Black Market Island

[I Love My Family Group]

Victor: Uh... hello, everyone. I'm Victor.

Jennie: Welcome. I'm Jennie, sort of an intelligence officer!

Ai Miye: Welcome. I'm an intern. Read my name yourself.

Arthur: Welcome, Victor. Um... may I ask what it feels like to become a man?

Ai Miye: Arthur, you're disgusting!

Hawkins: Arthur, no dirty talk, or I'll deduct 10 exchange points.

Victor: Lord Hawkins, can people really be resurrected? If I have resurrection points, can I revive Avril?

After sending his thoughts, Victor's heartbeat quickened as he watched the Chat Group expectantly.

Hawkins replied: Yes, but I need to inspect your memories. If you don't mind me seeing your privacy, Avril can indeed be resurrected.

Victor: Of course I don't mind. I'll work hard at tasks and save up ten thousand exchange points!

Qiao Si: Since you're still enough of a man, all the toilet-cleaning tasks will be yours from now on.

Arthur: Right, Victor. No one will compete with you for tasks from now on.

Victor: ...

He opened the task page and fell silent after reading it.

Even now, there were still only two tasks on the task page. One was killing pirates, and the other was cleaning toilets.

But at the thought of Avril, he decisively accepted the task. From now on, he would be a sailor by day and clean toilets by night!

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Worth mentioning was that Mark had been somewhat quiet these past three days. He did not even like going on the Chat Group anymore. His mind was filled with nothing but doing tasks, yet he was embarrassed to compete with Victor for them, so all day long, he kept hoping to run into pirates.

Everyone understood his state of mind fairly well. After all, when he fought George, the livestream had been on. It could be said that he had been sent flying before everyone's eyes. It was far too humiliating.

It would have been better if only other people had seen him make a fool of himself, but there happened to be a girl in the Chat Group who hit him right in the sweet spot. That made things even more awkward.

So now, he had no other thoughts. He simply wanted to become stronger.

Eternal Space.

On a solitary island stood a building whose style was completely out of place with this world.

The building was pure silver, composed of two semicircles and a massive pillar that pierced straight into the sky. One of the semicircles was a nuclear power station, while the other was a biological research institute.

Hawkins was still studying the monster that had come from the Dream Realm and had begun trying to replicate it.

Although there had been no breakthrough progress, it was not as though he had discovered nothing.

Hawkins found that the monster possessed an extremely high resistance to curses. He had reached this conclusion through experiments using a blowdart tube seized from an assassin.

Although this blowdart tube was only a Good Grade Cursed Relic, the curse itself was not much less dangerous than a Dangerous Grade Cursed Relic.

Anyone who had possessed the blowdart tube would suddenly suffocate at a random time. The suffocation did not last long, at most one minute.

Yet the curse carried enormous danger. Especially during intense exercise, suddenly suffering one minute of suffocation could have fatal consequences.

Hawkins deliberately let the monster become contaminated by the curse, only to find that the curse seemed useless against it.

So far, whether Curse Casters or others who used Cursed Relics, no one had been able to become immune to curses. Curse Casters merely reduced the effects of curses or covered their bodies in Curse Power to avoid truly coming into contact with Cursed Relics.

Using one Cursed Relic to restrain another was an even more opportunistic method.

Therefore, no one in the real world could be truly immune to curses, even if the curse was only Good Grade.

After discovering that the monster could resist curses, Hawkins conducted a deeper investigation. It immediately became the focus of his research. As long as he cracked the secret behind the monster's curse immunity, perhaps he too could become truly immune to curses.

At this moment, he wore a white lab coat, holding the blowdart tube in one hand and a remote control in the other.

"Third experiment, begin!"

As his voice fell, two bodies somewhat similar to the monster were retrieved from the culture tanks.

Holding the blowdart tube, Hawkins lightly tapped each body once. Then Curse Power spread over them as he began recording the changes in both bodies.

Both bodies had been cultivated from the monster's cells, but their development directions were different.

One was relatively thin and weak, while the other was exceptionally strong.

One minute later, Hawkins pressed a button, and both bodies were pulled away to be destroyed.

"The stronger the body, the greater its resistance to curses?"

Hawkins recorded this on the light screen. If that was truly the case, would ordinary people be the same?

The two bodies just now had no genetic differences whatsoever; the only difference was their strength. Yet the stronger body had been immune to the curse, while the weaker one became contaminated after a brief delay.

Next, he retrieved another two bodies. One was not only short but as scrawny as a bean sprout, while the other was not only huge but incomparably obese.

He lightly touched both bodies with the blowdart, then extended Curse Power toward them.

The two bodies actually had the same amount of muscle, no differences in their internal organs, and even identical bone sizes. However, the small, thin body had barely any subcutaneous fat, while the obese body was essentially covered head to toe in fat.

A moment later, Hawkins raised his brows slightly. The results were in.

The small, thin body became contaminated by the curse, while the obese body successfully became immune to it.

So it was not that stronger bodies had greater curse resistance, but that larger bodies had greater curse resistance?

Hawkins found it unbelievable, but sometimes the more unbelievable something was, the more likely it was to be close to the truth. Since the result was already there, a few more experiments would prove whether the conclusion was correct.

However, just as he prepared to conduct a second experiment, Arthur @mentioned him in the Chat Group.

Actually, he had not wanted to add the @ function. The problem was that he spent most of his time in Eternal Space now. If the Black Knife came under enemy attack again, Mark and Arthur alone would very likely be unable to handle it. So after considering it, he had added the @ function after all.

He opened the Chat Group and found that they had arrived at the Black Market.

Strictly speaking, the Black Market should have been called Black Market Island.

Although the island was not large, its area was still somewhat close to that of Bali Island on Earth.

All manner of people mingled on the island; dragons and snakes were mixed together. Although it lay between Yazhong Island, Blackwood Island, and Hard Biscuit Island, its situation was too complicated, making it a no-man's-land governed by none of the three.

Whether Aldrich, Dempsey, or Mallory, all seemed to subconsciously ignore the existence of Black Market Island. Their ambiguous attitude was baffling.

After thinking for a moment, Hawkins stopped his experiment. He put away the remote control, took off his white lab coat, changed into clean clothes, and left Eternal Space directly.

The Black Knife had already docked at a port. There were quite a few ships around it, and several pirate ships could even be seen.

In fact, pirates were also frequent visitors to Black Market Island, most of them there to fence stolen goods. However, Hawkins had the channels his father left behind for disposing of stolen goods, so he had never delved into the deeper secrets of Black Market Island.

"Captain, are we going ashore?" Mark asked when he saw Hawkins emerge from the cabin.

Hawkins nodded. "Mm. Don't cause trouble, but don't be afraid of it either."

"Mm, got it." Mark nodded steadily.

Perhaps because of his previous loss, Mark had finally stopped being so impulsive.

After the two went ashore, the tentacles beneath the Black Knife's hull rose from the water. In the next moment, they wrapped the Black Knife into a ball and slowly sank beneath the surface.

Quite a few people onshore saw this scene. Some did not care at all, some looked at Hawkins and Mark in surprise, while others watched them in secret, their intentions unknown.

Hawkins and Mark passed through the docks when a little boy immediately approached them. "Sirs, is this your first time at the Black Market? Do you need a guide?"

"How much?" Hawkins asked with a smile.

The little boy said in delight, "One silver coin is enough."

"A little expensive, but fine. Here you go." Hawkins frowned slightly, but in the end, he still took out a silver coin and gave it to him.

Mark also thought it was expensive. That was a whole day's wages for him.

"Sir, my name is Darren. I guarantee my service will be worth the price," the little boy said seriously after putting away the silver coin.

Hawkins smiled. "Then introduce the Black Market first. You should know it well, right?"

"Yes. Please follow me. This isn't a place to talk." Darren nodded.

Hawkins and Mark followed Darren. Before long, they arrived at a small plaza. After crossing it, the three entered an empty alley.

"Sirs, the situation at the Black Market is very complicated. I'll introduce some basic information. The Black Market holds a secret auction once every month, and many precious treasures are auctioned then. If you need anything, you can buy eligibility from Jibo. Later, I'll take you there so you know the way.

"Also, never kill anyone in the Black Market. That is the Black Market's greatest rule.

"Once someone kills in the Black Market, they will absolutely never leave the Black Market alive..."

Darren spoke at length, explaining the various details of the Black Market in simple, accessible terms. He explained every place they could not go and every person they could not provoke.

"May I ask who owns the Black Market?" Mark asked when Darren paused.

Under normal circumstances, an island would have an absolute ruler, unless it was an ultra-small island like Pliskin Island.

Darren shook his head. "The Black Market has no ruler, but three Lineages jointly maintain its order."

"Which three Lineages?" Mark pressed.

After thinking for a moment, Darren finally answered, "The Three Great Families are the Black Hand Family, the Crimson Blood Family, and the Demon Blade Family. They all possess unimaginable power. It is said that no matter who breaks the rules, they will know immediately and kill the offender!"

When he said this, he noticeably lowered his voice.