"Transcendent One-Star?"
Lin Bei's brows furrowed slightly.
He instinctively felt that anything associated with the word "Transcendent" was likely not simple.
For example, the kun bag and Lingbo Treading-the-Sky Boots he currently had were of Transcendent Quality.
Furthermore, their attributes and functions were each more abnormal than the last.
It felt as if they had already exceeded the scope of a normal human's cognition on Blue Star.
Looking at the Attribute Panel, his Life Level did indeed seem to have transformed.
But as for what specific changes there were... Lin Bei expressed that he didn't feel much of a difference.
Compared to his previous self, he only seemed to have become a bit more sharp-eared and keen-eyed.
As for his increase in strength, since he had just boosted his Combat Power by 200 points all at once, he couldn't yet distinguish how much of his strength was influenced by the transformation.
Regarding this, Lin Bei was somewhat disappointed.
He had originally thought that after his life transformed, he would be able to master some incredible and powerful ability.
Now it seemed... he was overthinking it.
Aside from an extra notification on the Attribute Panel, there wasn't even a specific explanation for Transcendent One-Star. Thus, he could only stare blankly at the Attribute Panel, helpless.
"Though I don't know the specific effects, since it's separately noted on the Attribute Panel, it should be very important."
"The reason I don't understand it now might be because the level of the Island or myself is too low."
"Just like the Braves Shop that I couldn't figure out before; hasn't it automatically appeared now that the Island level has reached level four?"
"Anyway, with the system in hand, even if I don't know the specific effects of this transformation for now, I can still thrive."
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Since I can't figure it out, I might as well stop thinking about it!"
"Regardless, for me, my Combat Power has now broken through 1,000 points, and I can easily use the kun bag and Lingbo Treading-the-Sky Boots without any restrictions."
Lin Bei pondered for a moment and let out a long breath, the restlessness in his heart gradually calming down.
He glanced at the kun bag hanging at his waist and the Lingbo Treading-the-Sky Boots on his feet, a smile spreading across his face.
He wouldn't delve into the matter of being Transcendent for the time being.
He only felt that he was terrifyingly strong now. With one punch... well, a conservative estimate would be killing at least twenty Great White Sharks!
Lin Bei closed the Attribute Panel and followed the map prompts to the Braves Shop.
To be honest, he had been thinking about it quite a bit before. Now that it had appeared, he wanted to see for himself what good things were in this shop!
Soon, he arrived at a dilapidated small one-story house in the southwest area of the Island.
Looking at the crumbling walls and the cobweb-covered shelves, Lin Bei could hardly believe his eyes.
A tattered plaque hung crookedly to the side, with a few words scrawled on it. Looking closely, one could indeed vaguely make out the four characters for "Braves Shop."
"This is the Braves Shop?"
"Are you kidding me!"
Lin Bei's expression was stunned; he found it somewhat hard to accept.
He had originally thought that even if the Braves Shop wasn't grand, it should at least have some style.
Who would have thought... it was just this?
Even my beginner's Small Wooden House Warehouse is much better than this, okay?
Enduring the moldy, rotten smell, Lin Bei stepped into the dilapidated house.
There was no contrast; compared to its dilapidated exterior, the interior was even more bare and pitch black.
In the central area, a faint candlelight flickered.
Looking closely, it was actually a decaying small wooden table.
Behind the table, a hunched figure seemed to be hidden in the shadows, making it impossible to see their true face.
"Honored guest, is there anything I can help you with?"
Just as Lin Bei was dazed, a strange and sinister voice suddenly echoed in his mind.
The voice seemed to appear directly in his head, and it was impossible to tell if it was male or female.
"Who are you?"
Lin Bei frowned, his expression serious.
To be honest, he was a bit nervous now.
This hunched figure in the shadows was the first outsider he had seen since arriving in Island Survival!
Nilu was one of his own, a companion he had summoned using a Perfect character summoning card, with maxed-out loyalty.
But the person in front of him was clearly not in that category!
If he had to define an identity for them... Lin Bei felt that defining the figure in the shadows as an "NPC" from a game was more appropriate.
"Honored guest, please do not worry. I am merely an assistant at this Braves Shop."
"Furthermore, what you see now is only a projection of mine, meant to facilitate communication with our honored guest. It poses no threat."
"If you don't believe me, you can open the Survival Bracelet's Life Detection function. I am just a projection without any life aura and cannot cause you any harm."
Hearing this, Lin Bei quickly opened the Survival Bracelet's interface.
Sure enough, there was a Life Detection function on it.
After operating it, the information received was indeed as the other party had said—no signs of life.
But... Lin Bei wasn't buying it!
He even had inconceivable Transcendent Items like the kun bag and Lingbo Treading-the-Sky Boots; if ghosts or something similar appeared, he wouldn't be surprised at all.
Moreover, the Survival Bracelet he held had been on his wrist from the start and could no longer be removed once bound.
Who knew if there was some trickery hidden inside this thing?
What if... the creator of the wristband had left some backdoor in it that could be used against him?
In truth, Lin Bei just didn't want to think too deeply about it.
Because the truth of these matters was a bit too heavy for him right now.
All he could do at this moment, before becoming truly powerful, was to survive step-by-step according to the rules set by the person behind the scenes.
The current world could no longer be judged by common sense at all.
Therefore, he still cautiously maintained a certain distance from the other party.
"Hehe, honored guest... it seems you still don't quite trust me. But never mind, is there anything I can help you with?"
"I want to know exactly what can be bought in your Braves Shop?"
Lin Bei asked straightforwardly.
"Hehe, many precious commodities are listed in the Braves Shop every day. As long as you have enough brave badges, you can buy whatever you desire."
The hunched shadow chuckled and said slowly, "However, your Island's Braves Shop is currently only level one, so the quantity and quality of the goods listed daily might be somewhat lacking."
"But as long as you continue to spend resources to upgrade the Braves Shop's level, the goods listed every day will far exceed your imagination!"
"Trust me, honored guest! The Braves Shop is honest with all customers!"
Hearing this, Lin Bei's eyebrows twitched.
After a few seconds of silence, he asked curiously, "This crappy shop of yours can still be upgraded?"
"Of course! My cra—ahem, my Braves Shop can certainly be upgraded!"
"And the benefits of upgrading are unimaginably numerous!"
"You only need to... spend a tiny bit of resources!"
Seeing Lin Bei's inquiry, the shadow's tone became somewhat excited.
"How many resources are needed?"
Lin Bei pressed.
"Not many. To upgrade the Braves Shop to level two, it only costs one thousand brave badges."
After the hunched shadow finished, fearing that Lin Bei would be scared off by the intimidating amount of one thousand brave badges, it quickly added:
"I know that for you Survivors who have just started not long ago, one thousand brave badges is indeed a bit much, but you must believe that I'm not trying to swindle..."
"Oh, only a thousand? That's really not much."
Before the hunched figure could finish its sentence, Lin Bei spoke in a relaxed tone.
As soon as these words were spoken, the pitch-black room instantly fell silent.
The hunched shadow felt as if its throat was suddenly stuck, unable to continue its speech.
"Hey, what the hell are you pretending for? Don't think I don't know—even if a Survivor performs well in a day, getting ten brave badges in the early stages is considered incredibly lucky, okay?"
"And look at you, you've only just built the Braves Shop. How thick is your skin? You actually dare to say one thousand brave badges isn't much?"
"I only said that casually so as not to discourage you, and you actually took it seriously?"
"I really want to know how such a greenhorn was the first to raise his Island level to four!"
"This outrageous statement is just too damn laughable!"
"I don't know how someone with his personality managed to survive among countless Survivors!"
"Sigh, for the sake of my future... it seems I need to give him a good education!"
Countless thoughts flashed through the hunched shadow's mind in an instant.
Ultimately, for the sake of him being the first among this batch of Survivors to open a Braves Shop, the shadow decided to use reason and emotion to correct his bad habit of acting cool and being over-ambitious!
In this world... people who are too arrogant might be successful for a while, but in the long run... they are bound to fail miserably!
"Ahem, that... stop joking! One thousand brave badges is definitely not a small amount for the Survivors at this stage!"
"I really have to say a few things to you! I said one thousand brave badges was a small amount just to save face for you as a Survivor. To be honest... one thousand is actually not a small amount! On the contrary, it's a very, very large number!"
"You must not be over-ambitious; you won't live long that way! Let me give you an example..."
"Wait!"
Before the hunched shadow could continue, Lin Bei looked at it with a surprised expression and asked in confusion, "I'm not joking. One thousand brave badges really isn't much, right?"
As Lin Bei spoke, he waved his hand. A flash of light appeared, and a pile of brave badges stacked up on the ground.
The scene fell silent once again.
The Hunched Black Shadow felt as if his throat were about to start smoking.
The feeling of having words stuck in his throat... was truly unbearable!
However... looking at the irrefutable evidence of a thousand brave badges before him, he felt like he had a lump in his throat and couldn't say a word.
It seemed... maybe... perhaps... that for the Survivor in front of him, a thousand brave badges really wasn't... much... my ass!
Brave Island only opens at level four!
But generally speaking, Survivors are short on resources and struggle just to stay fed every day. Even the best among them would need at least several Calamity Seasons to barely collect enough primal stones to raise their Island level to four!
In such a short time, even if they had excellent luck and got enough brave badges every day, by the time they upgraded their Island to level four and successfully opened the Braves Shop, having a few hundred brave badges would be considered a lot!
But this guy in front of him... actually took out a thousand brave badges without even blinking?
This is completely unreasonable!
Unless... this kid is a cold-blooded Devil!
Using various sinister methods in just a few Calamity Seasons to kill off a large number of other Survivors and obtain enough brave badges from their inheritance.
Or... this batch of Survivors is just too trashy, and even the best among them took more than ten Calamity Seasons to upgrade their Island to level four. In that case, over a long enough period, it would be somewhat reasonable for the opponent to have a thousand brave badges.
But... for him, neither scenario seemed to be good news.
The Hunched Black Shadow felt like he had fallen into an ice cellar, and for a moment, he was at a loss.
"Damn it... is my luck really this bad? After sleeping for so long, the bound person I encounter is actually a freak?"
"Fuck, what the hell!"
"Bad luck, bad luck, bad luck—!!!"
The Hunched Black Shadow's heart was like dead ashes. Even though he was the first to wake up, he felt worse than if he were truly dead!
"Why did you stop talking?"
Seeing the other party fall into silence after he casually threw out a thousand brave badges, Lin Bei asked with some confusion.
He still intended to see what good things were in the Braves Shop, planning to enrich his Combat resources before entering the Underworld entrance.
What the hell was with the other party's silence now?
Was the network signal bad... or had the projection disconnected?
Or... was this NPC bugged?
"Hey, say something! I'm waiting to shop!"
Lin Bei raised an eyebrow, his tone becoming impolite.
"Ah? Oh... cough cough, I was just spacing out for a moment, it's nothing, it's nothing."
The black shadow snapped back to his senses upon hearing this. After a dry cough, he asked curiously: "I can feel that the temperature around the Island is scorching. Are you currently in the Hot Season?"
"Hot Season? Hmm... it really is quite hot outside, so that should be right."
Lin Bei thought for a moment and then nodded in response.
"Then are you currently in the second Cycle or the third Cycle?"
The black shadow followed up curiously.
The Island Survival World has a total of ten Calamity Seasons, which loop continuously in a fixed order.
Therefore, he calculated that the Survivor in front of him should be going through the eleventh Calamity Season, or... the twenty-first Calamity Season?
If it were the eleventh Calamity Season, he could still barely accept it.
After all, on average, the time taken by the first Survivor of each batch to upgrade their Island to level four was about eight Calamity Seasons.
Although the eleventh was lower than the average level of the top Survivors in previous batches, it was still passable.
As long as he cultivated him well and got a few more high evaluations in the Underworld, they should be able to catch up.
But if the Survivor in front of him was going through the twenty-first Calamity Season... then he felt he might as well just lie flat and wait for destruction.
Rather than waking up from slumber, it would be better to just die.
As for the Survivor in front of him still being in the first Calamity Season of the first Cycle?
That was even more of a joke.
Even the novels circulating among those Survivors didn't write it like that; it was just too unrealistic!
To date, the record holder for a level four Island took a full three Calamity Seasons!
Wanting to upgrade the Island to level four in the very first Calamity Season?
Even a god on earth couldn't do it!
On the other side, Lin Bei was left completely confused by what he heard.
What second or third Cycle? Do you really think I'm playing a game?
"What do you mean? I don't quite understand."
"Sigh, it's like this..."
The Hunched Black Shadow patiently explained the differences between the Cycles and the average performance of previous generations of Survivors.
This time, it was Lin Bei's turn to be shocked.
First of all, he hadn't expected that they weren't the only batch of Survivors!
According to the black shadow, as far as he knew, there had already been over a thousand batches of Survivors!
That was too exaggerated!
Besides that, what Lin Bei was most curious about was the strength of these predecessors.
"You said that the best among those predecessors took an average of eight Calamity Seasons to raise their Island to level four?"
"Yes, I know you feel a bit inferior, but with my help in the future, you will definitely..."
"Why are they such trash?"
However, before the black shadow could finish, he was once again completely stunned by Lin Bei's startling words.
"What's the deal with them? Is our starting difficulty different?"
"According to what you said, I'm only in the first Calamity Season, right? Eight Calamity Seasons... good lord, that adds up to almost two months, doesn't it?"
"Are you sure you're talking about the time it took for the first person in each batch to open the Braves Shop, and not the average time for all Survivors in each batch to open it?"
Lin Bei's series of questions, like continuous heavy gunfire, directly left the Hunched Black Shadow dazed.
"I... I don't know."
"Maybe... I've slept for too long, so I remembered it wrong?"
"Wait a moment, let me check the data."
The black shadow froze and disconnected.
But very quickly, he reconnected and blurted out a "Holy shit!"
"You, you, you, you..."
"Are you fucking sure you're not lying to me? You're really... in the first Calamity Season of the first Cycle? I... you... you must tell me the truth!"
The black shadow's aura was disordered, and he was somewhat incoherent.
"As an NPC, don't you know? You have to ask me?"
Lin Bei was equally surprised to hear this and looked at him in confusion.
"I... I'm not a fucking NPC! Wait... if you insist on saying that, somehow... it feels like there's nothing wrong with that!"
"Pah! Now is not the time to worry about that! Tell me, how many days has it been since you descended into this Island Survival World?"
The black shadow held his breath, his eyes fixed on Lin Bei.
"I just arrived yesterday; today is the second day. Is there a problem?"
Lin Bei said impatiently, "Hey, are you doing a census? I'm just an ordinary consumer, and I only came here to see what products are available. You've been rambling for ages, are you going to sell anything or not?"
To be honest, he felt that this Hunched Black Shadow seemed to have some kind of mental illness, acting all startled since the beginning like an idiot.
He was afraid that if he spoke too much with the other party, he would be influenced by him.
Therefore, he intended to leave directly and perhaps demolish this Braves Shop to rebuild it.
"Hmm... if I encounter a bug, this operation should work, right?"
Lin Bei muttered to himself.
On the other side, after hearing the other party say he was just an "ordinary consumer," the face deep within the dark shadows almost completely lost its composure.
Holy shit, do you hear yourself? Is that even human talk?
You call this ordinary?
But soon, he heard the other party's muttering. His face instantly turned pale with fright and panic.
No joke, if he really let the other party do that, he would definitely fall back into a deep slumber!
Crucially... after learning of the powerful luck of the person before him, there was no way he would allow such a thing to happen!
So, seeing Lin Bei about to leave, the black shadow immediately shouted out: "Wait! Hold on! Stay, Hero! I... I have something to say!"
However, Lin Bei turned a deaf ear to this. Not only did he not stop, but he even quickened his pace significantly.
"Damn it! You're forcing me to use my trump card!"
Seeing this, the black shadow cursed under his breath and continued to shout: "Don't go! As long as you spend in my shop, I... I'll give you a 20% discount on everything!"
Lin Bei paused his footsteps upon hearing this.
He turned back to look at the trembling Hunched Black Shadow, deep in thought.
After a long while, he spoke: "50% off."
"How... how much? What discount did you say?"
The black shadow was incredulous, his voice trembling.
"I said... 50% off. If you agree, I'll stay. If not... then I'll break your bones."
A playful smile appeared on the corner of Lin Bei's mouth as he said calmly, "You wouldn't want me to just demolish this Braves Shop and build a new one to have someone else come and trade with me, would you?"
"..."
The black shadow's breath hitched, and he nearly fainted right then and there.
His weakness... had been grasped by the other party!
"Damn it, I'm so angry!"
The black shadow cursed in his heart, but he was helpless.
Because this Survivor in front of him was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him!
Even if he had to sell everything he owned, he had to hold onto this thigh tightly!
"Sigh, a demon under the eaves... has to bow his head."