Grim Reaper Gashapon Machine

Brave the World sailed his small sailboat across the sea surface.

The Golden Lion he had finally tamed was dead, and the bounty he'd accepted remained unfinished, with Justice Points deducted on top of it—this trip had been a total loss for him.

But at least he'd scraped by with his life.

Brave the World's face still carried a trace of lingering fear. Who could have guessed that the top-ranked player would have so many skeleton summons, all utterly obedient to her? Fighting under those conditions was far too disadvantageous.

If he sold this information to others on the leaderboard, he could probably trade it for plenty of resources, enough to offset this trip's losses.

As for that Treasure Map...

Brave the World couldn't help but smirk smugly.

By the time Ling Chu found the location marked on the Treasure Map, she'd discover the chest there had already been emptied by him. By then, finding him again wouldn't be so easy.

Brave the World felt that the reason he'd survived this long, aside from luck and cleverness, was that he always knew to leave himself an escape route.

Don't throw away a used Treasure Map—when the time comes, it can still serve as a life-saving token.

Brave the World was basking in his own cleverness when he suddenly heard a droning sound, like a train approaching from afar.

He turned his head and saw a three-masted Ghost Ship riding the surging waves, accelerating toward him.

The ghostly skull emblem fluttering on its sails made Brave the World shudder.

Had she realized the Treasure Map was a fake that quickly?

Impossible.

Her soul-type skill hadn't seen through it, because he'd given her a real Treasure Map!

Brave the World gripped the ship's wheel tightly, wishing he could jump into the sea and push the boat himself.

But a tier-three hybrid-powered vessel was far faster than his small, wind-dependent sailboat.

Ling Chu caught up to him in no time.

When the distance between the two ships closed to just two or three meters, Ling Chu leaped across and landed on Brave the World's deck.

The sudden weight made the small sailboat tilt slightly.

Brave the World steadied himself and forced a fawning smile onto his face. "Weren't we agreed you'd let me go?"

"I only said I'd let you leave then, but I never promised I wouldn't hunt you down." Ling Chu raised an eyebrow.

Brave the World's expression stiffened. "Is this necessary? I gave you the Treasure Map and swore I wouldn't cause you trouble. Do you have to push me to my death?"

At the same time, his wariness deepened. He'd been running for most of the day, and this woman had still tracked him down precisely—she definitely had some tracking item.

"The moment you accepted my bounty, we were bound to fight to the death."

Ling Chu's expression was calm. Her features weren't the aggressive type—she had a cool, understated beauty—and her tone was as if she were discussing something ordinary, but her words sent chills down the spine.

She'd said it before: anyone who harbored killing intent toward her couldn't be left alive.

While speaking with Ling Chu, Brave the World had quietly gripped the Hand Crossbow tucked behind his back.

"If that's how it is, then die—"

Brave the World's expression turned savage in an instant, and a sharp Ballista Bolt shot toward Ling Chu in the blink of an eye.

At the same moment he struck, a faint ghost silently drifted out from his Hand Crossbow. Its intangible body lunged at him and passed straight through him.

The Ghost Servant's exclusive skill: Terrify!

In that instant, Brave the World felt as if he'd fallen into an ice cellar. His hands trembled uncontrollably, and he stood frozen in place, unable to move, trapped in a brief state of terror.

A full three seconds.

The effect of Hemlock's skill depended on the target's intelligence. The higher the intelligence, the better the resistance to the terror effect.

Ling Chu had checked Brave the World's stats earlier with the Eyepatch. His intelligence was low—only four points.

The bolt he'd fired also went wide because of the trembling from the terror.

Three seconds was enough time for Ling Chu to walk up to him step by step and slit his throat.

When Brave the World saw Hemlock, only one thought crossed his mind: I'm seeing ghosts.

When he couldn't move and watched helplessly as Ling Chu calmly drew a dagger across his neck, only one thought remained:

What the hell, I'm really seeing ghosts.

[You have killed player Brave the World. Sin Value +20 points.]

The lifeless body thudded heavily to the deck.

Hemlock floated back in front of her, fuming. "That man really was no good. He tried to steal the Island Core while the Giant Lizard was asleep, got caught, let his beast pet fight the Giant Lizard to buy him time, then turned around and abandoned it to run. And he tricked our Captain with a fake Treasure Map—he deserved to die!"

Ling Chu silently wiped the blood off her dagger.

What Hemlock didn't know was that she'd never intended to let Brave the World go from the start.

She'd used the Soul Mark on him just to test out her new skill.

Mercy to an enemy is cruelty to oneself. She wasn't some morally upright good person. She could avoid stirring up trouble, but if trouble came looking for her, she couldn't be blamed for showing no mercy.

Ling Chu then searched his ship and immediately spotted a pitch-black machine sitting on the deck.

The upper half of that machine resembled a hooded Grim Reaper statue, its face featureless yet somehow exuding an eerie aura. The lower half was square and boxy, with a dark hole at the bottom center, much like a real-world vending machine.

She tried to lift it—it was heavy, immovable.

Then, beneath the ship's deck planks, she found a treasure chest.

The chest was already open. Ling Chu recognized it at once as the sunken ship chest from the treasure map; the patterns painted on it were identical.

That bastard had actually tricked her with an already-opened treasure map.

She couldn't be bothered to search for any hidden loot he might have stashed. Instead, she simply dismantled his ship. After all, once dismantled, everything on board would be automatically sent to her warehouse.

You dismantled an unowned small sailboat. Obtained: Wood*20, Cloth*5, Seagrass*10, Iron Ore*1, Dim Pearl*1, Hand Crossbow*1, Ballista Bolt*20, Beast Taming Whip*1, Death's Blind Box Gashapon Machine*1

The ship's warehouse contained: Wood*132, Cloth*55, Charcoal*18, Seagrass*20, Glass*4, Iron Ore*1, Unfresh Fish Meat*5, Geoduck*2, Flower Crab*1, Citrus*4, Freshwater 1200ml, Old Fishing Rod*1, Old Grappling Hook*1, Sea Shells*30. These have been automatically sent to your ship's warehouse.

After scanning the list, Ling Chu realized just how broke this guy really was. Hard to believe he was someone on the Justice Points leaderboard.

The only things of value he had were those thirty sea shells and that Death's Blind Box Gashapon Machine, whose purpose she had no clue about. She guessed the vending machine was something he'd pulled from that treasure map chest.

Come to think of it, Brave the World's own four-dimensional stats weren't high, and his strength was mediocre. Those 10 Justice Points were probably thanks to his lion.

Ling Chu turned her attention to the gashapon machine.