Chapter 235-2: Undersea Expedition, Rule Godshift (2) |
After adjournment, the Chamber members left one by one.
Alan also rose and walked along a winding path toward the island’s central area, prepared to take a look at the trading zone, then plan the functions of each area in detail.
He already had a clear conception in this regard.
The most core trading center of the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce was in the central location of Dream Island.
At that time, he and the Chamber brothers had already cleared and developed the area there, leaving an open space.
He planned to design it into an open market, divided into multiple sub-areas to facilitate transactions of different types of resources.
First, a mining resources trading area specifically for ore-type resources.
Second, a spirit plant trading area dedicated to various medicinal herbs and spirit plants. The stalls here would later all need sunshades to avoid damage to some medicinal herbs from sun exposure.
Although the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce would adopt a direct-purchase approach in the future, eliminating the problem of spirit materials getting damaged after landing on the island, there had to be a process of building trust beforehand. In the early stage, transactions still needed to be conducted through public sale.
Finally, a special goods area, where refined energy crystals, specialties of alien races, and a series of special goods could be sold.
These four areas would ring the island’s center, located to the east, south, west, and north respectively.
Next, he decided to build a Mercenary Hall to the east of the trading area.
The main function of this area would be task reception.
When the time came, he would set up a large task board here, listing in detail the demand tasks issued by various races, including hunting, gathering, protection, and so on.
Players could dock tasks directly at the trading center, or browse task information through the group chat and then accept remotely.
The core of this area would be the task reception counter. At that time, Chamber members would be assigned to register commission tasks here, then post them in the group and display them on the task board.
It would use human writing, so there was no need to worry about alien races coming to check and exposing the secrets of the issuing races.
In a corner of the hall, he planned to set up a settlement desk.
This settlement desk would not be for players to settle task rewards here upon completion.
After all, with the transaction system, rewards could be issued remotely. Players did not need to come here from afar to collect them.
This spot was mainly to assign a person to interface with players. After task completion, he would be responsible for counting completion status and issuing rewards.
As the mercenary platform developed, the number of staff in this segment would gradually increase.
Besides these two areas, he also planned to build an intelligence reception platform to the west of the trading center.
Then, to the north, a warehouse area to temporarily store resources carried ashore by alien races.
But the warehouse area was essentially for show.
If alien races wanted to store the resources they carried, they would actually be delivered directly into players’ inventories. Building the warehouse area was only to show alien races that the goods were kept here.
In truth, inside there would only be a few players specifically acting as warehouse staff.
Once trust in trade with alien races was established in the future, the warehouse area would be abolished accordingly. This would most likely become a reserved site for Phase Two expansion of the trading market.
Walking across the island, Alan had already constructed a blueprint in his heart for Dream Island’s future development.
—
Two days later.
Azure Star Sea Region.
The sea surface glittered with fine gold under the sunlight.
Suddenly, a dark shadow leaped out of the water and split the calm.
This was a black fish nearly two meters long, with a slender, streamlined body. Its scales shimmered with a deep black luster under the sunlight.
Leaping out of the water, the black fish’s muscles tightened, its tail swung powerfully. Like an arrow leaving the bowstring, it shot dozens of meters before crashing back into the sea, continuing to weave through the azure water, diving toward the deep sea.
The black fish swam at tremendous speed. The current parted along its sides, forming fine strings of bubbles.
Its dorsal fin sliced the surface like a blade. With a slight tilt of its body, it nimbly skirted around underwater reefs and seaweed.
After swimming a distance, the black fish flicked its tail sharply, and its body once again rocketed toward the surface.
It burst through the water and rose into the air, gliding forward.
Sunlight spilled across its wet scales, refracting dazzling brilliance.
Its figure traced a graceful arc in the air before crashing back into the water, splashing a spray of crystalline droplets.
“Hahaha, as expected, the Extreme Speed Inherited soul is still the most exhilarating.”
Shuttling through the sea, Zhou Li’s mood was buoyant. Under his control the tail kept swinging.
With a light tremor of his body, the black fish’s speed under the Extreme Speed Inherited soul surged. His body became a streak of black lightning, carving invisible trajectories through the seawater.
After transforming into the Extreme Speed form, his perception in the water became preternaturally keen.
At this moment, a dense coral reef appeared ahead.
Zhou Li showed no intention of slowing. His body tilted slightly, and his dorsal fin cut the water like a blade, threading nimbly through the corals.
Suddenly, his gaze locked onto a school of silvery white fish swimming not far away.
Zhou Li snapped his tail and instantly accelerated toward the school.
Sensing danger, the fish scattered in panic, but their speed was nothing before Zhou Li.
His body drew a graceful arc through the water as he easily caught up to one of them and opened his mouth to swallow it in one bite.
“Fresh.”
Grabbing a quick buffet on the go, Zhou Li continued on his way.
Half a day ago, he had received notice from the Vice Guild Leader that the Chamber had purchased a piece of intelligence provided by an alien race.
Members of the Silver Throat race said they knew where there was information on a territory node.
The intelligence was finally settled at a purchase price of 8,374 sacrificial power.
But before verifying the intel, the Chamber gave the Silver Throat race an advance of goods from the shop worth roughly 800 sacrificial power.
His current task was to go to the coordinate location provided by the Silver Throat race and verify the authenticity of the territory node intel.
As a monster build player, using a vehicle was out of the question.
Thinking that he would often be shuttling through the sea in the future, he gritted his teeth and dismantled his Roar Inherited soul, replacing it with the Extreme Speed Inherited soul.
As for the Black-Scaled Serpent embedded in the first slot of his star vein, he definitely could not dismantle it.
This was the starting point of a dream, the driving force behind his choice of the monster build. Even as a matter of faith, it had to be kept.
He summoned the map. There was still a stretch of sea to the marked coordinates.
After adjusting his swimming direction, Zhou Li snapped his tail rapidly. His body became an arrow leaving the string and shot out.
While swimming, he felt as if his body had merged with the seawater. Every scale quivered with joy.
Multicolored coral reefs sped backward in his field of view, and schools of fish scattered in alarm around him.
Sunlight filtered through the sea surface, forming golden shafts underwater that swayed with the waves, as if paving a golden road for him.
Zhou Li could not help opening his mouth. Seawater rushed in with a salty taste, yet it made him feel incomparably refreshed.
“Yah-hoo.”
He let out an excited cheer. The sound became a string of bubbles in the water and rose swiftly.
He nimbly circled a massive black reef, savoring the delicate sensation of the current sliding past his sides. This was a feeling he had never had before.
In the Extreme Speed form, every flick of his tail let him feel the release of power, as if all his worries were being flung behind him.
In this moment, even his heartbeat synchronized with the rhythm of the sea. His emotions were released as his speed climbed.
“This is what freedom feels like.”
He had never understood those who pursued extreme sports.
Skydiving, rock climbing, deep-sea diving… these actions had always seemed reckless to him, full of unnecessary risk.
He still remembered the first time he watched an extreme sports video, seeing those people leap from cliff edges or weave through surging waves. He could not help muttering inwardly.
Were these people crazy? Life is good. Why insist on staking your life on it?
Now, he finally understood.
When he sped through the sea in the form of a black fish, the unprecedented sense of freedom made him feel as if his body had broken free of all shackles.
The feeling of his body slicing through the water even made him tremble with delight.
“Faster.”
Blood boiling, Zhou Li accelerated again.
The Extreme Speed Inherited soul let him savor the beauty of the ocean, a joy that the Black-Scaled Serpent and Roar forms could not bring in the sea.
Especially the Roar Inherited soul, which was constrained at every turn in the water.
Only after switching to the Extreme Speed Inherited soul did he realize how well this soul fit the ocean. He regretted embedding it too late and missing out on so many joyous experiences.
Thinking back to the bitter days of inching along the sea surface with the Black-Scaled Serpent, he felt he had been truly foolish.
Sure enough, clinging to the past only slows your growth.
Following the version is the truest path of growth.
“Yah-hoo.”
With another cheer, Zhou Li abruptly activated the Extreme Speed trait.
In an instant, his scales were sheathed in a film of black microglow.
His tail cracked like a whip. Propelled by an invisible force, his body turned into a streak of black lightning and knifed through the water.
The seawater retreated madly around him, torn open by his head. His vision blurred. He could see only flowing blue light and shadow. In his ears roared the rushing water, as if the whole world were making way for him.
With the Extreme Speed boost, his tail swung at a frequency hard to catch with the naked eye, driving his speed ever higher.
“So fast.” Zhou Li marveled inwardly, grinning uncontrollably in excitement.
At this moment his body seemed to break through some limit. The seawater was no longer resistance but his aid.
As his scales rubbed the flow, a faint hissing rose, as if playing an ode to speed for him.
He summoned the map. He was already near his destination.
Piercing the watery veil, the view ahead grew brighter. After easing his pace, what unfolded before his eyes was an open stretch of sea.
There were far fewer aquatic plants and animals here.
He noticed while swimming that the seawater temperature in this area had risen, and its density had obviously decreased.
Continuing toward the target, he suddenly felt the current turn violently turbulent, as if an invisible force were tugging at him.
Looking up, a massive underwater vortex had appeared ahead.
The water around the vortex spun furiously, lifting countless tiny bubbles into spiral ripples, like silver ribbons dancing.