I fired another dozen rounds, blasting a significant chunk of the coastline into smithereens. And then, I saw it. The most ridiculous, the most pathetic, the most utterly useless projectile I had ever had the misfortune to witness. A [Long-Legged Sardine]. It had probably been alive when it left the cannon, but it had met a tragic, splattery end against a jagged rock. It was stuck there, a monument to a truly spectacular waste of gunpowder. The attack had zero damage, but the humiliation factor was off the charts."What in the ever-loving fuck is the point of this?" I muttered to myself. "Are we supposed to make them die of laughter?" Of course, it was probably just my shitty luck. A luckier man would have fired a goddamn hammerhead shark. But me? I get the incontinent fish.And then, a thought struck me. "Wait a minute… where's Suna?" The ship had been upgraded, I'd been test-firing a new, very loud cannon, and she hadn't even poked her head out to complain about the noise. That was… not normal.I checked her status. Sanity: 49. Crazed state: Obsession. Not good.I burst into the lab. Suna was hunched over the Spider Queen's severed head, her cheeks flushed with the rosy glow of a mad scientist in the throes of a breakthrough. On the table were two glass jars containing two brains, one large and one small. The large one was incomplete, but they both looked disturbingly human."You're finally here!" she exclaimed, her voice buzzing with excitement. "I was just about to call you!"I just frowned, taking in the scene. She was gone. Utterly lost in the sauce."Listen, I've made a discovery that's bigger than a new continent!" she said, her words tumbling out in a frantic rush. "I've found a new, controllable, and selective form of evolution in the Spider Queen! It's not like slow, accumulated genetic mutation! These spiders can consciously modify their own bodies, it's like… editing life itself! I'm calling it Evolution 2.0!"I held up a hand, cutting her off before she could launch into a full-blown dissertation. "Suna. What are you planning to # Nоvеlight # do?""Yang Yi, do you want to evolve?" she asked, holding up a syringe. "This is the Queen's cerebral fluid. With a little more refinement, it should work on humans. We can inject it into our spines and, just like the spiders, we'll be able to attach other limbs to our bodies! Any limbs! We can achieve the next stage of life!"I had a sudden, hazy memory of the Mother of a Million Limbs. Six legs, four arms, and a great, bloated spider body, with other, less identifiable limbs sprouting from it at random. The very memory of it made my Sanity drop by 30 points."Suna," I said, my voice dangerously low. "Stop. This is a bad idea. A very, very bad idea.""Why?" she asked, genuinely confused. "If you don't want to evolve, I can just try it on myself!""You will not!" I roared, the force of my voice making her flinch. "If you so much as try to staple a chicken wing to your arm, I swear to god, I will personally rip it off. Am I clear?"She pouted. "Fine. No need to yell."And then, to my absolute astonishment, she took the syringe and smashed it on the floor. Her Sanity jumped back up to 51. She was back."Wait… I can just… yell at you?" I was dumbfounded."Has the regeneration potion been… enhanced in some way?" a different voice, a male voice, crackled over the ship's comms. It was the captain of the Good Luck. I'd completely forgotten about him. I guess my little de-evolution-based intervention had been more… public… than I'd intended."Everything's fine," I replied, trying to sound nonchalant. "Just a small… science experiment. We're all good here."I hung up, then turned back to Suna. "So, the energy potion?""I have a lead. A few more days," she said."Good. It's late. Go get some rest."She nodded and walked out of the lab. And then, she saw it. The ship. The brand new, upgraded [Nyxstar]."You upgraded to Level 3?""Yep."She immediately started fiddling with the ship's interface, a kid with a new toy. That night, for the first time, the [Nyxstar] had lights. Eerie, green, floating will-o'-the-wisps that danced around the deck. It was creepy as hell, but it was better than nothing. I took the ship for a spin. The top speed was only up by 5 knots, but the acceleration was insane. It was like going from a pickup truck to a sports car.I'd only been driving for a few minutes when I felt it. Another tremor. An earthquake. I looked back at the island with my left eye and saw it. A chunk of the island, a few hundred square meters, had just… sunk into the sea."Huh. So it's a sinking island." Well, whatever. I wasn't planning on staying long.I found a good spot, dropped anchor, and went to my cabin. It had also been upgraded. A soft, albeit old, red rug on the floor. And a new lamp. A skull with a glowing green flame that lit up when you opened its jaw. It was still creepy, but it was an improvement.I flopped onto my new, softer bed and checked the chat logs. Flint and steel were getting cheaper. The Grand Press had a new issue out. I bought it, and sold them a bit of info on the Fleece Spiders for a nice 400-coin profit. I skimmed the paper. The trading section was a bust, though I saw someone had bought that cannibalism book. Good luck to them. The news section, however, was more interesting. A few days ago, a gun had sold for a staggering 120,000 Conch Coins.[Name: White Rose][Type: Treasure][Quality: Treasure][Description: A beautiful, gold-inlaid white revolver. Fires silver bullets that deal minor damage to Abyssal Demons and inhibit regeneration. Can harm incorporeal enemies like ghosts. 5-round capacity, 3-minute auto-reload.]"Jesus Christ," I muttered. Who had that kind of money? The paper also had the coordinates for a new island, a volcanic one, home to a creature called a Magma Slug. They weren't aggressive, but their spit was basically lava. Turns out, the way to kill them was to douse them with a shitload of seawater, which would turn them to stone. Their petrified corpses had a high chance of dropping the recipe for flint and steel."So that's why the price is dropping." The island was on the other side of the known world. By the time I got there, it would be gone. I decided to just buy a set when the time came. No point in chasing it. I had enough on my plate as it was.

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