Chapter 1 Somewhere in the Center of Cannabis Island

It was 9:40 AM.

Five lithe figures cut through the jungle, arriving at the edge of a steep mountain ravine.

These five were: Stephen Carbon, played by Feng Bujue; Justin Not-boob; Bill Get-capped; and Bear Grylls.

The events of the past hour or so need not be described here; let us speak only of the present...

At present, the sun was climbing higher in the sky. The muddy ground had been baked dry by the fierce sun before noon, as if last night’s downpour had never happened. The five of them had been traveling at high speed through the forest and had naturally worked up a sweat; even Grylls, with his superior physical abilities, had sweat-soaked armpits.

“Okay, here we are. It’s just ahead.” After descending to the bottom of the ravine and walking another ten meters, Grylls, who was leading the way, raised his arm to signal and looked back to say.

“You guys go ahead. I’ll be responsible for perimeter security until you’ve dealt with that ‘door’.” ** immediately raised his AK, volunteering to take on the task of keeping watch.

“Don’t worry, this won’t take long.” Get-capped said, already walking to the front with a device that looked like a typewriter.

“I hope this works…” Not-boob said, wiping sweat from his brow as he gazed at a stone wall ahead.

“Of course it’ll work.” Get-capped glanced back at Not-boob. “Who do you think I am?”

“Okay, okay... I know... you’re one of the most outstanding software engineers in the world, with an IQ of over 160... You don’t need to keep emphasizing it to me…” Not-boob replied weakly.

“If you know that, then stop saying stupid things like ‘I hope this works’.” As Get-capped spoke, he squatted down in front of the stone wall and pressed his palm against it.

Buzz—

The sound of electronic equipment starting up rang out instantly. The next second, the "stone wall" became translucent, revealing a metal door behind it.

“Hmm... optical camouflage, eh…” Feng Bujue, who had been watching from the side, finally spoke, looking at Grylls and saying, “No wonder you didn’t find this place when you were setting up cameras on the island.”

“Yeah… the terrain here is treacherous and extremely difficult to conceal. Even if someone accidentally came here, the optical camouflage would likely prevent them from discovering the existence of the door.” Grylls replied, “If that pirate I captured hadn’t revealed this secret before he died, I’m afraid we never would have found this place.”

“Even if we find the entrance, or rather… even if Mr. Get-capped manages to open that door, we can’t let our guard down…” Not-boob interjected, “If those two pirates were telling the truth, and there really is a ‘primordial opium stone’ (a unique mineral specific to the Fourth Earth, which can be refined into various drugs; a brick-sized piece of primordial opium stone is worth hundreds of pounds of high-purity hallucinogens) mine here, then… there must be very tight security measures behind that door.”

“Ha!” Get-capped, who was busy working in front of the metal door, chuckled and said without turning his head, “You’re saying stupid things again… As long as I successfully decode it, the system connected to the door will treat this as a normal opening procedure and won’t trigger any defense systems.”

“Alright, good luck, genius.” Not-boob shrugged and replied.

“Oh, right.” After a few more seconds, Feng Bujue seemed to suddenly think of something. He then took out the notebook Grylls had given him earlier from his pocket. “Now that we have some time, take a look at this…”

Grylls looked over with a puzzled expression, and saw…

“Uh… this is… a map?” He hesitated for a moment, and then said.

[Side Quest Completed] Along with Grylls’ words, the system prompt rang in Jue-ge’s ears.

“Yes.” Feng Bujue said, “Before you met me and Uncle Deng, we were ambushed at that high point for twenty minutes, and because it was a little boring, I took the time to draw this map.” He pointed to the pattern on the notebook. “Actually, I’ve always had a little bit of research into military maps, so I can understand them, but I’m not very good at drawing them. Fortunately, Uncle Deng is very good at this. With his guidance, I quickly drew it.”

“Uh… Stephen, putting aside why you want to draw it to military standards…” Grylls continued, “…Don’t you think it’s strange to continue doing ‘challenges’ now?” He gave a dry laugh. “The filming of the program has already been canceled, right?”

“Oh, is that so…” Feng Bujue replied with a calm expression. “Sorry, I’m a bit of a completionist. I like to finish what I start. It’s probably a habit left over from writing…” He casually made an excuse.

In fact, Jue-ge’s goal had already been achieved. Of the three challenges he had yet to complete, only "draw a map" required Grylls to review it after it was done. The other two only needed the system to recognize them.

“Aha! Got it!” Before long, Mr. Get-capped, the strongest technology geek, had also completed his decoding work. He stood up holding the device and waved to signal everyone that they could go over.

Seconds later, the translucent “stone wall” quickly disappeared.

With another buzzing sound, the metal door, several meters wide, opened with a sound, and a tunnel appeared in everyone's sight…

…………

At the same time, the Dolphin cruise ship, the captain's cabin.

“Is that all?” Max held a tablet, looking at Deaf-yet-not-deaf and asked, “Eighteen crew members, four contestants, and referee Grylls, for a total of twenty-three people?”

“Anyway… that’s all I know.” Deaf-yet-not-deaf said coldly.

“You should understand… if you misreport the numbers or fabricate information, I will find out sooner or later.” Max said, “So, Mr. Deaf-yet-not-deaf, I’ll give you one more chance…” He paused. “Really… is that all? Is there anything else you need to add?”

Deaf-yet-not-deaf stared into the child’s eyes, hesitated for a moment, and then continued, “There’s one more thing… I also think it’s a little strange. Of course, this may not be useful information.”

“Speak without hesitation.” Max replied quickly.

“Stephen Carbon on the island…” Deaf-yet-not-deaf said, “…seems a little abnormal.”

“Oh? How is he abnormal?” Max asked.

“I can’t explain it clearly, but anyway… he’s just abnormal…” Deaf-yet-not-deaf’s answer was vague, as if he hadn’t said anything at all. “Before you guys showed up, he did a lot of unexpected things…” He glanced at Graybeard next to him. “Compared to those things, taunting you on the walkie-talkie isn’t anything at all.”

“Is that what you wanted to say?” Max’s eyes seemed a little disappointed. “Hmph… I thought it was something important. Actually… he’s just having a drug attack or a mental breakdown, right?”

Deaf-yet-not-deaf replied, “Ah… I thought so at first too, but after I carefully analyzed his various actions, I found…”

Squeak—static—

Just as they were talking, the main screen on the console suddenly turned into a flurry of snowflakes and emitted a strange noise similar to signal interference.

“What’s going on?” Graybeard glanced at the screen, then turned to look at a pirate sitting in front of the console (there were also several technical personnel among the pirates who were responsible for communications, observation, etc.). “Are you downloading little movies… causing the system to get a virus?”

That pirate really wanted to answer his captain: “Do you think I’m you…”

But in the end, he didn’t dare to say that. He just replied with an innocent look, “How could that be…”

“Hi, everyone.” Suddenly, the snowflakes on the main screen disappeared, and on the screen, a large face of Stephen Carbon (Feng Bujue) appeared.

“Hahahaha… hahahahaha…” The moment he saw that face, Deaf-yet-not-deaf burst out laughing, as if it was an extremely interesting thing.

“Oh, are you Graybeard? Your look is quite retro…” After Feng Bujue finished greeting, he didn’t wait for anyone to respond and just said to himself, “That little kid is Max, right? A formidable younger generation…”

“You… can see us?” Max said with a suspicious look. At the same time, his gaze quickly swept across the console.

“Don’t bother looking, kid. The main screen in the captain’s cabin is an integrated double-sided coreless optical screen (an expensive piece of future technology; there’s only one of these on the entire luxury cruise ship). The entire screen can be used as a camera. If you want to cover it… you’ll have to get a bed sheet.” Feng Bujue said.

“You can remotely activate the camera on my side…” Max maintained his composure and asked in a deep voice.

“Hehe…” Feng Bujue said, “It wasn’t me who activated it.” As he spoke, he took two steps back, revealing the scenery behind him.

In that instant, Graybeard, Max, and the other pirates in the captain’s cabin all had drastic changes in expression. Because they realized… at this moment, the location where “Stephen Carbon” was, was precisely inside that primordial opium stone mine.

“Do you see the bespectacled gentleman behind me? He’s the one who activated the camera on your side.” Feng Bujue said with a smile.

Get-capped was currently busy working on a computer inside the mine and didn’t have time to pay attention to this. He just shouted back without turning his head, “Sorry, hacking your system is as easy as taking candy from a baby.”

“Thanks, Bill, a very apt analogy.” Feng Bujue glanced at Get-capped and said with a smile. Then, he looked at the camera again and said with a playful expression, “So, I’m sure you’ve already guessed… how we entered this primordial opium stone mine.”

“Hey! Bastard! You’re the one who cursed at me on the walkie-talkie, right?” At this moment, Graybeard suddenly took a step forward and pointed at the screen. “Get out of my ‘treasure’ right now!”

“Hehehe…” Feng Bujue lowered his head and chuckled. “First of all, I didn’t curse at you. I just gave you advance notice of your death. That person who was spouting dirty words like a shrew cursing in the streets… was you yourself.”

When Graybeard heard this, he wanted to curse again, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it… If he cursed, it would confirm that he was "a shrew cursing in the streets," but if he wanted to refute it, he had no words to say…

“Secondly, this is not ‘your’ treasure either.” Feng Bujue spread his hands. “This is nature’s treasure… you just discovered this place, and then built a base on it that’s similar to a drug factory.”

“Nonsense! In the pirate world, ‘treasure’ is… whoever discovers it first gets it!” Graybeard shouted loudly.

“Ha!” Feng Bujue laughed loudly. “I thought you only poked your eyes out when you were picking your eye boogers, I didn’t expect you to injure your brain too…”

“What do you mean!” Graybeard replied.

“What I mean is… you’re the one talking nonsense!” Feng Bujue shouted back, “In the pirate world, no matter what it is… it’s never ‘whoever discovers it first gets it,’ it’s—whoever snatches it, gets it.”

“Damn it! What he said makes so much sense!” Graybeard thought fiercely in his heart. The expression on his face was alternating between green and purple, and he was so angry that his beard was about to explode.

“Alright… stop wasting time.” After a moment of silence, Max spoke again at this time. “You established communication with us, it shouldn’t be just to humiliate my father, right?” His eyes narrowed. “Tell me your purpose…”

“Oh~ You were silently thinking there for a while and now you’ve cleared your thoughts, is that it?” Feng Bujue looked at Max and said, “Okay, let Uncle tell you what exactly we want to do…”