Skull Island

Lin Yuan looked in the direction Lilia pointed and saw an island looming less than a kilometer away beneath the light of three moons.

The island was several kilometers across, with flat beaches along its edges and increasingly dense woods farther inland.

And deep in the woods at the center of the island towered a hundred-meter-tall skull!

No, it was not an actual skull.

After looking closely, Lin Yuan realized it was an enormous skull-shaped rock. It reflected a white, marble-like sheen in the moonlight, looking at first glance like a giant's skull.

Upon seeing the island, Lin Yuan naturally understood that this was the "beginner solo dungeon" the system had mentioned-the "surprise."

He glanced at the regional chat channel again, only to see a notice that it could not be used inside a dungeon.

It seemed the waters surrounding the island also counted as part of the dungeon.

"Come on, let's take a look!"

Without hesitation, Lin Yuan sat at the tail end of the coffin, lowered his right foot into the water, and activated the shell pump, propelling the coffin toward the island like a little boat.

One major benefit of taking Lilia on as a crew member was that he finally no longer had to swim himself.

"I wonder what rewards this dungeon has. It'd be great if there were a boat. That would make things a lot easier for me."

Lin Yuan let his imagination run wild as he served as a human propeller.

Although merging with the ship panel had given him extraordinary stats and combat power, being at sea without a boat was still inconvenient.

Sleeping on a coffin lid every day, for instance, was seriously uncomfortable!

Just as he was thinking this, Lin Yuan actually spotted a small boat.

It was a dinghy less than four meters long that had been stranded on the beach for who knew how long. A skeleton lay inside its dilapidated hull, seemingly a pirate judging by its clothes.

"There really is a boat! Maybe I can use it!"

Lin Yuan perked up, propelled the coffin toward the dinghy, then jumped aboard.

With a clatter, the dinghy fell apart the moment Lin Yuan's feet landed on it, collapsing into a pile of rotten wood.

It seemed the dinghy had weathered untold years and was already completely ruined.

Lin Yuan frowned and reached down to pick up a broken piece of wood.

He wanted to see whether he could repair it using the system.

Unfortunately, the system gave no response whatsoever.

"Looks like I can't."

As Lin Yuan was feeling regretful, he suddenly heard a quiet "Huh?" from Lilia behind him, followed by the sound of a sharp weapon slicing through the air.

He turned to see that the skeleton had gotten up at some point and was swinging a rust-covered pirate cutlass at him!

Eerie green flames burned in the pirate skeleton's eyes, giving an impression of spite and delight.

It seemed that ambushing and killing a living person would be a tremendous consolation to this skeleton.

The next instant, the cutlass struck Lin Yuan's neck with a dull thud.

Lin Yuan was completely unharmed.

The skeleton's strength was little different from an ordinary person's, and it relied mainly on surprise attacks. If Lin Yuan had been an ordinary player, he might really have suffered a serious setback.

Unfortunately, Lin Yuan was no ordinary person. He was a ship-a ship with twenty centimeters of wooden armor, at that.

What happened if you slashed a ship with a blade?

Answer: nothing.

The green flames in the skeleton's eyes abruptly contracted, as though it had been frightened.

He wondered whether this skeleton had a sanity stat. If so, perhaps Lin Yuan had just scared a few points out of it.

Lin Yuan watched with interest, then asked:

"Hey, can you talk? What's on this island?"

The skeleton posed no threat to him, so he was in no hurry to destroy it.

Ideally, he could get some information about the dungeon from it.

Unfortunately, the pirate skeleton completely ignored Lin Yuan's attempt at conversation and swung its blade again, producing another thud.

Thud, thud, thud.

The pirate skeleton said nothing and simply kept swinging.

"Stop slashing. You can't hurt me. Why don't we have a friendly chat instead?"

As he spoke, Lin Yuan reached out, gripped the skeleton's sword arm, and twisted, then tore the arm off with a crack.

The skeleton froze, then swung its other, empty arm at Lin Yuan.

Crack. Lin Yuan removed that arm too.

The skeleton switched to its legs.

Crack, crack.

A few seconds later, the limbless skeleton lay on the ground, trying to bite Lin Yuan with its teeth.

Lilia came over as well and gave Lin Yuan a strange look.

"Naive captain, you're not seriously trying to communicate with something that has no sanity, are you?"

"No sanity? But it seemed surprised just now?"

"It was gathering its strength. That manifests as the Soulfire in its eyes contracting and condensing."

"So it actually got stronger? I honestly couldn't tell." Understanding dawned on Lin Yuan, and only then did he recall that the later thuds had seemed a little louder.

"Looks like it really has no sanity. Forget it, then." Lin Yuan shrugged, then crushed the skeleton's head beneath his foot.

"Come on, let's look farther inland."

It seemed this really was a dungeon prepared for beginners and posed little threat to Lin Yuan.

As Lilia followed Lin Yuan, a thoughtful look appeared on her face.

"Speaking of sanity, I remember... this thing is one of the Sunken Folk. It failed to withstand the scouring of seawater and lost its sense of self. They can never regain their sanity."

"Sunken Folk?"

"Creatures not born of the ocean that spend a long time submerged in it, such as humans who fall into the water after losing their ships."

"So that skeleton was transformed from a human who fell into the sea?"

"Probably."

Lin Yuan frowned. This skeleton had clearly existed for a very long time.

If the system had not created it out of thin air, that meant humans had existed in these waters long ago.

Were they natives, or... former players?

Based on the information provided by Research Institute 3154, Lin Yuan was certain his group was not the first batch of players.

Players had participated in this game before and disclosed some information, allowing certain people to prepare in advance.

He just did not know how many previous players there had been.

Probably not more than their batch. After all, Lin Yuan's batch supposedly included everyone.

As he thought, Lin Yuan walked to the middle of the beach.

Suddenly, rustling sounded all around them. Mounds of sand rose around Lin Yuan and Lilia, and Skeleton Pirates carrying cutlasses crawled out from beneath them.

More than a dozen Skeleton Pirates had actually been buried beneath this beach.

They loosely formed a ring, surrounding Lin Yuan and Lilia.

Lin Yuan's expression abruptly darkened.

It was not because of these Skeleton Pirates. Things that could not even break through his defenses were no different from ants.

Lin Yuan's expression changed because he had suddenly heard a system notification.

[Warning! "Lin Yuan" has run aground! Hull durability will be deducted based on time spent on land!]

[Beginner tip: ships are not incapable of going ashore, but the hull must first be modified for land travel.]

[Current durability: 9999/10000]

[9998/10000]

Seeing this bullshit notification, Lin Yuan wanted nothing more than to give the system a huge middle finger.

He could accept the diving restriction. After all, logically speaking, people really could not stay underwater too long.

But now he couldn't even fucking walk?

What a lousy game. Nothing but bugs!

Where was the admin? Fix this!