Where's the cute girl we were promised? She's completely wiped out S-rank dungeons!

"It must be because we're not on the sea right now, but on land. The siren's song can only bewitch ships floating on the sea; those on land won't be affected."

After the rain of gold coins had stopped, Song Yuan dusted off her clothes and pushed the boat into the water.

"It's almost dawn, and their active period will soon end, so they can't do anything to us."

Indeed. By the time Song Yuan and the others went into the sea, the sun had almost risen. The mermaids, as if pre-programmed, reluctantly sank back into the water.

To everyone's surprise, the voyage was quite long, but the return journey wasn't as boring as they had imagined. Before they knew it, the ship had docked.

After disembarking, their "ghost boat" attracted the attention of many fishermen. Everyone gathered to see what was going on, and when they saw seven living, breathing people disembark, their jaws dropped to the ground with a "thud!"

"You guys are all alright?!"

Tao Rong kept her promise, leaving about 70% of the prey to Song Yuan and her group, while they only took 30%. The old fisherman who sold the ghost ship to Song Yuan had come to the shore specifically to watch the spectacle. Seeing Tao Rong and her group unloading such a large net of prey from the boat, and then looking at the unharmed Song Yuan and her companions, the old man's eyes widened as if they would pop out of their sockets.

"Thank goodness the sea god! You all came back safely!"

"What, do you really want us to die?" Song Yuan ruthlessly exposed his little scheme. "If we die, who will own this ship, you?"

"No, no, no! How could you think of me like that? I'm a virtuous old man! If anything really happens to you, the government will take responsibility for towing this ship away..."

The old fisherman quickly waved his hand, but he couldn't deny that Song Yuan was indeed right about some things.

Although the boats are handled by the government, the spare parts, game, and various trinkets on board are often looted by fishermen on the shore within hours of the boat being discovered. And generally, boats with dead crews will leave behind some jewelry and valuables. Who wouldn't want to take advantage of that?

......

"You guys are back~ But you all seem a bit tired, did you stay up all night?"

The first thing to do after getting ashore was, of course, to get a good rest—and then translate the ancient text they had obtained last night to see what the three game rooms represented. The four returned to the tavern to meet up with Qiao Ran, but apart from Song Yuan, who required less sleep and looked relatively energetic, the other three were slumped on the table, looking as if they were about to faint at any moment.

The tavern madam was very unhappy that so many of them had come to see Qiao Ran. She thought they were going to share one... how indecent and how stingy! Four people would only pay four cents! What if they hurt her?!

However, Song Yuan didn't care whether she was happy or not, and just squeezed in. Because of her high status, Qiao Ran's room here was quite nice, filled with an expensive perfume scent, much more comfortable than the cabin, which explained why so many people were sleepy.

"How was it? Any success last night?" Qiao Ran asked Song Yuan expectantly. "For example, did you hunt a lot of prey last night? You can sell it for a lot of money right away and then rescue your teammates from this ruthless place?"

Song Yuan: "...We do have prey, but we don't know exactly how much it will fetch. There are more important things than that."

The other three were all dozing off. Song Yuan sat opposite Qiao Ran, took out a transcribed ancient text from her system inventory, handed it to him, and briefly described their experiences from the previous night.

Finally, Song Yuan concluded: "So, what we need to do now is figure out what story this article tells and what clues it provides for us."

"This must be a less common language..."

Qiao Ran read it from beginning to end, but didn't see a single word she recognized. In the end, she could only shake her head helplessly.

"I don't know what it means either. I'll try looking up the corresponding dictionary. Then I'll try to interpret the story. Actually, I haven't gained nothing from staying here."

Although I really hate this scenario, the system's setting of me as a "non-fisherman" and keeping me on the island must have a purpose.

Song Yuan tilted her head, prompting him to explain, "What does this mean?"

Qiao Ran stroked her chin and thought for a moment: "Hmm... it's like this, I've discovered that every NPC on this island has a complete life trajectory and a character arc. This kind of situation doesn't exist in every instance. You should know what I mean, right?"

Song Yuan understood, of course. In the dungeons they had experienced before, such as "Zhenxin Welfare Home," "Project Qiming," and "Yucai Private High School," the NPCs were mostly simple. They didn't need to know the NPC's personality, what food they liked to eat, or whether their parents were alive... Their settings were rigid and soulless.

"How did you come to this conclusion?" Song Yuan asked, somewhat confused. "What's your basis for it?"