Monster collectors on the cross-platform

[Idle Man in August]: The chess master is trying to take advantage of the situation again. How many times has this happened in the past few months?

[Lou Haicun Chess Master]: What do you mean by picking up bargains? You don't understand. This is free trade.

What followed were some difficult-to-understand terms, such as "economic market" and "anchoring," which made the group members burst into laughter, and the group was filled with a joyful atmosphere for a while.

[Online Professional Businessman - Youcai]: Boss, I'll buy it for 5000. Please add me as a friend.

With Youcai's announcement, the others who had originally wanted to buy immediately fell silent, clearly indicating that the price was already close to the market price.

[Comprehensive Network Professional Merchant - Youcai]: Boss, do you need all 5000 Comprehensive Network Coins? Is there anything else you need?

[Jin Li]: Do you have any attribute potions?

The network currency is meant to be spent; it's better to convert it into real power as soon as possible than to keep it.

I pre-ordered four attribute potions from Youcai, and we'll trade them once Huo comes out of the secret realm.

Four attribute potions were enough for Huo to raise all three of his attributes to 15 points. As for potions that raised attributes to 15 points or more, they were not so cheap.

After emptying the lake water accumulated inside his armor, Huo rested for a while and then resumed his search for the secret treasures within the secret realm.

Perhaps Huo Huan's luck had run out, or perhaps there were some hidden rules restricting him, because Huo Huan did not encounter any more treasures until the end.

He encountered many other treasure hunters, but they mostly just glanced at each other from a distance and then moved on. The young man who ambushed Huo Huan earlier was a minority.

The duration of the secret realm varies, but this one was noticeably short, lasting only a few hours before it began to dissipate.

The disappearance of the secret realm also marks the beginning of another struggle, since not everyone entered the secret realm in the first place.

As the scene before him began to blur, Huo knew that the secret realm was about to end.

When the scene before him became clear again, Huo was already in a random location on Azure Island.

The portal on the sea surface disappeared, and the crowd waiting on the beach immediately began to stir, scattering in all directions to search for the lucky one who had obtained the secret treasure.

"Here, here's one!" Soon, an unlucky lucky person was the first to be discovered.

The lucky one was quickly killed by the crowd's attack, and the secret treasure was exposed to everyone's eyes.

The second battle, centered around the hidden treasure, quickly broke out, with the sounds of clashing weapons and screams filling the air.

"They're here too."

Just as Huo was considering whether to get involved in the mess, he was quickly discovered by the people lying in wait outside.

Perhaps because they saw that Huo Huan was wearing full armor and were wary of his strength, the discoverer merely stared at him without rashly stepping forward.

Seeing that there were more and more competitors around, everyone immediately became eager to join in.

"Kill him and steal the treasure!" Soon, someone in the crowd couldn't hold back any longer and took the lead in making a move.

Despite being surrounded and attacked, Huo remained completely calm. These attackers were just ordinary people who posed no threat to him whatsoever.

Too lazy to even use an axe, Huo directly punched the enemy in front of him, sending him flying ten meters away, leaving the rest of the people stunned.

"Run! It's an extraordinary being!" someone in the crowd suddenly shouted. The rest of the people scattered and fled in panic. The situation was too chaotic, and Huo did not chase after them.

As time went by, the situation became increasingly chaotic, with people dying one after another, and others running directly to the ship, setting sail, and leaving.

The conflict continued until the early morning of the next day. Dozens, even hundreds, of people died overnight. Combined with those who died in the secret realm, the population of Azure Island was reduced by more than half in an instant.

Having not slept all night, Huo had taken several more lives, and his originally black armor was stained red with blood.

At this point, very few people remained on the island besides the original inhabitants. They were either dead or had set sail overnight. Whether they were fleeing with the treasure or chasing after the person carrying it, Huo didn't know.

After arriving at the tavern and booking a room, Huo took off his blood-stained and sticky armor, fetched a bucket of clean water, and washed himself thoroughly, also cleaning his entire armor.

After putting away his somewhat damaged full-body armor, Huo changed into ordinary clothes and went downstairs to order a table full of dishes.

After a battle, you should treat yourself to a good meal. Although the food wasn't very good, Huo inexplicably missed the food at the Hope Restaurant.

After slowly finishing his meal, Huo randomly chose a boat to board and leave. If he didn't leave today, he might have to wait another month for a boat to come to this remote island.

Once on the deck, Huo, who had very few cowrie shells left, simply pinched off a small piece from his gold jewelry as payment for the journey.

The sea breeze caressed his cheeks as Huo leaned against the edge of the ship and opened the net, only to realize that he had unknowingly completed a task.

[Network notification: Treasure hunt mission completed]

[The conditions for clearing the level have been met; the teleportation array can be activated at any time.]

Treasure Hunt: Seize a treasure from the sea. The mission reward is 1000 experience points and 1000 Zongwang coins.

Chapter 26 Pirates

Huo would naturally not choose to go back now; it would be too much of a loss to go back so easily, as the journey had only just begun.

With a gentle sea breeze blowing, Huo opened Youcai's private chat and traded the secret treasure through the spatial channel, receiving 4 attribute potions and 800 Comprehensive Network Coins in return.

After receiving the four bottles of potions, Huo immediately drank three of them. He would have to wait a couple of days for the remaining agility potion to be fully digested before he could drink it.

Clenching his fists and feeling the power flowing through his body, Huo couldn't help but want to go back to the training room and have a good fight with the clone right now.

"Friend, my name is Gambler, let's get acquainted." Just as Huo was immersed in the improvement of his power, an unfamiliar voice suddenly appeared and interrupted him.

"What do you want?" Huo asked warily, looking at the man in the suit who had suddenly appeared before him.

"Let me introduce myself again. My name is Gambler, and my profession is Gambler. I'm a Level 7 player on the online platform." Gambler took off his hat and bowed to Huo.

"Jin Li, Level 5 Warrior of the Comprehensive Network, now you can tell me why you've come."

"Of course, I'm here to find my teammates, because we're in big trouble later," the gambler replied with a smile.

"How did you know?" Huo asked, his face full of suspicion.

"I guessed. How about we make a bet?"

"No need for a bet, I have never gambled in my life," Huo Huan refused with a righteous expression. As a model youth, Huo Huan was sworn to be at odds with gambling and drugs.

Huo thought about the gamblers' invitation to team up for a while before agreeing, since it was just about helping each other out on the ship, and it was only a verbal agreement.

After agreeing to team up, the two started chatting. Being both gamers, they weren't worried about not having anything to talk about.

The gambler is quite an oddball. He's been in the big world for over a year, but he hasn't done many of the online missions. Instead, he's been searching the whole world for casinos to gamble.

Because his skills weren't great and he often cheated, he was frequently chased and beaten by casino staff, but he always managed to escape unscathed thanks to his own abilities.

If I get blacklisted by a casino, I just move on to another one. As a result, I've basically been blacklisted by casinos all over the world.

After the two had only exchanged a few words, the gambler suggested playing a couple of rounds. Even after Huo Huan firmly refused, he persisted and pestered him for several tens of minutes. Finally, with no money to be won, Huo Huan agreed to play a couple of rounds with him.

"You really like cheating, huh?" Huo scoffed as he caught the gambler cheating for the third time. No wonder he was being chased and beaten; his skills were so bad, yet he kept thinking about cheating.

"What's the point of gambling if you don't cheat?" the gambler said matter-of-factly, showing no shame whatsoever for being caught cheating.

"Don't you get tired of gambling after all these years?"

"No way, I started gambling when I was 5, became the God of Gamblers at 19, and then my enemies framed me and crippled my hands. If I hadn't been chosen by the online gambling platform, I'd probably be dead in a ditch by now."

"Don't you regret it?"

"Why regret it? I'm alive and well now, and it was because of this gamble that I was able to reach the top and enjoy the view."

Huo was momentarily speechless. Huo, who never gambled, couldn't understand the other person's feelings. Every penny Huo had earned in his previous life was hard-earned money. What was the difference between gambling it away and throwing it away?

"What's the biggest gamble you've ever made?" Huo asked again after a moment of silence.

"...I'm betting she loves me."

"So, did you win the bet in the end?"

Does winning or losing matter?

After a long silence, Huo quietly finished playing his cards, got up, and took his leave.

As for love, Huo, who has been single for a long time, doesn't really understand what love is, but pursuing strength is never wrong.

"Beep beep" The next morning, Huo Huan's door was knocked on very early.

"What's wrong?" Huo looked at the gambler knocking on the door with some surprise.

"Trouble is brewing," the gambler said gravely, looking toward the back of the ship.

"Trouble?" Huo looked at the gambler's direction with some confusion, but seeing nothing, he glanced at the gloomy sky. "Is a storm coming?"

"It's not a storm, look behind you," the gambler said, taking a pair of binoculars from his spatial backpack and handing them to Huo Huan.

Taking the binoculars, Huo looked in the direction the gambler pointed. Through the lens, he saw a ship flying the skull and crossbones flag rapidly approaching Huo's direction.

"Pirates? Pirates are quite common in this world."

"That's right, but my intuition tells me that this group of pirates is unusual; there might be some experts among them."

"A master?" Huo had always fought monsters and had never fought against human superhumans. For some reason, he was actually eager to try.

"Let's notify the captain first." Seeing that the pirate ship was still some distance away, Huo didn't have any good preparations, so he thought it would be better to notify the captain, since those who could sail at sea would not lack military force.

News of the pirate attack quickly reached the captain's ears. With the captain's orders given, the sailors on board began to get busy. Despite being just a merchant ship, it had quite a few cannons.

The two ships closed the distance rapidly, and once the pirate ship was within range of the cannons, the captain decisively ordered to open fire.

"Boom boom boom!" Several cannonballs were fired at the pirate ship, most of which hit empty air. Occasionally, one could hit, but it was blocked by the people on the ship.

The merchant ships were firing continuously, but the pirate ships, contrary to their usual practice, did not use their cannons. Instead, they kept approaching, wanting to engage in boarding action.

The two ships were at different speeds, and the merchant ship's cannon fire slowed them down, so the pirate ship soon caught up.

"Men, get on board!" Several grappling hooks were thrown from the pirate ship and attached to the merchant ship.

Some pirates climbed directly onto the merchant ship using the ropes, while others brought long planks and placed them between the two ships.

The sailors on the merchant ship were prepared and drew their knives to stop the pirates. In an instant, the pirates and sailors were all locked in a fierce battle, and people kept dying or falling into the sea.

Seeing this, Huo was somewhat puzzled. It was too decisive; there was no negotiation at all. It was as if the two sides had a life-or-death feud.

However, while considering this, his extraordinary senses were triggered, and a blurry shadow swept past Huo Huan, its target seemingly a gambler not far behind Huo Huan.

"Watch out!" Huo warned, then slammed his shield down on the gambler.

The gamblers behind also sensed something was wrong. They pressed their left hand against their hats, made a nimble turn, and disappeared from the spot.

With a "clang," the shield flew halfway through the air and then mysteriously stopped in mid-air. Suddenly, a slender figure dressed in black appeared in the previously empty space.

The man in black glared angrily at Huo Huan, then disappeared from the spot.

In Huo Huan's perception, the man in black had not disappeared, but had circled around slightly, attempting to launch a sneak attack from behind Huo Huan.