Treasure Collection Room

The box was neither metal, wood, nor jade; its material was impossible to identify. Its surface was plain and unadorned, with only two characters resembling ancient seal script carved in bold, flowing strokes on the front.

Strangely enough, Lin Yuan had never studied ancient scripts, yet he recognized the two characters on the box at a glance.

They were his name-"Lin Yuan."

"Why is my name carved on this box? And why can I read it?"

Lin Yuan kept feeling that the box seemed familiar, but however much he thought about it, he could recall no clues.

So he decided to open it and take a look.

With a thought from Lin Yuan, an invisible force immediately acted on the mysterious box.

But the box seemed to be locked, sealed so tightly that he could not open it no matter what he tried.

A faint intent emanated from it, as though it did not want Lin Yuan to open it.

After trying for quite a while, Lin Yuan still could not find a way to open it and could only set the matter aside for now.

"This room is a little strange."

After giving up his struggle with the box, Lin Yuan focused his attention on the room itself.

Soon, information surfaced from deep within his mind.

Treasure Collection Room: Powerful transcendent items can be stored here. Within this room, all transcendent power will be cut off.

Note: Living transcendent creatures cannot be stored here.

Transcendent items, transcendent power, transcendent creatures.

Three new terms in a row, all related to transcendence.

Lin Yuan did not yet understand the precise definition of transcendence, but he could more or less guess its general meaning from the words themselves.

The human-faced monster he had encountered earlier was very likely a transcendent creature.

Although he still did not understand exactly how it worked, that Human-Faced Monster Fish had kept Lin Yuan trapped in the underwater world twenty meters down, unable to escape no matter what he did.

At that thought, the image of the enormous dark silhouette from the beginning appeared in his mind again.

That was probably a transcendent creature too, and an especially powerful one.

He now knew that different depths underwater were essentially different worlds.

And when that dark silhouette first appeared, it had probably been several hundred meters below the surface.

Such a great difference in depth meant that many layers of worlds lay between them.

Yet he had still been able to see it, and even its imposing presence had affected him.

That dark silhouette might have been far more powerful than he imagined.

"But why did it disappear in the end?"

"Was it because there were too many worlds between us for it to pass through?"

Lin Yuan felt that things were probably not that simple.

But he had too little information to draw many conclusions, so he could only take things one step at a time.

This seafaring game for everyone was unfathomable.

But he was no pushover either.

Lin Yuan rallied his spirits and bolstered his confidence.

Suddenly, something stirred in his mind, and the grand voice of the system sounded again.

[Three hours have passed since the game began. Congratulations to all players who have survived.]

[The Regional Chat Channel will now be opened to you.]

[More features will gradually become available later.]

The Regional Chat Channel?

Lin Yuan was delighted to hear this.

With so many people in the World Chat Channel, useful messages had been too few and far between, limiting its value.

This Regional Chat Channel should solve that problem and allow players to communicate with one another.

That was very meaningful under the current circumstances.

Without delay, Lin Yuan willed his consciousness to leave the scene within the ship blueprint.

But he failed to notice that the moment his consciousness left, the mysterious box in the Treasure Collection Room suddenly moved.

The lid, which Lin Yuan had been unable to open no matter how hard he tried, quietly opened a crack on its own.

A streak of dull-colored light flashed through the gap and vanished, shooting off to an unknown destination.

The mysterious box then closed tightly again, as though nothing had happened.

Lin Yuan had now opened his Regional Chat Channel.

The channel was named "Paradise Sea 114-Southern Sea 514," and a little over 3,000 people were currently online.

Unlike the World Chat Channel, where messages appeared anonymously, the Regional Chat Channel required users to choose a name before entering so their messages could be distinguished from those of others.

After some thought, Lin Yuan chose "Zero," an online handle he had often used before, and joined the channel.

The channel was already bustling, with messages flying everywhere.

But compared to the World Chat Channel's terrifying waterfall of messages, the Regional Chat Channel's pace was entirely manageable.

Not only could people read the messages clearly, but they could also hold actual conversations and interact.

When Lin Yuan entered the channel, two people happened to be arguing.

Never Skunked: "I'm absolutely not lying! There really are freaky fish with human faces! I caught one!"

I Quit Farming: "Still making excuses? Everyone's caught so many fish, so why are yours the only weird ones? Anyway, if you want to prove it, post a screenshot."

Never Skunked: "I told you, my hands were shaking, and the Fishing Rod fell into the sea along with the fish!"

I Quit Farming: "Then catch another one. The ship supplies unlimited Fishing Rods and bait anyway."

Never Skunked: "It's not that easy! Besides, for some reason, my heart started racing when I saw that fish, and I lost 5 Sanity. I don't want to catch another one."

I Quit Farming: "Hah, anglers just love bragging. I reckon you've gone skunked so often you're hallucinating."

Never Skunked: "Fuck you! I was trying to warn you out of kindness, and you're sitting here slandering me! Where are you? I'm coming to find you! Don't run if you've got the guts!"

Someone in the group stepped in to smooth things over.

Wind-Ear: "Hey, let's not fall out, everyone. We need to help each other at a time like this. Besides, without a map, we don't even know where we are."

Reading the messages in the group, Lin Yuan thought for a moment, then took a screenshot of the human-faced monster's corpse in his storage and sent it to the group.

Zero: "Hey, Skunked, did the Human-Faced Monster Fish you mentioned look like this?"

Never Skunked: "Yes, yes, yes! I told you it was real! You're impressive, buddy, managing to reel that thing in. My legs went weak when I saw it."

Never Skunked: "By the way, my name's Never Skunked. You can call me Never or Brother Never Skunked, but don't call me Skunked. It's bad luck."

Before Lin Yuan could respond, a string of messages flooded the channel.

"Ah! My eyes! My Sanity dropped by 3!"

"Mine dropped by 2 too!"

I Quit Farming: "Bro, bro, I believe you! Don't post pictures like that! I lost 10 Sanity all at once, and now my chest feels awful!"

Never Skunked: "Hahahaha! I didn't lose any Sanity at all! Looks like you gain resistance after seeing it once. Now do you believe me?"

As he spoke, he also volunteered a screenshot of his own stats, with everything else blurred out and only his Sanity visible at 100/100.

Only after seeing everyone's replies did Lin Yuan remember that the player stats panel also included Sanity.

Because his panels had merged, that value appeared as an asterisk for him, seemingly indicating that he did not have that stat.

From the looks of it, this stat dropped when someone saw something beyond ordinary understanding.

And losing Sanity also had negative effects on the players themselves.

Then what use was this stat?

Come to think of it, that Skunked guy had mentioned losing Sanity after catching a Human-Faced Monster Fish for the first time.

But the image he had just posted showed full Sanity, proving that Sanity could be restored, and without much difficulty.

Still, that only showed that Sanity was not quite so punishing; it did not show what use it had.

Was it really a stat with purely negative effects?

Lin Yuan vaguely felt that things were not that simple.

Before he could think any further, someone in the channel reached out to him.

Research Institute 3154: "@Zero, how about selling me that fish corpse?"