Mad Dog Pursuit Team, The Possibility of Farming Monsters on Repeat!
The sky was just beginning to lighten.
Emerging from the makeshift hut built by the fishmen, I inspected the sleeping fishmen who had consumed food containing Psionic Water the day before and were currently undergoing a rapid transformation in both intelligence and physical health.
Holding the Three-Pointed Double-Edged Blade, Su Mo moved energetically toward the mountaintop.
Unlike the fish-men who are still in a deep sleep, Su Mo's sleep time is getting shorter and shorter as his physical abilities become more and more abnormal.
Especially after consuming food containing Psionic Water, as long as there has been no major battle, Su Mo can restore his energy to its peak in just three or four hours.
On the way to the summit, Su Mo casually knocked down a Beet Coconut, drinking the coconut juice while eating the crunchy Beet Coconut.
While the current Beet Coconut is crisp, like sugarcane, after chewing it a few times and losing moisture from the coarse plant fibers, it becomes somewhat like chewing wood.
Considering that you have to swallow this wood, the experience is extremely unpleasant.
"If the sweetness and texture of the coconut meat could be slightly improved, it would be quite good, and it could definitely be sold as a cash crop!"
After pondering for a while, once Su Mo had finished drinking the sweet coconut juice from the Beet Coconut and eaten half his fill of coconut meat, the Big Stone at the summit came into view.
Using the handle of his knife as a brace, Su Mo successfully climbed onto the Big Stone.
Unlike yesterday's rush, the sky was gradually brightening.
Sitting on the rock, Su Mo did not rush to summon the Lord Token to check, but instead carefully examined this territory that belonged to him.
The island is called White Sand Island because the beaches surrounding it are so white and pure, without a trace of impurity, that they look like white jade laid on the ground, a sight to behold.
On the west side of the island, a small sailboat was obediently moored in the harbor, swaying gently from side to side in the sea breeze.
The entire island is covered by vegetation, which covers about 75% of the area. Apart from 35% of Beet Coconut, the remaining 40% consists of broad-leaved plants common in the tropics.
"The west side of the island is currently the only place where boats can dock, but that's okay, I can artificially create a bay for them."
"The eastern and northern parts of the island are mostly useless broad-leaved forests, which take up space but serve no practical purpose. Once we have more people under our command, we can develop these areas and use them as the face of White Sand Island."
"Wait, what the hell is this?!"
With a look of satisfaction, Su Mo had just finished scanning three sides of the island and turned his gaze to the south when his expression suddenly turned grim.
The southern part of the entire island is the direction from which the Ocean Guard was killed yesterday.
Before the sun had risen, Su Mo's powerful eyesight allowed him to spot a dark dot appearing at the end of that direction.
Su Mo's intuition told him that this was a ship, a ship that seemed familiar.
"Has a merchant ship delivered itself to our doorstep? Or have those mad dogs come looking for us again?"
With an indescribable sense of unease, Su Mo had a sudden thought and took out a 15x optical telescope from his Storage Space, then lowered his eyes to it.
But the next second, after seeing clearly the sailboat currently at the edge of the horizon, flying the Ocean Guard flag...
Su Mo was stunned for a moment, and the fist that was hanging at his waist suddenly hardened!
"Damn it, what the hell is going on? Why is another Ocean Guard ship coming?"
"Is this some kind of monster farming? Does one ship come every day?"
"???"
"Boss, we've wiped out those forty scumbags from the Ocean Guard, and we've also captured their ship and most of their supplies. We're rich!"
"Chief, should we also anchor their ships in our bay?"
"Chief, what's wrong? You look terrible!"
As the sun rose, the beach was already covered with all sorts of creatures lying in various places.
There were fishmen, shrimp soldiers, and even a man with a human head but crab claws in his hands.
Without exception, every creature lying down had a precisely chrysanthemum-shaped opening on its head.
Blood of various colors flowed from the chrysanthemum-shaped openings, mixing with the white sand, like a mischievous child drawing and scribbling, outlining abstract patterns.
Nine fish-men from White Sand Island were jumping around the beach, celebrating the Ocean Guard's latest defeat.
Yes, annihilating the enemy without taking any damage and capturing a lot of supplies should have been a moment to celebrate.
But at this moment, seeing the ugly expression on Su Mo's face, the fishmen seemed to realize the seriousness of the problem and fell silent.
"Damn it, after killing these forty people, the Wanted Order has finally reached three stars."
"But that's not the worst part. The worst part is that a ship like this comes every day, carrying a whole Ocean Guard."
"Two-star level requires 40 people per day, while three-star level increases to 100 people per day, and there will also be a highly skilled squad leader."
"What's going on? Are they playing a game?"
Uncharacteristically swearing, Su Mo waved for the fishmen to clean up the battlefield before heading to a place out of their sight. He then removed his Mermaid Set and hurried towards the mountaintop where the Lord Token was kept.
Just after eliminating these forty people, and with the wanted level rising to three stars, the Lord Token also sent a message on its own, which was quite rare.
There was only one message, about the star rating of the Wanted Order and its meaning.
With a one-star Wanted Order, unless you Ocean Guard and they see you, they won't actively seek you out or travel thousands of miles to arrest you.
A two-star Wanted Order already carries some weight. No matter where you are, the nearest official organization will receive your location information precisely after 12 o'clock every day.
Next, they will send a guard ship carrying 40 Guard Team to arrest you.
These grunts are all of very average strength. Even in a one-on-one fight, under the right conditions, the fishmen enhanced by the Psionic Water can fight them to a draw.
The problem is, as long as you dare to kill these grunts, your wanted level will continue to rise, all the way up to a three-star Wanted Order! "Wanted Order: Check my wanted level and the arrival time of the next Ocean Purge Guard."
Without the constraints of the Mermaid Set, Su Mo ran at an extremely fast speed, covering a distance that would normally take 20 minutes.
It only took about three minutes to run!
Grabbing the Lord Token was floating in the air, Su Mo asked directly, panting.
[Your Excellency Su Mo, Ocean Overlord, based on your current wanted level, your wanted value has been detected as: 528]
[The next Ocean Purge Guard was detected to have been dispatched at 16 hours and 2 minutes ago and to arrive at 28 hours and 11 minutes ago.]
Two numbers, one for 16 hours and the other for 28 hours.
After a simple subtraction and division operation in his mind, Su Mo obtained the speed of the three-star Guard Team's ships.
The exact departure time for this Ocean Guard that has pursued the fugitive to White Sand Island should be the early hours of the following day.
In other words, they sailed for 32 hours against the headwinds for two whole nights before finally reaching White Sand Island, demonstrating incredible perseverance! But this three-star clearing team, even including the time spent sailing against the wind, only needed 12 hours, making their speed nearly three times faster.
With the number of stars remaining constant, every day at noon, a boatload of mad dogs will rush to White Sand Island, delivering a boatload of supplies and thousands of points.
With the current ammunition reserves, even if Su Mo had a hundred days' worth of ammunition, it wouldn't be enough to kill these small fry.
The problem is, the star rating changes, and the more you kill, the faster it changes! If you reach a four-star Wanted Order, Su Mo will be met with a siege force of up to a thousand people! This siege force will be deployed on a standard warship from the Ocean Guard.
The warship was led by a powerful captain with extensive experience in suppressing bandits, and carried 800 elite soldiers and 200 war beasts.
With such a formidable anti-bandit team, even if Su Mo manages to repel the first few waves with just his guns.
But ammunition will eventually run out, and if you only think about toughing it out, there will always be a time when you can't hold on any longer.
At that time, Su Mo will only have one path left.
"Withdraw from the trial! That shouldn't be the case. If it's like this, Wanted Order I have no choice but to surrender."
"But according to the current objectives set by the Lord Token, if I choose to execute them, the Wanted Order level will only increase. How can anyone compete like that!"
Sitting on the Big Stone, after a rapid run and with his heart racing, Su Mo's mind calmed down.
The current problem is that we can't solve the issues of increasing star ratings and raising wanted levels.
The star rating determines the strength of the pursuit team, while the wanted level determines the star rating.
If we can find a suitable way to control either of these two, then we can control one of them.
These rabid dogs that charge in at fixed times every day won't be an obstacle; instead, they'll be a "money-making machine"! "So, where exactly is the key to breaking this deadlock?"
"After I escaped from prison and chose to flee, my Wanted Order was already two stars, which means the trial definitely had a backdoor. So I started my escape, and then..."
"Wait, that Territory Modification Card!"
Go through them one by one.
When his thoughts turned to yesterday's gains, Su Mo was suddenly startled and immediately pulled out the modification card from his Storage Space.
In a typical game design approach, the design of levels and rewards would certainly take into account the continuity of subsequent levels.
Since the challenges encourage participants to become lawless lords, there must be a way to break the deadlock.
"Luckily, I didn't rush to use it yesterday. Now it seems that the solution lies here."
"Feature 4 is now available!"
Before going to sleep last night, Su Mo was still hesitating whether to choose the modification of function 2 to complete the initial construction of White Sand Island, or to take a gamble with the special ability of function 4.
But now, looking at the card shimmering in his hand, Su Mo breathed a sigh of relief and crushed it.
"I choose to use function 4 to add special abilities!"
[Dear Lord Su Mo of the Ocean Overlord, we have detected that you have selected the fourth basic territory modification function. The following three options are now automatically provided for your selection.]
[Option 1: Land of Fish and Rice (After selecting this special ability, the territory's crop yield increases by 50%, the probability of attracting a crop master increases by 10%, the territory's crop disaster resistance increases by 25%, and the territory's crop growth rate increases by 15%; when planting crops, there is a certain probability of improving the crop's grade)]
[Option 2: Home of Sailors (After selecting this special ability, the territory's visitor traffic increases by 50%, the territory's consumer satisfaction increases by 25%, the probability of attracting legendary captains increases by 10%, and the territory's security increases by 15%; when attracting customers, there is a certain probability of recruiting elite-level or higher characters)]
[Option 3: Land of No Law (After selecting this special ability, the territory's visitor traffic increases by 75%, the probability of attracting pirates increases by 100%, the territory's chaos level increases by 100%, and the territory's crop yield decreases by 100%; while in this territory, the Ocean Guard will not be able to know your coordinates, and the Wanted Order star rating and wanted value within the territory are fixed)]
"Holy crap, there really is a way to break this deadlock!"
Suddenly, after glancing over the first two items and seeing the last one, the Land of No Law, Su Mo was so shocked that he stood up.
If it were a normal defector carrying a two-star arrest warrant, seeing these three options would definitely make him hesitate.
While the Land of No Law might seem like a quick fix, the 100% chaos level and -100% food production essentially kill the early development of a territory.
If you are new to the area and haven't developed any military capabilities yet, choose this option.
If chaos breaks out in the territory, it's one thing if supplies are lost, as there's still a chance to make a comeback. But if people are lost in the chaos, then they're truly gone.
Unless, "Holy crap, I was just figuring out where to double-cross and rob these pirates, and now this Land of No Law is actually getting them delivered right to my door!"
"Moreover, as long as I wander around outside the island every night at 12 o'clock, let these Guard Team get my coordinates, and then at noon, I can take care of these people inside the island and get a sailboat and a whole ship full of supplies without lifting a finger. This is just too damn outrageous!"