The Lin Yuan's Blueprint

[You have remained underwater too long. Hull durability is now decreasing!]

[Current durability: 9999/10000]

[9998/10000]

Durability was not decreasing very quickly, dropping by about one point every three seconds.

But this strange situation still made Lin Yuan feel somewhat anxious.

Calm down! There's still enough time. I can't panic!

Thoughts raced through Lin Yuan's mind as he considered his current predicament.

When I swam up and down across the ten-meter boundary earlier, this didn't happen.

Is the twenty-meter boundary different? Or is there another factor?

That strange fish!

Lin Yuan suddenly recalled that when he first descended into the world below twenty meters, there had been no system notification.

His discomfort, the system notification, and his sudden inability to swim toward the surface had all begun after he saw that strange Human-Faced Monster Fish!

He whipped his head around to look at the fish.

At some point, it had approached to within about a meter of him. The smile on its face had grown even more exaggerated, exposing twenty-four neatly arranged teeth.

Seeing Lin Yuan look over, the Human-Faced Monster Fish quietly retreated a little, but did not leave. It simply drifted a little over two meters away from him.

Lin Yuan kicked hard, swimming toward the strange fish and throwing a punch at the same time!

Unfortunately, his speed was naturally hampered underwater, and his surprise attack failed. With a flick of its tail, the strange fish dodged his strike.

But Lin Yuan's strength had clearly exceeded the fish's expectations too. It had not dodged far enough, and the current driven by his fist struck its body.

The strange fish did not seem particularly sturdy. The impact of the water alone brought a pained expression to its face, and it flicked its tail again, putting more distance between them.

Lin Yuan did not pursue it. He continued swimming upward and immediately felt the distance between him and the surface begin to shrink.

So that strange fish really was behind it!

What exactly is that thing? And how did it stop me from surfacing?

Was it a mental attack that scrambled my perception? But it didn't stop me when I swam horizontally toward it just now.

Or was it some other method that prevented me from leaving this "world below twenty meters"?

Lin Yuan pondered this, his arms and legs never stopping.

But he soon discovered that the distance between him and the surface had stopped changing again.

He looked back, and sure enough, the strange fish had approached again.

This time, the creature seemed to have learned its lesson and stubbornly stayed about five meters away from him.

When Lin Yuan approached, it retreated. When he moved away, it followed.

Underwater, its speed and agility far surpassed Lin Yuan's. He tried several times but could not shake it off.

Seemingly realizing that Lin Yuan could do little to it, the strange fish's smile grew increasingly brazen, and a vicious, venomous look appeared in its eyes.

"...D, di... die..."

The strange fish let out a shrill sound from its human mouth, like a curse.

"Hmph. You're the one who's going to die!"

Lin Yuan sneered. Rather than panic, he raised his right hand and aimed it at the strange fish.

A humanlike look of confusion appeared on the fish's face, followed by panic, but it was too late.

"Activate skill-Steel Harpoon!"

A sharp harpoon about two meters long and as thick as an arm appeared beside Lin Yuan, then shot toward the Human-Faced Monster Fish!

The harpoon was translucent, its edges somewhat indistinct, like an illusory projection.

Yet when the illusory harpoon struck the Human-Faced Monster Fish, it tore a very real hole in its body.

The harpoon drove forward with tremendous force, piercing the Human-Faced Monster Fish from head to tail and leaving it looking like an oversized skewer.

The strange fish immediately let out a shrill cry and began thrashing wildly.

"Retract!"

Lin Yuan beckoned, and the illusory rope attached to the harpoon's rear drew taut, pulling both the harpoon and the Human-Faced Monster Fish toward him.

Then Lin Yuan reached out and flattened the Human-Faced Monster Fish's hateful, grotesque face with a single punch. It stopped moving, finally dead.

After dealing with the Human-Faced Monster Fish, Lin Yuan suddenly felt a weight lift from his mind, as though an invisible shackle had been removed.

The Human-Faced Monster Fish's death seemed to stir the other figures, and they began approaching.

Lin Yuan hurriedly dragged the Human-Faced Monster Fish's corpse upward at speed.

The world below twenty meters is rather strange. I'd better go back first and consider things carefully.

Fortunately, the other figures were still far away. This time, Lin Yuan ascended smoothly, passing the twenty-meter and ten-meter boundaries in succession.

Just as he was about to continue up to the surface, he suddenly saw a strange shell swim past.

The shell was thick and square, looking like a chest. It opened and closed its shell to propel itself forward in little bounds.

It stood out sharply among the schools of fish.

A swimming chest-shaped shell?

Interested, Lin Yuan quickly swam toward it and grabbed it before it could escape.

The captured chest-shaped shell opened and closed uselessly, unable to do anything to Lin Yuan.

Sure enough, all the creatures in this layer are Noobs.

"Whew!"

Lin Yuan surfaced with the shell in one hand and the Human-Faced Monster Fish in the other. He took a deep breath, then suddenly froze.

Did I forget to breathe underwater just now?

Normally, he could hold his breath for two or three minutes, more than enough to dive twenty-odd meters and come back up.

But because of the Human-Faced Monster Fish, his time underwater had been forcibly extended by several minutes.

Yet he had been so busy fighting the Human-Faced Monster Fish that he had completely forgotten about breathing.

It... didn't seem to affect me?

Is this another benefit of merging with the panel?

After all, as a ship, it's only natural that I wouldn't need to breathe.

It seemed that, just as the system had said, he still needed to discover all the changes brought about by the merger little by little.

And not all the changes it brought were beneficial.

For instance, a normal person could dive thirty meters without a problem after training.

Skilled divers could even descend a hundred meters underwater.

Yet despite his physical abilities far exceeding an ordinary person's, he had started losing durability at just over twenty meters. This was presumably a characteristic of being a "ship."

The system had also indicated earlier that descending deeper would require corresponding hull modifications.

At this thought, Lin Yuan's mind stirred, and a vivid scene immediately appeared in his head.

In it, he lay flat within a space, but his body was made of wood.

His body gradually became transparent, revealing not internal organs, but individual ship compartments.

A line of large text appeared in the air above the scene-"Lin Yuan (Level One Ship) Blueprint."

The blueprint was the interface through which players modified and upgraded their ships.

For Lin Yuan, however, this was where he strengthened and upgraded himself.

Earlier, after recalling that he possessed the special ability "Steel Harpoon," he had wanted to use it, and this image had naturally appeared in his mind.

In this image, the Lin Yuan was a ship with a humanoid outline.

His hands and arms were the "weapon rooms." At present, however, the left weapon room was empty, while the right housed a harpoon that had already been fired.

The harpoon was slowly being reeled back in. Only after it had fully retracted and been recocked could Lin Yuan use the "Steel Harpoon" skill again.

He estimated that it could be used about once every five minutes.

Meanwhile, in the blueprint, an empty storage room occupied the position of Lin Yuan's belly.

With a thought, the things held in his hands vanished.

In the scene in his mind, a Human-Faced Monster Fish and a shell treasure chest appeared inside the "belly storage room," taking up roughly a tenth of its total space.

This storage room was like a personal storage space, allowing him to store and retrieve items at will, though it could not hold living things.

Unlike a personal storage space, however, time did not stand still inside it. If gunpowder and a source of fire were stored together, the Lin Yuan would go "bang" and put on a fireworks display for him.

Still, it was already very convenient. At least it spared him the trouble of not knowing where to put things.

Lin Yuan then turned his attention to the other parts of the blueprint.

His legs were the engine rooms, though both were currently empty.

His chest housed the crew quarters. There was currently only one room, marked as unoccupied.

The remaining areas were marked "Awaiting construction and upgrades."

These areas were all unremarkable.

Only the location of his brain contained a strange room.

Unlike the other wooden rooms, this room's floor and walls were made of some unknown material. They looked as deep as a black hole, with scattered points of silver light glittering among them.

The entire room looked as though it stood in the middle of a river of stars, appearing utterly mysterious.

Scattered sparsely throughout this starry room were several ornate square platforms made of crystal.

Most of the platforms were empty. Only the largest and most ornate crystal platform in the center held a plain-looking little box.