97: Epilogue of Chapter 97

Looking at the extra 500,000 units of Steel and Gunpowder, Chen Fan nodded with satisfaction.

His gaze moved up again, looking at the gold coin column.

[Gold Coins: 10.26 million.]

Chen Fan's pupils dilated. He rubbed his eyes, unable to believe it.

"Wait, what the hell? Didn't I have over forty million gold coins at the start?"

"Even counting the 2.5 million I just collected, there's only 10.26 million left?"

"Damn it, fighting one BOSS cost me thirty to forty million gold coins?!!"

Chen Fan clutched his chest and let out a wail.

This battle had dragged him back down just as he was about to take off.

Fortunately, because of the energy shield, quite a lot of other ordinary materials remained.

Otherwise, Chen Fan would truly be in tears.

Shaking his head, Chen Fan released all the S-Class Crew Members and above.

"Fellas, the danger is over. Start your performance."

"Yes, Master!"

As soon as the BOSS battle began, they had been put into the space by Chen Fan, waiting anxiously.

Now that they were liberated, they couldn't wait to start their work.

In an instant, twenty Ship Ballistae and ten Gatlings fired simultaneously.

The black lines weren't like the tentacles; a single ballista bolt could pierce through them.

With good luck, one could even kill two birds with one stone.

The Gatlings transformed into fiery beasts, devouring the soft-bodied monsters and mutated fish.

Under Pudge's command, the sea of fire surrounding the warship was also quickly extinguished.

Chen Fan pondered for a moment and released another four hundred fish.

This time, however, he did not provide the tentacle items.

Only 13 tentacle items remained, and he couldn't afford to consume any more.

Fortunately, although these fish had been recruited by Chen Fan, they were still not attacked by other schools of fish.

The only things that would actively attack them were those black lines.

But at this moment, the black lines' attention was entirely drawn to the main ship.

These fish were able to dive down safely.

The Fire Rain shot from the Gatlings lit up the "night."

Time passed slowly, and the sunlight seeping from the sky gradually weakened.

Chen Fan's attention followed the school of fish as they quickly dove down.

When they reached the location where the crystal had exploded, Chen Fan raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Are they fighting over the crystal?"

"No... that's not right! They're tearing it apart!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the blue crystal fragments were destroyed by the entangling black lines.

They split again into countless smaller fragments and were divided up by the black lines.

"Now is the time, go!"

At Chen Fan's command, the more than two hundred surviving fish swarmed forward, devouring the scattered fragments.

This action enraged the black lines.

After the tentacles disappeared, they were the overlords of this patch of ocean.

How could there be fish that dared to snatch their energy?

Countless black lines swept toward the school of fish.

Seeing this, Chen Fan immediately issued the return command.

He didn't expect all these fish to return, but as long as some could make it back, he would make a massive profit.

Many fish were dragged back by the black lines, but a few escaped the deep sea and quickly returned.

Chen Fan sent out another wave of fish to continue their mission.

On the deck, the monsters were gradually being cleared away.

With the help of the S-Class Crew Members, the pressure on Chen Fan dropped sharply.

The results were much better, and the Sailors' cooperation became quite decent.

The Five Women also came out, standing on the deck and commanding their own warships.

Everything was getting on the right track, proceeding in an orderly fashion.

Chen Fan breathed a sigh of relief and opened the regional chat window.

Because the rewards for completion progress were extremely generous, almost all surviving players had upgraded their warships.

Many people had even upgraded to patrol boats.

The remaining players had spent some time upgrading their sailboats and were now also upgrading to patrol boats.

If given a bit more time, District One would see a vast number of patrol boats!

One had to know that the strongest players in other districts currently only had small patrol boats.

Glancing at the number of survivors, Chen Fan's eyelids twitched a few more times.

In just this short while, another twenty thousand plus had died.

Currently, only seventeen thousand plus people remained.

But at this point, he was unable to help.

In such a large sea area, with ten thousand plus scattered players, even if he used Exploration, it would be difficult to distinguish their locations.

As for supporting them with materials, Chen Fan hadn't even considered it.

Even if he took out a million to distribute, each person would only get a few dozen—not even enough to fill the gaps between their teeth.

So, they could only leave it to fate.

Bubbles quickly rose to the surface, and a dense school of fish emerged.

With a wave of his hand, Chen Fan collected the fish that approached into the system space.

Once they spat out the crystal fragments, Chen Fan absorbed them one by one.

[magic dragon crystal core, energy rising.]

[798.]

[831.]

...

[948.]

This round increased Chen Fan's energy by 155 points.

Although he didn't know what this energy represented, it certainly wasn't anything simple.

Watching the energy continuously rise, Chen Fan felt pleasant.

"Continue!"

At his command, the school of fish that had just returned went back to the desperate queue to snatch energy.

The following time passed gradually in a long war of attrition.

One hour.

Two hours.

Three hours later.

The sun gradually set, and the faint sunlight disappeared.

The entire sea area was once again shrouded in complete darkness.

Just then, the world chat channel suddenly began to be flooded with messages.

[District 10000]

"It looks like we're about to clear the stage."

"It's not 'looks like,' we really are about to clear it!"

"Oh my god, I'm exhausted."

[District 10010]

"What a coincidence? We're almost there too."

"Everyone, keep it up."

Countless districts were reporting the good news of their imminent completion; even District 444 stated they were about to clear it.

Sure enough, half an hour later.

[Server-wide Announcement.]

[District 10000, mission completed!]

This one system prompt seemed to trigger a chain reaction.

One after another, news of cleared stages kept coming.

[District 10010, mission completed!]

[District 10086, mission completed!]

[District 486, mission completed!]

[District 666, mission completed!]

[District 985, mission completed!]

...

One district after another successfully cleared the stage.

The remaining districts that hadn't cleared yet regained their confidence when they saw that the leaders of the cleared districts were at the same level as their own leaders.

"Brothers, charge!"

"Charge!"

After a burst of fighting, more and more districts joined the queue of those who had cleared the stage.

After their thrilling completion, they quickly tallied their losses.

There was no cheering, no celebration.

Almost all districts that finished the mission would immediately cast their gaze toward the top-left corner.

They were waiting.

Waiting for news from District One.

One hour.

Two hours later.

Still, no news came from District One.

Furthermore, no matter how they called out in the chat channel, not a single person from District One appeared.

"Could they... have been wiped out?"

*Hiss*... If you told me they were wiped out, I wouldn't be surprised at all."

"Exactly, is that thing even something humans can deal with?"

Just as everyone was letting their imaginations run wild, a startled cry rang out.

"Holy shit!!!!"

"Look at the grid!!!"