Settlement

The violin music echoed back and forth, accompanied by a strong sense of weightlessness as Xia Lun regained consciousness once more.

He opened his eyes and soon found that he had already returned to the narrow space where he had been before entering the dream.

Xia Lun slowly stood up. Not far away, the fruits representing various memories suddenly grew larger, and then flashed continuously before his eyes like slides.

A violent sea, a long and narrow ship, a cramped and dark cabin with a pungent smell of blood.

Torrential rain fell, and a black monster waved its sharp tentacles with an intimidating momentum.

Gunfire blazed brilliantly, and the ruthless and fierce face of the first mate inside the cabin was blown to pieces by a single shot.

The sea breeze was gentle. Tickets were dropped into a box one by one, and then a few drops of blood spattered onto the ticket box.

The gunner, the old man, the priest, the black overseer, the black first mate, the brown-haired pirate, the red-haired pirate—one familiar or unfamiliar figure after another flashed by rapidly.

Finally, this series of montage-like images froze on the face of the captain, Geliide. She smiled with yellow teeth, and in front of her was a gunpowder barrel with the fuse about to run out.

Boom!

The next moment, these images suddenly burst apart, and then turned into a string of deep blue characters shaking like seawater.

Xia Lun blinked and did not rush to read on. He silently mourned his sacrificed friends before continuing to look down.

It was time to summarize the harvest!

[Settlement Summary!]

[Existing Game Rounds: 0]

[Scenario Name: Sea Battle Royale]

[Scenario Objective: Survive for 6 Days]

[Objective Completion: 100%]

[Scenario Base Evaluation: F]

[Special Performance!]

[Special Decryption: You cracked the mystery of the torrential rain!]

[Scenario Completion Evaluation: F → F+]

[Special Character Relationships: You gained the reverence of the pirate group; you gained the fear of the "mentor", the Abyssal Hand.]

[Scenario Completion Evaluation: F+ → D!]

[Special Kills: You killed the first mate; killed the gunner; massacred the deep-sea walking corpse horde; killed the "mentor" Abyssal Hand!]

[Scenario Completion Evaluation: D → A+]

[Special Exploration: You reached Perilous Earth Island; found the hidden treasure of the "mentor"!]

[Scenario Final Completion Evaluation: A+ → S-!]

[Overall Evaluation: Unbelievable!]

[Behavior Pattern Evaluation: All-Round Violence Aesthete!]

[Current scenario "Memory Manifestation Authority" increased! Memory point rewards increased!]

[Remarks: A higher scenario completion evaluation will increase the quantity of your memory point rewards, as well as the "Memory Manifestation Authority".]

[Current "Memory Manifestation Authority": 200% (Maximum reached)]

[Remarks: Memory is about making faded things vibrant again. Based on the "Memory Manifestation Authority", you can manifest things you have seen or have not seen in your scenario into your surroundings or even reality.]

[Items manifested through memory points can be stored in the illusory storage space and retrieved at will according to your will, without the need to carry them around.]

[Reaching 100% Memory Manifestation Authority means you can use memory points to manifest all non-sentient things you have seen in the instance; reaching 200% Memory Manifestation Authority means you can even manifest things you have never seen!]

[Based on the final scenario completion evaluation, you ultimately obtained 800 reward memory points!]

[Current Total Memory Points: 3400 points!]

"A bumper harvest." Seeing such a huge harvest, Xia Lun gradually became excited. "Now I can learn Geliide's 'Nonhuman Toughness' specialty."

However, he pondered for a moment and did not rush to check the "List of Recallable Items", choosing instead to look at the progress in other areas first.

His pupils moved slightly, quickly skimming past the "List of Recallable Items" before finding the part he wanted.

[Specialization Progress!]

[After arduous battles and adventures, you have gained new insights into the use of firearms!]

[Firearms Use (Mastery) 26% → 28%: In terms of using firearms, you are a well-deserved expert. Whether it is routine maintenance, parts assembly, or reloading and aiming, you are quite proficient. Even with rapid fire, you can exert a level close to the performance limit of the firearm.]

"Compared to last time, the specialization only increased by 2%, but the description of the specialty changed from 'precise shooting can exert the ultimate performance of the firearm' to 'rapid fire can also exert the ultimate performance of the firearm'."

Xia Lun analyzed subconsciously.

"However, from the current perspective, the higher the specialization level, the slower it is to improve. In this case, the mastery level is already a very high level.—This can also explain why the pirates' specialization memories only go up to the proficient level at most."

He couldn't help shaking his head, then continued to look down.

[Specialization Progress!]

[After a terrifying life-and-death struggle, you gained an extraordinary exertion experience, and you had an epiphany!]

"An epiphany?" Xia Lun was shocked. "How come I didn't know I had an epiphany?"

He hurriedly looked down.

[Through a special experience, you have gained extremely special understanding and progress regarding the force-exertion mode of cold weapons!]

[Cold Weapons Use - Sword Class (Proficient) (28% → 55%): To you, a sword is ultimately nothing more than a lever, and your body and the earth are also levers. Thus, the sword becomes an extension of your body.]

[Your understanding of swordsmanship has given you a special force-exertion method. Now, you can transmit most of your body's power to the tip of the sword with extremely low loss, thereby making the edge of the sword utterly irresistible!]

He had actually increased his sword class specialization by 27% in one go!

Xia Lun blinked in some shock, and then he thought about it carefully. As he thought, he realized that the so-called "special experience" referred to his activated "Heightened Focus".

In the state of heightened focus, his perceptual ability and thinking speed were greatly enhanced.

During the progress of fighting the monsters, between swinging the sword and shifting his position, he could clearly feel the transmission, flow, and even tiny sluggishness like rusted gears of power between his muscles and joints. Out of his force-exertion instinct, he would naturally adjust his force-exertion posture appropriately after perceiving the sluggishness.

And this adjustment was the so-called "special force-exertion method"!

Thinking of this, Xia Lun's eyes suddenly lit up, and his thoughts instantly became active.

Now, he had made huge progress in swordsmanship specialization just by subconsciously adjusting his force-exertion method. So if he further carefully adjusted his force-exertion method in the "Heightened Focus" state, wouldn't his swordsmanship level take a flying leap?

A strong sense of curiosity and anticipation immediately filled his mind, but after all, now was the time to tally the harvest, not the time for experimental training. Therefore, he suppressed his strong anticipation and continued to look down.

[Specialization Progress!]

[After the sailing career on the lifeboat, you have a new understanding of how to sail.]

[Navigation (Novice) 92% → 99%: In any era, this is a profound and complex science. Fortunately, you are now a novice, but you still have a threshold to cross before reaching a comprehensive and systematic foundational level.]

"It seems that there should be some kind of bottleneck-like threshold between the different levels of specialization." Xia Lun guessed. "Breaking through to the foundational level should require a comprehensive and systematic understanding of related knowledge."

Compared with the rapid advancement of swordsmanship specialization, the improvement of navigation specialization was certainly gratifying, but it could only be considered better than nothing. After all, the application scope of this specialization was still too narrow.

Xia Lun shook his head and continued to look down.

He thought the above was all the progress of his specializations, but the next moment, he found that there was still new specialization progress!

[Specialization Novice!]

[Through personal practice, you have mastered the introductory tips of stealth!]

[Stealth (Novice 15%): You have understood that stealth is about misdirecting attention, and you understand that light and shadow, sound and silence, rhythm and tempo are all aspects that need attention in stealth. However, for now, you only know these theoretically; in specific practice, you have not yet fully utilized these understandings.]

Looking at the description of the specialization, Xia Lun fell into memory. A moment later, he realized that he really hadn't done little stealth in the scenario.

Whether it was stealing the "Prayerbook of the Drowned" from the monster at the beginning, later ambushing the first mate's gang, or finally sneaking in the thick fog, he had indeed mastered some stealth skills unconsciously.

Thinking of this, a smile rose on the corner of Xia Lun's mouth.

Unlike navigation, stealth was obviously a pretty useful specialization. After all, most people in this game seemed to be thin-skinned and fleshy glass cannons. In this case, gaining the initiative through stealth was crucial.

And taking a step back, even if stealth was not used in the game, he might encounter it in real life, considering that the public security of Whitewash City where he currently settled was quite poor.

He took a deep breath, drove these irrelevant thoughts out of his head, and continued to look down.

[Specialty Progress!]

[Mass Murderer (Unlocked) (7/100 → 10/100): Corpses strewn across the field, blood flowing like a river! You are a mass murderer, so in actions such as intimidation and deterrence, you are more likely to make others fearful and submit; moreover, after acquiring this specialty, you can physically damage spirit-type ghosts. At the same time, over time, this specialty can enhance your spiritual strength to an extremely small degree.]

Looking at the number change behind Mass Murderer, Xia Lun fell into deep thought.

"I killed three more people?" He recalled carefully. "The red-haired pirate is one, the rotten-faced Daolunte counts as another, and who is the third? Um... I know, it's the monster! I really didn't expect that monsters actually count as people."

"However, from this perspective, the kills in dream memories and the rising-from-the-dead deep-sea walking corpses shouldn't be within the statistical range of this specialty."

"But then again, killing 100 people is too perverted..." Xia Lun couldn't help complaining. "Uh, but it seems I've already completed 10%."

The corner of his mouth twitched slightly, and then he continued reading down.

[Through new training and experience, your specialty Reflexive Evasion has gained new progress!]

[Now, when facing tentacle-like chopping and slashing, as well as the direct fire of flintlock guns, you will produce conditioned-reflex-like evasion intuition. At the same time, your nerve reflex speed and muscle explosive power will further increase by a small margin on the basis of the original specialty.]

[Remarks: As your experience grows, you will have more conditioned reflex conditions to trigger evasion intuition.]

"This specialty is too useful." Xia Lun nodded with relief. With this, he would be safer, especially since shooting incidents in Whitewash City were quite frequent.

His pupils shifted, and he continued to look down.

[Special Memory Saved!]

[Special Memory: Courtly Tournament (1/1)]

[This special memory will be saved until you start the next scenario round. During this period, you can enter a dream to experience this special memory at any time.]

[Remarks: When you complete the wish of the memory source person in the memory, you are likely to obtain a "Special Memory". A "Special Memory" is a possibility deduced based on the memory itself. By completing a "Special Memory", you can obtain additional specializations, specialties, and even skills.]

"No rush to enter the dream and recall. This kind of dream recall is too harmful to the mind." Xia Lun scratched his head. "I have to rest for a while to recover my tense nerves..."

"But then again, it's time to exchange memory points for 'that'."

With a thought in Xia Lun's mind, a huge golden fruit directly probed forward from the front.

[Specialty Memory]

[Nonhuman Toughness]

[Category: Specialty]

[Profile: Due to some extremely special experiences, your toughness level has reached a nonhuman level. Even if you are severely injured and on the verge of death, you can still act as if you were not injured—until you completely die. At the same time, your pain shock threshold is greatly increased, and over time, your endurance, recovery, and muscle explosive power will increase significantly!]

[Source: Recognition, Reverence (Pirate Captain - Geliide)]

[Available Memories: 15/15]

[Remarks: Theoretically, you need 15 complete dream-entering experiences to fully master this specialty.]

[Memory Point Consumption: 2500!]

Geliide was seriously injured in the end and could still maneuver with the walking corpse horde. What she relied on was this specialty—if Geliide hadn't held back the walking corpse horde at that time, the direction of the battle at that time really couldn't have been said for sure...

Xia Lun thought to himself.

Even without considering the enhancement to physical fitness, just looking at the effect, this specialty is basically equivalent to 'Stalwart' in the DND-style games I played in my past life.

All in all, this is an extremely powerful specialty.

And this specialty is quite compatible with Transcendent Regeneration. Transcendent Regeneration can quickly repair my injuries, while Nonhuman Toughness can keep me in the best state at all times. The superposition of the two definitely has an effect where one plus one is greater than two.

Even if someone assassinates me in reality, I can completely rely on this specialty to forcibly extend my life, and then survive by relying on Transcendent Regeneration...

The next moment, with a thought in Xia Lun's mind, the huge golden fruit instantly bloomed, and the golden peel and flower-like gorgeous pulp slowly spread out.

[Memory points paid, current remaining memory points: 900 points.]

[Specialty memory saved]

[This specialty memory will be saved until you start the next scenario round. During this period, you can enter a dream to experience this specialty memory at any time.]

Xia Lun nodded and then continued to look down.

Next were several lines of golden information. This information was what he hadn't had time to look at before exiting the scenario after finding the treasure.

[Exploration! You found the hidden treasure of the "mentor" Abyssal Hand. Based on your dividend share, you obtained 1000 memory points!]

[Current Total Memory Points: 1900 points]

"Hiss--" Seeing this line of information, Xia Lun gasped.

He got an S- scenario rating and only got 800 memory points; and he roamed freely, through intimidation, bluffing and killing, painstakingly gathering countless resources, and finally eliminating the terrifying monster, which only yielded 1500 memory points.

Now, he just casually dug up a treasure and got 1000 memory points?

"It seems this game still supports exploration, decryption, and negotiation." Xia Lun couldn't help frowning. "Jumping straight into fighting and killing is definitely not the mainstream gameplay of this game."

He continued to look down.

[You dug up a treasure! You obtained part of the memory of the specialty "Treasure Hunter". When you obtain three pieces of related specialty information, you can obtain the complete training memory of the related specialty in the next dream by consuming memory points.]

[Treasure Hunter: You possess a near-intuitive perception of treasures. When facing hidden mechanisms, darkrooms, and treasures, you will produce a special intuition. At the same time, this specialty will slightly increase your perceptual ability and spiritual strength.]

[Remarks: When you have not fully mastered this specialty, you will also proportionally increase the corresponding attributes over time.]

"Always fighting and killing is just a flash in the pan. If you really want to get rich, you still have to rely on digging for treasures..." Xia Lun muttered inwardly. "If every treasure can provide so many memory points, then the 'Treasure Hunter' specialty is definitely T0 tier."

While thinking, he looked at the last few lines of information.

Unlike the other information, the last few lines of information were dazzlingly crimson.

[You have learned the secret of the "Prayerbook of the Drowned" through "Symptom Reading" and obtained the secret art specialty "Transcendent Regeneration"; because you killed the supernatural monster "mentor" Abyssal Hand, your secret art specialty has gained additional growth!]

[Transcendent Regeneration (Enhanced): A wound is a fissure in the epidermis and also a shortcut to the depths; any wise man knows that the epidermis is the depths. But if that were really the case, where is the wound?]

[Specialty Enhancement Effect: You can freely choose whether to undergo self-healing; at the same time, the mental state and nutrition consumed by self-healing have dropped significantly.]

"There is this kind of enhancement after killing a monster?" His eyes lit up involuntarily. "It seems that fighting and killing still has some special benefits."

At this time, after tallying his harvest, Xia Lun looked around.

The surroundings were still that dim and shadowy narrow room, but compared to the first time he entered the dream, the area here had expanded significantly.

On his right hand, there was a half-closed wooden door, behind which his basement in reality could be faintly seen.

Xia Lun did not rush to leave, but said softly, "Check the Memory Manifestation Authority."

Compared to the harvests above, this was the bulk of the harvest after the scenario settlement!

In an instant, countless illusory outlines surged up shadowily. At a glance, it looked like a monstrous giant wave, and Xia Lun was like a small boat instantly swallowed under the giant wave.

"This is too chaotic. If only I could view them by category." He thought to himself.

The next moment, as Xia Lun's thoughts surged, the giant wave composed of the outlines of countless illusory items instantly collapsed. Then these scattered "splashes" completed automatic categorization within a few seconds, and then piled up into one hill after another.

Fairly speaking, the scene before him was quite spectacular, and even Xia Lun felt a trace of shock.

"This is too intelligent." He couldn't help complaining, and then looked at the first hill.

In an instant, countless pieces of information surged out from the hill.

[Large Structures Class]

[Langpeide (Whaling ship in the scenario): A super whaling ship modified from a Borland Kingdom heavy guard frigate. It has three masts, a hull of 75 meters, four stories high, a draft of 6.2 meters, and a displacement of 1400 tons; among them, the weapon deck carries 32 cannons and a large amount of supporting weapons and ammunition. Undoubtedly, this is an extremely powerful marine giant.]

Memory points required: 80000 points!

"This thing can be redeemed too?" Xia Lun was taken aback at once. "Isn't that too outrageous?"