Monster collectors on the cross-platform

Name: The Witch's Sugar Jar (Blue)

Type: Consumables

Weight: 2.5 kg

Effect: The Witch's Sugar

Description: A legendary candy jar accidentally created by a witch. It refreshes with 10 candies every day, the flavors and effects of which are unknown.

Candy? Huo curiously scooped one out of the candy jar and put it in his mouth.

Hmm, it's spicy. Huo even opened his panel to see if there were any changes.

At the bottom of the panel, there is an additional buff: Strength +1, lasting for 1 hour, effective only for Strength below 15.

No effect? ​​Huo scooped up another one and popped it into his mouth; this time it tasted like dead fish.

To test the effect, Huo even endured the disgusting smell of dead fish and didn't vomit. After waiting for a while, he didn't find anything different, but the Comprehensive Network upgrade popped up.

[Overall Network Upgrade: You have been cursed with the Frog Curse (lasting 1 hour). Physical condition assessment in progress, assessment passed, exemption granted]

Another one had no effect, but Huo still refused to give up and ate all the candies in the candy jar one by one.

The experiment results weren't very good. The candies came in all sorts of strange flavors, but the candy's power hadn't worked on Huo even once.

Ultimately, it was just a blue item, and it had no effect on Huo, who had a constitution of 17 points. It could only be used as a toy for amusement and pranks.

After putting away the three items, Huo also selected some good-looking gems and gold and stuffed them into his spatial backpack.

The sky outside had already darkened, and Huo was not in a hurry to continue his journey. He took out some food on the spot and planned to spend the night in the treasure room.

While eating dinner and watching "Don't Cry After a Divorce," the capital city was unusually quiet tonight.

Chapter 39 Going to the Island

The next morning, Huo bid farewell to the quiet city, knowing he would never return.

Huo's target this time was still the nearest port city, Reef Green City. Perhaps because Yi Cuisi did not want to attract too much attention from other countries, Reef Green City did not fall into Yi Cuisi's hands.

Unlike last time when he rode a horse, this time Huo could only rely on walking.

Without the need to practice riding skills, Huo could run at full speed much faster than when riding a horse.

Less than a day later, Huo returned to this relatively prosperous port city.

News of the complete annihilation of the inland cities of the Principality of Taylor may soon reach here. I wonder if the city will still be as peaceful and prosperous as it is now.

Huo sighed twice, but had no intention of interfering. He opened the chat group to see if there was any news about the secret realm.

There are still quite a few secret realms, and Huo has seen signs appearing in at least five places in the group chat.

Two of the secret realms will open within a week. Huo also compared their locations and estimated the speed of the merchant ships, discovering that he could not reach these two places before they opened.

Of the other three locations, one is quite unique. While the other four locations are all within the spheres of influence of two empires or federations, this location is near Freedom Island.

Freedom Island is a special island that does not belong to any faction. It is a melting pot of people, and members of any faction may appear on the island.

The largest group on the island is pirates, which makes Freedom Island very chaotic, with people dying in the streets and alleys every day.

At the same time, Freedom Island can be said to be the area with the highest concentration of extraordinary beings in the world of "Treasures of the Sea". The island naturally has a lot of good things, but most of them are already owned.

Huo learned all of the above information from the chat group. It has to be said that the existence of the chat group is of great help to the players.

The integration, sharing, and analysis of real-time information help players gain a significant information advantage over natives.

Sometimes, a single key information gap can lead to drastically different results.

After thinking for a while, Huo decided to go to Freedom Island. It wasn't because he was envious of the good stuff that others had, but because he wanted to find the pirate crew that had attacked him before.

Although the pirate crew didn't come for him, they made him drift at sea for so long, forcing him to endure wind, rain, and hardships. Such a deep grudge couldn't be easily forgotten.

Although Huo didn't know the name of the pirate crew, he remembered their pirate flag. On an island like Freedom Island, which was mainly inhabited by pirates, there was a high probability that he could find them.

However, it is not easy to find a merchant ship that dares to go to Freedom Island. Without some strength, going there would just be sending them to their doom.

Huo asked five boats at the dock, but none of them dared to go.

Just when Huo Huan was at his wit's end, a middle-aged man with a large beard suddenly approached him.

"Hello friend, are you looking for a boat to Liberty Island?" the bearded middle-aged man greeted with a smile.

"Do you have connections?" Huo glanced at the bearded man and asked with some curiosity.

"That's for sure, but as for the price..." The bearded man paused, a hint of greed flashing in his eyes.

Huo understood immediately. He pretended to reach into his pocket, but actually took out a gold coin from his spatial backpack.

"Is this enough?" Huo casually tossed the gold coin to the bearded man.

The gold coin reflected a dazzling golden light under the sun, and the bearded man stared at it in disbelief, even forgetting to reach out and take it.

The gold coin fell to the ground with a pleasant clinking sound.

Once he came to his senses, the bearded man quickly lay down on the ground and picked up the gold coins. Ignoring the dust on the coins, he licked and bit them.

"How about this? Is it enough?"

"That's enough, that's enough," the bearded man nodded hurriedly, wiping the gold coins in his hands on his clothes again and again before solemnly putting them into his inner pocket.

"Boss, please follow me," the bearded man said obsequiously, bowing and scraping before Huo Huan as he led the way.

Following the bearded man to the edge of the dock, a slightly old-fashioned warship appeared before Huo Huan's eyes.

Will this work?

"Don't worry, boss, I'll definitely get you safely to Freedom Island," the bearded man assured him, patting his chest as if afraid Huo still wouldn't believe him.

Huo didn't say much, and after agreeing on a time to go out to sea with the bearded man, he returned to the hotel.

The bearded man's warship was quite different from ordinary merchant ships; it looked more like a pirate's vessel. However, Huo didn't seem to care at all. Perhaps this was a case of skill and daring.

At the appointed time, Huo arrived at the agreed-upon location at the dock.

The bearded man accepted the money and kept his promise; the warship remained at the dock, perhaps hoping to get more gold coins from Huo.

Once Huo had boarded the ship, the bearded man's ship quickly weighed anchor and set sail.

Despite the bearded man's old boat, it moved almost like an ordinary ship, and was even faster than a merchant ship.

The journey was unexpectedly peaceful; apart from the occasional encounter with a few pirate ships, nothing else happened.

Whenever they encountered pirates, the bearded man was able to hit the pirate ship with remarkably accurate cannon fire and then escape by relying on the ship's impressive speed.

They arrived at Liberty Island safely and without incident, and even the bearded man's expected change of heart did not happen.

After successfully disembarking from the ship, the atmosphere on Liberty Island was more somber than in other cities, with pedestrians wary of each other and everyone carrying weapons.

Seeing how wary everyone around him was, Huo also gave up the idea of ​​asking for directions.

Huo began wandering aimlessly around the island and discovered that the most common shops on the streets were taverns, and each tavern seemed to be quite crowded.

After dodging two assassination attempts and three brawls along the way, Huo finally found an inn.

"Boss, I'd like to check in." Huo, who had no other currency on him, slapped a gold coin on the table.

The innkeeper was a small, elderly man with graying hair. He remained calm when he saw the gold coins, simply putting them away without making a sound, and then tossing a key to Huo Huan.

"The innermost room on the left on the third floor."

Huo followed his boss's instructions and went up to the third floor, where he opened the door to his room.

The room was a clean and tidy single room with a spotless floor and bright interior, clearly with good natural light.

Huo walked to the window, through which he could see the dock directly.

This room was probably the best in the hotel, and Huo nodded in satisfaction, feeling that the money hadn't been wasted.

Huo sat cross-legged on the bed and began to arrange the subsequent itinerary.

There's no rush regarding the secret realm; it's still a long way from its official opening. Tomorrow, I can try to find out about the pirate crew that caused my drifting.

Aside from that, Huo didn't have anything else of great importance to do. He opened the mission panel, but there didn't seem to be any missions that were particularly worth doing. After thinking about it, he decided to just let the missions happen as they came. As long as he was still moving around in the world, some missions would be completed unintentionally.

Perhaps influencing players' frequent activities within the open world is also one of the purposes of the comprehensive network.

Chapter 40 Extraordinary

The next morning, after having breakfast provided by the hotel, Huo went out to gather information.

Perhaps it was too early, there weren't many people on the street, but there were quite a few drunkards passed out on the roadside.

Judging from his ragged clothes, it was clear that all his valuables had been stolen.

While wandering aimlessly, Huo hadn't found his enemy's pirate flag yet, but he was spotted by a few thugs.

As Huo walked through a narrow alley, a blond thug brandishing a dagger blocked the alley's exit. Huo glanced back as if sensing something, and sure enough, two more thugs appeared at the entrance.

"Hey kid, new here, huh?" The blond thug, brandishing a dagger, arrogantly approached Huo Huan.

"That's right, what's wrong with you?" Huo looked at the thug's arrogant and self-important attitude and found it laughable.

"What is it? Of course, I just want to borrow some money from you." The blond thug and two other thugs blocked Huo Huan's way, obviously wanting to extort money from him since he was alone and unarmed.

"Hand over the money if you don't want to get hurt, or I'll stab you to death." The blond thug waved his arm in front of Huo Huan, but hesitated to make any further move, clearly only wanting money and not wanting to hurt anyone.

"Money is no problem. Answer me one question, and this thing is yours." Huo magically produced a gold coin and tossed it in his hand from time to time.

The golden luster instantly attracted the attention of the three thugs, and each of them unconsciously revealed a greedy look in their eyes.

The blond thug was the first to regain his senses. Seeing Huo's display of skill, he realized that Huo was no ordinary person. He quickly put away his dagger and put on a fawning smile.

"Big brother, feel free to ask me any questions, I'll answer them to the best of my ability." Although they didn't know why the blond thug changed his attitude so quickly, the other two thugs clearly trusted him and stood by without saying a word.

"Do you recognize this pirate flag?" Huo asked, drawing on the wall with his finger. With his expertise in painting, Huo's portrait was remarkably accurate.

The blond thug recognized the pirate flag at a glance; after all, there are some things you can't be unaware of if you're making a living on Freedom Island.

"I know, I know. This is the flag of the Warhawk Pirates. It is said that their leader is a very strong superhuman, and they have nearly 10 superhuman subordinates under them. They are among the top ten pirate crews."

The blond thug launched into a long-winded introduction of the Warhawk Pirates, revealing all the information he knew.

Huo then carefully examined the size of the Warhawk Pirates' fleet and their approximate movements.

"Alright, you can go now." After confirming that the thug in front of him had no further information, Huo casually tossed the gold coins over.