Navigator: I have a double six-story house

After confirming that Wang Yao was alright, the three returned to the Sunshine.

Selena went into the kitchen, and a moment later the cabin was filled with the aroma of roasting meat.

Su Qing sat at the dining table, with six dishes, three bowls of rice, and a pot of soup in front of her.

He didn't speak, but just kept putting food into his mouth like a machine, at a steady frequency, without stopping.

Wang Yao on the other side was even more exaggerated, holding a bowl in each hand, eating rice with the left hand and drinking soup with the right, his cheeks puffed out like a squirrel hoarding food.

"Ugh!" Wang Yao uttered a vague exclamation with his mouth full of food.

Selena sat beside them, elegantly cutting her steak with a knife and fork, but at an extremely fast pace, stuffing pieces of meat into her mouth at a frequency no slower than the two men.

The three people did not communicate; the only sounds were chewing and swallowing.

Having had their energy depleted for nearly two days on Hungry Island, they now need to replenish it all.

Selena pulled out a small mountain of ingredients from her bag: deer legs, whole tuna, cheese wheels...

They acted as if nothing was going to happen.

According to her, "Anyway, the next stop is Midway Island, where we can resupply."

This meal took a full two hours.

When Su Qing put down her chopsticks, there was nothing left on the table.

He leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes for a moment, and felt the emptiness inside him finally being filled.

At the same time, a warm power surged within his body, spreading along his limbs and bones.

A system notification appears at the edge of the field of view.

[Level Up: Lv5 → Lv6]

I'm level six now. I can see my attributes and health bar before I reach level ten. There are still four levels to go.

He looked at Wang Yao across from him.

Wang Yao let out a burp, stretched, and the bandage around his waist was tugged, making him wince in pain.

"Level seven." Wang Yao saw Su Qing's expression and held up seven with his hand. "Now we're finally full."

Su Qing nodded. Wang Yao's level was always one level higher than his. As a front-line tank who could absorb damage, it was a good thing that he was a higher level.

He didn't ask Selena, and Selena didn't bring it up herself.

There's an unspoken understanding between them; her true strength doesn't need to be revealed at the moment, just knowing she's strong is enough.

After eating, the three of them returned to their cabins to rest.

Su Qing lay on the bed, staring blankly at the deck of the upper bunk, with Wang Yao's deafening snoring in her ears.

He went through every word Lin An had said in his mind, as well as the experience of this special instance.

When these pieces of information are put together, it shows that the outside world is far more complex than what he is currently experiencing.

Beyond the beginner routes, there are well-established fleets, organized groups, and resources, even capable of invading lower-level dungeons.

That mysterious meteorite was worth the effort and resources of such a powerful force to seize.

Lost in thought, he fell asleep and slept soundly through the night.

The next morning, the sea was calm, and the Sunny sailed steadily forward in the ocean current.

Su Qing washed her face on the deck. Wang Yao had already moved a chair to sit at the bow of the ship to sunbathe. The bandage around his waist had been replaced with a new one, and he looked to be recovering well.

Selena carried two things out of the cabin.

One is a gray cloth bag, the same packaging as the rewards from previous dungeons.

The other was a fist-sized, deep blue crystal, which was kept separately in a wooden box.

"Open the reward first." Selena placed the gray cloth bag on the wooden table on the deck.

Su Qing glanced at the meteorite fragment, then looked away and untied the bag's drawstring.

The bag contained a dozen or so small cloth bags, each with a label attached.

He opened the first one.

"Lettuce seeds x10"

the second.

"10 tomato seeds"

The third.

"...Pork chop seeds?!"

Su Qing looked at the package in her hand labeled "meat chop seeds" and fell silent.

Seeds that can grow into steaks when planted?

Is this reasonable?

He continued unpacking the bags.

"Hamburger seeds x5".

"Pizza seeds x3"

"Fried Chicken Seeds x2"

Wang Yao leaned closer, glanced at the "reward" spread out on the table, and his expression changed from anticipation to confusion, and from confusion to disdain.

"That's it?" He slammed his hand on the table. "Hell difficulty, almost got me killed in there, and you're giving me the seed?"

"Still the hamburger seed."

"If I plant this, will a McDonald's grow?!"

Su Qing opened all the bags.

There were only seeds, no weapons, no skill orbs, no blueprints, and not even any equipment.

This time, he did not refute Wang Yao's claim that the reward was garbage.

He genuinely felt it was outrageous.

The rewards for Hell difficulty dungeons should be far greater than those for normal dungeons. This is not only stated in textbooks, but also based on his personal experience.

To put it bluntly, the output this time is no different from that on normal difficulty.

Su Qing rubbed her chin, trying to figure out where the problem was.

Selena pushed the wooden box forward and tapped the deep blue crystal inside with her fingertip.

"Because of this."

"The copy has been hacked?" Su Qing asked.

"right."

"Was it caused by Lin An's intrusion?"

Selena shook her head. "It wasn't him. He used a special tool to sneak in through a loophole, so it didn't have much impact on the dungeon's structure."

She pointed to the meteorite fragments.

"It's this thing. It's not a loot from this instance; it's an intruder. But you brought it out of the instance through the instance's settlement channel."

"So the system included it in the total reward value," Su Qing continued her logic.

"That's right." Selena nodded.

"Its value is too high, it has absorbed all the weight of the entire prize pool, and the remaining share that can be allocated is only enough for these seeds."

Wang Yao listened for a while, then frowned. "So we suffered a huge loss?"

"It depends on how you look at it." Selena tilted her head. "If this fragment is worth ten sets of S-grade equipment, do you think it's a bad deal?"

Wang Yao opened his mouth, looked at Su Qing, his eyes shining like a weasel seeing a chicken.

Su Qing didn't speak; he stared at the crystal inside the wooden box that emitted a cold blue light.

The rules of the instance are fixed. If an intrusion occurs and is taken out through the proper settlement channel, it will be counted as valuable, thus diluting other rewards. This logic makes sense.

But another problem arose.

"It's something outside the instance," Su Qing said. "Lin An must have paid a considerable price to be able to infiltrate the instance on my flight path."

"This is something that he, or they, are willing to pay a high price to steal."

"Logically speaking, there shouldn't be anything of this level in the beginner dungeon."

Selena looked at him but didn't reply.

Su Qing continued her deductions.

"How exactly did it end up in that instance?"

Selena was silent for two seconds.

"You'll know the answer once you pick it up."

Su Qing looked down at the crystal; the blue light pulsed rhythmically, like a beating heart.

He reached out, closed his fingers, and grasped the meteorite fragment. A system notification appeared before his eyes.