Since Lilia had confirmed that the dark shape would not appear for three or four days, Lin Yuan stopped holding back and immediately dived into the sea again.
Before long, he returned to the surface with his fifth Magical Creature.
Opening the private chat interface, Lin Yuan sent Research Institute 3154 a message:
"I have the five Magical Creature corpses ready. Let's trade now."
With the pressure from that dark shape, Lin Yuan could no longer worry about revealing a few unusual things about himself.
"Now? How long has it even been?!" Research Institute 3154 was startled, suspicion evident in every word:
"You really got five Magical Creature corpses? Don't try to pad the count with ordinary fish that just look strange."
Without saying anything more, Lin Yuan sent the pictures over.
For ordinary players, identifying a Magical Creature was very easy.
If looking at its picture reduced their sanity, it definitely was one.
Before long, Research Institute 3154 sent a string of replies:
"They really are five Magical Creatures! How did you do it?"
"Did you get a cursed fishing rod and cursed bait from a Shell Treasure Chest?"
"Or does your ship have special equipment?"
"You really don't belong to any organization?"
The private messages came thick and fast, showing just how excited he was.
After thinking it over, Lin Yuan replied directly:
"Actually, I dived down and caught them myself."
The other party replied with a speechless emoji:
"If you don't want to say, fine. Why brush me off with such a flimsy excuse?"
"You don't believe me?"
"Obviously. Only an idiot would believe that! Do you have any idea how dangerous diving in person is?"
"Is it that dangerous? Why haven't I noticed?"
Lin Yuan thought it over. He felt that if a creature from the Main Sea had not set its sights on him, he could have run rampant throughout the underwater world above a depth of thirty meters.
The other party fell silent for a while, then sent a long passage:
"Regardless of how you obtained five Magical Creatures in such a short time, you've demonstrated astonishing potential. We're willing to establish a good relationship with you, so consider the following information a free gift."
"The underwater world here consists of overlapping worlds. You can think of them as layers in an image."
"The farther down a layer is, the stranger and more dangerous it becomes."
"When you use an ordinary fishing rod, it will only enter the topmost layer, no matter how long your fishing line is."
"When you use a special item, such as a cursed fishing rod, it will enter the corresponding layer based on the curse's level."
"But 'players' are special. Our bodies naturally possess the ability to pass through layers."
"Every layer is enormous, a complete underwater world, but to players, each is only a thin layer. Once you dive, you may enter a dangerous deeper layer."
"More importantly, some powerful creatures in the deeper layers will exploit this characteristic of players to make a leap between layers themselves."
"Now do you understand how dangerous diving in person is?"
"My advice is to stay aboard your ship whenever possible, no matter what, and never touch the seawater."
That would require having a ship in the first place.
Lin Yuan smiled bitterly to himself. Now he finally knew how that huge creature in the Main Sea had set its sights on him.
After all, he had been immersed in the water from the moment he entered the game.
"I see. That was enlightening. Thank you."
Lin Yuan replied politely. Although it was a little late to learn all this now, knowing was still better than remaining in the dark.
"No problem. Let's trade now."
As he spoke, the other party sent a trade request.
Lin Yuan placed the five Magical Creature corpses into the trade interface, checked the blueprint the other party had put up, and clicked confirm. The trade then completed automatically.
After the trade, the other party sent another message:
"There are a few things I still need to tell you about the blueprint for the cannon 'Explore the Sea.'"
"It's a special piece of equipment with an enormous gap between its lower and upper limits. In particular, if you use a powerful creature from the Main Sea as its primary material, it can reach the level of powerful transcendent equipment."
"But my personal advice is not to aim too high. Using a Magical Creature as the primary material is enough."
"Oh? Why is that?" Lin Yuan was somewhat puzzled.
The other party held nothing back and told him frankly:
"If it were really that easy to turn it into a transcendent cannon, would it sell for this price?"
"The central bottleneck in crafting any transcendent equipment is the complexity of its construction. 'Explore the Sea' is among the most difficult pieces of equipment of its tier to craft. Very few transcendent craftsmen can make it."
"In the Paradise Sea, crafting difficulty isn't an issue. Once you have all the materials, the system will help craft it automatically. But then the materials become the problem."
"'Explore the Sea' has extremely high material requirements. Even a slight shortfall in any part will cause the final quality to plummet."
"In the Paradise Sea, even if you go through immense trouble to obtain one transcendent material, it's still pointless if the other materials are too low in quality."
"And if you keep putting it off to gather materials, once you leave the Paradise Sea... heh, transcendent craftsmen aren't so easy to deal with."
"I see. Thank you for telling me." Lin Yuan was in no hurry. He could decide how to craft 'Explore the Sea' later, depending on the circumstances. Right now, he was concerned about something else:
"Can we leave the Paradise Sea? What's outside Paradise?"
"Rather than saying you can leave, it's more accurate to say you have to. Paradise is a benefit the system gives beginners. It won't last forever."
"As for the world outside Paradise, you'll naturally find out when the time comes. Besides, it's so vast out there that even our knowledge is very limited."
"When will that time come?"
"Heh, since we're participating in a seafaring game for everyone, surely the game ought to have a main storyline? It hasn't started yet simply because the system has given us a beginner adjustment period."
"My advice is to become as strong as possible during the beginner period. In the future... there won't be another place as good as 'Paradise.'"
Hearing this, Lin Yuan took the opportunity to send a message:
"In that case, do you have any good equipment or blueprints? Ship propulsion equipment, ship upgrade blueprints, things like that? I can trade more Magical Creatures!"
Compared with the others on the World Exchange and the Regional Chat Channel, this "Research Institute 3154," backed by a large organization, was clearly a rich mine. If he could mine it, he naturally had to get as much out of it as possible.
Unfortunately, the other party's reply dashed Lin Yuan's hopes:
"We don't need any for now. Our supplies are limited at the moment as well, and five Magical Creatures are enough to meet our short-term needs."
"Of course, if you're willing to reveal exactly how you obtain Magical Creatures, we could squeeze a little more out of our existing supplies for another trade."
"Didn't I tell you? I dive down and catch them directly. It's super efficient!"
"Heh, goodbye. I hope we'll have another opportunity to work together!"
"Research Institute 3154" sent his final message, then closed the private chat channel.
He opened the notebook beside him and used a Feather Pen to record the trade and conversation that had just taken place.
After finishing, he thought for a moment, then raised the pen and added:
"'Zero' claims to have no organizational affiliation. Recommend investigating when conditions permit. If true, he may be added to the list of priority subjects."
"Also requesting a search for all methods capable of obtaining five Magical Creature corpses within two hours on the second day of the game-Researcher 3154."
This nonsense about "exploring the sea in person" might fool clueless newbies, but a player like him, who had known about the game beforehand, could not possibly believe it.
Once he finished recording everything, he set down the Feather Pen and waited quietly for a while.
Suddenly, the Feather Pen began writing on its own, with no one controlling it:
"Read."
"The recommendation and search request cannot be acted upon at present. Please focus all your efforts on the coming night."
After reading the reply, "Research Institute 3154" first clicked his tongue in displeasure, then his expression grew serious.
"Tonight..."
He knew this referred to the "surprise" mentioned in the system notification.
"Indeed, this is one of the events with the best returns for the effort during the beginner period. I need to prepare early..."
"For the coming... beginner dungeon!"
Before you continue