What treasure chest monster? Call me the Mysterious Merchant!

Chapter 87: Timing the instantaneous explosion of projectiles is quite reasonable.

The armored shrimp was blinded by the light and lost 80% of its health.

The reporter, wearing the Celestial Dragon headgear to filter out the strong light, only lost 30% of his health.

The advantage lies with him.

"Revive the crisis!"

"Setsukihana!"

"Swallow Returns!"

Two bursts of buffs were applied, knocking the shrimp out of the water and rendering it unable to get up again.

Pick up the flashlight that he had just thrown to the ground in his panic.

The flashlight wasn't turned off, but its brightness was noticeably lower, emitting a soft, diffused light.

The reporter asked curiously, "It's not even lit up. What's this laser thing?"

He patted the tube, removed the cube and put it back in, covered his eyes with one hand and pressed the switch with the other.

Snapped.

The soft glow persisted, as if everything that had just happened was an illusion.

"That's strange!" Reporter 60 scratched his head. "Could it be that it requires charging up, a special attack?"

He pondered that this method of instantly killing monsters might actually require waiting for a cooldown, otherwise the game would become unbalanced.

Let me post something and show off!

The reporter, feeling pretentious, stood still, casually pressing the power button with one hand while typing on the screen with the other.

The players didn't understand what was going on, but Fang Qi, who was tailing them, knew exactly what was happening.

This isn't some kind of charging up; it's the [unstable standard block] unleashing its power.

This thing is the opposite of the original local block; as the name suggests, its output power is very unstable.

Fang Qi estimated that the laser beam just now reached about 50% of its power, which is within the safe limit.

As for anything higher...

boom!

A loud explosion suddenly rang out not far away.

The seawater surged, and silt and sand were thrown up everywhere.

A hooded "Celestial Dragon player" flew far away, his health bar emptied, and lay motionless on the ground.

"9999999, coordinates 65, 35, -1005".

Player 60 was stunned, lying on the ground, with the screen scrolling wildly above his head.

SOS messages also appeared simultaneously on regional channels and forums.

"Reporter 60: Help! I was blown up by a flashlight I found in a blind box!"

"The first time it fired a laser, it instantly killed the armored shrimp. I thought it was awesome, but well, it's unreliable. I don't know what I pressed, but it blew me up!"

"The Spirit of the Book: Here I come, here I come, you lie down first."

After Fang Qi impersonated a player and replied with a message, he drove over openly and held up two signs.

We recycle all kinds of ores, marine life, and rare items!

"Bartering, and the prices are reasonable!"

The barrel design is most familiar to players.

Players can come down from the bottom of the lake, so it makes perfect sense that Fang Qi could come down too.

The sudden appearance of a familiar object nearby energized the reporter, who then began posting frantically on the forum.

"Holy crap, guess what I just saw? That barrel merchant! Someone come pull me out of here! There's a big reward! Spirit of the Book, where are you?"

Originally, no one paid attention to this post. Players ignored him and even wanted to see the show-off make a fool of himself.

When this was announced, they all got excited.

"Coming, coming, wait!"

Not long after, a large group of people headed straight for Fang Qi from the direction of the Alchemy Academy.

The equipment is varied, but the accessories are very consistent: a four-piece set including a flashlight, water, bubbles, and wooden stakes.

"Where are you, reporter?" a nanny called out.

Several numbers popped up from the mud: "1111".

Several players swam over and revived him, but their eyes remained fixed on Fang Qi beside them.

"Let's barter, let's go grind some monsters!"

The crowd dispersed in a commotion, leaving the surrounding fish, shrimp, crabs, anemones, and starfish in the mess.

Until we encountered an elite monster.

The resurrected reporter, number 60, took the lead, eyes tightly closed, holding a flashlight in both hands.

He pressed the switch and muttered to himself, "Ten, nine,..."

The flashlight beam flickered, sometimes bright and sometimes dim, and was somewhat unstable.

"What are they doing?" A fellow player squinted, puzzled.

"Three, close your eyes! One!" In the blink of an eye, the reporter shouted and threw out the flashlight with two "whoosh" sounds.

Everyone instinctively closed their eyes, feeling a bright light pass through their eyelids, followed by a muffled thud.

When they opened their eyes, they saw the elite mantis shrimp lying on the ground, barely alive, having suffered some kind of blow, and still in the posture of fleeing.

Instantaneous explosion?

The reporter actually cut off the instantaneous explosion at 60!

Players were shocked. This deep-sea high-energy flashlight really could explode! So the post wasn't a lie, and it wasn't just clickbait...

"Hmph." Reporter 60 sneered, "You probably didn't notice, did you?"

He took out the last flashlight from his waist and weighed it in his hand:

"I already noticed, this thing is classified as a 'projectile'!"

"Based on my recent arduous research, pressing it continuously for ten seconds will most likely cause the barrel to explode!"

"A projectile?!"

Hmm... Did they use it wrong before?

The players all stopped what they were doing and checked their inventory:

[A deep-sea high-energy flashlight, a throwable object, capable of emitting light of varying intensity; perhaps it could be used for illumination?]

So it turns out the lighting was just an afterthought; it was actually just thrown out for practical purposes?

I don't know why, but the description and effect feel familiar, like I've seen it somewhere before.

"Don't you recognize it? It was Rosie who made the explosives before!" Fang Qi observed.

Whether the system classifies it as a projectile or not, it's consumed quickly, and you can sell it just as fast.

Soon after, the elite mantis shrimp was dragged in front of Fang Qi.

The reporter tentatively asked, "Recycling?"

Fang Qi glanced at the corpse. The elite monster mantis shrimp had an extra attribute compared to the ordinary mantis shrimp: [Double Charge], which seemed to indicate a stronger burst of power.

It should be of some use, so let's give him a treasure map.

It inhaled the mantis shrimp and spat out a waterproof paper that fell to the ground.

"A treasure map?" Reporter 60 picked it up, his eyes wide. So this was the treasure hunt that "Spirit of Books" had mentioned on the forum?

Hearing the noise, the surrounding players crowded over to see what was going on.

The paper contains a simple line drawing, in which you can vaguely see references to the archaeology branch and the rock chimney, as well as an "X" mark.

A standard game treasure map.

Explore the designated locations; you might find unexpected surprises.

After a lively discussion, the group realized that the target point was not far ahead, so they called to each other and swam over in a swarm.

A sharp metal point emerged from the mud and sand.

The players, eager to see the results, grabbed their weapons and used them as shovels, quickly shoveling out 60 "treasures" for the reporter.

[A corner of the central hub, the building materials—perhaps they could be given to someone interested.]

It didn't look like the goods had been shipped, but the reporter, 60, refused to believe it and dug three feet into the ground to make sure there was nothing there before finally giving up.

Dragging things underwater wasn't heavy. He brought back the unidentified metal shell, then took out a few pieces of ore he had casually dug up earlier and put them together: "Submit."

Fang Qi accepted all the offers and returned the reward according to the valuation given by the trading terminal.

Please select the reward: Treasure Map * 0.6 plus 10 Treasure Hunt Points.

Alternatively, you can receive a treasure map * 0.3 plus 40 points.

"There's a decimal point?" Reporter 60 leaned back, his mind suddenly blank. "I'm a esteemed Tianlong player, shouldn't I get a 30% discount?"

"You're a VIP at the Divine Stele, what does that have to do with me, the Wine Barrel?" Fang Qi waved a sign and held it up.

"The adventurer is not entitled to any discounts. Please select your reward as soon as possible."

"Okay, okay, 0.6 treasure map, please." Reporter 60 said casually.

Fang Qi tossed out a piece of paper, hmm...

40% was cut off, just enough to avoid the part marked with an "X".

What a coincidence!