The next day, Yang Yi wakes up, slips on his newly upgraded captain's coat, and steps out.The coat was originally a Good-quality item, boosting his Agility by a point, which was already quite strong for Good-tier armor. However, it also came with a huge drawback: a constant drain on his Sanity, unless he possessed a very high Spirit stat. This meant that aside from Yang Yi, few players dared to wear it, never knowing when they might descend into madness.After the upgrade, the coat's appearance hasn't changed much, except the once dark-brown bloodstains are now a fresh, vivid red, as if they were spilled only moments ago. Its properties have been further enhanced.[Name: Bloodstained Pirate Captain's Coat][Type: Relic][Quality: Exquisite][Description: This coat once belonged to a self-important fool.][Agility +2. Wearing it causes a continuous drop in Sanity. A Spirit of 9 or higher grants immunity to this effect.]With the coat on, Yang Yi's Agility stat jumps directly from 6 to 8. But the item's stat bonus can't break the cap of 10, so the enhancement for him is significantly diminished. If his base Agility increases further, the coat's bonus will become negligible."I wonder if top-tier equipment can break the stat cap of 10," Yang Yi muses to himself. He has a way to test it; after all, he has a set of top-tier armor on hand. But the side effect… Yang Yi has no desire to be turned into a hedgehog.He checks the sea chart. He's less than two hundred nautical miles from the island now; its shape should appear on the crystal ball's map very soon. The sea has returned to its calm state, the bountiful spectacle of ten thousand fish swarming now gone. The sweet scent in the air has also vanished. They are, after all, nearly eighteen hundred nautical miles from the Bountiful Sea.He picks up his fishing rod, planning to catch a few fish while they travel. But he fishes for a full hour and doesn't get so much as a nibble. This is the first cast with the Pale Worm Rod, and in this sea, he's never had to wait more than fifteen minutes before.Something is definitely not right.Are there just fewer fish in this patch of ocean?Just as he's thinking, he suddenly gets a bite!Yang Yi yanks with all his might. A pale yellow, somewhat shriveled salted fish is pulled onto the deck, where it lands and goes completely still.[Name: Big Salted Fish][Description: A sea fish that has consumed an excessive amount of salt. It did not die, but instead roams the sea as a salted fish. Edible. It will lie flat and die upon being pulled from the sea, making it nearly impossible to obtain a live specimen. Extremely salty. Recommended for use as a condiment.]"It's an actual salted fish?"Yang Yi is a little surprised—even more so than when he fished a bottle of mineral water out of the ocean.At that moment, the island over a hundred nautical miles away becomes visible in the crystal ball. It's a sizable island with smooth, even edges, completely different from any island he's seen before.After sailing a while longer, the island's full form comes into view. It's a relatively regular circle, over five kilometers in diameter. But out here at sea, a perfectly regular island is anything but normal, unless… it wasn't formed naturally.Yang Yi relays the news to Suna, telling her to get ready. He then inspects their supplies and equipment for the landing. Once he's sure they have everything, he begins to manually steer the Nyxstar towards the island.An hour later, Suna emerges, also changed into her gear, ready to go ashore with him. Yang Yi hands her a large crystal shield and tells her to wear it on her back. That way, if she faces an attack that's hard to dodge, she can crouch with her back to it for decent protection. As for the risk of turning your back on an enemy—there's no need to worry. Yang Yi will deal with them.They sail for a while longer.Yang Yi climbs up to the crow's nest, standing and observing the distant island with a telescope."I really need to buy a better telescope. This thing is worse than my Third Eye for seeing things far away. It's so useless…" he laments.As they draw closer, Yang Yi finally gets a clear look at the island, and his brow furrows deeply.It's a snow-white island. The ground, the plants—everything is white, covered in familiar-looking grit. The environment is very similar to the hallucination he experienced during the salt bath, just not as vast, and the grit on the ground isn't as loose. It's very likely salt, probably compacted from rain or humidity.He watches for over ten minutes but sees no sign of movement. The island is flat, with no trees, only sparse, white branches sticking out of the ground like leafless bushes. They aren't tall, and it's hard to tell if they're even plants at all.Seeing nothing else, he climbs down, hands the telescope to Suna, and periodically scans the island with his Third Eye."You're saying that's salt?" Suna asks."Yeah, I think so.""Then do you know about salt flats, and the Dead Sea?""I know the Dead Sea isn't a sea."Suna shakes her head."On the shores of the Dead Sea, you get this kind of salt crystallization, which forms when the salt concentration in the water gets so high it precipitates out," she says while looking through the telescope. "And one of the reasons the Dead Sea is called 'dead' is because there isn't a single fish in it. It's almost impossible for any creature to survive there. The land all around it is salt flats, completely barren, like a land of absolute silence.""You've been to the Dead Sea?""Once. I cut the bottom of my foot on the sharp salt crystals by the shore. It wasn't fun at all," Suna replies, the memory of the trip clearly not a pleasant one.Yang Yi immediately thinks of the Big Salted Fish he caught earlier. The drastic drop in his catch rate is very likely because of this island. The salinity of the surrounding seawater must be extremely high.He glances at the hull of his ship, checking the Nyxstar's waterline, and realizes it's indeed shallower. Because of the system, as long as the ship isn't overloaded, there's almost no difference in handling, which is why he didn't notice.A salt island. If he could sell the salt, wouldn't he be rich? But then he recalls the unknown lifeforms made of salt from his hallucination. Whatever is on this island probably won't be easy to deal with.After sailing for another half hour, the Nyxstar gradually slows. Yang Yi doesn't rush to shore. As is his custom, he circles the island once, observing its entirety.From a god's-eye view, the thing looks like the bell of a giant jellyfish floating on the sea, with a few branches stuck into it haphazardly. There are no large objects, not even any big rocks; everything is completely covered in salt.

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