Deep Blue Torso Bone

In Connor's box, two items had been sorted out from the five pockets.

Besides the pocket watch he had just found, there was also a Storage Soul Tool.

"Gold, Soul Tool Ring"

"Value: 151564"

"Equipment"

"0.016 KG, one slot"

"Special storage equipment. Equipping it grants 9 secure slots. The equipment drops after 3 deaths, but items in the secure slots will not."

There was no special name attached to it, so this Storage Soul Tool didn't seem to have anything special about it. After all, it was the same model Zhang Yang used in real life.

He put the ring into his backpack. The other three pockets were empty. Farther to the right, only a platinum-colored dog tag remained.

Zhang Yang opened the dog tag's details page and read it word for word: "Connor_Level 53_Yellow, Yellow, Purple, Purple, Black"

"Game time: 0 minutes, 0 seconds. Cress eliminated Connor in Haagen-Dazs City—Confidential Mode with his Mountain Fierce Tiger Martial Soul (Fifth Soul Skill—Sky-Ripping Claw). (Equipment value: 3457 Haf Coins.)"

"(Fifth Soul Skill—Sky-Ripping Claw)"

This information confirmed Zhang Yang's suspicion that the wound on Connor's neck had been the fatal one.

"Hm?" Zhang Yang's brows suddenly knitted together.

This dog tag was completely different from the ones he'd seen before.

The information was too detailed. It even listed the value of the equipment.

Zhang Yang was just about to examine the dog tag further when he noticed something odd.

"Strange. Why is this equipment value... one coin higher?"

Frowning, Zhang Yang opened the details page for the [Excellent Warrior Outfit]. Its value of 3456 Haf Coins stood out clearly.

"Something's off." Zhang Yang scrunched up his nose and said with certainty, "It's not just off—it's eleven out of ten levels of off."

That one-coin difference set off alarm bells for Zhang Yang.

If the difference had been several thousand, he could've figured the enemy had taken his headgear after he died—glasses, a mask, a face covering, something like that.

But a difference of one coin made no sense. How could there be a one-coin helmet?

Unless the guy had a "lucky helmet" perched on his head?

"No way. Absolutely no way."

Zhang Yang was certain there was a secret in this box he hadn't uncovered yet.

With that thought, he focused again on Connor's three-dimensional model.

Zhang Yang had already had a feeling that the key to this special box lay in the Soul Master's model.

Now the one-Haf-Coin discrepancy on the dog tag only strengthened that suspicion.

But he'd already spent ages examining the model, and there was nothing unusual on the outside.

At that moment, Zhang Yang was completely stumped.

"If it's not visible from the outside, could it be farther in?"

A sudden idea struck Zhang Yang. He immediately discarded the damaged green Level Two armor Connor was wearing.

The next moment, Connor's three-dimensional model changed as well.

The warrior outfit covering his upper body disappeared, revealing Connor's smooth, muscular torso.

"Hm?"

The strange feeling in Zhang Yang's chest grew stronger.

The fatal wound on Connor's neck ran from the left side of his Adam's apple to directly beneath it.

Normally, the wound should have continued down to his right chest.

But what Zhang Yang saw now was that the wound stopped abruptly at the collarbone.

There wasn't the slightest trace of injury on Connor's chest.

That was clearly a problem.

A fatal wound inflicted by a Soul Master's fifth Soul Skill couldn't have left behind a cut less than twenty centimeters long.

Unless something even harder had blocked the enemy's fifth Soul Skill, preventing it from striking Connor's chest.

However, Zhang Yang quickly dismissed that possibility.

"If Connor had a defensive measure like that, why would it protect only his chest and not his more vulnerable neck?"

Zhang Yang murmured, "So there's only one possibility.

"Connor really does have a powerful defensive measure that can withstand an enemy's fifth Soul Skill.

"But it's incredibly rigid. It can only protect his chest, and can't cover his neck, which is so close yet so vulnerable..."

As Zhang Yang spoke, a possibility—highly unlikely, but perfectly consistent with his deduction—surfaced in his mind.

"Could this Soul King named Connor really have a torso bone...?"

When the thought occurred to him, Zhang Yang's head went "buzz."

It fit. Everything fit now.

First, only Soul Beasts at least ten thousand years old could produce Soul Bones. And Connor happened to be a Soul King with a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring.

Second, the reason Connor had collected the head of a Rock Mountain Lord and kept it in his house was that the Rock Mountain Lord had given him a Soul Bone.

Finally, because Connor had a torso-type Soul Bone, the defense around his torso was so powerful that even the enemy's fifth Soul Skill couldn't injure his upper body.

And then there was that inexplicable one-Haf-Coin discrepancy.

Zhang Yang could hardly believe that on Douluo Continent, where countless Soul Masters treasured Soul Bones and where they were the star attractions at top auction houses, a Soul Bone would be worth just one Haf Coin in the system.

Of course, Zhang Yang was overlooking the countless ten-, hundred-, and thousand-year Soul Rings in his warehouse, each worth just one Haf Coin.

Once he'd worked all that out, a new question arose.

How was he supposed to search for Soul Bones?

In the real world, Zhang Yang could simply damage a Soul Master's corpse and search for Soul Bones inside.

But this was a game. When a Soul Master died, their corpse turned into a box.

He couldn't exactly take the box apart.

Could the answer still lie in the extra three-dimensional model of the Soul Master?

Zhang Yang tried using his mental power on Connor's model again and again, but nothing happened.

"Did I open it the wrong way? Should I close the box and open it again?" he wondered.

It was like a computer running into trouble: shutting it down and restarting it would probably fix things. Zhang Yang figured closing the box and opening it again should do the trick.

That would refresh the Soul Bone.

With that thought, Zhang Yang immediately closed the box, then looked down, ready to open it again.

But when he looked at the box again, a new prompt had appeared beside it, in addition to "Search: Connor."

"Search: Soul Master Soul Bone"

Zhang Yang clapped his hands together. "Just as I thought. A restart was all it needed."

He selected "Search: Soul Master Soul Bone," and a 6×6 search interface appeared.

A magnifying glass, still about the size of his palm, slowly rotated within a huge 4×4 shadow.

Zhang Yang's eyes lit up. He quickly cleared space in his backpack and waited for the 4×4 refresh.

A full three seconds later, a massive, deep-blue torso bone appeared.

The next moment, Zhang Yang put the torso bone into his backpack.

Only then did he click to view its detailed information.

"Red, Torso Bone"

"Value: 1"

"Tactical Equipment"

"1.25 KG, 4×4 slots"

"Equip to obtain more information."

The description was simple—so simple that Zhang Yang learned nothing from it.

It seemed he'd have to wait until he equipped it to see more information, just as the description said.

Zhang Yang closed his backpack and let out a long breath. The M14 reappeared in his hands.

The drop rate really was high in the first match of the new season.

He'd even gotten a Soul Bone.

Unfortunately, Zhang Yang now had to consider extracting.

No matter how high the drop rate was this round, it was no longer his to enjoy.