Inside the Witch’s Laboratory.

Yang Yi lay across two adjoining metal tables, undergoing a series of examinations.

"Blood pressure’s 380 mmHg systolic and 200 mmHg diastolic. Are you sure you don’t feel any discomfort?" Suna asked after measuring his blood pressure.

"None, except for not having enough energy."

"Your pulse is racing too, probably over 200 beats per minute..."

After measuring his blood pressure and pulse, Suna pulled out a syringe and, taking advantage of Yang Yi's distraction, quickly jabbed it into his thick arm, drawing out some fluid, possibly blood, or more accurately, fat.

The liquid was a pale pink, resembling strawberry milk.

"Why is it this colour?" Yang Yi asked, surprised.

He remembered that when he removed the armour, his blood was still bright red. But it had become a light pink.

Suna didn’t respond. She injected the drawn liquid into a reagent vial, lifted her silver beaked mask to take a whiff, then closed it back with a frown.

"You’re transitioning into the third stage," she said to Yang Yi.

No further explanation was needed. Yang Yi quickly understood what that meant.

Previously, Suna had fed several long-legged sardines with delicious food and observed their transformation process, which could be roughly divided into four stages:

Addiction, obesity, assimilation, and finally becoming a lump of meat.

The advanced form of that meat lump was likely the Rotwhale.

At present, Yang Yi was somewhere between the second and third stages, since his blood hadn’t completely turned white.

But upon deeper thought, he realised something didn’t add up.

The strangest part was that he didn’t have the Desire for Delicacies debuff, he just felt hungry and could eat anything, without craving gourmet food.

And that made a fundamental difference.

Hunger is a physiological need; it disappears once you're full. Craving, on the other hand, is an addiction to taste and isn’t necessarily linked to actual hunger.

Of course, tasty food is generally more appealing than unpalatable food, given a choice, most creatures would pick the former.

"Could it be that the Glutton’s digestive fluids can digest delicious food without being influenced by the Desire for Delicacies?"

Suna proposed a hypothesis.

If so, then the Glutton’s gastric fluids might also be used to deal with the meat lumps. Further testing was needed.

As Suna fell into deep thought, Yang Yi climbed down from the metal table.

He understood why his experience gain and stamina recovery had accelerated; his body was rich in nutrients that hadn’t yet been absorbed or converted.

With training, those nutrients were reinforcing his body, thus speeding up experience gains.

In that case, the fat in his body wasn’t just fat, it was wealth!

Yang Yi abandoned the idea of asking Suna to surgically remove his fat.

After all, with a werewolf’s regenerative ability, cutting off fat and regrowing it would technically be more efficient than exercise-based weight loss.

Since he knew the fat helped boost experience, Yang Yi had no intention of wasting it.

Once he slimmed down again, his attributes would likely rise across the board, and his body would be even stronger than before.

"Do you have any gourmet fish, the kind with white blood?" Suddenly, Suna asked.

Yang Yi hadn’t gone fishing, and the ones he caught were merely fat, they hadn’t reached that advanced stage.

With no fish to offer, Suna decided to evaporate seawater to extract gourmet crystals, then feed those into the Glutton’s stomach to see if they could derive some new, harmless substance…

Once she got busy, she kicked Yang Yi out, annoyed by his large frame getting in the way.

This suited Yang Yi just fine.

He gladly left and returned to the deck to continue training.

He felt no sleepiness deep into the night, though his stomach kept rumbling.

Only after chugging a large amount of fresh water did the hunger pangs ease a little.

Truthfully, his body wasn’t really hungry, his blood was rich in nutrients, and he had plenty of fat reserves.

He only felt hungry because his stomach was relatively empty.

In medical practice, to help obese patients lose weight, doctors sometimes implant undigestible water balloons in the stomach to trick it into feeling full, thereby reducing food intake.

Yang Yi didn’t have access to that kind of surgery, and his digestive ability was too strong.

As a werewolf, he had developed a scavenger’s digestion, almost nothing was off the table.

But he wasn’t about to swallow a glass ball just to lose weight, right?

Besides, it’s not like he couldn’t endure a little hunger!

This was the confidence granted by his high Willpower stat!

Fifteen minutes later.

"So good!" Yang Yi exclaimed as he ate a piece of white bread.

He decided to save the other piece for tomorrow!

Then he went right back to training.

After another round of squats and shuttle runs, pushing his stamina down to the 30s, Yang Yi collapsed onto the ground to rest.

Checking the chat channel, he saw that the Weekly Report had been released.

Yang Yi went to the ship’s bow to grab a copy, placed one in Suna’s windowsill, then sat down with the other to read.

There was information about the Rotwhale, provided by One-Eye. But since there were no pictures, it wasn’t featured on the front page, instead, it was placed in the Monster Intelligence section.

There was also information about vampires, provided by the Justice Knight.

Due to the increasing number of monsters, the major news agency had started publishing a separate book called The Great Monster Encyclopedia, which was sold as its own category.

It regularly updates information on monsters and aberrations.

Yang Yi flipped through it and found that only the front-page headline held real value.

"So, this is the big news in this week’s issue..."

Someone had been researching the white seawater, doing something similar to what Suna had been working on.

He also discovered that this "delicious" substance could significantly enhance a creature’s physical attributes.

So, he proposed that these materials could be used to strengthen one’s body and potentially ascend to the extraordinary.

"Salt can suppress or even cure the Desire for Delicacies. I’ve already successfully treated one person. I will soon publish a more refined and reliable treatment method!

This time, the Bountiful Sea might allow us to approach transcendence..."

Yang Yi finished reading the article.

The information provider went by the codename Doctor, a newly recruited member of the New World Fleet.

The rest of the content wasn’t particularly useful, mostly just coordinates of a few islands.

But those islands had already been deforested long ago.

After reading the weekly report, Yang Yi felt his energy return.

He resumed his training.

Ever since he ate the Fruit of Bounty, he hadn’t felt any drowsiness, unless he took a sleeping potion, sleep seemed completely unnecessary.

He didn’t sleep at all until dawn.

Even Suna had gone back to her room to rest.

Two days later.

After nonstop training without sleep, Yang Yi’s weight had dropped 160 kg. He no longer looked bloated, aside from a still slightly large belly.

If he lost another 50 kg, he’d no longer even be considered fat.

"Bounty for vampire location coordinates, 100,000 reward upon completion!"

Yang Yi posted a bounty.

He had already issued several, hoping to gather intel.

Unlike the Justice Knight, he wasn’t lucky enough to have a vampire walk right up to him. In fact, up to this point, he hadn’t even encountered a single pirate.

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