Chapter 3: Vehicle Upgrade Conditions, Crystal Core

"I heard it!"

Lily Rhodes opened her eyes, which were filled with excitement.

She patted the turtle shell beneath her. "Let’s head forward, Shelly. There’s a Treasure Chest and a school of fish over there."

With any luck, she could extract a Crystal Core from the Treasure Chest. If not, she could still fish.

While on the move, Lily opened the chat interface and began lurking. She noticed that other players obtained their Treasure Chests by either scavenging them directly from the sea or fishing them up with a rod.

[Who’s got wood? I can trade fish meat for it!]

Lily’s attention was drawn to this trade request. "Wood?"

She exited the chat and checked the trading channel. A multitude of new items were now available for barter. The majority of listings offered fish meat. Aside from the desperate requests for water, the most commonly traded materials were wood, iron blocks, and straw.

Lily scratched her head as she browsed the listings. What were these things even used for? Could they be for upgrading vehicles?

But as she glanced down at her own vehicle, which was steadily paddling forward, she realized that wood, stone, and straw didn’t look like materials that could upgrade a turtle. However, that so-called Crystal Core sounded highly suspicious.

She had searched all over her system panel but couldn’t find any vehicle upgrade requirements. Since she couldn’t find the answer herself, she decided to just ask directly. "Shelly, what do you need to upgrade?"

"Upgrade? Do you mean grow up, little human? I need to eat Crystal Cores to grow bigger," Shelly replied.

"Then how many Crystal Cores do you need to eat to grow?" Lily continued to ask. She thought to herself that her guess was spot on; Shelly’s growth was directly tied to Crystal Cores.

"I just need to eat ten more Crystal Cores to grow up!" Shelly said cheerfully.

Hearing this, Lily didn’t share the turtle’s easygoing optimism. Based on Shelly’s description, obtaining Crystal Cores would be vastly more difficult than scavenging wood, iron, or straw. So far, she hadn’t caught a single fish, let alone any large sea creatures that might contain a Crystal Core.

For now, her only realistic way of obtaining a Crystal Core was probably through Treasure Chests. As for trading for one, she would need to offer something highly appealing. Otherwise, why would anyone bother trading with her? Crystal Cores were obviously extraordinary items. Unless she offered something equally scarce, no one would be willing to make a deal.

A while later, they finally arrived at the Treasure Chest’s location. Unfortunately, the chest was submerged underwater, meaning she had no choice but to reel it in with her fishing rod.

Lily cast her hook and waited quietly. They only had a seven-day grace period to gear up safely, so every second counted.

While waiting for the Treasure Chest or a fish to bite, Lily opened the chat channel once again.

The world channel was still refreshing at a rate of dozens to hundreds of messages per second. It was impossible to read anything clearly. With billions of people online simultaneously, this chaotic flood of text was hardly surprising. She then shifted her focus to the regional and proximity channels.

The proximity channel remained dead silent. It seemed this stretch of ocean was far vaster than she had imagined.

In the regional channel, however, people were already showing off their awakened Talents.

[Haha! Your daddy here awakened an A Level Talent, Navigator! I’m gonna conquer this entire ocean!! Hahaha!!!]

A crowd of flatterers immediately chimed in below, kissing his ass and calling him a boss.

[My awakened Talent is a D Level strength enhancement. I’m stronger now, but my appetite went up too. I’m so starving I could eat a whole cow.]

[I’m a bit better off than you. I got the C Level Talent, Water Mastery. It makes me swim faster and hold my breath longer underwater. But fuck me, I’m a total landlubber! I don’t even know how to swim!!!]

[It seems like almost all the awakened Talents right now are C Level or D Level. There are only a few A Levels. Has anyone awakened a higher Level Talent, like S Level?]

[No idea, haven’t seen a single one. There were a couple in the world channel, but they got pushed up before I could even read their names.]

[You’re a badass, bro. How the hell can you even read the text with how fast the world channel refreshes?]

[I’m a professional!]

Lily watched the chat for a while. Everyone was discussing Talents, and the vast majority fell between D Level and B Level. C Level was the most common, though the other Levels weren’t exactly scarce either. The transition from B Level to A Level appeared to be a major bottleneck. From what she could see, the number of people who achieved an A Level Talent wasn’t even one-tenth of those with a B Level Talent. Higher Level Talents were exceedingly rare.

Right then, she felt resistance tugging from the other end of her fishing rod. She quickly dragged her eyes away from the chat and began reeling in the line.

A moment later, a Bronze Treasure Chest, completely tangled in seaweed, was hoisted out of the water. Lily opened the Treasure Chest, revealing its contents before her eyes.

[Sturdy fishing net: A sturdy fishing net. Works better than a fishing rod.]

Aside from the fishing net, there was also a box of Sharky chocolate wafer bars. That’s right—an entire box, not just a single bar. It contained a full twenty-four chocolate wafers.

Lily’s eyes lit up at the sight. Her food problem was temporarily solved! Chocolate bars were packed with calories. This stash would last her quite a while. It was just a pity there was no fresh water.

Lily licked her somewhat parched lips. She only had a single five-hundred-milliliter bottle of mineral water in her inventory, and once she drank it, it would be gone. "No, I need to hold out a bit longer."

She temporarily set the Bronze Treasure Chest aside, picked up the fishing net, and cast it out with a forceful throw.

There were no more Treasure Chests underwater at the moment, but there was still a school of fish.

Feeling the heavy weight pulling at the fishing net, Lily worried for a second that she might get dragged into the sea. To her surprise, hauling it back in was unexpectedly effortless. A faint white glow shimmered across the surface of the fishing net.

After pulling it aboard, she found a lively haul of thrashing fish in various sizes. She unhooked all the fish from the fishing net, feeding a portion of them to Shelly and storing the rest away in her inventory.

She didn’t list them in the trading zone because there was nothing on the market she wanted. There was still zero news about the Crystal Cores she was after, and when it came to water, everyone was desperately short. Currently, the trading zone was flooded with people begging to buy water, without a single person offering any up for sale. The few players who had listed items in hopes of trading for fresh water had left their offers hanging for a long time, yet none had successfully closed a deal.

Having observed this entire situation, Lily simply decided against joining the futile frenzy. Without Crystal Cores, Shelly would just have to rely on these fish to fill its stomach.

She firmly believed that out of everyone from Azurea, someone definitely had Crystal Cores in their possession. It was just that they also knew the value of these items and were reluctant to bring them out.

"I still need to find more Treasure Chests," Lily muttered. Only Treasure Chests could yield Crystal Cores, or at least items valuable enough to trade for them.