Madness

There was something else on the ship!

Lucas Hall reacted just too late.

A fishing rod stabbed into his left shoulder, driving deep into his flesh. He immediately ran forward, clutching his left shoulder wound with his right hand.

In front of him stood a skeleton, its skull missing half of its bones, but with a sickly green soul flame burning inside. It was the captain's remains—it was alive again, holding the fishing rod, its tip stained red with Lucas's blood.

The skeleton stared at Lucas, its jaw opening and closing, as if mocking him.

"You old bastard!" Lucas cursed, his eyes burning with rage.

[Ambushed by the dead, your sanity decreases by 10.]

[Sanity below 50, you enter a state of madness. Immune to most mental negative states. Strength +2, Agility +1, Constitution +1, Mental -2. No pain, no fatigue, fearless, until sanity is restored.]

Negative mental states include charm, mind control, fear, despair, etc.

Note: When stamina is at 0, health will be used to replace stamina. The maximum attribute value for madness is 10 and cannot exceed natural limits.

Lucas raised his hand and fired at the skeleton.

Click!

The gun misfired.

The skeleton, wielding the fishing rod like a spear, charged at him. Despite the lack of pain, Lucas still had a wound on his foot, which slightly hindered his movements. The risk of circling around the skeleton while injured was too high. If he wasn't careful, he might get pierced by the fishing rod, which was over two meters long!

After a brief moment of thought, Lucas changed tactics. Instead of retreating, he advanced directly.

He threw his spear at the skeleton, which got stuck in its bones, temporarily immobilizing it.

Taking advantage of the brief moment, Lucas closed the distance and engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

He still had another weapon, a blunt one!

If he grabbed the musket by the barrel, it would become a short hammer—a great weapon against the skeleton.

Lucas raised the musket high and smashed it into the skull's crack, aiming for its soul flame.

But the skeleton reacted quickly, reaching out with both hands to stop him. It seemed to fear the musket and let go of the fishing rod.

Lucas wasn't going to let that happen.

Both of them struggled for control of the musket, wrestling for it.

The skeleton was slightly weaker than Lucas in his madness state, but during the scuffle, Lucas found it hard to make any effective attack. If the gun went off and hit himself, it would be disastrous!

He needed a plan.

Even in his madness, Lucas remained clear-headed and quickly devised a solution.

If the skeleton wanted the musket so badly, why not give it to it?

Lucas timed his movements, and after a brief struggle, he pulled the trigger.

Click!

The gun misfired again.

Without hesitation, Lucas tossed the musket aside.

As expected, the skeleton's attention was fully focused on the musket.

Lucas managed to break free and ran toward the ship's cabin.

By the time the skeleton arrived, it only saw a shadowy figure in the dark.

That was Lucas, hunched over in the darkness, devouring something unknown—flesh and blood in a crazed frenzy.

The skeleton pulled the trigger, but the gun was still unresponsive, still cooling down.

The distance from the bow to the stern of the ship was only about ten meters, and both of them had been running, so the musket was still cooling.

An unloaded musket was no different from a hammer!

Lucas rushed up, his mouth smeared with black goo, his eyes bloodshot.

[You consumed a human-headed octopus. Strength +1, Constitution +1, Mental -1, Sanity -20, lasting for 1 minute.]

Just like that, Lucas's strength doubled from three to six! (Madness +2)

Lucas quickly noticed that this strength boost didn't follow a linear progression but rather an exponential one. This meant that just a 2-point increase in strength could give him overwhelming power.

Lucas charged forward.

At that moment, the skeleton still hadn't realized what was happening. It was still confused as to why the musket wouldn't fire.

The next second, it was knocked to the ground by Lucas, and its arm bones were ripped off and tossed aside.

Lucas, taking advantage of the situation, shoved his right hand through the skull's broken opening, grabbing for the soul flame inside.

At that point, the skeleton finally seemed to show some fear. Its jaw chattered as if it were begging for mercy.

But it was too late. It had no way to resist.

Lucas gripped the soul flame. Surprisingly, it wasn't hot—on the contrary, it felt warm.

The skeleton's body trembled violently, and soon it collapsed, turning into a pile of ordinary bones as the soul flame was extinguished.

But had the skeleton truly died?

Probably not!

Having been caught off guard by the drowned corpse before, Lucas was now extra cautious!

He grabbed the skull, picked up the musket, and placed the skull at the ship's railing.

He strongly suspected that the skeleton hadn't truly died, even though its information could now be checked.

[Name: Captain's Remains]

[Description: Once a fishing enthusiast, the captain met his end... Until he caught...]

[Can be used in the monster gacha machine.]

Two minutes later, as expected, the skull's eyes once again glowed with a sickly green light.

Without hesitation, Lucas opened fire.

Bang!

The musket discharged with a fiery burst, and the skull was blasted into pieces.

[The gunshot sounded strange, your sanity decreased by 1.]

"Looks like defeating or killing monsters yields their information," Lucas concluded.

But what exactly was this monster gacha machine?

Lucas had never seen one, and there was none on the ship!

To be safe, he decided to keep the monster corpses for now.

He tossed them into the cabin, and then took the skeleton's arm bones and thigh bones.

After all, a headless skeleton warrior could still be a threat. Lucas had seen something similar in games before.

Better safe than sorry. He decided to take parts of the body with him!

Having learned from his past mistakes, Lucas was now more cautious than ever.

After bandaging his wounds with some cloth, he returned to the captain's quarters. At the same time, he checked his own status.

Lucas Hall

Status: Injured (Left foot and right foot, yellow; left shoulder, yellow.)

Sanity: 24/100

Stamina: 21/100

Health: 82/100

His stamina was so low—no wonder he was exhausted...

Lucas opened the world chat channel and typed a quick message.

"Make sure you lock your doors tonight."

Soon, someone responded.

"Boss, what did you encounter? A sea monster?"

"Holy shit, you didn't kill it, did you?!"

"Was it hard to fight? Did it drop any loot?"

Lucas responded impatiently.

"Nope, just pure torture!"

He didn't care how others replied. He closed the world chat and lay down in bed, placing the skeleton's thigh bone under his pillow as a makeshift one.

His musket stayed close, within easy reach. It had been a dangerous night!

Any mistake could have meant his end.

Tomorrow, he planned to set up some auditory traps to serve as early warning systems. If he could detect threats ahead of time, many dangers could be avoided.

While he pondered this, he tried to fall asleep.

But by the time dawn broke, he still hadn't been able to sleep.