'Holy cow!'
'Forcibly cracking a Wandering Ship to seize its control?'
'Such a ridiculously powerful key exists!?'
'I just don't know what rank Gold-level is, but Shi Ming estimated that the captain's Wandering Ship was definitely below Gold-level. If he used this key to secretly steal his ship away, he wondered how happy the captain would be.'
"Your ship is very nice, but soon it'll be mine."
Shi Ming smirked. 'The look on the captain's face would be priceless.'
'Right, I should hurry and check the changes to my body, and what skills I've Awakened.'
Shi Ming focused his mind, concentrating on his body. He tried to stimulate the potential that had emerged from his Awakening. This was knowledge every Awakened naturally understood without being taught, as if it were engraved in their very genes.
A wondrous wave of energy emanated from his body, allowing him to clearly perceive all the changes within.
Bathing in the Xuanwu Blood had given him two skills.
And what's more, both skills were S-rank!
[Black Tortoise Shield]
[Rank: S-rank]
This was an active skill that Shi Ming needed to activate in battle. Once activated, his body would become as tough and solid as a Xuanwu. It consumed one-fifth of his Physical Strength to ignore all attacks for 3 seconds and reflect 50% of the damage.
'This was practically a god-tier combat skill!'
Anyone who had played video games knew what a versatile ability an invincibility skill was. Not only could it save your life at a critical moment, but it could also make all of the opponent's skills miss, wasting a huge amount of their energy and resources!
What's more, Shi Ming's invincibility skill was an enhanced version!
Not only did it let Shi Ming ignore all attacks for three seconds,
it also reflected 50% of the damage. It was perfect for both offense and defense!
'Just imagine: your enemy gathers all their power to hit you with their most devastating ultimate move. If you activate your invincibility at that moment, their attack is not only nullified, but they also take damage from their own skill!'
'It was the perfect way to sucker punch someone, creating a completely unexpected result!'
Shi Ming was very satisfied with this skill.
The second skill was a passive one.
[On Death's Door]
[Rank: S-rank]
'The saying goes, "From death's door, one finds life." When Shi Ming takes a fatal blow, [On Death's Door] will reset all negative statuses on his body and restore him to an unharmed state. After the skill is used, it will enter a dormant state and can be used again in 720 hours.
If the first skill, [Black Tortoise Shield], gave Shi Ming powerful Defense Power, then [On Death's Door] gave him incredible fault tolerance and the ability to turn the tables.
The only drawback was its incredibly long cooldown.
720 hours—30 days.
Still, a chance to defy fate and change one's destiny once every thirty days was already an extremely heaven-defying skill.
If the captain found out that the biggest prize on this island had been snatched up by Shi Ming, who knew what kind of expression he would make.
Having understood the skills he gained from his Awakening, Shi Ming stood at the edge of the crevice and looked down at the Blood Pool below.
The energy within the Blood Pool had been completely absorbed by him. Unless the slumbering Xuanwu had another massive bleed, this Blood Pool would lose its miraculous properties.
Likewise, the parasitic worms and Bloodthirsty Moths that relied on the blood's energy had lost their territory. In a way, he had eliminated a pest from this small island and avenged the dead slaves.
Now, he was going to face the captain and his crew.
But before that, there was one more thing he had to do.
When he first set foot on the island, the system had given him three tasks.
He had now completed two of the three, with only the last one remaining.
Once he completed all the beginner tasks, the system would help him remove the slave control chip implanted in his brain. He would then be completely free. At that point, whether he fought the captain head-on or in a battle of wits, he would have no more worries holding him back.
The third task was to possess a Wandering Ship of his own.
Although he had a key, he still lacked the means to seize the captain's Wandering Ship by force. For one, he was still controlled by the chip. For another, many sailors and exploration team members were still stationed on the ship. If he returned, he would inevitably clash with them, which would attract the captain's attention.
But he already had a target in mind.
It was the canoe beached on the island's shore—the one that belonged to the researcher who had come to Turtle Island alone many years ago!
That canoe was very likely a small Wandering Ship.
Shi Ming moved swiftly through the island's undergrowth. After Awakening, he could easily control his strength, allowing him to leap through the forest like a ninja from an anime. Many steep slopes he couldn't climb before were now easily traversed.
There were still many Bloodthirsty Moths wandering aimlessly on the island. Any that encountered Shi Ming were promptly decapitated.
He could easily kill Bloodthirsty Moths even before he Awakened, let alone now. Slaying one didn't even take the blink of an eye, and the moth's only method of attack was completely useless against him.
But for other people, these insects were lethal.
He passed by the previous mining site and found that the bodies of the exploration team members lying there had now been reduced to stark white skeletons.
Meanwhile, there was no sign that the team leader and the others had returned. He didn't know if they had noticed something amiss and decided not to come back, or if they had gone directly to support the captain.
But these were not things Shi Ming needed to worry about right now.
Before long, he arrived at the spot where the canoe was beached.
The weather-beaten canoe still lay there quietly. From the outside, it looked truly ordinary,
but Shi Ming knew that this canoe was very likely a Wandering Ship!
One of the 100,001 Wandering Ships in the entire world!
How precious!
He moved closer and took out the reward he had received for bathing in the Xuanwu Blood from his system inventory: the [Gold-level Wandering Ship Key].
He carefully searched the bow of the canoe and, sure enough, found a hole that was so clogged with sand and dirt it was hard to make out. He carefully cleaned out the debris and inserted the Gold-level Wandering Ship Key into the hole.
[BEEP.]
A panel appeared in front of the golden key.
[Attention: This key can only crack Bronze, Silver, and Gold-level Wandering Ships. It cannot crack General or King-level Wandering Ships. A forced crack attempt will damage the key and render it unusable.]
[Analyzing Wandering Ship grade... Identification: Gold-level]
[Crackable. Consume one key-cracking charge to crack this canoe's ownership system and become its new master?]
[Remaining Cracks: 3]
"Yes!"
Shi Ming didn't hesitate.
To Shi Ming's surprise, this ordinary-looking canoe was actually a Gold-level Wandering Ship! The third tier among all Wandering Ships! And it was just within the key's capability!
Even a Bronze-level Wandering Ship was already exceptionally precious, to say nothing of a Gold-level one!
'This time, he'd really stumbled upon a major treasure!'