Prey Mark

"Not good!"

Though Lin Yuan did not understand exactly how it worked, he knew he absolutely could not let the Invisible Chains drag him over to the dark shape!

But the force coming through the Invisible Chains was far greater than his own, and with nothing to brace against underwater, Lin Yuan could not resist it no matter how hard he struggled.

Moreover, the unseen chains had neither form nor substance. Though Lin Yuan could feel their force, he could not touch the chains themselves no matter how he felt around.

That dashed his plan to snap the chains as well.

Thirty meters, forty meters, fifty meters...

Every ten meters was another layer of the world. In no time, Lin Yuan had been dragged down to a depth he had never reached before.

The Magical Creatures appearing around him grew fewer and fewer, and larger and larger.

But those Magical Creatures of all shapes and sizes moved away from Lin Yuan, as though there were something terrifying about him.

The system's "Diving Too Deep" warnings also grew more frequent, and his durability began dropping sharply faster.

At this rate, either Lin Yuan would be dragged into the Main Sea and become that dark shape's prey, or his durability would run out halfway there and it would be game over.

"Fuck it, here goes! Steel Harpoon!"

At that critical moment, Lin Yuan steeled himself and immediately used his Harpoon Skill.

But his target was none other than himself!

A translucent harpoon appeared and shot straight at Lin Yuan's ankle caught in the Invisible Chains!

The arm-thick harpoon had astonishing destructive power, piercing straight through Lin Yuan's ankle and severing it.

The Invisible Chains dragged the severed foot away, disappearing into the depths in an instant.

At the same time, in the ship diagram in Lin Yuan's mind, the Power Compartment in one foot turned red, indicating damage.

He could not spare any attention for any of that and immediately swam toward the surface with his hands and feet.

"Roar!"

From an unknown depth below, a muffled roar suddenly sounded, carrying anger within it.

Whoosh!

A strange sound came, as though something invisible were shooting up toward Lin Yuan from below!

"Captain! Get inside, quick!"

At that critical moment, Lilia's voice sounded like heavenly music.

Appearing alongside it was a pitch-black coffin filled with an ominous aura.

Without time to think, Lin Yuan scrambled into the coffin through its side.

He had only just lain down inside when another person suddenly appeared beside him, packing the already cramped coffin full.

"Uh, that thing smashed me to pieces. It seems pretty angry."

The extra person was naturally Lilia. After the dark shape killed her outside, she had automatically respawned inside the coffin.

Bang! Bang!

The sounds of heavy blows came from outside the coffin. The dark shape was attacking through unknown means.

Fortunately, whatever material the coffin was made of, none of the force of the attacks outside reached the interior.

Lin Yuan and Lilia clung to each other inside the cramped coffin, neither daring to leave.

Lilia was a stunning beauty in appearance, so the scene did look rather alluring.

But Lin Yuan himself knew that this doll girl's wooden body was harder than his own. There was nothing remotely romantic about it.

The attacks outside continued for quite some time before gradually subsiding.

After an unknown amount of time, splashing sounded on the sea's surface as a black coffin broke through the water.

The coffin lid opened, and Lin Yuan and Lilia climbed out one after the other.

Thanks to the coffin's restoration, Lin Yuan's severed ankle was now as good as new, and his durability had been fully replenished.

"What the hell was that thing? Isn't it way too powerful?"

The moment Lin Yuan emerged, he could not help complaining.

He had only vaguely sensed that the dark shape was unusual, but he had not expected it to be this formidable.

Even with its power transmitted through an unknown number of layers of the world, Lin Yuan had still been completely helpless against it.

"It's not that it's too strong. You're just too weak, Captain!"

After climbing out, Lilia plopped down on the sea's surface and shook her head.

"You need to work harder, noob captain. How are we supposed to get by at sea if you're this weak?"

"You're all talk about me. Don't you want to get stronger yourself?"

"Me? For me to get stronger, I think I need to... uh, I can't remember."

"Come to think of it, don't you have Underwater Phobia? How did you get over here?"

"The seawater here seems a little different. The seawater I remember being afraid of should be in... in..." Lilia knocked on her head, making hollow thudding sounds. She did this whenever her memories grew fuzzy.

Lin Yuan interrupted her knocking. "Forget it if you can't remember. We can talk about it later. That thing didn't follow us, did it?"

He glanced underwater, still feeling some lingering fear.

Who could have imagined that he would run into a Transcendent Creature from the Main Sea waiting below just by casually going for a dive?

"Unlucky captain, there's good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

"The good news first. Let me enjoy surviving that disaster for a moment."

"The good news is, that thing probably wanted to use you as an anchor point to cross the boundary between the Main Sea and the shallow sea in one go."

"But it failed, and attempts like that take a lot of effort. You won't be seeing it again anytime soon."

"How soon is 'anytime soon'?"

"Uh, three or four days."

"Fuck, that's barely any time!" Lin Yuan could not help swearing. "Still, I suppose that counts as good news. What's the bad news?"

"The bad news is..." Lilia stared at Lin Yuan, seemingly confirming something, then said:

"You've been marked, prey captain. Once it recovers its strength, you'll definitely be the first one it comes looking for."

"And anything that can mark prey across the boundary between the Main Sea and the shallow sea is among the most powerful beings in the Main Sea. In other words, the kind that's a hundred times stronger than you, Captain."

At this point, Lin Yuan could not even be bothered to swear.

He merely lamented his bad luck.

Somehow, even this had gotten him branded with a Prey Mark by one of the Main Sea's most powerful Transcendent Creatures.

"Three or four days... time is tight."

Fortunately, Lilia also mentioned that the attack three or four days later would most likely be like today's. The other party could only transmit its power through several layers of the world, unable to break into the shallow sea in its true form.

If Lin Yuan could keep preventing it from succeeding, then the dark shape would need at least half a month to cross the boundary between the Main Sea and the shallow sea itself.

That was the most time Lin Yuan could buy himself.

"Become a hundred times stronger in half a month? Good thing my starting point is low enough. It's not impossible."

Lin Yuan was quite self-deprecating. The little bit of smugness he had felt while freely hunting Magical Creatures twenty meters down vanished completely.

His stats looked impressive, but ultimately, he only had ten times the strength of a human at their limit, a hundred times the health of an ordinary player, and the additional Harpoon and Wooden Armor Skills.

That amounted to a mobile, humanoid fishing and hunting boat.

To ordinary people, that was already incredible power.

But before the power of Deep Sea behemoths, especially Transcendent Creatures, it was still nowhere near enough.

Fortunately, his path to growing stronger was clear: upgrade himself as a ship.

Upgrade his weapons, armor, hull, compartments...

A fishing and hunting boat was insignificant on the ocean, but what about a steel sea fortress equipped with supernatural cannons?

Or even a moving island?