Within the safe waters, the areas untouched by the white seawater or the sweet-scented air were shrinking rapidly, and in no time, the entire safe zone would completely disappear.

A massive number of players had crammed into this area, making their final preparations, mainly stocking up on food, sea salt, and various supplies.

As a result, player density within the zone spiked sharply, and conflicts followed.

Incidents of violence occurred frequently, and there had even been several large-scale naval brawls, eventually halted by intervention from the fleet.

Yang Yi learned all this through the chat channel.

He himself hadn’t been involved.

Based on calculations, by the time the Nightmare Star returned to the safe zone, it would already be caught between the black fog and the Bountiful Sea, and the zone would be gone.

So, starting a day ago, Yang Yi turned around and stopped retreating, switching to a slow advance at a speed of 20 knots, matching the pace of the black fog.

He activated the lookout platform to scan the surrounding seas, with no island coordinates detected.

“Height: 189 cm, weight: 146.7 kg.”

Yang Yi checked his status.

After three days of sleepless training, he had successfully lost weight. His condition had shifted from obese and bloated to merely overweight, and his attributes had improved significantly.

But now that the Fruit of Bounty had been fully absorbed, Yang Yi began to feel sleepy again. He had slept three hours the previous night.

His nightmare remained the same, he dreamed of eating Suna, with the exact same lines and scenes.

Yang Yi took mental note of the dream. He needed to stay alert and avoid letting that outcome ever occur.

After his morning workout, he checked his status panel and found he had lost another 0.7 kg. However, his rate of weight loss had clearly slowed down, and so had his experience gain.

That suggested his body had nearly absorbed all available nutrients.

He opened his status panel:

Yang Yi:

Path: Corruption [ 17%] / Book of the Spider / Charred One / WerewolfCondition: Overweight (A large humanoid icon in green)Height: 189 cmWeight: 146 kg

Strength: 7 (4914 / 8000)

Willpower: 9 + 1 (607 / , ) [Iron Will Bonus]Agility: 7 + 2 – 1 (3574 / 8000) [Captain’s Coat Bonus, Overweight Penalty]Constitution: 7 (7822 / 8000)Perception: 6 + 2 (2522 / 4000) [Third Eye Bonus]Sanity: 100 / 100Stamina: 64 / 100Vitality: 100 / 100Mana Essence: 10 / 10

Talents: Iron Will, Refuse to Die

Spells: Limb Enhancement, Limb Restoration, Limb Explosion, Ritual of the Spider Mother, Healing of Flame, Burn with MeAbilities: Third Eye, Werewolf Transformation

His attributes had improved across the board. Strength, Agility, and Constitution all went up by one point, with Constitution seeing the biggest gain, it was close to reaching 8 soon.

"Corruption Depth: 17%..."

Yang Yi was very concerned about the level.

As expected… the deeper the corruption, the more his body would undergo new mutations.

Whether those changes would be positive or negative remained unclear, but one thing was certain, he would become increasingly inhuman.

“If only there were a way to reduce the corruption level,” Yang Yi muttered to himself.

Over the past few days, besides training and losing weight, he had also stocked up on supplies.

He replenished his canned bread to 500 units and added 200 more cans of apple preserves. His freshwater supply was also topped up to 500 litres, 200 of which were sealed in a large wooden barrel for emergency use.

After buying all this, Yang Yi's seashell coin balance had dropped to exactly 2 million (down from 2.35 million).

Aside from the money spent on supplies, Yang Yi transferred all the remaining funds to Suna, turning it into research funding.

She was currently trying to isolate and purify the "delicious" substance after it had been digested.

Once processed by the Glutton, the substance lost its addictive properties and turned into a disgusting white paste, rich in nutrients.

However, extracting those nutrients was no easy task.

Just look at what happened to the fat fish that had eaten the paste.

Some experienced bodily collapse, others went insane, biting wildly and smashing themselves against glass tanks in suicide attempts, and some were even broken down by digestive fluids...

So, previously in the lab, this scene had occurred:

“Why are you unaffected?”

Suna suddenly turned to look at Yang Yi, her face tinged with confusion.

“Huh?”

Yang Yi froze.

“You’re the one who made the stuff. Why are you asking me?”

He was completely baffled.

After that… Suna took a large syringe and drew a hefty sample of his blood, then finally found a new breakthrough.

Yang Yi’s lack of symptoms was likely related to his having consumed large amounts of sea salt.

The next step would be to try mixing a specific ratio of sea salt with the "delicious" food before attempting extraction.

It was a tedious process, requiring constant ratio adjustments and careful observation of test subjects.

The final product wouldn’t be ready for quite some time.

Elsewhere in the ocean, at the location of the New World Fleet,

This was still a designated safe zone, temporarily untouched by the sweet-scented air.

But members of the fleet had already preemptively donned odour-blocking masks, iron beak-like plague doctor masks.

The number of fleet members had surpassed 9,000, a massive organization, with busy crew members everywhere you looked.

Everyone had their assigned duties: fishing, farming, security, or sea combat. The latter group had more freedom of movement.

Among the ships, one stood out in particular, the Farmer, now upgraded to Level 4.

After the upgrade, the Farmer had become especially massive. Its hull was divided into five tiers, each with farmland for planting. The harvest rate was incredibly fast, requiring people to constantly plant and reap crops.

Inside the ship’s hull were additional structures like food processing stations. So all in all, this ship was a mobile super agricultural base and food factory.

Shen Guanquan was currently reviewing this newly upgraded Level-4 ship, reorganizing its personnel to improve work efficiency.

He wasn’t a tyrant, he understood the importance of balancing work and rest. He was merely enforcing a three-shift rotation.

In a safe environment, they should be maximising production to prepare for what's coming!

No one voiced opposition, because the people in the rear only needed to produce. It was those on the frontlines who had to risk their lives.

Anyone unhappy could request a transfer or even leave the fleet entirely, and those who left would still receive a departure package, enough to last them at least a week with food and water.

Just then, the captain of the Ironhead, Zhao, walked over with a stormy expression on his face. He ignored the two large, helmeted, black-uniformed guards flanking Shen Guanquan.

“Boss, aren’t you giving that doctor way too much freedom?” Zhao got straight to the point.

After all, the number of deaths caused by that doctor’s human experiments had already surged past 200.

Even though all those people had willingly volunteered...

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