Chapter Summaries

After Bai Ling woke, she told Lilia and Lin Yuan about the gray-robed attackers and explained how players use Sanity to sense transcendent power. Lin Yuan realized that he and Lilia lacked this warning system as they searched the island for rubber.

• Bai Ling woke beside Lilia, learned that Lin Yuan was the captain resting in a coffin, and cautiously thanked them for saving her.
• At Lin Yuan's instruction, Lilia asked Bai Ling to recount the gray-robed people's attack, and Bai Ling truthfully described the encounter, her high Inspiration, and her transcendent pistol.
• Lin Yuan concluded that the Diving Club and the Crawlers were organized enemies who hunted players as sacrifices, though their purpose remained unknown.
• Lin Yuan asked whether Bai Ling had seen rubber trees, and she said the island's ordinary climate and vegetation made them unlikely.
• Bai Ling explained that humans lose Sanity when they encounter stronger transcendent power and can follow that discomfort to detect its traces.
• Lin Yuan realized players were using Sanity as a guide through the jungle, while he and Lilia had been wandering without the ability to sense danger.

Lin Yuan and Lilia recruited Bai Ling to use her intuition to search the island for supernatural rubber. When Bai Ling led them to an ambush, they discovered that the rubber they sought came from a gorilla with a rubber-like ability.

• Bai Ling offered to help Lilia and Lin Yuan find supernatural rubber, and Lin Yuan thanked her before returning to his coffin.
• Lilia dragged the coffin through the jungle while Bai Ling guided them toward a place where supernatural power had erupted.
• Bai Ling sensed an ape nearby and foresaw that it was waiting to ambush them.
• The gorilla leapt at Bai Ling, but Lilia swung her scythe at it.
• The gorilla stretched its arm like rubber to grab a branch and evade Lilia's strike, and Lin Yuan realized the island's rubber came from Rubber Beasts.

Lin Yuan’s group killed a Rubber Gorilla, only to discover that its stretching ability came from a parasitic Rubber Seed rather than its body. He learned that each seed yielded only a fraction of a unit of rubber, leaving him to wonder whether the island held enough creatures to gather the 1,000 seeds he needed.

• Lilia cut down trees to pursue the Rubber Gorilla until Bai Ling warned that damaging the island might attract a terrifying presence, and Lin Yuan ordered her to stop.
• The Gorilla attacked Lilia and knocked off her limbs, but Lin Yuan harpooned it and Lilia finished it off.
• Lin Yuan found that the dead Gorilla’s body had become ordinary flesh, so Bai Ling sensed a discrepancy and directed him to its skull.
• Lin Yuan found a Rubber Seed inside the Gorilla’s head and learned that crushing ten seeds produced one unit of rubber.
• Lin Yuan realized he needed 1,000 Rubber Seeds and wondered whether the island had enough parasitized prey.

After Bai Ling touched a Rubber Seed, she saw a vision of a vast forest of giant trees that controlled rubber beasts across the island. Lin Yuan followed her to the nests, found an Adventurer Group observing them, and sent Bai Ling to make contact.

• Bai Ling touched the Rubber Seed and saw countless giant trees infesting animals and turning them into a Rubber Beast Herd.
• Bai Ling explained that she had sensed the nests’ location, and Lin Yuan asked her to lead him there.
• Lin Yuan, Bai Ling, and Lilia reached a clearing filled with giant trees and rubber beasts, including larger Assembled Beasts.
• Lin Yuan spotted an Adventurer Group watching the nests from a tracked ship and decided Bai Ling should approach them.
• Bai Ling introduced herself as an independent player, and the Adventurer Group’s captain recognized her companions as a sign of a terrifying powerhouse.

Bai Ling negotiated with Spotlight's Adventurer Group to lure away the Rubber Beasts in exchange for a land-travel apparatus. After the group concealed its ship, Lilia provoked the herd, setting the operation in motion.

• Spotlight was startled by Bai Ling and her intelligent doll-like follower, but introduced himself as the Adventurer Group's captain.
• Bai Ling learned that Spotlight's team wanted to reach the Tree King for the adventure, not to hunt it for materials.
• Spotlight agreed to help modify Bai Ling's ship with a land-travel apparatus if she lured the Rubber Beasts away.
• Spotlight's team concealed its ship beneath a special mist and waited for Bai Ling to draw the herd away.
• Lilia walked up to the Rubber Beasts and shouted, "Come hit me!"

Bai Ling helped Spotlight’s Adventurer Group enter the Giant Tree Forest by drawing the Rubber Beasts away, while Lin Yuan emerged from his coffin and joined her and Lilia in hunting them. After Bai Ling sensed a dangerous area where the trees were suppressing something, she asked Lin Yuan whether he wanted to investigate.

• Lilia drew the Rubber Beasts into a chaotic fight, clearing a path for Spotlight and the Adventurer Group to enter the Giant Tree Forest.
• Lin Yuan left his coffin and used his Frost Sea Serpent Ram to kill or freeze the Rubber Beasts before collecting their seeds.
• Lin Yuan, Lilia, and Bai Ling entered the forest and began clearing Rubber Beast nests, encountering increasingly powerful creatures.
• Bai Ling sensed that the giant trees were suppressing a being that wanted outsiders to release it, and decided the danger might bring great rewards.
• Bai Ling told Lin Yuan she had sensed an unusual area and asked whether he wanted to investigate it.
• Spotlight continued deeper into the forest aboard the adventure ship, believing the operation was proceeding smoothly and that Bai Ling was unlikely to encounter trouble.

Lin Yuan and Bai Ling found a dying giant turtle trapped by the Giant Tree Forest, where it entrusted Lin Yuan with the Captain's Quarters Key before disintegrating. The key's theft enraged the forest, and Lin Yuan prepared to clear the pursuing Rubber Beasts before the Tree King arrived.

• Lin Yuan followed Bai Ling's directions through increasingly hostile Rubber Beast nests to a clearing where giant trees had caged an enormous, dying turtle.
• The turtle gave Lin Yuan an antique bronze key, and he recognized it as the key to the captain's quarters aboard the island ship.
• The turtle died and crumbled into black powder, after holding on to keep the key from the rubber trees.
• Rubber Beasts surged from their nests and focused on Lin Yuan after he took the key.
• Bai Ling warned that the Tree King was approaching and had an aura comparable to Lin Yuan's when he emerged from the coffin.
• Lin Yuan decided to destroy the freely moving Rubber Beasts before retreating, so they could not lead the Tree King after them.

Lin Yuan and Lilia defeated two waves of Rubber Beasts while Bai Ling sheltered in Lilia’s coffin, then escaped the slow-moving Tree King. Bai Ling said the giant turtle’s knowledge had helped her and that the coffin restored her Sanity, though she kept its overwhelming presence to herself.

• Lin Yuan had Bai Ling hide in Lilia’s coffin, then used the key to lure the Rubber Beasts and killed them.
• Bai Ling sensed the Adventurer Group’s ship approaching with Rubber Beasts in pursuit and offered to cover its retreat; the group fled, believing she was a powerful ally.
• Lin Yuan repeated his tactic against the pursuing beasts, collected rubber seeds, and hurried away when he heard the Tree King approaching.
• Lin Yuan wondered why the Tree King had not been guarding the giant turtle, then asked Bai Ling about the pain she had felt when the turtle looked at her.
• Bai Ling said the turtle had imparted useful knowledge and that Lilia’s coffin restored her Sanity, but she did not reveal how vast and reassuring its presence felt.

Bai Ling and Lin Yuan learned that the Adventurer Group could modify Lin Yuan for land travel, but Lin Yuan's attempt to test their ship revealed that he could not board other ships without damaging them. Spotlight explained that hull modifications required a skilled craftsman, leaving Lin Yuan unsure how he could be modified without revealing his secret.

• Lin Yuan wondered whether Lilia's indestructible coffin was her real body as Bai Ling described the strange sensation it gave her.
• Bai Ling and Lilia met Spotlight and his teammates, who offered to transfer their land-travel-capable ship for a steep price.
• At Bai Ling's request, Lin Yuan stepped onto the ship, cracked its deck, and lost over a thousand durability points before retreating to his coffin.
• Bai Ling declined to buy the ship, and Spotlight agreed to arrange a land-travel modification after the instance ended.
• Spotlight explained that hull modifications required a craftsman to measure and manually modify the ship, and Lin Yuan worried that such a craftsman might not be able to modify him without exposing his secret.

Lin Yuan and Bai Ling agreed to trade for the ship-conversion diagrams after the dungeon, and Spotlight directed Bai Ling toward the lake ruins. Lin Yuan and Lilia reached the lake, where the Consortium and Black Blood Society were preparing separate expeditions in a tense standoff.

• Lin Yuan asked Spotlight to obtain diagrams for converting his ship to land travel, and Spotlight agreed to arrange the trade once the friends feature opened.
• Spotlight explained that the Adventurer Group had finished exploring most of the dungeon and told Bai Ling about underwater ruins beneath the lake, where the Consortium and Black Blood Society had established camps.
• Bai Ling asked how to send Lin Yuan the diagrams, and Lin Yuan told her to contact the account named “Zero” after the friends system opened.
• Lin Yuan decided against joining an organization because its control over members and their ships could expose his secret.
• Lilia spotted the lake, and Lin Yuan saw the Consortium and Black Blood Society occupying opposite shores as they prepared to investigate the water.

Lin Yuan sold surplus rubber to the Manager and revealed that he had encountered people working for the Crawlers. The Manager reacted with alarm and decided to warn the Black Blood Society.

• Bai Ling borrowed Lilia's coffin so she could recover her sanity and process what the giant turtle had transmitted to her.
• Lin Yuan approached the Manager and negotiated the sale of a hundred units of rubber for twenty thousand Shell Coins.
• The Manager realized Lin Yuan still had enough rubber to build a Production Workshop and learned he had gathered it from the Giant Tree Forest.
• Lin Yuan told the Manager he had encountered people working for the Crawlers.
• The Manager panicked at the news and decided to notify the Black Blood Society.

Lin Yuan learned the Crawlers’ reputation and met Great Axe, whose attempt to test Lin Yuan’s strength ended in embarrassment. When Lin Yuan revealed he had already killed every member of the Diving Club, the manager and Great Axe were stunned.

• The manager explained that the Crawlers were humanity’s common enemy, exceptionally hard to kill, and should either be killed immediately or fled from.
• The manager introduced Great Axe, captain of the Black Blood Society’s team, and Great Axe tried to crush Lin Yuan’s hand in a strength contest.
• Lin Yuan accidentally dragged Great Axe across the ground and then lifted and slammed him into the mud while trying to return his enthusiastic handshake.
• The manager told Great Axe that a Diving Club member served the Crawlers, and they decided to suspend exploration and find the group before it could conduct a ritual.
• Lin Yuan told the manager and Great Axe that he had encountered the Diving Club while it was hunting players and had killed every member of the group himself.

After the Diving Club was dealt with, Lin Yuan and the other teams explored the lake ruins until the Tree King returned. Suspecting the Tree King knew where the captain’s cabin was, Lin Yuan headed into the lake to confront it.

• Lin Yuan explained that the Diving Club had been one person using flesh puppets to revive, convincing the manager and Great Axe not to provoke him.
• Great Axe and the manager resumed exploring the lake ruins, with the Black Blood Society diving in person and the Consortium using scouting tools.
• The Tree King returned to the lake, carried by groups of Rubber Beasts, and reclaimed the center of the ruins.
• Great Axe proposed that their teams join forces to kill the Tree King, while the manager refused to risk his people.
• Lin Yuan realized the Tree King might know the captain’s cabin’s location and walked into the lake, declaring that the water was his home turf too.

Lin Yuan fought his way into the Tree King to find the place indicated by the Captain's Quarters Key. The Tree King recognized him as the thief and transformed its Rubber Beasts into a powerful Rubber Man that blocked his path.

• Great Axe decided to follow Lin Yuan into battle, while the Consortium manager ordered his people to withdraw.
• Lin Yuan swam toward the Tree King and used Frost Sea Serpent Ram to freeze its attacking Rubber Beasts.
• Lin Yuan used Sharp Harpoon to reach the Tree King, then fought through its Rubber Beasts and Rubber Seeds with his Wooden Armor and Light Blade.
• The Captain's Quarters Key glowed inside the Tree King's trunk and pointed Lin Yuan toward a spot deeper within.
• The Tree King recognized the key and transformed its Rubber Beasts into a giant fruit, which became a featureless Rubber Man that stopped Lin Yuan's advance.

Lin Yuan learned to read the Rubber Man’s combat rhythm, but the creature kept him from reaching the Tree King’s Captain’s Quarters. After Lin Yuan helped Dafu kill the dungeon boss and opened the dungeon exit, he heard the hungry Shell Pump awaken.

• Lin Yuan studied the Rubber Man’s movements during their fight and gradually improved enough to counterattack.
• The Rubber Man drove Lin Yuan from the Tree King, whose trunk had rotted, then repeatedly kicked him away whenever he tried to approach it.
• Lin Yuan realized the Rubber Man was guarding the Tree King’s main trunk and that the clue to the Captain’s Quarters was inside.
• Dafu and his team fought a heavily armored strange fish, and Dafu asked Lin Yuan to leave it to him while he continued fighting.
• Lin Yuan pinned the strange fish with the Sea Serpent Ram and killed it with his Light Blade.
• The system announced that the dungeon exit was open for 24 hours, and Lin Yuan heard the Shell Pump think that it was hungry.

Lin Yuan fed the strange fish’s flesh and blood to the Shell Pump, causing it to evolve into a D-rank Transcendent Item with a mirage-mist ability. He used that power to evade the rubber man’s attack and struck it down, though the chapter left the nature of the hard object inside its head unexplained.

• Lin Yuan asked Dafu to leave him alone with the strange fish’s corpse, and Dafu led his teammates away from the lakeside.
• Dafu encountered the Consortium’s team, learned they had seen a doll girl with a coffin, and turned away after hearing that Zero had warned them to be careful around her.
• Lin Yuan stored the strange fish’s corpse and fed its flesh and blood to the Shell Pump, which evolved into a D-rank Transcendent Item that could generate mirage mist.
• Lin Yuan tested the Shell Pump’s power by rushing toward the Tree King across the water as the mist created an illusion of his position.
• The rubber man’s kick passed through Lin Yuan’s illusion, and Lin Yuan cut it in half before a second strike hit something hard in its head and left it motionless.

Lin Yuan defeated the Rubber Man, discovered the Shell Pump’s new Mirage Mist ability, and found a Catalyzed Rubber Core. He destroyed a blood Magic Array in the Tree King’s trunk and entered the captain’s quarters, while an unknown voice aboard a ruined ship noted that a scheme had failed but claimed it had still managed to get in.

• Lin Yuan tested Mirage Mist, learned how the Shell Pump’s feeding affected its evolution, and recovered a Catalyzed Rubber Core from the Rubber Man.
• Lin Yuan followed the Captain’s Quarters Key to a hollow in the Tree King’s trunk and found player corpses, wooden crosses, and a blood-drawn Magic Array.
• Lin Yuan suspected the Diving Club or the Crawlers had used the corpses for a scheme, then destroyed the array and laid down the crosses and bodies.
• A glowing door appeared where the array had been, and Lin Yuan used the key to enter the captain’s quarters.
• A voice aboard a dilapidated giant wooden ship said a scheme involving the rubber tree had failed but claimed it had still managed to get in.

Lin Yuan explored the captain’s cabin and discovered that its former owner, Mister Drake, had been a Sanctum Knight who left behind a trial and a Templar Badge. The badge could help Lin Yuan find a Sanctum Hall, but he suspected his lack of Sanity would prevent him from entering the blank painting’s trial.

• Aboard a ghost ship, two voices discussed the Sir’s room, and the ship turned toward Lin Yuan’s island.
• Lin Yuan entered the captain’s cabin and examined paintings showing Mister Drake’s life and his battles against Crawlers.
• Lin Yuan found Mister Drake’s letter, which explained the Sanctum, the Templar Badge, and the traitor Wayne Drake, now known as the Oathbreaker.
• Lin Yuan decided to obtain the badge before choosing whether to join the Sanctum, but found no visible way to begin the trial in the blank final painting.
• Lin Yuan suspected the painting’s trial targeted Sanity and realized that his lack of Sanity might leave him unable to take it.

Lin Yuan bypassed the Jazz’s trial by using the treasure collection room’s power to uncover hidden rewards, including materials for Explore the Sea, a powerful strike scroll, and the Legacy Badge. When the badge opened a portal to the Sanctum Hall and summoned him to face its trial, Lin Yuan stored it away to stop the portal.

• Lin Yuan removed the illusion canvas and found a hidden compartment behind it.
• He used the mysterious box to retrieve Supreme Black Pearls, Advanced Metal Extract, bones, and a note from the first pedestal.
• Lin Yuan obtained a Grade A Sanctum Strike Scroll from the second pedestal and learned that the Jazz’s lineage would make him an enemy of the Oathbreaker.
• He retrieved the Legacy Badge from the final pedestal, which summoned him to face the Sanctum Hall’s trial and slay the Oathbreaker.
• Lin Yuan sent the badge to his treasure collection room, stopping its unusual activity and the forming portal.

Lin Yuan discovered that the Templar Badge was a relic tied to the Sanctum and chose to investigate the organization before accepting its legacy. After leaving the Captain's Quarters, he learned that time had passed very differently inside and declined Dafu's offer to join the Black Blood Society, while the Consortium manager gave him a VIP card.

• Lin Yuan examined the Templar Badge in his Treasure Collection Room and learned that it could grant a Sanctum legacy and help its holder fight Crawlers.
• Lin Yuan left the unstable Captain's Quarters, returned to the lake, and realized that its entrance had been in the spot where the Tree King stood.
• Dafu and the Consortium manager told Lin Yuan that more than twenty hours had passed and warned him that time was a dangerous concern at sea.
• Dafu invited Lin Yuan to join the Black Blood Society, but Lin Yuan politely declined and agreed to save Dafu a friend slot when the system unlocked.
• The Consortium manager gave Lin Yuan a VIP card that offered better negotiating privileges and discounts.