Chapter 59 Safe House
The sunken ship wrapped with iron chains was propped up by countless resentful objects and piled high. The iron chains were locked tightly, as if someone had deliberately sealed the safe house here.
Time was running out, and Xu Zhiyan endured the severe pain in his back and climbed onto the sunken ship, but he didn't have time to destroy all the chains.
He tried his best and finally opened a narrow gap.
Looking at the soft and translucent tentacles that suddenly stretched out from inside, his heart finally settled down, and he almost fell when his hands loosened.
The next moment, the chain covered with moss and seaweed turned into ashes.
The taboo of the safe house for night fishermen in the dungeon has been lifted.
Xu Zhiyan, who was barely standing on the pile of materials, was successfully pulled into the door by Party A.
Although this time it was a bit tragic, but after all, his consciousness is still normal.
Xu Zhiyan was held in the arms of the ghost, and his nostrils were filled with the smell of the other party.
"You're back."
The ghost's deep voice came from above, with an emotion he couldn't understand.
"Don't be so nervous, you won't die."
Xu Zhiyan felt that Party A was too enthusiastic today.
But when he thought about the fact that he had earned more than 10 million yuan, he felt that this enthusiastic expression was very normal.
Who doesn’t like a partner who can make money like him!
If someone can earn him millions of points with just one move, then when the other party leaves a copy, he will excitedly rush up and kiss the other party twice, let alone a hug!
Patting the ghost's arm, he struggled to leave the warm embrace.
Xu Zhiyan returned to his familiar territory, looking like a master. He stuffed the unconscious little black snake into Party A's hand and asked, "Is it this guy?"
The ghost nodded without saying anything. He was a little stiff when he touched the body of the little black snake, as if he recalled something embarrassing and shameful.
The originally warm atmosphere disappeared in an instant.
Xu Zhiyan didn't notice that the ghost holding the body of the little black snake was standing there awkwardly.
Although what happened before made him want to laugh, there were other more urgent things to do.
At this time, the safe house system interrupted.
[Host! Start the treatment first! The wound on your back is getting worse!] It was worried that the host might faint from the moment he entered the room.
Unexpectedly, Xu Zhiyan's eyes suddenly widened, as if he had heard a joke.
"Treatment? Doesn't treatment require energy?"
Ever since he knew that activating the temporary enhancement mode like last time would consume the initial points of the safe house and the power of ghosts and gods, he gave the system a death order.
Don't open it unless he is about to die.
"Only a few minutes left. I'll just hold on and recover in my shell." He answered with gritted teeth. His back was aching and numb, and he felt a little dizzy, as if he was having a fever.
[……]
The safe house system was speechless for a moment.
It thought that its host was stingy and was not only cruel to others, but also to itself.
Xu Zhiyan doesn't care what the safe house system is thinking.
The main system forcibly reduced the copy settlement time. Coupled with his poor physical strength and slow walking speed, there were less than six minutes left before he was forced to leave the copy.
Without wasting any more time, Xu Zhiyan ignored the ghost who was hesitant to speak, looked around, glanced at the monsters around him, and clapped his hands.
After gathering all eyes, he spoke lightly.
"In the next five minutes, everyone go search the lake bottom for any hidden items."
This dungeon has been played for so long, if someone triggers a special scene or finds some special items, they must have been caught while night fishing. Now he just lets the water out, so everything can be seen at a glance, making it much easier to find.
But worried that the monsters might be unhappy because they couldn't find the props, he added considerately: "Those things are hard to find. If you don't have them, bring back some fish. Fish is also delicious."
Watching the monsters set off in high spirits, Xu Zhiyan turned to look at Qu Ji who was standing beside them with the look of a good student.
"Xiao Qu, help me get the backpack from the shore. It contains the local specialties that my new friends and I brought for everyone."
The big white snake is still inside, and the promise made before has not been fulfilled yet. Even Xu Zhiyan couldn't help but feel that it was a bit unlucky for the snake to meet him.
"Okay!" Qu Ji responded happily.
In order to speed up, it put its hands on the ground, its back instantly cracked, and the limbs growing from its back suddenly grew rapidly, becoming a multi-limb hybrid monster that was more than twice as tall as Qu Ji himself.
It stood upright, its main body still sporting the expression of a harmless high school boy, but the limbs extending from its back were made up of multiple trunk tissues, with greatly increased strength and speed. It looked like a decoy human growing in the center of a monster's body.
As if he thought of something, Xu Zhiyan stopped Qu Ji before he left.
"Run fast and go to Baishan Village and ask Lao Yang if he wants to leave. If he does, bring him here. We are still short of a gatekeeper."
Without the resentful things at the bottom of the lake, this copy would most likely be lost.
And even if the copy is not upgraded, after he drains all the Amber Mountain Reservoirs, no more fishermen will come here, and this village that relies on insects to survive will disappear sooner or later.
Qu Ji nodded, and disappeared in a flash.
Xu Zhiyan looked at Qu Ji's flying back, took a breath, and couldn't help but call up Qu Ji's panel.
[Name: Multi-limbed Mutated Monster (Qu Ji)]
[Level: A (Open ductility, upgradeable)]
【Threat: A】
[Note: The safe house reserves creatures, and the owner of the safe house needs to fill in the notes. ]
“…Is it upgraded so quickly?”
He muttered to himself, feeling rather envious as he realized that his mental strength had only increased by two points after going through the first copy.
The ghosts and gods on the side finally waited until Xu Zhiyan had arranged the monsters, and wanted to take this opportunity to say something.
But before He even opened His mouth, He was assigned a task.
"How long will it take you to fuse your bodies?"
"Very quickly, but it may be affected when the fusion is just beginning." The ghost replied.
Xu Zhiyan nodded: "Then you merge first."
After saying that, he no longer paid attention to the ghosts and gods, but instead summoned the safe house system.
"Has the inventory been updated? What good stuff did everyone get while I was away? Are there many A-level items? Are there any S-level ones?"
[Yes! Yes!]
The safe house system thought it had nothing to do with itself.
It hurriedly pulled up its constantly updated warehouse list and sorted the newly found items by category and rarity.
[Basically, each safe house has at least two A-level or higher items, but there are still some differences in functionality. Currently, two S-level items have been obtained, and both are very powerful items!]
Xu Zhiyan glanced at the list with satisfaction and asked the system to make a copy and put it in his game panel.
Although the entire list is still mostly made up of useless items, there are some rare names of healing items interspersed in it.
Time was running out and he didn't have time to read the specific content, but he had basically gotten what he wanted, and he was in a much better mood. Even his back didn't seem to hurt as much.
Xu Zhiyan looked at his watch. There were still two minutes left. He couldn't help but look through the list again.
Suddenly, a tail as thick as his wrist wrapped around his waist.
The tail was covered with hard black scales, and it pressed against his wound through his clothes, causing him to shudder all over.
Xu Zhiyan looked up at the ghost.
The body of the snake god in the opponent's hand had disappeared at some point.
As if realizing something was wrong, the ghost said softly: "Sorry, I'm still a little uncomfortable..."
"Shouldn't you take your tail away before you say sorry?" Xu Zhiyan frowned as he was strangled. He felt pain and soreness in his waist, and he almost couldn't stand while holding on to the long table.
He teased, panting, until he was released.
"Is it so thin? The translucent tail I just saw behind you is this - thick." He raised his hands and gestured to form a cylinder.
The ghost probably didn't expect that the other party would still be mindful of observing him while arranging tasks for the monsters, so he asked subconsciously.
"You like thick ones?"
As He spoke, the tail that Xu Zhiyan had just slapped to the ground suddenly swelled and thickened, returning to the thickness of the half-snake god period. Except for the tip of the tail, it became thicker as it went forward, and by the middle part, it was thicker than the waist of the human in front of him.
“…”
Xu Zhiyan was a little dumbfounded.
He smacked his lips, why did he feel like there was something wrong with this conversation?
But rather than having a conversation, a sense of curiosity was rising in his heart, like a cat scratching.
If time wasn't tight, he really wanted to flip over the table and lift up the ghost's clothes to see how the other's legs and tail were compatible!
Curious...very curious!
A tail as thick as a wrist can be connected to the coccyx, but how about a tail as thick as a leg? A lizard man? What about a tail as thick as a waist?
Xu Zhiyan, who had just counted his gains, found it more and more funny the more he thought about it, and couldn't help but laugh while holding onto the table.
The ghost looked at the young man in front of him who was laughing inexplicably and was a little puzzled, but he did not ask any more questions. He lowered his head and thought silently, does the other party really like rough things?
Time flies.
In the last bit of time, Qu Ji brought back Old Yang, who had cloudy eyes and a confused face.
Xu Zhiyan was a little surprised.
Although he preferred Lao Yang's skills in surviving in the mountain village, he could not take the other party into the safe house if the other party was unwilling.
Especially Lao Yang’s performance at the last moment made Xu Zhiyan a little undecided.
As an inconspicuous NPC, Lao Yang has killed quite a few people, either actively or passively. Although they were all bad guys, he was not sure whether the other party was willing to leave here.
Qu Ji seemed to see Xu Zhiyan's confusion. He controlled his limbs to put Lao Yang outside the sunken ship and couldn't help but speak.
"He said he didn't want to."
“But I think he’s willing.”
So it ignored Lao Yang's refusal and just captured the person.
As a monster in the dungeon, Qu Ji could empathize with the situation better than anyone else.
They are consumables and stepping stones.
Their existence is to create difficulties for players. Either the player dies, or they die.
But it's always possible.
Who wants to be trapped in the cycle of suffering forever?
Since coming to the safe house, it is no longer a simple monster.
Qu Ji thought about his present situation.
It has a family, its own room, delicious food, and a job, and can do what it likes.
Although the ghost master in the hall always has a cold face and releases pressure to scare these ghosts, whenever Mr. Xu comes back, he will become in a very good mood, and even the temperature in the hall will rise by several degrees!
Qu Ji is very satisfied with his current life.
Old Yang sat slumped outside the sunken ship. He looked up at the young man leaning against the table inside the door, and the ghost emitting oppression behind the young man.
He twisted his rusty neck again, looking at all kinds of monsters with bared fangs and claws, which were rushing back with all kinds of strange and bizarre harvests.
Old Yang lowered his head and asked slowly in his hoarse, broken bellows voice.
"Am I worthy?"
He went with the flow, in a daze.
He often felt that he was born to suffer.
In response to Lao Yang, a capture net dropped from the top of his head.
"There's only one minute left. There's no time to explain. Let's get on the boat first!" Xu Zhiyan held the net with one hand and looked at the watch anxiously.
[Ding! Congratulations to the player for capturing a new monster]
[Name: Immortal Insect Creatures (Lao Yang)]
[Level: E (Open ductility, upgradeable)]
【Threat: B】
[Note: The safe house reserves creatures, and the owner of the safe house needs to fill in the notes. ]
Glancing at Lao Yang's panel, Xu Zhiyan didn't know where to start complaining.
Are we no longer human at all?
Does that mean that Lao Yang’s body is full of worms?
And what the hell is this 'Lao Yang'?
Didn't the system even bother to give it a name? This name is too perfunctory, and at this level, no wonder it is so weak. It was so scared when it saw the black fog that it couldn't walk.
After taking Lao Yang into the house and throwing him to Qu Ji, Xu Zhiyan used the last thirty seconds to summon the monsters back.
After making sure that every monster in the safe house had returned and not one was missing, he staggered to the door.
"Wait for me at home."
After saying that, he waved his hand, stepped on the escape time, and left the copy safe house.
The ghost looked at the door that closed again and nodded slowly, not knowing what he was thinking.
…
The game panel pops up the official settlement information of the copy.
A familiar blackness appeared before my eyes.
After the second experience, Xu Zhiyan even began to look forward to it.
Like last time, the data panel was flooded with information.
[The copy of Night Fishing has been settled]
[Instance star rating: ★★★☆]
[Note: Due to the significant reduction in monsters and BOSS in the dungeon and the lack of causal chain, this dungeon has been downgraded to a normal space and will never be upgraded, modified, or opened to the public again! ]
Apart from the star rating and name, even the notes are exactly the same as last time, except that the exclamation mark at the end gives us a glimpse of the main system crash.
[Calculating the player Xu Zhiyan's personal total score. ]
[Mainline Reward Points: None]
[Branch (Quantity: 0) Reward Points: None]
[Bonus points for eliminating evil spirits: 1,605,000 points]
[Number of evil spirits eliminated: 3210]
[Overall copy ranking: 1]
Xu Zhiyan frowned and looked at the panel, seemingly dissatisfied with this result that made other players envious and jealous.
He finally understood why the copy had to be settled early.
There are tens of thousands of resentful creatures at the bottom of the lake.
After being baptized by time and special water quality, these evil spirits are much stronger than when they first entered the water, and humans may go crazy if they encounter them.
Apart from some evil spirits who wish to recover the object of their resentment and automatically disappear after finding it, there should also be some who will disappear after quickly taking revenge.
He originally thought that he would be able to eliminate 5,000 of these tens of thousands of objects of resentment without killing them.
“I feel really bad for not getting all of them.”
He sighed, not realizing that he had exploited a loophole in the system. He just felt that what he got was not enough.
【Welcome players to the rest area 'Shell'】
【Your stay time is 3 hours, please enjoy it. 】
When he opened his eyes again, Xu Zhiyan had already arrived at the familiar lounge.
Probably because of the level of the dungeon, this time we stayed a lot longer than last time, and we can rest here for three hours for free.
The hooded duo and Yu Zhen have already left.
Jin Sheng was feeding the dog, and Jiang Huaique was lying on a pile of mats, his missing leg slowly repairing itself.
Seeing Xu Zhiyan coming, he laughed and scolded: "If I had known that you were going to overturn the copy, you would have left so quickly, and I wouldn't have to cut off my legs."
"Who knew that this game couldn't be played and would be played in advance?" Xu Zhiyan shrugged and answered casually.
Feeling that the injured part of his back was recovering, he simply took off his shirt and found a pillow to lie down, waiting for the injury on his back to heal.
The two seriously injured patients looked at each other's miserable appearance and couldn't help but laugh at each other.
"You have a body like a boiled chicken and you dare to take off your shirt."
After saying that, Jiang Huai Que shook his head and added, "But judging from the color, it's almost cooked. Forget it, it should be roast goose. By the way, what were you doing just now? Why didn't you come out earlier?"
"How dare you, a man without arms and legs, say that to me?" Xu Zhiyan buried his face in the cushion and answered angrily.
When asked why he didn't come out earlier, he sighed deeply and looked sad.
"Because I have to feed a whole family, unlike a lone wolf like you who feeds the whole family."
Jiang Huaique couldn't help but roll his eyes when he heard this.
He has to support a whole family, but the other person's little arms and legs can't support anything.
Seeing that he didn't believe it, Xu Zhiyan didn't say much.
Suddenly, Jin Sheng shouted loudly: "Look at the live broadcast room! Brother Xu, did you not check your panel when you left the dungeon?"
He was rarely so excited that he scared Xiaoyi who was drinking milk.
The golden retriever puppy, who was drinking happily just now, was startled and jumped up on its hind legs when halfway through drinking, but its front legs and mouth refused to leave the bowl, causing it to dive into the dog bowl and get milk all over its face.
However, none of the three had time to wipe Xiaoyi's face.
Xu Zhiyan found that his live broadcast room was flooded with comments.
[Player [Anonymous] bets 1,000,000 points in the dungeon Night Fishing Man [Player No. 06 Xu Zhiyan]]
[The copy is being settled...settled successfully! 】
[Congratulations to player Xu Zhiyan for killing less than three monsters in a single game]
[Congratulations to [Anonymous] for receiving the reward: 12,000,000 points (including principal)]
This was an expected reward, as he had been too busy to check it out.
Throughout the entire dungeon, Xu Zhiyan did not kill any monsters. He simply took advantage of a loophole to complete the final mission and received a super high reward.
But compared to this, there is another tip.
[Congratulations to player Xu Zhiyan for awakening the characteristic: Greed in the dungeon [Night Fisherman].]
[This player's greed is unparalleled. No matter how much he gets, he will never be satisfied. He has no heart...]
Xu Zhiyan raised an eyebrow and read the system's sarcastic comments. He felt good about himself and even clicked on the remaining comments at the end of the copy to take a look.
[Congratulations to Xiao Baiwan for awakening his characteristics: I want them all! ]
[Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha]
[Main System: You're paralyzed, and you're bombing my copy again? ]
【Hahahaha, copy killer Xiao Baiwan! 】
[@Main system, Q1 is pissed off, and Q2 is about to be pissed off]
[The above person is so mean! Be careful or you will get a big enemy item in the next instance! ]
[This comment made me laugh so hard that I vomited. The main system was just about to pin [Don’t team up with this person in the future] to the top of Xiao Baiwan’s live broadcast room, hahahahahaha]
In addition to talking about bombing the dungeon, many players are also thinking about this unheard-of feature.
【Ah ...
[Isn't anyone here discussing this feature? What the hell is this feature? Greed? What the hell?]
[I think it's like the five spiritual roots in immortal cultivation novels. It seems very powerful, but not as good as a single spiritual root.]
[Fuck, your metaphor is weird, but it's kind of appropriate.]
[Let's wait and see. Players need to slowly discover the usefulness of this feature. No one can say for sure whether it is useless or good. ]
【……】
Xu Zhiyan was also a little curious about what kind of strange trait this greed was.
However, compared to the characteristics, he was more looking forward to the increase in numerical values.
[Name: Xu Zhiyan]
[Status: Severely injured (repaired)]
[Spiritual Threshold: 0-71]
[Current Spirit: 71]
[Features: Greedy]
[Skill: Absolute Safe Time (Primary)]
[Title: Ghost Agent, Corpse Fisherman]
After reading it, Xu Zhiyan turned around hesitantly and asked Jin Sheng who looked excited.
“What’s your mental threshold?”
"152." Jin Sheng didn't understand why the other party asked this, but he still answered honestly.
Xu Zhiyan was even more confused.
"Did you start with more than 100?"
How could someone have more than 100 spiritual power? Isn't everyone capped at 100? Could it be that I have a preconceived notion?
Jin Sheng shook his head: "Of course not, I only had over 70 at the beginning, and it doubled after awakening the characteristics, what's wrong?"
“…It’s alright.”
Others multiplied their mental strength threshold by two, but he only added ten, so it seemed like he was still being targeted.
The main system has been suppressing the upper limit of his mental threshold in order to prevent him from using some powerful props to increase the difficulty of the copy.
Xu Zhiyan's face was filled with despair. He gritted his teeth, gave the panel a middle finger, and planned to turn off the panel.
If you don’t need it, then don’t use it!
As long as he gives others enough benefits, there are many players who will do things for him.
Unexpectedly, the panel not only did not close, but new information popped up.
[Warning: Due to player reasons, two copies have collapsed and become unusable. The next copy will not be allocated to the player. ]
"No normal copies will be allocated?"
But the system seemed not to hear Xu Zhiyan's doubts, and the panel disappeared on the spot.
On the other hand, Jiang Huaique frowned after hearing this, and asked in a more serious tone, "What did the system say?"
"They said that the next copy I was going to was not a normal copy." Xu Zhiyan looked confused.
What other copies are there besides the normal copies?
After hearing this, Jiang Huaique's face changed drastically.
"In addition to the normal copy, there is also a punishment copy."
In the punishment copy, players cannot form a team, and it will only be triggered by players who exploit system loopholes or have committed any special violations.
After listening to this, Xu Zhiyan snapped his fingers.
You can't form a team, the dungeon is difficult, and almost all the players who enter are bad guys.
"Not bad." He breathed a sigh of relief.
If that were all, he wouldn't really care.
Seeing that he looked confident, Jiang Huaiqie felt relieved, but he still had some fears: "It's not a big deal if there are no rewards in the dungeon. I'm just worried about the difficulty and other players..."
"What? Say that again?" Xu Zhiyan stared at Jiang Huaique.
Jiang Huaique was stunned and repeated himself hesitantly.
"I'm just afraid of the difficulty and..."
"Previous sentence."
"There are no rewards in the copy..."
After hearing these five words, Xu Zhiyan confirmed again and again that the punishment copy would not give any side quests, main quests, or special rewards, and he felt like he was about to faint.
Damn it, is the next instance all I can do is squeeze money out of other players? Tsk, what a rubbish game!
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