Chapter 1 The Treasure

"Wealth, fame, power, the 'Drug Lord King' Gold Roger, who once possessed everything in this world, left a sentence before his death that made people all over the world flock to the sea—'Want my treasure? I'll give it to you if you want it, go find it! I've left everything there!'"

Early in the morning, on the deck of a submarine (which had surfaced and docked), Captain Greybeard was giving a rousing speech to his crew.

Perhaps because the content of his speech was a bit far-fetched, or perhaps because he had given it so many times, in short... the crew members were either yawning or absentmindedly staring into the distance, and no one was really listening to the captain's lecture.

"Alright, old man... no need to start from the day you went to sea at seventeen..." A childish voice interrupted Greybeard's words, reciting weakly, "Get to the point..."

The little boy speaking was Greybeard's son, named Max Gray, and he was the second-in-command (first mate) on this pirate ship (submarine).

"Uh..." Greybeard was slightly stunned when he heard this, then cleared his throat awkwardly, limped to the little boy's side, leaned over and whispered, "Son, what's the point?"

"The point is, the treasure on the island is yours, and anyone who dares to touch it will be killed," Max whispered into his father's ear in a calm tone.

"Oh! Right!" Greybeard responded, immediately straightened up, turned around and faced the crew, "I! The great Greybeard, Edward Gray, as one of the 'Four Emperors' of the 'Great Drug Lord' era, the man who inherited Roger's will, will never allow anyone to touch my treasure!"

"Ah... what treasure... isn't it just a few tons of inventory..." Before the captain could finish speaking, a crew member standing on the far left of the first row muttered in a low voice.

This person was usually known for his sharp tongue, always muttering a few words no matter what he heard or saw. Now, he was just saying something out of habit, but he never expected...

"Who's talking!" Greybeard immediately roared in his broken gong voice, glaring fiercely in the direction of the voice.

In the next second, the crew members beside the speaker chose to betray their teammate, all pointing at him in unison.

"Uh... I..." The guy was immediately intimidated, "...Cap... Captain... I..."

"What's your name?" Greybeard raised his head, looking at him with a condescending, contemptuous look.

"I... I I..." A person who usually spoke very fluently was now frightened into a stutter, "...My name is Tom."

"Oh... Tom." Greybeard muttered the other party's name, turning his face away.

As they say, it happened in a flash...

A second later, Greybeard took out a flintlock pistol from his holster with lightning speed (the shape is the same as the pistols of the early eighteenth century, but the inside is future technology), and fired a shot in the direction of Tom without looking back.

Bang—

The gun went off, and the sound of the flintlock pistol was also very retro, as if taking people back to the Caribbean Sea during the reign of Queen Anne.

Immediately afterwards, there was a "thump" sound... a corpse fell on the deck.

"Hoo..." Greybeard blew away the white smoke from the muzzle, raised his head forty-five degrees, and looked up at the dawning sky, "As I often say... there are no nameless ghosts under my gun."

"Uh... Captain, I'm still alive..." Tom's voice came again.

"Huh?" Greybeard was stunned when he heard the sound, and immediately turned his head to look back. Only then did he realize that his incomparably dashing "turning blind shot"... had missed. The bullet hit a crew member next to Tom, and right in the center of his chest...

"By the way... the one you killed is called 'Jerry'..." Tom nervously pointed his finger at the dead man on the ground.

"Ahem..." Greybeard cleared his throat again, and casually put the gun back into the holster, "See, Tom, if you're nosy again next time, your fate will be the same as Jerry's."

"Understood... thank you, Captain, for not killing me..." Tom lowered his head and answered cautiously. At this moment, his real thought was: "It's a good thing the captain is an idiot, I saved my life today!"

"Don't get me wrong, I didn't miss, I originally wanted to kill Jerry..." After a few seconds, Greybeard continued, "...In fact, I had already seen that he was an undercover agent sent by the police."

"Dad... you don't need to explain anymore, let's just leave it at that..." Max put his hand on his forehead and shook his head.

"Well... alright." Greybeard shrugged, "Someone, throw this undercover agent into the sea." Then he turned his head, "You, yes, you, Tom, take a few people and go ashore immediately to investigate. I want to get a definite report before lunch, or I'll chop you up and feed you to the fish!"

"Yes! Understood! Captain," Tom replied loudly with a stiff expression.

***

At the same time, north of Cannabis Island.

"Hey! Stephen, long time no see!" Halamerills appeared in front of Feng Bujue again.

Perhaps some people will ask, isn't the frequency of Halamerills meeting Jue Ge a bit too high? Actually, it's not...

According to the rules, each player can bring ten items to participate in the competition (Feng Bujue is an exception, but the system has corrected this point, and the NPCs will not think this is strange), and each time they meet Halamerills, they can only receive one item. That is to say... players have to meet Halamerills ten times to receive all the items. If these ten exchanges are evenly divided according to time, it will be a rhythm of meeting once every seven hours.

Of course, in the actual competition, considering factors such as night sleep and early elimination, this time will be shortened. During the day, meeting once every five hours is also very normal.

"Ah, hello," Feng Bujue replied vaguely, sending a handful of insect corpses into his mouth.

"What are you eating, Stephen?" Halamerills asked with interest as he watched the other party.

"Protein," Feng Bujue replied calmly.

"Hehe... You can put aside your prejudices and regard these things that ordinary people consider disgusting as pure energy to eat, which is very remarkable." Halamerills said, and then began to glance at the camera lens, "In the wilderness, being able to do this will allow you to live longer than others." He paused, "However... just 'daring to eat' is far from enough, Stephen." He gestured with his eyes at the insect corpse in Jue Ge's hand, "Some insects and small animals contain toxins or parasites in their bodies... If you don't have relevant knowledge, it's easy to accidentally eat poisonous things. That... will put you in danger instead."

"Don't worry, these things I'm eating are very safe, I can be sure," Feng Bujue replied expressionlessly.

Although he didn't know if these insects in his hand (most of them are insects, and some strange unknown creatures) were toxic or harmful, he could be sure... that they were all killed by [Bell's Everyday Knife]. Therefore... "cutting off the head will make it edible", and the protein content will be "six times that of beef"...

"Okay, I hope you're right." Seeing the other party answer like this, Halamerills didn't say anything more about it, and immediately changed the subject, "Okay... Stephen, I think you've guessed it, I'm here in front of you because I have something to give you."

"Hmph... I've been looking forward to it for a long time," Feng Bujue smiled.

"Ha! Don't be too happy too soon," Halamerills continued, "What I'm giving you is not just props, but also a challenge."

(This is also one of the main rules of this program: except for the first time at the beginning of the competition, in subsequent competitions, every time a player meets Bell, they will receive a "challenge." All challenges are optional, but doing them can get certain benefits. In addition, the number of challenges completed by the players will also become the evaluation criteria for the final survivors.)

"Yes, what I want is a challenge," Feng Bujue replied, "In fact, Bell... I'm already starving." His expression changed slightly, "I have a suggestion..." He stuffed all the insects in his hand into his mouth and swallowed them, "Give me some more challenges at once, like... five, how about it?"