watch this shocking view with their jaws dropped. Sheyan felt an illusion that he was the one who created history, because Blackbeard’s mythical sword was something he had helped to perfect. Ammand’s scabbard should have a function akin to that of a battery charger! Without that complementing scabbard, Blackbeard’s mythical sword would at most be a ridiculously sharp weapon. But after charging up with the scabbard, he could then fit the grand name of ‘the king of close naval combat’!

Sheyan pondered as he continued to tail the two people. He had not gone through training in this field, and these two had the intentions of losing their trail. Thus, after descending one floor of the ship’s hold, it came to no surprise that Sheyan lost them. After scurrying a few rounds around the cargo, just when he was about to give up, a soft chatter could be heard from over 30 metres within the cargo hold. Sheyan immediately darted behind a pillar in the corridor, to prevent alerting them as he tried to stealthily spy from the side.

What greeted him was a group of pirates escorting a noble dressed youth as they hurriedly paced forward. That youth should be a storyline character, unknowingly, this youth gave off a rather familiar aura to Sheyan. Within those pirates, surprisingly were the two contestants he was tailing, it was obvious that they were the entire party!

At this point, Sheyan would obviously not be stupid enough to expose himself to curse and explode out at his enemies. That would result in getting beaten to a state worse than death. He decided that he wanted to use his ‘insight’ ability to probe out that youth, but just as he was about to activate it, he sensed a faintly discernable crisis hovering in his heart. This was undoubtedly his outstanding 14 points in perceptive sensing displaying its warning mechanism. This faint danger represented two things, one is that using ‘insight’ would cause a slight crisis, and the other…… meant that within their party, there was someone else with an even higher or close perceptive sensing. Thus, diluting his perceptive senses completely!

Sheyan stuck his face to the pillar, a distinctive timbre texture could be felt and he could smell a slight fishy seawater smell. He observed as this group disappeared round the corner, and he ultimately decided to give up on utilizing ‘insight’. The reason was simple:

The risks and benefits were not worth it.

Naturally, the motive of this party was not Sheyan, killing him was only to cut their risks. Sheyan only used ‘insight’ to satisfy his curiosity. But once he gets discovered, then he will land himself in grave trouble! Exchanging his life just to satisfy a curiosity, this was simply not something a intelligent person would do.

When this group walked faraway, Sheyan did not attempt to tail them with his shoddy footwork, but instead entered the cargo hold that he came out from. This cargo hold is relatively common on a pirate ship. It was normally used to store heavy and cumbersome or strong smelling goods, for example salted fish, buckets and ballast material etc. Even a pirate ship would have common cargo holds, because even though they don’t transport goods, when pillaging merchant ships, they would contain these goods. Naturally they would be able to loot those merchant ships, even this kind of goods to gather the maximum profits.

The cargo hold in front of Sheyan was completely empty, a thick tobacco smell was left behind. The few objects left wereas several familiar gorgeous chest. Sheyan raised his brows, it was indeed the treasure chests that he obtained from Tortuga castle with Scarface Harry. Engraved was clearly the emblem of the Fokke Family, within them was nothing, as empty as the wilderness. Undoubtedly, it had been looted completely by those pirates.

After looking at the imprint on the chests, Sheyan’s originally disorganized thoughts suddenly connected. He suddenly recalled why he felt that the youth looked very familiar. It was because the outline of his facial features looked extremely similar to the Little Lord Fokke, the owner of Tortuga port! Even though his body didn’t have the icy deathlike sensation like Little Lord Fokke, but the air of nobility was still outstandingly visible. Obviously, the youth that just went off even if he wasn’t Little Lord Fokke’s son, he would still be blood related.

Someone from the Fokke Family’s younger generation…. A group of contestants….. They ascended an influential legendary pirate ship….. These 3 points assembling together on the Caribbean sea, what is their exact relationship? Since the youth’s status had already been revealed by Sheyan, an even larger riddle was forming in Sheyan’s heart. What exactly are they planning?! Don’t tell me this party was so strong that they could confront the legendary Davy Jones known as the ‘sea devil’? If that’s the case, then why do they need to bring along this blood related youth of the Fokke Family?

Chapter 113: Victory is Paul, Defeat is Paul.

Sheyan remained perplexed after much thinking, he started to get ready to return to the deck. Undoubtedly, once he blended in with the pirates, then his safety and security would be guaranteed. When he strolled over, he roughly understood how this group managed to become part of the Flying Dutchman. That should be being a ‘scraper’ on this ship. This so called ‘scraper’ is a familiar term in the present world to Sheyan, but he wasn’t sure what the pirates in this caribbean world addressed this class as. He could only confirm the contents and nature of this job.

Because when a wooden ship voyages out for a time frame, even if it was extraordinarily constructed, there would still be abnormal growth of organisms from the warm, humid and moist nature of the ship. Examples of these are moss/algae, oysters, balanus other sea organisms. These organisms latch onto the bottom but do not affect much, after long periods it can result in a massive hidden danger. Therefore, these people are needed to cleanse the ship of these organisms, and thus they are called ‘scrapers’.

Of course to clean and safeguard the ship, the best solution is to enter a large scale dock, and isolate the ship completely from seawater. Followed by thoroughly cleaning and painting a layer of lacquer over the wood. But this era of maritime technology still has a long way to go, the only place that have large scale ship maintenance are at famous port cities, British Royal Navy ships enjoys such benefits, but pirate ships cannot. Therefore this ‘scraping’ job, requires people to submerge themselves into the water to accomplish it. This was no doubt an excruciatingly exhausting process.

However, this torturous process was essential, people who carried out ‘scraping’ duties are already used to hard work. Normally they were unwilling to work for the pirates because even striving so hard, they may not receive their remuneration. This wasn’t like the present world whereby there is a legal system and contracts. What more, these were greedy and cruel pirates who placed their brains in their pants. If they confronted them for money, it would most of the time result in their heads rolling.

But under such circumstances, these bunch of contestants announced their willingness to be ‘scrapers’, and did not want to be given high status. Therefore, being a temporary low grade crew member of the Flying Dutchman would not be a problem. Based on Sheyan’s experience, cleaning such a huge ship like the Flying Dutchman would require at least 7-8 days, and this only included the bottom part and not the sides of the ship. To those contestants, such a long time frame was definitely enough!

When Sheyan distinguished this information, he rounded a few corners and ascended up the stairs to the deck. No matter what these contestants wanted to do, blending in with the pirates would definitely be the safest option for Sheyan. Presently, it was roughly 3 in the afternoon, the sea breeze was gentle and the glaring sun rays caused his eyes to gradually squint. Unknowingly, a relevant phrase infiltrated his mind like the sun rays:

“I swear on my soul and blood, collaborating together from tomorrow, even our off springs will live in peace for many generations. Anyone violating this would have their blood vessels boil, breathing ceased, their flesh will decay under the scorching sun, and the breath of the earth will shackle their footsteps.”

“Bernard Fokke”

“Cooper Jones”

In this instance, Sheyan suddenly halted, and stood rooted as though struck by lightning. The originally warm caribbean breeze suddenly carried a murderous pressure, slashing against his skin. Initially those disorganized and disoriented thoughts suddenly started linking up together. The enshrouding fog concealing these contestants suddenly completely dissolved in front of Sheyan!

“Damned…..” Sheyan gritted his teeth exclaiming. He raised his head to look at the faraway captain’s room of Davy Jones. “This secret was meant for me to use in the future, never expected you guys to actually grasp this message……”

“Furthermore developing it to this extent! How could I allow you to have your way. Once you bunch of fools succeeded, then wouldn’t my invisible gain would receive a huge blow?”

Sheyan immediately started sprinting! Presently the deck was filled with pirates, but he did not care much as he knocked and brushed past them until he reached the captain’s room. He then grabbed hold of a pirate urgently asking.

“Is the captain in?”

That pirate was a confidante of Davy Jones. He instantly brushed away Sheyan’s hands, organizing his semi-crumpled collar and angrily said.

“Something cropped up, I reckon there’s a problem with the gunpowder. Boss went down to take a look.”

A gunpowder storehouse is naturally necessary in a pirate ship. If not, once they engage an enemy, they would be at a disadvantage without the explosive support of far range assaults. Instead, this gunpowder storage can likewise be a fatal component of a ship. Once an enemy’s blazing cannon ball smashes into the gunpowder storage, then undoubtedly the battle will abruptly conclude! Therefore, in this era, a battleship’s most protected and stringent place is not the cargo hold, but the gunpowder storage. Once there are any movements there, even a small problem would invite the personal attention of the captain.

After listening, without hesitation Sheyan sped down. Without caring for anything else he sprinted. In order to save the few precious seconds, he even ruthlessly broke open a railing and jumped down.

Regrettably, when Sheyan landed after smashing the wooden railing, he saw the back of Davy Jones standing metres away as he carefully inspected the lock of the gunpowder storeroom. Yet the youth that looked like little Lord Fokke was hiding in a narrow corner behind Davy Jones, the gap between them was roughly 15 metres. That youth had a black mask covering his face, he looked somewhat like Zorro as two contestants accompanied him.

Suddenly that youth stood out impulsively, his right hand holding onto a common flintlock musket in this era. He coldly laughed as he aimed at the back of Davy Jones, and pressed the trigger……

Bang!

In the instance of the gunfire, Davy Jones concurrently spun his head round. Looking at this arrogant demeanor, he seemed like he was looking at pathetic worm. He clutched the sabre on his waist, his eyes filled with murderous intent! Sheyan frantically shouted out.

“No! Boss! That’s the Fokke Family’s……”

But at this moment, Sheyan witnessed the contestant standing beside the youth turning around. His eyes….. That pair of clear abundantly penetrating eyes, stared into Sheyan’s eyes which reached into his heart! Although the appearance of the owner had changed, but the bizarre captivating magic within the pupils remained, causing people’s will-power to utterly collapse and their mental state to degenerate!

Sheyan could feel like the air around apparently stuck to his skin! Looking at this person’s action was like watching a slow-mo movement in the movies. That contestant raised his right hand, using his spotlessly white palm to face Sheyan! Although there wasn’t any tangible sign, Sheyan could feel an indescribable invisible wall surging forward!

He instantly covered his front with his hands, but still felt like a waving tremendous hammer smashing in. Sparks emerged in his sight, as he flew backwards from the impact, a spicy fishy smell shot up his throat and a searing pain electrified from his back. He could hear a series of wooden rustling sounds in his ear, obviously a few layers of the cabin wall had met with a calamity.

But before Sheyan flew backwards, he caught a glimpse of Davy Jones’s face changing greatly before he was about to counterattack. The initially beheading blade slicing through the air suddenly slanted, and chopped against the wall beside them causing wooden bits to spray forth everywhere and a piercing crackling sound. A gigantic scar of about 7-8 metres long resulted! It was like two invisible hands had swiftly smashing against the wooden walls! If the youth received this blow, half of his corpse would not even remain!

Simultaneously, a lead bullet ejected out from the flintlock musket in the Fokke family’s youth hands, mercilessly penetrating into Davy Jones’s chest! But with Davy Jones’s overwhelming strength, the tip of this lead bullet would only pierced his skin. Even so, Davy Jones nevertheless avoided to the side, this thick and violent pirate’s movement was displayed an alarming agility that left one speechless. One could tell that Sheyan’s shouting had given him ample warning.

Concurrently, Sheyan received a notification: Davy Jones friendship level + 20/ Caribbean pirate reputation + 2000/ Additional + 2000 from the crew of the Flying Dutchman.

Following the opponent’s last-minute failure, the pocket-size fishbowl in Davy Jones’s left hand suddenly jolted and extended out a tentacle!

When the tentacle extended out it was still fairly minute, but its reach was endless. Finally it transformed into a sharply red tentacle as thick as a human’s arm, its suckers covering the entire surface. This tentacle wrapped around Davy Jones’s body, the tip of the tentacle wriggled like human fingers, it looked like a little kid gently and cautiously fumbling around a marble with their fingers.

This tentacle’s target, was surprisingly that incoming lead bullet!!!

Chapter 114: Tie

In this chaotic moment, Octopus Paul’s tentacles replicated the fingers of a small child, carelessly and even slightly negligent, but a child only handled glass marbles.

Yet this chief octopus is faced with….. A lead bullet travelling at 543 metres/second!

Octopus guarded its owner!

It suddenly struck out horizontally.

“Pa!” Sheyan couldn’t even see it clearly, he only witnessed the Fokke family youth flying up, a great force impacted against his head pushing it backwards. After cushioning the incoming lead bullet with its tentacles, it returned in with ten times the speed. It struck against his nose bridge, and penetrated into his skull with great kinetic force, leaving a blooming black hole behind it. When the bullet pierced into his brain, it ravaged the innards completely and without stopping forced its way out from the back of his head, causing a bowl sized black hole at the back. Blood and brain substance burst out, emitting a terrible odour in its wake!

In that instance, even Davy Jones’s face leaked out an indescribable horror. Normally, his appearance would be usually filled with wild laughter and insanity, it was hard to even associate fear with his face. As Sheyan gasped for air, he noticed a line of notifications.

“Based on your perceptive sensing, you have acquired the following battle report.”

“Warning: Your perceptive sensing is suppressed by contestant no. 4421, a huge amount of your battle report has also been obtained by him!”

“Contestant no.4421 activated ability: Colliding force wall.”

“You have been struck directly by the colliding force wall, receiving 110 force damage. After deducting physique defence total damage sustained: 93 points.

“Colliding force wall supplementary effects judgement…..your spirit is 4 points, exemption of judgement failed.”

“You have been blown 7 metres away, if you suffer any collision in midair, you will receive a second time of additional damage.”

“You suffered from collision, receiving 60 points of physical damage. After deducting physique defence, damage is 49 points. Innate ability ‘Endurance’ activated, you total damage received is 25 points.”

“Force……damage?” Thousands of thoughts swirled in Sheyan’s mind. He immediately connected this ability origin should be undoubtedly ‘the force’ which was the core concept of the ‘Star Wars’ series, it was also hailed as a spirit energy. The force is formless, natural and contained mysterious strength, it was an energy innate in all life forms! If one were to carefully segregate, force could be split into 4 classes: Light side, dark side, unifying force and living force.

Obviously, this contestant no.4421 has already grasped this spirit energy, but it should be a basic type and wasn’t of an expert class. Although that was so, the terrifying energy already heavily inflicted harm onto Sheyan! If this contestant was alone, Sheyan may still attempt to challenge her. Unfortunately she was part of a party, and this person was probably a core member…..

Currently, Sheyan noticed the group of contestants. Some of them were looking at the miserable corpse, and some towards the faraway Davy Jones. Some of them were raging, but most of them had a blank and confused look! Under this freezing atmosphere, a large mechanical robotic sound boomed.

“Storyline main mission: The curse of Davy Jones, completed.”

“Fokke family fourth generation descendant ‘Morgan Fokke’ has been killed by Davy Jones’s pet sea monster.”

“Storyline main mission completion rate: 51.”

Following this booming voice, the entire Flying Dutchman shook, as though it was in a raging hurricane. Every pirate started to grab their heads and screamed, only Davy Jones lifelessly stood still. That magical pocket-sized fishbowl suddenly shattered, its glass and water drenched his body. Octopus Paul fell out and starting inflating at an astounding speed. Its eight tentacles spasmed and continually grew, and then it climbed up of the hold and jumped onto the deck, finally leaping into the ocean. It then transformed into an enormous ash-grey monster, its 40 over inch long tentacles defied the heavens as it jerked while pointing to the sky, its bowl sized suckings squirmed incessantly and it finally submerged into the sea!

Witnessing this scene, Sheyan finally understood the entire sequel of the Davy Jones who was acclaimed as a demonic sea creature.

Suddenly, Davy Jones similar clutched his head and let out an agonizing shriek! His shriek resonated out loudly, harming everyone in a 1 kilometre radius. Around the place was a huge mess as though a 12 grade hurricane had struck that area. Clearly seen, his head had started to turn irregular, a faint light blue transparent feeling enveloped it, starting from his head and swiftly spreaded out! Finally Davy Jones’s appearance looked extremely evil, his left side of his body remained human, but his right side was covered by a light blue transformation!

If one could see the right side of Davy Jones, they would describe him with one word.

Ghost.

An eerie sensation filled the entire Flying Dutchman, as though plunging the temperature by ten degrees! Following that, all the pirates started roaring fanatically, their bodies also emitted out that ghastly abnormality. Those contestant had already congregated, and sprinting with their full might towards the deck. These metamorphosing pirates obviously wouldn’t give up, and pursued them to the deck. Presently the sun was scorching, and when the pirates entered into the sunlight, the half of their body transforming suddenly emitted green smoke, causing them to release an agonizing scream as they retreated back into the ship’s hold.

Looking at this scene, a phrase suddenly formed in Sheyan’s mind.

“I swear on my soul and blood, collaborating together from tomorrow, even our offsprings will live in peace for many generations. Anyone violating this would have their blood vessels boil, breathing ceased, their flesh will decay under the scorching sun, and the breath of the earth will shackle their footsteps.”

He sighed deeply, originally thinking that he could prevent this thing from happening, but ultimately letting that bunch succeed. Sheyan previously obtained a floating ‘message in a bottle’ from a side mission, the bottle contained a heavily smudged parchment. The contents indicated a sincere oath and a sinister curse, finally it was signed by Bernard Fokke and Cooper Jones.

Bernard Fokke was obviously the founder of Tortuga castle, but Sheyan had not been able to find any clues tracing back to Cooper Jones. Sheyan roughly guessed that it could be related to Davy Jones, since Cooper Jones and Davy Jones shared the same surname. But if he naively linked this two people together based on that, that would be the same as thinking that Li Ka-Shing (Hong Kong businessmen) and Li Jia Xin (Hong Kong actress) had blood relations. He initially planned to slowly substantiate his suspicions in this world, which was one of the reason that he gifted the entire treasures of Tortuga castle over to Davy Jones. He never expected this party of contestant would be a step ahead, and quickly exploited this suspicions, reaping the biggest profits.

Both sides sunk into a deadlock situation. But Sheyan knew, these contestants had been pulled into combat mode due to Davy Jones’s earlier antagonizing shriek. They currently had to wait out their combat mode, and hurriedly return to the nightmare realm. When the contestants were basking in the scorching sunlight, they discovered that these pirates were afraid of charging up. The heaved a sigh of relief, and some even started arguing. The arguments gradually escalated, as though there was a internal distribution conflict.

At this time, a contestant roughly pushed aside his fellow comrade, standing out and pointed towards the ship hold as he furiously yelled.

“Contestant no.1018, your skull will surely be added to the top of my blacklist!

His yell carried a intimidating dizziness. Even though they were far apart, Sheyan felt his heart boil but he only laughed out.

“Hearing that, I am honored and am greatly gratified.”

That contestant’s expression was marvelous, he completely did not expect such an answer. He could only furiously scold out a few profanities.

“Do you not understand why he replied in that manner?”

This contestant’s voice was calm, it actually belonged to a woman! However, her prestige was extremely elevated in the party. The other contestant’s actions seemed extremely crude, but in her face he did not dare to be arrogant. Constraining himself he fumingly bellowed.

“Zi….. I absolutely must kill him?

Zi glanced at the ship’s hold, her eyes contained a piercing and threatening charm.

“That contestant no.1018 obviously wanted to prevent Davy Jones from walking into our trap, but he ultimately failed. Therefore his heart would obviously be dejected. But you suddenly yelled out wanting to kill him, this undoubtedly exposed that his actions had cost us greatly….. Therefore, he would naturally feel gratified!”

Chapter 115: Curse

Hearing the words of this female named Zi, that contestant became utterly flustered .

“F**k! This kid really pulled one on us, our original estimation of at least 70 completion rate plunged to only 51! We paid quite a huge price to hypnotize that stupid Morgan Fokke from the Fokke family, but in the end he only became resolute after seeing the Fokke family treasure chest on this ship. Furthermore, because of this mission we needed to remain in this ‘i’ difficulty stop after that naval battle concluded, we lost so many, and paid a really big price? If he has the balls, he better not land into my hands. This Davy Jones is extremely ruthless, that curse was already inevitable, yet he suddenly could land himself into his crew!”

Zi gently replied:

“The curse happening is originally a storyline in the movie, and not the reason for our decline in completion rate. After suffering from this curse, even though Davy Jones exerted great strength to suppress his impending death, but his entire ship and even the pirates got caught up in related curse of Davy Jones, and thus all turned into ghost existences. Besides the Flying Dutchman had even corroded into a ghost ship of the sea. They can cross between the living world and the nether world, and were responsible for receiving drowned souls into the nether world. Later on Davy Jones and the sea goddess Calypso fell in love, and after the two fell out, Davy Jones was cursed and utterly lost his human appearance. That is the sequel storyline. The reason our completion rate declined was probably because Morgan Fokke wasn’t killed personally by Davy Jones, but died at the hands of the octopus.”

Another contestant who seemed to have high prestige stood out saying:

“Whatever it is, we got what we wanted, our basic objective is met. I’m willing to use 30% of my dividends to compensate everyone in the party. Regarding the leader of our ‘i’ level difficulty mission, Bowen, he left a vacant spot after dying. We will appoint a new party leader based on our contribution degree. Hurry up and return now, once this pirates adapt into their new conditions, then it would be too late to leave!”

Apart from Zi, three other contestants also stood out to voice their opinions, and ultimately managed to calm the lower class contestant down. Once the internal strifes concluded, they became unanimous again and cast their gaze towards Sheyan. Currently their combat state had already finished, they each took turns to curse at Sheyan and vanished into thin air.

Sheyan stood inside the ship’s hold silently with a slight smile, he completely did not place much emphasis on their empty threats. He roughy already understood that he had personally provoked a strong power faction. That Bowen that he had finished off should have been the party leader of their ‘i’ difficulty mission. The remaining elite members probably participated in the ‘destruction of Paragon fleet’ history storyline to come aboard. They probably used some sort of mysterious tool, and thus was able to continue staying even after the history storyline completed. Therefore, they were able to accomplish the storyline mission of completing the curse of Davy Jones.

Before the lady ‘Zi’ left, she suddenly turned to Sheyan and gently spoke.

“You are quite a meticulous person, and your strength is not bad either. I sent 3 guys to kill you, but you managed to escape and even take one of them down! But don’t be too conceited, under this difficulty my abilities were suppressed. If not that force wall would have been enough to finish you. How about working for me? Of course…..if you can return from this place first.”

After speaking, she used a finger to cut down forming a line of faint glow. That line swiftly expanded into a glowing door, after Zi took a step in, the door lost its brilliance and did not leave any marks behind. But right before she left, she spun her head round and made one last eye contact with Sheyan.

This lady ‘Zi’ has eyes as deep as the ocean, it brimmed with charm strength, enchanting the hearts of people. But in that moment, her stare abruptly transformed into two incomparably sharp needles and pierced towards Sheyan’s eyes!

Such a sudden event, Sheyan had not time to react. He instantly heard a buzzing sound as he blacked out. He did not know how long he passed out, but he suddenly discovered that he already slumped to the ground. After he regained comprehension, he immediately felt an intense pain torturing his mind, but it gradually became better. Suddenly, he felt that his face was a little moist, using his fingers to feel he discovered below his eyes, nostrils and ear were overflowing with blood!

Sheyan panted for a while, before checking with his battle log. He then realized he had been attacked by a skill called ‘Force needle explosion’, not only did it cause immense damage, it resulted in an 8 second long dizziness effect. But this ability should not have been easily activated, if not this ‘Zi’ would have assurance in her battle capabilities before and he would have long ago tasted this ability instead of receiving it just before she left.

Suddenly, Sheyan thought of words Zi had left him with, his heart immediately shivered. This woman was intelligent and she had incredible powers, she was definitely the strongest out of all the contestants he had met. Her last words definitely held some meaning. But! His current position was still on the Flying Dutchman, and he was even the third officer. Although these pirates could not interact with sunlight, their powers were enhanced. Furthermore he had just helped Davy Jones, why would he be in grave danger?

“Wait, Wait!” Sheyan’s forehead suddenly broke out in cold sweat. “Third Officer, I am the third officer of the Flying Dutchman!!! Strictly speaking, this meant that I am similarly a crew member of the Flying Dutchman……similarly I would suffer the curse of Davy Jones! This curse was extremely potent, it doesn’t look fatal but was fiercely evil in its other effects. Even Davy Jones was unable to be exempted from this terrible fate!”

At this moment, Sheyan’s breathing grew deeper! He currently did not feel any abnormalities, but his heart could not contain an intense shadow welling up. He charged straight into a nearby cabin, and hurriedly pulled down a hanging mirror, as he looked at himself, a chill burst forth in his heart. He could see his own hair starting to form that ghostly ethereal effect, and it was slowly spreading downwards. Sheyan immediately communicated with the nightmare imprint to check on this personal condition, but he realized all his attributes remained the same. The only abnormality happened was on his innate ability: Endurance.

This ability gave off a feeling of great strength, looking at it gave one a feeling that their life force was surging up, but in reality was clearly weakened. It was as though something was corroding and weakening it, which was still in effect. If it persisted, the worst was that his innate ability would completely disappear! Seeing this scene unfolding, Sheyan had no time to think, his anxiety surged as he immediately requested the nightmare imprint to return to the nightmare realm. But he was notified that his combat mode had been induced due to the terrifying ‘Force explosion’, he still had an entire 70 seconds before combat state expires.

Under such circumstances, Sheyan deeply took in a few breaths and composed himself. Following that rate of decline, it was absolutely sufficient for his innate ability ‘Endurance’ to utterly vanish in that 70 seconds. His mind rapidly filtered several images, finally stopping at the scene of the semi ghostly pirates trying to charge out but instead their body starting smoking up under the sunlight. Sheyan’s heart stirred, he immediately drew out ‘Ambition’. The crow black gun barrel sprayed out a red-hot blaze in a flash, aiming towards the deck he released the trigger!

“Boom!” Wooden splinters burst out, as a hole emerged on the deck above. The glaring sunlight penetrated in, shining onto Sheyan’s body. Concurrently, Sheyan felt a searing pain over his entire body, he gritted his teeth and tolerated for 10 seconds and finally felt a comfortably warm sensation. It was like standing under a warm shower, his head faintly released green smoke, but no longer felt any form of pain anymore.

Sheyan once again inspected his status attributes, he then realized the rate of decline for innate ability ‘Endurance’ had decreased, there was no more worries lasting beyond 70 seconds. Looks like sunlight was indeed detrimental to the curse. Apart from that, it looks like this innate ability ‘Endurance’ wasn’t so simple! Even Davy Jones couldn’t resist this horrifying curse but he could straightforwardly withstand it.

“Hu…..” Sheyan stood underneath the sunlight and exhaled a long breath, he then started to reflect on the powerful party he just encountered. Undoubtedly, that mysterious lady ‘Zi’ was nucleus of the party. Based on her individual display of abilities, that ‘colliding force wall’ could be said as a combination of attack and defence, while the ‘explosive force needle’ was a incomparably strong controlling ability. Since that’s the case, if it was said that her richly penetrating mysterious eye powers didn’t have any hypnotizing ability, Sheyan would never believe it.

Davy Jones had already proclaimed himself as a formidable force in the seas, his infamous name could even cause little kids to weep. No matter how valiant or impulsive that unlucky child Morgan Fokke was, he would have understood the power gap between him and the frightening Davy Jones. Under such circumstances, he actually dared to conceal himself and boldly take a shot at Davy Jones’s back! If someone wasn’t controlling things from behind the scenes, then that would surely be strange!

Chapter 116: Return

Sheyan’s current situation wasn’t very encouraging, he not only met such a strong and meticulous opponent in ‘Zi’, but behind her was the powerful backing of a huge party! And he had even sparked a deep hatred because he foiled their plans. If it was any other contestant, then their hearts would certainly be filled with fear/regret/anxiety etc. Instead, Sheyan merely shrugged his shoulders, he was always a person who never shied from challenges and difficulties; so what if his enemy was overwhelming? This would only serve to fuel his fighting spirit!

Before he entered the realm, Sheyan was only an average male. He even had to run from the likes of a cruel underground society head, Huashan Fei! Sheyan’s power disparity between this mysterious group wouldn’t be as huge as the one with Huashan Fei previously! Even in that difficult situation, Sheyan didn’t have any trace of dread, why would he then cower when the timber had been turned into a boat (Chinese idiom – what’s done is done).

After waiting a few seconds, Sheyan carefully surveyed his surroundings; especially the pirates who were transforming because of the curse. The more he looked the more fearful he felt. Under the daylight, these pirates were like zombies, dragging their legs lifelessly wherever they went. Davy Jones silently sat on a chair, as though he had solidified into a stone, completely obviously to his surroundings. Of course, if the curse had thoroughly took effect in his body, then he would have completely lost his sovereign dignity and became an everlasting pirate on this ship.

A greedy idea suddenly formed in Sheyan’s head. “Isn’t it a fantastic opportunity to go for a fishing trip in the captain’s room now?” However this notion was immediately strangled aside by his intellect, how would such an obvious loophole be left for him? Ultimately even if he manages to loot it, those equipments would mostly be soul binded equipment. Or even worse those equipments may even have an additional tag of not being able to be brought out of this world.

The short 70 seconds sped by, because of the corroding effects of the curse, his innate ability ‘endurance’ was already barely visible. Just as Sheyan had decided to return to the nightmare realm, he suddenly noticed a rather old-fashioned diary nearby. His heart stirred as he immediately retrieved it. This old diary had been soaked by blood and brain matter, from its position, one could infer that it had dropped out from Morgan Fokke, a fourth generation youth of the Fokke family.

Stopping till here, Sheyan finally cleaned up all kinds of tangled and complicated thoughts related to these pirates. However, the state of the Fokke family, another critical influence and the owner of Tortuga castle, remained a mystery. Of course a majority of Sheyan’s brain energy had already been used up on scheming to deal with Ammand. Therefore, this diary should be enough to unlock most riddles in his heart.

Sheyan hurriedly wiped clean this diary, he then issued an order to the nightmare imprint.

“Return to the nightmare realm.”

“You still have remaining time left in this world, do you wish to return to the nightmare realm? Yes/ No?”

“You have completed the main mission: Gain prominence. Your current reputation amongst the pirates is: Respected (3113/6000)

“Your achievement value: +2”

“Sheyan did not dare to delay any longer, who knew what would happened once his innate ability ‘Endurance’ vanished. He instantly selected ‘yes’, his body started to fade as he prepared to return to the nightmare realm.

“Goodbye, Caribbean Sea world.” Sheyan sighed, he felt an indescribable exhaustion overwhelming him. That was the state of his mind after suddenly relaxing from a long period of mental tension. He squinted his eyes to sweep his environment, murmuring to himself.

“Look forward to it….. Next time, when I return.”

Black clouds floated across the sky, obstructing the scorching sun of the Caribbean sea. When the sun rays once again penetrated through the hole of the deck, the third officer of the Flying Dutchman had already dissipated into the thin air.

Having his previous experience of returning beforehand, Sheyan immediately shut his eyes. Awaiting for the extremely peculiar weightlessness to disappear before opening his eyes.

Presently, he had once again returned to the cosmos space environment. The background was pure darkness, the only source of light was the twinkling stars from a distance. Every time he saw this scenery, a revered sensation will emerge in his heart. Once his surroundings became thoroughly clear, the distant twinkling stars suddenly clashed together, forming into a gentle light beam, casting onto Sheyan’s body.

Instantly, Sheyan felt an unbearable pain over his entire body as though his flesh was being forcefully torn apart! The pain left as quickly as it came, and vanished after persisting for 5-6 seconds. Even if that was so, Sheyan had broken out in cold sweat, and was heavily panting.

His body was enshrouded inside the gentle light beam. The starlight seemed to transform into a layer of wall, its exterior carried an unexplainable black energy hovering about, and suddenly distorted into a human face! Naturally the curse inflicted from Davy Jones was being forced out by the realm.

That black air rapidly changed, and finally became nothingness. Finally the starlight gradually dispersed, and a 3D projection appeared in front of Sheyan. This first broadcast was the entire sequence of his activities during the Paragon fleet battle, following that was the scene of him killing Little Lord Fokke’s wife, Sally. Then the explosion of the Bell and Mug, and finally the rampant and untamed Blackbeard wildly laughing as he raised his mythical sword.

The realm subsequently displayed out the following report:

“Setting: Pirates of the Caribbean world”

“Difficulty: easy (D class)”

“Pain limitations: 50”

“Additional enhancement to individual capabilities: 0”

“Current setting exploration rate:15.33%”

“Acquired new titles: Intoxicated man, Pirate ringleader”

“Mission content exploration rate: 32%”

“Completed mission score: B, (Note: Lowest: E, highest perfect score: SSS)

“Mission completion score reward: Free attribute points: 3 points (According to 20% of the weightage of selected world)

“Mission content exploration rate/mission completion score reward: Utility points: 700 points (According to 20% of the weightage of selected world), unable to reach the threshold of receiving potential points.

“Character current remaining free attribute points: 3 points.”

“You can anytime allocate the free attribute points to increase your basic attributes (Strength/agility etc), use it to strengthen your capabilities.”

“Pointer: You survived from inheriting the ancient curse in the Caribbean world. Thus you receive an additional +1 effect for your explosive strength rate/evasion/accuracy.”

“Eh?” Sheyan looked at this line of report and suddenly felt somewhat unexpected. Renouncing the style of fighting with a party, he never expected himself to earn such generous rewards after overcoming this hurdle. In actual fact, the measly 32% of his mission content exploration rate, the reward of 700 utility points obviously indicated the dissatisfaction of the realm.

Based on Sheyan, relying on the clues and opportunities obtained in the world, if he could really have cooperated with Chris’s party;after engaging in personal interactions with the main lead, Jack Sparrow, he would have penetrated deeper into the storyline, and even uncovered and obtained numerous side missions, and accomplished them with the party’s strength. Regrettably, he placed his personal exploring focus on the Bell and Mug. To Sheyan, this was already his limits. But to a party, they would be unconfined and even could perform much better. Therefore the score of 32% mission content exploration rate, was certainly not injustice.

Following that if he had cooperated with ‘Zi’s party, then undoubtedly, her party’s mission would be able to be perfectly completed! It could even branch out more missions. The realm did not care about the difficulty of Sheyan joining forces with other contestant, it’s default judgement target was for all the contestants to unite together, and use their teamwork to achieve the maximum limit of their exploration rate.

Something noteworthy was that the nightmare realm actually gave Sheyan a mission completion score of B! Besides, it even rewarded him with a generous 3 points of free attribute points! Citing a simple example, it was like a student completing only one-third of the assignment for his teacher, but the quality of that one-third actually pleased the teacher exceedingly.

Sheyan immediately located the critical factor in his mind. That was undoubtedly that he personally influenced and changed the sequence of the main storyline in this world.

Killing of Sally, this storyline character which instigated the pirates of the Caribbean to revolt against Tortuga port.

Wrecking the Bell and Mug and changing Ammand’s destiny of originally being one of the seven pirate lords. Ammand could still become a pirate lord, but his success would have been delayed several years.

The storyline mission of the curse of Davy Jones was something Sheyan had been passively dragged into, but Sheyan had also influenced his destiny even by a minute extent. At least Davy Jones did not personally murder a blood kin of the Fokke family, thus he preserved half of his body.

Blackbeard had always been diligently searching for that mythical half of the sword. But Sheyan’s interference had at least reduced 10 years of searching!

Sheyan deeply inhaled, his eyes displaying a joyous look as he humbly nodded his head. If that was the case, then the emphasis should be placed in this when entering the next world. Undoubtedly, complying with the movie storyline to engage in battle would result in a lower difficulty. However, this would not add up to the requirements of the realm, and with this, the mission completion score would be inversely proportional to that. Since he was able to make an established aspect, then he had a direction to direct his efforts to in the future.

Concurrently, the nightmare imprint continued transmitting notifications.

“Calculating ‘insight’ ability usage…. You activated a total of 14 times of the ‘insight’ ability in this world! You incurred a debt of 1400 utility points.”

“Your current utility points is 3200 points, after deductions, your remaining utility points is 1800 points.”

“You acquired important mission object ‘Morgan Jones diary’ is unable to be brought out of this world. The next time you enter, it will automatically return to your imprint deposit (Interspatial space of the imprint).”

Chapter 117: Allocating

The boundless starry universe gradually blurred out, once again plunging into darkness. After Sheyan recovered his vision, he was once again back in his personal room. The first thing he did was to inspect his attributes.

Contestant no.1018

Achievement points: 8 points

Status: Recruit

Strength 12 points (10+1+1)

Agility 10 points (7+1+2)

Physique 17 points (14+1+1+1)

Perceptive sensing 14 points (12+2)

Charm 5 points (6+1-2)

Spirit 4 points (4+0)

Intelligence 5 points (5+0)

Left hand: Musket ‘Ambition’ (19), perceptive sensing +2, agility +2

Body: FBI special windbreaker (6) charm +1

Left Hand: Rotten bone ring (7) Strength +1, Physique +1

Accessory (left): Obsidian fossil anchor (20) Strength/agility/physique +1, charm – 2, attack +10

Accessory (Right): Gold shell pocket watch (4) Physique +1

Equipment overall score: 56

Sheyan pondered on his remaining 3 free attribute points. He originally felt that he was lacking in fighting capabilities, and his agility wasn’t satisfying in combat. Furthermore, his 4 points in spirit couldn’t even match up to an average person. Thus, he decided to share it between his strength, agility and spirit. But before he was about to allocate, Sheyan suddenly recalled something! That was the absurd 50 points limit in charm when he activated ‘insight’ on Jack Sparrow!

“50 points limit attribute, what does that represent? What then does it mean to a contestant?”

Sheyan deeply inhaled, putting aside allocating for now. In actual fact, he was always a decisive person, in addition to his inhumane perceptive sensing, it always gave him the impression of making swift and decisive decisions. However, to make a choice now, its consequences would go a long long way to his individual development. It could even be a life and death matter, thus he didn’t dare to be reckless.

Distributing according to need? Or specialize in a certain attribute? Undoubtedly, increasing base of his personal weakness would halve the danger in the future. But in this manner, reaching the extreme limit of 50 points would take forever to achieve. However, if adopting the swiftest path to uncover the mysteries behind the extreme limit of 50 points, the danger in the future will definitely increase.

Besides, Sheyan’s highest basic attribute is physique! This was an extremely unique and crucial attribute. Besides, this attribute determines the most critical aspect, that was the life points of the contestant! To every contestant out there, this was a very very important attribute. Because once this attribute drops to zero, that would mean losing everything.

Some people say, the best defence is offence. This statement isn’t wrong, but still it is based on the fact that the power disparity between the opponent and oneself isn’t very great. Once a sheep attempts to attack a wolf, that would be purely foolish and suicidal. More importantly, the nightmare realm is full of opportunities and crisis, nobody can predict any unforeseen outcome in the next second. It was like Chris’s party who was flourishing with over 20 contestants, they were excelling with attacking potential, but their health was just like any other. Once they encountered a strong curse (the message in the bottle), they equally submitted to fate! Physique brought along vast advantages, it allowed one to be ‘careless’ but their chances of survival would still be there!

More crucially, Sheyan was equally in a difficult predicament in the present world. In the present world, he wasn’t allowed to equip any supporting item, and even his innate ability ‘endurance’ could not be activated. If his physique was high, it would no doubt aid with his survival.

Live, then everything else is possible!

Away from that, Sheyan glanced at the weapon he acquired, ‘Ambition’! This black class weapon had high explosive strength and attack damage, it was already evident during the previous battle. Therefore, this would temporarily make up for his deficiency in attack. Furthermore, regarding movement speed, he would be able to enhance it using equipments that Sheyan had obtained. The ‘Endless Vodka’ was one of the item that enhanced capabilities, if he successfully activated it then it would definitely be of some help. Regarding spirit, in this aspect, Sheyan decided to search for some equipments or elixirs to make up for it.

After deciding, Sheyan boldly used the remaining 3 free attribute points on his physique. In this case, even without his title, his physique would still reach 20 points (Including equipment). During a battle, once the ‘obsidian fossil anchor’ was in effect his physique would easily reach 30 points. Such an outstandingly high attribute would instill security in his heart.

After his increments confirmed, Sheyan also comprehended something huge. He looked at his ‘Recruit’ status, and decided to to search for any special purchasing privileges. After scrolling through the purchasing menu (nightmare realm), he was slightly amazed. Because on the ‘Honorary merchandise column’ of the menu, only two items were available.

“Honorary potassium selenoprotein injection dosage: Usable in any state, restore 100% of your maximum HP. Purchasing requirements: 3 achievement points, 3000 utility points.”

“Honorary ferrosilicon aquatic grass liquid extract: Usable in any state, restore 100% of your MP. Purchasing requirements: 3 achievement points, 3000 utility points.”

Undoubtedly, these two objects are used in extreme cases, its value was hard to assess. If used appropriately, it could instantly change the course of a battle. But Sheyan noticed, purchasing this item did not merely require utility points, but even had a price of the difficult to obtain achievement points. More importantly, to Sheyan, if he really paid up 3 achievement points for this sort of elixirs, then his status of being a ‘recruit’ would decline. At that time, he would lose the 10% upgrade of his personal interspatial space.

Upon reaching the ‘recruit’ status, Sheyan could exchange achievement points with others. But there would be great repercussions if he did so, thus he did not have plans to do that at the moment, and did not bother much about it.

Sheyan sighed and closed the purchasing menu, the taste of not being able to afford anything was bitter. But even though his time in the Caribbean sea world was filled with danger and risky encounters, he had gained quite a bit. The items he could afford to trade/sell to others were as follows:

Black pin (Grey): This key like object, after utilizing would display the loots of various witchcraft/magic. Using it had a 50% chance of appearing a lowest grade witchcraft/magic scroll, and 50% chance of obtaining other items.

Deep blue ability scroll: Voodoo cult basic witchcraft lvl 3.

Ancient gold pound: Precious object

That I-shape metal dissolution liquid mixture was bound to Sheyan’s soul, and this extremely strong item could be used on a silver storyline class weapon/equipment. Sheyan’s strongest weapon on hand was only a black class equipment, thus he could only hide it within his storage.

Presently, Sheyan was extremely exhausted, after returning from a nightmare world with ‘danger lurking everywhere’, his tensed mentality could finally relax, this was a normal reaction. He originally wanted to resist his fatigue and go for walk around the marketplace, however, he could no longer withstand and immediately collapsed into deep sleep. An exhausted person would instantly fall asleep once their head sinks into their pillow, but Sheyan fell asleep even before his head touched his pillow.

This sleep was so deep that there wasn’t even a single dream. Sheyan’s brain was like a computer that was left on for extended periods and was about to crash, when he had a chance to rest he immediately switched off. Sheyan woke up twice, one was to heat up water and the other time to drink the water. After an entire 24 hours he finally woke up. In the Caribbean sea world, Sheyan had to consistently scheme. Constantly planning ahead of Ammand, Chris, Scarface Harry etc, he certainly used a huge deal of effort. Under such rejuvenating sleep, he could finally gradually restore a large amount of his concentration.

After waking up, Sheyan felt rather vexed. Besides, this 20 hours of sleep could be used for extra training in the realm, and may even increase his basic abilities. But regretting at this point of time was useless, Sheyan hurriedly purchased food to fill his stomach and rushed into the marketplace of the nightmare realm.

The realm was encompassed by a mysterious faint reddish glow, and dispersed slightly fresh air. There was a multitude of people in the marketplace, some stalls were empty but had items/equipments floating with their valuations indicated above. That should be a consignment sale strategy. After raising his status, Sheyan could not engage in inspection of such tactics, finding out that this consignment sales was indeed convenient. But when establishing it, he had to pay up a lot of utility points and after any transaction there would be an individual tax of 20%. Unless it was necessary, very few people utilized this tactic of engaging in sales.

Strolling on the marketplace road, Sheyan already had certain clarity on what he wanted to trade, that was for utility points and potential points. No doubt, if he continued in his hermit behavior tactic, it would not be possible to find any suitable comrades in a short time and even face the risks without a party. Therefore after wrapping up a hurdle, it would be a mainstream phenomenon that the mission content exploration rate would be low. This meant that….. Regarding relevant rewards of potential and utility points for the mission content exploration rate, it would definitely be a persisting and worrying matter for Sheyan!

Chapter 118: Deal

Once Sheyan prepared and projected out the 3D holograms of his merchandise, he then left his own stall to patrol around in the marketplace. His first goal was to collect a huge amount of information in order to grasp the valuation rate. Secondly, he would be able to gather a load of information from other sellers. Sheyan had zero worries that his absence would drain away customers, because the items he was selling were mostly strong and relevant items. For example the highly valued dark blue class ability scroll: voodoo cult basic witchcraft lvl3. That learning requirement itself already suggested a fairly high learning threshold.

Therefore, the people who frequent his stall could be separated into two categories. One was extremely interested, while the other was the least bit interested. Those that didn’t want to purchase wouldn’t even bat an eye and leave, while those that were interested normally wouldn’t mind waiting for a few minutes.

After strolling for one round, Sheyan could not find any relevant reports in the marketplace. He only looked at several equipment/ability scrolls that had sky-high prices, and based on his measly utility points, he would could never afford it. Furthermore to Sheyan now, what he lacked wasn’t equipment or skills but instead to increase the levels of his currently learned skills. Never forget, the danger he faced wasn’t merely in the nightmare real, danger lurks everywhere even in the present world! Moreover, in the present he would lose many privileges such as his equipments.

After finishing an entire run, to his expectations, his stall was indeed surrounded by a crowd. Once they saw the merchant returning, they immediately inquired on the price of that dark blue scroll. Sheyan folded his hands on his chest and laughed, the price he offered almost made their eyes roll backwards. His valuation was actually 15,000 utility points, 15 potential points! After hearing this value, it immediately scared away half the crowd. This half belonged to those that wanted to ‘try their luck’, once they discovered this wasn’t an option, they instantly left. The ones that left all really wanted this item and decided to try bargaining.

“Hey, friend. I’m not being ignorant of this scroll’s value, but your asking price is really too great.”

A hippie attired male shrug his shoulders as he stood in front of Sheyan. He was probably chewing on a chewing gum, and he shook his right leg repeatedly, giving off a feeling of nervousness.

The guy’s speech unquestionably voiced out everyone’s opinion. The surrounding crowd all raised their voice in agreement.

Sheyan swept the crowd with his eyes, he realized there were still 7 people. But these 7 were probably segregated into 3 smaller groups. Undoubtedly, those that wanted this scroll were people with heavy emphasis on spirit and intelligence. Thus they could utilize it to the fullest potential.

From that perspective, contestants who wanted to learn this ability were mostly weak in physique. Considering the nightmare realm ideologies, they were probably part of a certain party. 15,000 utility points, 15 potential points probably was overwhelmingly excessive to an ordinary contestant, but to a party, this may not necessarily be a high price.

Take the current situation of the nightmare realm, most contestants would view an equipment/scroll that could instantly be translated into increased battle strength very highly. They would not spend much on items without long lasting effects. Thus it can be determined, those few guys that wanted to procure this scroll should probably be proficient in basic skills. They should already have ‘Basic prayer lvl4 & basic meditation lvl4, 25 points in intelligence’, these 3 criteria!

Thus, contestants who fulfilled these requirements would not have a low position within their party. They would at least be a crucial source of firepower, and should probably have comrades who would support them in purchasing this scroll.

This was why Sheyan dared to cite this outrageously high price! More importantly, the welcoming reception towards this scroll already exposed its status as a best seller. This allowed Sheyan to adopt a delaying confidence to these buyers. Thus, when faced with this thick-skinned gentleman, Sheyan’s reply was simple and that was to shake his head.

A gentle but firm shake.

Against this stubborn brat, the nearby contestants glanced at each other. Obviously, they had encountered the hardest kind of seller, these sort of people seemed to understand the economic situation well, and had an accurate assessment on the valuation of his products. Apart from that, they had a paranoid personality! Thus they had no choice but to put in their last ditch effort, offering out their personal valuation and wish it would be able to move this brat. Instead, they ultimately left in silence.

Once the last contestant left, Sheyan’s stall was now completely devoid of existence. But Sheyan wasn’t dejected, he was already mentally prepared to use his remaining short time left on selling off this dark blue scroll. When those people left, the highest valuation was merely 5000 utility points in addition to 3 potential points. This obviously did not satisfy Sheyan’s craving.

People came and went. Buyers obtained price information when frequenting Sheyan’s stall, but eventually shook their heads in disappointment and left. Sheyan’s scroll was like a magnet that was attracting huge amounts of people, but repelled away by the ruthlessness of the insane pricing. Time sped by just like that, the surrounding stalls even swapped over several owners but yet Sheyan stayed on. With a humble smile, he politely receive every customer, and had no trace of impatience in his voice. But he was like an iron rod, nothing could move him.

This deadlock was finally broken by the return of that hippie.

Upon returning, he brought two people with him. One of the contestant was holding onto an object with a lingering black glow on it. The other contestant stood behind him, as though he loved following other people’s shadow. Even in the safe environment of the nightmare realm did this hippie contestant pull off such a reaction. Undoubtedly, the darkness concealed within this contestant’s heart was a problem, it had become something habitual just like breathing or drinking!

The contestant with the authority observed the scroll, he slightly nodded and lifted his chin towards that hippie. It was as though he wasn’t willing to speak a word to others.

That hippie walked in front of Sheyan, he extended his arms and said.

“I reckon today is your lucky day, Hegel had shown great interest in your scroll. How about this, we sincerely want to purchase it, how about telling us your heart’s valuation.”

Sheyan simply replied.

“My asking price is my heart’s valuation.”

Hippie helplessly shrugged his shoulders, and turned his head towards that person named Hegel. Hegel remained silent, he only stared firmly at Sheyan. Suddenly, a feeling of being exposed surfaced in Sheyan, it was like being naked in the streets and hiding nothing at all! His heart surged with surprise, and suddenly Hegel snorted and retreated a few steps as though he had chanced upon fortune. This mysterious submersion persisted for a while.

“Your highest attribute is physique, lowest is spirit. No doubt the path you chose is close combat?”

Sheyan was amazed. This person called Hegel could actually determine his highest and lowest attribute, and this was within the peaceful environment of the nightmare realm. It meant that he had already grasped an ‘insight’ type ability. He didn’t refute but quietly nodded. Hegel coughed twice and continued.

“Your asking price is too high, no one would fork out such a huge amount of utility points. How about I exchange a ring for your scroll?”

Prior to this, others had already tried trading an item but was instead rejected by Sheyan. Because he desperately lacked potential and utility points. Hegel seemed extremely sincere in taking out this ring, it was also a dark blue class ring. Apart from +3 to strength, it even possessed an additional +1 explosive hit rate substantial attribute. If he were to sell it, it would also be a relatively sought after merchandise. Instead, Sheyan shook his head, stressing on his need of utility and potential points.

Even if that was so, Hegel looked upon this ‘voodoo cult basic witchcraft lvl3’ scroll with an aspiration of necessity. Persevering on and after communicating with Sheyan, he finally used 7000 utility points and 9 potential points to trade. To Sheyan, even though the selling price did not hit his heart’s estimation, but that whole 9 potential points was something to rejoice over. Based on his current trend, Sheyan would have to experience 5-6 worlds before achieving 9 points.

Apart from that, Hegel exhibited great interest in that ‘Black Pin’. Because with it was a 50% chance of black magic succeeding. If it really appeared, then it would definitely complement his ‘voodoo cult basic witchcraft’ skill and add to his strength. Sheyan exchanged this pin for a light blue object, ‘Medical Kit’. It was considered a favorable ending.

Medical Kit attributes:

Medical Kit

Origin: Kolo Linsei Seventh hospital

Equipment rarity: Light blue

Internal items: Bandage x1, anesthetic x1, poison antidote x1, adrenaline x1

Bandage: After wrapping an injury, it can counterattack an accumulated 50-100 points of blood loss damage

Anesthetic: Using it can reduce pain by 20-50%, but lowers spirit by 2-6 points, duration of 10 minutes.

Poison antidote: Using it can reduce the duration of negative body effects by 10-20%

Adrenaline: Using it will increase movement/attack speed by 10-20%

Description: After placing a medicine in the medical kit for 12 hours, its quality will increase, and release its utmost potential upon usage. (Refers to the best result of a random probability, for example the bandage would counteract 100 points of damage)

Description: The capacity of the medical kit is 4. Unable to squeeze in more than 4 medicines. The quality of the medicines should be lesser than the class of the medical kit. (Which means the medical kit can only contain white class quality medicine)

Chapter 119: The secret of lvl 4!

After his transaction with Hegel, his utility points on hand surged to 8800 points, and 9 potential points. It was already counted as his best record thus far. Sheyan had wasted 5 hours on negotiations in the marketplace, his remaining time left in the realm wasn’t much. He hurriedly made another loop round the market place and was prepared to rush off to strengthen his basic skills. Who knew that when he arrived at a new stall, his attention was immediately attracted by an object.

Butchering Bone Hatchet

Origin: Arizona general branch blacksmith store

Equipment rarity: Light blue

Attack damage 3-16

Material: life variant

Weight: 11.2 Kg

Long-lasting attack speed: Slow

Equipment usage requirement: Strength 9 points, physique 6 points

Equipment position: Single hand – left/right hand

Weapon special: ‘Resistance’ ;You can use this weapon to block against a close range attack and activate ‘Resistance’. If resistance succeed, then it will lower the taken damage by 10-50%.

Once the combined attribute of strength + physique exceeds your aggressor, the chance of absorbing damage is 30-50%.

If the combined attribute of strength + physique is lower than your aggressor, the chance of absorbing damage is 10-15%. Apart from this, there are several elements influencing ‘Resistance’.

Description: Every resistance will lower the durability of the weapon by 5-10 points. Once the durability reaches 0, then the weapon will be broken, and unable to be repaired. You can obtain repairing capabilities from special storyline characters in several nightmare worlds.

Hatchet weapon classification additional effects: Accuracy -1, explosive hit rate +2

Equipment battle score: 9

Evaluation: This broad hatchet can easily resist an opponent’s attack.

Speaking truthfully, this weapon will be of little interest to many others. The main reason was its slow attack speed, and unattractive combat ability effect. Of course, the increase of 2 points in explosive hit rate was enticing, or else he would similarly ignore it.

The reason why it attracted his interest was the passive nature of being able to resist an opponent’s attack. Although its special nature had a price of potentially wrecking the weapon, to the Sheyan who had lost his cobalt steel exoskeleton armour, this weapon with defensive capability extremely suited his requirements. With the addition of his high strength, even though the offensive capabilities of this weapon is low, he could still deal substantial damage to most enemies. His left hand holding the hatchet, his right gripping onto the threatening flintlock musket ‘ambition’. When the time comes, he had the confidence of dealing with most situations.

There were benefits and disadvantages in all things. This light blue weapon had naturally received much popularity. When Sheyan chanced upon it, that contestant’s stall was already surrounded by a crowd. It looked like some contestant hurriedly left, and there was an auction going on in the stall, straightforwardly selling to the highest bidder. Sheyan looked at this unfolding event,he could only grit his teeth and participate. In the end, that contestant seemed to be vastly interested in the light blue medical kit he just acquired. After a series of relentless negotiations, Sheyan finally traded his medical kit along with 1000 utility points and acquire that single-hand hatchet.

Following that, Sheyan naturally wanted to strengthen his current basic skills. His present basic skills are as follows.

Basic close combat lvl 1

Basic footwork lvl 2

Basic endurance lvl 1

Advanced ability: Expert grappling lvl 1

Advanced ability: Expert grappling requires 3 other basic ability to reach lvl 2, before being able to advance to lvl 2.

Sheyan inquired his nightmare imprint, and headed towards the north of the nightmare space. Upon arriving, a flow shot forth from the nightmare imprint on his chest to the layer of wall in the realm, he then paid 200 utility points. A sudden door split opened, and Sheyan entered into an illuminated, cushioned secret room. Several 3D characters floated in front of him. Sheyan reached out his hand, and obtained the relevant service support.

Obviously, Sheyan’s greatest shortcoming in battle now was his speed. Even though his basic footwork had already reached lvl 2, he still chose to upgrade this attribute that was linked to speed. The notification he received was a fee of 1000 utility points, + 1 potential point. After selecting ‘confirm’, Sheyan then received his attribute upgrade.

Sheyan quickly discovered, in order to upgrade basic footwork from lvl 3 to 4, it required a comparatively large increment. It actually needed 2000 utility points, +2 potential points. The price actually doubled! After pondering, he chose to continue upgrading his basic footwork. Suddenly, he uncovered that after attaining lvl 4 for his basic footwork, he received an additional notification.

Basic footwork lvl4: Increasing user’s evasion by 3, increasing user’s basic speed by 8.

Pointer: Once basic footwork reaches lvl 4, relevant conditions triggered. Please draw from the additional special effects from attaining basic footwork lvl 4.

Pointer: You can randomly draw out one from the following special effects, and use it as your additional special effect of attaining basic footwork lvl 4. Duration of 10 seconds, if nothing is chosen, the realm will automatically allocate one at random.

A: Reducing damage of 33% from falling off great heights.

B: Increase user’s evasion by 2.

C: Increasing user’s base speed by 2.

D: In poor terrain like the desert, swamps…… user’s inflicted terrain reduction effect reduced by 33%.

E: Increase accuracy by 2 for close range attacks, evasion of long range attack (Includes magic and far range weapons) increased by 4.

F: Increasing accuracy by 2 for far range attacks, evasion of close range attack increased by 4.

“There’s actually an additional special effect that allows me a selection of choices?” Sheyan felt rather amazed. He instantly thought of something, perhaps the other abilities from upgrading lvl 3 to lvl 4 would likewise provide this additional special bonus! Due to the 10 seconds limitation, Sheyan immediately started the randomization, drawing out E: ‘Increasing accuracy by 2 for close range attacks, evasion of long range attacks increases by 4’.

Finally, Sheyan’s basic footwork lvl 4 attribute was ultimately:

Basic footwork lvl 4: Increase user’s evasion by 5, increasing user’s speed by 8.

Additional special effect: Increase accuracy by 2 for close range attacks, evasion of long range attacks (Includes magic and far range weapons) increased by 4.

After engaging the randomized drawing, Sheyan then received a nightmare imprint notification. That was, if the contestant was dissatisfied, he can use 1000 utility points, +1 potential points to drop his basic footwork back to lvl 3. This will erase his special effects, and when the contestant once again attains lvl 4, then he can automatically acquire a new chance!!!

Obviously, if a contestant had ample resources and wanted to pursue a certain attribute effect, he can use this method to erase his training, and ultimately obtain a favorable attribute. Furthermore to Sheyan, this random ending was one that he delighted in, even if he wasn’t satisfied, he wouldn’t dare washing away his efforts just for another random try. Currently he had 4600 utility points left on hand, and 6 potential points. After deliberating, Sheyan utilized 1000 utility points and 2 potential points to raise his basic close combat and basic endurance to lvl 2. Thus then fulfilled the criteria of upgrading the advance ability ‘expert grappling’.

However, the advanced ability ‘expert grappling lvl 1’ required too much to raise it to lvl 2 , it actually asked for 3000 utility points and 3 potential points! Sheyan gritted his teeth, and forced himself to learn it. On the contrary, after upgrading his ‘expert grappling’ it actually provided outstanding improvements. Sheyan’s close combat attack damage/evasion/block/resistance increased to 10 from an original 7. It was counted as pretty impressive and worth it.

After a series of crazed spending, Sheyan once again stepped into poverty. His utility points had sadly returned to 600 points, and was left with 1 potential point. Presently, he patronized a bar in the realm, with the intention of selling relevant report experiences. But after interacting with several other contestants, he understood that besides exposing his personal strength, this action provided no other good benefits. Because a world that a person experiences is based on the his development, most of the time the reports are personal. Therefore, there is an immense chance that the reports would be of zero help.

Citing an example phrase: In the terminator world, Sarah Connor still exists. The difficulty of killing her was enormous, but there was still a possibility of not needing to eliminate her! From his previous chats with other contestants, he realized that others had even eliminated her. Therefore after slaying her, the general of the people’s army, John Connor, would not have been borned. The storyline would have been wrecked, then wouldn’t have Skynet conquered the entire world? Of course not, the nightmare realm will automatically investigate, and the people’s General will be replaced by another. His roles would mirror John Connor, but his personality and character would differs greatly. If you paid a huge price for acquiring relevant information to reveal a hidden side mission relating to John Connor……. But yet the terminator world you experience doesn’t have such a person or mission character, then everything would have been wasted and you’ll be reduced to tears.

Chapter 120: Qing Hua University graduation certificate

Similarly, ‘Captain Jack’ of the pirates of the caribbean is not without enemies. But even if he died, there would probably be another “Tom, Dick or Harry” captain to take over his role. Thus, under normal circumstances, contestants would mutually communicate their adventures and experiences and not resort to buying…..

After settling all the miscellaneous things, the short time deadline of 30 hours was pretty much about to expire. Sheyan then followed his previous experience, scaling the lift and returned to the present world. After 5 minutes, he then by passed a wall in the realm, and returned into the third floor of the supermarket in that ordinary town.

Even though it wasn’t his first time, Sheyan still felt as if it were a long time ago, he stood still and dazed out in nostalgia. However, his daydream was abruptly broken by a shattering sound!

“What the hell are you doing here!”

Sheyan quickly glanced back, he saw a ‘skinny like a broom’ madam looking towards him overbearingly. Her waist was covered by a ‘Haoji Chicken Essence’ white apron, placing her left hand on her hips, her right hand was holding onto a stainless steel ladle that contained soy sauce. She interrogated Sheyan with a tumultuous vigor just like a submachine gun.

“I….I’m looking for the toilet.”

“Latrine’s on the second floor! This place is restricted!”

Sheyan could only flee in panic, even from a distance he could feel the woman’s fiery glare on his back….he bitterly laughed as he shook his head walking empty handed out from the supermarket. After leaving the cold shelter, the scorching heat rays from the sun caused him to break out perspiration. It was currently noon, Sheyan couldn’t tolerate any longer and entered into a open-air restaurant. He ordered fried noodles and picked up two smoking bottles of ‘Pearl River’ beer from the fridge. Popping open the cap with his teeth, he started to gulp down the ice cold beer.

Borrowing that tipsy drunk feeling, Sheyan started to tap lightly on the table but his mind was already casted towards planning his next route of actions. Previously, he loitered around in the present world for 2 weeks before receiving the notification from the nightmare realm. Based on his previous information, there were even contestants who had an entire interval of 2 months before receiving the invitation of the realm. Such long periods of time if one did not use it to his advantage, then it would’ve have been an utter waste.

Sheyan contentedly exhaled, using a chopstick dipped in his beer he started to list out his thoughts onto the table:

1: To find out Uncle Dasi and Sanzi’s whereabouts, and reunite with them.

2: Accomplishing that soul equipment ‘Endless Vodka’ mission, removing its sealed status.

3: Collecting the alcohol listed in the title: Alcohol master.

4: Eliminating Huashan Fei, getting rid of his personal misfortunes.

Within these issues, based on Sheyan’s personal emotions he would definitely choose to perform the first task. His close relatives were destitute and homeless, without even a single message, his heart would definitely be unbearably anxious. But right now, there was a chance that Sheyan could be implicated and become wanted by the entire country. Secondly, the places that Uncle Dasi could have gone to were countless. Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand etc these were all possible places, and he only decided after FuYuan set sailed. Even though Uncle Dasi was honest and considerate, he had already witnessed much evil in others and would naturally understand Huashan Fei’s sphere of influence. Thus…. Sheyan could only suppress his heart’s great desire.

Then undoubtedly, that soul equipment ‘endless vodka’ would definitely be the next in line. This equipment can greatly enhance Sheyan’s powers, and could even complement his title, ‘Intoxicated man’. It could even alleviate Sheyan’s current flaw which was his speed! Furthermore, while unsealing the ‘endless vodka’, Sheyan could at the same time collect the different alcohol types he needed.

Regarding Huashan Fei, his roots are all in FangCheng, once he left, then he would no longer have any foundations elsewhere. Thus, Sheyan wasn’t afraid of him fleeing, if he wanted to find him he would be able to do so anytime. But before that he would have to deal with the Vietnam gunmen bodyguards that protected him. To Sheyan now, he wasn’t confident of being able to swiftly deal with Huashan Fei’s underlings in the present world, thus it was better to postpone the matter now.

Therefore, Sheyan started to draft out a plan for the next few weeks. But before that, in order to make sure Uncle Dasi and the rest had not fallen into Huashan Fei’s hands, Sheyan did something else. After wolfing down his fried noodles, he then went to the nearby convenience store to purchase their cheapest handphone. Using a random SIM card, he then pressed in Huashan Fei’s house number that he remembered in his heart. After 10 seconds, Huashan Fei’s chilling voice resounded in Sheyan’s ear. “Who are you?”

Sheyan gently replied.

“Huashan Fei, don’t you want to get back your goods?”

In this instance, Huashan Fei’s pupils dilated. These few days he had been hard pressed because of those millions worth of goods. He practically lost a fortune, and he still had to endure the mourning ‘Black Devil’ spying over him, he was simply trapped in a predicament! After hearing Sheyan’s words, he immediately flared out.

“Sheyan you scumbag! What do you want?”

Sheyan’s lips curled into a smile, shrugging his shoulders he answered casually.

“Let’s talk next time.”

He then hung up, breaking the phone and tossing it into a nearby rubbish bin.

” Uncle Dasi and the rest should still be fine.” The relieved Sheyan made such a conclusion.

Because, if Huashan Fei had managed to recapture them, his reply would be, “F**king hell, if you still wish for your brother and uncle to be alive, then return my goods.” And even from this, Sheyan would be able to confirm. Even if Huashan Fei had recaptured them, they would only suffer superficial wounds and not fatal ones. Because Huashan Fei was a gambler, if he had a glimmer of hope of reversing his current predicament, he would never give up!

Back at Fanchan island, Sheyan started to pack up. He left a marking on a visible location that wrote, “I am well.” If Uncle Dasi and the rest arrived they would definitely notice it, while passerbys would not place great significance on it. He then disguised himself simply, hiring a three wheel automobile to fetch himself into the country town. Without worries, Sheyan easily found a ‘fake certificate, seal stamp’ advert on the wall of the telephone post, he then called the number.

During the phonecall, Sheyan stated that he wanted to buy a Qing Hua University graduation certificate. The voice straightforwardly quoted back over the line, “Normal 800, exquisite 1200, perfect 1600.” Sheyan didn’t bother negotiating, he instantly ordered a perfect piece. This fake certificate manufacturer then lazily announced an address and asked him to fetch it! Although the magistrate was relatively lenient on such things, this brat making the false certificates should probably have an able backing.

The address was rather remote, after asking a few people on the way, Sheyan managed to navigate into a small alley that looked shabby and ruined. The houses along the alley all had acutely inclined roofs, and both roadsides were covered with drainage covers. The murky dark waters within it gave off a pungent odour. The roads were a wreck, as a simple light step would cause loud cracking sounds to from, and muddy water to ooze out causing one’s trousers to turn damp. Even if it was dry, it would equally give off a piercing odour.

At the entrance of the alley, Sheyan looked around and finally found the house number nailed above at the right door, as he pinched his nose and knocked on it. After a brief moment, a response came from inside. A male with his shirt tucked into his pants appeared, he didn’t look sloppy but had quite a pointy chin. He had a slacken expression, and his face seemed oily. Once he saw Sheyan, he released a wide smile and said.

“Buddy, you’re here for the graduation cert right, come come come.”

He then pulled Sheyan in with one hand, and closed the door behind with another. Sheyan purposely adopted a cowering appearance and said.

“Is my certificate done?”

“It’s done, it’s done!”

“What I want is a perfect one.”

“Confirm perfect, I promise you it looks more genuine than a real one!”

The two continued some mindless chatter, and walked into the courtyard. Suddenly two hooligans appeared beside them, they had an indistinct tattoo on their arms, as they blocked Sheyan’s retreating path. Sheyan blurted out fearfully in shock.

“What do you guys want! Where’s my cert?”

One of the male snorted and gave out a cold smile, he then wrinkled and crumpled the document over! Raising his voice hatefully.

“A perfect Qing Hua University graduation cert, hand over the cash!”

Sheyan observed it with astonishment, five crooked words were written blatantly on that white piece of paper:

“Qing Hua University graduation cert…..”

After the words ‘Qing Hua’, it seemed like the ballpoint pen ran out of ink, and the other 3 words seemed to be written with a pencil. Sheyan was speechless for the waste paper, as he replied in shock.

“This is your so called ‘Qing Hua University graduation cert?’

“That’s right! Big uncle put in a lot of effort to complete this.” The two of them seemed to be well versed with this sort of situation, they were adept at this and even folded their sleeves and forced themselves into Sheyan’s face. Obviously there were going to use force if they couldn’t get their money. “Cash, or don’t blame me for using my fist!”

Suddenly, the frightened and shaking Sheyan suddenly raised his head, exposing his teeth as he smiled sinisterly and reply.

“Sorry, I think you just stole my line.”

Chapter 121: A real man has emotions

While the two men failed to react as they were distracted by Sheyan’s words, he already shot out with both hands and grabbed onto their hair. Then, he heavily smashed their heads against each other! Sheyan held back his strength as did not want to take their lives, but the two hooligans could not even match up to Huashan Fei’s underlings. Their eyes rolled up as they convulsed and slumped to the ground. It seemed like that they wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon.

The one responsible for guiding Sheyan in, had both his eyes popped out, he had never expected this ‘rich spoilt brat’ would actually retaliate in a flash! Bro Jiu and Bro Dalei normally were local thugs that would often brandish their kitchen knives and could cause a mindless slaughter against many, they could punch like Zhao Zilong, and their kicks were like Chu Bawang. But now, they actually just collapsed in one move!

(TN: famous chinese martial art characters)

At this moment, Sheyan’s vision turned towards him. This greasy male was scared stiff, he immediately raised his hands and retreated backwards:

“Kind comrade…… government comrade! Spare me!”

Sheyan casually shrugged his shoulders:

“Hand over the money bag.”

This greasy male was appalled and his expression turned dull, he finally realized this was like black eating black(bad people taking advantage of bad people)! As he witnessed Sheyan raising up his fist, he immediately quick-wittedly fished out his money pouch and offered it up with both hands. Sheyan pointed towards the fainted duo.

“Plus theirs.”

This brat was extremely obediently, he instantly swept his two brothers clean and similarly offered up what he acquired. However, the trio who devised this trap, their body was a pile of poverty as their scraps of notes could only amount to 30 RMB. But, Sheyan originally wasn’t here for the money, after leaving the entrance he immediately searched the two pouches for his currently most essential item, which was the identity card! After a legit identification card issued by the government, Sheyan could jump as high as the birds, and dive as deep as the fishes! Regarding the identification card photo, it would normally wear off after extended periods of time, thus nobody would even bother to care about such a pain in the ass issue.

After walking out of the courtyard, Sheyan’s thoughts rippled, he was already gripping onto that metallic alcohol cup. Roughly because he was back in the present world, this metallic cup seemed to feel much warmer, it felt like body temperature. Apart from that, it was vibrating slightly by itself, like it had its own heartbeat. Simultaneously, Sheyan had already received a list of relevant information.

“You have carried the soul equipment ‘Endless Vodka’ to the present world.”

“You have fulfilled the relevant criteria.”

“Soul mission: lotus root soup activated.”¨C13C”The final wish of the trapped contestant’s soul sealed within the ‘Endless Vodka’ is to taste the ‘lotus root, pork ribs soup’ that his mother makes. ¨C14C”Pointer: after accepting this mission, you will then acquire the fragmented memories of the contestant.”¨C15CSheyan chose to accept this mission. Suddenly a ‘weng’ sound buzzed in his mind, and many images started to surface in front of his eyes……¨C16CHis name was He Weiguo, this was a unique name that distinctly belonged to an era. At that time, a huge retaliation war broke out, a few ordinary folk were unable to participate and felt rather downcast. Thus, they devised a method to display their support for their country. Naturally, their kid’s name ended up as one of the resulting effects.

(TN:* To defend my country)

He Weiguo’s hometown was on the Loess Plateau of Northern China, the soil there was barren and unfavourable. When he was 20, he found a local lady and married her. But his wife died 2 years later while giving birth, and only left him to fend alone with their son. When his son was eight, he unfortunately got infected with a severe lupus erythematosus, and was bullied by his peers, calling him a rotten skinned dog. He could only cry in silence as He Weiguo was working abroad and was unable to look after him.

Until one day, He Weiguo finally heard of his son’s sufferings. He fumed with rage and immediately set off to find the household of the kid who bullied his son. However, that kid’s family belong to a line of wealthy and influential workers, they merely called a few people in and terribly beat up He Weiguo and his son. His vicious nature was drawn out, as he plucked out a butcher knife he carried personally and charged forward. He killed everyone in succession and even murdered the little bully.

After this massacre, He Weiguo fled with his son. When he was finally pushed to a dead end, he managed to enter the nightmare realm. After acquiring strength inside the realm, he used a few unorthodox methods to make a turnaround economically. During this duration, he did numerous evil deeds and committed many crimes. His only motive for working hard inside the nightmare realm was to cure his son of his disease, and stop people from calling him a ‘rotten skinned dog!

However, He Weiguo’s life journey came to an abrupt end in the Caribbean sea world. He was determined by the policymaker in his party to be a scapegoat. Against a torrent of pirates, He Weiguo was stabbed excessively but before he died, his heart carried no hatred. That was because he had already left a fortune back for his family in the present world.

The only thing he couldn’t forget before he died, was the warmth of his mother whenever he returned home. His mother would fold up her pants and waddle inside the frosty old pond to pull out a few lotus roots, afterward she would proceed to the opposite butcher uncle to exchange 5kg worth of maize for 0.5kg of pork rib. She would then boil it in her casserole pot for 3 hours to create her pork rib soup. Within this ordinary soup, contained a mother’s great love. Thus it caused this vicious man to never forget such warmth and tenderness of his mother.

Sheyan stood upright for a long time at his present spot, a complicated feeling couldn’t help but form within his heart. Was He Weiguo a good person? Undoubtedly he wasn’t, his hands were stained with more than a dozen lives, a young 11 year old boy to a 70 year old aged man. He was prone to anger and aggressively violent, often gambled and visited prostitutes, his crimes were uncountable. But on the other side, he strived tremendously for his son, and was unaffected when facing death ultimately yearning for his mother in the end. This contradicting and complicated life swirled within Sheyan’s heart for a while and slowly dissipated.

2 days later, Sheyan arrived at Chongqing city.

This was He Weiguo’s temporary residence after he left his hometown. In this ‘three loop’ road, he kept a low-profile and rented two worn and tattered house. He lived with his mother and son, nobody could have imagined that their family was worth over a million. Sheyan drew near the house quietly, a crying sound floated out from within. His heart couldn’t help but be appalled. If He Weiguo’s mother unfortunately passed away, then how was he suppose to complete the mission? He saw a aunty pushing the door out, and hurriedly enquired.

The auny only sighed and replied:

“This family really committed great sins. First, the man of the family slipped and fell to his steps from the upper floor, just a few days back, the little kid was kidnapped by a child trafficker. The old granny cries everyday inside the house, who knows when she will breathe her last because of her sorrow.”

Sheyan knew beforehand, anyone that died in the nightmare realm, would have his death arranged reasonably in the present world. Thus, He Weiguo’s death took him by no surprise. But no matter what he did previously, he carried it with him to the grave! His child was innocent, why should he suffer such a tragic fate? Roughly because if a rabbit dies, the fox grieves (Chinese idiom – to have sympathy with a like minded person in distress), Sheyan’s rage burst forth and his face turned ashen. Deeply inhaling he immediately raised his hand and knocked on the He family’s door.

Sheyan waited for roughly 5-6 minutes before someone opened the door. That was He Weiguo’s mother. Currently, she was only 50 plus of age, but her hair had turned totally white. Both Her eyes puffy and red, her expression was dejected and defeated. She used a despairing tone to speak.

“Who are you looking for?”

Sheyan deeply sighed.

“Aunty please sit, I am Weiguo’s good friend of many years. Recently I heard of his misfortune, therefore, I specially rushed back from abroad.”

When He Weiguo’s mother heard her son’s name, her tears flowed down uncontrollably. She cried out and stammered:

“I knew my Weiguo would cause trouble, how could money be so easily earned? Our family’s disposition is naturally poor, if not, it wouldn’t force him to a dead end. I’m old and useless, I can’t even look over Weiguo’s sole descendant! He was just kidnapped like that!”

Sheyan shut his eyes, and coldly replied:

“When i arrived I already heard of this. Aunty, tell me everything you know, and I will definitely find justice for your family!”

He Weiguo’s mother sobbed and sniffled as she explained what happened entirely . It was fairly simple, five days ago she brought her grandson to the streets to buy groceries. After going past the wet market, she was blocked by a street merchant who sold sachima (A type of sweet pastry) with his push cart. This man really wanted her to sample his own new product. The elderly’s attitude were normally cheapskate, after hearing that it was free she ate it. After eating, she was actually forced to buy, but obviously she refused to be taken advantage of and the two started bickering. After the old woman remembered her playful grandson, it was already 20 minutes later!

Following that was naturally panic searching, crying and finally despair. After reporting, the police’s attitude remained apathetic. Many other murder cases have not even been solved, what more was this small kidnapping case. Furthermore, the law states that a disappearance of a person was not a criminal case, unless one could show concrete evidence of the kidnapping, if not, the case would never pass!

Chapter 122: The most efficient tracking method

Sheyan nodded his head, and immediately stood up and left. His composure unknowingly caused Mother He to be shocked as she urgently asked:

“Young brother, where are you going?”

Sheyan gently glanced back, his lips curled into a chilling sneer:

“Of course to get Xiao Jun back.”

Mother He was stunned, after Sheyan left, she bewilderedly exclaimed:

“This….he just left without even staying for a drink?”

After Sheyan listened to Mother He’s description, he instantly deduced that even if that street merchant who sold the pastry wasn’t an accomplice, there should still be a huge relationship with those kidnappers. Xiao Jun was already a 8.5 years old kid, this boy being abducted without a single sound nor news was certainly not something that was done alone, there was at least a group! The usage of drugs in such a vicious attempt was also commonly known.

Even the police would be helpless when encountering such a thing, because their job was to always go in accordance with the law. They needed evidence, and this even had to implicate a few other civilians thus, it left their limbs binded. Yet Sheyan had no fear, ever since he became a contestant, the regulations and laws of the present world could no longer bind him.

The accident happened not far from here, roughly at third street. As Sheyan walked, he continued searching around for that street merchant with the push cart. This kind of person was fairly common in Chongqing city, and had distinctive characteristics. After Sheyan completed checking six streets, he discovered a street merchant fervently selling ‘Sachima’ beside a public bus-stop.

This street merchant was wearing a skullcap, he had a sly look and looked 40 years old. He was currently using a slur of clumsy words to attract people to purchase his products. Sadly, nobody near him wanted to and even avoided him. Sheyan stood beside observing, after waiting for the bus-stop to clear up after several buses left, he then approached and used a He Nan accent.

“Is this pastry delicious? Can I try it?”

That street merchant immediately raised his chest towards the sky and vouched before giving Sheyan one piece, Sheyan then started chewing and asked.

“How much for 500g?”

That street merchant raised his brows in delight and exclaimed.

“Forty, forty!”

Sheyan immediately held tightly onto his pouch, heart achingly replying.

“Too expensive, too expensive.”

He waved his hands and left. This street merchant had not made a single transaction the whole afternoon, he hurriedly obstructed Sheyan saying:

“Money?”

The shocked Sheyan replied:

“What money?”

This street merchant then confidently replied.

“Didn’t you just eat my pastry? This pastry is an entire piece, I cut it up to let you sample so others will not be able to buy it already. You have to buy the entire pastry!”

Sheyan shook his head like a rattle-drum, turning to leave. But this street merchant was well prepared, he fished out a whistle from his clothes and blew it hard. Suddenly a few accomplices appeared from the sides, they were all wearing filthy aprons and similarly came from other push carts. They started to shove and cursed at Sheyan, and gradually shoved him into a peaceful and remote corner.

This street merchant stood in front of Seyan, his hand holding onto the knife he used to cut the ‘Sachima’. Using a clumsy but fierce tone to coerce:

“Pastry, 400 Rmb, 4 kg! Hurry up!”

This was this person’s shrewd nature. This ‘Sachima’ pastry was originally 5 RMB for 500g, but

it suddenly increased tenfolds after he forced Sheyan to this state. Even if this scene was witnessed by the police, it would be counted as forced selling. But how was this different from robbing?

Sheyan glanced around to make sure there were no passerby, he then raised his head frowning with his brows. Exposing his white teeth as he smiled saying:

“Okay, I’ll buy.”

At the same time as his words, his right fist ferociously smashed into that street merchant’s shoulder like a hammer. A clear and crisp cracking sound of the shoulder blade could be heard! Before he even had a chance to scream, Sheyan already conveniently grabbed onto his neck and raised him up. Casually using him as a weapon and threw him at his two accomplices. At this moment, a kebab seller oust forward, he looked ruthless as he thrusted forward with his kebab knife! Sheyan had no time to evade, and a miserable flesh wound formed on his back!

However, only the wielder knew, he felt like he was poking at an extremely thick tyre. It was incomparably difficult to understand, after piercing into the flesh, only after exerting his entire effort could he move the knife. After Sheyan felt a slight pain at this back, he immediately shot out his hands to grab it. His five fingers were like iron hooks, empty handedly snatching that knife.

At this moment, these thugs understood they encountered a steel board. That kebab seller wanted to run but Sheyan rushed forward and simply kicked him as he crashed into the opposing wall. Sheyan’s one kick caused this kebab seller to smashed into the wall and form a ‘Y’ shape on the wall, and he finally crashed to the floor after a few seconds.

At this point, the strength faded in the remaining street merchants. They glanced at each other and reckoned Sheyan was an undercover cop. Suddenly they got worked up and started shouting in some weird street language. Although Sheyan could not understand their words, but he reckoned these people were trying to turn this internal contradiction into a conflict of ethnicity, the police bullying the minority. Normally, the police also had great headaches as they had no ideas on dealing with this group, but this group of people’s sole misjudgement was…. Sheyan was not even police. Therefore, nothing could restrain him, don’t even mention racial dilemma, any other social conflicts would not cause him to bat a single eyelid.

Sheyan used only one move to silence the entire crowd. He swung a slap towards that brat wearing the skullcap who was screaming the loudest. That slap seemed held back, but the force was enough to cause that brat to spin 240 degrees round. A few bloodied teeth could be seen sweeping through the air, and landed onto the dusty ground. That guy stood rooted with a blank expression, blood was streaking out of his right ear like a snake and then gently dripped onto the ground.

“I’m not a magistrate.” Sheyan hung down his eyelids and indifferently said. “So don’t use such tricks on me. I’m here to find someone, after finding him I will leave.”

None of the 4 street merchants were left standing. They raised their heads and gazed at Sheyan with a frightened expression.

“Ten days ago, who was the one who sold Sachima over here?” Sheyan coldly proclaimed. Simultaneously, he was holding onto a stack of red notes. “Who can tell me first, this 10,000 yuan will belong to you.”

These few street merchants glanced at each other, but none of them spoke up. Sheyan sighed and said:

“Very well.”

Those words were still echoing through the air, as Sheyan had already firmly clutched onto the hair closest to him. He then forcefully swung it against the closest wall! This knock was extremely deadly, the sound it created caused a person’s goose bumps to rise out. Without question, this unlucky brat instantly sunk to unconsciousness. Sheyan gradually loosen his hand, letting the blood drip trickle down slowly from his fingers. His eyes communicated a blood-thirsty and brutal nature.

“Very well, I hope you guys will carry on being stubborn. Even if the four of you don’t speak up, don’t you think I will catch others to interrogate?”

Sheyan slowly squatted down , he walked towards the kebab seller who was currently clutching onto his stomach. He gently said.

“10 days ago, that street merchant who was selling Sachima. Where is he?”

The kebab seller’s pupils dilated, he nervously rubbed his hands against his filthy apron:

“That is Xire Ah Hong, he has gone to take over another territory.”

Sheyan immediately tossed that stack of notes in front of his face, the red notes floated scattering about. He then grimly replied:

“Tell me everything you known, whoever dares to betray you over here, I will be responsible for his corpse.”

The kebab seller swallowed his saliva, and greedily snatched the scattered notes:

“What do you want to know?”

Sheyan lightly replied.

“Xire Ah Hong and the rest, did they kidnap a small boy? My friend’s kid was taken by them. I want to find that kid.”

The kebab seller was shocked:

“Kidnapping? Nonono, We don’t do such business, I heard that is the profession of the He Nan gang.

He immediately saw Sheyan’s face turning gloomy and hurriedly corrected:

“But that group with Xire Ah Hong is certainly has business of abusing small kids. Is your friend’s son crippled? Or looked miserably pitiful?”

This kebab seller seemed like an old veteran. His appearance looked to be a street merchant, but he was overflowing with the fluent Beijing dialect. He had such eloquence that he could even be an official news broadcaster. Sheyan got slightly distracted:

“That kid has a severe skin disease, his friends call him rotten skinned dog. He does look very pitiful.”

“Then that’s settled!” The kebab seller slapped his thigh, extremely absorbed into his character but unintentionally aggravated his pain. He immediately gritted his teeth saying, “Xire Ah Hong and that ground particular targets those little kids, they will cultivate this sort of crippled/ handicapped nature, and bring them to another city to engage in begging!”

Chapter 123: Directly combating the root of the problem

Sheyan frowned and replied:

“What cultivating?”

Just when the kebab seller wanted to speak, the brute who sold the ‘Sachima’ pastry suddenly shouted out:

“You dare to betray….”

After merely uttering 4 words, Sheyan lightning fast hands instantly grabbed his head and knocked him fiercely against the wall. He then wiped his hand against the wall in disgust and whispered.

“Severe cerebral concussion, spinal fluid leaking out of your nose, at least bedridden for half a year. Even if he recovered completely he would lose some memory, bowels incontinence and excessive loss of mental focus. These are the symptoms that the doctor would diagnose for him, who asked him to F**ing open his mouth. This is his repercussion.”

This action stupefied everyone on scene, only the kebab seller delightedly swept his surroundings and spoke:

“Cultivating is always handled by Boss Niu. The goal is to make these little kids look a lot more pitiful, boosting their ability in begging to attract people. Normally they would break their legs to make them lame so they cannot escape, and at the same time appeal to the passerby’s emotions. They would also cut off the kid’s tongue, thus they will be unable to speak and ask for help.

Sheyan coldly replied:

“That means, my friend’s son should be getting cultivated?”

The kebab seller nodded, his adam’s apple wriggled up and there.

“I can bring you there, but after that I will never be able to roam about in this city…..”

He lifted his eyes to look at Sheyan, his eyes flickering with greed. Sheyan’s face remained emotionless, he instantly flung out another 10,000 yuan out and indifferently replied:

“Bring me there, after we find the kid, I’ll add another 10,000. Honestly stay by my side, and I swear no one will be able to touch a hair on you.”

The kebab seller delightedly raised his brows, he nodded as he walked up. Sheyan paced several steps before abruptly turning back and looking at the remaining street merchant. He bluntly swung his leg out to kick him, adding onto the count of unconscious people. The kebab seller was astonished to see this, but Sheyan only gently issued:

“In this world there’s something called a phone. Since you are willing to betray your Boss Niu, then why wouldn’t there be others who would report this. I’m not afraid of your Boss Niu being prepared, I’m only scared that he flee beforehand!”

After an hour, Sheyan stood beside the kebab seller below a highrise building. This tall building was extremely imposing, it was at least 30 floors tall, its external glass wall looked extremely luxurious. Pasted on was an of Angelina Jolie smiling. Apart from high ranking business officers entering in and out, luxurious cars like Benz and Bentley followed suit. Yet Sheyan remained calm and composed, he couldn’t help but ask the kebab seller:

“You sure Boss Niu is here?”

The kebab seller secretly sneered, as he brought Sheyan in through a small back door. The security guards did not even bat a single eyelid at them. Behind the skyscraper, it did not look as bright and beat as from a distance. Because this was the back hall of the kitchen, a place where chicken were killed, vegetables washed and fishes dissected. It was relatively filthy. A service staff even spat into one of the dishes, probably because a customer had previously lectured and he wanted to take revenge.

The kebab seller tossed a few cigarettes over skillfully whenever he met others. Naturally nobody bothered them, after a few minutes he pulled Sheyan into a nearby alley. After walking a few steps, ahead of them following a rumbling sound as a cargo lift descended.

After entering the cargo lift, the kebab seller felt a little weak in his heart as the cigarette in his hand trembled with him, and he forgot to light it. Sheyan shut his eyes and leaned against the lift wall, he maintained a cold smile on his lips. After the lift reached the peak, it revealed bright windows and clean tables, carpet and wallpapers, an image a Top 100 corporation in the world would have. The kebab seller then directed to the right, and entered a side corridor. This corridor led to a semi-covered door, behind it was the stairs that led to the rooftop.

The kebab seller lowered his voice and whispered:

“He’s right on top, there are people watching the door. I will wait for you here.”

Sheyan stared at him intently, he strongly reached out his left hand and grasped onto his arm, and then continued ahead. This kebab seller felt like an iron hoop cuffed onto his arm, he could only stumble forward. After the two stepped up from the final flight of stairs, it led to an unexpectedly narrow space. A shabby assistant was obstructing the path, and a lock was set up on the entrance door. A drunk massive brute in a black elastic sleeveless garment rested his back against the wall. Beside him was a pile of chicken bones and 5-6 bottles of beer.

Once he saw Sheyan, he immediately jumped up and conveniently grabbed a bottle. Sheyan silently pressed forward, this brute then smashed a bottle onto Sheyan’s head! “Piank!” Glass fragments and beer dispersed about, but yet Sheyan remained unharmed. It was like that bottle shattered against a piece of granite. He then stretched his hand and grabbed onto that brute’s throat and raised him up against the wall. That brute struggled with his limbs but, it was to no avail, and finally fainted as his eyes turned white.

After locating the keys on this brute, Sheyan then easily unlocked the lock, opening the door and walked to the rooftop. Once he entered, no matter who it was except children he would equally lash out. His actions were swift and deadly, those who got struck landed on the ground and could not get back up anymore.

“Where are the kids?” Sheyan straightforwardly asked the kebab seller. He was not even willing to talk to the people within this pent house. The kebab seller gazed at the might of Sheyan that would kill one in every ten steps, whatever schemes he had in mind utterly vanished. Without speaking he immediately opened up two delicate asbestos glass roof tile. He then pulled out 3 construction boards, and the state inside was needless to say. However, the rotting odour of feces and urine was able to cause one to start trembling. Sheyan scanned the interior, he then walked to a person who was struck down previously, pulling up his hair he grimly asked.

“Where is He Xiao Jun?”

This person was struck by a rod onto the face, his face was covered in blood and tears. After whimpering for a long while, he finally understood. This He Xiao Jun had an extremely stubborn nature, after being captured he refused to enter. This helper’s goal was for money, not to take lives. Coincidentally, a batch was just about to graduate from Boss Niu’s ‘cultivation class’, thus he locked him inside a small shed. He wanted to wait for this busy period to end before slowly settling this kid. In the end, apart from being famished, naturally he was also beaten and severely insulted.

The illness on He Xiao Jun’s body also became more severe, patches of red rashes smeared across his face and body, it looked extremely horrifying. Only, this child’s eyes flickered with an unbending brilliance, just like a little wolf cub brimming with menace and killing intent.

Sheyan glanced at this child, it was like staring at He Weiguo’s earlier days. He sighed, after looking at the miserable state this kidnapped children were in, he turned to inquire of the kebab seller.

“Who is Boss Niu? You also don’t wish to leave behind a root right?”

The kebab seller shuddered in his heart, he immediately gritted his teeth and pointed to the the corner on the left.

“He is Boss Niu!”

Sheyan glanced over, that guy was curled up and shivering in the corner. He was dark and skinny, like a grape vine that was completely stripped of its grapes. His face wrinkles piled up from his previous hardships. He looked like an old farmer, how did he even have an appearance of the ringleader that would kidnap and harm little children? However after the kebab seller spoke up, suddenly, ruthlessness formed in that guy’s eyes. He roared up in a slur of dialect, and pulled out a dagger on his waist and charged forward.

Sheyan was completely oblivious to him, he glanced to He Xiao Jun. It was like a pair of eyes formed on his back as he easily swung a steel pipe to deflect the blade, and then smashed it against the guy’s nose. His third strike landed on his knee cap and the fourth on his elbow.

Those four strikes looked like he held back but it actuality it caused a deep whizzing sound in the air. Obviously, the residing strength wasn’t light, whenever it crashed onto Boss Niu’s body, it released a sound of clear and crisp bone cracking. Even the pipe became deformed. Boss Niu spun a few rounds after being struck, and finally unable to tolerate any longer he collapsed to the ground and gave off an agonizing shriek while rolling. His mucus mixed with blood drenched the ground and his face.

Sheyan stood in the middle of 7-8 thugs, he was like a reef standing unmoving within the sea.

He completely did not place those guys at heart. Those thugs looked at that slightly crooked bloodied steel pipe, but looked as if they had seen a ghost in broad daylight. Obviously intimidated by his might, they couldn’t help but retreat backwards. Sheyan then looked towards He Xiao Jun.

“I’ll bring you home, do you want to go?”

He Xiao Jun’s eyes displaced a suspicious color, but ultimately nodded his head, Sheyan led the way out, and after He Xiao Jun and the kebab seller walked out, he then dumped a bomb without even turning his head:

“I’ll report to the police after five minutes.”

This word, no doubt forced Boss Niu into a dead end, it was like when a tree topples the monkey scatters (Chinese idiom – people abandoning an unfavourable cause). Boss Niu’s limbs were already crippled, but yet his underlings decided to split the money and took off in this scenario. Obviously, this criminal syndicate was wrecked, and counted as Sheyan getting rid of a problem while he was helping He Xiao Jun.

When He Xiao Jun saw his own granny, he finally burst out crying like an ordinary little kid and leapt over. Sheyan remained silent by the side, he only quietly watched. The granny and her grandson hugged each other and cried for over 10 minutes, before Mother He finally noticed Sheyan’s existence. She was naturally overwhelming with gratitude. In the end she took out a huge sum of money worth 20,000, but Sheyan only waved his hand and kindly declined. He then gently smiled and suggested.

“If aunty really wishes to thank me, then allowing me to personally sample a bowl of her personally made lotus root pork rib soup is enough.”

Chapter 124: Endless spirited Vodka!

Only after two entire days did Sheyan managed to drink Mother He’s Lotus root pork rib soup. Truthfully speaking, this He specialty soup was really a class on its own, if anyone tried to casually replicate it, they would definitely be exposed.

Actually before roasting the pork rib, she would first use table salt and some spices giving the pork rib a distinctive flavour before using it to boil her soup. After roasting, the flavour was naturally different compared to an ordinary lotus root pork rib soup. Sheyan gulped down a few mouthfuls before scooping a new bowl of it. He then soaked the ‘endless vodka’ cup into the piping hot soup. Strangely speaking, that golden wine cup originally had a dull appearance, but after immersing into that lotus root pork rib soup, a new color emerged gradually. Finally, the wine cup was shining brightly like a recently cleaned stainless steel. It dazzled in people’s eyes, and that lotus root pork rib soup also peculiarly evaporated and finally vanished. No idea what did Mother He and He Xiao Jun saw, but their tears started to flow down profusely.

Sheyan concurrently received a notification from the nightmare imprint.

“You completed the soul mission: Lotus root soup.”

“Your soul mission completion score: 85%.”

“He Weiguo’s soul expresses gratitude to you, leaving behind a portion of his strength. Soul equipment: Endless vodka is additionally enhanced. New name: Endless spirited vodka.”

“Endless spirited vodka”

“Equipment effects: Excite (Active): Activating it will raise your running/walking speed by (25% ->)28%. Excite state will end after receiving an attack. After Excite state expires, after 300 seconds you can once again activate Excite. Excite bonus can now stack with other movement bonuses.”

“Item category additional effects: After drinking a mouthful of Spirited vodka, you will regain (20->)25 HP instantly. HP regeneration will temporarily raise by 25%, lasts for 60 minutes.”

“Item category additional effects: Under non-combat state, at intervals of 15 minutes (Cut down from the original 24 hours), the vodka will automatically be fully refilled.”

“The rest has no changes.”

Observing the 85% score of this soul mission, Sheyan humbly nodded. This was something he had anticipated. Actually he had already guessed the method of obtaining 100% completion status of this soul mission, there was to treat the lupus on He Xiao Jun’s body. Naturally He Weiguo’s soul would be tremendously grateful. However, Sheyan had already researched on this lupus, it was a sickness that caused one’s immune system to be weakened. Western medical methods had no way of treating this disease, if he really wished to treat this in the present world, then he would have to try his luck with traditional chinese medicine, and the treatment duration would be hard to predict.

Of course, another swift treatment method was to request for aid from the nightmare realm. Earlier on, Sheyan had already estimated, this was probably linked to his achievement level. Maybe after his rank had rose to a certain standard could he purchase the necessary medicine. Sheyan previously witnessed Uncle Dasi’s handicapped hands, it was extremely heartbreaking, and he wished to further increase his achievement level and acquire medicine from the realm. Therefore, even if he had the capability to treat He Xiao Jun’s disease, he wouldn’t waste it on this.

After the ‘Endless vodka’ was unlocked, Sheyan then activated the speed bonus. His movement speed had a noticeable increase, it was like his every step was taking an automated escalator. He rapidly travelled far and the surrounding people were unable to notice it. Although this enhancement would disable after receiving an attack, it can be used again after merely 4 minutes, that was already relatively useful.

For the sake of this soul equipment, Sheyan stopped over at ChongQing city for nearly 4 days. Although the duration he had in the present world was counted as plentiful, he was currently racing against time and started on his next course of action. That was to begin working on the ‘advanced milestone: Alcohol master’.

According to Sheyan’s current status, it wasn’t realistic for him to be able to collect the few overseas alcohol that he had completely not heard of before. He only had a tiny hope of searching for clues regarding that China ‘Maotai 1950 pulp liquor’. This sort of previous alcohol deemed as a ‘National alcohol’ was extremely rare. If he attempted to search for it, then only two places in the entirety China held the highest chance. The first was Maotai town situated in Renhuai Country of the Guizhou province. The other place was….Beijing, Zhongnanhai!

After Sheyan inquired a list of information, he received two crucial message.

Year 1999, October. People’s Republic of China celebrated 50 year anniversary, the museum of chinese history kept a bottle of 1950 Chen Niang Maotai.

Year 2010, 19th June. Beijing Goethe company started an auction for its stored Maotai, holding a famous nation wide ‘China wine’ auction, a bottle of year 1959 wheel Maotai broke the records for highest Maotai price with its 1.03 million bid.

Naturally, after the first message became clear, the location, content and even the mission item that Sheyan was seeking for, fitted tightly together, and it was a clear fit! But what kind of place was the museum of chinese history! It was a significant building constructed to the east side of Tiananmen Gate (Entrance of imperial city in Beijing). Its interiors contained important artifacts that represented over 5000 years of chinese heritage. Randomly pointing at any would be a national treasure. No matter how powerful or valiant Sheyan was, it was impossible to challenge the might of a country! Such tremendous force and techonology simply left one in despair from even thinking of such a feat.

Therefore Sheyan bluntly purchased a ticket for Guizhou. It was nice that it wasn’t very far from ChongQing, and the flight ticket only cost 300 yuan. Sheyan purchased the latest flight. The service attendant very seriously examined his identification card. Yet Sheyan had specially visited a hairdresser beforehand, transforming himself to an appearance close to that in the identification card. Therefore, the service attendant was completely oblivious and clueless. After alighting at Guizhou, he stayed at the airport hotel. Early the next morning, he immediately hired a car to fetch him straight to Maotai Town. It roughly needed only about 4-5 hours.

This place was far and high up in the mountains. Sheyan also had no mood to scheme any plans. He randomly found a hotel and threw a hundred yuan on the counter. He claimed to be a human resource manager at a northern distillery, and was here to recruit a highly-experienced veteran in the field as a consultant. The counter guy was looking towards the news broadcast, but after hearing Sheyan he excitedly exclaimed that his old man was an overlord in alcohol, he was an unparalleled talent in the field of alcohol and was known as the Lu Bu* of alcohol. After hearing the meaning behind his words, if Sheyan did not invite his old man as a consultant, it would be akin to letting down his ancestors, his country and the society.

(TN: *Insanely strong character in Romance of the Three Kingdom)

Sheyan didn’t care to beat around the bush, he blatantly asked.

“Has your old man drank the pulp liquor of the 1950 Maotai?”

This counter attendant’s speech came to an abrupt end, after a while did he recover and asked:.

“What is the relation between hiring a consultant and that Maotai 1950 Pulp liquor?”

Sheyan shrugged his shoulders and replied:

“You don’t even know the relationship, why talk about doing consulting?”

The counter attendant could only roll his eyes at this statement and shut his mouth. In the following two days, Sheyan made use of the reason of ‘recruiting a consultant’ to conduct his investigations. Instead, it was an incomparable headache as the information he obtained regarding this Maotai 1950 Pulp liquor was in fact too excessive! Renhuai country was hailed as China’s liquor city, it had close to 300 branches of distilleries! Its sole production of Chinese spirits was 111 thousand tons! Its production of Maotai alcohol was 20.30 thousand tons!

Under such circumstances, the unfamiliar Sheyan initiated his investigations. It was unimaginable the mountains of information he gathered. Every kind of alcohol information drowned him completely. And solely on Maotai town, that ‘Maotai 1950 pulp liquor’ had turned into an essential treasure that every household cherished. Even a top grade expert from the country could not guarantee its authenticity from its exterior. Naturally a genuine product’s asking price was astronomical, it simply caused one’s jaw to drop.

If Sheyan wanted to purchase with money, it was inconceivable to acquire a real product without spending 2-3 hundred million yuan. If he dared to use violence, then the entire town would be informed that a robber had come specifically for the Maotai 1950 pulp liquor. This would alert the masses and he would never be able to obtain the real good. Furthermore from his initial behavior of discreetly probing information on that, he would certainly be held as a chief suspect if this broke out.

Trapped in a dilemma, Sheyan coincidentally came across a news broadcast at night:

“Congratulating Maotai country wine to be selected: Singapore rare national antiques exhibition, in order to support connections and develop bilateral relations, the Renhuai government has specially pledged to supply two precious bottles of the national treasure, ‘Maotai 1950 pulp liquor’ to participate in this international fair.”

Sheyan concentrated all his attention on this news. Naturally, in such an international fair, the government would never produce a counterfeit to make a fool of itself. This involved the reputation of a country. He simply log onto the internet and confirmed that this international fair would take place after 10 days. This gave Sheyan ample buffer time. Although currently Sheyan was unable to produce a passport to go overseas, but to him who travelled long periods on ships, finding a route to Singapore wasn’t something difficult. It was simply better than getting engulfed and bombarded by all this phony information.

Therefore, Sheyan immediately flew to Chaoshan district in Guangdong. Smuggling was thriving over here, incidentally carrying a few illegal immigrants was a common occurrence. Sheyan left to voyage when he was only 14, he was even personally involved in such things before, and could even close his eyes and recite all the different processes involved.

Chapter 125: Illegal immigration

Sheyan travelled to a small seaside town. Deep in the night, he located a hair salon with a neon pink lighting appearance and entered it. Straightforwardly asking the lady boss for two young ladies for a massage; up till now it was the normal process of exchanging money for sex. But following that, how the lady boss would access the business for illegal immigration was asking “Is two ladies enough?”

Normal brothel patrons would mostly say it’s enough, yet Sheyan replied no, he at least needed 8. Through the secret code between the two, the lady boss would then professionally call Sheyan to enter. Inside a small room, she would produce out a world map or a globe, and then bluntly ask where Sheyan wanted to go. He will then deposit a down payment, and pay the remaining when he got on the boat.

Presently, the illegal immigration business was extremely professional, it even segregated the different boats. Once cash was received, their service was not inferior in any aspect to normal cruises. Besides, the marine patrols would only tighten their checks during strict periods, and would remain ignorant on normal periods. Why would a cat show up without a rat? From Chaoshan to Singapore took an estimated 8 days and 8 nights. Sheyan kept a low profile and peacefully went aboard. Everyday he would remain in his cabin to train his body. He was extremely familiar with the customs and regulations on board, and did not expose any form of abnormality.

When he finally arrived, Sheyan managed to reap some rewards as his basic strength attribute had risen by 1 point to 11 points. After getting down from the smuggling ship, naturally people approached him for business. Sheyan came here often, he instantly went to find a hotel in Singapore’s Sembawang GRC (Group representation constituency) to stay. The chinese race monopolized 76% of the people here, although the national language was malay, but most people here understood chinese.

Singapore was also actively promoting their international fair, ‘Singapore Rare National Antiques Exhibition’. In a few days time they had arranged a China charity auction, Asia’s top 500 enterprise summit meeting, in a bid to restore their economy after the recent economic crisis that threatened them. Therefore, this was extremely important to the entire city. But Sheyan did not care, because Singapore’s model was a country that was also a city. Their total military might did not exceed 50,000 people…..this degree of armed forces dispersed throughout the city of more than 5 million, could be said to be a form of deterrence in this small country but to Sheyan he did not even put it in mind.

This international fair will officially commence the next day, without questioning, Sheyan had no ability to enter it straightforwardly from the start, because many VIPs would grace the occasion at the start. Singapore’s president and other nation representatives would participate, if he chose that time to act, then he would undoubtedly have to deal with the protective bodyguards of these high ranking officials. This was certainly not a smart thing to do.

Sheyan’s plan was simple, that was after the exhibition commenced, he would infiltrate on the second day into the China charity auction. He would observe which wealthy person bid for that bottle of alcohol, and wait for that spendthrift to leave. Only then he would camouflage himself and put into play a shocking but not dangerous nor cruel robbery (Because he only forcefully stole a drink), he would then immediately flee to safety.

This sole problem currently was: After Sheyan infiltrated the auction, he had to determine who was the buyer straightaway.

Because even using a toe to think, that Maotai pulp liquor would not be used as the climax of this auction, and that buyer may not wait for the auction to conclude before leaving. Hence, if Sheyan were to lie in ambush outside and not enter the auction ground, then he would identify the wrong target. Of course he could wait outside and watch the live broadcast, but this ‘broadcast’ would certainly be delayed by roughly 10 minutes, this was to avoid any incidents (For example, if anyone got agitated and started to hurl out profanities) with this buffer time. Sheyan could not confirm if the broadcast would utilize this strategy, thus he did not dare to take this risk.

Under normal situations, an auction would not just let anyone in, unless you pay a certain deposit to enter. Fortunately, in order to win the public favour this time, 50% of money earned from this auction will be donated to a charity organization, therefore this certainly had to be widely advertised to the fanfare. With this, there would be lots of reporters, and the best scenario was that every country’s mainstream media would pay a visit, first as a propaganda to raise their reputation and image, and secondly was to appeal to the wealthy people’s emotions during this auction. Thus, they would bid higher.

Sheyan naturally decided to camouflage as a reporter. As long as he randomly took care of a reporter, and snuck in then naturally then he would easily capture his first objective. Obviously China Central Television had dispatched many attractive reporters, and Sheyan did not dare to lay hands on them. Therefore after pondering for awhile, he decided to target the neighbouring Malaysia, and deal with a reporter from the Radio Television Malaysia.

Singapore’s relations with its neighbor Malaysia were extremely harmonious, and Radio Television in Malaysia had a position akin to Jiangsu Satellite TV in China. Furthermore, Malaysians and Chinese did not have much of a difference, as long as Sheyan made his skin darker, and chewed betel nut then naturally nobody could tell the difference. His goal was just to infiltrate, once people from Radio Television Malaysia discovered their colleague had not arrived and started to look for him, Sheyan would had already satisfied his desire.

Singapore was a strategic location in the Straits of Malaya, it was a strategic port that connected the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Previously, for every 10 times Sheyan voyaged out, he would pass through here 5 fives, although he couldn’t consider this as his territory, it was relatively familiar to him. However, illegal smuggling ships would carry smuggled goods, a bigger ship would naturally carry more than a small one. Previously, Sheyan in his later years as a seaman had earned his captain’s trust, and thus had been placed in charge of a smuggling ‘mission’ before. Naturally, those that dared to accept smuggled immigrants would definitely be linked with underground societal methods. Sheyan relied on his previously honed relationships, and after paying 5000 Singapore dollars (Roughly 25,000 RMB), he easily managed to purchase information on the movement of Radio Television Malaysia, their lodging location and other reports.

After paying the adequate small fees, Sheyan managed to rent a neighboring room beside the Radio Television Malaysia people. He spent a great deal of time carefully eavesdropping their conversations to search for any loopholes. However, this group of people laughed about, their speech was in the native language. Sheyan had slight knowledge of the Malaysian language, if they slowed down their speech he could at least link and differentiate the contents. However, these bunch seemed extremely excited, naturally their talking speed increased, and this was simply gibberish to Sheyan’s ears.

Even until the night before the charity auction, Sheyan was still unable to find even half a clue. But his resolution was completely firm, even if a mountain obstructed his path, he would also try to split the mountain in two. If it was just a rock, he would simply smashed it! Since these bunch of malaysians did not give him an opportunity, then he would construct an opportunity for himself! He carefully reflected, and went down to purchase a bottle of laxatives. After he identified a person from the Radio Television Malaysia that had roughly the same build, after the group had left for a midnight snack, he secretly snuck in and placed laxatives into that person’s cup.

This group mentioned going for night snack, but in reality, they went to a pub to play and returned drunk and tipsy. All of them were drunk, and when they sunk into their beds they were not willing to move anymore, until late into the night where they felt terribly thirsty. Therefore, don’t even mention laxatives, even if he peed into that guy’s cup, it would not even be the least bit suspicious.

Thus, on the next morning, this guy rose from bed with a pale and uncomfortable expression. It was even tough for him to straighten both legs, how was he going to go for an interview. The group looked at each other in dismay, and cursed his bad luck in their hearts. His colleagues could only prepare medicines for him and rushed off to the auction.

After this group stepped out, Sheyan stepped in. He did not waste time speaking, instantly grabbing a common knife and pressed it against this guy’s neck. He naturally became so afraid that he pissed his pants and pleaded for mercy. After Sheyan obtained what he wanted, and wore a wig and sunglasses he had prepared earlier on, he knocked that guy out cold. He then carried off the back up media equipments and ran out as fast as flying. He somewhat gave off the mannerism of a cameraman.

The following move was exceedingly simple, Sheyan hired a cab to the auction. He arrived at a skyscraper in Singapore that was over 35 floors high. Probably because this international fair had been ongoing for two days, the various police guards had gradually slackened and were laughing as they chatted. Even if a passerby wanted to infiltrate, it wouldn’t be that difficult. Sheyan hurriedly entered and flashed his reporter’s pass, he immediately went up to the seventeenth floor where the auction was held. After putting up an act in a corner, he started to observe the surrounding environment.

The auction quickly commenced, there wasn’t anything special but only the usual greeting catchphrases to stir up the crowd. The only attractions were the few beautiful celebrities that sat below, but they were tugged along with their old husbands. Looking at them, it was like beautiful flowers blooming beside a pile of cow dung.