Rubber... Beast?

The thought of that scene made Lin Yuan's teeth ache.

So after all that, what it actually meant for him and Lilia to have no Sanity was that they might spawn a wild boss anytime, anywhere?

Sure enough, nothing came with only advantages.

Just like his fusion with the ship's panel: although he had gained absurd stats, going ashore and entering the sea were both restricted, and he even had to do his own swimming.

And the consequences of having no Sanity were even worse. Suddenly spawning a boss was no joke!

But he had no Sanity, and that was that. He couldn't conjure it out of thin air.

It seemed his only option was to "get strong enough to slap every boss that spawned to death."

Meanwhile, seeing Lilia fall silent again, Bai Ling suddenly thought of something-

This doll girl had clearly come to the island looking for rubber. But according to what Bai Ling had said, there was no non-supernatural rubber on the island, and if the girl couldn't sense supernatural rubber, wouldn't that mean her goal was a bust?

If an anomaly suddenly discovered its goal was a bust, and she was the one who had exposed that fact... would she get killed so it could vent its anger?

At that thought, Bai Ling swallowed and immediately said:

"Miss... um..."

"Lilia. My name is Lilia."

"Oh, right, Miss Lilia. My intuition is pretty strong. If you don't mind, I could help look for traces of Transcendent Power. Maybe that would help you find rubber."

"Huh? Don't you need some time to recover? You were hurt pretty badly earlier."

"I didn't come here to recuperate." Bai Ling smiled wryly. "For someone with high intuition like me, nowhere at sea is safe. I'm used to this sort of thing already. As long as I can take the opportunity to improve myself, that's enough."

"Oh, I see. But would helping us find rubber get in the way of your own business?"

"No, not at all," Bai Ling hurriedly said. "I needed more exposure to Transcendent Power anyway. Building up my Sanity resistance to the supernatural this way is very beneficial for me."

"I see. Then that's really a huge help. Thank you, um..."

"Bai Ling."

"Right. Thanks, kind little Xiao Bai."

Kind little Xiao Bai? Something about that name felt strange to Bai Ling.

But whatever the case, she could finally let out a long sigh of relief.

Now that she had proven her worth, at least she no longer had to worry about being killed at any moment in front of this anomalous girl and her captain.

Meanwhile, Lin Yuan was happy too.

After learning what Sanity did and that Bai Ling had high intuition, he had been thinking about how to talk her into helping him find rubber.

He had no Sanity, but he could find someone who did to serve as his map hack!

However, Bai Ling didn't have his and Lilia's ability to recover, and she was clearly still somewhat weak. Besides, she surely had her own business to attend to in the instance. Asking her felt a bit like demanding repayment for a favor.

Yet before he could work out how to bring it up, she had volunteered.

Sure enough, there were still plenty of good people in the world!

Looking at Bai Ling's sincere expression, Lin Yuan thought of the exceptionally enthusiastic "manager" from earlier and reflected that he really did prefer this atmosphere of players helping one another.

Things were only truly good when they were good for everyone!

With that thought, he felt that leaving all the talking outside to Lilia made him seem rather insincere.

She was helping them so much. He couldn't just lie in his coffin without making any gesture at all.

So he lifted the coffin lid, sat up, and gave Bai Ling a friendly smile:

"Thank you for being so willing to help, Miss Bai Ling."

"If you need anything later, just say the word. We'll do our best to help."

"It's best for everyone to help one another, isn't it?"

Having said that, he lay back down.

There. That seemed much more sincere.

Meanwhile, Bai Ling was almost scared to death.

She hadn't expected the doll girl's captain to suddenly climb out of the coffin.

Although he looked like a living person, suddenly sitting up in a coffin and talking was terrifying no matter how she looked at it!

And after carefully considering the captain's words, Bai Ling read a different meaning into them.

"Thank you for being so willing to help."-At least you know what's good for you, volunteering to help. Things would've gotten ugly if we'd fallen out.

"If you need anything later..." -As a reward for knowing what's good for you, you may make one small request.

"It's best for everyone to help one another..." -From now on, we're all in the same boat. We won't kill you, and you'd better not harbor any ill intentions either. Understood?

After figuring all this out, Bai Ling swallowed and felt that these two anomalies were truly terrifying.

On the surface, they didn't seem malicious, but if you couldn't decipher their deeper meaning, you were dead!

Thank goodness she liked to think things through!

Before long, Lilia was dragging the coffin deeper into the jungle again, with Bai Ling leading the way.

Although Bai Ling looked like a frail, delicate woman, she had survived this long with such high intuition and passed the beginner instance's trial. The enhancements she had received were actually greater than those of most ordinary players.

Lilia's physical abilities were also above those of ordinary people, and the two soon found traces of Transcendent Power.

"There's a fairly strong sense of wrongness here. Some Transcendent Power must have erupted here."

"But that sense of wrongness is fading rapidly. It seems the traces are being deliberately erased."

Bai Ling pointed at a clearing.

Lilia and Lin Yuan examined it over and over, but no matter how they looked, it was just an ordinary patch of ground.

Sure enough, he couldn't sense anything at all.

Lin Yuan sighed and directed Lilia to ask:

"Then what do we do next? Keep looking somewhere else?"

"Ordinary players would have to look elsewhere, but my Inspiration is higher, so this sort of situation is much simpler for me." Bai Ling subtly emphasized how irreplaceable she was. "Make sure to protect me."

With that, she stared at the clearing, examining it closely.

As she watched, her gaze began to drift, and she unconsciously raised a hand to her forehead:

"I see an ape. It's the source of this Transcendent Power. It stayed here for a while, then... hid there, waiting to ambush its prey!"

Bai Ling's eyes suddenly widened as she looked overhead!

A two-meter-tall gorilla was lunging at her from a thick branch more than ten meters above!

"Don't bully Xiao Bai!"

Lilia shouted, swinging her scythe at the gorilla.

The gorilla wasn't moving particularly fast. It had simply jumped from above and was falling freely.

Had it caught them off guard, it could naturally have inflicted tremendous damage. But now that Bai Ling had spotted it in advance, Lilia's scythe reached it before its attack could reach Bai Ling.

The gorilla was in midair, seemingly with nothing to push off from, and was about to be sliced in half by the enormous scythe.

Suddenly, it thrust a hand upward, and its arm stretched out like rubber.

The gorilla grabbed the branch more than ten meters overhead with its elongated arm, then pulled hard, hauling itself up at the last possible moment and dodging Lilia's seemingly certain strike!

"Is that... a rubber ability?!"

Lin Yuan's eyes widened, and he couldn't help thinking of a certain manga he had loved most in his previous life, which featured a similar power.

"Wait, so this island really does have rubber."

"But it's not rubber trees. It's Rubber Beasts!"

"What kind of supernatural rubber is this?!"