[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? Then if I have Resurrection Points, can I revive Avril?
After typing out his thoughts, Victor's heart could not help racing as he watched the Chat Group expectantly.
Hawkins replied: Yes, but I need to examine your memories. If you don't mind me seeing your privacy, then Avril can indeed be resurrected.
Victor: Of course I don't mind. I'll work hard at missions and save up ten thousand Exchange Points!
Qiao Si: Since you still count as a man, I'll leave all the toilet-cleaning missions to you from now on.
Arthur: Right, Victor. From now on, none of us will compete with you for missions.
Victor: ...
He opened the mission page and fell silent after reading it. To this day, there were still only two missions on the page: kill pirates, and clean toilets.
But when he thought of Avril, he decisively accepted the mission. From now on, he would be a sailor by day and clean toilets by night!
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
It was worth mentioning that Mark had been rather quiet these past three days. He did not even like going online in the Chat Group anymore. His mind was filled with nothing but doing missions, yet he could not exactly compete with Victor for them, so all day long, he kept hoping to run into pirates.
Everyone understood his state of mind. After all, he had turned on a livestream when he fought George. It could be said that he had been sent flying in full view of the public. It was far too embarrassing.
It would have been better if other people had merely seen him make a fool of himself. But there was a girl in the Chat Group who was exactly his type. That made things awkward.
So now, he had no other thoughts. He just wanted to grow stronger.
Eternal Space.
On a deserted island stood a building whose style was utterly unlike anything in this world.
The building was pure silver, made up of two semicircles and a massive cylinder that shot straight into the heavens. One semicircle 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 attempting to replicate it. Although there had been no breakthrough progress, it was not as though he had discovered nothing.
Hawkins had found that the monster possessed extremely high resistance to curses. He had reached this conclusion through experiments using a blowdart tube seized from an assassin.
Although the blowdart tube was only a Good Grade Cursed Relic, its curse was not much less dangerous than that of 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, only a minute.
Yet the curse carried tremendous danger. Especially during strenuous activity, suddenly suffocating for a minute could have fatal consequences.
Hawkins deliberately exposed the monster to the curse, only to discover 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 weakened a curse's effects or covered their bodies with Curse Power, thereby avoiding genuine 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 truly be immune to curses, even if the curse was only Good Grade.
After discovering that the monster could resist curses, Hawkins began a deeper investigation. This directly became the focus of his current research. If he could crack the secret behind the monster's immunity to curses, perhaps he could truly become immune to curses himself.
At that 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 resembling the monster were brought out from the cultivation tanks.
Hawkins lightly tapped each body with the blowdart tube, then let Curse Power spread over them as he began recording their changes.
Both bodies had been cultivated from the monster's cells, but they had developed in different directions.
One was relatively thin and weak, while the other was exceptionally strong.
A minute later, Hawkins pressed a button, and both bodies were pulled away for destruction.
"The stronger the body, the greater its resistance to curses?"
Hawkins recorded the result on the light screen. If that were true, then would the same apply to ordinary people?
The two bodies just now had no genetic differences whatsoever. Their only difference lay in their strength. Yet the stronger body was immune to the curse, while the weaker body became infected by it after a brief delay.
Next, he brought out another two bodies. One was not only short, but skinny as a bean sprout. The other was not only huge, but incredibly obese.
He lightly tapped the two bodies with the blowdart, then extended Curse Power toward them.
The two bodies actually had the same amount of muscle. Their internal organs showed no differences, and even their skeletal sizes were identical. Yet the skinny body had almost no subcutaneous fat, while the obese body was practically covered from head to toe in fat.
A moment later, Hawkins raised an eyebrow slightly. The result was in.
The skinny body had been infected by the curse, while the obese body had successfully become immune to it.
So it was not that stronger bodies had greater resistance to curses. Rather, the larger the body, the greater its resistance to curses?
Hawkins found it unbelievable, but sometimes the more unbelievable something was, the closer it might be to the truth. Since the result was already out, a few more experiments would prove whether the conclusion was correct.
However, just as he was preparing for a second experiment, Arthur @-mentioned him in the Chat Group.
He had not actually wanted to add an @ function. The problem was that he spent most of his time in Eternal Space. If the Black Knife came under attack again, Mark and Arthur alone might very well be unable to handle it. After considering it, he had added the @ function after all.
He opened the Chat Group. They had arrived at the Black Market.
Strictly speaking, the Black Market should be called Black Market Island.
Although the island was not large, its area was slightly close to that of Bali on Earth.
All manner of people mixed together on the island, a tangled mess of dragons and snakes. Although it lay between Yazhong Island, Blackwood Island, and Hard Biscuit Island, its circumstances were so complicated that it had instead become a land beyond anyone's control.
Whether Aldrich, Dempsey, or Mallory, all seemed to instinctively overlook the existence of Black Market Island. Their ambiguous attitudes were baffling.
Hawkins thought for a moment, stopped his experiment, put away the remote control, took off his lab coat, changed into clean clothes, and directly left Eternal Space.
The Black Knife had already docked at a port. There were quite a few ships nearby, and they could even see several pirate ships.
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 had left behind for disposing of stolen goods, so he had never come into contact with the deeper undercurrents of Black Market Island.
"Captain, are we going ashore?" Mark asked when he saw Hawkins emerge from the cabin.
Hawkins nodded. "Yes. Don't cause trouble, but don't be afraid of it either."
"Mm, got it." Mark nodded steadily.
Perhaps because of his earlier loss, Mark was finally no longer so impulsive.
After the two went ashore, the tentacles beneath the Black Knife's hull rose from the water. The next moment, they wrapped the Black Knife into a ball and slowly sank beneath the surface.
Quite a few people on shore saw the scene. Some paid it no mind, some looked at Hawkins and Mark in surprise, and others watched them in secret, their intentions unknown.
Hawkins and Mark crossed the docks when a little boy immediately came over and said, "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 never mind. 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 full day's wages for him.
"Sir, my name is Darren. I guarantee my services will be worth the price," the little boy said seriously after putting away the silver coin.
Hawkins smiled. "Then start by introducing the Black Market. You should know it well, right?"
"Yes. Please follow me. This is not a place to talk," Darren nodded.
Hawkins and Mark followed Darren. Before long, they arrived at a small square. After passing through it, the three entered a deserted alley.
"Sirs, the situation at the Black Market is very complicated. Let me introduce some basics. The Black Market holds a secret auction once every month. Many precious treasures are auctioned there. If you need anything, you can buy qualifications from Jibo. Later, I'll take you there so you can familiarize yourselves with the route.
"Also, never kill anyone at the Black Market. This is the Black Market's greatest rule.
"Once you kill someone at the Black Market, you absolutely will not leave the Black Market alive..."
Darren spoke at great length, explaining the various circumstances of the Black Market in a simple yet thorough manner. He went through every place they could not visit and every person they could not provoke.
"May I ask who owns the Black Market?" Mark asked when Darren stopped speaking.
Generally speaking, every 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.
Darren thought for a moment before answering, "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 whoever breaks the rules, they will know immediately and kill the offender!"
He had clearly lowered his voice when he said this.