Ch. 23 - Great harvest and the Golden Legend

Yang Yi crushed the eye of the shark beneath him with brute force.The shark, writhing in immense pain, loosened its grip, but Yang Yi didn't let it go. He grabbed the ruptured eye and lifted the shark, smashing it into another one.

With his strength now at 8, Yang Yi could easily turn a shark's head into mush simply with his fists.

However, Yang Yi wasn’t reckless; he knew better than to engage in close combat if there were the possibility to avoid it!

Yang Yi powered his arms, leapt up lightly with more agility than a monkey, and landed directly on the crossbeam.

"And now…!!" Yang Yi declared with a cold expression, aiming the dark muzzle of his gun at the demon sharks below.

Bang!

One of the creatures was instantly blown into two pieces.

"What just happened?" Suna looked at Yang Yi in disbelief.

One moment, Yang Yi was on the brink of death, and the next, he had turned the tables, reversing the situation in an instant.

Extraordinary...

Suna's gaze towards Yang Yi became intense, almost predatory, as if she wanted to devour him whole, to see through him completely.

Her look was so brazen it made Yang Yi a bit uncomfortable.

He casually brushed it off, saying, "It's nothing. I just unlocked a new talent."

"Is that so?" Suna didn't press further.

Even if she had, Yang Yi wasn't planning to explain. This was his trump card. It was incredibly powerful, and it could turn the tide in a critical moment!

However, it had a nearly lethal drawback – a 24-hour period of weakness after activation! So, the fewer people who knew about it, the better.

On the other hand, Suna was also somewhat relieved. Her sanity had dropped by more than 20 points earlier, and she had barely resisted the urge to dissect Yang Yi with a knife.

But in the end, Suna held back, keeping her sanity just above 50.

"Suna, don't rush; be patient. Yang Yi is special. You need to observe him slowly..." she reminded herself.

Yang Yi had no idea what the crazy woman was thinking. He pulled out some holy water, drank two-thirds of it, and poured the remaining third on his wound.

The effect was good; the bleeding quickly stopped.

He continued aiming and shooting with his flintlock, occasionally misfiring, but killing one shark each time it fired successfully.

The sharks, unable to reach them, became frenzied. Some began gnawing at the mast, while others started eating the already dead sharks.

But the mast was the sturdiest wood on this ghost ship, very thick, and the sharks' jaws weren’t that large, so they couldn't destroy it in a short time.

However, the risk remained.

It was a race to see whether it would be the mast that broke or the sharks to be killed first!

There were only about thirty unharmed sharks left, and Yang Yi felt his chances of winning were high!

"Wait, no need to shoot!" Suna suddenly called out to Yang Yi.

"Why?" Yang Yi turned his head to look at her.

"Look, the poison from the pufferfish is starting to take effect," she pointed to a shark that had been shot in the eye.

It was likely the first one to be hit by an arrow, lying askew on the deck, no longer moving. Soon, its corpse was devoured by its kind.

Yang Yi immediately understood.

"Cannibalism is a phenomenon quite common among insects. That's why some insecticides delay death, allowing insects to return to their nests before dying. Otherwise, these cannibalistic urges would wipe out an entire colony." Suna explained.

"I see," Yang Yi nodded, pulling the trigger, and killing another shark.

"But wouldn't shooting them speed up their deaths? The bullets are free anyway!"

"Do as you please, just leave me one intact," Suna replied.

After about ten minutes, all the sharks were finally dead, not a single one left. The deck was covered in shark corpses, the air thick with the smell of blood.

Yang Yi, now in a weakened state, took forever to climb the mast. With only 15 health left, he had to be cautious, as a single fall could put him on the brink of death, and then it’d be game over.

Suna had already come down. She chose the largest, least mangled shark corpse and started cutting it into pieces, preparing to store it in the treasure chest.

"We've struck gold! This should be worth about 70 vending pulls!" Yang Yi's eyes gleamed.

In the past, when he played mobile games, his favourite part was the vending pulls.

He often deleted games after experiencing the rush.

"Shall we split it half and half?" Yang Yi looked at Suna.

"You can do the pulls. I only need one shark," Suna replied indifferently, seemingly uninterested.

"That's a shame. I'll…reluctantly do the pulls for you!" Yang Yi eagerly started harvesting the demon shark corpses on the ground.

The corpses gradually disappeared. In total, he did 72 pulls.

There were 74 demon sharks in total; one was dissected by Suna, and one was kept as emergency rations.

To avoid accidental poisoning, Yang Yi specifically chose the one that had been split in two early on. As that shark hadn’t been eaten by its kind, it was reserved as food.

After finishing the pulls, Yang Yi checked the course and map, ensuring there were no major issues before looking at the 72 light orbs under the vending machine.

He hadn’t opened any yet, planning to hoard them all together.

What would be inside?

Yang Yi was excited as he started opening the capsules…

【You have obtained 1 unit of steel.】

“What?”

【You have obtained 200 shell coins.】

“.......”

【You have obtained 5 units of wood.】

【You have obtained 5 units of stone.】

“This is killing me!”

Yang Yi slammed the piece of wood onto the deck in frustration. It soon disappeared, transferred to the warehouse.

Did Yang Yi really lack these basic resources?

Where were the relics?

Where were the treasures?

At the very least, couldn’t he get some accessories?

Eventually, Yang Yi became numb, no longer holding any expectations. The orbs mostly contained basic resources like freshwater, steel, wood, cloth, and even some crystals.

There were also 12 loaves of black bread, 5 sausages, and 3 watermelons...

Maybe the demon sharks were too weak compared to sea monsters and drowned revenants.

Or perhaps...it was just bad luck.

After opening them all, Yang Yi only got three decent items.

One excellent, one good, and one ordinary.

【Name: Low-Grade Fire Element】

【Type: Consumable/Material】

【Quality: Excellent】

【Description: Can imbue equipment with a special attribute, granting it the power of fire.

PS: Equipment can be repeatedly imbued, with the last attribute applied being the one that sticks.】

.......

【Name: Glowing Red Fishing Net】

【Type: Tool】

【Quality: Good】

【Description: Can be placed on the side of the ship to catch unfortunate fish that pass by. However, this fishing net emits an unsettling red glow, causing normal fish to avoid it.

This red glow...you’ve seen it somewhere before.】

......

【Name: Sharkskin Swimsuit】

【Type: Treasure】

【Quality: Ordinary】

【Description: Increases swimming speed by 25% and reduces swimming stamina consumption while in the water. It’ll easily help you win swimming competitions!】

Yang Yi stored these three items away. The abysmally low drop rate reminded him of some unpleasant memories.

But then, he thought of something else.

Could it be that repeatedly submitting the same type of monster lowered the drop rate?

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

The system might be encouraging players to hunt a variety of new monsters.

It would be easy to test this theory – have someone else do a vending pull.

Without hesitation, Yang Yi pulled Suna over from the courtyard, handed her a fish fin, and asked her to try a pull.

The demon shark fin was initially intended to be an emergency ration, but with plenty of black bread, there was no need to risk eating raw fish anymore. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ NʘvᴇlFire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“Give it a try,” Yang Yi urged.

If Suna got a good item, it would confirm Yang Yi’s theory.

If Suna didn’t get a good item, then his pulling shitty items would be just luck, or rather, bad luck.

Suna tossed the fish fin into the vending machine and turned the lever. The octopus head’s eyes suddenly emitted a golden light, and even its tentacles turned golden.

“Wow! A golden legend!”

Yang Yi seemed to hear it as if in a hallucination.

A golden orb was spat out from the octopus head, which Suna picked up...

“This...could it be the difference between the luckiest and unluckiest person?”

Yang Yi felt bitter for the first time, categorising this game as unfairly unfair and full of malice!

Editor’s note: I understand the frustration