"Follow me."

Little Crow said. As the ship’s medic, she usually walked in the middle of the formation.

And as her assistant, Chen Qi was better off sticking close at all times.

"Mm."

Chen Qi followed Little Crow to the bow of the ship, then climbed down the rope ladder to the Rift on the island.

On this utterly silent island, the Rift resembled a monster’s gaping mouth, quietly waiting for everyone to walk into its trap.

As the captain, Blackeye took the lead. He gripped his black saber and stepped into the gaping maw without hesitation.

Thanks to his rousing speech, most of the crew were hyped up to the max—aside from Chen Qi, Little Crow, and a few others.

If the Hunter’s treasure really existed, then this Rift was definitely hiding something terrifying...

Chen Qi took a deep breath, reminding himself to stay alert.

Even though Deep Sea Affinity made him immune to Sea Beast attacks, this ocean world still had many monsters that weren’t Sea Beasts.

"Don’t be afraid. It’ll be fine..."

Little Crow, walking ahead, glanced at the enormous Rift and said to Chen Qi before stepping down slowly.

Chen Qi also carefully descended along the rugged stone wall.

The surroundings grew darker and the entrance narrower. Faint sounds began to drift through the air.

No party limit, no unique Lamp’s Insight—this must be a standard Rift... Chen Qi thought to himself.

According to New Sun’s rules, many Rifts would reveal different clues depending on the level of a person’s Inspiration.

Some even had party size restrictions and unique rule sets.

Generally speaking, Rifts with no rules were the best for farming monsters.

As he moved deeper, a prompt appeared.

【You have entered the Sea Beast Cavern.】

Chen Qi lifted his head slightly. A cavern opened up before his eyes.

The space inside was unexpectedly vast. The stones on the ceiling sparkled with crystal-blue light, and the air was heavy with salty sea wind and the stench of marine life.

He could even hear faint roars from Sea Beasts.

【Your Inspiration is being assessed...】

In Rifts, the higher your Inspiration, the more likely you were to receive special Lamp’s Insight prompts—clues that could help clear the Rift.

His base Inspiration was slightly high—35, more than three times the average person’s.

【Assessment successful.

Sea Beast Cavern:

Rift Distortion: 0% (This Rift has been handled and does not show signs of spreading or warping the world.)

Aspect: Void (The cavern has been damaged and seemingly holds little of value to explore.)

Description: A Sea Beast cavern, situated between the deep sea and the land. Creatures surviving here treat it as their monster lair.

Lamp’s Insight: In your Inspiration, you vaguely see a turquoise chest at the far end of the cavern wall, glowing faintly beneath a pair of crimson eyes.】

Just like a dungeon intro screen... Chen Qi’s eyes lit up. He’d seen similar interfaces in many games.

But seeing one appear in real life was still pretty amazing.

Rift Distortion at zero...

According to New Sun’s settings, the initial distortion chance of a Rift was around 10%. Each time it was cleared, that rate would drop until it hit zero.

That meant many powerful people had explored this Rift already.

In other words, even after multiple attempts, no one had gotten that chest...?

That chest in the Lamp’s Insight was likely the Deep Sea Hunter’s treasure Captain Blackeye mentioned.

As Chen Qi pondered this, he followed the main group deeper.

"First time in a Rift—how does it feel? What’s your Inspiration like? Did you get any special Lamp’s Insight?"

Little Crow turned back to look at Chen Qi, who was deep in thought.

"Uh... yeah... I got an insight, and I could hear the monsters growling..."

Chen Qi whispered back. He didn’t hide it—this wasn’t something that needed to be kept secret.

He could clearly sense more and more breathing sounds.

And those sounds were getting closer and closer.

"You could sense that... Your Inspiration’s pretty high."

Little Crow was mildly surprised. This new assistant of hers kept giving her pleasant surprises.

"High Inspiration is a good thing.

If we make it out of here, I can teach you a meditation technique. It can further enhance your perception—maybe even open a third eye."

Little Crow gave a slight smile. She was already thinking ahead to what to do after clearing the Rift!

Please stop jinxing us with those flags...

In this creepy, drafty environment, Chen Qi couldn’t shake a bad feeling after hearing the medic’s optimistic talk.

"Medic lady... is there something making noise around us...?"

Chen Qi asked in a low voice, trying to interrupt Little Crow’s jinxing monologue.

"Relax, it’s your first time in a Rift—you’re just inexperienced. This one has 0% distortion.

Usually, the entrance areas of such Rifts are perfectly safe. And besides, my Inspiration tells me—"

Screech!

Before Little Crow could finish, a bat the size of a human head suddenly shrieked and dove straight at them from the rock wall!

The threat kicked Chen Qi’s combat instincts into high gear!

He quickly pulled out the Collector and fired at the bat without hesitation!

Bang!

A bronze bullet shot out, piercing straight through the bat with massive force. Blood splattered mid-air in a crimson burst.

It was just a normal bat monster—not a Sea Beast—and not very powerful.

Chen Qi looked at the smoke curling from his gun’s barrel and let out a deep breath.

【You have slain a Small Bat. Gained 7 Spirituality Points.】

Chen Qi’s eyes brightened at the prompt.

In New Sun, killing monsters in Rifts earned you a special resource called Spirituality Points.

In simple terms, it was like experience points in regular games.

You could use them to upgrade your Transcendent skills from the character panel.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have a Transcendent Class Card yet, nor had he acquired any special skills by other means. Deep Sea Affinity clearly wasn’t something upgradeable with Spirituality Points.

For now, those points had nowhere to go.

Unlike most games, monsters in Rifts didn’t drop a ton of Spirituality Points. And if a monster’s level was too different from your own, you’d get nothing.

Of course, there were exceptions. Some Rifts marked with the tag 【Aspect: Blade】 offered huge kill bonuses.

In general, though, Spirituality Points were earned mainly through Class tasks.

For example, a Physician Apprentice could gain them by treating patients and studying medicine, and then use them to upgrade Transcendent skills.

Still, for now, 7 points was decent for someone like Chen Qi.

Nice firepower. No wonder this gun’s called the perfect starter weapon... He glanced at the Collector in his hand.

"Of course, my aim’s not bad either—"

That was his first live shot, and it hit fast, hard, and dead-on.

Chen Qi glanced at Little Crow.

"Well done. Just as I expected..."

Little Crow gave a small smile, trying to play off the awkwardness of her earlier "no danger" prediction.

Still, she’d seen Chen Qi take down Black Bull before—after using the Yellow Needle—and his performance just now didn’t surprise her.

"......"

Chen Qi was a bit speechless.

To these bloodthirsty pirates, bats didn’t even count as real threats.

The real terror was still to come—the master of this cavern: a Sea Beast.

They continued driving off the bats and carefully advanced deeper into the cave.

It didn’t even take ten minutes before the bat swarm retreated, losing the will to attack.

Getting deeper now... Chen Qi held his gun ready, remaining on alert.

But as the bats fell back, more strange sounds began to echo through the cave.

Splash, splash!

Hiss, hiss!

Strange sounds filled Chen Qi’s ears. He instinctively looked around and thought he could make out blurry figures in the shadows.

They were waiting—for the right moment—

The sounds grew louder, more concentrated—

Chen Qi looked toward the front of the party. That’s where the main combat force of this expedition was.

Up ahead, Captain Blackeye wore a deep frown. He drew his treasured black saber and shouted:

"Stay close and move faster—they're already coming..."