Chapter 1: Curse
[You have returned to your exclusive room. In approximately 1 hour and 12 minutes, you will enter the ??? world.]
Inside his exclusive room, Su Xiao reviewed the prompt just received, which stated that he had been summoned by "Misfortune."
What did this Misfortune represent? Su Xiao's first thought was of Misfortune Town, but upon careful consideration, that seemed unlikely. The danger level of Misfortune Town was already somewhat low for him now.
Since it wasn't Misfortune Town, Su Xiao pondered for a moment before suddenly realizing another possibility.
"So it's you."
Su Xiao checked his remaining 4,042 Soul Coins. Originally, his plan before entering the world was to upgrade "Basic Passive: Revitalize" by one level and then improve his Gun Mastery.
Now, it seemed the plan needed some changes. Su Xiao left his exclusive room and headed straight for the Trade Street.
Half an hour later, Su Xiao returned to his exclusive room. He now had only 1,520 Soul Coins left. This feeling of preparing in advance before entering a world was quite good. Keeping 1,520 Soul Coins was sufficient, just in case of unexpected needs.
Time ticked by, second by second. When the countdown before him ended, a prompt appeared.
[Hunter about to enter a new world.]
[Hunter about to break through the 200-point True Attribute barrier. The attributes to be broken are Strength, Agility, Stamina, and Intelligence.]
[Attribute barrier breakthrough difficulty accumulating. Single attribute is 100% difficulty. Each additional main attribute breakthrough will increase difficulty by 30%. If main attributes exceed two, each subsequent main attribute will increase difficulty by 15%.]
[Attribute barrier breakthrough difficulty: 235%!]
[Hunter's comprehensive combat power being evaluated...]
[World being selected...]
[Selection complete. Hunter about to enter Demon Sea.]
[Note: This world belongs to the Void Tree. It is a fully open Primordial World. Within this world, side quests, hidden quests, achievement quests, etc., can be triggered. World Source can be obtained. Treasure Chests, Scarlet Cards, etc., can be obtained.]
[Note: Within this world, the Hunter has a high probability of encountering Eighth-Rank Violators.]
[Misfortune... calls to you, calls to you who was once its master.]
[Ultra-long-distance teleportation countdown begins, 3, 2, 1.]
Seeing the last prompt, Baha roared, "Oh crap!" and used his wing to cover the back of his head. Every ultra-long-distance teleportation felt especially unforgettable.
Bang!
Su Xiao's vision went black, and he lost consciousness.
When he regained consciousness, he felt himself falling at high speed. With a splash, he plunged into pitch-black seawater, sinking with a trail of bubbles. This sensation wasn't entirely real, more like an illusion.
Creak~
Wood scraped against water. A large ship rose from the depths, catching Su Xiao on its deck. The raging sea, misfortune, a red sail full of holes, and a ghastly white skull painted on the sail grinning maliciously.
One by one, arms reached out from between the broken planks of the deck, grabbing Su Xiao's clothes and arms. These hands were deathly white from being soaked in seawater, covered in barnacles and seaweed.
"Captain."
"Misfortune."
"Curse."
"Please... let us continue sailing the seas. Only with you are we... the man-eating sharks of the raging sea!"
A jumble of voices sounded in Su Xiao's ears. He suddenly opened his eyes, a red gleam in them.
"Shut up."
The moment Su Xiao spoke, the arms reaching out from under the deck retracted beneath the planks. The entire ship began to sink, dissolving into bubbles that merged into the dark seawater.
A whirlpool formed in the sea, and Su Xiao was sucked into it. He had known from the start that none of this was real.
...
Clang, clang, clang.
The sound of striking metal reached his ears. Su Xiao raised his head and looked around. He felt the ground beneath him swaying—no, what was beneath him was wooden planks. He was inside the hold of a large ship.
Su Xiao knew why he had seen that scene just now. A ship called the Doom Number was calling to him. During the Strongest Warrior Tournament, he had become the captain of that ship.
Su Xiao was currently sitting inside a large iron cage. Each bar was as thick as an egg, covered in dark red rust—an oxide formed from rust mixed with blood.
Clang, clang!
A long-handled ladle struck the cage bars in front of him. Before the meter-tall iron cage stood a sailor dressed in tattered gray-black linen clothes. His filthy garments were loose, and he wore various trinkets hanging from his waist.
This wasn't a sailor, but a pirate. The pirate held a long-handled ladle, scooped up a ladleful of semi-fluid food that looked like pig slop, dumped it into an iron basin, and then kicked the basin through the gap at the bottom of the cage.
"Boss, my treatment is a bit shabby, huh."
Baha, who was hanging upside down from above, spoke up.
"Woof!"
Bubu Wang struggled on a chopping board. Clearly, compared to Su Xiao and Baha's "prisoner" status, Bubu Wang was worse off—he was the backup lunch.
"A talking bird is rare. When we get to Shipwreck Island, I'll sell you first."
The gold-toothed pirate grinned, picked up his food bucket, and continued on his way.
Creak—a sound of metal scraping. The gold-toothed pirate turned to look. Su Xiao had already bent down and stepped out of the iron cage. He straightened up and rolled his shoulders.
"Get back in!"
Pfft.
Banishment pierced through the gold-toothed pirate's forehead, leaving a bloody hole in his head. The gold-toothed pirate took two steps back, one hand covering the egg-sized hole in his forehead, the other drawing a sailor's knife from his waist. Gripping the grooved blade, he charged at Su Xiao.
Despite suffering such a severe wound, the gold-toothed pirate not only didn't die but charged at Su Xiao. This showed how fierce and tenacious the pirates of this world were.
Pfft, pfft, pfft.
Three more bloody holes appeared in the gold-toothed pirate's chest, neck, and thigh—two fatal wounds and one to restrict movement.
The gold-toothed pirate's health instantly dropped to zero. His body pitched forward, his head smashing into the iron basin filled with semi-fluid food. Blood gradually covered the bottom of the basin.
No treasure chest dropped, nor was any World Source obtained. Su Xiao manipulated Banishment to cut the ropes binding Bubu Wang. The ropes were mixed with something inside, making them hard to break.
Looking around, the ship's hold was quite spacious. He estimated this was a three-masted sailing ship. On the left side of the hold were stacked many wooden barrels containing fresh water, alcohol, gunpowder, and the like. A dozen simple wooden crates nailed together from planks were piled up, with green oranges visible through the gaps in the wood.
On the right side of the hold was a row of large iron cages containing over a dozen men and women with disheveled clothes and dull eyes. In one cage was a brown bear, too weak from hunger to move, lying limp on the ground. Clearly, it was backup food number two.
This was a slave ship. The Demon Sea was not a place with law and order. Su Xiao had heard of this place before but had never been here.
Compared to the Viking Sea he had visited during the Strongest Warrior Tournament, the Demon Sea was nothing. A long time ago, without realizing it, Su Xiao had been cursed by the Demon Sea. It wasn't until he advanced to the Eighth Rank and entered his first world, the Demon Sea, that he was "summoned" here.
This curse had no debuff effects but was extremely stubborn. The reason Su Xiao was cursed was that he had once become the captain of the Doom Number.
Back then, after finishing the Strongest Warrior Tournament and returning to Reincarnation Paradise, Su Xiao had sold the Doom Number at the ultra-low price of 30 Soul Coins. The reason was that the Doom Number devoured its master. That ship was a living thing. If you could suppress it, it was fine, but once you couldn't, it would immediately devour you.
Becoming the captain of the Doom Number, even after selling it, the matter couldn't be resolved. As for the previous owner of the Doom Number, they were most likely dead.
The curse of the Demon Sea, the identity of the Doom Number's captain, and the breakthrough of the 200-point attribute barrier—Su Xiao planned to resolve all of these in this world.
Su Xiao took out [Dark Redemption] from his storage space. This was obtained from opening Rogge's treasure chest. Su Xiao wanted to know what purpose the Rattle Snake Slate: Greed, summoned through [Dark Redemption], served. Now was a good opportunity to summon this thing.